HOW DO PEOPLE DEAL WITH THREATS TO THEIR BELIEFS? Doomsday predictions and terror management

Back to Festinger et al…  December 17—4pm spaceship expected  Captain Video  Boy with spaceship vision  Another expectation at midnight  Meeting with 5 spacemen  Midnight on the 20 th  Recording on the porch  December 24  New observer

How did people deal with disconfirmations? (Lake City)  Mrs. Keech and Dr. Armstrong  Daisy Armstrong and Edna Post  Mark Post  Cleo and Bob Eastman  Bertha and Clyde  Kurt  Arthur Bergen

Dealing in Collegeville  Kitty  Fred and Laura  Susan  George  Hal  Why were there different reactions in Collegeville vs. Lake City?

Conditions for resistance to change  Belief w/conviction and relevance to what believes does or how behaves  Must have committed to it—taken important actions that are hard to undo To change:  Specific and concerned with real world so can get refutation  Undeniable disconfirm evidence must occur and be recognized To stay  Need social support

Did disconfirmation lead to more prostelyzing?  Wouldn’t talk to press on 16 th, after 21 st, actively called reporters  After 16 th, more admitted to house and treated better, especially after 21 st  Less secrecy after 16 th  Number of predictions increased and saw strangers as spacemen

Does the study support CDT?  Why did the group eventually die out?  Other examples of groups and how reacted after beliefs are threatened  Any methodological comments on the study?

Can terror management also say something about these events?  Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski  Background  Began as grad students  Initial reaction chilly—why?  Mini vs. meta-theories  What are the main tenets of the theory?  Proximal vs. distal defenses  How do children develop it, according to the authors?  How is it related to CDT?

 How can people react to threats?  Derogation  Assimilation  Accommodation  Annihilation  Which of these did people in Festinger et al. use?  What are other examples of their use?

 Reminders of mortality increase support of WV and need for SE  Bolstering SE and WV should reduce anxiety in response to threat and MS  Threatening WV and SE should increase anxiety and MS  How has MS been operationalized?

Implications of TMT  For health  For politics  Any recent examples?  How can our “terror” be reduced?  Are the authors’ ideas practical?

 How would TMT integrate with contact theory?