Terror management in times of war: Mortality salience effects on self-esteem and governmental and army support
| Published date | 01 March 2011 |
| Author | Paul N'Dri Konan,Jamie Arndt,Armand Chatard,Martial Van der Linden,Leila Selimbegović,Fabio Lorenzi-Cioldi,Tom Pyszczynski |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343310397435 |
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
Terror management in times of war:
Mortality salience effects on self-esteem
and governmental and army support
Armand Chatard
Department of Social Psychology, University of Geneva
Leila Selimbegovic
´
Department of Social Psychology, University of Poitiers
Paul N’Dri Konan
Department of Social Psychology, University of Geneva
Jamie Arndt
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia
Tom Pyszczynski
Department of Social Psychology, University of Colorado, Colorado
Fabio Lorenzi-Cioldi
Department of Social Psychology, University of Geneva
Martial Van der Linden
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Geneva
Abstract
Previous research has identified economic and political factors that can contribute to the outbreak and the duration of
armed conflicts. However, the psychological factors that may play a role in conflict escalation and duration have
received less attention. Adopting a psychological perspective, the present study aims to investigate the role of death
awareness in the context of an armed conflict. To this aim, basic assumptions derived from Terror Management The-
ory (TMT) were examined in an African civil war context. According to TMT, people manage awareness of inev-
itable death by increased striving for self-esteem and increased adherence to their cultural values. Students from
the University of Abidjan (Ivory Coast), located in the pro-governmental part of the country, were randomly assigned
to a mortality salience or a control condition and completed measures of self-esteem and government/army support.
As expected, reminding participants of their possible death during the ongoing conflict exacerbated self-esteem, as
well as support for the actions of the government and its army, compared to a control condition. Given that mortality
is chronically salient in the context of a civil war, these effects can lead to conflict intensification by increasing not
only each side’s support for their leaders, but also the value that members of confronted sides attribute to themselves.
The findings are discussed in terms of the role of mortality salience in conflict escalation and the importance of care-
fully dealing with the past in post-conflict societies.
Corresponding author:
Armand.Chatard@unige.ch
Journal of Peace Research
48(2) 225–234
ªThe Author(s) 2011
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DOI: 10.1177/0022343310397435
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