General and Personal Mortality Salience and Nationalistic Bias

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the links between general and personal mortality salience and nationalistic bias. After watching either a mortality salience or a control videotape, participants read a scenario about a car accident in which the driver was suing either an American or a Japanese auto manufacturer. Results showed that mortality salience produced nationalistic bias in assignments of blame to the company and to the driver; such nationalistic bias did not occur in the control condition. This creation of intergroup bias when mortality was made salient is consistent with the predictions of terror management theory. This study makes an important theoretical contribution by providing evidence that the observed effects are driven by thoughts of personal mortality; the bias in favor of American auto companies occurred only among participants who reported thinking about their own deaths.