Prosocial behavior following immortality priming: experimental tests of factors with implications for CVE interventions

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs the field of countering violent extremism (CVE) evolves, increased emphasis has been placed on the development of interventions intended to be individually tailored to the needs of intervention program participants. Despite such emphasis, there is scant empirical research, much less experimental research, regarding psychological mechanisms that either bolster, or hinder, the effectiveness of such interventions. The present study experimentally tested two factors, in addition to accounting for a third, for their effects on an outcome potentially germane to a wide range of tailored CVE interventions: participants’ voluntary, unsupervised behavior toward out-group members.Specifically, based upon Terror Management Theory, the present study answered the following questions.(1) Might priming individuals with notions of immortality (vs. controls) tend to cause them to increase their generosity and decrease their in-group bias, as demonstrated in a behavioral outcome (monetary donations)?(2) If so, is that effect positively associated with individuals’ level of collectivism?(3) Might individuals react differently to immortality primes, based on whether they are spiritual believers vs. nonbelievers? Specifically, might believers – whose meaning system presumably has not been threatened by such primes – tend to demonstrate, a greater reduction of in-group bias?Immortality priming did not significantly reduce in-group bias. However, it strongly interacted with spiritual beliefs such that spiritual believers gave more when primed with immortality. Collectivism was positively associated with donations, which tended to be more generous both when individuals gave to racial in-group members, and among donors who were unbelievers. Applications for individually tailored interventions for CVE are discussed.