You Guys--CHECK OUT this article in the latest "New Republic"...
Basically -- it details studies showing that when you remind people of their own mortality they will immediately prefer more conservative ways of thinking. In the experiments "mortality exercises" were used prior to asking questions about subjects' socio-political views. The startling results are based on studies done since 1989 and are quite consistent. After 9-11 the researchers used prompts about 9-11 as the "mortality" focus. They have obviously used the Bush years to further advance their earlier findings.
OK this is what "we already know" about Bushbot thinking in a sense, but it is astounding to realize that this is an immediate reflexive response --where the subconscious in the majority of subjects (even intelligent ones --ie. college students) flips -on a dime- to cause the conscious mind to suddenly prefer very Republican (my words) ways of thinking. Implications for 2008 elections are mentioned.
The whole article is online at link below, and very well written. Recommended!
The New Republic
Aug 27, 2007
"Death Grip"
John B. Judis
/snip/
By the end of the 1990s, Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski had made their reputation among social psychologists. Psychologists around the world--particularly in Germany, the Netherlands, and Israel--were using their theories to devise experiments of their own. In October 2001, the American Psychological Association asked the three to write a book on how their theories could explain Americans' reaction to September 11. In the Wake of 9/11, which appeared in 2003, recounted more than a decade of experiments and speculated on how the public's reaction to the attack-- including heightened religiosity, patriotism, and support for both Bush and his evangelical swagger--could be explained as worldview defense.
The three scholars also began devising experiments to test this theory. The first of these explored whether reminders of September 11 functioned as mortality reminders. In the spring of 2002, the psychologists, along with five colleagues, conducted an experiment at the University of Missouri, where subjects had either "911," "WTC" (for the World Trade Center), or "573" (the area code for Columbia) flashed subliminally between word associations. Afterward, they completed word-fragment tests to see whether thoughts of death were stirring in their unconscious. The psychologists found the same pattern between "911" and "WTC," on the one hand, and "573," on the other, that they had earlier found between "death" and "field." They concluded that reminders of September 11 awakened unconscious mortality thoughts. Later experiments would further confirm this.
They then explored whether Bush's popularity in the years after September 11 stemmed in part from Americans' need for a charismatic figure who could help them overcome these thoughts. Bush's appeal, the psychologists speculated, lay "in his image as a protective shield against death, armed with high-tech weaponry, patriotic rhetoric, and the resolute invocation of doing God's will to rid the world of evil.'" In 2002, the psychologists, aided by two colleagues, conducted an experiment at Brooklyn College that showed that mortality reminders dramatically enhanced the appeal of a hypothetical candidate who told voters, "You are not just an ordinary citizen: You are part of a special state and a special nation." (more at link)
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20070827&s=judis082707&c=2Thoughts and comments appreciated....