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Three experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis, derived from terror management theory, that reminding people of their mortality increases attraction to those who consensually validate their beliefs and decreases attraction to those who threaten their beliefs. In Study 1, subjects with a Chris-tian religious background were asked to form impressions of Christian and Jewish target persons. Before doing so, mortality was made salient to half of the subjects. In support of predictions, mortal-ity salience led to more positive evaluations of the in-group member (the Christian) and more nega-tive evaluations of the out-group member (the Jew). In Study 2, mortality salience led to especially negative evaluations of an attitudinally dissimilar other, but only among subjects high in authoritari-anism. In Study 3, mortality salience led to especially positive reactions to someone who directly praised subjects cultural worldviews and especially negative reactions to someone who criticized them. The implications of these findings for understanding in-group favoritism, prejudice, and intol-erance of deviance are discussed. One of the most destructive and perplexing problems facing contemporary society is the pervasive tendency of people to re-spond with hostility and disdain toward those who are different
Greenberg et al. (Thu,) studied this question.