Political divide: A terror management perspective on polarization in America

According to Terror Management Theory politics represent a unique aspect of one's cultural worldview. The current study hypothesized that derogation by politically dissimilar others would represent an existential threat. Death-thought accessibility (DTA) as well as relative identification, blind patriotism, and constructive patriotism were all measured. It was additionally hypothesized that DTA would remain high even after some participants were given the chance to affirm their cultural worldview (e.g., America) if the country is truly in a state of deep polarization. Results did not confirm the main hypotheses but did find dispositional differences between liberals and conservatives which replicated previous work. Limitations and theoretical considerations are examined.