NCJ Number
192460
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 25 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 547-566
Date Published
December 2001
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Terror Management Theory maintains that intolerance toward those who are different stems from peoples' trenchant need to protect themselves from concerns associated with the awareness of personal vulnerability and their inevitable mortality; this paper reports on research that explored this theory by examining perceptions of hate crimes.
Abstract
The research assessed the effects of an individual's awareness of personal mortality on reactions to hate crimes in a series of two studies. Study 1 focused on individuals' reactions to hate crimes in the abstract (i.e., without reference to a particular victim) and predicted that mortality salience would lead to more punitive reactions to hate crimes. A total of five to six participants per session were randomly assigned to either a mortality salience or control condition. The dependent measure was participants' generalized attitudes toward hate crime. The study involved 23 female students from the University of Missouri. Study 1 focused on the effects of mortality salience on general perceptions of hate crimes. Study 1 revealed that mortality-salient participants were more supportive of hate-crime legislation than were control participants when hate crimes were described in abstract terms and no specific victim was mentioned. Study 2 extended this finding to an examination of whether mortality salience would produce divergent reactions when there was an actual victim who threatened the participants' worldview. In Study 2, participants were randomly assigned to either a mortality salience or control condition and presented with a vignette of a crime in which researchers manipulated the victim characteristics. The dependent measure was participants' recommended bail amounts for an individual arrested for the commission of that crime. A total of 140 undergraduate students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas participated in the study. Study 2 found that mortality-salient participants were less punitive toward offenders who attacked specific worldview-threatening victims. This research suggests that if education can supplant deeply rooted prejudices and instead build tolerance as a core value of worldviews, then perhaps punitive reactions toward those with differing perspectives can be attenuated. An understanding of the basic needs and fears that provoke such responses may further aid the amelioration of such reactions. 1 table and 43 references