A relational approach to the psychology of coalitions suggests that certain stimuli that index adaptive problems for which marshaling coalitional support is a reliably adaptive response should elicit increased support of ingroup ideology. Studies from two cultures produced results consistent with this perspective. In Study 1, Costa Rican participants contemplating coalition-relevant scenarios (i.e. social isolation or the need to enlist the help of others in a cooperative task) increased support of ingroup ideology, but that participants contemplating a mortality-salient prime did not. Study 2 replicated these results in an American sample, and explored the moderating effects of individual variation in interdependence and chronic dangerous world beliefs on normative bias. These results suggest that the determining factor cross-culturally in the elicitation of worldview defense may not be mortality concerns per se, but rather the need for coalitional support.
Aiken, L. , & West, S. (1991). Multiple regression. Newbury Park, CA: Sage .
2.
Altemeyer, B. (1996). The authoritarian specter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
3.
Arndt, J. , Greenberg, J. , Solomon, S. , Pyszczynski, T. , & Simon, L. (1997). Suppression, accessibility of death-related thoughts, and cultural worldview defense: Exploring the psychodynamics of terror management . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 5-18 .
4.
Asch, S. E. (1955). Opinions and social pressure . Scientific American, 193, 31-35 .
5.
Avendano Sandoval, R., & Dias Guerrero, R. (1992). Estudio experimental de la abnegación. Revista Mexicana de Psicología, 9, 15-19.
6.
Baumeister, R. F. , & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation . Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497-529 .
7.
Beisanz, M. H. , Biesanz, R. , & Biesanz, K. (1999). The Ticos: Culture and social change in Costa Rica. London: Lynne Rienner .
8.
Bernard, R. H. (1995). Research methods in anthropology. Qualitative and quantitative approaches (2nd ed.). London: Sage .
9.
Boyd, R. , & Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the evolutionary process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
10.
Boyd, R. , & Richerson, P. J. (1990). Culture and cooperation. In J. J. Mansbridge (Ed.), Beyond self-interest (pp. 111-132). Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
11.
Boyer, P. (2001). Religion explained: The evolutionary origins of religious thought. New York: Basic Books .
12.
Burris, C. T. , & Rempel, J. K. (2004). ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it’: Threat and the spatial-symbolic self . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 19-42 .
13.
Buss, D. M. (1997). Human motivation in evolutionary perspective: Grounding terror management theory . Psychological Inquiry, 8, 22-26 .
14.
Byrne, D. (1971). The attraction paradigm. San Diego, CA: Academic Press .
15.
Cohen, D. , & Nisbett, R. E. (1998). Are there differences in fatalism between rural Southerners and Midwesterners?Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 2181-2195 .
16.
Crano, W. D. , & Brewer, M. B. (2002). Principles and methods of social research (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
17.
Darwin, C. (1871). The descent of man and selection in relation to sex. London: John Murray .
18.
Delibes, M. (1966). USA y yo. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino .
19.
De Waal, F. B. M. , & Harcourt, A. H. (Eds.). (1992). Coalitions and alliances in humans and other animals. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press .
20.
Durkheim, E. (1951). Suicide. New York: Free Press . (Original work published in 1897).
21.
Fierro, A. (1980). A note on death and dying . Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 2(4), 401-406 .
22.
Fiske, A. P. , Kitayama, S. , Markus, H. R. , & Nisbett, R. E. (1998). The cultural matrix of social psychology. In D. T. Gilbert & S. T. Fiske (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 2, 4th ed., pp. 915-981). New York: McGraw-Hill .
23.
Gould, S. J. , & Vrba, E. S. (1982). Exaptation: A missing term in the science of form . Paleobiology, 8, 4-15 .
24.
Greenberg, J. , Pyszczynski, T. , & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public and private self (pp. 189-212). New York: Springer-Verlag .
25.
Greenberg, J. , Pyszczynski, T. , Solomon, S. , Rosenblatt, A. , Veeder, M. , Kirkland, S. L. , et al. (1990). Evidence for terror management theory II: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the cultural worldview . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 308-318 .
26.
Greenberg, J. , Pyszczynski, T. , Solomon, S. , Simon, L. , & Breus, M. (1994). Role of consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortality salience effects . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(4), 627-637 .
27.
Greenberg, J. , Simon, L. , Harmon-Jones, E. , Solomon, S. , & Lyon, D. (1995). Testing alternative explanations for mortality salience effects: Terror management, value accessibility, or worrisome thoughts?European Journal of Social Psychology, 12(4), 417-433 .
28.
Greenberg, J. , Solomon, S. , & Pyszczynski, T. (1997). Terror management theory of self-esteem and cultural worldviews: Empirical assessments and conceptual refinements . Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 61-139 .
29.
Hardin, C. D. , & Conley, T. D. (2001). A relational approach to cognition: Shared experience and relationship affirmation in social cognition. In G. B. Moskowitz (Ed.), Cognitive social psychology: The Princeton symposium on the legacy and future of social cognition (pp. 3-17). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
30.
Hardin, C. D. , & Higgins, E. T. (1996). Shared reality: How social verification makes the subjective objective. In R. M. Sorrentino & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition: Vol. 3. The interpersonal context (pp. 28-84). New York, Guilford .
31.
Hofstede, G. (1991). Culture and organizations. London: McGraw-Hill .
32.
Huber, P. (1981). Robust statistics. New York: Wiley .
33.
Kiev, A. (1976). Cultural perspectives on the range of human behavior . Mental Health and Society, 3(Suppl. 2), 53-56 .
34.
Leary, M. R. , & Schreindorfer, L. S. (1997). Unresolved issues with terror management theory . Psychological Inquiry, 8, 26-29 .
35.
Levy, R. I. (1973). Tahitians: Mind and experience in the Society Islands. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
36.
McElreath, R. , Boyd, R. , & Richerson, P. J. (2003). Shared norms lead to the evolution of ethnic markers . Current Anthropology, 44, 122-129 .
37.
McGregor, I. , Zanna, M. P. , Holmes, J. G. , & Spencer, S. J. (2001). Compensatory conviction in the face of personal uncertainty: Going to extremes and being oneself . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 472-488 .
38.
Meléndez, C. (1991). Historia de Costa Rica. San Jose, Costa Rica: EUNED.
39.
Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. New York: Harper & Row .
40.
Navarrete, C. D. , Kurzban, R. , Fessler, D. M. T. , & Kirkpatrick, L. A. (2004). Anxiety and intergroup bias: Terror management or coalitional psychology?Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 7, 370-397 .
41.
Pyszczynski, T. , Greenberg, J. , & Solomon, S. (1997). Why do we need what we need? A terror management perspective on the roots of human social motivation . Psychological Inquiry, 8, 1-20 .
42.
Pyszczynski, T. , Solomon, S. , & Greenberg, J. (2002). In the wake of 9/11: The psychology of terror. New York: American Psychological Association .
43.
Realo, A. , Allik, J. , & Vadi, M. (1997). The hierarchical structure of collectivism . Journal of Research in Personality, 31, 93-116 .
44.
Schaller, M. , & Conway, L. G., III. (1999). Influence of impression-management goals on the emerging contents of group stereotypes: Support for a social-evolutionary process . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 819-833 .
45.
Schaller, M. , Park, J. H. , & Mueller, A. (2003). Fear of the dark: Interactive effects of beliefs about danger and ambient darkness on ethnic stereotypes . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 637-649 .
46.
Siefken, S. (1993). The Hispanic perspective on death and dying: A combination of respect, empathy, and spirituality . Pride Institute Journal of Long Term Home Health Care, 12(2), 26-28 .
47.
Tooby, J. , & Cosmides, L. (1996). Friendship and the banker’s paradox: Other pathways to the evolution of adaptations for altruism . In W. G. Runciman & J. M. Smith (Eds.), Evolution of social behaviour patterns in primates and man. Proceedings of The British Academy (Vol. 88, pp. 119-143 ).
48.
Triandis, H. (1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview .
49.
Triandis, H. C. , Marin, G. , Lisansky, J. , & Betancourt, H. (1984). Simpatia as a cultural script of Hispanics . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1363-1375 .
50.
Watson, D. , & Clark, L. A. (1992). Affects separable and inseparable: On the hierarchical arrangement of the negative affects . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 489-505 .
51.
Watson, D. , Clark, L. A. , & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070 .
