Terror in the homeland

NEW RESEARCH EXPLAINS HOW CULTURAL DIFFERENCESCONTRIBUTE TO
FEAR

THE TRAGIC EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11 NOT ONLY BROUGHT A NEW
UNDERSTANDING OF TERROR TO AMERICANS BUT ALSO RAISED SOME DISTURBING
QUESTIONS: WHY DID IT HAPPEN? HOW DO WE COPE? NEW RESEARCH BY SHELDON
SOLOMON, PH.D., PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AT BROOKLYN COLLEGE, IN NEW YORK,
LINKS THE ANCIENT ROOTS OF HUMANITY TO TODAY'S SECURITY CHALLENGES. HIS
WORK WITH JEFF GREENBERG, PH.D., OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, AND TOM
PYSZCZYNSKI, PH.D., OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT COLORADO SPRINGS,
APPEARS IN THE FORTHCOMING BOOK, IN THE WAKE OF 9/11: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
TERROR IN THE 21ST CENTURY (APA BOOKS, 2002).

Nancy K. Dess [NKD]: Everyone has an idea about what terror means.
What does it mean to you?

Sheldon Solomon [SS]: We define terror as overwhelming fear, such
as worrying that a lump is incurable cancer or witnessing the World Trade
Center disaster and thinking that you could have been on that
plane.

NKD: Where does this fear come from?

SS: It comes from the human evolution into intelligent creatures.
As anthropologist Ernest Becker argued, we have survived in part because
we can ponder the past, plan for the future and imagine and make real
things that may not exist. But that intelligence also brings awareness
that we can die for unpredictable, uncontrollable reasons.

NKD: How did our ancestors adapt to this terrifying
awareness?

SS: They used the same intellectual construction that causes the
problem. They created a cultural worldview--beliefs about the nature of
reality shared by members of a group. Culture gives us a sense that we
live in a meaningful universe, and it provides social roles that make us
significant members of that universe. It also allows us to defy death
symbolically or literally, by believing in an afterlife.

NKD: Immortality-if you're good.

SS: Yes. People who "do the right thing" in the context of their
culture will be rewarded with immortality.

NKD: How does terror management play out today?

SS: Terror management theory, or TMT, addresses why people have a
tough time getting along with those who are different. If culture serves
a death-denying function, then the existence of the people who are
culturally different undermines our own defense against the fear of
death.

NKD: So what is the result?

SS: We scapegoat a group as the repository of evil. The most benign
form is devaluing the threat posed by the alternative worldview. We also
might try to convince others to shed their ideas and adopt ours, as in
missionary work. Most chillingly, we can kill the culturally different,
to prove that our way is the most powerful. For the radical Islam
represented by Osama bin Laden, the West is evil and must be eradicated.
On the other side, President George Bush declared this conflict a
crusade-suggesting that our god is better than theirs.

NKD: It's a long way from human ancestors to suicide bombers. How
do you test these ideas?

SS: According to TMT, inducing thoughts of death should increase
the need for cultural beliefs and affect reactions toward others. We ask
people to jot down thoughts about dying versus non-lethal unpleasant
thoughts, such as pain. We then ask them to make judgments about
individuals similar to or different from themselves. In one study,
Christian participants primed to think about death by researchers reacted
more positively to fellow Christians and more negatively to Jewish
individuals. In another study, Americans showed more affection for people
endorsing the American way of life and more hostility toward critics of
it.

NKD: What's next?

SS: Figuring out how to reduce hostile reactions and remind people
to be tolerant of others. So far we've found that people with high
self-esteem or who value tolerance react less to mortality manipulations.
We are hopeful of finding practical ways to help us all get along in a
frightening world.

ILLUSTRATION (COLOR)

Nancy K. Dess is a professor of psychology at Occidental College
and former senior scientist at the American Psychological
Association.