The Fact That You're Going To Die Is Donald Trump's Biggest Asset, Psychologists Say
The Fact That You're Going To Die Is Donald Trump's Biggest Asset, Psychologists Say
Studies show that people are more likely to support Donald Trump after being reminded of the inevitability of their mortality. Seriously.
What if the inevitability of death is the key to understanding 2016?
For thousands of years, philosophers and theologians have tried to grasp what it means to live in the shadow of death. More recently, psychologists have taken up the challenge as well. Academics working in the burgeoning field of Terror Management Theory have spent the past three decades studying how our knowledge of deaths inevitability shapes every aspect of human life including our politics.
One of Terror Management Theorys pioneers, Skidmore College professor Sheldon Solomon, has spent his career studying the relationship between peoples behavior and their awareness of their own mortality. In 2015, he decided to examine the particular effect mortality awareness had on support for Trump. The New York billionaire had recently launched his campaign for the Republican nomination but was still far from becoming the presumptive nominee.
The results of Solomons study were unambiguous. People who were reminded of their own death were far more likely to support Trump.
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