Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095-1553, USA.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2011 Sep;101(3):451-66. doi: 10.1037/a0024033.
Individuals subtly reminded of death, coalitional challenges, or feelings of uncertainty display exaggerated preferences for affirmations and against criticisms of their cultural in-groups. Terror management, coalitional psychology, and uncertainty management theories postulate this "worldview defense" effect as the output of mechanisms evolved either to allay the fear of death, foster social support, or reduce anxiety by increasing adherence to cultural values. In 4 studies, we report evidence for an alternative perspective. We argue that worldview defense owes to unconscious vigilance, a state of accentuated reactivity to affective targets (which need not relate to cultural worldviews) that follows detection of subtle alarm cues (which need not pertain to death, coalitional challenges, or uncertainty). In Studies 1 and 2, death-primed participants produced exaggerated ratings of worldview-neutral affective targets. In Studies 3 and 4, subliminal threat manipulations unrelated to death, coalitional challenges, or uncertainty evoked worldview defense. These results are discussed as they inform evolutionary interpretations of worldview defense and future investigations of the influence of unconscious alarm on judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).
个体在被微妙地提醒死亡、联盟挑战或不确定性时，会表现出对肯定的过度偏好，对其文化内群体的批评则持反对态度。死亡管理、联盟心理学和不确定性管理理论假设这种“世界观防御”效应是为了缓解对死亡的恐惧、促进社会支持或通过增加对文化价值观的遵守来减轻焦虑而进化出来的机制的输出。在 4 项研究中，我们报告了一种替代观点的证据。我们认为，世界观防御归因于无意识警觉，即对情感目标的反应性增强的状态（这些目标不一定与文化世界观有关），这种状态是在检测到微妙的警报线索（这些线索不一定与死亡、联盟挑战或不确定性有关）之后出现的。在研究 1 和 2 中，死亡启动的参与者对世界观中立的情感目标产生了夸大的评价。在研究 3 和 4 中，与死亡、联盟挑战或不确定性无关的阈下威胁操纵引发了世界观防御。这些结果被讨论，因为它们为世界观防御的进化解释提供了信息，并为未来对无意识警报对判断的影响的研究提供了信息。（PsycINFO 数据库记录（c）2011 APA，保留所有权利）。
