Does Surging Existential Dread Help Trump?

[Judi Lynn]

As fear of mortality rises, so does tribalism and support for authoritarian leaders, according to terror-management theory

By John Horgan on April 1, 2020

In a recent column, I expressed the hope that the coronavirus epidemic, by exposing the incompetence and mendacity of the Trump regime, will bring it to an end. Joe Biden will win in a landslide next November and initiate a new progressive era, with bipartisan support for universal health care, climate-change mitigation and economic equality. Internationally, there will be greater cooperation and a shift away from militarism.

Or not. As you’ve probably heard, Trump’s approval ratings have risen lately. According to a recent Gallup poll, 49 percent of Americans approve of Trump, up 5 points from a month ago. A Washington Post/ABC poll shows Trump narrowing the gap between him and Biden. My liberal, anti-Trump friends find this trend alarming, and astonishing, but it is all too easily explained by terror-management theory.

Conceived decades ago by psychologists Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski, terror-management theory holds that fear of death, conscious or unconscious, profoundly affects our thoughts and behavior. Events that remind us of our mortality—notably acts of terrorism and epidemics—can make us think and act irrationally as individuals and societies. We become more attached to our belief systems, especially those that give us a sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves.

We may thus become more patriotic and religious and less tolerant of those outside of our tribe, who do not share our values. We also become more likely to turn to ultra-confident, authoritarian leaders. Solomon and his colleagues were inspired by anthropologist Ernest Becker, who argued in his classic 1973 book The Denial of Death that awareness of mortality has profoundly shaped our social evolution, in ways good and bad. Becker once wrote:

More:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/does-surging-existential-dread-help-trump/