JDJCSET | Sigma Xi Poster Competition
“You Won’t Like It When I’m Angry!”: The Effects of Parasocial Relationship on Aggression
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Graduate
Major
Experimental Psychology
Minor
NA
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Jana Hackathorn, PhD.
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
Terror management theory (TMT) embraces the idea that humans use religion and cultural values to mediate the fear of their inevitable death. Traditionally, this has been studied by having participants think about their own death. However, TMT studies have not investigated whether the death of others can also create mortality salience (MS). Past studies have shown threats to close relationships result in awareness of one’s own existential finiteness. It’s expected these same results would occur for individuals who have a strong parasocial relationship with a favorite character. The purpose of this study was to examine whether mortality salience of a favorite media character would be more likely to prime aggressive thought than the collaboration of the favorite character or the thought of their own dental pain. We hypothesized participants who thought about the death of a favorite media character (MS condition) will have more aggressive thoughts than participants in the collaboration condition and participants in the control condition (i.e., dental pain). Results supported our hypothesizes for media character fate, F (3, 150) = 2.92, p = .03 (one-tailed) when controlling for religiosity. Showing mean aggressive thought was significantly different for participants in the MS condition (M = 5.12, SD = 2.13) than participants in the collaboration condition (M = 4.19, SD = 1.86), and participants in the dental pain condition (M =4.51, SD = 1.97. This study suggests, when thinking about the death of our favorite characters we have a significant change in aggressive thought.
Affiliations
Sigma Xi Poster and General Posters
“You Won’t Like It When I’m Angry!”: The Effects of Parasocial Relationship on Aggression
Terror management theory (TMT) embraces the idea that humans use religion and cultural values to mediate the fear of their inevitable death. Traditionally, this has been studied by having participants think about their own death. However, TMT studies have not investigated whether the death of others can also create mortality salience (MS). Past studies have shown threats to close relationships result in awareness of one’s own existential finiteness. It’s expected these same results would occur for individuals who have a strong parasocial relationship with a favorite character. The purpose of this study was to examine whether mortality salience of a favorite media character would be more likely to prime aggressive thought than the collaboration of the favorite character or the thought of their own dental pain. We hypothesized participants who thought about the death of a favorite media character (MS condition) will have more aggressive thoughts than participants in the collaboration condition and participants in the control condition (i.e., dental pain). Results supported our hypothesizes for media character fate, F (3, 150) = 2.92, p = .03 (one-tailed) when controlling for religiosity. Showing mean aggressive thought was significantly different for participants in the MS condition (M = 5.12, SD = 2.13) than participants in the collaboration condition (M = 4.19, SD = 1.86), and participants in the dental pain condition (M =4.51, SD = 1.97. This study suggests, when thinking about the death of our favorite characters we have a significant change in aggressive thought.