The sound science behind Bush's campaign techniques
Fear of Death Wins Minds and Votes, Study Finds
Thu Jul 29, 2004 11:12 AM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush may be tapping into solid human psychology when he invokes the Sept. 11 attacks while campaigning for the next election, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
Talking about death can raise people's need for psychological security, the researchers report in studies to be published in the December issue of the journal Psychological Science and the September issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
"There are people all over who are claiming every time Bush is in trouble he generates fear by declaring an imminent threat," said Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, who worked on the study.
"We are saying this is psychologically useful."
