Title: Can the heuristic model of positive terror management enhance prosocial values and reduce intergroup conflict? The case of Muslims in the USA

Authors: Allison McDowell-Smith

Addresses: Northcentral University, 168 Wales Road, Monson, MA 01057, USA

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss how intergroup conflict in the USA has recently escalated between Muslim Americans and the broader non-Muslim American population after the recent Boston Marathon bombing terrorist attack perpetrated by 'homegrown' Muslim American terrorists. The recent intergroup conflict leads Muslim Americans to be falsely stereotyped as sympathetic to terrorism, and thus are identified as a social outgroup within the USA. The evolution of terror management theory (TMT) into the heuristic model of positive terror management (HMPTM) will explain how individuals can manage mortality salience with threats of outgroup members in a socially constructive manner through cultural worldviews and the application of prosocial cultural values, such as empathy and forgiveness. This paper will conclude with future recommendations to further understand the relationships among prosocial cultural values; thus, potentially mitigating intergroup conflict within the USA which has been continuously plagued with violence associated with Muslim terrorist activity.

Keywords: terror management theory; TMT; outgroups; Muslim Americans; USA; United States; intergroup conflict; Boston Marathon bombing; heuristic modelling; mortality salience; prosocial cultural values; empathy; forgiveness; Islam; terrorist attacks; Muslim terrorists.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2013.060643

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2013 Vol.4 No.4, pp.367 - 382

Received: 23 Jan 2014
Accepted: 24 Jan 2014
Published online: 28 Jun 2014 *

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