Eva Jonas
Biographic Data
| ID | 237932 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Eva Jonas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Eva |
| FAMILY NAME | Jonas |
| SIGNATURE | JONAS E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Salzburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1016-3076 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 489 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
The moving potential of global crises
Global crises necessitate collective action but confront people with the threat of negative future consequences, which can make them anxious and inactive. Based on the assumption that being moved is a collective approach emotion, we predicted that the threat of negative future consequences, as well as a positive future vision, motivates collective action through feelings of being moved. In four experimental studies ( N total = 718, conducted betw…
The reinforcement sensitivity theory affects questionnaire (RST-AQ). A validation study of a new scale targeting affects related to anxiety, approach motivation and fear
This paper presents the RST-AQ, a 22-item scale to measure the affective states related to the three motivational systems postulated by Reinforcement Sensitivity theory (RST-AQ): the Behavioral approach system (BAS), Behavioral inhibition system (BIS), and the Fight-Flight-Freeze system (FFFS). The three subscales are internally consistent. Results show an overall support for construct validity of our RST-AQ measure. The correlations of the RST-A…
To change, but not to preserve! Norm conformity following control threat only emerges for change norms but not for status quo norms
Collectively pursuing social change may help people experience a sense of agency through their group when personal control is threatened, thereby restoring their sense of control. Accordingly, we proposed and found in two studies ( N = 177 & 178) that following an experimentally manipulated threat to personal control, group members conform only to ingroup norms (vs. non-norms) framed as proposing social change, but not to those framed as preservi…
How to show empathy as a coach
Cognitive empathy, expressed as either imagine-self (imagining oneself in the other’s situation) or imagine-other (imagining the other person in his/her situation) empathy, is essential for self-change and satisfaction in coaching. In two studies, we investigated the difference between coaches’ imagine-self versus imagine-other empathy. In a survey study ( N 1 = 242), we found that the more important coaches perceived the client’s self-change, th…
A Weird Theory? On the Prevalence of Western Folk Theory of Social Change in the West and Asia
According to Western folk theory of social change, modernization of societies causes them to become less warm but more competent over time. Since WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) societies are often at the forefront of modernization (with some exceptions, most notably China), these societies may also be most prone to internalizing this folk theory. In this research, we test this idea by making a comparison across a …
Empirical test of a general process model of threat and defense
The general process model of threat and defense (Jonas et al., 2014) states that a common affective-motivational mechanism underlies threat-related solution strategies and threat-unrelated palliative responses to solvable and unsolvable (i.e., existential) threats. In a series of three studies (Ntotal = 683), we systematically tested the assumption that threat induces anxiety proximally (that is, immediately after a threat yet before a defense) a…
You gotta fight! – Why norm-violations and outgroup criticism lead to confrontational reactions
Group members frequently face group-related discrepancies, such as other group members violating group norms or outgroup members criticising the ingroup. In response, they often engage in confrontational reactions like expressing disapproval or excluding the person causing the discrepancy. The present work tests the often voiced but rarely studied idea that group-related discrepancies are met with such confrontational responses because discrepanc…
Existential threat and responses to emotional displays of ingroup and outgroup members
The present research investigates how emotional displays shape reactions to ingroup and outgroup members when people are reminded of death. We hypothesized that under mortality salience, emotions that signal social distance promote worldview defense (i.e., increased ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation), whereas emotions that signal affiliation promote affiliation need (i.e., reduced ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation). In three stu…
The Many Guises of Populism and Crisis
Populism is a powerful social force that has reshaped the political landscapes of many nations since the turn of the 21st century. Much of the success of populist movements is attributed to various social crises and a deep dissatisfaction with political systems. In the present issue, we sought to find papers that investigate what drives the demand for populist politics during crises on a psychological level and, correspondingly, how populist rhet…
The interplay between individual and collective efforts in the age of global threats
Trust me, I am a caring coach
A client's trust in the coach is essential for a well-functioning coaching interaction. This trust depends on the coach's trustworthiness in terms of ability, integrity, and benevolence. In three mixed-method studies, we investigated how these components of trustworthiness were established by the coach asking inexperienced (N1 = 42) and experienced (N2 = 29) coaches as well as clients (N3 = 24). An inductive qualitative content analysis revealed …
Refugees in the media
Two research objectives underlay the present research. First, we tested how frustrated psychological needs caused by the refugee‐influx influence the endorsement and selection of refugee‐relevant information. Second, we tested how information selection processes contribute to the development of exclusionary attitudes that counteract the integration of refugees into host countries. In a laboratory study ( n = 181), frustrated psychological needs d…
Leader's group-norm violations elicit intentions to leave the group – If the group-norm is not affirmed
Undesirable effects of threatening climate change information
Why is the fight against climate change so challenging? Research suggests that climate change information may trigger symbolic defense strategies such as derogative outgroup behaviors (e.g., ethnocentrism) instead of direct attempts to address the problem itself (e.g., proenvironmental behavior). Ingroup affirmation may help decrease symbolic responses. We conducted a 2 (Affirmation: ingroup vs. no affirmation) × 2 (Message: threat vs. control) ×…
Money and Finances, Psychology of
Understanding Psychological Reactance
Since Brehm first proposed reactance theory in 1966, many studies have explored the remarkable psychological phenomenon of reactance, which Miron and Brehm reviewed in 2006. We present an overview of research that has been done since then. A variety of studies have provided interesting new insights into the theory, adding to what is known about the phenomenon of reactance and the processes activated when people are confronted with threats to thei…
When Suspicious Minds Go Political
Drawing on the sensitivity to mean intentions model, we hypothesized that sensitivity to injustice from a victim's perspective (victim sensitivity) is negatively related to the acceptance of political reforms due to an inclination to attribute ulterior motives to policy makers. In Study 1 with a Canadian sample, initial evidence for this mediational model was obtained, as victim sensitivity uniquely predicted distrust of policy makers through gen…
Threat and Defense
Generosity, greed, norms, and death – Differential effects of mortality salience on charitable behavior
Cultural influences on terror management
Controlling death by defending ingroups — Mediational insights into terror management and control restoration
A large body of evidence supports the key tenet of terror management theory (TMT) that people manage death anxiety by defending cultural ingroups. However, surprisingly little is known about the motivational processes driving this effect. Given that mortality salience (MS) as well as control deprivation instigate ingroup defense, it is possible that MS effects on ingroup defense are fueled by the motivation to restore control that has been shatte…
Reactance, the self, and its group
We investigated the assumption that independent versus interdependent self‐construals yield different manifestations of psychological reactance in different group contexts. We expected collectivists (interdependent) to value the collective freedom of an ingroup more in face of an outgroup threat than individualists (independent) who should be protective of their individual freedom especially within an ingroup. In Study 1, we showed that collectiv…
The power of we
Follow the Norm
Terror management research shows that mortality salience (MS) increases people's attempts to live up to cultural standards. However, as cultures value very different and sometimes even contradictory standards, it is often difficult to derive specific predictions. Previous research identified the salience of injunctive norms (norms based on moral prescriptions) as an important moderator. We tested whether the influence of MS also depended on the s…
Collective Reactions to Threat
Personal and collective threat can breed ethnocentrism and intergroup conflict. We present a model of group‐based control to elucidate motivational underpinnings of these effects from a social psychological perspective. Reviewed empirical evidence illustrates the effects of personal threat on ethnocentric attitudes. Moreover, evidence reveals that perceived lack of personal control of important aspects of one's life induces people to support and …
The power of we
Psychological motives and political orientation--The left, the right, and the rigid
Presenting an impressive model based on a large body of evidence, J. T. Jost, J. Glaser, A.W. Kruglanski, and F. J. Sulloway (2003) proposed that political conservatism uniquely serves epistemic, existential, and ideological needs driven by fears and uncertainties. The authors offer an alternative view based on conceptual considerations, historical events, features of communist ideology and practice, and additional social science research not rev…
Terror management and religion
Terror management theory suggests that people cope with awareness of death by investing in some kind of literal or symbolic immortality. Given the centrality of death transcendence beliefs in most religions, the authors hypothesized that religious beliefs play a protective role in managing terror of death. The authors report three studies suggesting that affirming intrinsic religiousness reduces both death-thought accessibility following mortalit…
The role of control motivation in mortality salience effects on ingroup support and defense
Terror management research has shown that mortality salience (MS) leads to increased support and defense of cultural ingroups and their norms (i.e., worldview defense, WD). The authors investigated whether these effects can be understood as efforts to restore a generalized sense of control by strengthening one's social ingroup. In Studies 1-3, the authors found that WD was only increased following pure death salience, compared with both dental pa…
Confirmation bias in sequential information search after preliminary decisions
Collective Reactions to Threat
Personal and collective threat can breed ethnocentrism and intergroup conflict. We present a model of group‐based control to elucidate motivational underpinnings of these effects from a social psychological perspective. Reviewed empirical evidence illustrates the effects of personal threat on ethnocentric attitudes. Moreover, evidence reveals that perceived lack of personal control of important aspects of one's life induces people to support and …
Mortality salience and the desire for offspring
Selective exposure to information
In research on selective exposure to information, people have been found to predominantly seek information supporting rather than conflicting with their opinion. In most of these studies, participants were allowed to search for as many pieces of information as they liked. However, in many situations, the amount of information that people can search for is restricted. We report four experiments addressing this issue. Experiment 1 suggests that obj…
Focus theory of normative conduct and terror-management theory
Research on terror-management theory has shown that after mortality salience (MS) people attempt to live up to cultural values. But cultures often value very different and sometimes even contradictory standards, leading to difficulties in predicting behavior as a consequence of terror-management needs. The authors report 4 studies to demonstrate that the effect of MS on people's social judgments depends on the salience of norms. In Study 1, makin…
Culture, self, and the emergence of reactance
Controlling death by defending ingroups — Mediational insights into terror management and control restoration
A large body of evidence supports the key tenet of terror management theory (TMT) that people manage death anxiety by defending cultural ingroups. However, surprisingly little is known about the motivational processes driving this effect. Given that mortality salience (MS) as well as control deprivation instigate ingroup defense, it is possible that MS effects on ingroup defense are fueled by the motivation to restore control that has been shatte…
Selective exposure and decision framing
When people make decisions, they often prefer to receive information that supports rather than conflicts with their decision. To date, this effect has mainly been investigated in the context of decisions about gains, whereas decisions about losses have received less attention. Based on Prospect Theory, we expected information search to be differently affected by whether people previously have decided about gains or losses. Three studies have reve…
Psychological effects of the Euro—experimental research on the perception of salaries and price estimations
In five studies we show that the introduction of the Euro influences price estimations and the perception of salaries among people in Germany. People confronted with wages given in Euros compared to the German Mark (DM) showed a reduced willingness to face long distances to get to work when accepting a job offer. When asked to price various consumer goods appropriately, they estimated higher prices if they used the ‘Euro’ currency compared to pri…
Mortality Salience and Its Effects on Peace Processes
The present paper offers a review of the relationship between existential individual threats and peace-hampering as well as peace-facilitating factors. An overwhelming bulk of literature on terror management theory (TMT) demonstrates negative effects of mortality salience such as derogation of outgroup members, prejudice, stereotyping, aggression, and racism. These negative reactions may be detrimental in peace-processes and critical in explainin…
Cultural influences on terror management
The Many Guises of Populism and Crisis
Populism is a powerful social force that has reshaped the political landscapes of many nations since the turn of the 21st century. Much of the success of populist movements is attributed to various social crises and a deep dissatisfaction with political systems. In the present issue, we sought to find papers that investigate what drives the demand for populist politics during crises on a psychological level and, correspondingly, how populist rhet…
Generosity, greed, norms, and death – Differential effects of mortality salience on charitable behavior
Undesirable effects of threatening climate change information
Why is the fight against climate change so challenging? Research suggests that climate change information may trigger symbolic defense strategies such as derogative outgroup behaviors (e.g., ethnocentrism) instead of direct attempts to address the problem itself (e.g., proenvironmental behavior). Ingroup affirmation may help decrease symbolic responses. We conducted a 2 (Affirmation: ingroup vs. no affirmation) × 2 (Message: threat vs. control) ×…
Reactance, the self, and its group
We investigated the assumption that independent versus interdependent self‐construals yield different manifestations of psychological reactance in different group contexts. We expected collectivists (interdependent) to value the collective freedom of an ingroup more in face of an outgroup threat than individualists (independent) who should be protective of their individual freedom especially within an ingroup. In Study 1, we showed that collectiv…
When Suspicious Minds Go Political
Drawing on the sensitivity to mean intentions model, we hypothesized that sensitivity to injustice from a victim's perspective (victim sensitivity) is negatively related to the acceptance of political reforms due to an inclination to attribute ulterior motives to policy makers. In Study 1 with a Canadian sample, initial evidence for this mediational model was obtained, as victim sensitivity uniquely predicted distrust of policy makers through gen…
Currencies as cultural symbols – an existential psychological perspective on reactions of Germans toward the Euro
When Citizens Fight Back
Empirical test of a general process model of threat and defense
The general process model of threat and defense (Jonas et al., 2014) states that a common affective-motivational mechanism underlies threat-related solution strategies and threat-unrelated palliative responses to solvable and unsolvable (i.e., existential) threats. In a series of three studies (Ntotal = 683), we systematically tested the assumption that threat induces anxiety proximally (that is, immediately after a threat yet before a defense) a…
Leader's group-norm violations elicit intentions to leave the group – If the group-norm is not affirmed
Terror management and political attitudes
From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to maintain faith in one's own cultural worldview. We investigated this notion with regard to attitudes of Germans toward an important political event, the fall of the Berlin wall and German reunification. We found that when reminded of their own death, people with a supportive attitude toward the German reunification showed a more favourable eval…
Confirmation bias in sequential information search after preliminary decisions
The Scrooge Effect
From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to express culturally prescribed prosocial attitudes and engage in culturally prescribed prosocial behaviors. Two studies supported these hypotheses. In Study 1, people were interviewed in close proximity to a funeral home or several blocks away and were asked to indicate their attitudes toward two charities they deemed important. Those who were i…
Psychological effects of the Euro—experimental research on the perception of salaries and price estimations
In five studies we show that the introduction of the Euro influences price estimations and the perception of salaries among people in Germany. People confronted with wages given in Euros compared to the German Mark (DM) showed a reduced willingness to face long distances to get to work when accepting a job offer. When asked to price various consumer goods appropriately, they estimated higher prices if they used the ‘Euro’ currency compared to pri…
Psychological motives and political orientation--The left, the right, and the rigid
Presenting an impressive model based on a large body of evidence, J. T. Jost, J. Glaser, A.W. Kruglanski, and F. J. Sulloway (2003) proposed that political conservatism uniquely serves epistemic, existential, and ideological needs driven by fears and uncertainties. The authors offer an alternative view based on conceptual considerations, historical events, features of communist ideology and practice, and additional social science research not rev…
Terror management and political attitudes
From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to maintain faith in one's own cultural worldview. We investigated this notion with regard to attitudes of Germans toward an important political event, the fall of the Berlin wall and German reunification. We found that when reminded of their own death, people with a supportive attitude toward the German reunification showed a more favourable eval…
Currencies as cultural symbols – an existential psychological perspective on reactions of Germans toward the Euro
Selective exposure to information
In research on selective exposure to information, people have been found to predominantly seek information supporting rather than conflicting with their opinion. In most of these studies, participants were allowed to search for as many pieces of information as they liked. However, in many situations, the amount of information that people can search for is restricted. We report four experiments addressing this issue. Experiment 1 suggests that obj…
Mortality salience and the desire for offspring
Terror management and religion
Terror management theory suggests that people cope with awareness of death by investing in some kind of literal or symbolic immortality. Given the centrality of death transcendence beliefs in most religions, the authors hypothesized that religious beliefs play a protective role in managing terror of death. The authors report three studies suggesting that affirming intrinsic religiousness reduces both death-thought accessibility following mortalit…
Selective exposure and decision framing
When people make decisions, they often prefer to receive information that supports rather than conflicts with their decision. To date, this effect has mainly been investigated in the context of decisions about gains, whereas decisions about losses have received less attention. Based on Prospect Theory, we expected information search to be differently affected by whether people previously have decided about gains or losses. Three studies have reve…
The path or the goal? Decision vs. information focus in biased information seeking after preliminary decisions
Research on the phenomenon of selective exposure to information demonstrates that after preliminary or final decisions, people show a preference for supporting rather than conflicting information (confirmation bias). In this article, we examine conditions that increase or decrease distortions in the search for information. We report on four experiments indicating that the confirmation bias is influenced by whether people focus on their decision o…
Focus theory of normative conduct and terror-management theory
Research on terror-management theory has shown that after mortality salience (MS) people attempt to live up to cultural values. But cultures often value very different and sometimes even contradictory standards, leading to difficulties in predicting behavior as a consequence of terror-management needs. The authors report 4 studies to demonstrate that the effect of MS on people's social judgments depends on the salience of norms. In Study 1, makin…
The role of control motivation in mortality salience effects on ingroup support and defense
Terror management research has shown that mortality salience (MS) leads to increased support and defense of cultural ingroups and their norms (i.e., worldview defense, WD). The authors investigated whether these effects can be understood as efforts to restore a generalized sense of control by strengthening one's social ingroup. In Studies 1-3, the authors found that WD was only increased following pure death salience, compared with both dental pa…
Mortality Salience and Its Effects on Peace Processes
The present paper offers a review of the relationship between existential individual threats and peace-hampering as well as peace-facilitating factors. An overwhelming bulk of literature on terror management theory (TMT) demonstrates negative effects of mortality salience such as derogation of outgroup members, prejudice, stereotyping, aggression, and racism. These negative reactions may be detrimental in peace-processes and critical in explainin…
Culture, self, and the emergence of reactance
Selective exposure
Previous research has found that people prefer information that supports rather than conflicts with their decisions (selective exposure). In the present paper, we investigated whether selective exposure was influenced by the method of information collection. Based on Prospect Theory we hypothesized that the method of selection (MOS), where simply selected pieces of information are considered, would lead to a higher selective exposure compared to …
Collective Reactions to Threat
Personal and collective threat can breed ethnocentrism and intergroup conflict. We present a model of group‐based control to elucidate motivational underpinnings of these effects from a social psychological perspective. Reviewed empirical evidence illustrates the effects of personal threat on ethnocentric attitudes. Moreover, evidence reveals that perceived lack of personal control of important aspects of one's life induces people to support and …
Are there “His” and “Her” Types of Decisions? Exploring Gender Differences in the Confirmation Bias
When Citizens Fight Back
Reactance, the self, and its group
We investigated the assumption that independent versus interdependent self‐construals yield different manifestations of psychological reactance in different group contexts. We expected collectivists (interdependent) to value the collective freedom of an ingroup more in face of an outgroup threat than individualists (independent) who should be protective of their individual freedom especially within an ingroup. In Study 1, we showed that collectiv…
The power of we
Follow the Norm
Terror management research shows that mortality salience (MS) increases people's attempts to live up to cultural standards. However, as cultures value very different and sometimes even contradictory standards, it is often difficult to derive specific predictions. Previous research identified the salience of injunctive norms (norms based on moral prescriptions) as an important moderator. We tested whether the influence of MS also depended on the s…
Generosity, greed, norms, and death – Differential effects of mortality salience on charitable behavior
Cultural influences on terror management
Controlling death by defending ingroups — Mediational insights into terror management and control restoration
A large body of evidence supports the key tenet of terror management theory (TMT) that people manage death anxiety by defending cultural ingroups. However, surprisingly little is known about the motivational processes driving this effect. Given that mortality salience (MS) as well as control deprivation instigate ingroup defense, it is possible that MS effects on ingroup defense are fueled by the motivation to restore control that has been shatte…
Psychology (39 works) · Social Psychology (37 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (34 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Political science (19 works) · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion (18 works) · Cognitive psychology (14 works) · Mortality salience (14 works) · Terror management theory (14 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (11 works)