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TMT has been widely used to explain and understand dissociative communication behaviors, such as intergroup conflicts, discrimination and prejudice toward dissimilar others, low tolerance for moral transgressors, and political conservatism in the aftermath of disastrous events (Greenberg & Kosloff, 2008; Landau et al., 2004), both natural (e.g., floods, hurricanes, tornados, and forest fires) and man-made (e.g., terrorist attacks, chemical spills, industrial calamities, and pandemics). As TMT posits, in such situations, people are reminded of the tenuous vulnerability of their existence, and the resulting DTA generates and intensifies existential anxiety to the point where it motivates them to increase their investment in the anxiety buffering mechanisms available to them.

To achieve both literal (in the genomic sense) and symbolic immortality, individuals need to be faithful to their CWVs and meet the standards of values specified therein. However, due to their vast capacity for misunderstanding the nature of reality, along with the scarcity of objective criteria available for determining whether and to what extent they are living up to the standards set by their CWV, individuals need consensual justifications of their CWV from others, as well as the means for avoiding any disconfirmations (Pyszczynski et al., 2015). Validations from others increase the legitimacy and certainty of one’s worldview, whereas disconfirmations produce the opposite effect.

In response to existential anxiety, reinforcing the notion that “we are good, and they are evil” both increases positive responses toward ingroup members with whom individuals share worldviews and gain confirmation and simultaneously intensifies negative responses toward outgroup members, thereby avoiding worldview disconfirmation (Greenberg & Arndt, 2011). Moreover, in response to DTA, individuals tend to overstate the importance of others sharing their CWV and understate the importance of those with whom they differ. To the extent that disconfirmation from others should produce the aspersion of those holding dissimilar worldviews, Becker (1971) asserted that even the mere presence of differing worldviews can be perceived as threatening, thus justifying their derogation. In this sense, MS should motivate people to contrive more dissociative behaviors (e.g., bias, prejudice, and discrimination) and disconfirming responses when interacting with differing others, but perform more associative behavior (e.g., cooperation and agreement) and confirming responses when interacting with similar others. Judging by the antagonistic and polarizing narratives ideological differences have produced as the virus has spread within the United States, such dissociative behaviors seem to be emblematic of the strife and divisiveness surrounding the pandemic’s development, which have severely hindered efforts to contain it.

Moreover, numerous findings within the TMT literature provide support for the expectation that the discord and divisiveness from clashing worldviews is likely to continue. For instance, MS has been found to increase outgroup discrimination (Burke et al., 2010), lead whites to be more favorable toward white pride advocates (Greenberg et al., 2001), increase preference for products from one’s own country over those from foreign countries (Jonas et al., 2005), make people more aggressive against people who criticize one’s country (McGregor et al., 1998), invoke more negative stereotypes toward people of different races (Schimel et al., 1999), and make people less tolerant of those different from themselves (Yum & Schenck-Hamlin, 2005). Beyond laboratory studies, real-world observation has further confirmed the influence of MS on ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation (Keil & Ali, 2006; Landau et al., 2004; Tavernise & Oppel, 2020).

A similar form of worldview reinforcement was in evidence during the 2003 SARS outbreak, when, after interviewing Canadians from mainland China and Canadianborn citizens with Chinese backgrounds, Goossen et al. (2004) found respondents reporting markedly increased racism toward them during the crisis. This racial hostility took on various manifestations, ranging from alienation and discrimination to harassment and outright violence. The authors further noted how the SARS outbreak was referred to by many as the “Chinese disease,” and how this racism-infected speech and related behavior was spread globally in tandem with the pandemic. Keil and Ali (2006) also warned, during the SARS outbreak in Toronto, marginalization and discrimination against Asian Torontonians was demonstrated and heightened by images of “exotic” animals in “wet markets” in southern China, to the extent that the Torontonian ideal of multiculturalism and anti-racism was overpowered by the propagation of such anti-Asian images.

Many other dissociative communication behaviors have been noted in response to the existential anxiety experienced following MS. As posited by TMT, these hostile and intolerant behaviors have been observed even when the ideological extremity of the actions involved goes against the overall collective identity expressed by the dominant worldview within the culture (Hirschberger & Ein-Dor, 2006). However, despite extensive empirical support demonstrating the occurrence of such antagonistic behaviors in response to existential anxiety following DTA (Kosloff et al., 2006; Routledge et al., 2010), studies have also produced findings in which these effects are absent, wherein MS actually produces greater levels of commiserative and sympathetic behaviors relative to control conditions (Perach & Wisman, 2019).

Moreover, a number of TMT studies have found encountering dissimilar others may, under certain conditions, lead to more associative behaviors (Greenberg, Simon et al., 1992; see Miller & Massey, 2020 for a review). For instance, when the concept of tolerance was highly valued and accessible, Greenberg, Simon et al. (1992) found no difference between MS and control conditions when participants judged a target individual who criticized America. When the concept was made salient, the researchers found those for whom diversity was an important aspect of their CWV were more tolerant of dissimilar others following MS, whereas those for whom it was not an important aspect showed less tolerance.

Perach and Wisman’s (2019) review showed how creativity can have a small to medium effect on buffering existential anxiety. In other words, more positive outcomes are likely to occur when one’s CWV is cultivated in a way that places high value on openness and flexibility. Miller and Massey (2020) also note that when elements such as tolerance and equality constitute the core values of one’s CWV, individuals will show less dissociative behavior in the service of worldview defense, because tolerating dissimilarities and valuing equality play an important role in self-validation. Together, these studies suggest that when certain, specific, positive CWV components such as creativity, open-mindedness, tolerance of differences, compassion, and similarities among positive human traits are cultivated and/or made salient, MS can lead to less dissociative—and in many instances—even more associative communication behaviors (Greenberg & Arndt, 2011; Lykins et al., 2007; Vail III et al., 2019).