Prior to 9/11, Bush’s presidency was viewed as ineffectual and uninspired, even to many of his Republican supporters. However, the president’s approval ratings reached historically unprecedented heights a few weeks thereafter. That Bush’s tremendous popularity was in part a result of the dramatic and ongoing reminders of death and vulnerability provoked by the attacks was confirmed by experiments we conducted in 2002 and 2003 showing that following a reminder of death, Americans felt more supportive of President Bush and his policies in Iraq.
Then, as the standing president, confidently purveying the classic charismatic message that “we are divinely ordained to defeat the forces of evil,” Bush served Americans’ terror management needs far better than his opponent, Senator John Kerry, in the 2004 presidential election. In a control condition in which we reminded participants of intense pain, Americans rated Senator Kerry more favorably than President Bush. But after a reminder of death, Bush was more favorably evaluated than Kerry. Six weeks before the election, control participants reported that they would be voting for Senator Kerry by a 4-to-1 margin. But other participants, after thinking about death, favored President Bush by an almost 3-to-1 margin.
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