Link:

“As part of a study of times of trouble, UA psychological researcher Mark Landau found that, when reminded about Sept. 11 and mortality, people wanted Bush as their leader and not John Kerry.

“Further, the more someone thought about Sept. 11 or their own mortality, the more prone they were to support President Bush. “The strength (of the responses) was ridiculous,” said Landau, who plans to vote for John Kerry. “These effects were found regardless of a person’s political orientation.” “

According to the study, this is because people who are worried want a “charismatic” “leader”:

“Three previous academic studies seemed to confirm the UA doctoral student’s findings: In times of trouble, people gravitate to charismatic leaders. It also reinforced the Bush campaign’s strategy of using Sept. 11 and war-on-terror imagery in the campaign.

[…]

“The reminders study was conducted in May on 157 students at Brooklyn College in New York. In three other surveys, Landau and eight researchers around the country found that when confronted with thoughts of Sept. 11 or mortality and given a choice of types of leaders, those studied most often chose Bush rather than an anonymous, less charismatic candidate.

” “We had another type of leader, also,” Landau said, “a task-oriented leader who said, ‘Let’s get it done, let’s put the Stars and Stripes away and just do the job.’ That leader did really badly. People need leaders. I don’t think it’s a liberal vs. conservative or Democrat vs. Republican thing. It’s more than a practical decision people are making.” “

Charismatic? That guy? A more plausible explanation is that for a lot of people, when they start thinking about death, they start thinking about Jesus, with whom Bush has gone to great lengths to associate himself (though check out Gaines & co). One wonders whether the researchers measured the strength of the effect against standard measures of religiosity.