People Hold Negative Views About Those Who Believe Life Is Meaningless

By Emily Reynolds “The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless,” wrote Leo Tolstoy in A Confession, a succinct summing up of the nihilist worldview. Depressing as it may be, nihilism seems to be on the rise, with the importance of finding a meaningful worldview steadily decreasing over the last decade or so. But how do other people view nihilists? This is the question posed by Matthew J. Scott and Adam B. Cohen of Arizona State University in a new paper published in The Journal of Social Psychology. They find that stereotypes of nihilists are overwhelmingly negative — and unlike stereotypes about atheists, people don’t seem to have any positive views about nihilists at all. In the first study, 464 participants viewed a short profile of either a fictitious man or woman, containing a picture and some information including occupation, favourite foods, hobbies, and preference for cats or dogs. The profile also outlined the person’s “pet philosophy”: they either had a nihilistic outlook (“We are here because of random events. Our lives have no purpose”) or a meaningful outlook (“We are all here for a reason. All of our lives serve a purpose”). Participants then rated how much the person embodied certain traits: the Big Five personality traits, “folk social value traits” which included “fun”, “energetic”, “educated”, and “trustworthy”, and the...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Personality Source Type: blogs