Mortality Fears as Measure of Politics?

Fear death? Chances are you support President Bush.

So says a new study that links people’s awareness of their mortality with support for the president. A team of psychology researchers from several universities studied the reactions of 374 undergraduate students from Missouri, New Jersey and New York. The subjects rated Bush and Democratic candidate Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts after being asked questions about death and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Subjects asked about death had more confidence in Bush and admiration for him, while those questioned about intense pain rated Kerry more highly in those categories.

The findings support the terror management theory, which posits that humans create a “cultural worldview” to comprehend death. The theory, tested over 20 years in 10 countries, can be extended to politics, said one of the study’s researchers, Jamie Arndt, a psychology professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Reminders of death create anxiety that causes people to cling to cultural and societal touchstones, Arndt said. The president -- a natural icon -- embodies the American culture that people seek out when faced with death.

Arndt concluded that images from Sept. 11 could gin up support, even subconsciously, for Bush and the government’s anti-terrorism policies.

“He may benefit from keeping it in people’s minds,” Arndt said in a statement.

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Being John Edwards

The similarities are a little spooky.

They were both born in the Carolinas to working-class parents. They’re both graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But one of these blue-eyed, brown-haired guys is not Sen. John Edwards -- he just likes to pretend he is.

Stand-up comedian Frank King is honing his imitation of the Democratic vice presidential candidate in the hopes of cornering the Edwards impersonation market.

The Grass Valley, Calif., resident is listening to tapes of the North Carolina senator and polishing his countrified twang. Although King is a native of Raleigh, Edwards’ current home, King’s suburban Southern lilt isn’t as pronounced as Edwards’.

King is spending several thousand dollars on hairpieces, and on prosthetic cheek and chin pieces to round out his face.

“There’s a reason why there is no Edwards impersonator,” King said on his way to perform for an insurance agents’ convention in La Crosse, Wis. “Either nobody thought of it and went to the trouble to do it ... [or] there’s not a market for it.”

King says a Bush impersonator can command up to $10,000 for a public appearance. King will appear on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show With Jon Stewart” early next month, and is hoping to make “somewhere between a bucket of spit and 10 grand” as Edwards.

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Duly Quoted

“Top 10 ways I, P. Diddy, am getting people to vote....

3. Remember ‘Hands Across America’? Yeah, well, we ain’t doin’ that.

2. I’m designing a line of super-stylish voting pants.

1. On the ballots the candidates will be listed as P. Kerry and George Diddy Bush.”

Rap mogul Sean “P. Diddy” Combs on CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman” Wednesday. Combs launched a star-studded voter outreach group, Citizen Change, this month.

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Compiled from staff, Web and wire reports by Times staff researcher Susannah Rosenblatt.