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Lovecraft, widely reflected across horror stories, games, and other media.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What does Terror Management Theory suggest about death reminders?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The episode explains that when people are reminded of death, they tend to respond with measurable changes in behavior and social tolerance, including heightened bias against other groups.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},515181,1791467099,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,91,95,100,105,109,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":26,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},1099529851338,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","1  \nYou’re listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief. I’m Eric Molinsky.  \nToday’s show is an experiment. First, it’s going to feature a radio drama that mixes reality and fantasy. Also its is going to sound different from my usual episode because it is a full on co-production with one of my favorite podcasts, Here Be Monsters from KCRW. To give you a taste of that show, this is the creator of that show, Jeff Emtman, does his introduction.  \nHERE BE MONSTERS. A SHOW ABOUT  A SHOW ABOUT THE UNKNOWN.  \nWhen it comes to monsters, there’s one that I’ve been curious for a longtime. It’s called Cthulhu [ka-THOO-loo] . It’s a very old monster of unimaginable size that sleeps on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and if it were to rise – that could be the end of the world. Cthulhu is all over pop culture from horror stories to role-playing games and video games to  \nSouth Park. The writer who first imagined it was Howard Phillips Lovecraft.  \nREADING: The figure, which was finally passed slowly from man to man for close and careful study, was between seven and eight inches in height, and of exquisitely artistic workmanship. It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence, and squatted evilly on a rectangular block or pedestal covered with undecipherable characters.  \nH. P. Lovecraft wrote horror fiction in the 1920s and ‘30s. He was a reclusein Providence, RI --a genius and an unrepentant racist and xenophobe. His legacy is controversial, leading to all sorts of questions about whether you can separate the work from the artist. How can a guy with such a unique and boundless imagination, also be so close-minded and bigoted when it came to the real world? After the break, I searching of answers, and find myself in some really weird places.  \n>> UNDERWRITING BREAK \u003C\u003C  \n2  \nEM: So when we first started talking you said you hadn’t read any Lovecraft – he is someone who lived in a constant state of terror, did you think about these theories when reading him?  \nSS: Yes! Just haunting.  \nSS: My name is Sheldon Solomon. I’m an experimental social psychologist at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.  \nSS: Yeah my thoughts are that it is very typical, I thought of Frankenstein and other grotesque creatures. The development of these kinds of creatures, imaginary or not, we call it terror focalization-- it gives us some concrete and embodied entity upon to project our death fears.  \nSheldon Solomon led a group of psychologists who coined a term called Terror Management Theory, which help illuminate the paradox of Lovecraft.  \nBasically, we all know we’re going to die. But if we were to focus on that reality, we wouldn’t be able to function on a daily basis.  \nSS: Because any cultural construction of reality is sufficient to ward off all death anxiety.  \nAnd we are unique in the animal kingdom because no other creature can imagine its own death.  \nSS: All of those of those notions, would conspire to render our ancestors literally paralyzed with existential terror.  \nSS: We’ve done hundreds of experiments. Sometimes we bring people into the lab and we have them read things on computer and while they’re going that, unbeknownst to them, we flash the word death so fast, 28 milliseconds, that you don’t know you’ve seen anything.  \nThen they’ll ask the judges to set bail for a fictional prostitute. The judges who were prompted to think about death set a bail that’s five times higher. People reminded of death will become intolerant of other racial or religious groups--they’ll even agree with the proposition that we should bomb other countries.  \n3  \nThey flipped the script and asked people whether they want to be famo","cbCaibSomeuJsire","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibSomeuJsire","pdf",79879,11,"English","# Episode Intro and Cthulhu Background\n# Reading of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos\n# Terror Management Theory Experiments\n# Death Cues and Social Attitudes\n# Reading and Real-World Cthulhu Shop Visit","[{\"question\":\"What is the premise of this Imaginary Worlds episode?\",\"answer\":\"The episode focuses on how imagined worlds are created and why listeners suspend disbelief, presented as an experiment co-produced with Here Be Monsters from KCRW.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Cthulhu relate to Lovecraft according to the episode?\",\"answer\":\"Cthulhu is described as a classic monster first imagined by H. P. Lovecraft, widely reflected across horror stories, games, and other media.\"},{\"question\":\"What does Terror Management Theory suggest about death reminders?\",\"answer\":\"The episode explains that when people are reminded of death, they tend to respond with measurable changes in behavior and social tolerance, including heightened bias against other groups.\"}]","When Cthulhu Calls transcript | PDF",1791309037,17]