Does Existential Flexibility Associate With Individuals’ Acceptance of Inequality? A Study Relating Existential Questing to Values and to Prejudice

Abstract

This study investigated whether existential quest, a relatively new construct defining individual willingness to reflect on existential issues such as the meaning of life and death, was negatively associated with generalized prejudice through the mediation with personal values of universalism and conservation (conformity, security, and tradition). A structural equation model was performed on a convenience sample of 1136 Italian adults. Results confirmed a negative indirect relationship with generalized prejudice mediated by universalism. Findings support the argument that engagement with existential issues is associated with the value of universalism, which in turn is associated with lower levels of generalized prejudice. The present study contributes to the scholarly literature to explain the concept of existential quest.

Keywords

• existential quest
• values
• universalism
• conservation
• generalized prejudice