Joshua Hart

Professor Hart’s research program grew out of his interest in the psychological consequences of humans’ sophisticated cognitive abilities and conscious self-awareness. Intelligence and self-awareness allow people to acquire vast knowledge and understanding, and to appreciate being alive. At the same time, expansive consciousness burdens people with knowledge of all the awful things about existence—perhaps most notably, loss and death—making for a precarious emotional life that exposes people to psychological turmoil and dysfunction.

Hart’s research, initially inspired by terror management theory, explores how we manage (or mismanage) this predicament, with a special focus on close relationships (e.g., romantic relationships), self-esteem, and worldviews (i.e., belief systems, such as religion and political ideology). His work integrates attachment theory and other theories that view people as perpetually motivated by the need to feel secure. The idea is that many of our goals—large and small, individual and social—are ultimately rooted in the need to feel loved, worthwhile, and to imbue life with meaning; and that relationships, self-esteem, and worldviews work together to maintain emotional security. Some recent/ongoing projects apply these ideas to current events in politics and religion.