Bonn, Germany. The expectations people have about how others will behave play a large role in determining whether people cooperate with each other or not. And that very first expectation, or impression, is hard to change.

This is particularly true when the impression is a negative one, as shown by so-called public good games. One’s own expectation thereby becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: those who expect people to act selfishly, actually experience uncooperative behavior from others more often.

Vancouver, BC, Canada. Anxiety over death can influence people to ignore the overwhelming evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution and support theories of intelligent design, despite overwhelming scientific consensus that ID is inherently unscientific.

Existential anxiety also prompted people to report an increased liking for Michael Behe, the main proponent for intelligent design, [N1] and increased their dislike for evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. [N2]