he fear of death and how it affects people’s voting will be discussed Saturday at an all-day event.

Terror at the Voting Booth will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium. The event, co-hosted by seven groups, will feature four presentations and a panel discussion.

“It’s part of a larger initiative that’s been going on for some time here at CMU that’s an effort to get students more politically engaged and civic- minded,” said Merlyn Mowrey, associate philosophy and religion professor.

Following each event, there will be time for discussion about the presentations.

“Each speaker will have time for (question and answer) following the presentations,” said Sarah Buckley, coordinator of marketing and events for the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences. “So we’re hoping to involve the audience in all the discussions.”

The first presentation will focus on polling and how people are persuaded by threats of danger. Pollster John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, will lead the presentation.

Zogby has done work all over the world finding out the effects of death anxiety or decision-making.

“It shows up in culture after culture that when peoples’ fear is aroused for their safety or if they feel under threat they make predictably more aggressive decisions about what needs to be done for their safety,” Mowrey said.

Next will be the showing of “Flight by Death,” a documentary by Gabriel Byrne that discusses how people deal with death anxiety. Co-producer Greg Bennick will be in the auditorium during the showing.

Following a lunch intermission, Sheldon Soloman will make a presentation. Soloman, who is featured in Byrne’s documentary, will talk about death anxiety and fear.

“He and his colleagues are called the terror management theorists,” Mowrey said. “They’ve been working for 20 years to do empirical research on some ideas that come from the work of Ernest Decker about the way death anxiety impacts our behavior.”

The last presentation will be a discussion on the book, “How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats and Why We Believe Them.” The book’s author, John Mueller, will be present.

At the end of the event, there will be a panel discussion featuring political science graduate student Beth Ossy, the speakers and other CMU students.

“The goal of the panel discussion is for the audience to have more direct interaction with the speakers,” Mowrey said.

Mount Pleasant sophomore Jason Nichol is helping with the event and sees it as a chance to learn.

“I think it’s a great idea for a conference, and we have some really terrific speakers coming,” he said. “And it was good opportunity to work with faculty along with getting involved in the political process, especially with the upcoming election.”

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