			Home About us Contact

Mortality Salience (mortality + salience)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	84%

Selected Abstracts

The Thrust of the Problem: Bodily Inhibitions and Guilt as a Function of Mortality Salience and Neuroticism

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 5 2008
Jamie L. Goldenberg
ABSTRACT We argue that existential concerns underlie discomfort with the physicality of the body and that activities likely to make individuals aware of their physical body (e.g., sex, dancing) may be inhibited and cause guilt. Further, individuals high in neuroticism may be especially vulnerable to such difficulties. To test this, individuals high and low in neuroticism were primed with thoughts about their mortality or a control topic and then engaged in an exercise designed to promote body awareness before self-reporting guilt. A comparison group engaged in non-body-oriented behavior. The results revealed that high neuroticism participants inhibited their body-oriented behavior when mortality was salient and that they experienced a marginal increase in guilt after performing the behavior in conjunction with mortality salience. Discussion focuses on the relationship between neuroticism, mortality salience, inhibition surrounding the body, and guilt. [source]

Compassionate Values and Presidential Politics: Mortality Salience, Compassionate Values, and Support for Barack Obama and John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election

ANALYSES OF SOCIAL ISSUES & PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2009
Kenneth E. Vail III
In line with terror management theory, this research demonstrates that mortality salience motivated increased support for John McCain in the absence of reminders of compassionate values. However, polls had indicated that Barack Obama was generally perceived as the more compassionate of the two candidates. Thus, when compassionate values were made salient, death reminders motivated participants to uphold these values by significantly increasing their support for the more compassionate Barack Obama instead. The implications of these findings for terror management theory, the 2008 presidential election, and political endorsements are discussed. [source]

The anxiety buffering function of close relationships: mortality salience effects on the readiness to compromise mate selection standards

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2002
Gilad Hirschberger
This research examines the utility of a terror management approach to understanding the motivations and emotional consequences of compromise in mate selection. One hundred and sixty-eight undergraduates completed a self-esteem scale and a scale tapping ideal mate characteristics, and were then assigned either to a mortality salience, physical pain salience, or neutral condition. Half of the participants rated their readiness to compromise ideal mate standards and the remaining half completed a neutral scale. Then, participants completed a scale tapping their emotional state. Mortality salience led participants to significantly compromise their mate requirements. This effect seemed to be most pronounced among high self-esteem participants who also experienced the greatest amount of guilt when compromising under mortality salient conditions. Low self-esteem participants who compromised under mortality salient conditions reacted with higher levels of shame. The results are discussed in terms of the anxiety buffering functions of close relationships. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Effects of mortality salience aroused by threats against human identity on intergroup bias

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2009
Echebarria-Echabe Agustin
An experimental study on the effects of mortality salience aroused by threats against different components of the Self (personal, social and human identities) on intergroup bias is presented. It is hypothesised and found that the mortality salience per se does not inevitably led to increments of intergroup bias. This increment occurs when mortality salience is aroused by threats against personal or social identities. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The anxiety buffering function of close relationships: mortality salience effects on the readiness to compromise mate selection standards

An application of terror management theory in the design of social and health-related anti-smoking appeals

JOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2010
Ingrid M. Martin
Marketers and public policy makers continue to be plagued with the problem of creating effective communications, which can increase the probability of complying with risk avoidance behavior related to smoking. Using Terror Management Theory (TMT) as a theoretical basis, we provide a rationale as to why traditional anti-smoking appeals focusing on negative health consequences are not impactful. We use the implications of the theory to predict and show that an appeal focusing on social exclusion should be more motivating than a health appeal to encourage smokers to quit in the short and long run. Specifically, we conduct an experiment designed to investigate the impact of mortality salience and self-esteem on whether college-age smokers will comply with anti-smoking messages. We observe that social exclusion messages compared to health effect messages are particularly effective in reducing intentions to smoke for college-age smokers who derive their self-esteem in part from smoking. Overall, our results show that mortality salience interacts with self-esteem in terms of influencing the probability of smoking in the short run and that social exclusion appeals have a stronger impact than health-related appeals both in reducing long run smoking intention and emphasizing the salience of health-related consequences of smoking. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The Thrust of the Problem: Bodily Inhibitions and Guilt as a Function of Mortality Salience and Neuroticism

Threat, Authoritarianism, and Selective Exposure to Information

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2005
Howard Lavine
We examined the hypothesis that threat alters the cognitive strategies used by high authoritarians in seeking out new political information from the environment. In a laboratory experiment, threat was manipulated through a "mortality salience" manipulation used in research on terror management theory (Pyszczynski, Solomon & Greenberg, 2003). Subjects (N = 92) were then invited to read one of three editorial articles on the topic of capital punishment. We found that in the absence of threat, both low and high authoritarians were responsive to salient norms of evenhandedness in information selection, preferring exposure to a two-sided article that presents the merits of both sides of an issue to an article that selectively touts the benefits of the pro or con side of the issue. However, in the presence of threat, high but not low authoritarians became significantly more interested in exposure to an article containing uniformly pro-attitudinal arguments, and significantly less interested in a balanced, two-sided article. Finally, a path analysis indicated that selective exposure to attitude-congruent information led to more internally consistent policy attitudes and inhibited attitude change. Discussion focuses on the role of threat in conditioning the cognitive and attitudinal effects of authoritarianism. [source]

Compassionate Values and Presidential Politics: Mortality Salience, Compassionate Values, and Support for Barack Obama and John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election

Terror management among Taiwanese: Worldview defence or resigning to fate?

ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
Chih-Long Yen
Terror management theory (TMT) proposes that people who are reminded of their mortality should be motivated to defend their cultural worldview. Studies 1 and 2 examined whether the TMT worldview defence-buffering effect found in Western cultures could be generalized to Asians in Taiwan. No such effect was found in the present studies. This non-significant result was robust when either a stronger distraction task was used (study 1) or when a subliminal manipulation of mortality salience was utilized (study 2). A meta-analysis, including 24 TMT experiments in East Asia, was also conducted (study 3). The average effect size (d = 0.11, r = 0.055) of worldview defence among these experiments was not significantly different from zero. Study 4 found that mortality salience manipulation also did not change Taiwanese participants' view of reincarnation; however, it did make them more inclined to resign to fate, suggesting that they might be using this symbolic means to defend their anxiety of death. The issue of the generality of TMT to Asians was discussed. [source]

Mortality salience effects on modesty and relative self-effacement

ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2006
Ryutaro Wakimoto
Terror management theory argues that mortality salience (MS) enhances adherence to cultural norms. Recent cross-cultural research has suggested that Japanese culture emphasizes modesty and the enhancement of important others compared to the self. Thus, it was predicted that Japanese would show increased modesty and relative self-effacement in response to MS. In addition, the moderating effects of degree of enculturation were examined in two studies investigating Japanese undergraduates. Those strongly enculturated to the Japanese worldview showed a tendency to evaluate success more negatively (Study 1) and self-efface more relative to their close friends (Study 2). A view which regards both Easterners' self-effacement and Westerners' self-enhancement after MS to be a reflection of efforts to fit into cultural norm is presented. [source]

Terror management in Japan

ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2002
Steven J. Heine
Do terror management effects generalize to non-Western cultures? This question is significant because terror management theory offers an explanation of the origin of self-esteem, whereas other research finds divergent self-esteem motivations across cultures. The effects of mortality salience (MS) on the dual-component anxiety buffer were investigated in Japan. A control group and a MS group were given an opportunity: (i) to defend their cultural worldview by derogating an anti-Japan essay writer; and (ii) to boost their value within their cultures by indicating a greater desire for high-status over low-status products. Replicating past research with Western samples, Japanese in a MS condition were more critical of the anti-Japan essay writer and they indicated a marginal tendency to prefer high- over low-status products, compared with a control group. The theoretical implications are discussed. [source]