Differentiating the effects of self-control and self-esteem on reactions to mortality salience

Whereas many previous studies suggest that self-esteem may buffer against the psychological threat of death, recent research has begun to suggest that self-control also may serve as a buffer. Two studies examined the possibility that dispositional self-control uniquely predicts responses to mortality salience, above and beyond self-esteem. In Study 1, an initial exercise in emotion regulation increased subsequent accessibility of death thoughts. In Study 2, mortality salience increased worldview defense. Both of these effects were moderated by dispositional self-control, such that the effects occurred among participants with low but not high self-control. More importantly, these moderating effects were observed over and above the moderating effects of self-esteem. Findings suggest that self-control may serve as an important and unique buffer against thoughts of death.     

Self-affirmation and mortality salience: affirming values reduces worldview defense and death-thought accessibility

To the extent that cultural worldviews provide meaning in the face of existential concerns, specifically the inevitability of death, affirming a valued aspect of one's worldview should render reminders of death less threatening. The authors report two studies in support of this view. In Study 1, mortality salience led to derogation of a worldview violator unless participants had first affirmed an important value. In Study 2, self-affirmation before a reminder of death was associated with reduced accessibility of death-related thoughts a short while thereafter. The authors propose that actively affirming one's worldview alters reactions to reminders of mortality by reducing the accessibility of death-related thoughts, not by boosting self-esteem. These studies attest to the flexible nature of psychological self-defense and to the central role of cultural worldviews in managing death-related concerns.     

Resisting temptation of unhealthy food: interaction between temptation-elicited goal activation and self-control

Counteractive control theory suggests that the cognitive accessibility of a goal in response to a temptation cue predicts self-regulation of behaviour consistent with that goal. The current study provided a novel test of this effect in the eating domain, exploring the moderating role of trait self-control. A sample of 124 women (18–25 years) completed a lexical decision task to assess cognitive accessibility of the weight-management goal after food temptation priming. Eating self-regulation was operationalised as unhealthy snack food intake measured in a task disguised as a taste-test. Participants completed trait self-control and temptation experience intensity measures. Cognitive accessibility predicted lower food intake, but only among high self-control participants. The relationship was mediated by temptation experience intensity: participants with high cognitive accessibility felt less tempted, and subsequently ate less food. Results suggest that changing the processes underlying the temptation experience, rather than the cognitive accessibility of a goal may more effectively enhance self-regulation among low self-control individuals.     

Stigma as ego depletion: how being the target of prejudice affects self-control

This research examined whether stigma diminishes people's ability to control their behaviors. Because coping with stigma requires self-regulation, and self-regulation is a limited-capacity resource, we predicted that individuals belonging to stigmatized groups are less able to regulate their own behavior when they become conscious of their stigmatizing status or enter threatening environments. Study 1 uncovered a correlation between stigma sensitivity and self-regulation; the more Black college students were sensitive to prejudice, the less self-control they reported having. By experimentally activating stigma, Studies 2 and 3 provided causal evidence for stigma's ego-depleting qualities: When their stigma was activated, stigmatized participants (Black students and females) showed impaired self-control in two very different domains (attentional and physical self-regulation). These results suggest that (a) stigma is ego depleting and (b) coping with it can weaken the ability to control and regulate one's behaviors in domains unrelated to the stigma.     

The association between vivid thoughts of death and authenticity

Many theoretical perspectives link death-related thoughts to authenticity; however, there is little empirical research directly examining this association. The current studies examined how recalling a vivid experience associated with mortality relates to outcomes indicative of authentic engagement. In Study 1, participants described an experience that made them think about their mortality, indicated how vivid their recollection was, and completed measures of authenticity and goal-pursuit. Results indicated that how vividly a mortality experience was recalled predicted greater authenticity and more important goal-pursuits. Study 2 replicated many of the findings and found a similar pattern when individuals vividly recalled a mortality experience of a close other. Study 3 again replicated these results after controlling for a host of death-related variables. Exploratory analyses further revealed that ruminating about death was often negatively associated with authenticity. Implications for the role of death-related thoughts in authentic and alienated becoming are discussed.     

Anxiety, self-control and shooting performance

55 rifle shooters were administered state-trait anxiety and self-control questionnaires. Shooting performance was recorded on 7 competitive occasions. Analysis indicated shooting performance is dependent more on anxiety state than on anxiety trait and self-control. Highly skilled shooters were less anxious and performed better across all competitions than moderately skilled shooters but did not differ on self-control and anxiety trait. The assumption that increased anxiety negatively affects performance through the mediation of self-control should be further studied.     

Religion replenishes self-control

Researchers have proposed that the emergence of religion was a cultural adaptation necessary for promoting self-control. Self-control, in turn, may serve as a psychological pillar supporting a myriad of adaptive psychological and behavioral tendencies. If this proposal is true, then subtle reminders of religious concepts should result in higher levels of self-control. In a series of four experiments, we consistently found that when religious themes were made implicitly salient, people exercised greater self-control, which, in turn, augmented their ability to make decisions in a number of behavioral domains that are theoretically relevant to both major religions and humans' evolutionary success. Furthermore, when self-control resources were minimized, making it difficult for people to exercise restraint on future unrelated self-control tasks, we found that implicit reminders of religious concepts refueled people's ability to exercise self-control. Moreover, compared with morality- or death-related concepts, religion had a unique influence on self-control.     

自我控制失败的理论模型与神经基础

自我控制指那些帮助人们克服思想和情绪, 进而依据实际情况调整自我行为的心理加工。虽然良好的自我控制对个体的成功与幸福非常重要, 但自我控制失败仍然是整个人类社会的核心问题。借助于序列任务范式, 研究者揭示了自我控制失败的认知机制并建构了多种理论, 包括能量模型、加工模型、中央管理器模型和前额叶−皮层下脑区的平衡模型。相关脑成像研究主要聚焦于额下回、杏仁核、眶额叶皮质等脑区。未来研究应侧重不同理论之间的融合与补充, 强化自我控制失败潜在神经机制的探索, 并推动自我控制与社会决策行为的关系研究。     

Learned helplessness and learned resourcefulness: effects of noncontingent success and failure on individuals differing in self-control skills

We designed two experiments to investigate the role of self-control processes in learned-helplessness studies by assessing the differential reactions to uncontrollability of subjects who presumably had either a rich (high resourceful, or HR) or poor (low resourceful, or LR) repertoire of self-control skills. HR and LR subjects received noncontingent success feedback, failure feedback, or no feedback on a task that ostensibly assessed "therapeutic abilities." Subjects were subsequently tested on insolvable puzzles (Experiment 1) or on solvable anagrams (Experiment 2). According to Kanfer and Hagerman's (1981) self-regulation model, self-regulatory activities are evoked primarily in situations in which subjects are faced with repeated failure. Hence we predicted that individual differences in self-control would influence performance on the insolvable puzzles and not anagram performance after exposure to noncontingent failure. This prediction was confirmed: Only the performance of LR subjects on the insolvable puzzles was debilitated by the helplessness induction, whereas HR and LR subjects showed equal helplessness-induced deficits on the anagrams. The latter finding was interpreted in terms of the learned-helplessness model without the mediating effects of self-regulatory processes. As predicted from the self-control model, HR subjects more frequently checked statements indicating positive self-evaluations and task-oriented thoughts and less frequently checked negative self-evaluations than did LR subjects during exposure to uncontrollability in both experiments. We concluded that the self-control model accounts best for subjects' self-reactions during exposure to uncontrollability or failure, whereas the learned-helplessness model accounts for the generalization of helplessness from uncontrollable situations to controllable ones.     

Deliver us from evil: the effects of mortality salience and reminders of 9/11 on support for President George W. Bush

According to terror management theory, heightened concerns about mortality should intensify the appeal of charismatic leaders. To assess this idea, we investigated how thoughts about death and the 9/11 terrorist attacks influence Americans' attitudes toward current U.S. President George W. Bush. Study 1 found that reminding people of their own mortality (mortality salience) increased support for Bush and his counterterrorism policies. Study 2 demonstrated that subliminal exposure to 9/11-related stimuli brought death-related thoughts closer to consciousness. Study 3 showed that reminders of both mortality and 9/11 increased support for Bush. In Study 4, mortality salience led participants to become more favorable toward Bush and voting for him in the upcoming election but less favorable toward Presidential candidate John Kerry and voting for him. Discussion focused on the role of terror management processes in allegiance to charismatic leaders and political decision making.     

Successfully challenging fundamentalist beliefs results in increased death awareness

Terror management theory argues that human understanding of mortality creates an existential anxiety that must be kept under constant control. Defenses—such as beliefs that provide permanence, predictability, and meaning—are erected whose function is in part to keep thoughts about death as far removed from consciousness as possible. The current study investigated the defensive function of Christian fundamentalist belief in managing death-awareness. The general hypothesis of the study is that challenges to such beliefs undermine one’s ability to control cognitions related to mortality. More specifically, it was hypothesized that successful challenges to this form of religious belief would make death-related cognitions more accessible to consciousness. Self-identified Christians, both fundamentalists and non-fundamentalists, encountered material that challenged the fundamentalist belief that the Christian Bible is free of inconsistencies and contradictions. Consistent with expectations, under these conditions higher levels of accessibility of death-related cognition were found among fundamentalist Christians, but not their non-fundamentalist counterparts.     

Death anxiety and sexual risk-taking: different manifestations of the process of defense

College students(n = 162) completed measures of death anxiety and sexual risk-taking, with a thought listing procedure in-between. Those who completed the death anxiety measure first (Death Salient condition) reportedgreater willingness to engage in high-risk sexual behavior than the Non-Death Salient group. This result was consistent with the hypothesis that evoking death anxiety would produce denial-based defensive activity. Also, Death Salient participants reporting more death thoughts were lower on risk-taking, as predicted. Interestingly, Death Salient participants reporting stressful thoughts about issues unrelated to personal mortality (displacement) were also less willing to engage in high-risk sexual behavior. The results are discussed in relation to a new, avowal-based model of the process of psychological defense.     

Death anxiety and sexual risk-taking: different manifestations of the process of defense

College students(n = 162) completed measures of death anxiety and sexual risk-taking, with a thought listing procedure in-between. Those who completed the death anxiety measure first (Death Salient condition) reportedgreater willingness to engage in high-risk sexual behavior than the Non-Death Salient group. This result was consistent with the hypothesis that evoking death anxiety would produce denial-based defensive activity. Also, Death Salient participants reporting more death thoughts were lower on risk-taking, as predicted. Interestingly, Death Salient participants reporting stressful thoughts about issues unrelated to personal mortality (displacement) were also less willing to engage in high-risk sexual behavior. The results are discussed in relation to a new, avowal-based model of the process of psychological defense.     

Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: a limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative

The current research tested the hypothesis that making many choices impairs subsequent self-control. Drawing from a limited-resource model of self-regulation and executive function, the authors hypothesized that decision making depletes the same resource used for self-control and active responding. In 4 laboratory studies, some participants made choices among consumer goods or college course options, whereas others thought about the same options without making choices. Making choices led to reduced self-control (i.e., less physical stamina, reduced persistence in the face of failure, more procrastination, and less quality and quantity of arithmetic calculations). A field study then found that reduced self-control was predicted by shoppers' self-reported degree of previous active decision making. Further studies suggested that choosing is more depleting than merely deliberating and forming preferences about options and more depleting than implementing choices made by someone else and that anticipating the choice task as enjoyable can reduce the depleting effect for the first choices but not for many choices.     

Trait self-control and beliefs about the utility of emotions for initiatory and inhibitory self-control

How do people with high trait self-control achieve their success? This research aimed to investigate beliefs about emotion utility as a potential mechanism. Specifically, because beliefs about the utility of emotions predict emotion regulation and successful performance, we investigate the hypothesis that trait self-control influences beliefs about the utility of emotions for self-control. Two preregistered studies examined whether beliefs about the utility of emotions in everyday self-control situations varied depending on the person (trait self-control) and the situation (initiatory or inhibitory self-control). Our key finding was that people considered positive emotions more useful for self-control than negative emotions. This effect was also moderated by situational and individual factors, such that positive emotions were considered especially useful by participants with high trait self-control and in situations requiring initiatory self-control (with the opposite effect for negative emotions). This research suggests a potential role for instrumental emotion regulation in self-control success.     

Death, sex, love, and neuroticism: why is sex such a problem?

Terror management theory posits that sex is a ubiquitous human problem because the creaturely aspects of sex make apparent our animal nature, which reminds us of our vulnerability and mortality. People minimize this threat by investing in the symbolic meaning offered by the cultural worldview. Because people high in neuroticism have difficulty finding or sustaining meaning, sex is a particular problem for them. In Study 1, mortality salience caused high-neuroticism participants to find the physical aspects of sex less appealing. Study 2 revealed that for such individuals thoughts of physical sex increase the accessibility of death-related thoughts. This finding was replicated in Study 3, which also showed that providing meaning by associating sex with love reduces the accessibility of death-related thoughts in response to thoughts of physical sex. These findings provide insight into why people high in neuroticism have conflicting thoughts about sexuality and why sexuality is so often regulated and romanticized.     

Culturally divergent responses to mortality salience

Two experiments compared the effects of death thoughts, or mortality salience, on European and Asian Americans. Research on terror management theory has demonstrated that in Western cultural groups, individuals typically employ self-protective strategies in the face of death-related thoughts. Given fundamental East-West differences in self-construal (i.e., the independent vs. interdependent self), we predicted that members of Eastern cultural groups would affirm other people, rather than defend and affirm the self, after encountering conditions of mortality salience. We primed European Americans and Asian Americans with either a death or a control prime and examined the effect of this manipulation on attitudes about a person who violates cultural norms (Study 1) and on attributions about the plight of an innocent victim (Study 2). Mortality salience promoted culturally divergent responses, leading European Americans to defend the self and Asian Americans to defend other people.     

Mortality salience and the desire for offspring

Research on terror management theory (TMT) illustrates that following mortality salience (MS) people defend their cultural worldviews and bolster self-esteem to transcend death. Recently, research additionally showed that MS increased self-reports of the number of children desired in Dutch men but not in Dutch women. We conducted three studies to further investigate the role of desire for offspring in terror management. In Study 1, we conceptually replicated previous findings for Germany and found increased desire for offspring following MS in both men and women. Extending prior research Study 2 revealed that following MS not only was the accessibility of death-related thoughts increased, but also the accessibility of thoughts related to offspring. Finally, Study 3 suggested that the MS effect on ingroup bias was eliminated under conditions of offspring salience. Relating these findings to TMT, anticipated or actual offspring is discussed as a buffer against existential anxiety.     

Does the thought of death contribute to the memory benefit of encoding with a survival scenario?

Four studies tested whether the thought of death contributes to the survival processing advantage found in memory tests (i.e., the survival effect). In the first study, we replicated the “Dying To Remember” (DTR) effect identified by Burns and colleagues whereby activation of death thoughts led to better retention than an aversive control situation. In Study 2, we compared an ancestral survival scenario, a modern survival scenario and a “life-after-death” scenario. The modern survival scenario and the dying scenario led to higher levels of recall than the ancestral scenario. In Study 3, we used a more salient death-thought scenario in which people imagine themselves on death row. Results showed that the “death-row” scenario yielded a level of recall similar to that of the ancestral survival condition. We also collected ratings of death-related thoughts (Studies 3 and 4) and of survival-related and planning thoughts (Study 4). The ratings indicated that death-related thoughts were induced more by the dying scenarios than by the survival scenarios, whereas the reverse was observed for both survival-related and planning thoughts. The findings are discussed in the light of two contrasting views of the influence of mortality salience in the survival effect.     

Motivation,personal beliefs,and limited resources all contribute to self-control

What effects do motivation and beliefs have on self-control? We tested this question using a limited resource paradigm, which generally has found that people show poor self-control after prior exertions of self-control. Recent findings have suggested that motivation and even belief in unlimited willpower can render persons immune to ego depletion. We replicated those findings, but also showed they are limited to cases of mild depletion. When depletion is extensive, the effects of motivation and subjective belief vanished and in one case reversed. After performing only one self-control task, the typical pattern of self-regulation impairment was ameliorated among people who were encouraged to regard willpower as unlimited (Experiment 1) or motivated by task importance (Experiment 2). Those manipulations failed to improve performance among severely depleted persons who had done multiple self-control tasks. These findings integrate ideas of limited resources, motivation, and beliefs in understanding the nature of self-control over time.