Mortality salience,self‐esteem,and defense of the group: mediating role of in‐group identification

Numerous studies have shown that mortality salience strengthens defense of cultural institutions and that this effect is buffered by self‐esteem. The present study examines a novel prediction, based on social identity processes, that group identification mediates the impact of the interaction of mortality salience and self‐esteem on worldview defense. Self‐esteem and mortality salience were manipulated using Greenberg and colleagues' standard methods, the dependent measure was defense of America, and the mediating variable was identification with America. As predicted, mortality salience only increased identification with America and defense of America when self‐esteem was not enhanced, enhancing self‐esteem attenuated the effects of mortality salience. Also following predictions, the interactive effect of mortality salience and self‐esteem on defense of America was mediated by identification with America.     

Existential motive underlying cosmetic surgery: A terror management analysis

Why do people consider cosmetic surgery? Based on the terror management theory, the present research identifies an existential motive: Through cosmetic surgery, people can symbolically defend against their death anxiety. A correlational study and an experiment showed that death terror, whether operationalized as individual differences in fear of death or experimentally manipulated mortality salience, was associated with stronger acceptance of cosmetic surgery. This association was absent among participants who did not consider physical appearance important, and weaker among those who were satisfied about their appearance. Also, this association was particularly strong among those with high explicit self‐esteem. This concurs with the recent theoretical development about the role of self‐esteem in symbolic defenses against death terror.     

Scared to death or scared to love? Terror management theory and close relationships seeking

To cope with paralyzing terror awakened by thoughts of their own death people usually use two defense mechanisms: cultural worldview and self‐esteem. Recent studies suggest that also close relationships may function as a death anxiety buffer. The present research explores this phenomenon in an experimental paradigm. One hundred sixteen undergraduates completed a self‐esteem scale, attachment scale, and a scale tapping ideal mate characteristics. After experimental manipulation each participant talked shortly with six unknown students of the opposite sex and rated their attractiveness. The results showed no effect of self‐esteem either in the experimental or control condition. As for the attachment styles, we obtained significant interaction of avoidance and condition (non‐avoidant participants were more favorable under mortality salience), and simple effect of anxiety (anxious participants increased the assessments regardless of the condition). Both effects were short‐term and affected only the assessments of the first date. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When death is not a problem: Regulating implicit negative affect under mortality salience

Terror management theory assumes that death arouses existential anxiety in humans which is suppressed in focal attention. Whereas most studies provide indirect evidence for negative affect under mortality salience by showing cultural worldview defenses and self‐esteem strivings, there is only little direct evidence for implicit negative affect under mortality salience. In the present study, we assume that this implicit affective reaction towards death depends on people's ability to self‐regulate negative affect as assessed by the personality dimension of action versus state orientation. Consistent with our expectations, action‐oriented participants judged artificial words to express less negative affect under mortality salience compared to control conditions whereas state‐oriented participants showed the reversed pattern.     

Nothing or the opposite: intersecting terror management and objective self‐awareness

The human capacity for self‐awareness allows people to envision their eventual death and thus creates the potential for debilitating anxiety. Terror management research has shown that self‐awareness exacerbates the experience of mortality salience. I suggest that self‐awareness alone can induce mortality salience through dialectical thinking. If constructs include a concept and its opposite, then focusing on one aspect should also increase awareness of the opposite. Focusing on the existing object self should thus lead to the recognition of the non‐existent self that is implied. In study 1, participants experienced one of two self‐awareness manipulations (exposure to a mirror, perceiving the self as distinctive) or no manipulation; mortality salience was measured using a death‐relevant word completion task. Both self‐awareness conditions reported significantly higher mortality salience than the control condition. In study 2, participants exposed to their reflection reported increased death salience and life salience (as measured by death‐ and life‐relevant word completion tasks) than a control group, which directly suggests that self‐awareness leads people to dialectically consider opposing facets of the self. Terror management and objective self‐awareness theories might thus be more intimately tied than was previously thought. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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

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.     

Terror management in Japan

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.     

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

• 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.     

Death Can Be Good for Your Health: Fitness Intentions as a Proximal and Distal Defense Against Mortality Salience1

Although terror management theory has stimulated a wide body of research, no research to date has demonstrated empirically that intentions to engage in health‐oriented behavior can function as a terror management defense. Toward this end, the present studies examined whether increased fitness intentions could be used as both a direct defense against conscious concerns with death, but also as an indirect defense against unconscious death concerns among individuals for whom fitness is important to their self‐esteem. In Study 1, both high and low fitness esteem participants responded to reminders of mortality with immediate exaggerated fitness intentions, relative to controls. Study 2 replicated this effect, but also found that a similar increase in fitness intentions only emerged following a delay when fitness was important to the individuals’ self‐esteem. Discussion focuses on the implications for different types of psychological defense on heath‐related behavior.     

The Postself and Terror Management Theory: Reflecting on After Death Identity Buffers Existential Threat

In contemporary secular societies, ideas of an afterlife have become quite diverse, ranging from secular to religious and spiritual conceptions. In this article, an experimental study is reported in which the postself, a person's imagination of an after-death reputation, is tested as a protective buffer against mortality salience effects within a largely secular sample of participants. Before inducing mortality salience, the postself was affirmed or not affirmed. Results show that this reflection on personal continuity after death eliminates the effects of mortality salience on the accessibility of death-related thoughts. The discussion focuses on how the postself (the self will succeed death) relates to the more general concept of symbolic immortality (the self is part of a cultural worldview that will succeed death). Moreover, the relation between the postself and religiosity is discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Perceived group and personal discrimination: differential effects on personal self‐esteem

In two studies, we investigate the differential influence of perceived group and personal discrimination on self‐esteem in the context of the Rejection–Identification model (Branscombe, Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999 ). We first polled a group of African immigrants and found that whereas personal discrimination was negatively related to personal self‐esteem, group discrimination was positively associated with it. As expected, identification served as a buffer between personal discrimination and self‐esteem. We replicated these effects in a second study using women as our respondents. These results suggest that perceiving group discrimination may be positively related to self‐esteem because people feel less alone in their plight, thereby alleviating the ill‐effects of exclusion. We discuss these results in relation to both the Rejection–Identification model and the discounting hypothesis (Crocker & Major, 1989 ). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ceci n'est pas la mort: Evidence for the recruitment of self‐reference from surrealistic art under mortality salience

Previous research has demonstrated that death reminders influence how we perceive art. In the context of terror management theory, this has been explained by the death‐transcending quality of art to convey cultural meaning. In two studies, we examined psychological and neurocognitive responses to naturalistic and surrealistic art when death was primed. We found that naturalistic paintings were evaluated similarly in terms of personal reassurance in both mortality salience and control condition, whereas surrealistic paintings were evaluated as more reassuring in the mortality salience condition than in the control condition. Using high‐field functional magnetic resonance imaging in a second study, we found a similar pattern of results, showing specific activation in the precuneus, a brain area associated with self‐related operations, in all prime conditions for the viewing of naturalistic paintings, but only in the death and disgust prime conditions when viewing surrealistic paintings. Our results suggest motivated self‐reference when viewing both naturalistic and surrealistic artworks under mortality salience. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mortality salience and religion: divergent effects on the defense of cultural worldviews for the religious and the non‐religious

Religious and non‐religious individuals differ in their core beliefs. The religious endorse a supernatural, divinely inspired view of the world, while the non‐religious hold largely secular worldviews. As a result they may respond differently to existential threats. Three studies confirmed this prediction. After a mortality salience (MS) or control prime, Canadian participants read, and responded to, an essay hostile to Western civilization, allegedly written by a radical Muslim student. Results indicated that the non‐religious reliably showed the conventional cultural worldview defense by devaluating the content of the message and decreasing support for the civil rights of anti‐Western individuals when death was salient. No such effect was found for the religious. Religious and non‐religious participants did not differ in self‐esteem levels or in death‐thought accessibility. These results suggest that a religious stance among believers plays a defensive role against the awareness of death. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐Esteem and Justice Orientation as Moderators for the Effects of Individual‐Targeted and Group‐Targeted Justice

Drawing on the self‐interest and moral virtues perspectives of justice, we examine how self‐esteem and justice orientation as individual difference factors moderate the effects of individual‐targeted and group‐targeted justice on helping behaviors and intention to leave. A scenario‐based study was conducted using a total sample of 624 Japanese undergraduate students. The results highlighted the difference between the moderating roles of self‐esteem and justice orientation. Self‐esteem moderated the effect of individual‐targeted procedural justice on intention to leave such that the effect was stronger when self‐esteem was high. In contrast, justice orientation mainly moderated the effects of group‐targeted procedural and distributive justice on helping behaviors such that the effects were weaker when justice orientation was high. Implications of our findings and future research directions are discussed.     

Self‐esteem discrepancies and identity‐expressive consumption: Evidence from Norwegian adolescents

Prior research established that simultaneously holding discrepant explicit (deliberate, controlled) and implicit (automatic, uncontrolled) self‐esteem gives rise to self‐enhancing behaviours. Given that individuals tend to enhance their self‐concepts with brands that are associated with positive identities, this study examined whether self‐esteem discrepancy was related to the extent to which individuals developed connections with brands that are associated with their in‐groups. Findings from an adolescent sample (ages 16–18) indicated that adolescents with larger discrepancies between explicit and implicit self‐esteem were more likely to construct their self‐concepts using in‐group‐linked brands.     

死亡启动影响自我参照记忆的年龄差异

以往研究表明对死亡不可避免性的认识使人类产生死亡焦虑,并且为了降低该焦虑,年轻人倾向于抑制生理自我加工;然而相比年轻人,老年人对死亡的接受程度更高,并且自我抑制能力减弱。因此本研究采用死亡启动范式,探讨了死亡对自我相关记忆的影响以及可能存在的年龄差异。实验一以大学生为被试,结果发现死亡启动后,个体对自我相关信息的再认率显著低于消极启动后;实验二以老年人为被试,结果发现死亡启动后,个体对自我相关信息的再认率与消极启动后无差异。上述结果说明,死亡启动对自我相关记忆的影响存在年龄差异。在大学生中,死亡启动使个体抑制自我相关信息,而在老年人中该抑制效应并不存在。     

Self‐Protective Altruism

Prosocial behavior accentuates the tension between two conflicting human motivations, self‐interest and belongingness. Responding to the needs of others may compromise self‐interest. Acting callously, however, may lead to social disproval. These antagonistic responses are existentially meaningful as belongingness and self‐esteem have been found to regulate death anxiety. In this paper I critically examine three possible hypotheses concerning the tension between egotism and prosociality from a terror management perspective. The first hypothesis, the carpe diem hypothesis, suggests that when death is salient egotistic self‐interest overrides other‐oriented responses. The second hypothesis, the norm salience hypothesis, suggests that when death is salient people will respond according to the momentarily accessible social norm. The third hypothesis, the self‐protective altruism hypothesis, argues that when the prosocial cause reminds people of their fragile, mortal nature people will turn away from helping when death is salient, but when the prosocial cause is benign death salience will increase prosocial responding.     

Hispanics' Self‐Esteem,Acculturation, and Skepticism of Women's Work1

This study investigated the relationships among Hispanics' self‐esteem, acculturation, and skepticism of women's employment. Using a sample of Hispanic students, mediated regression analysis was initiated to determine whether acculturation mediated a proposed negative relationship between self‐esteem and traditional gender attitudes. The results indicated that self‐esteem and acculturation were positively related; self‐esteem and employment skepticism were negatively related; and self‐esteem was unrelated to employment skepticism in the presence of acculturation, which supported full mediation. Organizations should consider using a combination of diversity training, employee assistance programs, career counseling, and job‐enrichment policies to facilitate Hispanics' self‐esteem and acculturation, and these efforts might lead ultimately to greater acceptance of women's employment.     

Self‐esteem,stigma and community participation amongst people with learning difficulties living in the community

A cross‐sectional study examined the relationship between self‐esteem, community participation, age, perceived stigma and social support amongst a sample of 50 people with mild to moderate learning difficulties attending two day centres. Respondent‐paced, structured interviews following ethical and assessment guidelines were used to gather data. Retest interviews were conducted with 20% of the sample 3 months subsequently and only those measures with good test–retest reliability were used to test hypotheses. The results showed fairly high levels of community participation and self‐esteem. Self‐esteem was negatively correlated with stigma and a sub‐group with high concerns regarding meeting strangers was identified. In accordance with studies of non‐disabled samples, self‐esteem was positively associated with age. Social support was comparable to, or higher than, that observed in non‐disabled samples. High social support was observed for staff going out with respondents and for practical help from liked persons and friends. Community participation appeared to be related to higher self‐esteem in older participants but lower self‐esteem in younger participants. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

counselors' collective self‐esteem mediates job dissatisfaction and client relationships

Given the central role of professional identity (i.e., collective self‐esteem in this study), the authors examined whether collective self‐esteem mediated or moderated relations between job dissatisfaction and client relationships in a sample of 132 professional counselors in the United States. Results indicated that collective self‐esteem partially mediated the relationship between job dissatisfaction and client relationships. Furthermore, job dissatisfaction was negatively related to greater levels of private collective self‐esteem, and greater private collective self‐esteem was positively related to better client relationships.