Being modest makes you feel bad: Effects of the modesty norm and mortality salience on self‐esteem in a collectivistic culture

Terror management research shows that existential terror motivates people to live up to social norms. According to terror management theory (TMT), people can achieve a sense of self‐worth through compliance with social norms. However, this has not yet been empirically tested. Modesty has long been known as an important social norm in Eastern cultures, such as China, Japan, and Korea. The current research examined whether conforming to the modesty norm in response to reminders of death concerns increases self‐esteem for Chinese. In Study 1, following the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self‐effacement) led to decreased implicit self‐esteem, however, this was only the case if mortality was salient. In Study 2, violating the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self‐enhancement) increased implicit self‐esteem – however – again, this was only the case when mortality was salient. These findings indicate that self‐esteem cannot be maintained through compliance with the modesty norm. Implications of this research for understanding the interplay between self‐esteem and social norms in terror management processes are discussed.     

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.     

A time to tan: proximal and distal effects of mortality salience on sun exposure intentions

According to the dual defense model of terror management, proximal defenses are engaged to reduce the conscious impact of mortality salience, whereas thoughts of death outside of conscious awareness motivate distal defenses aimed at maintaining self-esteem. Two experiments examined these ideas by assessing women's intentions to engage in tanning-related behavior. In Study 1, when concerns about death (relative to dental pain) were in focal attention, participants increased intentions to protect themselves from dangerous sun exposure. In contrast, when thoughts about death were outside of focal attention, participants decreased interest in sun protection. In Study 2, participants primed to associate tanned skin with an attractive appearance responded to mortality concerns outside of focal attention with increased interest in tanning products and services. These findings are discussed in relation to the dual-defense model of terror management, societal determinants of self-esteem, and implications for health risk and promotion.     

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.     

Cultural influences on terror management: Independent and interdependent self-esteem as anxiety buffers

Terror management theory (TMT) proposes that self-esteem serves as a defense against the fear of death. Previous research has suggested that independent self-esteem is more salient in individualist cultures, whereas interdependent self-esteem is more salient in collectivist cultures. Thus, we hypothesized that in collectivist cultures, independent self-esteem would play a lesser role and interdependent self-esteem a greater role in terror management, compared to individualist cultures. The results support this prediction. In Study 1, personal self-esteem was negatively associated with death anxiety in samples from a Western (Austria) and Eastern (China) culture. However, both self-liking and self-competence were negatively associated with death anxiety among Austrian participants, but only self-liking (and not self-competence) was so among Chinese participants. Surprisingly, collective self-esteem was not significantly correlated with death anxiety. Yet, Study 2 showed that among Chinese participants, relational self-esteem was negatively associated with death anxiety. Study 3 examined the roles of relational versus personal self-esteem in moderating the effects of mortality salience on worldview defense. Among Chinese participants, relational rather than personal self-esteem increased the defense of worldviews centered on collectivist-Chinese values following mortality salience (Study 3a). In contrast, among Austrian participants, personal rather than relational self-esteem attenuated the effect of mortality salience on the defense of individualist-Austrian worldviews (Study 3b). Self-esteem serves a terror management function in both collectivist and individualist cultures; however, the differences between cultural worldviews determine the type of self-esteem that is more relevant to terror management processes.     

The protective identity: Evidence that mortality salience heightens the clarity and coherence of the self-concept

Research guided by terror management theory has shown that self-esteem provides a buffer against mortality concerns. The current research extends the theory to examine whether clarity and coherence in the structure of the self-concept serve a terror management function independent of enhancing self-esteem. Specifically, five studies tested whether mortality salience (MS) heightens diverse tendencies to clarify and integrate self-relevant knowledge, especially in individuals predisposed to seek structured knowledge. MS led high, but not low, structure-seeking participants to prefer coherent (Study 1) clearly-defined (Study 2), and simply organized (Study 3) conceptions of their personal characteristics. Also, MS led high structure-seeking participants to prefer causal coherence in recent experience (Study 4) and meaningful connections between past events and their current self (Study 5). Supporting the specificity of these effects on self-concept structuring, MS increased self-enhancement in Studies 1, 4, and 5 but these effects were not moderated by preference for structured knowledge.     

Mortality salience effects on reckless driving intentions in a motorcyclist sample: The moderating role of group riding

Campaigns against reckless driving often mention the risk of dying. Research on terror management theory indicates that death claims may backfire and foster reckless driving. Here, we studied such mortality salience effects in a motorcyclist sample. Two moderating variables, particularly interesting regarding the sample of motorcyclists, were considered: group riding (vs. riding alone) and driving‐related self‐esteem. Motorcyclists were exposed to a campaign, either highlighting mortality or not. Orthogonally, cyclists were primed with riding in a group (vs. riding alone). Driving‐related self‐esteem was assessed via a questionnaire. We predicted that reminders of riding in a group would buffer against ironic mortality effects. Supporting this hypothesis, mortality salience effects interacted with the group prime. The results indicate that death appeals are likely to backfire with cyclists riding alone rather than cyclists riding in a group, especially if motorcycling is relevant to the self.     

Self‐transcendence as a psychological parenthood motive: When mortality salience increases the desire for non‐biological children

Reminders of existential threat increase people's desire for offspring. In line with terror management theory, we explain these effects by the motivation to transcend the self via offspring that complements biological accounts of reproduction motivation under threat. Accordingly, Study 1 shows that mortality salience increases self‐transcendence motivation but not other parenthood motivations. Furthermore, mortality salience increased willingness to adopt children (Study 2) or a 14‐year‐old child (Study 3) only for those participants who were told that the personality of children is the product of nurture (and thus determined by their parent's self). In addition, mortality salience increased general willingness to adopt, irrespective of whether nurture or genetic influence was made salient in Study 3, where participants imagined being unable to have biological offspring. We discuss how these findings contribute to explaining increased reproduction intentions under existential threat and processes of terror management.     

The body as a source of self-esteem: the effect of mortality salience on identification with one's body, interest in sex, and appearance monitoring

The present research investigated the role of the physical body as a source of self-esteem and tested the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that reminding people of their mortality increases self-esteem striving in the form of identification with one's body, interest in sex, and appearance monitoring. The results revealed that individuals high in body esteem responded to mortality salience manipulations with increased identification with their physical bodies in Study 1 and with increased interest in sex in Study 2. Study 3 showed that reminders of death led to decreased appearance monitoring among appearance-oriented participants who were low in body esteem. These findings provide insight into why people often go to extreme lengths to meet cultural standards for the body and its appearance.     

Improving the efficacy of appearance-based sun exposure interventions with the terror management health model

The terror management health model (TMHM) suggests that when thoughts of death are accessible people become increasingly motivated to bolster their self-esteem relative to their health, because doing so offers psychological protection against mortality concerns. Two studies examined sun protection intentions as a function of mortality reminders and an appearance-based intervention. In Study 1, participants given a sun protection message that primed mortality and shown a UV-filtered photo of their face reported greater intentions to use sun protection on their face, and took more sunscreen samples than participants shown a regular photo of their face. In Study 2, reminders of mortality increased participants’ intentions to use facial sun protection when the UV photo was specifically framed as revealing appearance consequences of tanning, compared to when the photo was framed as revealing health consequences or when no photo was shown. These findings extend the TMHM, and provide preliminary evidence that appearance-based tanning interventions have a greater influence on sun protection intentions under conditions that prime thoughts of death. We discuss implications of the findings, and highlight the need for additional research examining the applicability to long-term tanning behaviour.     

Self‐esteem as a monitor of fundamental psychological need satisfaction

Researchers have long theorized about the function of self‐esteem. Theories such as sociometer, terror management, and self‐determination have each received substantial empirical support, but all purport a different function of self‐esteem. Despite each theory's persuasiveness, they are sometimes at odds, and there remains no clear consensus regarding the function of self‐esteem. In the present paper, we propose the notion that self‐esteem monitors the meeting of multiple fundamental psychological needs, a theory we call the Need‐Satisfaction Framework of self‐esteem. We outline existing empirical support for our theory in the context of three well‐documented fundamental needs: belonging, self‐determination (i.e.,autonomy and competence), and meaning. Across all three needs, we review converging evidence supporting two hypotheses for self‐esteem's need‐monitoring function: (1) threats to needs lower self‐esteem and (2) high self‐esteem buffers defensive responses to need threats. We expand on established theoretical and empirical work in the domain of self‐esteem and also discuss testable future hypotheses.     

Feeling left out? The mediating role of perceived rejection on workgroup mistreatment and affective,behavioral, and organizational outcomes and the moderating role of organizational norms

This two‐study paper examines the detrimental impact of workgroup mistreatment and the mediating role of perceived rejection. In Study 1, perceived rejection emerged as a mediator between workgroup mistreatment and depression, organization‐based self‐esteem, organizational deviance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. In Study 2, the role of organizational norms was examined. Employees who experienced supportive organizational norms reported lower levels of perceived rejection, depression and turnover intentions, and higher levels of organization‐based self‐esteem and job satisfaction. Employees in the supportive norms condition reported that they were more likely to seek reconciliation after experiencing mistreatment than those who experienced low support. Perceived rejection also emerged as a mediator. Results, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed.     

Is paranoia a defence against or an expression of low self‐esteem?

Paranoia has been hypothesized to be negatively correlated with self‐esteem. However, hypotheses differ about how low self‐esteem might produce paranoia. The paranoia as defense model views paranoia as a defensive reaction against low self‐esteem. In contrast, the paranoia as expression model views paranoia in part as a reflection of low self‐esteem. In the current study, paranoia was negatively associated with global explicit self‐esteem, self‐competence, self‐liking and self‐serving attributional style, but unassociated with implicit self‐esteem as measured with the Implicit Association Test. In contrast, facets of narcissism, which also have been hypothesized to be associated with defensive self‐processing, were associated with defensiveness. Overall, these results suggest that paranoia is better represented by the expression model. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effectively using death in health messages: Social loss versus physical mortality salience

Research based on the terror management health model demonstrates that highlighting death as a consequence of risky behavior can lead to unintended responses to health communications. In two studies, we investigate whether a form of social loss message frame can motivate someone to change his or her behavior to prevent negative health consequences. In Study 1, we compare social loss and physical mortality print messages in the context of “texting while driving.” Overall, social loss as opposed to physical mortality messages facilitate greater intent to reduce risky health behaviors when death‐related cognitions have been removed from conscious awareness. In Study 2, we manipulate message framing and self‐affirmation in the context of “smoking.” We find that highlighting family members' inability to cope when one dies can result in health messages that facilitate the acknowledgment of the health risk and reduce risky health behaviors. This effect is enhanced when individuals affirm on the importance of “relationships with family and friends” prior to viewing health messages. The implications for the terror management health model are discussed noting that death can be effectively used in health communication when framed as relationship protection rather than one's physical mortality.     

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.     

The role of mortality awareness in hero identification

Three studies examine hypotheses derived from terror management theory to investigate the relationship between mortality concerns and hero identification. Study 1 found reminders of death, followed by a distraction task and a self-prime, led to greater inclusion of heroes in the self. Study 2 found that writing about a personal hero, but not other’s heroes or acquaintances, led to lower death-thought accessibility after being reminded of mortality. Finally, Study 3 found that after death reminders, participants led to identify with a hero exemplifying traits of legacy and/or sacrifice showed lower death thought accessibility. Findings are discussed as generative for heroism research, informing a previously overlooked motivation underlying hero identification and the existential function of such identification.     

Reflections of the self: how self‐esteem determines decision framing and increases risk taking

Historically, research examining the influence of individual personality factors on decision processing has been sparse. In this paper we investigate how one important individual aspect, self‐esteem, influences imposition and subsequent processing of ambiguously, negatively or positively framed decision tasks. We hypothesized that low self‐esteem individuals would impose a negative frame onto ambiguous decision problems and would be especially sensitive to negatively framed decision tasks. In Study 1 we utilized a self‐framing procedure and demonstrated that HSE participants were evenly divided in the hedonic valence they self‐imposed whereas LSE participants were more likely to self‐impose a negative frame. When these differences were accounted for, HSE and LSE participants were equivalent in risk seeking/avoiding choices. Study 2 used a risky‐choice framing task and found that LSE individuals were especially sensitive to the negative frame. Study 3, provided converging evidence and generalization of these findings to a reflection tasks involving money. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sweets,Sex, or Self‐Esteem? Comparing the Value of Self‐Esteem Boosts With Other Pleasant Rewards

Abstract Many people ascribe great value to self‐esteem, but how much value? Do people value self‐esteem more than other pleasant activities, such as eating sweets and having sex? Two studies of college students ( Study 1 : N=130; Study 2 : N=152) showed that people valued boosts to their self‐esteem more than they valued eating a favorite food and engaging in a favorite sexual activity. Study 2 also showed that people valued self‐esteem more than they valued drinking alcohol, receiving a paycheck, and seeing a best friend. Both studies found that people who highly valued self‐esteem engaged in laboratory tasks to boost their self‐esteem. Finally, personality variables interacted with these value ratings. Entitled people thought they were more deserving of all pleasant rewards, even though they did not like them all that much (both studies), and people who highly value self‐esteem pursued potentially maladaptive self‐image goals, presumably to elevate their self‐esteem ( Study 2 ).     

The role of control motivation in mortality salience effects on ingroup support and defense

Terror management research has shown that mortality salience (MS) leads to increased support and defense of cultural ingroups and their norms (i.e., worldview defense, WD). The authors investigated whether these effects can be understood as efforts to restore a generalized sense of control by strengthening one's social ingroup. In Studies 1-3, the authors found that WD was only increased following pure death salience, compared with both dental pain salience and salience of self-determined death. As both the pure death and the self-determined death conditions increased accessibility of death-related thoughts (Study 4), these results do not emerge because only the pure death induction makes death salient. At the same time, Study 5 showed that implicitly measured control motivation was increased in the pure death salience condition but not under salience of both self-determined death and dental pain. Finally, in Study 6, the authors manipulated MS and control salience (CS) independently and found a main effect for CS but not for MS on WD. The results are discussed with regard to a group-based control restoration account of terror management findings.     

Perceived responses to capitalization attempts are influenced by self‐esteem and relationship threat

Discussing good news builds strength in relationships. In particular, perceiving a close other as enthusiastic about good fortune can help individuals maintain relational strength when relationship security is threatened. In an experiment and a daily diary study, how self‐esteem moderates perceptions of a partner's response to these capitalization attempts following relationship threats were examined. After having been primed with relationship threat (Study 1) or on days following relationship conflict (Study 2), low‐self‐esteem persons perceived less partner enthusiasm about their good news, but high‐self‐esteem persons perceived more partner enthusiasm. Self‐esteem had no effect after a neutral prime or no‐conflict days. These results indicate that capitalization as a strategy for repairing relationships may depend on the partners' self‐esteem.