Clarifying the Function of Mortality Salience-Induced Worldview Defense: Renewed Suppression or Reduced Accessibility of Death-Related Thoughts?

2001 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Greenberg ◽  
Jamie Arndt ◽  
Jeff Schimel ◽  
Tom Pyszczynski ◽  
Sheldon Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Worldview Defense

Physical Warmth Attenuates Ethnocentric Bias under Mortality Salience: An Embodied Terror Management Perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armand Chatard ◽  
Margaux Renoux ◽  
Jean Monéger ◽  
Leila Selimbegovic
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Defensive Reaction ◽  
Worldview Defense ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Physical Warmth ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
First Time

Research indicates that individuals often deal with mortality salience by affirming beliefs in national or cultural superiority (worldview defense). Because worldview defense may be associated with negative consequences (discrimination), it is important to identify alternative means to deal with death-related thoughts. In line with an embodied terror management perspective, we evaluate for the first time the role of physical warmth in reducing defensive reaction to mortality salience. We predicted that, like social affiliation (social warmth), physical warmth could reduce worldview defense when mortality is salient. In this exploratory (preregistered) study, 202 French participants were primed with death-related thoughts, or an aversive control topic, in a heated room or a non-heated room. The main outcome was worldview defense (ethnocentric bias). We found no main effect of mortality salience on worldview defense. However, physical warmth reduced worldview defense when mortality was salient. Implications for an embodied terror management perspective are discussed.

scholarly journals The Possibility of Self-Determined Death Eliminates Mortality Salience Effects on Cultural Worldview Defense: Cross-Cultural Replications

Psychology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 07 (07) ◽  
pp. 1004-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongfei Du ◽  
Immo Fritsche ◽  
Zenobia Talati ◽  
Emanuele Castano ◽  
Eva Jonas
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Worldview Defense ◽  
Cultural Worldview

scholarly journals Death, ideology, and worldview: Evidence of death anxiety but not mortality salience effects on political ideology and worldview

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artur Nilsson ◽  
Samantha Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Death Anxiety ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Worldview Defense ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Core Components

Research has suggested that the sense of threat aroused by reminders of death can lead to worldview defense and elevated conservatism. The current studies disentangled the effects of mortality salience and death anxiety on two core components of conservatism—resistance to change and acceptance of inequality—and on the broader worldviews of normativism and humanism. Study 1 (N = 186), which used a mortality salience manipulation, and Study 2 (N = 354), which measured self-reported death anxiety, suggested that existential threat was associated particularly with resistance to change and normativism, consistent with theoretical expectations, in samples of Swedish adults. The results indicated that conservative shift had occurred predominantly among left-wingers. However, Study 3, which was a pre-registered online replication of Study 1 with respondents from the United Kingdom, yielded no evidence for any effects of mortality salience on ideology (N = 319) or worldview (N = 199). An internal pre-registered meta-analysis of mortality salience effects indicated that mortality salience had a marginally significant effect only on normativism. Taken together, the results provided little clear evidence of mortality salience effects on ideological preferences and worldviews, but dispositional death anxiety was associated with resistance to change, normativism, and acceptance of inequality particularly among leftists.

Natural, But Not Supernatural, Literal Immortality Affirmation Attenuates Mortality Salience Effects on Worldview Defense in Atheists

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 312-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth E. Vail ◽  
Melissa Soenke ◽  
Brett Waggoner ◽  
Ilianna Mavropoulou
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
Worldview Defense ◽  
Death Awareness

The present research explored whether atheists managing death awareness would be effectively buffered by affirmations of supernatural and/or natural literal immortality. Prior data were reanalyzed, revealing ambiguous results, so further experiments were conducted. In Study 1 ( n = 382), atheists were randomly assigned to a supernatural afterlife-confirmed (vs. afterlife-disconfirmed) prime, an MS (vs. control topic) prime, and then given an opportunity to engage in secular worldview defense. In Study 2 ( n = 360), atheists were randomly assigned to supernatural (afterlife) versus natural (medical indefinite life extension; MILE) immortality prime, an MS (vs. control topic) prime, and then given an opportunity to engage in secular worldview defense. Atheists managing death awareness increased worldview defense in the supernatural/afterlife conditions but that effect was eliminated in the MILE condition. These findings are consistent with the terror management theory perspective on worldview defense. Implications for theory and research are discussed.

scholarly journals Defending one’s worldviews under mortality salience – Testing the validity of an established idea

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Schindler ◽  
Nina Reinhardt ◽  
Marc-André Reinhard
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Dependent Measure ◽  
Bayesian Analyses ◽  
Worldview Defense ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Negative Perceptions

Terror management theory (TMT) posits that mortality salience (MS) leads to more negative perceptions of persons who oppose one’s worldview and to more positive perceptions of persons who confirm one’s worldview. Recent failed replications of classic findings have thrown into question empirical validity for this established idea. We believe, that there are crucial methodological and theoretical aspects that have been neglected in these studies which limit their explanatory power; thus, the studies of this registered report aimed to address these issues and to directly test the worldview defense hypothesis. First, we conducted two preregistered lab studies applying the classic worldview defense paradigm. The stimulus material (worldview-confirming and -opposing essays) was previously validated for students at a German university. In both studies, the MS manipulation (between-subjects) was followed by a distraction phase. Then, in Study 1 (N = 131), each participant read both essays (within-subjects). In Study 2 (N = 276), the essays were manipulated between-subjects. Credibility attribution towards the author was assessed as the dependent variable. In both studies, the expected interaction effects were not significant. In a third highly powered (registered) study (N = 1356), we used a previously validated worldview-opposing essay. The five classic worldview defense items served as the main dependent measure. The MS effect was not significant. Bayesian analyses favored the null hypothesis. An internal meta-analysis revealed a very small (Hedges’ g = .09) but nonsignificant (p = .058) effect of MS. Altogether, the presented studies reveal challenges in providing strong evidence for this established idea.

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