Perceived Consensus, Uniqueness, and Terror Management: Compensatory Responses to Threats to Inclusion and Distinctiveness Following Mortality Salience

1997 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 1055-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Simon ◽  
Jeff Greenberg ◽  
Jamie Arndt ◽  
Tom Pyszczynski ◽  
Russell Clement ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Compensatory Responses

When Death Is Compelling

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 352-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Schindler ◽  
Marc-André Reinhard
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Hypothetical Scenario ◽  
The Face ◽  
Scenario Study ◽  
Norm Of Reciprocity

Abstract. Research on terror management theory has found evidence that people under mortality salience strive to live up to activated social norms and values. Recently, research has shown that mortality salience also increases adherence to the norm of reciprocity. Based on this, in the current paper we investigated the idea that mortality salience influences persuasion strategies that are based on the norm of reciprocity. We therefore assume that mortality salience should enhance compliance for a request when using the door-in-the-face technique – a persuasion strategy grounded in the norm of reciprocity. In a hypothetical scenario (Study 1), and in a field experiment (Study 2), applying the door-in-the-face technique enhanced compliance in the mortality salience condition compared to a control group.

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.

Collective in exile: Utilizing terror management theory to understand women’s wailing performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tova Gamliel
Keyword(s):  
Death Anxiety ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Community Context ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Adaptive Value ◽  
Traditional Performance

Although women’s wailing at death rites in various cultures typically amplifies mortality salience, this ritual phenomenon is absent in the research literature on terror management theory (TMT). This study explored Yemenite-Jewish wailing in Israel as an example of how a traditional performance manages death anxiety in a community context. Observations of wailing events and interviews with Yemenite-Jewish wailers and mourners in Israel were analyzed to understand respondents’ perceptions of the experience of wailing as well as the anxiety-oriented psychotherapeutic expertise involved. The findings are discussed to propose an alternative outlook on the intersubjective adaptive value of death anxiety. After describing TMT’s view on the role of culture in coping with death anxiety, I consider the extent to which Yemenite-Jewish wailing is consistent with the premises of TMT.

scholarly journals Mindfulness of Death as a Tool for Mortality Salience Induction with Reference to Terror Management Theory

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 353
Author(s):  
Hyun Gong Moon
Keyword(s):  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Mindfulness Of Death

In this article, I argue that “mindfulness of death” (maraṇasati) can be a tool to induce mortality salience and can have a positive psychological impact. The mindfulness of death is described in detail in the early Buddhist texts Aṅguttara Nikāya and Visuddhimagga. The texts stress that death should be consciously connected with temporality and mindfulness. Here, I look at the mindfulness of death in relation to the mortality salience of terror management theory. “Mortality salience” is a term proposed in terror management theory that means “the state of conscious activation of the thoughts of death”. In addition, after conscious activation of the thought of death, I examine the psychological changes, such as the increase of pro-social attitudes which emphasizes ethics and morality, and the emphasis on the intrinsic value of life due to the operation of a cultural worldview and self-esteem. In this paper, I conclude that mindfulness of death can be an effective tool to induce mortality salience.

Mitigating death anxiety: Identifying music’s role in terror management

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Audrey Berger Cardany
Keyword(s):  
Death Anxiety ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Music Preferences ◽  
Review Analysis ◽  
Ernest Becker ◽  
Denial Of Death ◽  
Social Anthropologist

Based on the ideas of social-anthropologist Ernest Becker, Terror Management Theory (TMT) explains human behavior as being motivated by conscious and unconscious mortality salience. This article examines the role of music in the denial of death and catalogues related literature in the music and social psychology fields. Categories include: TMT and art, music used as control condition in TMT research, and songs and TMT. A brief description of Becker’s theory and TMT and a discussion of the functions of music in culture precede the literature review. Analysis of the literature suggests that (a) music provides a safe window frame through which to examine death, (b) music created for community purposes may buffer death anxiety more readily than that created for individual purposes, and (c) songs prompt mortality salience and simultaneously buffer death anxiety depending on individual music preferences, cultural worldviews, and perceptions of famous others. The review further identifies limitations in TMT studies regarding music and terror management and highlights the need for additional empirical research to untangle the complexity of music’s role in mitigating death anxiety growing out of mortality salience.

Mild Depression, Mortality Salience and Defense of the Worldview Evidence of Intensified Terror Management in the Mildly Depressed

1996 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Simon ◽  
Jeff Greenberg ◽  
Eddie Harmon Jones ◽  
Sheldon Solomon ◽  
Tom Pyszczynsid
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Mild Depression

Mortality Salience Increases Personal Relevance of the Norm of Reciprocity

2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 565-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Schindler ◽  
Marc-André Reinhard ◽  
Dagmar Stahlberg
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Personal Relevance ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Negative Reciprocity ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Positive Reciprocity ◽  
Norm Of Reciprocity

Research on terror management theory found evidence that people under mortality salience strive to live up to salient cultural norms and values, like egalitarianism, pacifism, or helpfulness. A basic, strongly internalized norm in most human societies is the norm of reciprocity: people should support those who supported them (i.e., positive reciprocity), and people should injure those who injured them (i.e., negative reciprocity), respectively. In an experiment ( N = 98; 47 women, 51 men), mortality salience overall significantly increased personal relevance of the norm of reciprocity ( M = 4.45, SD = 0.65) compared to a control condition ( M = 4.19, SD = 0.59). Specifically, under mortality salience there was higher motivation to punish those who treated them unfavourably (negative norm of reciprocity). Unexpectedly, relevance of the norm of positive reciprocity remained unaffected by mortality salience. Implications and limitations are discussed.

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