Greed, death, and values: from terror management to transcendence management theory.

Abstract

Research supporting terror management theory has shown that participants facing their death (via mortality salience) exhibit more greed than do control participants. The present research attempts to distinguish mortality salience from other forms of mortality awareness. Specifically, the authors look to reports of near-death experiences and posttraumatic growth which reveal that many people who nearly die come to view seeking wealth and possession as empty and meaningless. Guided by these reports, a manipulation called death reflection was generated. In Study 1, highly extrinsic participants who experienced death reflection exhibited intrinsic behavior. In Study 2, the manipulation was validated, and in Study 3, death reflection and mortality salience manipulations were compared. Results showed that mortality salience led highly extrinsic participants to manifest greed, whereas death reflection again generated intrinsic, unselfish behavior. The construct of value orientation is discussed along with the contrast between death reflection manipulation and mortality salience.

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10.1177/0146167203260716 PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETINCozzolino et al. / GREED, DEATH, AND VALUES
ARTICLE
Greed, Death, and Values:
From Terror Management to Transcendence
Management Theory
Philip J. Cozzolino
University of Minnesota
Angela Dawn Staples
Lawrence S. Meyers
Jamie Samboceti
California State University, Sacramento
Research supporting terror management theory has shown that
participants facing their death (via mortality salience) exhibit
more greed than do control participants. The present research
attempts to distinguish mortality salience from other forms of
mortality awareness. Specifically, the authors look to reports of
near-death experiences and posttraumatic growth which reveal
thatmanypeoplewhonearlydiecometoviewseekingwealthand
possessions as empty and meaningless. Guided by these reports,
a manipulation called death reflection was generated. In
Study 1, highly extrinsic participants who experienced death
reflection exhibited intrinsic behavior. In Study 2, the manipu-
lationwasvalidated, and inStudy3,death reflection and mor-
tality salience manipulations were compared. Results showed
thatmortalitysalienceledhighlyextrinsicparticipantstomani-
fest greed, whereas death reflection again generated intrinsic,
unselfish behavior. The construct of value orientation is dis-
cussed alongwith the contrast between death reflection manipu-
lation and mortality salience.
Keywords: greed; death reflection; mortality salience
Despite generations of poets, philosophers, and reli-
giousleadersdecryingthe“deadlysin”ofgreed,muchof
humanityispresently engaged inaconsumer-based eco-
nomic system that is most successful when citizens want
and seek to have. Public revelations of greed on the part
of a few corporate executives have recently left indivi-
duals asking, “What is it that makes some people strive
for excessive gains while knowingly leaving less for oth-
ers?” In attempts to distinguish the psychological fac-
torsthatdrivegreed,recentresearchhasfocusedontwo
concepts: value orientation and reactions to death
awareness.
VALUE ORIENTATION
Early humanistic theorists such as Maslow (1954) and
Rogers (1963) first addressed the motives that fuel and
guide attempts to fulfill goals and needs. Maslow (1954)
suggested that human existence could only make sense
when individuals sought to achieve goals tied to their
inherent developmental promise. These goals include
personal growth, good health, a sense of autonomy, and
a desire to know oneself. Maslow went further, compar-
ing “healthy individuals” who seek inner freedom in
favor of external approval to “sick, neurotic people who
make the wrong choices” (p. 278). This humanistic per-
spective posits that when focusing on goals stemming
from external instead of internal forces (e.g.,pursuits of
wealth instead of desires for insight) people are likely to
falteralongthepathtoself-actualization.Expandingthis
278
Authors’ Note: Angela Dawn Staples is now at the Department of Psy-
chology, Indiana University, Bloomington. The authors thank Marti
Hope Gonzales for her comments on an early draft of this article and
Christopher M. Federico for statistical consultation. This article also
greatly benefited from helpful comments provided by two anonymous
reviewers.Aportionofthisarticlewaspresentedatthe2003meetingof
theWesternPsychologicalAssociationinVancouver,BritishColumbia,
Canada. Correspondence concerning this article should be ad-
dressedtoPhilipJ.Cozzolino,DepartmentofPsychology,Universityof
Minnesota, 75 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455; e-mail:
cozz0007@umn.edu.
PSPB, Vol. 30 No. 3, March 2004 278-292
DOI: 10.1177/0146167203260716
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thought, self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985,
1991) proposes that meeting the fundamental needs of
competence, autonomy, and relatedness can lead us to
achieve what is known as psychological integration.
Whenindividualssatisfynativeneedsandapproachinte-
gration, they experience greater levels of well-being and
motivation. When, however, these needs are not met,
people yield to external drives for wealth and posses-
sions (Deci & Ryan, 2000).
Kasser and Ryan (1993) found support for self-
determination theory when participants seeking self-
acceptanceandrelatednessexhibitedgreateradjustment
and social productivity and fewer behavioral disorders
than those aspiring for financial success. From these
results,KasserandRyandifferentiatedbetweenintrinsic
and extrinsic values. Individuals with an intrinsic value
orientation (IVO) characteristically desire self-knowledge,
intimacy, and connections in the community, whereas
people with an extrinsic value orientation (EVO) typi-
cally desire money, fame, and beauty (Kasser & Ryan,
1993, 1996). This values model asserts that the balance
between EVO and IVO is critical when predicting the
harmful social and physical effects previously men-
tioned. Striving for extrinsic goals becomes problematic
for people, the theory states, when their extrinsic values
outweigh their intrinsic values. Sheldon and McGregor
(2000) validated the assumptions underlying intrinsic
versus extrinsic values by showing that EVO participants
revealedgreaterlevelsofconsumption(i.e.,greed)than
did IVO participants in a forest-management game.
TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY
Of all things that move man, one of the principal ones is
his terror of death. (Becker, 1973, p. 11)
Based on the work of Becker (1973), terror manage-
menttheory(Greenberg,Pyszczynski,&Solomon,1986;
Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991) argues that
our innate and all-encompassing fear of death is buf-
feredthroughadual-componentprocessthatconsistsof
self-esteem striving and the creation of cultural world-
views. It is through faith and investment in these
worldviews thatpeople findmeaning inlife andbecome
productive members of society. Becker and terror man-
agement theory further posit that the nearly insoluble
human reality of mortality awareness combined with an
instinctive desire for survival compels attempts at
immortality through culturally standardized systems
(e.g., capitalism) and symbols (e.g., money). In the face
ofmortality,humansseekeverlastinglifebycreatingand
embracing that which cannot die. Such immortality is
gained through cultural ideologies and their extrinsic
rewardsbecausetheseideologies“seektheperpetuation
andtheredemptionoftheindividuallife”(Becker,1975,
p. 64). For humans living in capital-based cultures, one
potential form of immortality seeking is excessive striv-
ing for wealth. Terror management research has shown
that when participants are reminded of their mortal-
ity they become much more likely to defend their
worldviews.
Terror management research activates death aware-
ness in participants through a manipulation called mor-
tality salience. In operationally defining mortality
salience, researchers have exposed participants to gory
video scenes, funeral homes, and fear of death invento-
ries(Greenberg,Pyszczynski,Solomon,Simon,&Breus,
1994; Nelson, Moore, Olivetti, & Scott, 1997). A com-
mon method of operationalizing mortality salience,
however, takes the form of open-ended questions ask-
ing individuals to express the feelings and thoughts
they experience when thinking about their own death
(e.g., Goldenberg, McCoy, Pyszczynski, Greenberg, &
Solomon, 2000; Kasser & Sheldon, 2000; Rosenblatt,
Greenberg,Solomon,Pyszczynski,&Lyon,1989).When
exposedtomortalitysaliencemanipulations,individuals
have punished those who do not agree with their world-
views (Greenberg et al., 1990) and have increased their
likelihood of stereotyping (Schimel et al., 1999).
Some recent evidence points to the potential pro-
social effects of mortality salience in what researchers
called the “Scrooge effect” (Jonas, Schimel, Greenberg,
& Pyszczynski, 2002). In that study, participants who
experienced mortality salience gave more money to
charity than did other participants; however, this gener-
osity only occurred when participants considered the
charitiesaspartoftheirworldview.Itcanbeinferredthat
mortality salience leads to prosocial behavior only if the
needy person or organization is a member (or sup-
porter) ofthehelper’sworldview.From thisperspective,
the“Scrooge effect”doesnotdifferfromterrormanage-
ment results that demonstrate that mortality salience
generates worldview defense.
The potential link between death awareness and
extrinsic values has recently received attention from
researchers trying to expand the list of factors, beyond
value orientation, that play a role in greedy behavior.
Using mortality salience, Kasser and Sheldon (2000)
showed that compared to control participants, those
asked to face their death expected to be worth more
money in the future and to spend more money for plea-
sure. Participants facing their death also showed a
greaterpropensityforavarice,althoughtherewasnoevi-
dencethatmortalitysalienceinteractedwithvalueorien-
tation. A recent study by Dechesne et al. (2003) repli-
cated Kasser and Sheldon’s (2000) findings (Study 2),
but only in men facing their death in a condition with
alleged scientific findings debunking the likelihood of
an afterlife.1
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REAL-LIFE TRAUMA
Terrormanagementtheoryisnotaloneinplacingthe
profound implications of death awareness at the center
of striving for intrinsic or extrinsic values. Work done by
researchersstudyingpersonalgrowthinindividualswho
report near-death experiences (e.g., Greyson, 1992;
Ring&ElsaesserValarino,1998)andotherformsoftrau-
matic events, known as posttraumatic growth (PTG;
Tedeschi, Park, & Calhoun, 1998), provides a history of
examining mortality awareness unequaled by any lab
experiment.
ResearchersactivelyinvolvedinthestudyofPTGhave
focused on a wide variety of life crises, including divorce
(Wallerstein, 1986), HIV infection (Schwartzberg,
1994), sexual assault (Frazier, Conlon, & Glaser, 2001),
cancer (O’Connor, Wicker, & Germino, 1990; Welch-
McCaffrey, Hoffman, Leigh, Loescher, & Meyskens,
1989), and bone marrow transplant (Curbow, Legro,
Baker, Wingard, & Somerfield, 1993). Tedeschi et al.
(1998) categorize into life outcomes the types of growth
seen in people dealing with these (in many cases) life-
threateningcrises:perceptionoftheself(e.g.,increased
self-reliance or autonomy and self-efficacy), inter-
personal relationships (e.g., closer connections and
increased compassion and giving to others), and philos-
ophy of life (e.g.,reorganized priorities, appreciation of
life, sense of meaning, and spiritual development).
Researchers conceive of life-altering trauma as affect-
ing people in the same way that an earthquake affects a
city. When the trauma, confusion, and mourning have
passed,thereisanopportunitytorebuildandcreatenew
structures that are better than the originals. In the face
ofpersonalloss,itisthought,individualsgothroughthis
samerebuildingoftheirshatteredworlds,oftencreating
new, superior life structures and assumptions (Janoff-
Bulman, 1992; Tedeschi et al., 1998). Support for this
“rebuilding model” can be found among cancer pa-
tients, for example, whose growth outcomes include
positive coping, increased hopefulness, and a sense of
transcendence (Ersek, 1992; Steeves & Kahn, 1987;
Taylor, 1993).
Many of the same dramatic positive life changes wit-
nessed in PTG studies are ubiquitous in the study of the
near-death experience. Many near-death experiencers
(NDErs) come very close to dying, whereas others are
actually declared clinically dead. Likening the experi-
ence to a “spiritual catalyst,” Ring (1984) outlined the
value shifts most often seen in people as a result of near-
deathexperiences: appreciation oflife,concern for oth-
ers,lackofconcernforimpressingothers,lackofmateri-
alism,andhigherquestformeaning.AsseeninthePTG
literature, Ring (1984) reports that NDErs reveal a
heightened sense of spirituality. This, however, often
comes with a de-emphasis on the person’s previous alle-
giance to a formal religion. According to Ring (1984),
many NDErs come to see organized religion as a human
creation and find a new interest in a “worldview-free”
spirituality.
A common thread also found among NDErs is a new-
found acceptance of death and a feeling of transcen-
dence in thatthey no longer fear death and instead fully
accept their mortality (Greyson, 1992; Moody, 1975;
Noyes, 1980; Ring, 1980). In a juxtaposition to the
“death is too terrorizing to face” theorizing of Becker
(1973), Noyes (1980) found that many of his respon-
dents reported their near-death experience not only
broughtdeathclosertothembutintegratedmortalityas
a concept more fully into their lives. This inclusion of
death into everyday awareness led these NDErs to claim
that life had more meaning and an added sense of zest
(Noyes, 1980). Also common in reports of near-death
experience research is the notion addressed by Ring
(1984) that NDErs reveal a lack of materialism. Sup-
ported by studies of anecdotal reports in the United
States(Atwater,1988; Greyson, 1983; Morse, 1992; Ring,
1980, 1984, 1991; Ring & Elsaesser Valarino, 1998),
England (Grey, 1985), Australia (Sutherland, 1993,
1995), and Italy (Tiberi, 1993), many NDErs do seem to
undergo a shift in values when it comes to their previ-
ous, extrinsically oriented worldviews. Reports fre-
quently show that NDErs come to view extrinsic values
such as seeking wealth and possessions as empty and
meaningless.
MORTALITY AWARENESS
Terror management theory, near-death experience
reports, and PTG research address the relationship
betweenmortalityandvalueorientationinverydifferent
ways.Resultssupportingterrormanagementtheorysug-
gest that for people who endorse extrinsic values,
reminders of their own mortality will lead to a further
embracing of their worldview (i.e., greed). Conversely,
near-death experience studies and PTG investigations
suggest that coming face to face with mortality leaves
individuals striving for intrinsic rewards. Examining the
key features of the near-death experience alongside ter-
ror management’s mortality salience manipulation can
help explain these divergent responses.
Themostnoticeabledifferencebetweenanear-death
experience and a typical mortality salience manipula-
tion is the level of abstractness associated with mortality.
Often, the first aspect shared by NDErs is the manner in
whichtheybelieve theydied.Whereasmortalitysalience
oftenintroducestheconceptofdeathasanabstractcon-
cern that is unspecified in its connection to the par-
ticipant, the near-death experience places a person’s
death in a concrete setting. In simpler terms, mortal-
ity salience seems to be asking, “What do you think of
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death?” whereas the near-death experience seems to be
asking “This is how you died, what do you think?”
Another element that consistently appears in near-
death experiences yet remains largely absent from mor-
tality salience is the “life review” (Ring & Elsaesser
Valarino, 1998). The life review process is often de-
scribed as one of the most powerful moments of the
near-deathexperienceandgoesfarbeyondthecommon
notion that life “passes before your eyes.” Respondents
say the life review involves a complete reliving of every
life moment, including thoughts and feelings, as well as
the powerful “perspective-taking” process of experienc-
ing thoughts and feelings of other individuals with
whomtheyinteracted(Ring&ElsaesserValarino,1998).
This anecdotal evidence suggests that after a near-
deathexperience,peoplerespondinamannerquitedif-
ferent from individuals exposed to mortality salience.
Whereas mortality salience leads to worldview defense
and immortality striving, near-death experiences seem
to compel worldview capitulation and psychological
integration. It is this evidence of a value shift from ex-
trinsictointrinsicamong NDErs thatopens thedoor for
a new form of experimentally induced mortality
awareness.
STUDY 1
Areview ofRingandElsaesser Valarino’s(1998)work
reveals three core elements of the near-death experi-
ence: (a) an actual death, (b) a life review, and (c) the
opportunity for NDErs to take the perspective of others.
Wekeptthesethreeissuesinmindwhendeveloping sce-
narios for our mortality manipulation, called death reflec-
tion. To address facing death, half of our participants
read a scenario in which they died, whereas the other
half read a control scenario. To capture the life review
and perspective-taking elements, we included open-
ended questions after the scenario. Along with death
reflection, we assessed each participant’s value
orientation.
Given that extrinsically oriented individuals desire
wealth, we examined the effects of death reflection on
greed.Inassessinggreed,wecountedraffleticketstaken
by participants in a limited-resource behavioral task. We
predictedthatwhennotfacingdeath,participantswitha
high extrinsic orientation would evidence greater levels
of greed than participants with a low extrinsic orienta-
tion, whereas experiencing our death reflection manip-
ulationwouldleadtolowerlevelsofgreedamonghighly
extrinsic participants.
Method
Participants. Forty-eight introductory psychology stu-
dents from California State University, Sacramento (38
women, 10 men), ranging in age from 17 to 47 (M =
21.75, SD = 5.97), participated in the study to fulfill a
course requirement.2Most of the sample was Caucasian
(56%), followed by Asian (19%), African American
(10%), and Latino (6%), with the remaining partici-
pants’ ethnicity unknown.
Materials. The 30-item Aspirations Index (based on
Kasser&Ryan,1996)assessedtheparticipants’valueori-
entation. Fifteen of the index’s items represent three
domains of an extrinsic orientation, specifically, money
(“Iwill be financiallysuccessful”),fame (“Iwill be recog-
nized by lots of different people”), and beauty (“My
image will be one others find appealing”). The remain-
ing 15 items address three domains of an intrinsic ori-
entation, specifically, self-acceptance (“I will know and
accept who I really am”), affiliation (“I will have good
friendsthatIcancounton”),andcommunityfeeling(“I
will work for the betterment of society”). Participants
respond to each statement using a scale ranging from 1
(notatallimportant)to9(veryimportant).TheAspirations
Indexhasachievedapreviouslyreportedreliabilitycoef-
ficient of .82 (Sheldon & McGregor, 2000). Our sample
generated a coefficient alpha of .81 for the intrinsic
subscale and .92 for the extrinsic subscale.
For our death reflection manipulation, participants
were asked to read and imagine themselves experienc-
ingtheeventsdescribedinascenarioandthentoanswer
open-ended questions as if the events actually occurred.
In the death scenario, participants imagined waking up
inthemiddle ofthenightinafriend’sapartmenton the
“20thfloorofanold,downtownbuilding”tothe“sounds
of screams and the choking smell of smoke.” The sce-
nario (see Appendix A) details the participant’s futile
attempts to escape the room and burning building
before finally giving in to the fire and eventually death.
After reading the death scenario, participants answered
the following questions:
1. Please describe in detail the thoughts and emotions you
felt while imagining the scenario.
2. If you did experience this event, how do you think you
would handle the final moments?
3. Again imagining it did happen to you, describe the life
you led up to that point.
4. How do you feel your family would react if it did happen
to you?
We generated these questions to activate some of the
common elements found in near-death experiences.
The first two questions reinforce the notion of facing an
actual death, as opposed to the abstract concept of mor-
tality. The third and fourth questions mirror the near-
death experience of life review in that Question 3 al-
lowed the participants to reflect on their own life and
Question 4 allowed them to take the perspective of
others.
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Participants in the “no death” control condition read
asimilarscenariointhattheyimaginedwakingupinthe
same apartment to “the sound of a clock radio and the
pleasant smell of coffee.” In this scenario, participants
imagined spending the day sightseeing and shopping
with a family member, before heading back to the apart-
mentfordinnerandbed.Afterreadingthenodeathsce-
nario, participants answered the following questions:
1. Please describe in detail the thoughts and emotions you
felt while imagining the scenario.
2. Have you ever experienced an event like the one de-
scribed in the scenario?
3. Imagininganeventliketheonedescribeddidhappento
you, describe the life you led up to that point.
4. Again imagining this event did happen to you, describe
the thoughts and emotions of the family member with
whom you spent the day.
These questions were designed to mirror the death re-
flection questions, providing control participants an op-
portunity to reflect on their life and to take the perspec-
tive of others.
After completing the questions, participants
responded toademographic sheetthatincludedaques-
tion assessing the participants’ level of spirituality.
Finally,weassessedgreedbycountingthenumberofraf-
fle tickets taken by participants in a limited-resource
task.3
Procedure. Participants were placed in individual
rooms and randomly provided with study packets. After
completing the Aspirations Index, students encoun-
tered a request to read their scenario slowly, imagining
they were actually experiencing the event. After answer-
ing the questions and completing the demographics
sheet, the students received another page designed to
look different from the study materials (different type-
face and colored paper). This flyer contained the cover
storyregardingtheraffletickets(goodfora$100giftcer-
tificate) that were contained in an envelope attached to
the flyer (see Appendix B). Our intent was to establish
thatparticipantswerecomingintothestudyinwavesand
thatasmorestudentsparticipated,themorethenumber
of tickets in the envelope would diminish. We also
wanted to make it clear that eventually the envelope
would be empty, thus the instruction, “you need to tell a
research assistant that the envelope is empty. You will
receive one ticket to maintain a chance of winning the
prize.”Theflyer’stextmadeitexplicitthateachticketin
the envelope was a potential winner, so participants
knewthemoreticketstheytook,thebettertheirchances
(creating poorer chances for future participants). The
flyer informed all participants that they were in the
fourthwavetogo throughthestudy.We setthisconstant
of“fourthwave”topreventstudentsfromtryingtofigure
out how many tickets had been in the envelope at the
beginning of the study. We wanted participants to
believe that three other participants had gone through
theenvelope before them,makingitimpossible toknow
how many tickets had been there and how many tickets
the others had taken. The instructions directed partici-
pantstocounthowmanyticketswereleftintheenvelope
bythepresumedpreviousthreestudents.Eachenvelope
actuallycontained20ticketsdespitetheflyerstorythatit
could contain more (assuming the people before them
took tickets) or fewer (the envelope could have been
empty).Participantsweredebriefedaftertheytooktheir
tickets. This process took approximately 30 min. After
completing the study, we randomly selected a raffle
ticketfromthosetakenandawardedthegiftcertificate.
Results
Content analysis. We created our death reflection
manipulation in an attempt to provide a laboratory ana-
log to the near-death experience. Based on the open-
ended responses provided by participants in the death
condition, it seems the manipulation did have an emo-
tionalimpact.Virtuallyalloftheparticipantsfacingtheir
death expressed reactions in strong emotional terms.
Examples are as follows: “I felt panic, fear, and sadness
which led to an understanding of death, contentment;”
“I thought about how I focused on the unimportant
things like money and appearances instead of what mat-
ters most, the ones I love;” and “I thought deeply about
my family and girlfriend. Also about life and how I
should not take it for granted.” Many participants imag-
ining their deathalso reported physical responses tothe
scenario, such as, “I got goose bumps;” “My heart rate
increased;” and “I had to fight back tears.” Thus, it
appears our manipulation did allow participants to be-
come intensely involved with their death scenario.
To further examine the effectiveness and conceptual
validity of our death reflection manipulation we con-
ducted a content analysis of the open-ended answers.
Although the inherent differences between the death
andnodeathscenarioshinderusfrommakingtoomany
inferences about a direct comparison, we did code re-
sponses from both scenarios to shed light on the partici-
pants’ thoughts and emotions. Across both scenarios,
our coders found 15 categories that seemed to capture
the essence of the responses. Those categories are posi-
tive affect, negative affect, references to death pain,
physicalsensations,thoughtsofpastlife,thoughtsofoth-
ers,selfishthoughtsofothers,religiousreferences,goals
in life, regrets, negative life comments, and positive life
comments.Aftercountingthenumberofoccurrencesof
eachcontentcategoryforallparticipants,thesecategory
countsweretransformedintoproportionsoftotaloccur-
rencestostandardizeresponseratesacrossrespondents.
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We did this to account for the variation we witnessed in
the length of responses, which ranged from a few sen-
tences in some cases to requiring the backs of the study
packet pages in other cases. A MANOVA using the Wilks
criterion revealed significant differences on the content
categories as a function of the scenarios, F(12, 35) =
26.06,p<.01.Univariatetestsshowedthatparticipantsin
the death condition responded with a significantly
higherproportionofnegativeaffect(fear,sadness,etc.),
physical sensations, life reflection, religious references,
and goals in life. Conversely, participants in the control
conditionrespondedwithsignificantlymoreaccountsof
positive affect, selfish thoughts of others (“They want to
make me happy,” “They wanted to show how much I
impacted them. They wanted to spend as much time as
they could with me.”), and negative life comments
(“Extremelystressedwiththehustlesandbustlesoflife,”
“I wish I had more friends. I sometimes feel isolated.”).
Although we found significant differences on some con-
tent categories that seemed suggestive, the scenarios
weresodifferentindesignthatitseemsbesttoholdback
any deeper analysis of the differences at this time. A
more informative content analysis is presented in
conjunctionwithStudy3,whichallows foracomparison
of two mortality manipulations.
Regression analyses. To analyze the effects of death
reflection (death or no death) and value orientation on
our dependent measure of greed, we first generated a
relativescore ofextrinsicascompared tointrinsicvalues
for each participant. Following the recommendation of
Kasser and Ryan (1993, 1996) and Sheldon and
McGregor (2000), we computed a single EVO score by
subtracting the intrinsic items from the extrinsic items,
creatinganewvariablerangingfromlowextrinsicvalues
ononeendtohighextrinsicvaluesontheotherend.We
used a multiple regression procedure to analyze the
main and interactive effects of value orientation and
death reflection, centering the values variable (Aiken &
West, 1991).
The analysis revealed a significant, positive relation-
shipbetween valueorientationandgreed inthatpartici-
pants with a high EVO took more tickets than did low
EVO participants, β = .33 (b = .04), p < .05. This main
effect of value orientation, however, was qualified by the
significant interaction between value orientation and
death reflection, β = –.48 (b = .09), p < .05. The simple
slopesofthisinteraction(plottedat±1SDofvalueorien-
tation) can be seen in Figure 1. Looking at the effect of
death or no death, there was a significant relationship
between value orientation and greed, as predicted, in
that high EVO participants took more tickets than did
lowEVOswhenreadingthecontrolscenario,β=.67(b=
.09), p < .01. This relationship disappeared, however,
when participants read the death scenario (β = –.01, b =
–.002, p > .90), indicating that in the death condition,
value orientation was no longer predictive of greedy
behavior. Analyzing the slopes from the perspective of
value orientation, the drop in tickets taken among high
EVOswassignificant(β=–.46,b=–2.59,p<.05),whereas
the increase in low EVOs was not significant (β = .23, b =
1.30, p > .20).
With this decrease in greed among high EVOs as a
function of death reflection, we examined the spiritual-
ity question from the demographics sheet, which read,
“on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being very spiritual), rate
your level of spirituality.” Based on the evidence of
increased spiritualityinnear-deathexperience andPTG
research, we thought this item could help shed light on
the processes driving the change in greedy behavior.
Results of this analysis revealed that there was a signifi-
cant, negative relationship between value orientation
and spirituality in that participants with a low EVO
reported higher levels of spirituality than did high EVO
participants, β = –.35 (b = –.04), p < .05. There was also a
significant relationship between death reflection and
spirituality in that participants who faced their death
reported higher levels of spirituality than did partici-
pants who did not face their death, β = .45 (b = 2.24), p <
.01. The interaction between value orientation and
death reflection approached significance, β = .30 (b =
.05),p=.10.Examiningthesimpleslopesofthisdevelop-
ing interaction (Figure 2) revealed that when not dying,
lowEVOsweremorelikelytoreporthigherlevelsofspir-
ituality than were high EVOs, β = –.57 (b = –.07), p < .01,
although this disappeared when participants read the
deathscenario(β=–.13,b=–.02,p>.40),indicatingthat
high EVOs were now reporting similar spirituality lev-
Cozzolino et al. / GREED, DEATH, AND VALUES283
0
2
4
6
No DeathDeath
Death Reflection
Mean # of Tickets
High EVO
Low EVO
Figure 1 Mean number of tickets taken as a function of death reflec-
tion and value orientation (high EVO = +1 SD, low EVO =
–1 SD).

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Page 7

els as low EVOs. Analyzing the slopes reveals that the
increaseinspiritualityseenamonghighEVOswassignif-
icant, β = .67 (b = 3.34), p < .05, whereas the increase
among low EVOs was not, β = .23 (b = 1.14), p = .23.
Discussion
We predicted that participants with a high extrinsic
value orientation would demonstrate greater levels of
greed when not experiencing our death reflection
manipulation. We also predicted that extrinsically ori-
ented participants who faced our death reflection
manipulation would become less greedy. The results
seem to support both of these predictions. Based on the
greed findings, the significantly higher reported levels
of spirituality among those participants facing their
death, and the suggestive content analysis differences, we
inferred that our manipulation did have the near-death
experience, positive-growth impact that we predicted.
Despiteourinferenceabouttheeffectofdeathreflec-
tion, there was some question as to whether the differ-
encesweobservedhadmoretodowithsimplytheeffects
of positive (control condition) and negative (death con-
dition) affect on greed. In this vein, we also felt it was
important to test if the open-ended questions, which we
modeled after the positive growth inducing aspects of
the near-death experience, were necessary to achieve
the results we observed.
STUDY 2
Method
Participants. Fifty-six introductory psychology stu-
dents from California State University, Sacramento (49
women,7men),ranginginagefrom17to40(M=21.09,
SD = 4.88), participated to fulfill a course requirement.4
Most of the sample was Caucasian (41%), followed by
Asian (18%), multiracial (13%), Latino (9%), and Afri-
can American (7%), with the remaining participants’
ethnicity unknown.
Materials.Weusedthesame30-itemAspirationsIndex
(based on Kasser & Ryan, 1996) from Study 1 to assess
the participants’ value orientation. This sample gener-
ated a coefficient alpha of .87 for the intrinsic subscale
and .92 for the extrinsic subscale.
To avoid comparing positive versus negative affect
scenarios, all participants received the death reflection
scenario used in Study 1; however, some of the partici-
pants received our standard open-ended questions
(from Study 1), whereas the other students received
questions not inspired by near-death experiences or
PTG (e.g., “How could we improve the typographical
appearance of the scenario?”). After reading the sce-
nario, completing the questions, and filling out the
demographic sheet used in Study 1, participants came
across the same flyer from the first study telling partici-
pants about the raffle tickets, which we used to assess
greed.
Procedure. We employed the same procedures used in
the first study; however, each envelope actually con-
tained 22 tickets (instead of 20 as in the first study). We
made this change to avoid any possibility that partici-
pantswouldmaketheirticketdecisionsbasedonthefact
that 4 (wave number) was a multiple of 20 (eliminating
the notion that 5 would be an appropriate number of
ticketstotake).Afterparticipantstooktheirtickets,they
were debriefed. Following data collection, we randomly
selectedasingleraffleticketsowecouldawardastudent
the gift certificate.
Results
RepeatingthestepsusedinStudy1,wefirstgenerated
a relative score of extrinsic as compared to intrinsic val-
ues for each participant. Regressing the number of tick-
ets taken on value orientation (centered) and question
type (real vs. unrelated) revealed a significant interac-
tion between our variables, β = –.38 (b = –.11), p < .05.
The simple slope analyses of this interaction (Figure 3)
revealed no relationship between value orientation and
greed after the unrelated questions, β = .11 (b = .02), p >
.50. This relationship was significant, however, among
participantsansweringreal questions,inthathighEVOs
took significantly fewer tickets than did low EVOs, β =
–.56(b=–.09),p<.05.Examiningtheslopesshowedthat
the drop in tickets taken by high EVOs was nearly sig-
nificant, β = –.41 (b = –2.99), p < .06, whereas the in-
284PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
0
2
4
6
8
10
No DeathDeath
Death Reflection
Mean Spirituality Level
High EVO
Low EVO
Figure 2 Mean level of spirituality as a function of death reflection
andvalueorientation(highEVO=+1SD,lowEVO=–1SD).

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Page 8

crease in tickets taken by low EVOs was not, β = .26 (b =
1.86), p > .20.
With this replication of behavior in high EVOs after
facing death reflection, we examined the demographics
spirituality question. This analysis revealed a developing
interaction, β = .28 (b = .05), p = .10. The simple slopes
(Figure 4) showed that reported spirituality increased
for high EVOs afteranswering the real questions, β = .44
(b = 2.15), p < .05. There was no effect for low EVOs, β =
–.04 (b = –.19), p > .80.
Discussion
Based on these results, we made two inferences
regarding our death reflection manipulation: (a) The
drop in greedy behavior seen in both studies among
highEVOswasnotareactiontoreadingadisturbingsce-
narioasopposedtoapleasantoneand(b)thefourques-
tions we patterned after components of the near-death
experience do seem to be vital to the manipulation as a
whole. An issue we will wait to address is the slight in-
crease in greed among low EVOs after experiencing
our death reflection manipulation. Although not signi-
ficant, the replication of the increase was certainly not
predicted.
Still missing from our exploration into the validity
and effectiveness of death reflection was a mortality
salience manipulation to examine whether our manipu-
lation was triggering behavior different from what we
mightobserveusingterrormanagementtechniques.We
made this direct mortality awareness comparison in our
next study.
STUDY 3
Method
Participants. Ninety introductory psychology students
from California State University, Sacramento (77
women, 13 men), ranging in age from 17 to 52 (M =
21.45, SD = 5.95), participated to fulfill a course require-
ment.5Most of the sample was Caucasian (69%), fol-
lowed by Asian (11%), Latino (6%), multiracial (4%),
and African American (3%), with the remaining partici-
pants’ ethnicity unknown.
Materials.Weusedthesame30-itemAspirationsIndex
(based on Kasser & Ryan, 1996) from Studies 1 and 2 to
assess the participants’ value orientation, with this sam-
ple generating a coefficient alpha of .85 for the intrinsic
subscale and .92 for the extrinsic subscale.
To assess the effects of death reflection in contrast to
mortality salience, we gave some participants the death
reflection manipulation from the first two studies. To
manipulate mortality salience, other participants re-
ceived the following question inspired by previous re-
search (e.g., Goldenberg et al., 2000; Kasser & Sheldon,
2000; Rosenblatt et al., 1989): “In as many words and in
as much detail as possible, please describe the thoughts,
feelings, and emotions you experience when thinking
about your own death.” To compare these two mor-
tality manipulations to a control group, we assigned the
remainingparticipantstoanswerthefollowingquestion:
“In as many words and in as much detail as possible,
please describe the thoughts, feelings, and emotions
you experience when thinking about your favorite
music.” After answering the questions, participants re-
ceived thesameflyerusedinStudy2andweagainrelied
on the number of raffle tickets taken as our measure of
greed.
Cozzolino et al. / GREED, DEATH, AND VALUES285
0
2
4
6
UnrelatedReal
Question Type
Mean # of Tickets
High EVO
Low EVO
Figure 3 Mean number of tickets taken as a result of question type
andvalueorientation(highEVO=+1SD,lowEVO=–1SD).
0
2
4
6
8
UnrelatedReal
Question Type
Mean Spirituality Level
High EVO
Low EVO
Figure 4Mean level of spirituality as a function of question type and
value orientation (high EVO = +1 SD, low EVO = –1 SD).

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Page 9

Procedure. Participants were placed in individual
rooms and randomly provided with study packets. Stu-
dentsfirstcompletedtheAspirationsIndex.Participants
facing death reflection then read a request asking them
to read their scenario slowly, imagining it actually hap-
pened.Studentsinthemortalitysalienceorcontrolcon-
ditionssimplyfacedtheirrespective question.Following
the questions, all participants responded to the same
demographics sheet from Studies 1 and 2. All students
then received the raffle flyer, which informed them that
theywereinthefourthwavetogothroughthestudy.The
envelopeagaincontained22tickets,replicatingthepro-
cedure in Study 2. After taking their tickets, participants
were debriefed. A gift certificate was again awarded to
one participant when data collection ended.
Results
Content analysis. The pairing of death reflection with
mortality salience allowed for direct comparison of the
narrative responses provided by participants in the
hopes of better understanding the processes generated
inbothconditions.Wecoded12categoriesofresponses:
positive and negative affect; physical reality of dying
(e.g., pain); physical reactions to thinking about death
(e.g.,increased heartbeat,shortnessofbreath);general
life reflections; life goals; life regrets; religious refer-
ences; self-oriented mortality awareness (e.g., “when I
die”); universal, conceptual mortality awareness (e.g.,
“all living things die”); thoughts of others; and selfish
thoughtsofothers.Despitethedifferencesinthemanip-
ulations across studies, the content categories that
emerged in this study are quite similar to those in Study
1. Replicating the procedure from Study 1, all occur-
rences of a content match were transformed into
proportions for each participant to account for
individual differences in the length of responses.
A MANOVA comparing death reflection and mortal-
ity salience revealed significant differences in responses
among the 12 content categories, F(12, 46) = 6.84, p <
.01.Table1presentsthemeanproportionsandstandard
deviationsacrossall12categoriesasafunctionofmortal-
ity manipulation, as well as the univariate results and
example responses from each category. The answers
from participants facing death reflection contained a
higher proportion of general life reflection, life regrets,
and thoughts of others, whereas responses from mortal-
ity salience participants had a greater proportion of ref-
erences to death pain, selfish thoughts of others, reli-
gion, and death as a universal concept.
We created the death reflection manipulation to mir-
ror three aspects of the near-death experience: (a) see-
ing death as real not just conceptually, (b) a life review,
and (c) perspective taking of others. It appears from the
content of the participants’ responses that we were suc-
cessful.Participantsexposedtothedeathreflectioncon-
dition focused 45% of their narrative responses on gen-
eral life reflection, life regrets, and thoughts of others;
those exposed to the mortality salience condition
addressed these issues in only 19% of their responses.
Conversely, participants exposed to mortality salience
focused 44% of their narrative responses on death pain,
selfish thoughts, religion, and death as a concept; those
exposed to death reflection addressed these issues in
15% of their responses. In line with terror management
theory, it seems as if mortality salience did generate a
process of concern (pain), which led to worldview com-
fort seeking (religion, selfishness), all while keeping
death in a conceptual setting. Consistent with near-
286PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
TABLE 1:Mean Proportions and Standard Deviations for Content Categories Comparing Death Reflection and Mortality Salience
Mortality Manipulation
Death ReflectionMortality Salience
CategoryM SDM SDExample Item
Positive affect
Negative affect
Fear of pain****
Physical sensations
Life reflection****
Life goals
Life regrets***
Thoughts of others****
Selfish other thoughts**
Religious beliefs***
Self-centered mortality
Universal mortality***
.08
.19
.02
.02
.12
.05
.07
.26
.03
.06
.06
.04
.07
.14
.04
.04
.09
.07
.08
.11
.07
.09
.09
.05
.11
.17
.09
.03
.03
.06
.03
.13
.08
.13
.05
.09
.10
.15
.13
.10
.07
.09
.06
.15
.12
.15
.06
.15
“Peace, calm”
“Scared, worried”
“I hope death’s not painful”
“Heart raced, stomach dropped”
“Did best with time I had”
“Graduate, marriage, career”
“I wish I would have . . . ”
“Want them to know I loved them”
“I am the light in their lives”
“Prayer, God, heaven”
“When I die, my funeral”
“Everything dies, inevitable”
NOTE: Death reflection, n = 31; mortality salience, n = 28.
**p = .07. ***p < .05. ****p < .01.

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Page 10

death experience and PTG theorizing, it appears our
death reflection manipulation generated a process of
life reflection and perspective taking.
Regression analyses. To analyze the effects of death
manipulation (death reflection, mortality salience, or
control)andvalueorientationonourmeasureofgreed,
we again created a relative score of extrinsic compared
to intrinsic values for each participant by subtracting
the Aspirations Index intrinsic items from the extrinsic
items. As outlined by Aiken and West (1991), we created
twodummyvariablesforourthree-leveldeathmanipula-
tion variable and centered all appropriate variables
before the regression analyses.
Toanalyzetherelationshipbetweenvalueorientation
and greed on each level of our death manipulation vari-
able, we created three sets of dummy variables, allowing
us to exclude one death condition in each analysis
(Aiken & West, 1991). For each dummy variable set, we
regressed the number of tickets taken on the centered
values variable along with the two dummy variables in
Step1,followed bytheinteractiontermsinStep2.Table
2 presents the simple slopes for each death manipula-
tioncondition(inβandb)aswellasthettestsforthetwo
interaction terms and the change in R2after the interac-
tion terms entered the equation. As the table shows,
there was a positive relationship between values and
greed in the control condition in that higher levels of
extrinsic values were associated with more tickets taken,
although this relationship was not significant, p = .14.
This positive relationship between values and greed,
however, became significant in the mortality salience
condition, where higher levels of extrinsic values were
associated with higher levels of greed. Finally, Table 2
reveals how this relationship between values and greed
disappeared in the death reflection condition. The
results presented in Table 2 also allow us to determine if
the slopes for values differ as a function of mortality
salience and death reflection. The first interaction term
in the mortality salience column of Table 2 represents
theinteractionbetweendeathreflectionandvalues.The
t test on this interaction is a test of the difference be-
tween the simple slopes for the death reflection and
mortality salience conditions, which is, in this case, sig-
nificant.Figure5depictsthesimpleslopesoftheanalysis
comparing mortality salience and death reflection,
using ±1 SD on the values measure to denote high and
low EVOs. Among high EVO participants, the drop in
tickets taken as a function of experiencing death reflec-
tion instead of mortality salience was significant (β =
–.49,b=–3.54,p<.05),whereastheincreaseobservedin
low EVO participants was not significant, β = .23 (b =
1.69), p = .19. The interaction between values and the
variable comparing mortality salience to the control
group (Table 2, second interaction term under the mor-
tality salience column) was not significant, p > .20.
Although the interaction between values and the vari-
able comparing death reflection to the control group
alsowasnotsignificant(Table2,secondinteractionterm
under the death reflection column), there was a devel-
opingtrend(p=.10)inthathighEVOstookfewertickets
in death reflection than they did in the control group,
β = .28 (b = 1.82).
The interaction between values and death manipula-
tion on the spirituality question from the demographics
sheet was not significant. Based on the results of the first
twostudiesandthecontentanalyses,however,aplanned
comparison of the interaction’s simple slopes seemed
justified. Figure 6 shows again an inclination among
high EVOs to report higher levels of spirituality after
death reflection, this time in comparison to mortality
Cozzolino et al. / GREED, DEATH, AND VALUES287
TABLE 2: Main and Interactive Effects of Value Orientation and
Death Manipulation on Greed
Death Manipulation
Mortality Salienceb
Controla
Death Reflectionc
Values b
β
Interaction 1
Interaction 2
Change in R2
0.03
0.24
0.09***
0.62***
–0.02
–0.13
t = 2.40***
t = 1.62*
0.07***
t = –1.62*
t = 1.21
0.07***
t = –2.40***
t = –1.21
0.07***
a. Coding:Control=0,0;deathreflection=1,0;mortalitysalience=0,1.
b. Coding:Mortalitysalience=0,0;deathreflection=1,0;control=0,1.
c. Coding:Deathreflection=0,0;mortalitysalience=1,0;control=0,1.
*p = .10. ***p < .05.
0
2
4
6
8
Mortality SalienceDeath Reflection
Death Manipulation
Mean # of Tickets
High EVO
Low EVO
Figure 5Meannumberofticketstakenasafunctionofvalueorienta-
tion and the variable comparing death reflection to mortal-
ity salience (high EVO = +1 SD, low EVO = –1 SD).

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Page 11

salience, β = .37 (b = 2.09), p = .09. Although this effect
wasnotsignificantattheomnibuslevel(p=.16),therep-
lication of an increase as a function of death reflection
seems suggestive.
Discussion
Following Studies 1 and 2, we set out to compare
death reflection with techniques employed by terror
management researchers. We predicted that mortality
salience would drive highly extrinsic participants to take
more ticketsthancontrol participants,ahypothesiscon-
firmed in Study 3. We also expected extrinsically ori-
ented participants who faced death reflection, inspired
by near-death experiences and posttraumatic growth, to
behavemorelikeintrinsicallyorientedstudents,whichis
what occurred. We also observed some evidence of what
could be driving this behavior in the form of content
analyses(Studies 1 and3)andresponses tothespiritual-
ity question. Based on these results, it appears that our
death reflection manipulation can reliably induce
intrinsic behavior and values in participants who would
otherwise reveal greedy behavior and endorse extrinsic
values. For the third time, however, we observed a slight
increase in tickets taken by low EVOs after death reflec-
tion. Although none of these increases was significant,
the replication of the trend implies the possibility of an
effect hidden by lack of power. Speculation about this
nonsignificant trend is provided below.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Previous research has solidified the links between
consumption behavior, value orientation, and concerns
of death. Among our goals in the current studies was to
illustrate how these established constructs continue to
predict an individual’s willingness to take more than his
or her fair share. In Study 1, high EVOs did take signifi-
cantly more raffle tickets than did low EVOs. Study 3
addstotheterrormanagementliteraturebyrefiningthe
effects of mortality salience on greed (e.g., Kasser &
Sheldon, 2000). In our sample, only high EVOs were
affected by mortality salience, a result that, although
novel, flows directly from terror management theory’s
evidence of worldview defense.
Aside from testing established constructs, however,
we set out largely to examine whether individuals could
face their mortality in the laboratory and be moved in
a positive rather than negative or defensive direction.
Guidedbyreportsfromnear-deathexperienceandpost-
traumatic growth researchers, we created a manipula-
tionthatencompassedkeyfeaturesoftheseexperiences:
anactualdeath,achancetoreflectonlife,andanoppor-
tunity to take the perspective of others. In Study 1, we
found that high EVOs were affected by death reflection
and, in response, behaved in a more intrinsic manner.
We also sawanincrease inreported spiritualityasafunc-
tion of our manipulation as well as some suggestive con-
tent in the answers to our open-ended questions. In
Study 2, we again saw that highly extrinsic participants’
behaviorwassignificantlycontingentoncontext,atleast
as it relates to mortality awareness. After death reflec-
tion,highEVOstooksignificantlyfewerticketsthanthey
did after reading the scenario and answering unrelated
questions, not inspired by mortality awareness. Study 2
also replicated the increase in reported spirituality
among high EVOs after facing death reflection. Finally,
Study 3 provided evidence that high EVOs responded
quite differently when experiencing death reflection
compared to mortality salience, mirroring the behavior
of low EVOs.
The revealing content analysis of the thoughts and
emotionsofparticipantsinourmanipulationcompared
tomortalitysalienceseeninStudy3alsoseemstosuggest
alinkbetweendeathreflection,near-deathexperiences,
andPTG.Ourfinalstudyalsoprovidedfurtherevidence
of the potential role of spirituality in mitigating greed.
Although not significant in Study 3, the increase in
reported spirituality witnessed in high EVOs after death
reflection corresponds with the significant increases
observed in our previous studies. In sum, it appears that
whereas mortality salience leads to worldview defense
(high EVOs taking more), death reflection leads to
worldview capitulation (high EVOs behaving like low
EVOs). As with NDErs and posttrauma individuals, it
seems that facing and reflecting on life and death via
288PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
0
2
4
6
8
Mortality SalienceDeath Reflection
Death Manipulation
Mean Spirituality Level
High EVO
Low EVO
Figure 6Mean level of spirituality as a function of value orientation
and the variable comparing death reflection to mortality sa-
lience (high EVO = +1 SD, low EVO = –1 SD).

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Page 12

deathreflection generates (atleastmomentarily) intrin-
sic thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
From a pure significance-testing standpoint, low
EVOs exhibited consistent behavior on our measure of
greed, despite our manipulations. Although the statisti-
calevidencepointstonochangesinlowEVOs,theslight
increase in greed witnessed across all three studies after
death reflection does deserve mention. One potential
explanation for the slight increase stems from our ear-
lier inference that death reflection leads to worldview
capitulation among high EVOs. Perhaps the processes
activatedindeathreflection work bothways:HighEVOs
will renounce their worldview becoming more intrinsic,
whereaslowEVOswillnolonger defendtheirworldview
and, in turn, will behave more extrinsically. This sugges-
tion that intrinsic worldviews are as potentially open to
change as extrinsic worldviews certainly seems worthy
of further study; however, little work that we could find
exists in the value orientation literature to support this
hypothesis. Typically, theorists (e.g., Maslow, 1954;
Rogers, 1963) conceive of intrinsic values as more in-
grained in human nature and less likely to fluctuate.
Itisimportanttorecognizethatourmeasureofgreed
intheformofraffleticketspreventsusfromgeneralizing
toallformsofavarice.However,inadvancingfromprevi-
ous studies that have relied on imaginary or paper-and-
penciltypemeasurestoassessconsumption(e.g.,Kasser
& Sheldon, 2000),we believe our raffle ticket taskrepre-
sented a concrete, behavioral appraisal of greed.
Another limitation of this study involved our scenario
manipulation. Byemploying only one situation(abuild-
ing fire), we lose the ability to generalize the effects of
death reflection across other death scenarios.
CONCLUSIONS
I realize now that our time here is relatively short and it
makes me want to live my life to the fullest. It seems like
such a waste of precious time to become caught up in
materialistic modes of thinking.
I guess the most important things it has taught me are to
appreciate what life can hold for you and to be grateful
for the loving relationships in your life. It’s taken me a
long time to realize this.
I wondered if I had done all that I could to make my life
meaningful. I thought of expressing to my family that I
loved them. I wondered if there were people whose feel-
ings I’ve hurt and I was sorry for that.
The quotations presented above are responses from
individuals who atone time in life came face to face with
their own mortality. Beyond that connection, there are
some themes in what these people say that also seem to
connect each of them: most notably, a sense of realiza-
tion or learning of some important truth, as well as a
meta-awareness of the life they had been living.
There is explanatory precedence in the literature to
help us further understand these consistent, positive
growth themes seen in people after mortality awareness,
more specifically, the existential perspective advanced
by Yalom (1980) that attempts to distill thoughts origi-
nally put forth by Heidegger (1962). From this perspec-
tive, individuals take one of two routes to existing in the
world: one in which they are forgetful of being and one
in which they are mindful of being. Consistent with
Becker (1973), people who take the first route “live in a
world of things” and surrender “to the everyday world”
(Yalom, 1980, pp. 30-31). Conversely, people who are
mindful of being are more apt to become intimately
aware of their own existence and feel responsible for—
and capable of—changing their lives. It is these persons
who embrace their potential and become aware of their
ability to transcend their limits (Yalom, 1980). Aware-
ness and acceptance of death, Yalom states, is the key to
existing in this transcendent state. Looking back at the
quotations above, we see that people can approach this
positive state in a variety of ways, from the extraordinary
tothemundane.Infact,thefirstquotationcomesfroma
man who had a near-death experience as a result of a
rafting accident (Ring & Elsaesser Valarino, 1998), the
second statement comes from a woman living with a
painful chronic disease (Tennen & Affleck, 1998), and
the third quote comes from a research participant in
Study 3 in response to our death reflection manipula-
tion. What the near-death experience, PTG, and death
reflection perhaps provide is a sampling of the tools
requiredforpeopletomanagetheirtranscendenceover
existential terror, allowing them to embrace their ex-
istence (and inevitable nonexistence) and enabling
intrinsic needs and values to surface.
Ernest Becker (1973) once posited that “there is sim-
ply no way to transcend the limits of the human condi-
tion” (p. 277). There is little doubt that fears, concerns,
anddenials of deathare largely responsible for thedele-
terious behaviors witnessed in laboratories employing
terror management techniques. Becker andterror man-
agement theorists (e.g., Greenberg et al., 1986) have
soundlyaddressedhowconcernsofdeathandtheirasso-
ciated defensive responses are part of the human con-
dition. Clearly, it would be too strong an inference to
suggest that the recurring themes evident in the above
quotations alone represent an actual transcendence of
“the human condition,” as stated by Becker. It is our
assertion, however, that under certain conditions, mor-
tality awareness has the potential to generate reactions
(both affective and behavioral) that begin to challenge
our limits.
Cozzolino et al. / GREED, DEATH, AND VALUES 289

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Page 13

APPENDIX A
Imagine that you are visiting a friend who lives on the 20th
floor of an old, downtown apartment building. It’s the middle
of the night when you are suddenly awakened from a deep
sleep by the sound of screams and the choking smell of smoke.
Youreachovertothenightstandandturnonthelight.Youare
shockedtofindtheroomfillingfastwiththickcloudsofsmoke.
You run to the door and reach for the handle. You pull back in
pain as the intense heat of the knob scalds you violently. Grab-
bing a blanket off the bed and using it as protection, you man-
agetoturnthehandleandopenthedoor.Almostimmediately,
ahugewaveofflameandsmokeroarsintotheroom,knocking
you back and literally off your feet. There is no way to leave the
room. It is getting very hard to breathe and the heat from the
flames is almost unbearable. Panicked, you scramble to the
onlywindowintheroomandtrytoopenit.Asyoustruggle,you
realize the old window is virtually painted shut around all the
edges. It doesn’t budge. Your eyes are barely open now, filled
with tears from the smoke. You try calling out for help but the
airtoformthewordsisnotthere.Youdroptothefloorhoping
to escape the rising smoke, but it is too late. The room is filled
top to bottom with thick fumes and nearly entirely in flames.
With your heart pounding, it suddenly hits you, as time seems
to stand still, that you are literally moments away from dying.
The inevitable unknown that was always waiting for you has fi-
nally arrived. Out of breath and weak, you shut your eyes and
wait for the end.
APPENDIX B
Attention research participants! To thank you for partici-
pating in this somewhat personal research project, we have de-
cided to enter each of you in a raffle! The winning participant
willreceivethe$100giftcertificatetotheschoolbookstorepic-
tured below. It can be used toward any purchase at the store
(books, computer software and hardware, clothing, etc.). To
avoidethicalconcernsofpotentiallybribingparticipants,how-
ever, we the researchers (or our assistants) cannot play ANY
role in the distribution of the raffle tickets, especially since we
will be picking the winner. Based on past raffles like this, how-
ever, we have decided to let you—the participants—distribute
the tickets amongst yourselves over time. In the top right-hand
corner of this page is a “group number.” Below are the instruc-
tions that pertain to each group.
If you are in GROUP 1, you are obviously in the first group!
Attached to the back of this page is an envelope filled with raf-
fletickets.Takewhatyouconsidertobeafairamountoftickets
foryourselfandleavetheremainderintheenvelopeforfuture
groups. Each ticket is a potential winner! Make sure you reat-
tach the envelope to the packet!
If you are in GROUPS 2 or higher, open the envelope
attached to this page and count the number of raffle tickets
that remain.* Like the groups before you, you are free to take
as many tickets as you’d like, leaving those that you don’t take
for future groups. Remember, each ticket is a potential win-
ner! Please reattach the envelope to the packet when you are
finished.
Best of luck! Be sure to keep your ticket(s) since we will be
picking the winner from those tickets that were distributed
over the course of the semester. Any one of them could be the
winner!
*If there are no tickets in the envelope: Since we are not track-
ing the distribution of tickets, you need to tell a research assis-
tant that the envelope is empty. You will receive one ticket to
maintain a chance of winning the prize.
NOTES
1. Dechesne et al. (2003) suggested that greed may be more
“chronicallyaccessible”tomenthantowomen,accountingforthegen-
der differences in their study. We used gender as a main effect and
interaction variable in all analyses reported in this article. Across all
studies and dependent measures, gender was not significant as a main
effectorasaninteractionvariable.However,insomecases,theanalyses
wereconsideringasfewasoneortwoinaparticularcell(thinkinginan
ANOVAframework).Tofurthertestthepotentialeffectsofgender,we
removed the data for men and analyzed only the data provided by
women. In every case, we achieved the same results as when the men
wereincluded.Itappearstherewerenogendereffectsinourdatasets;
however, due to our lack of power and the Dechesne et al. finding, it
does seem gender differences in greed as a function of mortality
awareness should be studied further.
2. Data were collected from 62 participants; however, 14 of those
studentsdidnottakeanyraffletickets.Thecoverstorywasdesignedto
setoneraffleticketasalimitforeachstudent.Therewassomeconcern
among our research assistants that participants who did not under-
standthecoverstorywereamongthestudentswhodidnottaketickets.
With this uncertainty, we decided it would be best to drop the subjects
from the analyses. As a statistical precaution, we conducted a binary
logisticregressionto confirmthat the zeroticket resultwas not system-
atically related to our independent variables. We found no evidence
that value orientation, death reflection, or their interaction could
account for taking either zero tickets or at least one ticket, all ps > .50.
With this information and the uncertainty of the cover story’s effec-
tiveness, we focused our analyses on the 48 people who took at least
one ticket. We achieved the same results when we included the 14
“zero ticket” participants in the analyses; however, we felt most confi-
dent addressing the data with participants who took at least one
ticket.
3. In a study of egoism and altruism, Batson et al. (1999) success-
fully incorporated raffle tickets as their dependent measure in a study
ofscarceresourceallocation.Raffleticketswerealsoinastudyattempt-
ing to assess levels of moral hypocrisy (Batson, Thompson, Seuferling,
Whitney, & Strongman, 1999).
4. Data were collected from 71 participants; however, 15 of those
students did not take any raffle tickets. As in Study 1, we conducted a
binary logistic regression to confirm that the zero ticket result was not
systematically related to our independent variables. We found no evi-
dence that value orientation, question type, or their interaction could
account for taking either zero tickets or at least one ticket, all ps > .25,
so we focused our analyses on the 56 people who did take at least one
ticket. We achieved the same results as when we included the 15 “zero
ticket” participants in the analyses; however, as in Study 1, we felt most
confident addressing the data from participants who took at least one
ticket.
5. Data were collected from 108 participants; however, 18 of those
students did not take any raffle tickets. As in the first two studies, a
290PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN

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Page 14

binary logistic regression confirmed the zero ticket result was not sys-
tematically related to our independent variables, all ps > .40. With this
information and the same concerns about the cover story’s effective-
ness, we focused our analyses on the 90 people who took at least one
ticket. As in the first two studies, we achieved the same results when we
included the 18 “zero ticket” participants in the analyses.
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