ArticlePDF Available

I Am Not an Animal: Mortality Salience, Disgust, and the Denial of Human Creatureliness

Authors:
Jamie L Goldenberg at University of South Florida
Jamie L Goldenberg
Tom Pyszczynski at University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Tom Pyszczynski
Jeff Greenberg
Jeff Greenberg
Jeff Greenberg
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Sheldon Solomon at Skidmore College
Sheldon Solomon
Show all 6 authorsHide
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation

Abstract

The present research investigated the need to distinguish humans from animals and tested the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that this need stems in part from existential mortality concerns. Specifically, the authors suggest that being an animal is threatening because it reminds people of their vulnerability to death; therefore, reminding people of their mortality was hypothesized to increase the need to distance from animals. In support, Study 1 revealed that reminders of death led to an increased emotional reaction of disgust to body products and animals. Study 2 showed that compared to a control condition, mortality salience led to greater preference for an essay describing people as distinct from animals; and within the mortality salient condition but not the control condition, the essay emphasizing differences from other animals was preferred to the essay emphasizing similarities. The implications of these results for understanding why humans are so invested in beautifying their bodies and denying creaturely aspects of themselves are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Content uploaded by Jamie L Goldenberg
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Jamie L Goldenberg
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of this full-text is provided by American Psychological Association.
Learn more
Content available from Journal of Experimental Psychology General
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
... Several environmentally themed studies have shown that mortality salience has varied impacts on human-nature connections (see Ref. [21] for a review). Mortality salience has been shown to increase exploitation and consumption of natural resources [22], increase materialism [23], reduce connection to non-human animals [24], increase climate change denial [25], limit advancement of climate action [26], reduce pro-environmental behaviour [27], reduce motivation to protect the natural environment [28], and reduce environmental concern [29]. These studies add to the understanding of how death cues might impact the human-nature nexus and show a general trend that awareness of death, negatively influenced perceptions and attitudes towards the biosphere. ...
... This study aimed to expand mortality salience research in the context of environmental challenges and climate change risk and to explore their interconnectedness [26]. The variables chosen for this study were based on mortality salience literature [7,10,13,48], en vironmental research [21,24,49,50], and climate change risk perception [51][52][53]. The following section describes the materials and methods used to identify and measure the dependent and independent variables. ...
Modelling associations between mortality salience, environmental concerns climate change risk perception in the context of the pandemic
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2024
The pandemic and climate change are mortality salience triggers. Environmental issues, attitudes, and climate change risk perceptions were hypothesised to impact how individuals perceived the threat of COVID-19 and climate change during the pandemic. The study explored: 1.) the associations between seeing a link between COVID-19 and climate change and environmental concerns; 2.) the associations between mortality salience and environmental concerns; 3.) the associations between feeling less worried during the pandemic and environmental concerns; and 4.) what these associations tell us about the relationship between mortality salience, the perceived link between COVID-19 and climate change, and feeling less worried during the pandemic. A sample of 665 respondents was achieved from an online survey in 2021. The results of the multiple regression analysis and structural equation modelling showed that environmental issues, attitudes and perceptions, time spent in nature, and climate change risk perception played a role in the extent to which individuals perceived COVID-19 as an indicator of climate change threats, whether mortality salience was made conscious, and whether there was distancing of concern about climate change and social issues during the pandemic. The study makes an important contribution to understanding psychological processes that are activated during disasters that trigger mortality salience, and how this is impacted by the human-nature nexus, and climate change risk perception.
View
... Cross-cultural studies show that when beliefs about the nature of humanness are threatened, people are more likely to condone dehumanizing treatments against those who appear "uncivilized" or "animalistic" (Bastian & Haslam, 2011). For example, those with less control over their bodily functions have been the targets of abuse and neglect (Goldenberg et al., 2001). People with developmental disabilities are frequently denied personhood and have a long history of dehumanizing treatments (Braddock & Parish, 2001); those who leak bodily fluids have also been the targets of animalistic hate crimes involving urination, defecation, and other "taming" forms of social control (Haslam & Loughnan, 2012). ...
... People with developmental disabilities are frequently denied personhood and have a long history of dehumanizing treatments (Braddock & Parish, 2001); those who leak bodily fluids have also been the targets of animalistic hate crimes involving urination, defecation, and other "taming" forms of social control (Haslam & Loughnan, 2012). Scholars typically describe what it means to be human in terms of abilities like language, self-reflection, and morality-abilities that distinguish humans as unique from other animals (Goldenberg et al., 2001). Yet, viewing humans as superior to animals is a strong predictor of intergroup prejudice (Costello & Hodson, 2014). ...
View
... They denote pro-cultural attitudes (Choi & Fielding, 2016). Previous studies confirm that the need to preserve one's cultural worldview and the awareness of contributing to such worldviews trigger prosocial behaviors (Goldenberg et al., 2001;Solomon et al., 1991). In this study, we conceptualize cultural worldview as "people's underlying general attitudes such as basic beliefs and perceptions of a culture (Wei et al., 2020, p. 241)." ...
... Hence, this study proposes two main hypotheses: H9: Perceived social relations have a negative impact on negative self-esteem. Besides self-esteem's association with perceived social relations, cultural worldview as a broader and macro concept could impact individual self-evaluations (Goldenberg et al., 2001;Solomon et al., 1991). From a terror management theoretical perspective, cultural worldviews serve as a framework that allows humans to lead an enduring existence as a valued individual through self-esteem which creates an anxiety-buffering system (Zaleskiewicz et al., 2015). ...
A moderated mediation model of tourist cultural worldviews, perceived social relations, self-esteem, and prosocial behaviors - analyzing competing models
Article
  • Sep 2023
  • J Sustain Tourism
Despite a great deal of recent scholarly attention devoted to prosocial behaviors in tourism, its central antecedents from a socio-psychological and cultural perspective remain unknown. Using key socio-cultural constructs (cultural worldviews, perceived social relations, and self-esteem), this research examines a baseline model and compares it with a competing model to highlight alternative theoretical possibilities. We employ the face negotiation theory, the theory of reciprocal altruism, the sociometer theory, and the terror management theory to disentangle these relationships highlighting self-esteem’s significant role. The results are based on a survey of 403 tourists in a popular tourist destination in Asia, Macau. In the better-fitted model, findings demonstrate that while cultural worldviews and perceived social relations significantly predict prosocial behaviors, self-esteem moderates the extent to which both cultural worldviews and perceived social relations would trigger prosocial behaviors. These findings contribute valuable theoretical, methodological, and practical insights into the relationships among prosocial behavior and its socio-cultural antecedents.
View
... It's important to note that tattoos, as a form of body adornment, may serve as a means of reducing death anxiety in general. Research by Goldenberg and associates (Goldenberg et al., 2001, Pyszczynski et al., 2015Goldenberg et al., 2019) have demonstrated that the physical body can remind people of their animal nature and, consequently, their mortality. Mortality salience can elicit aversion to the body and attempts to symbolically regulate it. ...
Embodied memories -exploring memorial tattoos through the lens of terror management theory Embodied memories -exploring memorial tattoos through the lens of terror management theory
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: To delve into the phenomenon of memorial tattoos in Israel following the October 7, 2023, massacre, and the ensuing Iron Swords War utilizing Terror Management Theory. Methodology: A qualitative approach employing digital ethnography and visual content analysis was adopted to scrutinize 250 war tattoo images sourced from Israeli tattoo artists' Instagram pages and Facebook groups. Data collection spanned the initial four months of the war, from October 2023 to January 2024. Findings and conclusions: The analysis highlights existential anxieties stemming from the massacre and ongoing conflict, which are both reflected and addressed through the tattoos' content and meaning. Memorial tattoos serve as responses to mortality salience, depicting themes that adhere to the three anxiety-buffer mechanisms proposed by the theory: reinforcement of collective worldviews; enhancement of self-esteem; and seeking continued attachment relationships. Through these mechanisms, tattoo recipients invest efforts in giving meaning to the inconceivable events and their ongoing grief.
View
... When people are faced with the idea of the finiteness of their life (i.e., mortality salience), they activate a series of direct and symbolic responses aimed at reducing the related anxiety (Pyszczynski et al., 2015). One such response is to stress the difference between humans and the rest of nature in general (Koole et al., 2005) and, more specifically, from other animals (Goldenberg et al., 2001), thus potentially reducing the motivation to support the protection of nature. ...
The impact of mortality salience on environmental concerns and diet intentions: the moderating role of political orientation and RWA
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2024
  • CURR PSYCHOL
Although climate change poses a pressing threat, skepticism persists. Previous research aims to raise awareness and foster pro-environmental behaviors, but the effectiveness of threatening messages remains uncertain. It is crucial to understand how different subgroups react in relation to the nature of these threats. In this study, the impact of COVID-19 mortality salience on climate change attitudes and behaviors was examined, considering political orientation and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) as moderators. Participants (N = 187, NFemale = 134, NMale = 52, NOther = 1; Mage = 28.06, SDage = 9.73) after being randomly assigned to personal threat, collective threat, or control conditions, reported their concern for climate change and their intention to engage in sustainable behaviors (i.e., consume less high-polluting food, consume more vegetables than meat and engage in a sustainable diet). In contrast with previous literature, findings revealed that conservatives and individuals with higher RWA levels showed increased concern for climate change after being exposed to both personal and collective mortality threats, while liberals and low-RWA individuals always exhibited high concern for climate change and were not influenced by mortality salience. However, there were no notable effects on intentions to adopt an eco-sustainable dietary behavior. These findings highlight the role of mortality salience in shaping right-wing participants’ attitudes, but not behaviors, toward climate change. The discrepancy between pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors underscores the attitude-behavior gap, with concerns about the environment not necessarily translating into concrete actions.
View
... Loneliness may cause individuals to pay more attention to social interaction and social identity [49]. Therefore, conformity may be a means of satisfying these needs, promoting consumers' integration into social groups, and increasing liking and identification with the product [50]. Therefore, when individuals feel lonely, they may conform to others in order to enhance their social identity, leading to the conformity effect and strengthening their positive attitude toward the product. ...
The Study of Female College Students' Consumer Psychology Mechanism toward Male Celebrity Endorsed Products: Tempted or Coerced?
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2024
The trend of male celebrities endorsing female products is increasing. However, research is lacking on whether this influence is due to the positive emotions generated by the male celebrity's attractiveness or the peer pressure due to mass purchases by the celebrity's fans, and how these effects differ across products with different attributes. This study aims to fill the gap in the existing literature by investigating the influence of male endorsers on female consumers purchase intention, and to deepen the understanding of the mechanisms by which attractiveness and conformity jointly influence purchase decisions. This study used a mixed-design text experiment to investigate the impact of male endorsers' attractiveness and conformity on female college students' positive product attitude and purchase intention for gender-neutral product, female skincare product, and female intimate product, based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The data collected from 456 female college students were analyzed using bootstrap analysis. The study found that both male endorsers' attractiveness and conformity can enhance female college students' positive product attitude and promote their purchase intention for gender-neutral product. However, for female skincare product, male endorsers' attractiveness affects their positive product attitude and purchase intention. Nevertheless, when conformity was present, attractiveness no longer had an effect. Furthermore, for individuals with high levels of loneliness, attractiveness had a detrimental effect on their positive product attitude. On the other hand, conformity had a positive effect by promoting positive product attitude and increasing purchase intention. For female's intimate product, attractiveness did not affect positive product attitude and purchase intention, but the positive effect of conformity remained significant, and both relationships were not moderated by loneliness. It enhances our comprehension of the intricate dynamics underlying the influence of male celebrity endorsements on consumer purchasing decisions, and also offers theoretical justification for the selection of male endorsers for diverse female product.
View
... Perception of vulnerability to disease and awareness of ageing may contribute to this negative bias [39]. Thus, old age is rejected as much as it could transmit illnesses and, what is more, remind us of our mortality [40][41][42]. Although ageism (i.e., negative attitudes towards older adults) is pervasive in many societies, more research is needed on its correlates and predictors [43]. ...
Age and moral disgust: An experimental priming effects vignette study
Article
Full-text available
The latest advances in the field suggest that disgust is involved in certain aspects of moral psychology [1–3]. Also, people are known to judge the actions of old people differently to those of young people [4, 5]. Previous work in a vignette study and correlational research design [6] has found that disgust sensitivity affects how harshly moral violations of old adults are judged. However, evidence on the relationship between disgust sensitivity and moral judgments (i.e., judgments of a moral violation) towards the elderly is still scarce and requires further experimental studies. Building on the reviewed literature, the present research is intended to extend current research in this largely unexplored topic, by examining whether the influence of affective priming of disgusting pictures on moral judgments is sensitive to the target’s age.
View
... the robustness of these effects remains questionable (see Yen & Cheng, 2013). We follow Rodríguez-Ferreiro et al.'s (2019) replication of Goldenberg et al. (2001), recommending an effect size of r = .22. For testing a 2 (measurement interval: the week before vs. after war) × 2 (perceived target gender: female vs. male) between image design on continuous dependent variables, we require N = 248 images to detect medium effect sizes ( f = .23) ...
Dressing up social psychology: Empirically investigating the psychological functions of clothing using the example of symbolic protection
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2023
  • BRIT J SOC PSYCHOL
Clothing behaviour remains an understudied research area within social psychology. Through the present research, we aim to anchor attire as an empirical research subject by investigating the psychological properties of one of its functionalities, namely, to provide protection. We argue that attire's undisputed role in shielding humans from environmental hazards may extend to the psychological level and protect them from the incorporeal consequences of existential threats symbolically. In this Registered Report, a mixed-methods approach links an ecologically valid field study of self-presentation in social media posts during Russia's war on Ukraine (Study 1; N = 248) with supraliminal priming of mortality salience in an online experiment (Study 2; N = 248). Across both studies, we expect that mortality concerns let people accentuate the physically protective attributes of clothing (e.g. more layers of clothing) and resort to more in-group prototypical dress styles (i.e. more gender-stereotypical). Findings show that people adjust their clothing preferences in response to existential threats, favouring in-group prototypical clothing (more gender-typical for both women and men in Study 1) and physically protective attire (higher in women and lower in men in Study 2) during high (vs. low) levels of existential threat. By positioning clothing as a research area within social psychology, our goal is to stimulate a wave of research on its profound role for humankind. Furthermore, we provide a dynamic and robust methodological approach to researching terror management theory.
View
... From the perspective of TMT, cultural worldviews are 'humanly created symbolic perceptual constructions shared by groups of people to minimize the anxiety associated with the awareness of death' (Solomon et al., 1991, p. 96). Therefore, the preservation of cultural worldviews and the awareness that one is contributing to such worldviews motivate social behaviours (Goldenberg et al., 2001;Solomon et al., 1991). Once an individual's cultural worldviews are threatened by COVID-19 fears, the need to act prosocial increases. ...
Segmenting and predicting prosocial behaviours among tourists: a latent class approach
Article
  • Jul 2023
In building sustainable post-pandemic destinations, it is critical to understand the typologies of tourists’ prosocial behaviours. Consequently, this study innovatively applied a latent class cluster analysis to segment the prosocial behaviours of 403 Macau tourists. Three ordered discrete segments were derived based on consistent tourists’ probabilities of performing prosocial behaviours on the trip namely: the Self-centred, the Intermediate, and the Philanthropist. The associated ordered logistic regression predicting the segments revealed that relative to the Self-centred, the Intermediate and the Philanthropist are more likely to face death terror, are sociable – seek vacation friends – and believe in cultural and heritage conservation. Not only does this research expand the theoretical application of Terror Management Theory, the Scrooge effect, and the self-esteem concept, it contributes to prosocial alternative tourism with novel destination management implications for marketing and promoting prosocial tourism performance.
View
Getting away from death fear: How disease threat drives consumers' colorfulness seeking
Article
  • Oct 2023
The COVID‐19 pandemic had significant effects on the health and wellbeing of people worldwide. However, in the post‐epidemic era, we still know very little about how disease threat shapes consumer psychology and behavior. To fill this gap in knowledge, the present study explores the effect of disease threat on a particular sensory preference of consumers, that is, a preference for colorfulness. Based on compensatory consumption theory, we propose the following: (1) consumers prefer colorful products and brand logos to compensate for both disease threat and chronically perceived disease threat; (2) the underlying mechanism for this effect is death‐related thoughts, in that disease threat leads to more death‐related thoughts, which in turn enhance colorfulness seeking; (3) the impact of disease threat on consumers' colorfulness seeking diminishes among high sensation seekers. A set of four studies, adopting both lab and survey methods, using various manipulations and measures, and testing diverse samples, provide convergent evidence for these hypotheses. Moreover, six alternative explanations were ruled out to further elucidate the psychological process under examination in this study. This paper contributes to the literature on consumer behavior, sensory marketing, terror management theory, and compensatory consumption. Implications of these findings are discussed.
View
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
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2000
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.
View
A Dual-Process Model of Defense Against Conscious and Unconscious Death-Related Thoughts: An Extension of Terror Management Theory
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 1999
Distinct defensive processes are activated by conscious and nonconscious but accessible thoughts of death. Proximal defenses, which entail suppressing death-related thoughts or pushing the problem of death into the distant future by denying one's vulnerability, are rational, threat-focused, and activated when thoughts of death are in current focal attention. Distal terror management defenses, which entail maintaining self-esteem and faith in one's cultural worldview, function to control the potential for anxiety that results from knowing that death is inevitable. These defenses are experiential, are not related to the problem of death in any semantic or logical way, and are increasingly activated as the accessibility of death-related thoughts increases, up to the point at which such thoughts enter consciousness and proximal threat-focused defenses are initiated. Experimental evidence for this analysis is presented.
View
Fear of Death and the Judgment of Social Transgressions: A Multidimensional Test of Terror Management Theory
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 1997
The purpose of the research was to integrate a multidimensional approach to fear of personal death with terror management theory. In Study 1, 190 students were divided according to the manipulation of death salience and the intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of fear of death and were asked to judge transgressions that have either intrapersonal or interpersonal consequences. Study 2 was a conceptual replication of Study 1, with the exception that the manipulation of mortality salience included conditions that made salient either intrapersonal or interpersonal aspects of death. Findings indicate that the effects of mortality salience depend on the aspect of death that is made salient, the aspect of death that individuals most fear, and the type of the judged transgression. More severe judgments of transgressions after death salience manipulation were found mainly when there was a fit between these 3 factors. Findings are discussed in light of terror management theory.
View
Role of Consciousness and Accessibility of Death-Related Thoughts in Mortality Salience Effects
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 1994
On the basis of terror management theory, research has shown that subtle mortality salience inductions engender increased prejudice, nationalism, and intergroup bias. Study 1 replicated this effect (increased preference for a pro-U.S. author over an anti-U.S. author) and found weaker effects when Ss are led to think more deeply about mortality or about the death of a loved one. Study 2 showed that this effect is not produced by thoughts of non-death-related aversive events. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that this effect occurs only if Ss are distracted from mortality salience before assessment of its effects. Study 4 revealed that although the accessibility of death-related thoughts does not increase immediately after mortality salience, it does increase after Ss are distracted from mortality salience. These findings suggest that mortality salience effects are unique to thoughts of death and occur primarily when such thoughts are highly accessible but outside of consciousness.
View
Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews: Empirical Assessments and Conceptual Refinements
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 1997
  • ADV EXP SOC PSYCHOL
This chapter proposes that the potential for abject terror created by the awareness of the inevitability of death in an animal instinctively programmed for self-preservation and continued experience lies at the root of a great deal of human motivation and behavior. This chapter presents the results of a substantial body of research that attests to the broad influence of the problem of death on human social behavior and illuminates the processes through which concerns about mortality exert their influence. The chapter overviews the primary assumptions and propositions of terror management theory and a description of the initial research conducted to test the theory. It presents a detailed consideration of more recent research that establishes the convergent and discriminant validity of the mortality salience treatment and the robustness of its effects through the use of alternative mortality salience treatments and comparison treatments, and replications by other researchers; it extends the range of interpersonal behaviors that are demonstrably influenced by terror management concerns. Moreover, it demonstrates the interaction of mortality salience with other theoretically relevant situational and dispositional variables, and provides an account of the cognitive processes through which mortality salience produces its effects. Finally, this chapter discusses the relation of terror management motives to other psychological motives and gives a consideration of issues requiring further investigation.
View
Proximal and Distal Defenses in Response to Reminders of One's Mortality: Evidence of a Temporal Sequence
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2000
  • Pers Soc Psychol Bull
The present study was designed to build on prior terror management research by testing the hypothesis that death-related thought first activates direct defenses to minimize the threat (proximal defense) and then later triggers symbolic cultural worldview defense (distal defense). After mortality salience, participants were either distracted from death-related thought or not and then completed either a measure of distal defense and then a measure of proximal defense or a proximal defense measure and then a distal defense measure. Results supported the authors’ predictions. Proximal defense in the form of vulnerability denial emerged only when participants had immediately before been thinking about death. In contrast, distal defense only emerged when participants were previously distracted from death-related thought. Discussion focuses on implications of these results for understanding the sequence of defenses initiated by mortality salience.
View
View
Nobody's Satisfied: Effects of Abnormal Eating Behaviors and Actual and Perceived Weight Status on Body Image Satisfaction in Males and Females
Article
  • Mar 1997
  • J SOC CLIN PSYCHOL
The present study replicated Zellner, Harner, and Adler (1989) in finding that all young adult women rate their Ideal f gures (what they would like to look like) and Opposite figures (what they believe the opposite sex finds attractive) thinner than their Current figures (how they believe they currently appear). While Low and High Eat scoring women chose an Ideal figure thinner than their Current figure, only High Eat women (indicating abnormal eating behaviors) chose an Ideal figure thinner than what they think men find attractive (Opposite). The present study also found that not only abnormal eating behaviors, but current weight status influences body image perception in young adult males and females. Both overweight men and women want to be thinner. Correct weight men (as determined from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company height and weight chart, 1983) wish to be heavier, while correct weight women (also determined from the Metropolitan Life Insurance chart) wish to be thinner. Many correct weight males believe they are underweight and so desire to be heavier, whereas females have a tendency to overestimate their size and therefore desire to be thinner. However, even when subjects perceive themselves as the correct weight they are dissatisfied. Almost all of the females who think they are the correct weight (35 out of 40) want to be thinner and 71% of the males either want to be thinner (7 out of 24) or heavier (10 out of 24).
View
The psychological bases of food rejections by humans
Article
  • Apr 1983
Through questionnaires and interviews with American university students, an inclusive set of psychological categories of substances rejected as food is delineated. Substances are rejected primarily because of: disliked sensory characteristics (distastes); anticipated negative consequences of ingestion (danger); offensiveness of the idea of what something is (disgust); or classification of something as not edible (inappropriate). This classification confirms a prior, preliminary taxonomy derived through a different technique, and expands and elaborates that taxonomy. The extent to which each type of rejection is focussed on the substance‐in‐mouth varies across categories. Dangerous substances are rejected in the mouth and in the body (post‐ingestional stages). Disgusting substances are rejected in the environment (pre‐ingestional stages), in the mouth and in the body. Distastes are rejected only when in the mouth. When taught this taxonomy, subjects could readily and consistently categorize a wide range of substances.
View
Subliminal Exposure to Death-Related Stimuli Increases Defense of the Cultural Worldview
Article
  • Sep 1997
Three experiments reported here provide empirical support for the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that unconscious concerns about death motivate allegiance to cultural beliefs. Study 1 contrasted exposure to a subliminal death-related stimulus, a standard mortality-salience treatment, and a neutral subliminal stimulus, and found that both the subliminal and the standard reminder of mortality led to more favorable evaluations of people who praised subjects' cultural worldview and more unfavorable evaluations of those who challenged it. Study 2 replicated this finding by comparing the effects of exposure to subliminal death stimuli and subliminal pain stimuli. Study 3 contrasted subliminal death stimuli, supraliminal death stimuli, and subliminal pain stimuli and found that only subliminal death stimuli produced these effects.
View