Evidence for Terror Management Theory I: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to Those Who...

8/14/2019 Evidence for Terror Management Theory I: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to Those Who Threaten

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JournalofPersonalityandSocia1989, Vol.57, No.4,681-690 Copyright

1989by the IT nPsychological Association Inc.0022-3514/89/S00.75

Evidence ForTerrorManagement Theory:I.TheEffectsofMortality SalienceonReactions

toThoseWho Violate orUpholdCulturalValuesAbramRosenblattandJeffGreenberg

University ofArizonaSheldonSolomon

Skidmore CollegeTomPyszczynski

University of Colorado, Colorado SpringsDeborahLyon

University ofArizona

Onthe basis of terror managementtheory,it washypothesizedthatwhenmortality is made salient,Sswould respond especially positively toward those who uphold cultural values and especially nega-tivelytoward thosewhoviolate cultural values.InExperiment I,judges recommended especiallyharsh bonds for a prostitute when mortality was made salient. Experiment 2 replicated this findingwith student Ss anddemonstrated thatitoccurs only amongSswith relatively negative attitudestoward prostitution. Experiment3demonstrated that mortality salience also leadstolarger rewardrecommendations for a hero who upheld cultural values. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that themortality salience effect doesnot result from heightened self-awarenessor physiological arousal.Experiment 6replicated the punishmenteffectwith adifferent mortality salience manipulation.Implicationsfor theroleoffearofdeathinsocial behaviorarediscussed.

Although it is evident that individual behavior isgreatlyaffected byone's culture, relativelylittleisknownabouttheforces that promote allegiance to particular culturalworld-views.Terror management theory(Greenberg,Pyszczynski,&Solomon, 1986; Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski,1989,inpress) posits that cultural conceptions of reality serve the vitalfunction ofbufferingtheanxietythat resultsfromawarenessofhumanvulnerabilityandmortality. Consequently, people arehighlymotivatedtomaintainfaithin thecultural conceptionsofrealitytowhichtheysubscribeandtodefendthese concep-tionsagainst threats. The purpose of the researchreportedinthisarticlewas totest several hypotheses derivedfrom terrormanagement theory concerningreactionstothosewhoupholdandviolateculturalworldviews.

Terror management theory is based largely on insightsgleaned from Ernest Becker's (1962, 1973, 1975) attempts tosynthesizecontributionsfrom thevarious social science dsci-plines intoacoherent conceptionofhuman motivationandbe-havior.AccordingtoBecker,sophsticated human intellectualabilitiesleadto an awareness of human vulnerability andmor-tality, andthis awareness creates the potential for overwhelmngterror. As these abilities evolved cultural worldviews began toemerge. The potential for terror put a press on evolving concep-tions ofreality such that any worldviewthat was to survive

Wewould liketoexpressourappreciation toLisa Williamsforcon-ductingExperiment5.

Correspondence concerning thisarticleshouldbeaddressedto JeffGreenberg, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson,Arizona85721.

neededto provide a means of managing this terror. The concep-tion ofrealityespousedby anygivencultureis thusthebasis ofa culturalanxiety-buffer that serves to protect the individualfromtheanxietythat resultsfromawarenessof his or hervul-nerabilityandultimatemortality.'

According to thetheory,however,protectionfromanxiety re-quires thatoneacheveasenseofvalueorself-esteemwithinthe cultural context. This is because the culture promses secu-rityonlyto those who live up to the cultural standards ofvalue.Cultures provide this securityin twoways:first,throughcon-ceptions of the worldas a just place; in a truly just world badthings wouldnot happen to good people. Second culturespromserealandsymbolic immortalitytothosewholiveup tothe standards ofvalue;real immortality via religious concepts,andsymbolic immortality via permanent contributions to thedeath-transcending culture. Fromthis perspective,theculturalanxiety-buffer consistsof twocomponents: (a)beliefin the va-lidity of a culturalworldviewandthe standards andvalues asso-ciatedwiththat worldview, and(b) belief that one is meeting orexceedingthose standards andvalues. Thus, the cultural world-viewprovides a context within whichan individual cancon-ceiveof him- or herself as avaluableparticipant in ameaningfulworld andthusfunctionwithequanimty in thefaceof his orherultimatemortality.2

1We are not claiming that this is the only function of the culturalworldview,butrather thatit is averyimportant one.

2A complete exposition of terror management theory, including adevelopmental account of how the two components of terror manage-ment acquire theiranxiety-bufferingproperties,would go far beyondthe scope ofthis article.For a thorough presentation, seeGreenberg,

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8 ROSENBLATT, GREENBERG, SOLOMON, PYSZCZYNSK1, LYONUnfortunately,the culturalanxiety-bufferrequires continual

bolsteringanddefenseagainst threat. In their daily lives, peopleare constantly confrontedwithremnders of the potential forpain, aversiveexperience, anddeath One needonlypick up anewspaperor turn on the television to encounter suchremnd-ers.Inaddition, because cultural worldviewsareessentiallyso-ciallyconstructedfictions, they arealwaysvulnerabletothreatbyincomng information and require constant social valida-tion.Given that people rely on social consensus to instillconfi-denceintheir conceptionsofreality (cf.ffestinger, 1954;Kelley,1967), the dverse array of beliefs, values, and behaviors towhich people are exposedmake itdifficultto sustain faith inany particularworldviewor inone'splace in it. Terror manage-ment theory, therefore,positsthat peoplewillrespondpositivelyto those whobolstertheir culturalanxiety-buffers and nega-tivelyto those who threaten their cultural anxiety-buffers.

Clearly,peoplereactnegativelytothosewho violateculturalnorms andvalues (e.g., Miller & Anderson, 1979; Schachter,1951).The researchreported in this article was specifically fo-cusedon the terror managementfunction ofreactionsto suchdeviance. Fromaterror management perspective, negativere-actionstomoral transgressors occur because suchdevianceim-plicitlythreatens thevalidityofone'sownbeliefsandvalues andthe cultural conception of realityfromwhichthey are derivedWhenmoral principles are not followed,it implies either thatthe principles may not be universally validor that thetransgres-sor isevil.Rather than consideringthepossibility thatthemoralprinciple is invalid people generally prefer to viewtransgres-sors asevil;consequently, it isgenerallyagreedthat those whobreak cultural rules must be punished

Totheextentthatnegative reactions towardmoraltransgres-sors are rooted in the implicitthreatto the cultural worldview,itfollowsthat suchreactions shouldbeintensifiedwhen peopleare remnded of the issues from whichtheir worldviews serveto protect them The six experimentsreportedin this articleweredesignedtoassessthisproposition.Ourgeneral hypothesiswasthatwhenpeopleareremndedoftheirownmortality, theyare especially motivated to maintain their cultural anxiety-buffer,andthus are especially punitive towardthose who violateit andespecially benevolent towardthose who upholdit.

Experiment1Inour firstexperiment,weassessedreactions to a moral

transgressor aftersubjects' own mortality wasbrieflymade sa-lient.Morespecifically, we askedmunicipal court judges to setbondfor anallegedprostitute,on thebasisof thetypeofinfor-mationtheytypically use to make suchjudgments. The chargeofprostitution was chosen because it emphasizedthe moral na-tureof the allegedcrime.Immediately before receivinginfor-mation aboutthecaseinquestion, mortalitywasmade salienttohalfof the judges by asking themto fill out abriefopen-endedquestionnaire concernedwiththeir thoughts andfeelingsabouttheprospectoftheirown death Municipal court judges wereused assubjects bothtoenhance theexternal validityof the

Pyszczynski, and Solomon, 1986,or Solomon, Greenberg, and Py-szczynski, 1989.

findings andto assess whether our hypothesized effectwouldoccur using individuals trainedto arrive at decisions basedonthe rational evaluation of factual information according tothelaw.

MethodSubjects. Thesubjects were15maleand 7femalemunicipal court

judgesfroma large southwestern city. The judges volunteered to partici-patein thestudy.

Procedure. The experimenter explained to the contact judge (whosedatawere not used) that she was interested in the relation betweenper-sonality,attitudes,and bonddecisions.The judge then distributed thepackets of materials and instructed the other judges to complete theminorder and return them to acollectionbox in thejudge'schambers assoon as possible.Ofthe 24 judgesgiventhe materials, 22 returned them.

The packet ofmaterialscontained an instruction cover sheet, severalfiller questionnaires thatwereincluded to support the cover story anddisguise the true purpose of the study(theLife ChangeScale,T. H.Holmes & Rahe, 1967, and the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck,1967),themortality-salience manipulation,theMultipleAffect Adjec-tive Check List (MAACL;Zuckerman &Lubin, 1965),acasebriefforthe accused prostitute, and a bond assessment form. The instructionstold subjects not to look ahead and to complete theformsconsecutivelyinonesitting. Subjectswerealso assuredoftheir anonymityandaskednot totalk aboutthestudywithanyone else.

Themortality-salience manipulationwasaccomplishedbyinsertingtheMortality Attitudes Personality Survey intothepacketsforhalfofthesubjects. Thesurveyis a brief two-item, open-ended questionnairedesignedspecificallyfor use inthis study. First, itexplains thatit is anewformof projectivepersonality assessment inwhich open-endedre-sponses to questions about death are content analyzed. Then it askssubjectstowriteabout(a)whatwillhappentothemasthey physicallydie,and (b) theemotions thatthethoughtoftheirowndeath arousesinthem. Control subjects were notgiventhis questionnaire.The mortality-salience manipulationwasfollowed by the M A A C L ,whichwas included to assess anyaffective reactionsto the manipula-tion.TheM A A C Lwasscoredforpositiveaffect,hostility, depression, andanxiety(Zuckerman&Lubin, 1965).

Thecase briefandbond assessmentformsthatfollowedwere virtuallyidentical to those typically submitted by pretrial services to the judges(the contact judge helped in their preparation). The casebriefstatedthearrestingcharge (prostitution)and thedefendant's address, employ-mentrecord, and length of residency. The prosecutor noted that, be-cause of the defendant's lack of established community ties and giventhathecouldnot verify theprecedinginformation, herecommendedagainst releasingthedefendanton her ownrecognizance.Acopyof thecitation that was(hypothetically)issued to the defendant was also in-cluded.This citationgavebasic arrestinformationsuch as the locationanddateof the crime, the arrestingofficer,and the arresting charge. Thecase brief wasfollowed by a form that asked the judges to set bond.This form explained that thedefendanthad had aprior prostitutionconviction6 months ago and had nofailuresto appear incourt.

Results and DiscussionAone-way analysisofvariance (ANOVA)onsubjects' bond

assessments revealedthepredictedeffect,F \, 20) =4.70,p .20). Inaddition,all within-cell


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TERROR MANAGEMENT:I 683correlations betweenthebond decisionsand thevariousMAACLsubscales were nonsignificant.

The major findingofExperiment 1 wasthat,aspredicted,reminding subjectsoftheir mortalityledthemtorecommendhigher bondsfor an accused prostitute. Accordingto terrormanagementtheory, moral principlesarepartof theculturalanxiety-buffer thatprotectsindividuals fromanxiety concern-ing their vulnerabilityand mortality. Transgressions againstthese standards implicitly threaten the integrity of the anxiety-buffer andthus engender negative reactions towardthe trans-gressor. Inducing subjects to think about their mortality pre-sumablyincreased their needforfaithintheir values,andthusincreased their desire to punish the moral transgressor.A nobvious alternative explanationforthese resultsisthatjudgesin the mortality-salience conditionwere simplyput in abad mood and that bad mood predisposed the judges to treatthedefendant harshly (cf.Veitch&G riffitt, 1976).This expla-nationisrendered unlikely, however,by thelackof significantdifferences between groups on any of the MAACL subscales.Nonetheless,one of thegoalsofExperiment2 was toassess thisalternative.

Experiment2The central purpose of Experiment 2 was to test a more re-

fined prediction ofterror management theory. Although,forthesake ofsimplicity,wehavediscussedtheculturalworldviewastheconceptionofreality sharedby allwithinaculture,inactu-alityeach individual withinaculturehas his or her ownunder-standingof thecultural worldview. Although most individualswithina culture are likely to share many basic assumptions andvalues,on thebasisofindividual experiences, perceptions,andinterpretations each individual investsin aunique versionofthecultural worldview. Theoretically,theindividual'sownver-sion of thecultural worldview providesthebasisforequanimity.Thus,theincreased punishmentfoundinExperiment 1's mor-tality-salient condition should occur primarily among subjectswho haverelatively negative attitudes toward prostitution.Totest this hypothesis, we included a premeasure of attitudes to-wardprostitutioninExperiment2.A second purposeofthis experimentwas tofurtherexaminethemood alternative.If theresultsofExperiment1resultedsimply from anegative mood state created by the mortality-salience manipulation, itfollowsthat subjects' tendency to reactnegativelytoward others would not be limited to those who hadviolated cultural normsbutwould extendto anytarget.Toas-sess this possibility,weasked subjectsinthis experimenttoeval-uatetheexperimenter,who had notviolatedanysocialorcul-tural rules.IfExperiment1's findingsresulted from asimpleassociation of the target with a negative moodstate,then sub-jectsshould derogate the experimenter aswellas the hypotheti-caldefendant; indeed, they might derogate the experimentermore becauseshegavethemthedeath questionnaire.Method

Subjects. Subjects were3 1maleand 47femalecollege studentswhoparticipatedin the study during aclassperiodof a research methodscourse.Of these subjects,the 22 men and 29women withthe mostposi-

tiveandnegative attitudes toward prostitution (upperandlower thirds)wereusedin theprimary analysis.Procedure. Withtheexceptionof the followingchanges,the proce-durewasidentical tothatofExperiment 1.First, rather than givingsubjects thematerials to return to theexperimenter attheir conve-nience,thematerials weredistributedandcollectedduringtheclassperiod. Second, the cover story was somewhat more general. The ex-pressed purposeof thestudywas toinvestigatehowpersonality vari-ables and attitudes affectpeople'sdecisions and evaluations of variousstimuli. Third, because most college students know relatively littleaboutthe lawrelevanttosetting bond, subjects wereprovided withawrittenexplanation of the bond-setting processbeforethey proceededto the filler questionnaires. This explanation included a summary ofrelevantlegal termsand astatement that bondforthis classof offenseusuallyrangesfrom$0 to$999.

Moreimportant,a measure of attitude toward prostitution was in-cluded in Experiment 2 among the filler questionnaires. The Prostitu-tion Attitude Scale consisted of ratings of five statements concerningprostitution (3anti,2pro)on 10-pointscales, rangingfrom stronglyagreeto strongly disagree.Afactor analysisofthis scale revealedonlyone factor, withall five items loading .70 or higher. The distributionofscores on theattitude-toward-prostitutionmeasure was divided intothirds,andsubjectsin theupperandlowertertilewere includedin theanalysisas those with positive and negative attitudes toward prostitu-tion, respectively.

Finally,once the experimenter had apparently completed the studyand left theroom,thecourse instructor passedout the InterpersonalJudgment Scale (US; Byrne,1971)andtold subjects thatthestudywasdesigned in part to assess people's reactions to the experimenter. TheIJS asked subjects to rate the extent to which they liked the experi-menter, would liketowork withher on anadditional task,and viewedher asintelligent, moral, knowledgeable,andwelladjusted.Afterall thewrittenmaterialswerecollected,thesubjects were thoroughly debriefedby thecourse instructor.Resultsand D iscussion

Theprimary analyses were2(mortality salience)X 2(atti-tude toward prostitution) ANOVAS.3 As in Experiment 1, ahighlysignificant maineffectofmortality salience emergedonthe bond measure,F 1,47)= 8.77,p


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684 ROSENBLATT, GREENBERG, SOLOMON, PYSZCZYNSKI, L Y ONTable1MeanBondAssessmentsfo rStudy2 Interaction BetweenMortalitySalienceandAttitude TowardProstitutionAttitude towardprostitution

FavorableUnfavorable

Mortalitysalient145.83b413.88a

Mortalitynonsalient117.86b78.1 lb

Note.Means that do not share asubscriptdifferatp


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TERROR MANAGEMENT:I 685occur onlywhenthetargetistruly viewedas amoraltransgres-sorwithin the context of the individual's version of the culturalworldview.Study 2 also showed that mortality salience did notencourage negative evaluations of theexperimenter. Study3showed that mortality salience encourages higher reward for ahero aswellas harsher punishment for a prostitute.Across the three studies, there was no evidence that the mor-tality-salience manipulation altered mood; mood isthereforeanunlikelybasis for an alternative explanation of the results.Three otherfindingsalso contraindicateamood alternative:(a)onlythosewitha negative attitude toward prostitution recom-mended a high bond in the mortality-salience condition; (b)mortality saliencedid notleadtonegative evaluationsof theexperimenter; and (c) mortality salience led to positive treat-mentof thehero, which wouldbe anunlikelyresultof a badmood.

Whereas thesedatavirtuallyeliminatemoodas an alterna-tive,afewother potential alternative explanations warrant con-sideration. One is a self-awareness explanation. If self-aware-ness encourages individuals to behave in a manner that is con-sistent with their attitudes and standards (for reviews, seeCarver & Scheier,1981;Wicklund, 1975),perhaps the resultsfrom the previous experiments could be attributed to an in-crease inself-awarenessbrought on by the death questionnaire.To test between this explanation and the terror managementexplanation, subjectsinExperiment4were askedto setbondfortheprostitute under conditionsof high or low self-awareness,aswell asunderthehighor lowmortality-salience conditionsusedin theprevious studies.If theeffectsofmortality saliencearemediatedbyheightened self-awareness, then subjectsin ahighself-awarenesscondition (createdby themost reliableself-focusingstimulus, a mirror) should set a higher bond than sub-jectsin a lowself-awarenesscondition.Anotheralternative explanationfor the effects found so farmightbethatthedeathquestionnaire createsarousal, whichunder some conditions has been shown to intensify reactions toboth positive and negative stimuli (e.g., Paulhus, 1987; White,Fishbein,&Rutstein, 1981;Zillman, 1971).Anumberof ourfindingscastdoubton thenotion that arousal mediates theseeffects.First,excitationtransfereffectsare assumed to be medi-atedbyintensificationofaffect;therewas noevidence thatthedeath questionnaire reliably increased affect. Second, excita-tion transfereffectsonly occuratspecificpointsintime afterthe initial arousing event(whenthe individual is still arousedbut nolonger awareofit).Thetiming betweenthedeath ques-tionnaireand thedependent measurewas notcontrolledin anyofthe three studies; thus, the ratherspecifictiming prerequisitesforexcitation transfereffectswere unlikely to have been met. Inaddition, in Study 3 the order inwhichthe measureswerefilledout (and therefore the amount of time between the manipula-tionand thedependent measure)did not modify the effectofmortality salience. These factsmake it extremelyunlikelythatexcitation transfer could account for our findings. Still, thearousal amplification explanation warrants consideration.If mortality-salience effects result from arousal, then re-sponses to any positive or negative stimuli should beintensified.Terror management theory,on theother hand,predicts intensi-ficationofresponse only to stimuli that bolster or threaten theculturalworldview.Therefore,inStudy4,along with setting

bond for the prostitute, subjects were asked to rate how muchthey liked five generally pleasant events and five generally un-pleasant events. Finally,to assesswhether mortality saliencesimply encourages inflated monetary estimates,subjects werealso askedtoestimatethevalueofeight consumer products.Method

Subjects. Subjects were39maleand 44female studentswh opartici-pated in partial fulfillment of their introductory psychology researchrequirement.Procedure. Threeorfoursubjects arrivedat the lab foreach session.Subjectswere giventh e same cover story asbefore. In addition, theyweretold that to ensure their anonymity, they would be given the ques-tionnaires in separate cubicles. Subjects were asked to fill out the ques-tionnairesin theorder presented without skip ping aheadorgoing back;theywere also asked to return to the central room afterthey had com-pletedall of theforms,put theformsin anenvelope,anddrop theminthedatabox.Subjectswere then told that the cubicles were being shared with otherresearchers,andconsequently therew asequipmentforother studies inthe cubicles. Subjects were asked n ot to touch any of the equipment andto ignore it. Subjects were theninstructed to gointoone of thefourcubicles and begin working on the questionnaires. In each of the cubi-cles, there w ereavarietyofobjects lying around. In two of the cubiclestherewasalsoa 3-ft X4-ft mirrorpositionedon the desk, leaning upagainst theback wallsothat, wh enseated,th e subjectwaslookingdi-rectlyat his or herimagein themirror.Ahandwritten signtapedto thetop left corner of the mirror read"Pleasedo not move this mirror.There were no mirrors in the other two cubicles.Subjects' packets began with the usual bond instructions and fillerquestionnaires, followedby thedeath questionnairefor half thesubjects.Thenhalfthesubjects were giventhebondinstructionsand recommen-dation form, followed by a questionnaire tha t asked them to rate fivepositive and fivenegative events,on ascale rangingfrom 1 absolutelyhate it)to 9 absolutely love it),and a questionnaire that asked themhowmuch m oney eachoffourattractive consumer productswasworthtothemand howmuch m oney they would chargeforfour other prod-ucts if they were selling them at a retailoutlet.The other half of thesubjects were askedtorateth epositiveandnegative eventsand thecon-sumer products and were thengiventhe bond materials. The consumerproducts included such thingsas atelevision,aplane trip,asofa,and abicycle. The positive events included such things as eating at a favoriterestaurant andgettinga really good night's sleep; the negative eventsincluded sitting throughaboring lectureand adentist's hittinganerve.Whenall subjects had returned to the central room, they were p robedforsuspicionandth oroughly debriefed.Resultsa nd Discussion

Initial2(mortality salience)X 2(self-awareness)X 2(orderofpresentation)ANOVASrevealed no effectof order on any ofthe measures. Thus, order was ignored in the final analyses.Analysisof the bond assessments revealed only the expectedmaineffectofmortality salience,F l,79) =116.54,p .14).

Analyses of ratings of both individual items and compositesofthepositive-andnegative-eventitemsshowednoeffects ap-proaching significance (allps >.20). Analysis of a composite ofthe monetary value estimates also revealed noeffects p >.20).


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68 6 R O SE N B LAT T , GREENBERG, SOLOMON, PYSZCZYNSKI, L Y ONAnalysesof the affectscales revealeda significantmortality-salience main effect onpositiveaffect,F l, 79) = 10.76,p

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