1. Terror Management Theory
Greenberg et al. (1990). Evidence for Terror Management Theory
II: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to Those Who
Threaten or Bolster the Cultural Worldview. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology. 58(2): 308-318.
Florian, V. & Mikulincer, M. (1997). Fear of Death and the
Judgement of Social Transgressions: A Multidimensional Test
of Terror Management Theory. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology. 73(2): 369-380.
2. Relevant Implications
∞ Culture as an anxiety-buffer
“Culture minimizes this anxiety by providing a conception of the universe
(cultural worldview) that imbues the world with order, meaning, and
permanence; by providing a set of standards of valued behavior that, if
satisfied, provide self-esteem; and by promising protection and, ultimately,
death transcendence to those who fulfill the standards of value.”
(Greenberg, Simon, Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Chatel, 1992, p. 212)
As Becker (as cited in Pyszczynski, 2003) puts it:
“Psychologically, then, the function of culture is not to illuminate the truth
but rather to obscure the horrifying possibility that death entails the
permanent annihilation of the self”
3. Study 1
The effects of mortality salience on the
reactions to those with similar or dissimilar
religious worldviews
Prediction: Mortality salience would increase
liking for a member of one’s own religious
group and decrease liking for a member of a
religious out-group.
5. Mortality Salience Manipulation
(a) Please briefly describe the
emotions that the thought of
your death arouses in you.
(b) Please write down, as
specifically as you can, what
you think physically will
happen to you as you die.
6. Procedure
2) Read a set of questionnaires supposedly
from two different targets…
Jew and Christian
3) Evaluate the targets
∞ Interpersonal Judgement Scale (Byrne, 1971)
7. Impression Assessment
Interpersonal Judgement Scale (Byrne, 1971)
e.g. rate the target’s intelligence, knowledge of current events, mortality, and
the extent to which they would like and enjoy working with the target.
How applicable each of 20 characteristics are to the target (1 = not at
all applicable to 9 = extremely applicable):
∞ Stingy, manipulative, arrogant, snobbish, obnoxious;
∞ Honest, cheerful, reliable, trustworthy, argumentative,
intelligent, warm, patient, kind, ambitious, stable, sleazy,
introverted, and impulsive.
8. Results
∞ Inducing Christian subjects to think about their
mortality led them to give more positive IJS
ratings of fellow Christians and more negative
IJS ratings of Jews.
∞ Across all measures, the Christian target was
rated more positively than the Jew target only in
the mortality salient condition.
9. Study 2
Mortality salience intensifies the similarityattraction relationship (Byrne, 1971)
Therefore, when reminded of their
mortality, participants should show greater
preference for similar others over dissimilar
others.
10. Study 3
Mortality salience should have a stronger effect on
reactions to those who directly validate or threaten
aspects of subjects’ cultural worldviews
∞
∞
∞
∞
∞
∞
Cover page
Few background questions
Mortality salience manipulation
Interview
Interviewee credentials page
Primary dependent variables (in order to
assess reactions to the interview)
11. Interview
3 versions:
Political Science Quarterly
Pro-US: “In this country, the people and not the government will
be the final judges of the value in which to be a free thinker.”
Mixed: “Morality has nothing to do with our foreign policy.
That’s why the idea that the U.S. is a promotor of world
democracy and freedom is a total sham.”
Anti-US: “Violent overthrow is the only way the people will ever
wrest control of their own nation from the capitalist
powerbrokers.”
12. Dependent Measure
Differential Emotions Scale (Izard, 1977)
Indicate from 1 (not feeling the emotions at all) to 9 (feeling the
emotion a great deal)
∞ How much did you like the interviewee?
∞ Would you like to meet him?
∞ How knowledgeable do you think he is?
∞ Do you agree with the interviewee’s opinions?
∞ How much truth do you think there was in what he
said?
13. Results
Mortality salience encourages positive
reactions to someone who praises the
culture and negative reactions to those who
criticize it.
However, the credentials of the interviewee
did not alter the primary effects of mortality
salience.
14. Florian, V. & Mikulincer, M. (1997). Fear of Death and the
Judgement of Social Transgressions: A Multidimensional Test
of Terror Management Theory. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology. 73(2): 369-380.
15. Fear of Personal Death Scale (Florian & Kravetz, 1983)
7-point scale ranging from 1 (totally incorrect for me) to 7 (totally correct for me)
The Intrapersonal subscale is composed of two factors:
∞ Fear of Loss of Self-Fulfillment (i.e., “Death frightens me because my
life will not have been properly used“ )
∞ Fear of Self-Annihilation (i.e., "I am afraid of death because of the
decomposition of my body” or “Loss and destruction of the self).
The Interpersonal subscale is composed of two
additional factors:
∞ Fear of Loss of Social Identity (i.e., “I will be forgotten” or “Absence will
not be felt”)
∞ Fear of Consequences to Family and Friends (i.e., “Because I won’t be
able to provide for my family” or “Relatives will not overcome sorrow”)
16. Hypothesis
(1) Making death salient will lead people who fear death
because of its intrapersonal consequences to react
more negatively (as compared with people in the death
non-salient condition) only to a social transgression with
intrapersonal consequences. These people will not
react more negatively to a social transgression with
mainly interpersonal consequences.
(2) In addition, the induction of death salience will lead
people who fear death because of its interpersonal
consequences to react more negatively to a social
transgression with interpersonal consequences but not
to a transgression with intrapersonal consequences.
17. Florian, V. & Mikulincer, M. (1997)
2 x 2 x 2 design
∞ Mortality salience (salient vs. nonsalient)
∞ Intrapersonal Fear of Death (high vs. low)
∞ Interpersonal Fear of Death (high vs. low)
Dependent Variable: (1) ratings of transgressions with
intrapersonal consequences; (2) ratings of transgressions
with interpersonal consequences.
18. Multidimensional Social Transgression Scale
(MSTS)
Evaluate the severity of the transgression from 1 (not severe at all) to
9 (very severe).
Interpersonal Transgressions:
“The vehicle hit me, but my son is the victim” said the teacher who
was hit in front of his son’s eyes while a young driver drove through
the residential area at a speed of 100 mph. “Half a year after the
accident, I have totally recovered, and he is still afraid of the sound
of a car. He can’t travel in a moving vehicle. He walks to and from
school, which is two miles from our house, trying to avoid all roads.
The boy who was happy and carefree has turned anxious and
paranoid.”
19. Multidimensional Social Transgression Scale
(MSTS)
Evaluate the severity of the transgression from 1 (not severe at all) to
9 (very severe).
Personal Transgressions:
“A frustrated burglar destroyed the life masterpiece of the renowned
sculptor, one week before its completion and display to the public.
The burglar, disappointed from the small booty, tied up the sculptor
and in front of his eyes hit the ceramic sculpture with a heavy
hammer until it shattered. The stunned sculptor: “Nineteen years of
work – the best of my talent, turned into a pile of rubble.”
20. Results
∞ Death salience leads to harsher evaluations of
moral transgressions independent of the type of
death fear or transgression
∞ Independent of mortality salience, people
respond most harshly to transgressions that
coincide with the aspects of death they most fear.
21. Discussion
∞ Does thinking about death really makes people
genuinely more concerned about death?
∞ Another causal explanation for the fact that
people prefer similar others over dissimilar
others?
― People may fear the unknown and the strange(r) more than
they fear death.
― Evolution alert! Similar people are more likely to be genetic
relatives therefore we tend to like them more.
22. "Death left its old tragic heaven and became the lyrical core
of man: his invisible truth, his visible secret."
-- Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic
