Fleeing the Body: A Terror Management Perspective on the Problem of Human Corporeality

From the perspective of terror management theory, the human body is problematic because it serves as a perpetual reminder of the inevitability of death. Human beings confront this problem through the development of cultural worldviews that imbue reality-and the body as part of that reality-with abstract symbolic meaning. This fanciful flight from death is in turn the psychological impetus for distancing from other animals and the need to regulate behaviors that remind us of our physical nature. This analysis is applied to questions concerning why people are embarrassed and disgusted by their bodies' functions; why sex is such a common source of problems, difficulties, regulations, and ritualizations; why sex tends to be associated with romantic love; and why cultures value physical attractiveness and objectify women. This article then briefly considers implications of this analysis for understanding psychological problems related to the physical body and cultural variations in the need to separate oneself from the natural world.

Evaluation of Lane Departure Warnings for Drowsy Drivers

Lane departure warning (LDW) is a driver warning system designed to reduce the number of unintended lane departures. We addressed warning effectiveness and customer acceptance when the unintended lane departures are the result of drowsy driving. Thirty-two adults who were sleep deprived for 23 hours participated in the study and drove Ford's VIRTTEX driving simulator. Four Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) for LDW were evaluated: Steering Wheel Torque, Rumble Strip Sound, Steering Wheel Vibration and Head Up Display. A yaw deviation technique was used to produce controlled lane departures in the first two hours of the drive while for the last 20 minutes driver-initiated lane departures were analyzed. The Steering Wheel Vibration HMI, accompanied by Steering Wheel Torque, was found to be the most effective HMI for LDW in a group of drowsy drivers, with faster reaction times and smaller lane excursions. The Vibration HMI was also perceived by the drowsy drivers to be acceptable and helpful.

Leading Indicators of Drowsiness in Simulated Driving

Drowsiness while driving was measured using three measures: a physiological measure of eye closure, a sustained reaction time task and a subjective assessment. The study was conducted in Ford's VIRTTEX driving simulator. Thirty-two adults who were sleep deprived for 24 hours and six adults who had a full night of sleep participated in the study. The performance of the sleep-deprived group was compared with that of the control group. Sleep-deprived drivers had significantly longer PVT reaction times, a greater number of lapses, higher PERCLOS values and perceived themselves as sleepier than did the control group. This study demonstrated the ability to successfully implement drowsiness measures in a driving simulator. The advantage of a three-hour simulator drive in providing increasing levels of drowsiness in each subject was established. These findings provide metrics that can be used to evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of safety systems for drowsy drivers.

He Dies, He Scores: Evidence That Reminders of Death Motivate Improved Performance in Basketball

This research applied insights from terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) to the world of sport. According to TMT, self-esteem buffers against the potential for death anxiety. Because sport allows people to attain self-esteem, reminders of death may improve performance in sport. In Study 1, a mortality salience induction led to improved performance in a "one-on-one" basketball game. In Study 2, a subtle death prime led to higher scores on a basketball shooting task, which was associated with increased task-related self-esteem. These results may promote our understanding of sport and provide a novel potential way to improve athletic performance.

Deliver us from Evil: The Effects of Mortality Salience and Reminders of 9/11 on Support for President George W. Bush

According to terror management theory, heightened concerns about mortality should intensify the appeal of charismatic leaders. To assess this idea, we investigated how thoughts about death and the 9/11 terrorist attacks influence Americans’ attitudes toward current U.S. President George W. Bush. Study 1 found that reminding people of their own mortality (mortality salience) increased support for Bush and his counterterrorism policies. Study 2 demonstrated that subliminal exposure to 9/11-related stimuli brought death-related thoughts closer to consciousness. Study 3 showed that reminders of both mortality and 9/11 increased support for Bush. In Study 4, mortality salience led participants to become more favorable toward Bush and voting for him in the upcoming election but less favorable toward Presidential candidate John Kerry and voting for him. Discussion focused on the role of terror management processes in allegiance to charismatic leaders and political decision making.

Evidence that Projection of a Feared Trait can Serve a Defensive Function

Two experiments tested the notion that allowing people to project a feared trait onto another individual would facilitate denial of the trait. In Study 1, participants were given feedback that they were high or low in repressed anger and were allowed to rate an ambiguous target on anger or not. Participants who received high (vs. low) anger feedback rated the target especially high on anger. In addition, participants who received high anger feedback and who were allowed to project their anger had the lowest anger accessibility on a word completion exercise. Study 2 replicated these basic findings using a different trait dimension (dishonesty) and a direct measure of denial (self-attributions of dishonesty). Specifically, in Study 2, participants who received high dishonesty feedback and who were allowed to project dishonesty reported having an especially low level of dishonesty. Discussion focused on the relationship between classic projection and other forms of psychological defense.

The Scrooge Effect: Evidence that Mortality Salience Increases Prosocial Attitudes and Behavior

From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to express culturally prescribed prosocial attitudes and engage in culturally prescribed prosocial behaviors. Two studies supported these hypotheses. In Study 1, people were interviewed in close proximity to a funeral home or several blocks away and were asked to indicate their attitudes toward two charities they deemed important. Those who were interviewed in front of the funeral home reported more favorability toward these charities than those who were interviewed several blocks away. In Study 2, the authors found that following mortality salience, people gave more money to a charity supporting an American cause than people who had been exposed to an aversive control topic. However, mortality salience had no effect on the amount of money given to a foreign cause. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Play It Safe or Go for the Gold? A Terror Management Perspective on Self-Enhancement and Self-Protective Motives in Risky Decision Making

Terror management theory (TMT) posits that bolstering self-esteem buffers mortality concerns; accordingly, in past research, heightening mortality salience (MS) increases self-enhancement. However, risky self-esteem-relevant decisions often present a choice between enhancing self-esteem by striving for excellence and protecting self-esteem by avoiding potential failure. Which strategy is preferred under MS? Combining TMT with insights from Steele, Spencer, and Lynch's (1993) resource model, the authors hypothesized and found that MS leads high, but not low, self-esteem participants faced with a risky decision to pursue opportunities for excellence despite substantial risk of failure (Studies 1 and 2); in Study 3, using a more impactful decision, this effect was replicated and it was furthermore found that mortality-salient low-self-esteem participants become more risk-averse. Furthermore, in Study 2, a self-affirmation prime, previously shown to reduce MS-induced defenses, eliminated the self-enhancement effect among high-self-esteem participants. Implications for understanding self-esteem, TMT, and risky decision making are briefly discussed.

Considering the Harshest Verdict First

Biasing effects of considering the harshest verdict first in a murder trial were studied in two separate experiments. The order in which possible verdicts were considered was predicted to bias subsequent hypothesis testing in the direction of the first verdict considered. Thus, it was predicted that participants who were instructed to consider possible final verdicts in an order from harshest to most lenient, as is usually done in actual murder trials, would render significantly harsher verdicts than those who were instructed to consider lenient verdicts first. The hypothesis was supported in both experiments, and the results are explained in terms of Kruglanski and Freund's (1983) cognition-generation freezing process as well as Snyder and Swann's (1978a, 1978b) notion of a confirmatory bias in hypothesis testing.

Gender-Typical Responses to Sexual and Emotional Infidelity as a Function of Mortality Salience Induced Self-Esteem Striving

The authors propose that gender-differentiated patterns of jealousy in response to sexual and emotional infidelity are engendered by the differential impact of each event on self-esteem for men and women. Study 1 demonstrated that men derive relatively more self-esteem from their sexlives, whereas women’s self-esteem is more contingent on romantic commitment. Based on terror management theory, it is predicted that if gender-differentiated responses to infidelity are motivated by gender-specific contingencies for self-esteem, they should be intensified following reminders of mortality. In Study 2, mortality salience (MS) increased distress in response to sexual infidelity for men and emotional infidelity for women. Study 3 demonstrated that following MS, men who place high value on sexin romantic relationships exhibited greater distress in response to sexual infidelity, but low-ex-value men’s distress was attenuated. The authors discuss the implications for evolutionary and self-esteem-based accounts of jealousy as well as possible integration of these perspectives.

Proximal and Distal Defenses in Response to Reminders of One’s Mortality: Evidence of a Temporal Sequence

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.

Defensive Distancing from Victims of Serious Illness: The Role of Delay

Defensive distancing from victims of serious illness was investigated by providing subjects with personality profiles of a target person who had either a serious life-threatening illness (stomach cancer) or a less serious health problem (sprained ankle). Either immediately after learning of the target person's illness or after a 3-min delay, subjects rated themselves on the same set of personality traits. A significant Illness x Delay interaction was found on a composite measure of distancing from the victim. Subjects distanced themselves from the cancer victim by rating their own personalities as discrepant from this person in the delay but not in the immediate condition. Immediate but not delay subjects indicated greater liking for the cancer victim than the sprained ankle victim. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Illuminating the Dark Side of Creative Expression: Assimilation Needs and the Consequences of Creative Action Following Mortality Salience

Previous research indicates that mortality salience and creative behavior combine to increase feelings of guilt, presumably over the disruption to social connection elicited by the call for innovative expression. The present studies examined whether satiating assimilation motives by highlighting conformity to others reduces this effect (Study 1) and facilitates positive psychological engagement (Study 2). Study 1 used a 2 (conformity vs. neutral feedback)× 2 (mortality salience vs. control)× 2 (creative task vs. noncreative task) design and had participants complete a self-report measure of guilt. Study 2 used a 2 (mortality salience vs. control)× 2 (other goal task vs. self-goal task) design, and after a creativity exercise, had participants complete measures of positive mood, vitality, and creative problem solving. Results indicated attending to assimilation needs reduced the elevated guilt that follows the juxtaposition of mortality salience and creative behavior and also increased a sense of positive engagement. Implications are briefly discussed.

Evidence of a Terror Management Function of Cultural Icons: The Effects of Mortality Salience on the Inappropriate Use of Cherished Cultural Symbols

Based on the terror management notion that cultural icons are part of a system that provides protection from fears about one's mortality, it was hypothesized that reminding subjects of their mortality would make it more difficult for them to use cultural icons in an inappropriate way. Subjects responded to questions about either their own mortality or television, and then participated in two problem-solving tasks involving the culturally inappropriate use of cultural icons (a flag and crucifix) or the use of neutral objects. Although mortality salience did not affect actual use of the objects, it did increase the amount of time required to solve the problems, the number of alternative solutions generated, and the extent to which subjects expressed reluctance to use the icons. Mortality salience also increased subjects' reports of task difficulty and tension when the optimal solutions of the problems required inappropriate use of the cultural icons.

Terror Management and Self-Awareness: Evidence that Mortality Salience Provokes Avoidance of the Self-Focused State

Two studies assessed the terror management hypothesis that when mortality is salient, people will avoid stimuli that increase self-awareness. In Study 1, we measured the length of time that participants wrote about either their death or an exam in cubicles that either did or did not contain a large mirror. In Study 2, participants completed either a death anxiety scale or a future concerns scale and then wrote a story fostering either an internal or external focus of attention. As predicted, in Study 1, the self-focusing stimulus reduced the amount of time that participants spent in the cubicles contemplating their mortality. In Study 2, mortality-salient participants wrote less when the task prompted an internal focus of attention than when it prompted an external focus. Across both studies, no differences emerged between participants in the control conditions. Implications of this research for understanding the relationship between terror management processes and self-awareness are briefly discussed.

Ageism and Death: Effects of Mortality Salience and Perceived Similarity to Elders on Reactions to Elderly People

The present research investigated the hypotheses that elderly people can be reminders of our mortality and that concerns about our own mortality can therefore instigate ageism. In Study 1, college-age participants who saw photos of two elderly people subsequently showed more death accessibility than participants who saw photos of only younger people. In Study 2, making mortality salient for participants increased distancing from the average elderly person and decreased perceptions that the average elderly person possesses favorable attitudes. Mortality salience did not affect ratings of teenagers. In Study 3, these mortality salience effects were moderated by prior reported similarity to elderly people. Distancing from, and derogation of, elderly people after mortality salience occurred only in participants who, weeks before the study, rated their personalities as relatively similar to the average elderly person’s. Discussion addresses distinguishing ageism from other forms of prejudice, as well as possibilities for reducing ageism.

Connecting Terror Management and Dissonance Theory: Evidence that Mortality Salience Increases the Preference for Supporting Information after Decisions

From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to pursue cognitive consistency. The authors investigated this notion with regard to dissonance theory starting from the finding of research on “selective exposure to information” that after having made a decision, people prefer consonant over dissonant information. The authors found that following mortality salience, people indeed showed an increased preference for information that supported their decision compared to information conflicting with it. However, this only occurred with regard to a worldview-relevant decision case. For a fictitious decision scenario, mortality salience did not affect information seeking. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

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

An experiment assessed the proposition that competing motives for inclusion and individuation both function to control concerns about mortality. Combining ideas from terror management theory and optimal distinctiveness theory, the authors hypothesized that mortality salience would increase the tendency of participants given feedback that they had strong conformist tendencies to underestimate social consensus for their attitudes and the tendency of participants given feedback that they were deviant to exaggerate social consensus for their attitudes. Participants were given either one or the other type of feedback, responded to open-ended questions about either their own death or their next important exam, completed a measure of social projection in which they indicated their own attitudes, and then estimated the percentage of the general population that shared their opinions. Results on a social projection measure consisting of the partial correlation between own and others' attitudes, controlling for social desirability, provided strong support for the hypotheses.

The Intrinsic Self and Defensiveness: Evidence that Activating the Intrinsic Self Reduces Self-Handicapping and Conformity

Two studies were conducted to assess the hypothesis that shifting individuals’ base of self-esteem to more stable, intrinsic self-attributes would reduce psychological defensiveness in the form of self-handicapping attributions and conformity. In Study 1, participants visualized an individual who liked them contingently or noncontingently, or who was neutral toward them, and then made attributions for an impending test performance. Participants who visualized the noncontingently accepting other made fewer self-handicapping attributions. In Study 2, partici pants wrote about an intrinsic self-attribute, an achievement, or a neutral event and then evaluated several abstract art paintings while knowing how other participants purportedly rated the paintings. Participants for whom the intrinsic self was primed conformed less to others’ judgments relative to achievement self-primed and control participants. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for understanding the connection between self-esteem and defensiveness.

The Effects of a Self-Esteem Boost and Mortality Salience on Responses to Boost Relevant and Irrelevant Worldview Threats

Previous research found that raising self-esteem attenuates mortality salience effects on reactions to cultural worldview threats. The present study assessed whether raising self-esteem attenuates such effects when a target specifically threatened the dimension on which the boost was predicated. Participants (a) received positive personality feedback emphasizing likelihood of success either in their major or a different domain or neutral feedback, (b) contemplated their mortality or a control topic, and (c) evaluated targets threatening beliefs about the United States and the participant’s major. Replicating earlier findings, after mortality salience, neutral feedback participants derogated the anti-U.S. target, whereas positive feedback participants did not. However, if the feedback mentioned participants’ major, mortality salience led to derogation of the anti-major target, even if the feedback was positive. These findings indicate that when a target threatens a dimension on which a self-esteem boost is predicated, such a boost will not deter derogation following mortality salience.

Maintaining Consistency between Self-Serving Beliefs and Available Data

It was hypothesized that individuals evaluate data relevant to outcome attributions in a manner that enables them to maintain logical consistency between the available evidence and their self-serving attributions for the outcome. Subjects were led to succeed or fail on a bogus social sensitivity test and then were given information concerning two studies, one of which concluded that the test was valid and the other that the test was not valid. As predicted, success subjects evaluated the high-validity conclusion study more favorably and the low-validity conclusion study less favorably than did failure subjects. Furthermore, exposure to the mixed evidence after the performance feedback led to increased selt-ratings of social sensitivity among success subjects, but had no effect on failure subjects. The implications of these results for understanding how individuals generate and maintain self-serving beliefs were discussed.

Encoding and Retrieval Effects of General Person Characterizations on Memory for Incongruent and Congruent Information

We hypothesized that general person characterizations exert different effects on the recall of characterization-relevant information, depending on whether the information is encountered before or after exposure to the characterization. We predicted that when the general characterizations are presented prior to exposure to information about specific incidents, more characterization-incongruent than characterization-congruent incidents would be recalled; we also predicted that when the characterizations are presented after exposure to specific information, more characterization-congruent than characterization-incongruent incidents would be recalled. Subjects heard an audiotape of a list of positive and negative events, some characterization-relevant (social encounters) and some characterization-irrelevant (fortuitous events), in the life of a fellow college student either before or after exposure to written information that characterized that person in either a generally positive or negative way. Subjects' recall of characterization relevant information supported both of the above hypotheses; subjects' recall of the characterization-irrelevant but affectively related events was not affected by the general characterizations. These results were discussed in terms of the differential effects of person impressions on encoding and retrieval processes.

Further Evidence of the Deleterious Effects of Overheard Derogatory Ethnic Labels

Greenberg and Pyszczynski (1985)found that an overheard derogatory ethnic label can lead to negative evaluations of its target. The present study was designed to provide a conceptual replication of this effect and assess whether the effect could extend to evaluations of a person associated with the target. Subjects read a trial transcript and were asked for verdicts and attorney and defendant evaluations. Whereas the defendant was always white, the defense attorney was either black or white. When the defense attorney was black, a confederate posing as a subject either made no comment or a derogatory comment in which the defense attorney was referred to as either "shyster" or "nigger. " The derogatory ethnic label led to derogation of the defense attorney, thus replicating the effect found by Greenberg and Pyszczynski in a different setting. In addition, the white defendant received especially negative evaluations and harsh verdicts when defended by a black who was the target of a derogatory ethnic label. Theoretical and practical implications are briefly discussed.

Further Progress in Understanding the Effects of Derogatory Ethnic Labels: The Role of Preexisting Attitudes Toward the Targeted Group

To assess the impact of derogatory ethnic labels (DELs) on evaluations of both the target of the DEL and the person making the comment, White subjects who had pro-Black, anti-Black, or ambivalent attitudes were randomly assigned to read a DEL, an ethnic criticism, or no remark at all. Subsequent evaluations of the maker and the target of the comment were assessed, as well as subjects' affective reactions to reading the comment. In response to reading a DEL, all subjects derogated the person who made the comment. Anti-Black subjects rated the Black target more negatively on positive traits, pro-Black subjects did not alter their ratings of the target, and ambivalent subjects compensated by rating the target more favorably following the DEL. Affectively, ambivalent subjects generally reported more guilt and hostility than other subjects, and reading the DEL or the ethnic criticism led to more hostility than reading no comment at all.