Saving can save from death anxiety: mortality salience and financial decision-making

The Effect of Death Anxiety on Work Passion: Moderating Roles of Work Centrality and Work Connection

Fear of death is an emotional manifestation of the instinct for self-preservation. Any threat to our existence induces an anxiety response. Death anxiety can trigger obsessive-compulsive behaviours, such as an obsessive passion for work. Using a sample of 314 participants (68.2% female), with a mean age of 38.97 years (SD = 10.36), this study sought to observe the predictive effect of death anxiety on work passion, as well as the moderating effect of work-family centrality and connection on the relationship between anxiety and passion. The results revealed that death anxiety negatively affects harmonious passion, and positively affects obsessive passion. Work centrality did not moderate the influence of death anxiety on harmonious and obsessive passion. Nonetheless, work connection moderated the influence of death anxiety on harmonious passion. The negative influence of death anxiety on harmonious passion was greater in a group with high work connection than a group with low connection.

Behavioral economics: who are the investors with the most sustainable stock happiness, and why? Low aspiration, external control, and country domicile may save your lives—monetary wisdom

Slight absolute changes in the Shanghai Stock Exchange Index (SHSE) corresponded to the city’s immediate increases in coronary heart disease deaths and stroke deaths. Significant fluctuations in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Index (SZSE) corresponded to the country’s minor, delayed death rates. Investors deal with money, greed, stock volatility, and risky decision-making. Happy people live longer and better. We ask the following question: Who are the investors with the highest and most sustainable stock happiness, and why? Monetary wisdom asserts: Investors apply their deep-rooted values (avaricious love-of-money aspiration and locus of control, Level 2) as a lens to frame critical concerns in the proximal-immediate (Shanghai Stock Exchange Index changes, Level 1) and the omnibus-distal contexts (domicile: city vs. country, Level 2) to maximize expected utility (portfolio changes, Level 1) and ultimate serenity (stock happiness, Level 1). We collected multilevel data—the longitudinal SHSE and 227 private investors’ daily stock happiness and portfolio changes for 36 consecutive trading days in four regions of China. Investors had an average liquid asset of $76,747.41 and $54,660.85 in stocks. This study is not a “one-shot” game with “nothing at stake.” We classified Shanghai and Beijing as the city and Shenzhen and Chongqing as the country. Our cross-level 3-D visualization reveals that regardless of SHSE volatility, investors with low aspiration, external control, and country domicile enjoy the highest and most sustainable stock happiness with minimum fluctuations. Independently, investors with low aspiration, external control, and country domicile tend to make fewer portfolio changes than their counterparts. Behaviorally, less is more, debunking the myth—risky decisions excite stock happiness. Our longitudinal study expands prospect theory, incorporates attitude toward money, and makes robust contributions to behavioral economics and business ethics. We help investors and ordinary citizens make happy, healthy, and wealthy decisions. Most importantly, the life you save may be your own.

"The greedy I that gives"-The paradox of egocentrism and altruism: Terror management and system justification perspectives on the interrelationship between mortality salience and charitable donations amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Why do people give and help others in face of their own mortality salience? The existential struggle with the awareness of death impacts the gamut of human cognition, emotion, and behavior. This multi-method research (∑N = 1,219) explains the psychosocial impact of COVID-19-related mortality salience on altruism. Drawing from terror management theory, two studies tested death-thought accessibility, mortality salience, and anxiety buffer hypotheses. Study 1 (cross-sectional survey), using structural equation modeling, confirms death anxiety and fear are predictors of powerlessness and materialism which, in turn, predict charitable donations. Study 2 (between-subjects experiment) confirms the causal effects of COVID-19-induced mortality salience on altruism. Controlling income and socioeconomic status, people in the mortality salience treatment condition indicate greater monetary donations ($), ratio of prosocial (altruistic) to proself (egocentric) spending (%), donation of time (hour), monetary valuation of time (hourly rate = $/hour), and economic value of donated time (hourly rate*hour) than the controls. These effects are mediated by powerlessness. Moderating effects of relevant individual difference factors are significant: the greedier, more selfish, narcissistic, materialistic, and system-justifying the donor is, the higher monetary donations, volunteer time, and perceived value of donated time are, only when the COVID-19-induced mortality is made salient but not in the controls. Environmental and dispositional factors jointly influence vulnerability to mortality salience. The paradox of egocentrism and altruism, as an evolutionarily adaptive protective buffer against existential insecurity for social and cultural animals, can help revitalize resilience, thus shedding some lights on the sociopsychological mechanism of consumers' subjective well-being. Implications for consumer affairs, social marketers, and policymakers are discussed.

Prosocial responses to COVID-19: Examining the role of gratitude, fairness and legacy motives

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced an unprecedented collective action problem. Individuals must make a variety of decisions that influence both their own well-being and the health of those around them. Achieving the collective best-interest depends on most individuals responding in socially optimal ways, which includes remaining familiar with the current status of the pandemic, adhering to health guidelines relevant to the pandemic, and having a constructive emotional response to the pandemic. We sought to examine how individual differences in core moral motivators of collective action (i.e., fairness and gratitude) relate to individuals' COVID-19 responses. In a two-wave study (T1: N = 254; T2: N = 135) conducted in May and June 2020, we find that individual differences in fairness and gratitude were associated with more adaptive (i.e. positive emotions) and prosocial (i.e. remaining familiar with the pandemic, adhering to public health guidelines, prioritizing saving lives) responses to the pandemic. These effects are mediated through differences in impact legacy motives (i.e. being concerned about the impact one leaves behind once they have passed). Understanding the links between gratitude, fairness and legacy motives, and their impact on prosociality, could promote both current and intergenerational prosocial decision making.

Mortality salience in an offline and online setting

The current study aims to examine the effects of mortality salience effects on worldview defense in an offline and online setting. Participants were 146 (66 offline and 80 online) Singaporeans. Participants were randomly assigned to either the mortality salience condition or the control condition and after a delay completed a Worldview Defense Assessment. No significant mortality salience effects on worldview defense occurred in either setting. The results might be explained by the Asian sample, Singapore's culture of tolerance, and data collection during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Future research directions include examining the effects of COVID-19 in activating worldview defense.

Comparison of Death Anxiety, Self-Esteem, and Personality Traits of the People Who Live in Turkey and Denmark

The aim of this research is to investigate death anxiety of the people who live in Turkey and Denmark and have the same cultural background. Cross-cultural studies about death anxiety have been conducted within two different cultures. The goal is to fill the gap in the literature. In this context, participants' self-esteem and personality traits were also investigated. Death Anxiety Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and The Big Five Inventory were used in this study. Seventy-four people from Turkey and 67 from Denmark participated in this research. According to the results, people who live in Turkey have more death anxiety. There is negative correlation between self-esteem and death anxiety. Neuroticism of the personality traits has positive correlation with death anxiety.

You don't have to be rich to save money: On the relationship between objective versus subjective financial situation and having savings

Saving is an important financial behavior that provides an individual with psychological security and boosts his/her overall sense of well-being. For this reason, scientists and practitioners have attempted to understand why some people save when others do not. One of the most common explanations for this phenomenon is that those individuals who earn more should be more willing to save their money. In line with this logic, people who have more money should be more likely to have savings. Considering the results of prior research, we expected objective financial situation (income) to be positively linked to having savings (i.e., propensity to have savings and the exact amount of savings). At the same time, however, we assumed that subjective financial situation (perception) should also be positively related to these variables. To test our assumptions, we conducted a nationwide representative survey (N = 1048) among Polish respondents, asking them about their objective and subjective financial situation. The results of a regression analysis showed that objective financial situation was indeed significantly positively related to having savings. However, subjective financial situation was also positively correlated with having savings (even when we controlled for objective financial situation and demographic variables). We discuss the implications of the links between objective versus subjective financial situations and having savings.

Materialism moderates the impact of mortality salience on impulsive tendencies toward luxury brands

Luxury goods have been shown to help individuals coping with death-related anxiety. However, the extent to which the symbolic value allocated to possessions (i.e., materialism) moderates this effect is still unclear. Here, we investigated the impact of materialism on impulsive approach tendencies toward luxury clothing brands in a context of mortality salience. Results showed that the impact of mortality salience was moderated by materialism with lower impulsive approach tendencies toward luxury clothing brands observed in non-materialistic participants. These findings highlight how materialism values may impact luxury consumption through impulsive pathways in a situation of death-related anxiety.

If you want to save, focus on the forest rather than on trees. The effects of shifts in levels of construal on saving decisions

Although financial decisions are expected to be rational, there is a growing body of experimental research indicating that small psychological changes in one’s mind-set in the actual decision-making moment might affect saving ratios. In this article, another type of change in one’s mind-set, which can influence saving decisions, is explored, namely the level of construal. Construal level is a key descriptor of people’s cognitive representations of targets, and is a way of characterising the mental mind-sets people use. Building on recent advances in the link between construal levels and intertemporal choices, the present research evaluates the effect of shifts in levels of construal in the very moment of decision making on people’s propensity to save money. It is suggested that triggering a high-level construal mind-set would influence individuals’ financial decisions and result in greater willingness to save than triggering a low-level construal mind-set. This assumption is supported by the findings: across three experiments, those with an abstract mind-set showed an increased willingness to save when compared to those with a concrete mind-set. The first experiment demonstrated that people in an abstract mind-set are more willing to delay financial gratification than those in a concrete mind-set. In the second and third experiments, those with an abstract mind-set showed an increased willingness to save when compared to those with a concrete mind-set. The research provides further evidence that mental states, which can be evoked by previous, unrelated tasks, such as level of cognitive abstraction, can influence everyday financial decisions. It, thus, highlights the role of situational factors that consumers may be not aware of, which still affect their savings decisions.