Evidence for the DTA hypothesis II: Threatening self-esteem increases death-thought accessibility

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Volumn 44, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 600-613

  Hayes, Joseph ^a   Schimel, Jeff ^a   Faucher, Erik H ^a   Williams, Todd J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA   (Canada)

Author keywords

Accessibility; Death; Self esteem; Terror management theory; Threat

Indexed keywords

EID: 41549151508     PISSN: 00221031     EISSN: 10960465     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.01.004     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington: APA.
2. Arndt J., Cook A., Goldenberg J.L., and Cox C.R. Cancer and the threat of death: The cognitive dynamics of death thought suppression and its impact on behavioral health intentions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92 (2007) 12-29
3. Arndt J., Schimel J., Greenberg J., and Pyszczynski T. The intrinsic self and defensiveness: Evidence that activating the intrinsic self reduces self-handicapping and conformity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28 (2002) 671-683
4. Arndt J., Solomon S., Kasser T., and Sheldon K.M. The urge to splurge: A terror management account of materialism and consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology 14 (2004) 198-212
5. Bargh J.A., and Chartrand T.L. The mind in the middle: A practical guide to priming and automaticity research. In: Reis H.T., and Judd C.M. (Eds). Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (2000), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England 253-285
6. Baumeister R.F. Self-esteem, self-presentation, and future interaction: A dilemma of reputation. Journal of Personality 50 (1982) 29-45
7. Becker E. The birth and death of meaning: An interdisciplinary perspective on the problem of man. 2nd ed. (1971), Free Press, New York
8. Becker E. The denial of death (1973), Free Press, New York
9. Becker E. Escape from evil (1975), Free Press, New York
10. Brown J.D., and Smart S.A. The self and social conduct: Linking self-representations to pro-social behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 60 (1991) 368-375
11. Cooley C.H. Human nature and the social order (1902), Schocken Books, New York (Reprinted in 1964)
12. Cox C.R., Goldenberg J.L., Pyszczynski T., and Weise D. Disgust, creatureliness and the accessibility of death-related thoughts. European Journal of Social Psychology 37 (2007) 494-507
13. Crocker J., Karpinski A., Quinn D.M., and Chase S. When grades determine self-worth: Consequences of contingent self-worth for male and female engineering and psychology majors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85 (2003) 507-516
14. Crocker J., Sommers S.R., and Luhtanen R.K. Hopes dashed and dreams fulfilled: Contingencies of self-worth and admissions to graduate school. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28 (2002) 1275-1286
15. Crocker J., and Wolfe C.T. Contingencies of self-worth. Psychological Review 108 (2001) 593-623
16. Fein S., and Spencer S.J. Prejudice as self-image maintenance: Affirming the self through derogating others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73 (1997) 31-44
17. Florian V., Mikulincer M., and Hirschberger G. The anxiety-buffering function of close relationships: Evidence that relationship commitment acts as a terror management mechanism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82 (2002) 527-542
18. Friedman M., and Rholes W.S. Successfully challenging fundamentalist beliefs results in increased death awareness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 794-801
19. Frey D. Reactions to success and failure in public and private conditions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 14 (1978) 172-179
20. Gailliot M.T., Schmeichel B.J., and Baumeister R.F. Self-regulatory processes defend against the threat of death: Effects of self-control depletion and trait self-control on thoughts and fears of dying. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 91 (2006) 49-62
21. Goldenberg J.L., Pyszczynski T., McCoy S.K., Greenberg J., and Solomon S. Death, sex, love, and neuroticism: Why is sex such a problem?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (1999) 1173-1187
22. Gollwitzer P.M., and Kirchhof O. The willful pursuit of identity. In: Heckhausen J., and Dweck C.S. (Eds). Motivation and self-regulation across the lifespan (1998), Cambridge University Press, New York 389-423
23. Greenberg J., and Pyszczynski T. Compensatory self-inflation: A response to the threat to self-regard of public failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 49 (1985) 273-280
24. Greenberg J., Pyszczynski T., Solomon S., Rosenblatt A., Veeder M., Kirkland S., and Lyon D. Evidence for terror management II: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the cultural worldview. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58 (1990) 308-318
25. Greenberg J., Pyszczynski T., Solomon S., Pinel E., Simon L., and Jordan K. Effects of self-esteem on vulnerability-denying defensive distortions: Further evidence of an anxiety-buffering function of self-esteem. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 29 (1993) 229-251
26. Greenberg J., Pyszczynski T., Solomon S., Simon L., and Breus M. Role of consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67 (1994) 627-637
27. Greenberg J., Simon L., Harmon-Jones E., Solomon S., Pyszczynski T., and Chatel D. Testing alternative explanations for mortality effects: Terror management, value accessibility, or worrisome thoughts?. European Journal of Social Psychology 12 (1995) 417-433
28. Greenberg J., Solomon S., and Pyszczynski T. Terror management theory of self-esteem and cultural worldviews: Empirical assessments and conceptual refinements. In: Zanna M. (Ed). Advances in experimental social psychology Vol. 29 (1997), Academic Press, San Diego, CA 61-139
29. Greenberg J., Solomon S., Pyszczynski T., Rosenblatt A., Burling J., Lyon D., et al. Assessing the terror management analysis of self-esteem: Converging evidence of anxiety-buffering function. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 63 (1992) 913-922
30. Geisser S., and Greenhouse S.W. An extension of Box's results on the use of the F distribution in multivariate analysis. Annals of Mathematical Statistics 29 (1958) 885-891
31. Harmon-Jones E., Simon L., Greenberg J., Pyszczynski T., Solomon S., and McGregor H. Terror management theory and self-esteem: Evidence that increased self-esteem reduces mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 72 (1997) 24-36
32. Hart J., Shaver P.R., and Goldenberg J.L. Attachment, self-esteem, worldviews, and terror management: Evidence for a tripartite security system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88 (2005) 999-1013
33. Hayes, J., Schimel, J., & Williams, T. (in press). Fighting death with death: The buffering effects of learning that worldview violators have died. Psychological Science.
34. Hays W.L. Statistics. 5th ed. (1994), Wadsworth, Belmont, CA
35. Higgins E.T. Relating self-discrepancy to self-esteem: The contribution of discrepancy beyond actual-self ratings. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 26 (1990) 108-123
36. Hirschberger G. Terror management and attributions of blame to innocent victims: Reconciling compassionate and defensive responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 91 (2006) 832-844
37. Hirschberger G., Florian V., and Mikulincer M. Fear and compassion: A terror management analysis of emotional reactions to persons with disabilities. Rehabilitation Psychology 50 (2005) 246-257
38. James W. Principles of psychology 1-2 (1890), Holt, New York
39. Landau M.J., Johns M., Greenberg J., Pyszczynski T., Martens A., Goldenberg J.L., et al. A function of form: Terror management and structuring the social world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87 (2004) 190-210
40. Markus H., and Nurius P. Possible selves. American Psychologist 41 (1986) 954-969
41. Mead G.H. Mind, self, and society (1934), University of Chicago Press, Chicago
42. Mikulincer M., Florian V., Birnbaum G., and Malishkevich S. The death-anxiety buffering function of close relationships: Exploring the effects of separation reminders on death-thought accessibility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28 (2002) 287-299
43. Mikulincer M., Florian V., and Hirschberger G. The existential function of close relationships: Introducing death into the science of love. Personality and Social Psychology Review 7 (2003) 20-40
44. Neuberg S.L., and Newsome J. Personal need for structure: Individual differences in the desire for simple structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65 (1993) 113-131
45. Norman W.T. Toward an adequate taxonomy of personality attributes: Replicated factor structure in peer nomination personality ratings. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 66 (1963) 574-583
46. Peters H.J., Greenberg J., Williams J.M., and Schneider N.R. Applying terror management theory to performance: Can reminding individuals of their mortality increase strength output?. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 27 (2005) 111-116
47. Pyszczynski T., Greenberg J., and Solomon S. A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: An extension of terror management theory. Psychological Review 106 (1999) 835-845
48. Pyszczynski T., Greenberg J., Solomon S., and Maxfield M. On the unique psychological import of the human awareness of mortality: Theme and variations. Psychological Inquiry 17 (2006) 328-356
49. Pyszczynski T., Greenberg J., Solomon S., Arndt J., and Schimel J. Why do we need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin 130 (2004) 435-468
50. Rosenblatt A., Greenberg J., Solomon S., Pyszczynski T., and Lyon D. Evidence for terror management theory I: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57 (1989) 681-690
51. Rudman L.A., Dohn M.C., and Fairchild K. Implicit self-esteem compensation: Automatic threat defense. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 93 (2007) 798-813
52. Schimel J., Arndt J., Pyszczynski T., and Greenberg J. Being accepted for who we are: Evidence that social validation of the intrinsic self reduces general defensiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 80 (2001) 35-52
53. Schimel J., Hayes J., Williams T., and Jahrig J. Is death really the worm at the core? Converging evidence that worldview threat increases death-thought accessibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92 (2007) 789-803
54. Shrira I., and Martin L.L. Stereotyping, self-affirmation, and the cerebral hemispheres. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 31 (2005) 846-856
55. Solomon S., Greenberg J., and Pyszczynski T. A terror management theory of social behaviour: The functions of self-esteem and cultural worldviews. In: Zanna M. (Ed). Advances in experimental social psychology Vol. 24 (1991), Academic Press, San Diego, CA 93-159
56. Spencer S.J., Fein S., and Lomore C.D. Maintaining one's self-image vis-à-vis others: The role of self-affirmation in the social evaluation of the self. Motivation and Emotion 25 (2001) 41-65
57. Taubman-Ben-Ari O., Florian V., and Mikulincer M. The impact of mortality salience on reckless driving: A test of terror management mechanisms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 76 (1999) 35-45