Of Trophies and Pillars: Exploring the Terror Management Functions of Short-Term and Long-Term Relationship Partners

Abstract

Prior terror management research shows that mortality salience (MS) motivates both self-esteem striving and worldview bolstering. The present research examined these processes in the context of dating preferences. It was hypothesized that in short-term romantic contexts, MS-induced self-esteem striving motivates interest in dating a physically attractive other, whereas in long-term romantic contexts, MS-induced motives for worldview validation heighten interest in dating a same-religion other. Study 1 showed that in a short-term dating context, MS increased preference for an attractive but religiously dissimilar person, whereas in a long-term dating context, MS increased preference for a religiously similar, less attractive person. Study 2 clarified that MS motivates preference for attractive short-term partners for their self-enhancing properties rather than their potential sexual availability. Study 3 supported the theorized processes, showing that under MS, self-esteem-relevant constructs became spontaneously accessible in short-term dating contexts, whereas worldview-relevant constructs became spontaneously accessible in long-term dating contexts.

Appreciation in the Face of Death: Meaningful Films Buffer Against Death-Related Anxiety

“…Albeit the majority of studies tested the mortality salience hypothesis using cultural worldview defense as dependent variable (Burke et al, 2010), individuals have also been found to activate their self-esteem after the induction of mortality salience (Mikulincer & Florian, 2002). For example, Kosloff et al (2010) could show that individuals under conditions of mortality salience as compared to a control group completed more words as self-esteem-related in a word-stem task-for instance, completing "L_ _ ED" as "LIKED" instead of "LURED" (Kosloff et al, 2010(Kosloff et al, , p. 1054. Relatedly, Paulhus and Levitt (1987) found that after being confronted with death-related words, participants evaluated positive traits faster as applying to themselves as compared to neutral adjectives.…”

“…For fans of a specific music genre, it could already be demonstrated that listening to this music after mortality salience decreased the necessity to defend one's cultural worldview (Study 1) or one's self-esteem (Study 2) (Kneer & Rieger, in press): Based on this research, we examined the implicit activation of self-esteem-related concepts as a measure for the ongoing self-esteem buffering needs (Kosloff et al, 2010). We predicted that participants whose mortality salience had been made salient would implicitly activate self-esteem fostering aspects after they watched an informative or a pleasurable movie in order to defend against the ongoing threat of death but no longer after the meaningful movie (H2).…”

“…Based on former research, showing a higher implicit activation of self-esteem-related concepts after mortality salience (Kosloff et al, 2010), we used a response-latencybased implicit measure to examine self-esteem activation. More precisely, drawing upon research on self-evaluation (Mussweiler & Bodenhausen, 2002), participants evaluated a total of 20 positive (such as "intelligent") and 20 negative (such as "cruel") traits on a 9-point scale in how far these traits would apply to them (1 = "totally not," 9 = "totally").…”

How sweet it is to be loved by you: The role of perceived regard in the terror management of close relationships.

“…Indeed, recent evidence demonstrates that short-term dating opportunities serve terror management by facilitating general feelings of selfworth, while long-term dating opportunities do so by affording prospects for worldview validation (Kosloff, Greenberg, Sullivan, & Weise, 2010). This is because short-terms dating contexts may present opportunities to briefly boost self-esteem by dating an attractive partner, whereas long-term romantic relationships may afford opportunities for getting to know another person and identifying with their beliefs.…”

The role of mortality awareness in heroic enactment

“…For example, death reminders impact altruistic behavior (e.g., Jonas, Schimel, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2002), desire for relationships (Kosloff, Greenberg, Sullivan, & Weise, 2010), desire for offspring (e.g., Wisman & Goldenberg, 2005), and protecting of the in-group (Fritsche, Jonas, & Fankhänel, 2008).…”