Terror Management versus Sadness Management after Mortality Saliency
Creators: name: Chengli, Huang
name: Hu, Chao
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Social Psychology
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology

description: 1. Introduction According to Becker1, all human behaviors are motivated by a denial of death. Inspired by this idea, Greenberg, Pyszczynski, and Solomon proposed Terror Management Theory (TMT) 2, which posits that humans suffer from the omnipresent potential for anxiety engendered by the uniquely human awareness of mortality. In order to control the potential for anxiety, human beings thus integrate themselves into a unique cultural worldview and acquire self-esteem by living up to the standards of value inherent in their own cultural worldview 3. Terror management theory has been supported by a large number of empirical studies3,4, but the role of emotion in terror management has long been a controversial topic. Numerous studies have found that there is no significant difference in self-reported emotions (both negative and positive) between mortality salience (MS) groups and control groups, suggesting that mortality salience does not elicit any reliable change in affect (i.e., the “affect-free claim” 5). However, some studies have raised doubts about this finding. For example, Routledge et al. found that death-related cognition increased negative affect and state anxiety for individuals with low self-esteem, and these effects occurred only after participants finished a distraction task, which suggests that the time at which emotions are measured may moderate the MS effect on emotions6. Moreover, studies using objective measures of emotions (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging 7, facial electromyography 8, and linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC)5) have consistently demonstrated a significant mortality salience effect on emotions. Therefore, some researchers have proposed that it may be the latent emotional experience, rather than the actual emotional experience, that influences behavior after MS 3,9. Consistent with this perspective, Greenberg et al. found that eliminating the potential for anxiety by placebo can effectively eliminate the effect of mortality salience on worldview defense9. In the same vein, Webber et al. found that existentially threatening stimuli did not increase death thought accessibility (DTA) and worldview defense when the emotion was misattributed or down-regulated via reappraisal10. In summary, although a number of studies have found that death-related stimuli do not result in differences in self-reported emotions, studies measuring emotions with more objective methods have found that latent emotions influence behavior following heightened mortality salience. If it is the case that latent emotions affect behavioral responses after MS, then it is possible that different emotions may lead to differential means of managing mortality salience. For example, fear serves a protective function in evolved mammalian defense systems, such that it promotes survival-based behaviors in response to threats 11. Similarly, terror management theory views the fear of death as a primary emotion that is caused by the awareness of self-annihilation and emerges as a function of the basic self-preservation instinct 12. A large number of empirical studies have already found that mortality salience leads to external defensive responses (e.g., worldview defense13, self-esteem striving14) and extrinsic value orientation (e.g., materialistic tendencies15). However, reflection upon one’s own mortality should also invoke sadness, the prototypical emotion experienced when individuals permanently lose what they value (e.g., losing a person or object important to the self, or losing the world one loves after death) 16. A key function of sadness is to promote personal reflection about an irrevocable loss. Thus, the experience of sadness can lead individuals to turn their attention inward (thereby promoting resignation or potential acceptance) and to update their cognitive structures to accommodate lost people or objects. As a result, the reflective function of sadness may allow individuals to revise their goals and plans, and even encourage them to help others 17. Consistent with this viewpoint, some empirical studies applying the death reflection paradigm have demonstrated that pondering one's own mortality promotes a positive growth of self, as seen through reduced greed and increased identity integration, gratitude, intrinsic goals, and intentions to donate blood 15,17–20. Moreover, reviews of near-death experiences (NDEs) found that those who survive close brushes with death tended to report a new sense of purpose or mission, reduced concern for material gain or status, and increased compassion and love for others21,22. Collectively, these studies suggest that individuals may react differently (i.e., positively or negatively) following heightened mortality salience. We theorize that individuals may experience two different basic emotions (fear and sadness) following MS. Correspondingly, there will be two different types of management after MS (terror management and sadness management). Terror management is related to fear (i.e., elicited by an identifiable stimulus) and anxiety (i.e., elicited by an unidentifiable stimulus)11, which leads to self-protection and external defenses, as demonstrated in previous studies 21. On the other hand, sadness management should lead to internal growth, such as the development of prosocial motivation and intrinsic value orientation. Moreover, the adjustment function of sadness might ultimately promote life satisfaction. To explore the latent emotions felt after MS, this study will adopt the method of expressive writing (EW), which has been shown to be effective in eliciting suppressed emotions24. Participants will write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about their own mortality on the first day. Afterward, they will be instructed to write about their deepest sadness or fear and their responses to sadness or fear (i.e., what they should do) each evening of the following week. A separate control group will write about their own mortality each evening, without an explicit instruction to contemplate a specific emotion. Worldview defense, self-esteem, life goals structure (intrinsic and extrinsic), and life satisfaction will be measured to compare terror management and sadness management after MS. Hypotheses A. Participants should feel both sadness and fear when writing expressively about their own mortality. B. Terror management after MS should motivate people to defend their worldview and promote their self-esteem. C. Sadness management after MS should motivate people to value intrinsic life goals and feel more satisfied with life. 2. Materials and Method 2.1 Ethics information The Hangzhou Normal University Ethics Committee has approved all of the procedures used in the present study. We will inform participants that the experiment is about their feelings and thoughts about mortality, and they need to sign an informed consent form prior to their participation. Each participant will receive 100 RMB as compensation upon completion of the entire experiment. Participants will be informed that they can quit the experiment whenever they want if they feel uncomfortable about the study and will still receive 100 RMB as compensation. However, participants will be informed that there will be no compensation if they repeat the same content in writing (i.e., “self-plagiarism”). 2.2 Sampling plan We previously used the software program G*Power 3.1 to conduct a power analysis. Our goal was to obtain 0.80 power to detect a hypothetical effect size based on a previous study on terror management theory that adopted a similar writing technique (η = 0.28)20 at the standard .05 alpha error probability. According to the power analysis applying an ANCOVA test, 117 effective participants will be required to achieve the desired level of power. Considering an attrition rate of 20%, we aim to recruit 140 participants. Given the potential effect of religion upon the interpretation of mortality, all participants will be self-reported atheists. Before the experiment, participants will complete two screening items (i.e., “Have you felt intense sadness, fear, anxiety, or other negative emotions within the past week?”, “Have you had any major worries or stresses within the past week?”). Participants who report intense negative emotions or a recent experience of a major life stressor in the past week will be excluded. We have elected to exclude such participants in order to avoid floor effects and to protect the well-being of participants who may experience emotional harm by reflecting on their own mortality while already facing adverse stressors in their daily lives. Moreover, within each self-report questionnaire used in this study, items that check participants’ attention (e.g., an item with an instruction to answer a particular response option, such as “Please select ‘not at all’ for this item”) will be utilized to screen out participants who are careless or insufficiently attentive25. During the following week of writing tasks, participants who repeat the same content in writing (i.e., “self-plagiarism”) will also be excluded. We will make these requirements explicit to participants before the formal study begins. 2.3 Design Participants will be recruited online and will complete the tasks via the Qualtrics online platform. The design is between-subjects, and participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups (sadness group, fear group, control group) by the platform. To achieve a double-blind design, both the experimenter and the participants will not know to which group the participants belong. On Day 1, participants will be told that the experiment is mainly about their feelings and thoughts about death, and they need to sign an informed consent form. Then, participants will complete the demographic questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and Aspiration Index (AI-35). After that, participants will read the following instructions for writing: “Death is inevitable for humans. It is the same for everyone. What are your deepest thoughts and feelings about your own mortality? Please write no less than 300 characters (i.e., the basic units of the Chinese language) about your deepest thoughts and feelings on this matter. There is no time limit.” (Note that this question is a modification of the traditional MS paradigm since the current study focuses on mortality instead of a hypothetical death). After they have finished writing, they will report their emotions when thinking about their mortality, indicating the degree of their feelings of six basic emotions (i.e., sadness, joy, fear, anger, surprise, disgust) on a 7-point scale. Participants will next complete a 5-minute delay task (i.e., a puzzle game). Previous studies have demonstrated that MS-induced unconscious effects such as worldview defense occur most strongly when death-related thoughts are outside of consciousness but accessible 22. Therefore, a delay task is used to remove thoughts of death from participants’ focal awareness. Lastly, participants will complete a measure of worldview defense in the context of Chinese culture26 (i.e., they will read and then rate an article praising Chinese people and another article criticizing Chinese people). The order of the two articles presented will be counterbalanced. On Day 2 through Day 8, participants will be randomly separated into three groups (i.e., terror management, sadness management, or control). The experimenter will send participants links to their writing tasks via email, and participants will complete their assigned tasks online. Specifically, the terror/sadness management group will read the following instructions: “Death is inevitable for humans. It is the same for everyone. Please write no less than 300 characters about your deepest terror/sadness about your own mortality. What makes you terrified/sad, and what should you do?” Meanwhile, the control group will read the following instructions: “Death is inevitable for humans. It is the same for everyone. Please write no less than 300 characters about your deepest thoughts and feelings about your own mortality and what you should do.” After the three groups finish the writing task according to the different instructions, they will report their emotions when writing about their mortality, indicating their feelings of six basic emotions on a 7-point scale. We elected to have participants rate themselves on all six basic emotions instead of just two (i.e., sadness and fear) in order to explore more possible emotions evoked by MS and to avoid a potential Pygmalion Effect (i.e., the participants may report or even feel more sadness and fear than other basic emotions if they are instructed to report only sadness and fear). On Day 8, after participants finish the final writing task and report their feelings of the six basic emotions, they will complete a delay task followed by measures of worldview defense, self-esteem, life goals structure, and life satisfaction. One week later (Day 15), participants will complete the same tasks as on Day 1. Following completion of the experiment, participants will be debriefed and if necessary, provided professional counseling by a registered psychologist at our psychological research center. During the experiment, participants will also be given proper psychological counseling if they express signs of maladjustment to the researchers. 2.4 Measures Demographic information. Participants will be asked to report their gender, age, degree, ethnic background, and feelings about their current financial situation. Emotions after mortality saliency. We will use a prototype system TextMind27, which uses the Simplified Chinese version of LIWC (SCLIWC) to analyze the emotions expressed in participants’ writings. Previous research has found significant correlations (r ranging from 0.26 to 0.85) between SCLIWC word count scores and corresponding human ratings, indicating the validity of the SCLIWC in detecting emotional feelings in written text28. Aspiration Index (AI-35) 29–31. There are 35 specific goals listed on this measure, and participants will be asked to indicate how important they are to them. Responses are on a 7-point scale with endpoints 1 = not at all and 7 = extremely. These 35 goals are divided into two categories: intrinsic (4 subscales: affiliation, community feeling, physical fitness, self-acceptance) and extrinsic (3 subscales: financial success, appealing appearance, social recognition). Based on the method used in a previous study30, difference scores will be calculated by subtracting the extrinsic scale mean from the intrinsic scale mean, and thus positive values indicate the relative importance of intrinsic over extrinsic goals. The magnitude of the difference score provides information as to how much intrinsic goals are prioritized over extrinsic goals30.The Chinese version (AI-35) has been verified as a reliable and valid measure of aspiration orientation in Chinese-speaking samples (test-retest reliability: 0.70; internal reliability: 0.33-0.53) 31. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) 32. This scale consists of five items assessing an individual’s present satisfaction with his or her life (e.g., “In most ways my life is close to my ideal”). Responses are assessed using a 7-point agreement format in which 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale33. This scale measures global feelings about the self with ten items such as “I take a positive attitude toward myself” and “I certainly feel useless at times” (reverse-scored). Responses are assessed using a 7-point agreement format wherein 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. In a review of major measures of self-esteem 34, Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale was found to have excellent psychometric properties, with high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. Delay Task. A 5-minute puzzle will be used as a delay task to remove thoughts of death from participants’ focal awareness. Participants will be instructed to fill in the numbers from 1 to 6 in circles arranged in a triangular shape, such that the numbers on each side of the triangle add up to 9. The numbers in the circle cannot be repeated. Worldview Defense. Based on previous research35, participants will read and evaluate two essays. Thematically, one of the essays will praise Chinese people as hardworking, clever, and responsible (pro-Chinese essay). In contrast, the other essay will criticize Chinese people as being selfish, cowardly, and prone to infighting (anti-Chinese essay). Participants will rate each essay and the associated author on six dimensions (likability, intelligence, knowledge, validity, reliability, and agreement) using a 7-point scale (1 = not at all to 7 = totally). The order of the two essays will be counterbalanced across participants. 2.5 Analysis plan Statistical analyses will be carried out in SPSS 24.0, JASP (www.jasp-stats.org), and Jamovi 1.1 software on Windows (version 10). To avoid any potential ceiling effects, floor effects, and regression to the mean, we will exclude any outliers (i.e., participants whose standardized scores fall outside the range of ±3 SD on any of the dependent variables) and participants with the theoretical minimum and maximum scores on any of the dependent variables. Manipulation Check The sadness and fear expressed in participants’ writing during Days 2 through 8 will be analyzed as a manipulation check, using the software TextMind to analyze the emotions shown in the writings. IF the data is normally distributed, two one-way ANOVA tests will be conducted separately on sadness and anxiety (Note: TextMind can only detect three specific emotions: sadness, anxiety, and anger) to analyze the group difference in expressed emotions each day. IF the data is not normally distributed, Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA tests will be used instead. (A) Emotion For the six basic emotions reported by the participants on each day in which data is collected, IF the data is normally distributed, Repeated-Measure ANOVA tests will be conducted separately for each group in Jamovi 1.1 to analyze the difference in the participants’ emotions across the six basic categories. IF the data is not normally distributed, Friedman Repeated-Measure ANOVA in Jamovi 1.1 will be used instead. (B) Life Goals A single IVO (intrinsic value orientation) score will be calculated by subtracting the scores on extrinsic items from those on the intrinsic items. IF the data is normally distributed, ANCOVA will be conducted to test the difference in life goals on Days 8 and 15 across the three groups, with the IVO score measured on Day 1 as the covariate. IF the data is not normally distributed, a generalized linear regression model (GLM) analysis will be used instead. Group (sadness, fear, control) and IVO score measured on Day 1 will be entered as the predictors. The function of GLM will be determined by the distribution of the data. (C) Life Satisfaction The scores will be averaged if the inter-item reliability is acceptable (i.e., Cronbach alpha &gt; 0.60). Then the ANCOVA or GLM analysis will be conducted similar to the plan used for the life goals analysis. (D) Worldview Defense Following the method used in a previous study conducted in China26, worldview defense will be calculated by subtracting the mean rating for the anti-Chinese essay from that for the pro-Chinese essay. Higher scores will indicate stronger worldview defense. Then ANCOVA or GLM analysis will be conducted similar to the plan used for the life goals analysis. (E) Self-esteem The ANCOVA or GLM analysis will be conducted similar to the plan used for the life goals analysis.