Terror Management versus Sadness Management
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 The Role of Emotion in Terror Management According to Becker (1973), all human behaviors are motivated by a denial of death. Inspired by this idea, Greenberg, Pyszczynski, and Solomon (1986) proposed Terror Management Theory (TMT), 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 (Pyszczynski et al., 1999). Terror management theory has been supported by a myriad of empirical studies (Pyszczynski et al., 1999; 2004), 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” (Lambert et al., 2014). However, some studies have raised doubts about this finding. For example, Routledge et al. (2010) 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 emotions. Moreover, studies using objective measures of emotions, like functional magnetic resonance imaging (Quirin et al., 2012), facial electromyography (Arndt et al., 2001), and linguistic inquiry and word count (Lambert et al., 2014) 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 (Greenberg et al., 2003; Pyszczynski et al., 1999). Consistent with this perspective, Greenberg et al. (2003) found that eliminating the potential for anxiety by placebo can effectively eliminate the effect of mortality salience on worldview defense. In the same vein, Webber et al. (2015) found that existentially threatening stimuli did not increase death thought accessibility (DTA) and worldview defense when the emotion was misattributed or down-regulated via reappraisal. In summary, although numerous studies have found that death-related stimuli do not result in differences in self-reported emotions (mainly relying on the PANAS scale to measure emotional reactions, i.e., positive emotion and negative emotion), studies measuring emotions with more objective methods have found latent emotions following heightened mortality salience. If it is the case that there are latent emotions after MS, then it is possible that different emotions may lead to differential means of managing mortality salience. In the current study, we focus on two basic emotions (sadness and fear) and their downstream effects on mortality management. Fear and Sadness The first aim of our research is to test the basic assumption that mortality salience should induce emotions (specially, fear or sadness). Fear serves a protective function in evolved mammalian defense systems, such that it promotes survival-based behaviors in response to threats (Öhman, 2008). In his book The Denial of Death, the cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker proposes that fear and denial of death exist as the springboard for all human activity (Becker, 1973). Based on his thesis, 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 (Solomon et al., 1991). It has become almost an indisputable fact that there is a generalized fear of mortality, which was recently endorsed by the results of an empirical study (Lambert et al., 2014). Specifically, Lambert et al. (2014) found that MS groups reported significant more fear immediately after MS task compared with neutral control groups. On the other hand, reflection upon one’s own mortality should also invoke sadness among some individuals. Sadness is a low arousal emotion (Russell, 1980), and it is 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) (Bonanno et al., 2008). In a qualitative analysis of narrative responses in TMT studies, respondents showed sadness about the grief that would be experienced by family and friends if they should die (Kastenbaum &amp; Heflick, 2011). Kastenbaum and Heflick (2011) supposed that sadness has the potential to strengthen interpersonal bonds and enlist support, and helps these respondents code with mortality by closely integrating themselves within a supportive social network of family and friends. Such cases should be even more prevalent in collectivist cultures. There are distinct conceptions of the self between collectivist cultures (especially Asian cultures) and individualist cultures (especially Western cultures); specifically, collectivist cultures hold an interdependent self-construal in which individuals insist on the connectedness of themselves to others, whereas individualist cultures hold an independent self-construal in which individuals seek to maintain their independence from others (Markus &amp; Kitayama, 1991). Therefore, the MS task may prompt people encompassed within collectivist cultures to consider others rather than themselves and may induce more sadness when thinking about their own mortality. Fear Management and Sadness Management Another issue that arises here is whether different emotions will have different downstream effects on mortality management or not. A large number of empirical studies have already found that mortality salience leads to external defensive responses, such as worldview defense (Rosenblatt et al., 1989), self-esteem striving (Goldenberg et al., 2000), and extrinsic value orientation such as materialistic tendencies (Cozzolino et al., 2004). However, since the “affect-free claim”, most studies have paid little attention to the role of fear in defensive responses. Nevertheless, Lambert et al. (2014) pointed out several limitations to research that has examined affect proximally and applied new criteria to their research. They found that higher levels of fear were associated with lower levels of self-esteem regardless of whether participants were assigned to mortality salience versus control conditions; moreover, the MS task produced an indirect effect on self-esteem via fear, although not in the case of worldview defense (Lambert et al., 2014). Likewise, Cozzolino et al. (2014) found that levels of death fear were negatively related to positive components of the self. In terms of sadness, there may be some different effects. A key function of sadness is to promote personal reflection about an irrevocable loss (Bonanno et al., 2008). 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 (Bonanno et al., 2008). As a result, the reflective function of sadness may allow individuals to revise their goals and plans, and even encourage them to help others (Blackie &amp; Cozzolino, 2011). Consistently, 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 (Cozzolino et al., 2004) and increased identity integration (Blackie et al., 2016), gratitude (Frias et al., 2011), intrinsic goals (Lykins et al., 2007), and intentions to donate blood (Blackie &amp; Cozzolino, 2011). Moreover, reviews of near-death experiences (NDEs) found that those who survive close brushes with death tend to report a new sense of purpose or mission, reduced concern for material gain or status, and increased compassion and love for others (Greyson, 2013; Noyes Jr. et al., 2009). However, these studies have not explored the role of sadness in such internal growth. Collectively, these studies suggest that individuals may react differently (i.e., positively or negatively) following heightened mortality salience and that it is possible that latent emotions may play a role. Specifically, we predict that thinking about mortality might induce fear or sadness. Correspondingly, there might be two different types of management after MS, i.e., 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) (Öhman, 2008), which leads to self-protection and external defenses, as demonstrated in previous studies (for a review, see Burke et al., 2010). On the other hand, sadness management should lead to internal growth, such as development in intrinsic goal structure and prosocial motivation. The Current Study In the current study, we will adopt the well-acknowledged mortality salience (MS) paradigm (Rosenblatt et al., 1989) to investigate participants’ latent fear and sadness, and to examine the corresponding differential effects of mortality salience on worldview defense and life goals structure. One of the primary goals of the study is to investigate the existence of sadness and fear after MS. According to Lambert et al. (2014), there are several limitations to the pre-existing research that has examined affect proximally. Firstly, the choice of control conditions is problematic. Most TMT studies compared MS with negative conditions (e.g., imagining dental pain), and if mortality salience does indeed lead to negative affect, it would not be detected in studies that have compared mortality salience to other conditions that also lead to negative affect. Secondly, the time to measure emotion can be too long to detect effects. The majority of TMT studies measured affect after participants had completed one or more blocks of judgments. In this case, the effects of the MS manipulation on affect are likely to be less detectable either because of the passage of time and/or the interfering nature of the interpolated tasks. Thirdly, the choice of emotion scale is not ideal. The PANAS is the most common scale researchers have used in TMT studies. However, some of the emotions in the PANAS are irrelevant to thoughts of death (e.g., guilt, shame), which make the scale become less sensitive to distinguish true negative emotions related to death from general negative emotions. Based on the aforementioned limitations, the current study will follow previous methodological/analytic criteria (Lambert et al., 2014) by comparing mortality salience to a neutral control group, measuring affect immediately after the experimental manipulation, and using sensitive and appropriate measures of affect. In the current study, we will take both feelings measures and emotions measures into consideration. Feelings and emotions are two different type of phenomena according to Damasio and Carvalho (2013). The former refers to an individual’s subjective feeling of his or her biological reactions, whereas the latter is the biologically programmed reaction itself. Thus, an individual could have a feeling without a real-time emotion, or a real-time emotion without a feeling. Therefore, we will measure both subjective self-reported feelings and real-time emotions. Specifically, we will ask participants to report their feelings of fear and sadness after MS and analyze participants’ micro-expressions throughout the experiment. Another primary goal of the study is to test the downstream effects of emotions on mortality management. Specially, worldview defense will be measured as the embodiment of external defense mechanisms, whereas life goals structure will be measured as the embodiment of internal growth. Main Hypotheses A. Sadness or fear should increase after MS among different individuals. B. The feeling of fear (as measured by self-report) and/or the emotion of fear (as measured by micro-expression analysis) should lead to more terror management, which is associated with a stronger worldview defense. C. The feeling of sadness (as measured by self-report) and/or the emotion of sadness (as measured by micro-expression analysis) should lead to more sadness management, which is associated with a higher value of intrinsic life goals. D. The MS task should produce an indirect effect on distal defense (i.e., worldview defense and IVO) via emotion (sadness and fear). 2. Materials and Method 2.1 Ethics information All procedures that will be used in the current study have been approved by the ethics committee at the sponsoring university. Each participant will sign an informed consent form prior to their participation. Each participant will receive 20 RMB as compensation upon completion of the entire experiment. Participants will be informed that they can quit the experiment and still receive full compensation whenever they want if they feel uncomfortable about the study. 2.2 Participants Sample size was determined before any data analysis. We previously used the software program G*Power 3.1 to conduct a power analysis. The hypothetical effect size is based on a meta-analysis of mortality salience research, i.e., r = 0.35 (Burke et al., 2010), at the standard .05 alpha error probability. According to the power analysis for an ANCOVA test, 88 participants will be required to achieve a power of 0.9. Considering an attrition rate of 10%, we aim to recruit 97 participants. Chinese college students will be recruited by advertisements on their campus. Since the vast majority of studies investigating terror management theory have been conducted with a Western sample, individuals of Chinese descent are a relatively understudied population in this context and their emotional responses to mortality salience are worth exploring. Within the 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 attentive (Curran, 2016). 2.3 Procedure The procedure is similar to most MS studies conducted in both Western and non-Western societies (Pyszczynski et al., 2006). As in previous studies, participants will be told that the experiment is concerned with the psychological factors that influence the way people make decisions (Rosenblatt et al., 1989), after which they will sign an informed consent form. Participants will complete the tasks individually in a quiet laboratory room, under the guidance of a program in E-prime 2.0 run on a Windows system computer. The micro-expressions of participants will be recorded by a camera placed in front of the computer throughout the experiment. At the beginning of the formal experiment, participants will spend one minute to stare at a focus point on the computer screen, and the camera will record the participants’ facial expressions as the baseline. Participants will then complete the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). Then, participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups (MS, control). In the MS condition, participants need to type a few lines in a text box response to two questions: (a) “As specifically as you can, describe what happens to you as you physically die and once you are physically dead” and (b) “Please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouse in you”. In the control condition, participants need to answer two filler questions: (a) ‘‘As specifically as you can, describe what happens physically when you are watching television.’’ and (b) ‘‘Please briefly describe the emotions you feel when you are watching television.’’ (Dechesne et al., 2000). For each question, participants first need to spend 1 minute to think (thinking period), and then offer their answer in a text box (answering period). There is no time limit for answering. Then, participants will immediately rate their feelings of sadness and fear on a 7-point scale. Sadness will be measured based on an average of three sadness-related feelings (i.e., sad, dejected, and distressed); fear will be measured based on an average of three fear-related feelings, (i.e., anxious, frightened, scared). The order of reporting sadness and fear will be counter-balanced between participants. For the sake of completeness, we will include several additional emotions which most emotion theorists would regard as reasonably basic emotional states, including joy, anger, surprise, and disgust. Each of them will be also measured based on an average of three respective related feelings. These other emotion options should make it less obvious to participants what emotions we are investigating. Participants will next complete a delay task (number puzzle). 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 (Greyson, 2013). Therefore, the delay task is used to remove thoughts of death from participants’ focal awareness. Then, participants will complete the Aspiration Index (which functions as a measure of life goals structure) and the worldview defense measure. Given that once participants have been given the chance to defend their worldview, they may no longer need to re-prioritize their goals to manage concerns about death, participants will complete the life goals structure measure before the worldview defense measure. Finally, participants will complete a demographic questionnaire (See Figure 1 for the whole procedure of our study). After the experiment, participants will be debriefed and if necessary or desired, provided with professional counseling by a registered psychologist at our psychological research center. Figure. 1 Illustration of the experiment procedure. 2.4 Measures Demographic information. Participants will be asked to report their gender, age, degree, religious belief, and ethnic background. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). 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 (Blascovich &amp; Tomaka, 1991), Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale was found to have excellent psychometric properties, with high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. Aspiration Index (AI-35) (Kasser &amp; Ryan, 1993; 1996; Tang et al., 2008). This scale is used to measure life goals structure (intrinsic vs. extrinsic). There are 35 specific life 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 life 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), and the average of the 4 intrinsic subscales will constitute the intrinsic scale mean and the average of the 3 extrinsic subscales will constitute the extrinsic scale mean. Based on the method used in a previous study (Kasser &amp; Ryan, 1996), 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 goals (Kasser &amp; Ryan, 1996). 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) (Tang et al., 2008). Delay Task. A number puzzle (Yao, 2018) will be used as a delay task to remove thoughts of death from participants’ focal awareness. Worldview Defense. Based on previous research (Greenberg et al., 1992), participants will read and evaluate two essays. In the current study, participants will complete the worldview defense measure in the context of Chinese culture (Du et al., 2013). 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. Micro-Expressions. A go-pro camera will be used to capture 60 frames per second of emotional reactions. We will use Noldus FACEREADER 7.1 facial expression analysis software to analyze the micro-expressions frame by frame. The FACEREADER 7.1 software can calculate the probable occurrence of six basic emotions (i.e., joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust) for each frame of videotaped facial expressions. The software first identifies and locates the face in each frame of the video and then automatically measures basic facial Action Units (AU) in a well-established Facial Action Coding System (FACS)—a comprehensive, compositional, and anatomically-based facial muscular movement analysis system (Ekman &amp; Rosenberg, 2005). Fear, for example, combines “Brow Raiser Frontalis” (AU1), “Outer Brow Raiser Frontalis” (AU2), “Brow Lower Depressor Glabellae” (AU4), and “Upper Lid Raiser Levator Palpebrae Superioris” (AU5). Previous studies have supported the validity of FACEREADER 7.1 to measure Asian participants’ emotional reactions (Chentsova-Dutton &amp; Tsai, 2010; Hu et al., 2018). 3. Analysis and Hypothesized Results 3.1 Primary Analysis Statistical analyses will be carried out in SPSS 24.0 and Jamovi 1.1 software on Windows (version 10). (A) Self-reported Feelings We will examine the differences in self-reported feelings of sadness and fear between the MS and control groups. IF the two feelings are normally distributed, two ANCOVA tests will be applied (separately for sadness and fear), with self-esteem as the covariate. The factors will include self-esteem, group (MS vs. control), and the interaction between self-esteem and group. IF the two feelings are not normally distributed, two generalized linear regression model (GLM) analyses (separately for sadness and fear) will be used instead. The predictors will include self-esteem, group (MS vs. control), and the interaction between self-esteem and group. (B) Micro-Expressions We will record participants’ micro-expressions throughout the entire experiment and divide the whole experiment into four sections: thinking section (the 1-minute thinking period), answering section (the answering period), filler section (the measuring period of self-reported feelings and delay task period), and distal defense section (the measuring period of life goal structure and worldview defense). We will examine the differences in the micro-expressions of sadness and fear between the MS and control groups for each section. The same ANCOVAs or GLMs will be conducted similar to the plan used for the self-reported feelings. (C) 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. To test the difference in IVO across the two groups, the same ANCOVAs or GLMs will be conducted similar to the plan used for the self-reported feelings. (D) Worldview Defense Following the method used in a previous study conducted in China (Du et al., 2013), 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. To test the difference in worldview defense between the two groups, the same ANCOVAs or GLMs will be conducted similar to the plan used for the self-reported feelings. (E) Overall Correlational Analyses Pearson correlational analyses (two-tailed) or Spearman correlational analyses (two-tailed) will be conducted to analyze the correlations between sadness (both self-reported feelings and micro-expressions of each section) and IVO, and between fear (both self-reported feelings and micro-expressions of each section) and worldview defense, depending on the distribution of data. (F) Multiple Mediation Analyses Multiple mediation analyses (Preacher &amp; Hayes, 2008) will be used to examine the significance of the mediating effects of sadness (both self-reported feelings and micro-expressions of each section) on the relationship between mortality salience and IVO, and also the significance of the mediating effects of fear (both self-reported feelings and micro-expressions of each section) on the relationship between mortality salience and worldview defense. In these analyses, MS will be treated as the independent variable, fear or sadness will be treated as the mediator, and worldview defense or IVO will be treated as the dependent variable. 3.2 Hypothesized Results of Primary Analyses (A) Emotions: Self-reported Feelings and Micro-expressions The MS group will report higher self-reported sadness and/or fear than the control group. The MS group will show significantly higher values of fear and/or sadness in micro-facial expressions than the control group. (B) DVs: Life Goals, and Worldview Defense The MS group will show lower IVO than the control group. The MS group will show stronger worldview defense than the control group. (C) Overall Correlational Analyses Sadness will be associated with higher IVO, while fear will be associated with stronger worldview defense. (D) Multiple Mediation Analyses The MS task will produce an indirect effect on IVO via sadness, whereas the MS task will produce an indirect effect on worldview defense via fear. 3.3 Secondary Analysis and Hypothesized Results Lu et al. (2017) proposed that emotions emerged after the proximal defense (immediately after MS, e.g., rationalization, suppression) and before the distal defense (after a delay task, e.g., worldview defense, self-esteem striving). Therefore, we expect that participants should express more self-protective emotions (i.e., fear) in the answering section than in the thinking section. 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