Terror Management versus Sadness Management after Mortality Saliency
Creators: name: Chengli, Huang
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Social Psychology
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: fearness
subject: Mortality Salience
subject: sadness
subject: Terror Management Theory;
subject: writing therapy

description: 1. Introduction Based on Ernest Becker's theory about the denial of death, which supposes that all human behaviors are motivated by a denial of death (Becker, 1973), Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski and Sheldon Solomon proposed the terror management theory (TMT) (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, &amp; Solomon, 1986). TMT 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 integrate themselves into a board and immortal cultural worldview, and acquire self-esteem by living up to the standards of value inherent in one's cultural worldview (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, &amp; Solomon, 1999). Terror management theory has been verified by a large number of empirical studies (for a review, see: Pyszczynski et al., 1999; Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt, &amp; Schimel, 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 the mortality silence group and the control group, from which derived the "affect-free claim" (Lambert et al., 2014). However, some studies raised doubts about the "affect-free claim". 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 when participants finished a distraction task, suggesting that the time at which emotions were measured would moderate the mortality saliency (MS) effect on emotions. Moreover, Significant MS effect on emotions has been demonstrated in studies using objective measures of emotions, e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging (Quirin et al., 2012), facial electromyography (Arndt, Allen, &amp; Greenberg, 2001), and linguistic inquiry and word count (Lambert et al., 2014). Finally, some researchers propose that it may be the latent emotional experience, rather than the actual emotional experience, that influences the behavior after MS (Greenberg et al., 2003; Pyszczynski et al., 1999). Consistently, Greenberg et al. (2003) found that eliminating the potential for anxiety by placebo can 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. To sum up, although a majority of studies have found that death-related stimuli do not result in differences in self-report emotions, studies measured emotions with objective methods have found that deep emotional feelings influenced the behavior after MS. The question, then, is whether different emotions lead to different management after MS. Fear originates in evolved mammalian defense systems to protect themselves from life threats (Öhman, 2008). In the same vein, TMT views fear of death as the primary emotions that caused by the awareness of self-annihilation and directly out of the basic self-preservation instinct (Solomon, Greenberg, &amp; Pyszczynski, 1991). A large number of empirical studies have already found that mortality silence tends to external defense reactions (e.g., worldview defense, Rosenblatt et al., 1989; self-esteem striving, Goldenberg, McCoy, Pyszczynski, Greenberg, &amp; Solomon, 2000) and extrinsic value orientation (e.g., materialistic tendencies, Cozzolino, Staples, Meyers, &amp; Samboceti, 2004). However, reflection upon one's mortality should also invoke sadness, the prototypical emotion when individuals permanently lose what they value (e.g., losing a person or object important to the self, or losing the world in which one enjoys living on death) (Bonanno, Goorin, &amp; Coifman, 2008). A key function of sadness is to promote personal reflection about the irrevocable loss: the experience of sadness can turn one’s attention inward, promoting resignation and acceptance; sadness can update cognitive structures to accommodate lost objects; as a result, the reflective function of sadness allows individuals to revise goals and plans, and even turn to help others (for a review, see: Bonanno et al., 2008). Consistently, some empirical studies applying death reflection paradigm (a modification of MS) have demonstrated that pondering one’s mortality promotes positive growth of self, e.g., increase donate blood intentions, identity integration, gratitude, intrinsic-oriented goals, and reduce greed (Blackie &amp; Cozzolino, 2011; Blackie, Cozzolino, &amp; Sedikides, 2016; Cozzolino et al., 2004; Frias, Watkins, Webber, &amp; Froh, 2011; Lykins, Segerstrom, Averill, Evans, &amp; Kemeny, 2007). Taken together, these studies indicated that individuals could react differently after MS. We hypothesize that people could have two different basic emotions, i.e., fear and sadness, after MS. Correspondingly, there will be two different types of management after MS, i.e., terror management and sadness management. Terror management is more likely to involve fear and anxiety, leading to external defense such as self-protection and external defenses, as demonstrated in a large number of empirical studies (for a review, see: Burke, Martens, &amp; Faucher, 2010). On the other hand, sadness management might lead to internal growth, such as the development of prosocial motivation and intrinsic value orientation. To explore the deepest emotions after MS, this study will adopt the method of expressive writing therapy (Pennebaker, 2018). Participants will write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about their 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 in each evening of the following week. After this week of writing, participants will be assessed on worldview defense, self-esteem, life goals structure (internal/external), and life satisfaction. Hypothesis A. Participants should feel both sadness and fear when thinking about their 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 life, especially their intrinsic goals in life, and feel more satisfied with life. Exploring question Individuals with suicide ideation may have different thoughts and feelings about their mortality. Will suicide ideation moderated emotions and managements after MS? Will writing about terror or sadness toward mortality reduce their suicide ideation? 2. Materials and Method 2.1 Participant The current study uses the software program G*Power3.1 to conduct a power analysis. Our goal is to obtain 0.80 power to detect a hypothetical effect size based on a previous writing study in the field of terror management theory (η = 0.28) (Lykins, Segerstrom, Averill, Evans, &amp; Kemeny, 2007, study 3) at the standard .05 alpha error probability. Considering the wear rate of 20%, we aimed to recruit 116 participants. Considering the potential effect of religion upon the interpretation of mortality, all participants will be atheists. Participants who have experienced fear and anxiety, and who have recently experienced major annoyance or stress before the experiment will be excluded. Participants can quit the experiment whenever they want. 2.2 Procedure Participants are recruited on the internet and complete the tasks via the Qualtrics online platform. They will be randomly assigned to one of two groups (sadness vs. fear group). 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, the participants need to complete the demographic questionnaire, PANAS, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Aspiration Index (AI-35), and suicide ideation scale. After that, participants will read the following instructions for writing: "Death is inevitable for humans. It is the same for everyone. What are your thoughts and feelings about your mortality? Please write no less than 300 characters about your deepest thoughts and feelings." (Note: The question is a modification of the traditional MS paradigm since the current study focuses on mortality, instead of a hypothetical death). After the writing, they will report their emotions when thinking about their mortality, indicating the degree of their feelings of six basic emotions (sadness, joy, fear, anger, surprise, disgust) on 7-point scales. Finally, participants will complete a delay task and then a measure of worldview defense (i.e., ratings for an article praising Chinese people and a paper criticizing Chinese people.). Previous studies find that MS-induced unconscious effects, such as worldview defense, occur most strongly when death-related thoughts are outside of consciousness but accessible (for a review, see: Burke, Martens, &amp; Faucher, 2010). Therefore, a delay task is applied to remove thoughts of death from focal awareness. On Day 2 - Day 8, the participants will be randomly separated into sadness or fear writing groups. The experimenter will send participants the link of the study through emails. Then the participants finish the writing tasks online. Specifically, the sadness group will be asked to write no less than 300 words regarding the open-ended question: "Death is inevitable for humans. Please write no less than 300 characters about your deepest sadness about your mortality. What makes you sad, and what would you do?" Meanwhile, the fear group will be asked to write no less than 300 words regarding the open-ended question: "Death is inevitable for humans. Please write no less than 300 characters about your deepest fear about your mortality. What makes you fear, and what would you do?" After the writing, they will report their emotions when thinking about their mortality, indicating the degree of their feelings of six basic emotions (sadness, joy, fear, anger, surprise, disgust) on 7-point scales. On Day 8 before the last writing task, participants will complete PANAS (we make this arrangement to avoid the influence of writing on reporting recent moods); after the last writing task and reporting of the six basic emotions, they will finish a delay task and then a measure of worldview defense. Later, they will finish the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, Aspiration Index (AI-35), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and suicide ideation scale. A week later (Day 15), participants will complete the same tasks as Day 1. In the end, participants will be debriefed, and if necessary, provided counseling. During the experiment, participants will be given proper psychological counseling once they show any maladjustment. 2.3 Measures Demographic information. Participants are asked to report their gender, age, and ethnic background. PANAS. A Chinese version of the 20-item Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) (Qiu, Zheng, &amp; Wang, 2008; Watson, Anna, &amp; Tellegen, 1988) is used to assess the self-reporting emotions of participants. The schedule involves a variety of positive (e.g., "excited", "interested") and negative emotions (e.g., "nervous", "scared") Responses are assessed using a 7-point agreement format, where 1 = not at all, and 7 = extremely. Emotions after mortality saliency. Besides self-reporting, we will use the method of linguistic inquiry and word count (LIWC) on computers to analyze the emotions expressed in participants' writings. Aspiration Index (AI-35) (Kasser &amp; Ryan, 1993, 1996; Tang, Kuang, &amp; Yao, 2008). There are 35 specific goals, and participants are asked to indicate how important they were to them. Responses were on a 7-point scale with endpoints 1 = not at all and 7 = extremely. The 35 goals were divided into two categories: intrinsic (4 subscales; i.e., affiliation, community feeling, physical fitness, self-acceptance) and extrinsic (3 subscales; i.e., financial success, appealing appearance, social recognition). Following a previous study (Kasser &amp; Ryan, 1996), difference scores were calculated by subtracting the extrinsic scale mean from the intrinsic scale mean, so positive values indicate the relative importance of intrinsic over extrinsic goals. The magnitude of the difference score relays 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 for aspiration orientation in Chinese-speaking samples (Tang et al., 2008). The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, &amp; Griffin, 1985). The scale consists of 5 items, e.g., "In most ways my life is close to my ideal." Responses are assessed using a 7-point agreement format, where 1 = strongly disagree, and 7 = strongly agree. Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). The scale measures global feelings about the self with 10 items such as, "I take a positive attitude toward myself" and "I certainly feel useless at times" (reversed). Responses are assessed using a 7-point agreement format, where 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, such as internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validities. Previous studies found that differences in individual self-esteem affected the emotional and world defense after mortality silence (Routledge et al., 2010). Therefore, self-esteem is involved as a covariate. Delay Task. The previous study finds that MS-induced unconscious effects, such as worldview defense, occur most strongly when death-related thoughts are outside of consciousness but accessible(for a review, see: Burke, Martens, &amp; Faucher, 2010). Therefore, a 5-min puzzle function as a delay task to remove thoughts of death from focal awareness. Worldview Defense. Worldview defense is assessed by having participants read and evaluate two essays. Thematically, one of the essays praises the good qualities of Chinese people (e.g., hardworking, clever, responsible), whereas the other essay criticizes the bad qualities of Chinese people (e.g., selfish, coward, internal strife). Participants rate each essay and the author along 6 dimensions (likability, intelligence, knowledgeable, validity, reliability, and agreement) using a 7-point scale from 1 = not at all to 7 = totally. The order of the two essays is balanced among the participants. A worldview defense composite was created by taking the difference between participant’s ratings of the two essays, with positive values indicating more worldview defense. Manipulation check During Day 2 to Day 8, the fear group members describe more fear than the sadness group members, and the sadness group members describe more sadness than the fear group members, embedded both self-reporting and writing context. Expectation of Results (A) Emotion. On day 1, participants will report both sadness and fear after writing about their mortality. (B) Life Goals. There will be significant changes among the two experimental groups in life goals. After controlling the life goals measured on day 1, sadness group members will report higher value attached to intrinsic goals than fear group members do on Day 8 and Day 15, whereas fear group members will report higher value attached to extrinsic goals than sadness group members do on Day 8 and Day 15. 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