Terror Management versus Sadness Management after Mortality Saliency_STUDY3
Creators: name: Chengli, Huang
name: Hu, Chao
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: 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 (DR) 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 The primary goal of the study is to test the downstream effects of emotions on mortality management. In the current study, we will explore the influence of death consciousness under different emotions on external defensive mechanism (e.g., self-esteem striving, extrinsic goal structure) and internal growth mechanism (e.g., intrinsic goal structure). To this end, we will adopt background music (sad, fear) to arouse the respective emotion and then use the well-acknowledged mortality salience (MS) paradigm (Rosenblatt et al., 1989) to arouse the consciousness of death. Main Hypotheses A. Fear should lead to more terror management, which is associated with a stronger self-esteem striving and higher value of extrinsic life goals. B. Sadness should lead to more sadness management, which is associated with a higher value of intrinsic life goals. C. The MS task should produce an indirect effect on distal defense (i.e., self-esteem striving, life goal structure) via emotion (sadness, 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 15 RMB as compensation upon completion of the entire experiment. Participants will be informed that they can quit the experiment and still receive 5 RMB 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 medium effect size (f = 0.25) at the standard .05 alpha error probability. According to the power analysis for an ANCOVA test, 171 participants will be required to achieve a power of 0.9. Considering an attrition rate of 5%, we aim to recruit 180 participants. Chinese college students will be recruited by online advertisements (e.g., QQ, WeChat). 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 Participants will complete the tasks on the network platform Qualtrics (https://www.qualtrics.com/). Before the experiment, participants will be told that the experiment is concerned with a new personality test (Rosenblatt et al., 1989), after which they will sign an electronic informed consent form. At the beginning of the experiment, participants will complete the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). Then, participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups (sad, fear). In each condition, participants will listen to the respective background music for 3 minutes. The sad music is Theme From Schindler's List, while the fear music a piece of common background music in horror movies. Then, participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups (MS, control) (Rosenblatt et al., 1989). 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.’’. Then, participants will immediately rate their basic emotions (sadness, fear, anger, happiness, surprise, disgust) on a 7-point scale. A delay task (number puzzle) will be then included, because previous studies have demonstrated that MS-induced unconscious effects such as self-esteem striving 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. We will adopt a measure of self-esteem striving, which has been demonstrated as valid for measuring terror management responses in a previous study (Dechesne et al., 2003). Then, participants will complete the Aspiration Index (Kasser &amp; Ryan, 1993; 1996; Tang et al., 2008), which functions as a measure of life goals structure. Finally, participants will evaluate their belief about symbolic immortality (i.e., the immortality of human civilization, indefinite life extension, to be remembered after death). We measure it as an explorative analysis (See Figure 1 for the whole procedure of our study). After the experiment, participants will be debriefed. 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. Measurement of self-esteem striving (Dechesne et al., 2003). Participants will be explained that the Department of Psychology of the sponsoring university have developed four personality profiles and the computer will match the best-fitting profile for them based on all their input. Next, the personality profile will be announced. The profile is actually identical for all participants and is rated as more valid after mortality salience. The profile stated (in Chinese) as the following: "People with this personality profile are generally liked by others and attractive to many. Their willingness to entertain both themselves and others is highly commended. These people are often intelligent too. They have their own ways of doing things, and the chances of getting an influential position are very high. Their creativity enables them to solve many problems. Charm smooths satisfactory involvement in intimate relations. It is possible, though, that these characteristics emerge only later on in life. The chances are that ambitions prevent these people from doing everything that they would like to do." After participants read the profile, they will be asked to indicate on a 7-point scale, ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 7 (Strongly agree), their agreement with the following three statements about the accuracy of the description: (a) “The description I just read presents an accurate image of my personality”; (b) “The description I just read reflects the relevant aspects of my personality”; and (c) “The description I just read provides a complete and consistent description of my personality.” A composite will be created by summing responses to these three items constituted the dependent variable, self-esteem striving. 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). 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 among four groups. Two ANOVA tests will be applied (separately for sadness and fear). (B) Life Goal Structure 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 four groups, two ANCOVAs will be conducted, with self-esteem as the covariate. The factors will include self-esteem, group (MS, control), and the interaction between self-esteem and group. (C) Self-esteem Striving To test the difference in self-esteem striving among four groups, the same ANCOVAs will be conducted similar to the plan used for the life goal structure. (D) Overall Correlational Analyses Correlational analyses (two-tailed) will be conducted to analyze the correlations between emotions (sadness, fear) and life goal structure/self-esteem striving. (E) Multiple Mediation Analyses Multiple mediation analyses (Preacher &amp; Hayes, 2008) will be used to examine the significance of the mediating effects of emotions (sadness, fear) on the relationship between groups and life goal structure/self-esteem striving. In these analyses, groups will be treated as the independent variable, fear or sadness will be treated as the mediator, and life goal structure/self-esteem striving will be treated as the dependent variable. 3.2 Hypothesized Results of Primary Analyses (A) Emotions The MS group will report more self-reported sadness and/or fear than the control group. The sadness background music group will show more sadness than fear background music group; the fear background music group will show more sadness than sadness background music group. (B) DVs: Life Goal Structure, and Self-esteem Striving The MS group will show a higher IVO than the control group, but only for the sad background music group. The MS group will show a stronger self-esteem striving than the control group, but only for the fear background music group. (C) Overall Correlational Analyses Sadness will be associated with a higher IVO, while fear will be associated with a stronger self-esteem striving, but only for the MS group. (D) Multiple Mediation Analyses The MS task will produce an indirect effect on life goal structure/self-esteem striving via emotions (sadness, fear). 3.3 Explorative Analyses We take participants’ belief about symbolic immortality as an explorative analysis. We predict that the MS group will show a stronger belief about symbolic immortality than the control group, but only for the fear background music group.