TY - JOUR
T1 - Terror management and cognitive-experiential self-theory
T2 - Evidence that terror management occurs in the experiential system
AU - Simon, Linda
AU - Greenberg, Jeff
AU - Harmon-Jones, Eddie
AU - Pyszczynski, Tom
AU - Solomon, Sheldon
AU - Arndt, Jamie
AU - Abend, Teresa
PY - 1997/5
Y1 - 1997/5
N2 - The authors hypothesized, on the basis of terror management theory and cognitive-experiential self-theory, that participants in an experiential mode of thinking would respond to mortality salience with increased worldview defense and increased accessibility of death-related thoughts, whereas participants in a rational mode would not. Results from 3 studies provided convergent evidence that when participants were in an experiential mode, mortality salience produced the typical worldview defense effect, but when participants were in a rational mode it did not. Study 4 revealed that mortality salience also led to a delayed increase in the accessibility of death-related thoughts only when participants were in an experiential mode. These results supported the notion that worldview defense is intensified only if individuals are in an experiential mode when considering their mortality. Discussion focuses on implications for understanding terror management processes.
AB - The authors hypothesized, on the basis of terror management theory and cognitive-experiential self-theory, that participants in an experiential mode of thinking would respond to mortality salience with increased worldview defense and increased accessibility of death-related thoughts, whereas participants in a rational mode would not. Results from 3 studies provided convergent evidence that when participants were in an experiential mode, mortality salience produced the typical worldview defense effect, but when participants were in a rational mode it did not. Study 4 revealed that mortality salience also led to a delayed increase in the accessibility of death-related thoughts only when participants were in an experiential mode. These results supported the notion that worldview defense is intensified only if individuals are in an experiential mode when considering their mortality. Discussion focuses on implications for understanding terror management processes.
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U2 - 10.1037/0022-3514.72.5.1132
DO - 10.1037/0022-3514.72.5.1132
M3 - Article
C2 - 9150588
AN - SCOPUS:0031138158
SN - 0022-3514
VL - 72
SP - 1132
EP - 1146
JO - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
IS - 5
ER -