Life is too short to be small: an experiment on mortality salience and prosocial behavior

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Te Bao ◽  
Xun Li ◽  
Congling Xia
Keyword(s):  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Mortality Salience

scholarly journals The Underlying Process of Prosocial Behavior Among Soldiers: A Terror Management Theory Perspective

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ido Heller ◽  
Samer Halabi
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Dental Pain ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Underlying Process ◽  
Perception Of Threat

The mortality salience (MS) hypothesis postulates that anxiety elicited by mortality awareness leads people to develop negative emotions toward those who hold values inconsistent with their worldview faith. We explored this hypothesis in a sample of 76 Israeli combat soldiers, who were asked to reflect on either their mortality or dental pain. Subsequently, participants reported their motivation to help a father in need who was either an Arab (outgroup) or a Jewish Israeli (ingroup), as well as their perceptions of threat by Arab Israelis. Regression analysis indicated that mortality reminders intensified soldiers’ perception of threat by the outgroup, leading to an increased desire to assist a Jewish-Israeli father, and a decreased motivation to help an Arab-Israeli one. The findings demonstrate the pronounced effects of MS on soldiers involved in frequent combat actions in terms of evoking negative emotions leading to reluctance to help unarmed civilian outgroup members. Recommendations for soldiers’ pre-deployment psychoeducation sessions are provided.

Quid pro quo: The effect of individuals' exchange orientation on prosocial behavior and the moderating role of mortality salience

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 242-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Schindler ◽  
Marc-André Reinhard ◽  
Dagmar Stahlberg ◽  
Andrea Len
Keyword(s):  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Exchange Orientation ◽  
Moderating Role

scholarly journals THE IMPACT OF MORTALITY SALIENCE ON COLLEGE STUDENTS’ INTENT TO HELP OLDER ADULTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S80-S80
Author(s):  
Erika A Fenstermacher ◽  
Jessica Birg ◽  
Vincent Barbieri ◽  
Nathaniel Herr
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Student Volunteer ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Volunteer Group

Abstract Terror Management Theory (TMT) states that the awareness of one’s own death causes humans to experience intense anxiety, which must be continuously managed. Much of the research on TMT has focused on negative outcomes, rather than prosocial behavior, begging the question: “Can priming individuals with the thought of their own death trigger them to behave in ways that benefit others?”. Jonas et al. (2002), found that when mortality salience was primed prosocial behavior increased. In line with TMT, they hypothesized that people may behave in a more prosocial manner as it fits in with their personal values. The present study recruited 108 students who were randomly assigned to a mortality salience (MS) or control condition. Participants also completed baseline self-reports, which included measures of ageism, social desirability, personality, and empathy. After the study seemed to end, participants were given a disguised measure of helping behavior, which they believed to be an interest survey for a student volunteer group. Preliminary analyses indicate that those in the MS condition were more willing to be contacted to volunteer with kids than being contacted to volunteer with older adults. We also found that those in the MS condition were more likely to be contacted to volunteer with kids than those in the control condition. Our findings are consistent with previous work showing that individuals favor their ingroup when primed with their death. This reflects the importance of focused efforts on encouraging young people to identify with older adults and on promoting prosocial behavior.

scholarly journals That Could Have Been Me: Director Deaths, CEO Mortality Salience, and Corporate Prosocial Behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (7) ◽  
pp. 3142-3161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoli Chen ◽  
Craig Crossland ◽  
Sterling Huang
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Chief Executive Officer ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Cognitive Responses ◽  
Subsequent Increase ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Corporate Social

Mortality salience—the awareness of the inevitability of death—is often traumatic. However, it can also be associated with a range of positive, self-transcendent cognitive responses, such as a greater desire to help others, contribute to society, and make a more meaningful contribution in one’s life and career. In this study, we provide evidence of a link between chief executive officer (CEO) mortality salience—triggered by the death of a director at the same firm—and a subsequent increase in firm-level prosocial behavior or corporate social responsibility (CSR). We further show that this core relationship is amplified in situations where the death of the director is likely to have been especially salient (i.e., the director was appointed within the CEO’s tenure, or the death was sudden/expected). In supplementary analyses, we find suggestive evidence of increased CEO prosociality in other professional domains as well as evidence that prosociality seems to be preferentially directed toward ingroups. This paper was accepted by Olav Sorenson, organizations.

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