Jeff Greenberg

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Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Greenberg, J. L., schmader, t., arndt, j., & landau, m. j. (2018). Greenberg, J., Schmader, T., Arndt, J., & Landau, M.J. (2018). Social Psychology: The Science of Everyday Life (2nd Edition). New York: Worth Publishers.. Worth.
• Greenberg, J. L., Solomon, S., & Pyszczynski, T. (2015). The Worm at the Core. Random House.
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  coming out in may
• Greenberg, J., Schmader, T., Arndt, J., & Landau, M. (2015). Social Psychology: The Science of Everyday Life. Worth.
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  A new Introductory social psychology textbook that attempts to provide a very integrative and current presentation of the modern field of social psychology with emphases on cognitive, evolutionary, cultural, neuroscience, and existential perspectives. A culmination of a great deal of work over many years, but a tremendous amount of work finaliziing in this last year.
• Sullivan, D., & Greenberg, J. (2013). Death in classic and contemporary film: Fade to black. New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.

Chapters

• Greenberg, J. L., Lifshin, U., & Helm, P. (2017). Terror Management Theory: Surviving the Awareness of Death One Way or Another. In Postmortal Society. Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing.
• Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Pyszczynski, T. (2017). Folie a trois: Till death do we part. In Collaboration in Psychological Science: Lifting the Veil(pp 53-63). Worth.
• Greenberg, J., Landau, M., Kosloff, S., Soenke, M., & Solomon, S. (2016). How our means for feeling transcendent of death foster prejudice, stereotyping, and intergroup conflict. In Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination(pp 107-148). Psychology Press.
• Greenberg, J. L., Ayars, A., & Lifshin, U. (2015). Terror management theory. In Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Wiley.
• Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Sullivan, D. (2014). Experimental existential psychology: Living in the shadow of the facts of life. In Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.1: Attitudes and Social Cognition(pp 279-308). Washington, D.C.: APA.
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  M. Mikulincer, P. R. Shaver, E. Borgida & J.A. Bargh (Eds).
• Greenberg, J., & Ayars, A. (2013). A terror management analysis of films from four genres. In Death in classic and contemporary film: Fade to black(pp 19-36). New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.
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  D. Sullivan & J. Greenberg (Eds.)
• Greenberg, J., Landau, M. J., & Arndt, J. (2013). Mortal cognition: Viewing self and the world from the precipice. In The Oxford handbook of social cognition(pp 680-701). New York: Oxford University Press.
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  D. Carlston (Ed.)
• Schimel, J., & Greenberg, J. (2013). The birth and death of belonging. In The Oxford Handbook of Social Exclusion(pp 286-300). New York: Oxford University Press.
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  C. Nathan DeWall (Ed.)
• Soenke, M., Greenberg, J., & Landau, M. J. (2013). Sacred armor: Religion’s role as a buffer against the anxieties of life and the fear of death. In APA handbooks in psychology: APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality: Vol 1(pp 105-122). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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  K. Pargament (Ed.-in-Chief), J. Exline & J. Jones (Assoc. Eds.)
• Sullivan, D., & Greenberg, J. (2013). Conclusion: Cinematic death benefits. In Death in classic and contemporary film: Fade to black(pp 231-245). New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.
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  D. Sullivan & J. Greenberg (Eds.)
• Sullivan, D., & Greenberg, J. (2013). Introduction: When the lights go down. In Death in classic and contemporary film: Fade to black(pp 1-15). New York: Palgrave-MacMillan.
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  D. Sullivan & J. Greenberg (Eds.)
• Sullivan, D., Kosloff, S., & Greenberg, J. (2013). A terror management perspective on the creation and defense of meaning. In The Experience of Meaning in Life: Perspectives from the Psychological Sciences(pp 17-30). New York: Springer Press.
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  C. Routledge & J. Hicks (Eds.)
• Greenberg, J. (2012). Terror management theory: From genesis to revelations. In The Social Psychology of Meaning, Mortality, and Choice(pp 17-36). Washington, D.C.: APA.
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  P.R. Shaver & M. Mikulincer (Eds.)
• Greenberg, J., & Arndt, J. (2012). Terror management theory. In Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology(pp 398-415). London: Sage Press.
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  Kruglanski, A., E. T. Higgins, & P. van Lange (Eds.)
• Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Arndt, J. (2012). Freedom vs. fear revisited: An integrative analysis of the dynamics of the defense and growth of the self. In Handbook of Self and Identity, 2nd Edition(pp 378-404). New York: Guilford Press.
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  M.R. Leary & J.P. Tangney (Eds.).

Journals/Publications

• Helm, P. J., Lifshin, U., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2021). Will Life Extension Affect Our Social Judgments? Evidence That the Possibility of Indefinite Life Extension Increases Harshness Toward Social Transgressors. Psychological reports, 33294121988997.
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  We tested the hypothesis that if indefinite life extension (ILE) through medical technologies were to become a reality, then people may become harsher in their judgment of social transgressors. In support of this hypothesis, we found that higher positive attitudes towards ILE technologies related to harshness in judgment of social transgressions (Study 1), and that making ILE plausible (compared to not plausible) led participants to endorse harsher punishments for social transgressors (Studies 2-3). We replicated this effect and found that it is not amplified by subliminal death primes, although the primes also increased harshness (Study 3). These results may have implications to understanding how social judgment may be affected by the prospect of ILE.
• Horner, D. E., & Greenberg, J. (2021). The role of mortality concerns in separation and connection effects: comment on Lee and Schwarz. The Behavioral and brain sciences, 44, e10.
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  Using terror management theory and research findings, we expand the framework provided by Lee and Schwarz to highlight the potential link between separation and connection effects to existential, death-related concerns. Specifically, we address how death awareness may motivate separation and connection behaviors and how engaging in these behaviors may serve a protective terror management function.
• Horner, D. E., Sielaff, A., & Greenberg, J. (2020). Loss and lastingness? Further exploring the relationship between the death of a close other, belief in an everlasting soul, and terror management processes. Death studies, 1-10.
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  This research explored the relationship between the death of a close other (DOCO) and terror management processes. In Study 1 ( = 810), university students who experienced DOCO (vs. not) reported higher university and American identification; greater self-esteem and meaning in life; lower death-thought accessibility; greater "death-as-passage" representations; and higher belief in an everlasting soul. We pre-registered Study 2 ( = 497) as an attempt to replicate these findings; although the patterns of means were consistent with Study 1, the tests did not reach statistical significance. However, analyses on the merged data ( = 1,307) supported the present theoretical analysis.
• Yun, S. W., Greenberg, J., & Maxfield, M. (2020). Preparation for Future Care Needs in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: What Promotes Feeling of Preparedness?. The American journal of hospice & palliative care, 1049909120981577.
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  To examine whether demographic, dementia-related, and control-related variables predict preparation for future care needs (PFCN) in a sample of middle-aged and older adults. PFCN is defined in this study as a self-perceived sense of preparedness for one's own future care needs, including general awareness of future care needs, gathering relevant information, decision-making about care preferences, concrete planning, and non-avoidance of care planning.
• Pelham, B. W., Shimizu, M., Arndt, J., Carvallo, M., Solomon, S., & Greenberg, J. (2018). Searching for God: Illness-Related Mortality Threats and Religious Search Volume in Google in 16 Nations. Personality & social psychology bulletin, 44(3), 290-303.
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  We tested predictions about religiosity and terror management processes in 16 nations. Specifically, we examined weekly variation in Google search volume in each nation for 12 years (all weeks for which data were available). In all 16 nations, higher than usual weekly Google search volume for life-threatening illnesses (cancer, diabetes, and hypertension) predicted increases in search volume for religious content (e.g., God, Jesus, prayer) in the following week. This effect held up after controlling for (a) recent past and annual variation in religious search volume, (b) increases in search volume associated with religious holidays, and (c) variation in searches for a non-life-threatening illness ("sore throat"). Terror management threat reduction processes appear to occur across the globe. Furthermore, they may occur over much longer periods than those studied in the laboratory. Managing fears of death via religious belief regulation appears to be culturally pervasive.
• Schindler, S., Greenberg, J., & Pfattheicher, S. (2018). An existential perspective on the psychological function of shamans. The Behavioral and brain sciences, 41, e85.
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  Shamans deal with events that involve the threat of death. They help buffer death anxiety because, through their claimed supernatural abilities, they can provide both hope for averting death and evidence for existence of a spirit world offering continuance beyond death. Thus, managing the threat of mortality probably played a major role in the development and maintenance of shamanism.
• Greenberg, J., Lifshin, U., & Sullivan, D. (2017). The evil animal: A terror management perspective on killing animals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Greenberg, J., Lifshin, U., helm, p., soenke, m., ashish, d., & sullivan, d. (2017). Evidence of higher ingroup identity in young adults who have experienced the death of a close other: an extension of terror management theory. Self and Identity.
• Maxfield, m., Pyszczynski, t., & Greenberg, J. (2017). Mortality salience and correspondence bias in younger and older adults. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 1-14.
• Westcott, C., Lifshin, U., Helm, P., & Greenberg, J. (2016). He dies, he scores: Evidence that reminders of of death motivate improved performance in basketball. Journal of Sports and Exercise Psychology, 38, 470-480.
• Greenberg, J. (2015). The Psychological Worm at the Core of Mass Shootings. Psykologisk Tidsskrift, 19, 28-33.
• Greenberg, J. L., Soenke, M., & O'Connor, M. (2015). Broadening the definition of resilience and "reappraising" the use of appetitive motivation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 38, 121.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (2015). Thirty Years of Terror Management Theory: Genesis to Revelations. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 52, 1-70.
• Lifshin, U., Greenberg, J. L., Zestcott, C. A., & Sullivan, D. L. (2016). The evil animal: A terror management theory perspective on the human tendency to kill animals.. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
• Lifshin, U., Helm, P., Greenberg, J. L., Soenke, M., Ashish, D., & Sullivan, D. L. (2016). Managing the death of close others: Evidence of higher ingroup identity in young adults who have experienced the death of a close other.. Self and Identity.
• Greenberg, J., Vail, K., & Pyszczynski, T. (2014). Terror management theory and research: How the desire for death transcendence drives our strivings for meaning and significance. Advances in Motivation Science, 1, 86-134.
• Maxfield, M., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2014). Dealing with death in later life: Terorr management theory perspectives on aging.. In Mind-Italia, 6, 1-5.
• Maxfield, M., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Weise, D., Kosloff, S., Soenke, M., Abeyta, A., & Blatter, J. (2014). Increases in generative concern among older adults following reminders of mortality. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 79, 1-21.
• Soenke, M., Greenberg, J., & Focella, E. S. (2014). Remembering the Initial Realization of One's Own Mortality. Death Studies.
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  Abstract: Research shows many effects of reminding people of their mortality; however, little is known about whether people recall the moment they first realized they will die, or what factors are associated with whether they do. Data from 1,552 undergraduates and a community sample of 149 adults found that about one third of participants reported remembering the moment. Individuals who recall the moment have slightly lower self-esteem, are more likely to believe in a soul, and are more prone to dissociation than those who do not. Further research into how recollection of the moment relates to psychological well-being is recommended. © 2014 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
• Cohen, F., Soenke, M., Solomon, S., & Greenberg, J. (2013). Evidence for a role of death thought in American attitudes toward symbols of Islam. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(2), 189-194.
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  Abstract: Four studies were conducted to examine how concerns about mortality contribute to Americans' negative attitudes and behavior toward symbols of Islam. Study 1 found that a subtle reminder of death decreased support for the Ground Zero mosque, and increased the distance from Ground Zero that people felt was appropriate for a mosque to be built. Study 2 found that asking people to think about a mosque being built in their neighborhood increased the accessibility of implicit death thoughts. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 and showed that thinking of a church or synagogue did not produce the same effect as thinking of a mosque. Study 4 found that heightened death thought accessibility in response to a mortality salience induction was eliminated when the participants read a newspaper account of the desecration of the Quran. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.
• Jonas, E., Sullivan, D., & Greenberg, J. (2013). Generosity, greed, norms, and death - Differential effects of mortality salience on charitable behavior. Journal of Economic Psychology, 35, 47-57.
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  Abstract: Terror management theory (TMT) states that mortality salience prompts people to follow cultural standards. But many cultures value both generosity and accumulation of wealth. Combining TMT with the focus theory of normative conduct, we suggest that whether mortality salience encourages generosity or greed depends on the norm(s) salient in the situation. In Study 1 mortality salience led Americans to give less money to foreign charities. Study 2 replicated this effect, and showed it can be eliminated by activating a generosity norm. However, people who valued money as highly important donated less money following mortality salience. Study 3 showed that following mortality salience and a fairness prime, people behaved more generously when splitting money between themselves and an anonymous partner. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.
• Ismail, I., Martens, A., Landau, M. J., Greenberg, J., & Weise, D. R. (2012). Exploring the Effects of the Naturalistic Fallacy: Evidence That Genetic Explanations Increase the Acceptability of Killing and Male Promiscuity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(3), 735-750.
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  Abstract: The naturalistic fallacy is the erroneous belief that what is natural is morally acceptable. Two studies assessed whether people commit the naturalistic fallacy by testing whether genetic explanations for killing and male promiscuity, as compared to experiential explanations (i.e., learning/"nurture" explanations) increase acceptance of these behaviors. In Study 1, participants who read a genetic explanation for why people kill bugs viewed bug killing as more morally acceptable than participants who read an experiential explanation, although they did not reliably kill more bugs. In Study 2, men who read a genetic explanation for why men are more promiscuous than women reported decreased interest in long-term romantic commitment compared with men who read experiential explanations and women who read either explanation. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
• Maxfield, M., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Pepin, R., & Davis, H. P. (2012). The moderating role of executive functioning in older adults' responses to a reminder of mortality. Psychology and Aging, 27(1), 256-263.
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  PMID: 21728445;PMCID: PMC3249010;Abstract: In previous research, older adults responded to mortality salience (MS) with increased tolerance, whereas younger persons responded with increased punitiveness. One possible explanation for this is that many older adults adapt to challenges of later life, such as the prospect of mortality, by becoming more flexible. Recent studies suggest that positively oriented adaptation is more likely for older adults with high levels of executive functioning. Thus, we hypothesized that the better an older adult's executive functioning, the more likely MS would result in increased tolerance. Older and younger adults were randomly assigned to MS or control conditions, and then evaluated moral transgressors. As in previous research, younger adults were more punitive after reminders of mortality; executive functioning did not affect their responses. Among older adults, high functioning individuals responded to MS with increased tolerance rather than intolerance, whereas those low in functioning became more punitive. © 2011 American Psychological Association.
• Weise, D. R., Arciszewski, T., Verlhiac, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (2012). Terror management and attitudes toward immigrants : Differential effects of mortality salience for low and high right-wing authoritarians. European Psychologist, 17(1), 63-72.
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  Abstract: Previous terror management theory research has shown that mortality salience (MS; a death reminder) leads to the derogation of those who are perceived to be threats to or violators of one's cultural worldview. Immigrants may be viewed as such a threat, but not necessarily to all majority group members of the culture. The studies presented here tested the hypothesis that, depending upon the nature of the participants' worldview, MS would either increase or decrease liking of an immigrant. After being reminded of their mortality or a control topic, French and American college students evaluated an immigrant. To assess differences in worldview, participants completed a measure of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Consistent across two studies, MS led to more negative evaluations of an immigrant among those high in RWA, but more positive evaluations for those low in RWA. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for understanding the interplay of mortality concerns and RWA in determining attitudes toward immigrants. © 2011 Hogrefe Publishing.
• Cohen, F., Sullivan, D., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Ogilvie, D. M. (2011). Finding everland: Flight fantasies and the desire to transcend mortality. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(1), 88-102.
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  Abstract: Fantasies and dreams of flight are ubiquitous across cultures and throughout history and often linked to immortality. A perspective derived from terror management theory holds that flight fantasies are appealing because they suggest transcendence of the limitations of creatureliness and mortality. Five studies established the link between mortality concerns and flight fantasy. In Study 1, participants showed greater desire to fly after contemplating death compared to a control topic. In Study 2, participants showed greater desire to fly, but not to engage in other supernatural acts, after contemplating death compared to a control topic. In Studies 3 and 4, participants who engaged in flight fantasy did not subsequently demonstrate defensive reactions to a death reminder observed in nonflight conditions. Study 5 showed that flight fantasy, but not other pleasurable or empowering fantasies, decreased death thought accessibility after mortality salience, and this effect was uniquely mediated by a feeling of freedom from bodily limits. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
• Sullivan, D., & Greenberg, J. (2011). Monstrous children as harbingers of mortality: A psychological analysis of Doris Lessing's the fifth child. LIT Literature Interpretation Theory, 22(2), 113-133.
• Greenberg, J., Kosloff, S., Solomon, S., Cohen, F., & Landau, M. (2010). Toward understanding the fame game: The effect of mortality salience on the appeal of fame. Self and Identity, 9(1), 1-18.
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  Abstract: Although the appeal of fame in society seems to be increasing, experimental research has yet to examine the motivations that may underlie this apparent appeal. As a first step toward doing so, we conducted three studies to assess whether concerns with mortality play a role in these phenomena. Based on terror management theory and research, we hypothesized that reminders of death would increase people's desire for fame and admiration of celebrities. In Study 1, mortality salience led participants to report greater desire for fame. In Study 2, mortality salience produced greater interest in having a star in the galaxy named after oneself. In Study 3, mortality salience increased liking for abstract art when it was attributed to a celebrity. These findings suggest that the appeal of fame is based in part on the desire for symbolic continuance beyond death. Discussion focused on the implications of these findings and remaining issues. © 2008 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business.
• Kosloff, S., Greenberg, J., Schmader, T., Dechesne, M., & Weise, D. (2010). Smearing the opposition: Implicit and explicit stigmatization of the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates and the current U.S. President. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139(3), 383-398.
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  PMID: 20677891;Abstract: Four studies investigated whether political allegiance and salience of outgroup membership contribute to the phenomenon of acceptance of false, stigmatizing information (smears) about political candidates. Studies 1-3 were conducted in the month prior to the 2008 U.S. Presidential election and together demonstrated that pre-standing opposition to John McCain or Barack Obama, as well as the situational salience of differentiating social categories (i.e., for Obama, race; for McCain, age), contributed to the implicit activation and explicit endorsement of smearing labels (i.e., Obama is Muslim; McCain is senile). The influence of salient differentiating categories on smear acceptance was particularly pronounced among politically undecided individuals. Study 4 clarified that social category differences heighten smear acceptance, even if the salient category is semantically unrelated to the smearing label, showing that, approximately 1 year after the election, the salience of race amplified belief that Obama is a socialist among undecided people and McCain supporters. Taken together, these findings suggest that, at both implicit and explicit cognitive levels, social category differences and political allegiance contribute to acceptance of smears against political candidates. © 2010 American Psychological Association.
• Kosloff, S., Greenberg, J., Sullivan, D., & Weise, D. (2010). Of trophies and pillars: Exploring the terror management functions of short-term and long-term relationship partners. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(8), 1037-1051.
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  PMID: 20585057;Abstract: Prior terror management research shows that mortality salience (MS) motivates both self-esteem striving and worldview bolstering. The present research examined these processes in the context of dating preferences. It was hypothesized that in short-term romantic contexts, MS-induced self-esteem striving motivates interest in dating a physically attractive other, whereas in long-term romantic contexts, MS-induced motives for worldview validation heighten interest in dating a same-religion other. Study 1 showed that in a short-term dating context, MS increased preference for an attractive but religiously dissimilar person, whereas in a long-term dating context, MS increased preference for a religiously similar, less attractive person. Study 2 clarified that MS motivates preference for attractive short-term partners for their self-enhancing properties rather than their potential sexual availability. Study 3 supported the theorized processes, showing that under MS, self-esteem-relevant constructs became spontaneously accessible in short-term dating contexts, whereas worldview-relevant constructs became spontaneously accessible in long-term dating contexts. © 2010 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Kosloff, S., Greenberg, J., weise, D., & Solomon, S. (2010). The effects of mortality salience on political preferences: The roles of charisma and political orientation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 139-145.
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  Abstract: Research has shown that mortality salience (MS) heightens liking for certain political candidates. Yet the particular qualities that make candidates more appealing after MS has been subject to debate. This study tested three possibilities: MS increases liking for charismatic candidates independent of participants' or candidates' political orientation; MS increases liking for conservative candidates independent of participants' or candidates' political orientation; and MS increases liking only for charismatic candidates who support the individual's pre-existing political orientation, whether liberal or conservative. Following a MS manipulation, liberal and conservative participants evaluated two hypothetical gubernatorial candidates who differed both in their political orientation and level of charisma. MS heightened liking of charismatic candidates who shared the perceiver's political orientation, whether liberal or conservative. In contrast, MS reduced liking for uncharismatic and opposing-orientation candidates. Results thus indicated that MS heightens regard for same-political orientation charismatic candidates, rather than just any charismatic candidate or conservative candidates. Implications for the influence of death-related concerns on political preference are briefly discussed. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
• Martens, A., Greenberg, J., Allen, J. J., Hayes, J., Schimel, J., & Johns, M. (2010). Self-esteem and autonomic physiology: Self-esteem levels predict cardiac vagal tone. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(5), 573-584.
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  Abstract: Four studies examined the relationship between self-esteem and cardiac vagal tone (level of influence of the parasympathetic nervous system on the heart), a variable with health implications for heart disease and auto-immune disorders. Building on evidence that self-esteem provides a sense of security and that a sense of security affects cardiac vagal tone, we theorize that self-esteem should impact cardiac vagal tone. Two experiments showed that positive self-esteem relevant feedback increases cardiac vagal tone relative to negative feedback. Two correlational studies showed that higher self-esteem measured daily over the course of 2 weeks predicted higher resting cardiac vagal tone. Theoretical and physical health implications are discussed. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
• Martens, A., Greenberg, J., Schimel, J., Kosloff, S., & Weise, D. R. (2010). Disdain for anxious individuals as a function of mortality salience. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(7), 1172-1183.
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  Abstract: Terror management theory research has shown that reminders of mortality tend to decrease liking for people who threaten one's worldview. In research, these worldview threats typically come from outgroup members, but they may also come from ingroup members who are negatively characterized. Presumably the negative characteristics of ingroup members threaten to diminish or undermine the worldview by their association with it. In this research we examine anxious individuals as potentially threatening ingroup members. We hypothesized that a brief contemplation of mortality would lead people to decrease their liking for anxious individuals associated with their ingroup. Study 1 showed that a mortality reminder led people to react more negatively to an anxious police liaison from their community, but not to a calm police liaison. Study 2 showed that a mortality reminder led people who strongly identified with university students to react more negatively to a fellow university student who was anxious, but not to a student who did not display anxiety. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• Maxfield, M., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (2010). Mortality salience effects on the life expectancy estimates of older adults as a function of neuroticism. Journal of Aging Research, 2010.
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  PMID: 21151516;PMCID: PMC2997504;Abstract: Research has shown that reminders of mortality lead people to engage in defenses to minimize the anxiety such thoughts could arouse. In accord with this notion, younger adults reminded of mortality engage in behaviors aimed at denying vulnerability to death. However, little is known about the effects of mortality reminders on older adults. The present study examined the effect of reminders of death on older adults' subjective life expectancy. Mortality reminders did not significantly impact the life expectancy estimates of old-old adults. Reminders of death did however lead to shorter life expectancy estimates among young-old participants low in neuroticism but longer life expectancy estimates among young-old participants high in neuroticism, suggesting that this group was most defensive in response to reminders of death. © 2010 Molly Maxfield et al.
• Vail, K. E., Rothschild, Z. K., Weise, D. R., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (2010). A terror management analysis of the psychological functions of religion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 84-94.
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  PMID: 19940284;Abstract: From a terror management theory (TMT) perspective, religion serves to manage the potential terror engendered by the uniquely human awareness of death by affording a sense of psychological security and hope of immortality. Although secular beliefs can also serve a terror management function, religious beliefs are particularly well suited to mitigate death anxiety because they are all encompassing, rely on concepts that are not easily disconfirmed, and promise literal immortality. Research is reviewed demonstrating that mortality salience produces increased belief in afterlife, supernatural agency, human ascension from nature, and spiritual distinctions between mind and body. The social costs and benefits of religious beliefs are considered and compared to those of secular worldviews. The terror management functions of, and benefits and costs associated with, different types of religious orientation, such as intrinsic religiosity, quest, and religious fundamentalism, are then examined. Finally, the TMT analysis is compared to other accounts of religion. © 2010 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Goldenberg, J., Heflick, N., Vaes, J., Motyl, M., & Greenberg, J. (2009). Of mice and men, and objectified women: A terror management account of infrahumanization. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 12(6), 763-776.
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  Abstract: This article offers terror management theory (TMT) as a conceptual lens through which the process of infrahumanization can be viewed. TMT suggests that people are threatened by the awareness of their mortal, animal nature, and that by emphasizing their symbolic, cultural-and hence, uniquely human-existence, they can help quell this threat. The article reviews empirical evidence demonstrating that reminders of mortality increase efforts to see the self and in-groups as more uniquely human. In addition, it is posited that, as an ironic consequence of defensive efforts to rid the self and certain others of any connection to animal nature, people are sometimes stripped of their human nature. The study presents evidence that the objectification, and self-objectification, of women can be viewed from this perspective and concludes that both emphasizing people's uniquely human qualities and viewing them as objectified symbols can be understood as serving a terror management function. © The Author(s), 2009.
• Kosloff, S., & Greenberg, J. (2009). Pearls in the desert: Death reminders provoke immediate derogation of extrinsic goals, but delayed inflation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(1), 197-203.
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  Abstract: Psychologists and philosophers have argued that explicitly contemplating one's mortality makes extrinsically oriented goal pursuits, such as for wealth and fame, seem unimportant. Research inspired by terror management theory has shown, however, that when thoughts of death are active outside current focal attention, individuals bolster culturally sanctioned standards of self-worth. The present studies thus examined the hypotheses that (a) immediately after explicit reminders of mortality, individuals will trivialize extrinsic goals, but (b) when a delay and distraction follows an explicit mortality reminder, individuals will favorably evaluate extrinsic goals. Consistent with these hypotheses, Studies 1 and 2 showed that, relative to subjects reminded of an aversive control topic, mortality salience led to lower importance ratings for extrinsic goals. Study 2 further showed that, when mortality salience was followed by a distracter task, subjects gave higher importance ratings for a high priority extrinsic goal. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
• Landau, M. J., Greenberg, J., & Rothschild, Z. K. (2009). Motivated cultural worldview adherence and culturally loaded test performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35(4), 442-453.
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  PMID: 19155423;Abstract: Academic tests and their conditions of administration are culturally loaded when they make salient culturally specific knowledge structures in addition to measuring the intended cognitive ability. Cultural loading demonstrably influences test performance, but why? Drawing on converging perspectives on the psychological function of culture, this article proposes that one factor is the individual's internal motivation to affirm and uphold the cultural worldview. This possibility is tested within the framework of terror management theory, which claims that cultural worldview adherence defends against mortality-related concerns. It is hypothesized that making mortality salient would (a) improve performance on standardized test items when, incidental to the problem structure, the correct answers affirm prevailing cultural stereotypes and (b) impair test performance when excelling violates stereotypic expectancies for one's group. Two studies provide support for these hypotheses. Implications for test validity are briefly discussed. © 2009 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Landau, M. J., Greenberg, J., & Sullivan, D. (2009). Defending a coherent autobiography: When past events appear incoherent, mortality salience prompts compensatory bolstering of the past's significance and the future's orderliness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35(8), 1012-1020.
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  PMID: 19491330;Abstract: Drawing on terror management theory, we propose that maintaining a coherent autobiography protects the individual from mortality concerns by imbuing experience over time with significance and order. Two studies test whether mortality salience combined with a threat to autobiographical coherence (induced by an alphabetical organization of past events) prompts compensatory bolstering of the significance and orderliness of temporal experience. In Study 1, whereas exclusionprimed participants led to organize past events alphabetically perceived their past as less significant, mortality salient participants showed a compensatory boost in perceptions of their past's significance. In Study 2, mortality salience and an alphabetic event organization led participants high in personal need for structure to parse their future into clearly defined temporal intervals. This research is the first to experimentally assess the role of existential concerns in people's motivation to defend the significance and structure of their temporal experience against threats to autobiographical coherence. © 2009 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Landau, M. J., Greenberg, J., & Sullivan, D. (2009). Managing terror when self-worth and worldviews collide: Evidence that mortality salience increases reluctance to self-enhance beyond authorities. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(1), 68-79.
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  Abstract: Terror management theory posits that one's self-esteem and worldview operate jointly to manage mortality concerns. Accordingly, past research shows that mortality salience (MS) increases self-enhancement and worldview defense. The current research is the first to examine MS effects when self-enhancement threatens to undermine aspects of the worldview, in this case the credibility and status of worldview-representative authorities. MS led to reluctance to self-enhance following positive personality test feedback when the test was judged negatively by institutional authorities (Study 1a), as well as unwillingness to contradict self-esteem threatening feedback sanctioned by authorities (Study 1b). Mortality salient participants also rated themselves higher on valued dimensions unless it meant viewing themselves more positively than their parents (Study 2) and admired political icons (Study 3). Taken together, these results show that MS increases self-enhancement unless doing so challenges important representatives of the worldview. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
• Landau, M. J., Greenberg, J., Sullivan, D., Routledge, C., & Arndt, J. (2009). The protective identity: Evidence that mortality salience heightens the clarity and coherence of the self-concept. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 796-807.
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  Abstract: Research guided by terror management theory has shown that self-esteem provides a buffer against mortality concerns. The current research extends the theory to examine whether clarity and coherence in the structure of the self-concept serve a terror management function independent of enhancing self-esteem. Specifically, five studies tested whether mortality salience (MS) heightens diverse tendencies to clarify and integrate self-relevant knowledge, especially in individuals predisposed to seek structured knowledge. MS led high, but not low, structure-seeking participants to prefer coherent (Study 1) clearly-defined (Study 2), and simply organized (Study 3) conceptions of their personal characteristics. Also, MS led high structure-seeking participants to prefer causal coherence in recent experience (Study 4) and meaningful connections between past events and their current self (Study 5). Supporting the specificity of these effects on self-concept structuring, MS increased self-enhancement in Studies 1, 4, and 5 but these effects were not moderated by preference for structured knowledge. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
• Landau, M. J., Sullivan, D., & Greenberg, J. (2009). Evidence that self-relevant motives and metaphoric framing interact to influence political and social attitudes. Psychological Science, 20(11), 1421-1427.
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  PMID: 19845888;Abstract: We propose that metaphor is a mechanism by which motivational states in one conceptual domain can influence attitudes in a superficially unrelated domain. Two studies tested whether activating motives related to the self-concept influences attitudes toward social topics when the topics' metaphoric association to the motives is made salient through linguistic framing. In Study 1, heightened motivation to protect one's own body from contamination led to harsher attitudes toward immigrants entering the United States when the country was framed in body-metaphoric, rather than literal, terms. In Study 2, a self-esteem threat led to more positive attitudes toward binge drinking of alcohol when drinking was metaphorically framed as physical self-destruction, compared with when it was framed literally or metaphorically as competitive other-destruction. © 2009 Association for Psychological Science.
• Sullivan, D., Greenberg, J., & Landau, M. J. (2009). Toward a new understanding of two films from the dark side: Utilizing terror management theory to analyze Rosemary's Baby and Straw Dogs. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 37(4), 189-198.
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  Abstract: Rosemary's Baby and Straw Dogs are New Hollywood films that explore themes of death and violence. Terror management theory (TMT), a theory of the role of death fear in the human striving for significance, is utilized to clarify various aspects of these films, including their use of death imagery and the motivations of the characters, and to reveal some novel parallels between the films. Copyright © 2009 Heldref Publications.
• Cox, C. R., Arndt, J., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Abdollahi, A., & Solomon, S. (2008). Terror Management and Adults' Attachment to Their Parents: The Safe Haven Remains. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(4), 696-717.
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  PMID: 18361679;Abstract: Six studies examined the role of young adults' parental attachment in terror management. Studies 1-3 revealed that activating thoughts of one's parent in response to mortality salience (MS) reduced death-thought accessibility and worldview defense and increased feelings of self-worth. Studies 4-5 demonstrated that MS led to greater ease of recalling positive maternal interactions and greater difficulty recalling negative interactions, and increased attraction to a stranger who was described as being similar to one's parent. If reliance on parents for terror management purposes reflects the operation of attachment mechanisms, then such effects should vary on the basis of an individual's attachment style. Study 6 demonstrated that, after MS, insecure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with their parents, whereas secure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with romantic partners. © 2008 American Psychological Association.
• Jonas, E., Martens, A., Kayser, D. N., Fritsche, I., Sullivan, D., & Greenberg, J. (2008). Focus Theory of Normative Conduct and Terror-Management Theory: The Interactive Impact of Mortality Salience and Norm Salience on Social Judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(6), 1239-1251.
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  PMID: 19025281;Abstract: Research on terror-management theory has shown that after mortality salience (MS) people attempt to live up to cultural values. But cultures often value very different and sometimes even contradictory standards, leading to difficulties in predicting behavior as a consequence of terror-management needs. The authors report 4 studies to demonstrate that the effect of MS on people's social judgments depends on the salience of norms. In Study 1, making salient opposite norms (prosocial vs. proself) led to reactions consistent with the activated norms following MS compared with the control condition. Study 2 showed that, in combination with a pacifism prime, MS increased pacifistic attitudes. In Study 3, making salient a conservatism/security prime led people to recommend harsher bonds for an illegal prostitute when they were reminded of death, whereas a benevolence prime counteracted this effect. In Study 4 a help prime, combined with MS, increased people's helpfulness. Discussion focuses briefly on how these findings inform both terror-management theory and the focus theory of normative conduct. © 2008 American Psychological Association.
• Jonas, E., Traut-Mattausch, E., Frey, D., & Greenberg, J. (2008). The path or the goal? Decision vs. information focus in biased information seeking after preliminary decisions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(4), 1180-1186.
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  Abstract: Research on the phenomenon of selective exposure to information demonstrates that after preliminary or final decisions, people show a preference for supporting rather than conflicting information (confirmation bias). In this article, we examine conditions that increase or decrease distortions in the search for information. We report on four experiments indicating that the confirmation bias is influenced by whether people focus on their decision or on the presented pieces of information during the information search. Focusing on the decision, for example, because a reward for a correct decision is promised or simply because participants repeatedly think of it, increases the confirmation bias. On the other hand, if participants focus on the available pieces of information because they have to invest money in order to search for information or because they have to evaluate the individual pieces of information, the confirmation bias decreases. Implications for theoretical understanding and interventions for decision-making situations are discussed. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
• Martens, A., Greenberg, J., & J., J. (2008). Self-esteem and autonomic physiology: Parallels between self-esteem and cardiac vagal tone as buffers of threat. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12(4), 370-389.
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  PMID: 18927472;Abstract: In this article a potential physiological connection to self-esteem is suggested: cardiac vagal tone, the degree of influence on the heart by the vagus, a primary nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system. This hypothesis emerges from parallels between the two literatures that suggest both self-esteem and cardiac vagal tone function to provide protection from threat responding. This article reviews these literatures and evidence and preliminary findings that suggest in some contexts self-esteem and cardiac vagal tone may exert an influence on each other. Last, the article discusses theoretical and applied health implications of this potential physiological connection to self-esteem. © 2008 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Weise, D. R., Pyszczynski, T., Cox, C. R., Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Kosloff, S. (2008). Interpersonal politics: The role of terror management and attachment processes in shaping political preferences: Research article. Psychological Science, 19(5), 448-455.
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  PMID: 18466405;Abstract: Research on terror management theory (TMT) indicates that reminders of death affect political attitudes, but political orientation only sometimes moderates these effects. We propose that secure relationships are associated with values of tolerance and compassion, thus orienting people toward liberalism; insecure attachments are associated with more rigid and absolutist values that orient people toward conservatism. Given that attachment relationships become especially active when security needs are heightened, we predicted that mortality salience would be an important factor in understanding the relationship between attachment processes and political orientation. Supporting these ideas, Study 1 showed that after a mortality-salience manipulation, securely attached participants increased their support for a liberal presidential candidate, and less securely attached participants increased their support for a conservative presidential candidate. In Study 2, a secure-relationship prime following a mortality-salience manipulation engendered a less violent approach to the problem of terrorism than did a neutral-relationship prime. We discuss the interaction of TMT processes and individual differences in attachment in shaping political preferences. Copyright © 2008 Association for Psychological Science.
• Martens, A., Kosloff, S., Greenberg, J., Landau, M. J., & Schmader, T. (2007). Killing begets killing: Evidence from a bug-killing paradigm that initial killing fuels subsequent killing. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(9), 1251-1264.
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  PMID: 17565050;Abstract: Killing appears to perpetuate itself even in the absence of retaliation. This phenomenon may occur in part as a means to justify prior killing and so ease the threat of prior killing. In addition, this effect should arise particularly when a killer perceives similarity to the victims because similarity should exacerbate threat from killing. To examine these ideas, the authors developed a bug-killing paradigm in which they manipulated the degree of initial bug killing in a "practice task" to observe the effects on subsequent self-paced killing during a timed "extermination task." In Studies 1 and 2, for participants reporting some similarity to bugs, inducing greater initial killing led to more subsequent self-paced killing. In Study 3, after greater initial killing, more subsequent self-paced killing led to more favorable affective change. Implications for understanding lethal human violence are discussed. © 2007 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Maxfield, M., Pyszczynski, T., Kluck, B., Cox, C. R., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Weise, D. (2007). Age-Related Differences in Responses to Thoughts of One's Own Death: Mortality Salience and Judgments of Moral Transgressions. Psychology and Aging, 22(2), 341-353.
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  PMID: 17563189;PMCID: PMC2396593;Abstract: Two experiments explored age differences in response to reminders of death. Terror management research has shown that death reminders lead to increased adherence to and defense of one's cultural worldview. In Study 1, the effect of mortality salience (MS) on evaluations of moral transgressions made by younger and older adults was compared. Whereas younger adults showed the typical pattern of harsher judgments in response to MS, older adults did not. Study 2 compared younger and older adults' responses to both the typical MS induction and a more subtle death reminder. Whereas younger adults responded to both MS inductions with harsher evaluations, older adults made significantly less harsh evaluations after the subtle MS induction. Explanations for this developmental shift in responses to reminders of death are discussed. © 2007 American Psychological Association.
• Strachan, E., Schimel, J., Arndt, J., Williams, T., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (2007). Terror mismanagement: Evidence that mortality salience exacerbates phobic and compulsive behaviors. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(8), 1137-1151.
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  PMID: 17545415;Abstract: Terror management theory (TMT) posits that cultural worldviews and self-esteem function to buffer humans from mortality-related anxiety. TMT research has shown that important behaviors are influenced by mortality salience (MS) even when they have no obvious connection to death. However, there has been no attempt to investigate TMT processes in anxious responding. The present research examines that question. In Study 1, compared to a control condition, MS increased anxious responding to spider-related stimuli, but only for participants who met criteria for specific phobia. In Study 2, compared to an aversive control condition, MS increased time spent washing hands, but only for those scoring high on a measure of compulsive hand washing (CHW). In Study 3, compared to a different aversive control condition, MS increased avoidance of a social interaction, but only for those scoring high on a measure of social interaction anxiety. The relevance of TMT in anxious responding is discussed. © 2007 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Goldenberg, J. L., Kosloff, S., & Greenberg, J. (2006). Existential underpinnings of approach and avoidance of the physical body. Motivation and Emotion, 30(2), 127-134.
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  Abstract: In addition to enjoying pleasurable bodily activities, people appear threatened by the physical aspects of the body; they experience anxiety and inhibitions surrounding sex, eating, bodily appearance and functions. Based on terror management theory, we posit that people are dually motivated to approach the life-affirming properties of the physical body, and to avoid the physical or animalistic aspects of the body because of their association with death. This paper summarizes a substantial body of research, consisting of over twenty empirical studies, that identify personality and situational variables that interact with mortality concerns, moderating approach and avoidance attitudes and behaviors with respect to the physical body. We suggest that this dynamic motivation can go far in explaining the often observed ambivalence toward the body. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
• Greenberg, J., Sullivan, D., Kosloff, S., & Solomon, S. (2006). Souls do not live by cognitive inclinations alone, but by the desire to exist beyond death as well. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29(5), 474-475.
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  Abstract: Bering's analysis is inadequate because it fails to consider past and present adult soul beliefs and the psychological functions they serve. We suggest that a valid folk psychology of souls must consider features of adult soul beliefs, the unique problem engendered by awareness of death, and terror management findings, in addition to cognitive inclinations toward dualistic and teleological thinking.
• Koole, S. L., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2006). Introducing science to the psychology of the soul: Experimental existential psychology. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), 212-216.
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  Abstract: Humans live out their lives knowing that their own death is inevitable; that their most cherished beliefs and values, and even their own identities, are uncertain; that they face a bewildering array of choices; and that their private subjective experiences can never be shared with another human being. This knowledge creates five major existential concerns: death, isolation, identity, freedom, and meaning. The role of these concerns in human affairs has traditionally been the purview of philosophy. However, recent methodological and conceptual advances have led to the emergence of an experimental existential psychology directed toward empirically investigating the roles that these concerns play in psychological functioning. This new domain of psychological science has revealed the pervasive influence of deep existential concerns on diverse aspects of human thought and behavior. Copyright © 2006 Asstociation for Psychological Science.
• Kosloff, S., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2006). Considering the roles of affect and culture in the enactment and enjoyment of cruelty. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29(3), 231-232.
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  Abstract: Research on aggression and terror management theory suggests shortcomings in Nell's analysis of cruelty. Hostile aggression and exposure to aggressive cues are not inherently reinforcing, though they may be enjoyed if construed within a meaningful cultural framework. Terror management research suggests that human cruelty stems from the desire to defend one's cultural worldview and to participate in a heroic triumph over evil. © 2006 Cambridge University Press.
• Kosloff, S., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Cohen, F., Gershuny, B., Routledge, C., & Pyszczynski, T. (2006). Fatal distraction: The impact of mortality salience on dissociative responses to 9/11 and subsequent anxiety sensitivity. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 28(4), 349-356.
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  Abstract: Two studies examined whether dissociation from 9/11 -related thoughts and emotions would be higher after mortality salience (MS) relative to a control condition. Because dissociation is believed to contribute to anxiety disorders, we also examined whether higher ratings of dissociation after MS would lead to higher reported anxiety sensitivity. In Study 1, MS participants reported higher levels of peritraumatic dissociation from 9/11 and higher levels of anxiety sensitivity than control participants who contemplated an upcoming exam. Furthermore, the extent to which MS induced higher levels of anxiety sensitivity was fully mediated by the extent to which MS caused greater dissociation. In Study 2, we examined whether heightened anxiety sensitivity is specifically a consequence of MS-induced dissociation or whether MS-induced worldview bolstering also causes higher anxiety sensitivity. Results indicated that MS participants reported more peritraumatic dissociation from 9/11 or bolstered support for their worldview; but, whereas higher dissociation in response to a death reminder led to higher anxiety sensitivity, worldview bolstering did not. Implications for understanding the role of mortality concerns in psychological reactions to 9/11 and other acts of terrorism are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2006, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
• Landau, M. J., & Greenberg, J. (2006). Play it safe or go for the gold? A terror management perspective on self-enhancement and self-protective motives in risky decision making. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(12), 1633-1645.
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  PMID: 17122176;Abstract: Terror management theory (TMT) posits that bolstering self-esteem buffers mortality concerns; accordingly, in past research, heightening mortality salience (MS) increases self-enhancement. However, risky self-esteem-relevant decisions often present a choice between enhancing self-esteem by striving for excellence and protecting self-esteem by avoiding potential failure. Which strategy is preferred under MS? Combining TMT with insights from Steele, Spencer, and Lynch's (1993) resource model, the authors hypothesized and found that MS leads high, but not low, self-esteem participants faced with a risky decision to pursue opportunities for excellence despite substantial risk of failure (Studies 1 and 2); in Study 3, using a more impactful decision, this effect was replicated and it was furthermore found that mortality-salient low-self-esteem participants become more risk-averse. Furthermore, in Study 2, a self-affirmation prime, previously shown to reduce MS-induced defenses, eliminated the self-enhancement effect among high-self-esteem participants. Implications for understanding self-esteem, TMT, and risky decision making are briefly discussed. © 2006 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Landau, M. J., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Martens, A., Goldenberg, J. L., Gillath, O., Cox, C., & Pyszczynski, T. (2006). The Siren's call: Terror management and the threat of men's sexual attraction to women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(1), 129-146.
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  PMID: 16448314;Abstract: Why do sexually appealing women often attract derogation and aggression? According to terror management theory, women's sexual allure threatens to increase men's awareness of their corporeality and thus mortality. Accordingly, in Study 1 a subliminal mortality prime decreased men's but not women's attractiveness ratings of alluring women. In Study 2, mortality salience (MS) led men to downplay their sexual intent toward a sexy woman. In Study 3, MS decreased men's interest in a seductive but not a wholesome woman. In Study 4, MS decreased men's but not women's attraction to a sexy opposite-sex target. In Study 5, MS and a corporeal lust prime increased men's tolerance of aggression toward women. Discussion focuses on mortality concerns and male sexual ambivalence, Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association.
• Landau, M. J., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Martens, A. (2006). Windows into nothingness: Terror management, meaninglessness, and negative reactions to modern art. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(6), 879-892.
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  PMID: 16784340;Abstract: Why do people dislike art that they find meaningless? According to terror management theory, maintaining a basic meaningful view of reality is a key prerequisite for managing concerns about mortality. Therefore, mortality salience should decrease liking for apparently meaningless art, particularly among those predisposed to unambiguous knowledge. Accordingly, mortality salience diminished affection for modern art in Study 1, and this effect was shown in Study 2 to be specific to individuals with a high personal need for structure (PNS). In Studies 3 and 4, mortality salient high-PNS participants disliked modern art unless it was imbued with meaning, either by means of a title or a personal frame of reference induction. Discussion focused on the roles of meaninglessness, PNS, and art in terror management. Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association.
• Martens, A., Johns, M., Greenberg, J., & Schimel, J. (2006). Combating stereotype threat: The effect of self-affirmation on women's intellectual performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42(2), 236-243.
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  Abstract: The present studies were designed to investigate the effects of self-affirmation on the performance of women under stereotype threat. In Study 1, women performed worse on a difficult math test when it was described as diagnostic of math intelligence (stereotype threat condition) than in a non-diagnostic control condition. However, when women under stereotype threat affirmed a valued attribute, they performed at levels comparable to men and to women in the no-threat control condition. In Study 2, men and women worked on a spatial rotation test and were told that women were stereotyped as inferior on such tasks. Approximately half the women and men self-affirmed before beginning the test. Self-affirmation improved the performance of women under threat, but did not affect men's performance. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
• Pyszczynski, T., Abdollahi, A., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Cohen, F., & Weise, D. (2006). Mortality salience, martyrdom, and military might: the great satan versus the axis of evil.. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 32(4), 525-537.
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  PMID: 16513804;Abstract: Study 1 investigated the effect of mortality salience on support for martyrdom attacks among Iranian college students. Participants were randomly assigned to answer questions about either their own death or an aversive topic unrelated to death and then evaluated materials from fellow students who either supported or opposed martyrdom attacks against the United States. Whereas control participants preferred the student who opposed martyrdom, participants reminded of death preferred the student who supported martyrdom and indicated they were more likely to consider such activities themselves. Study 2 investigated the effect of mortality salience on American college students' support for extreme military interventions by American forces that could kill thousands of civilians. Mortality salience increased support for such measures among politically conservative but not politically liberal students. The roles of existential fear, cultural worldviews, and construing one's nation as pursing a heroic battle against evil in advocacy of violence were discussed.
• Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Maxfield, M. (2006). On the Unique Psychological Import of the Human Awareness of Mortality: Theme and Variations. Psychological Inquiry, 17(4), 328-356.
• Arndt, J., Routledge, C., Greenberg, J., & Sheldon, K. M. (2005). Illuminating the dark side of creative expression: Assimilation needs and the consequences of creative action following mortality salience. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(10), 1327-1339.
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  PMID: 16143665;Abstract: Previous research indicates that mortality salience and creative behavior combine to increase feelings of guilt, presumably over the disruption to social connection elicited by the call for innovative expression. The present studies examined whether satiating assimilation motives by highlighting conformity to others reduces this effect (Study 1) and facilitates positive psychological engagement (Study 2). Study 1 used a 2 (conformity vs. neutral feedback) × 2 (mortality salience vs. control) × 2 (creative task vs. noncreative task) design and had participants complete a self-report measure of guilt. Study 2 used a 2 (mortality salience vs. control) × 2 (other goal task vs. self-goal task) design, and after a creativity exercise, had participants complete measures of positive mood, vitality, and creative problem solving. Results indicated attending to assimilation needs reduced the elevated guilt that follows the juxtaposition of mortality salience and creative behavior and also increased a sense of positive engagement. Implications are briefly discussed. © 2005 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Cohen, F., Ogilvie, D. M., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2005). American roulette: The effect of reminders of death on support for George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 5(1), 177-187.
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  Abstract: An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of a subtle reminder of death on voting intentions for the 2004 U.S. presidential election. On the basis of terror management theory and previous research, we hypothesized that a mortality salience induction would increase support for President George W. Bush and decrease support for Senator John Kerry. In late September 2004, following a mortality salience or control induction, registered voters were asked which candidate they intended to vote for. In accord with predictions, Senator John Kerry received substantially more votes than George Bush in the control condition, but Bush was favored over Kerry following a reminder of death, suggesting that President Bush's re-election may have been facilitated by nonconscious concerns about mortality in the aftermath of September 11, 2002. © 2005 The Society for the Psychological Study of Soclal Issues.
• Greenberg, J. (2005). The revealing science of social psychology. Psychological Inquiry, 16(4), 168-171.
• Jonas, E., Fritsche, I., & Greenberg, J. (2005). Currencies as cultural symbols - An existential psychological perspective on reactions of Germans toward the Euro. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26(1), 129-146.
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  Abstract: From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to maintain faith in one's own cultural worldview. We investigated this notion with regard to reactions of Germans towards a recent political-economic issue, the introduction of the new European currency, the Euro. In Study 1 we found among students that a mortality salience prime led to a decreased liking of the new European currency compared to a control prime. However, the attitude towards the German Mark was not significantly affected by mortality salience. Study 2 replicated the decreased liking of the Euro for a sample of older pedestrians who were interviewed in front of a cemetery compared to participants who were interviewed several blocks away. In addition, mortality salient participants also revealed a marginal increased liking of the German Mark. Moreover, similar findings occurred on a general composite measure of preference for German items over non-German items. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
• Martens, A., Goldenberg, J. L., & Greenberg, J. (2005). A terror management perspective on ageism. Journal of Social Issues, 61(2), 223-239.
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  Abstract: In the present article, we present a theoretical perspective on ageism that is derived from terror management theory. According to the theory, human beings manage deeply-rooted fears about their vulnerability to death through symbolic constructions of meaning and corresponding standards of value. We extend this perspective to suggest that elderly individuals present an existential threat for the non-elderly because they remind us all that: (a) death is inescapable, (b) the body is fallible, and (c) the bases by which we may secure self-esteem (and manage death anxiety) are transitory. We review some recent empirical evidence in support of these ideas and then discuss possible avenues for combating ageism. © 2005 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.
• Peters, H. J., Greenberg, J., Williams, J. M., & Schneider, N. R. (2005). Applying terror management theory to performance: Can reminding individuals of their mortality increase strength output?. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 27(1), 111-116.
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  Abstract: Motivation plays a key role in successful athletic performance, and terror management theory has emerged as a broad theory of human motivation (e.g., Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991) that may have implications for sport and exercise performance. Based on the theory, we tested the hypothesis that a reminder of mortality can motivate improved performance in a task requiring physical strength in individuals invested in strength. Participants demonstrated their strength on a hand dynamometer, then wrote about their own mortality or dental pain, and again squeezed the hand dynamometer. Results indicated that reminders of mortality increased strength performance for individuals invested in strength training (24 F, 31 M), and had no impact on those not invested in strength training (30 F, 28 M), p =. 015. Implications for athletes are briefly discussed. © 2005 Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.
• Cohen, F., Solomon, S., Maxfield, M., Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (2004). Fatal attraction: The effects of mortality salience on evaluations of charismatic, task-oriented, and relationship-oriented leaders. Psychological Science, 15(12), 846-851.
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  PMID: 15563330;Abstract: A study was conducted to assess the effects of mortality salience on evaluations of political candidates as a function of leadership style. On the basis of terror management theory and previous research, we hypothesized that people would show increased preference for a charismatic political candidate and decreased preference for a relationship-oriented political candidate in response to subtle reminders of death. Following a mortality-salience or control induction, 190 participants read campaign statements by charismatic, task-oriented, and relationship-oriented gubernatorial candidates; evaluated their preferences for each candidate; and voted for one of them. Results were in accord with predictions. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.
• Jonas, E., & Greenberg, J. (2004). Terror management and political attitudes: The influence of mortality salience on Germans' defence of the German reunification. European Journal of Social Psychology, 34(1), 1-9.
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  Abstract: From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to maintain faith in one's own cultural worldview. We investigated this notion with regard to attitudes of Germans toward an important political event, the fall of the Berlin wall and German reunification. We found that when reminded of their own death, people with a supportive attitude toward the German reunification showed a more favourable evaluation of a positive essay about the fall of the Berlin wall and a more negative reaction to a critical essay than participants in the control condition. People with a more neutral attitude toward the reunification on the other hand did not show this effect. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• Landau, M. J., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2004). The motivational underpinnings of religion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(6), 743-744.
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  Abstract: Terror management theory and research can rectify shortcomings in Atran & Norenzayan's (A&N's) analysis of religion. (1) Religious and secular worldviews are much more similar than the target article supposes; (2) a propensity for embracing supernatural beliefs is likely to have conferred an adaptive advantage over the course of evolution; and (3) the claim that supernatural agent beliefs serve a terror management function independent of worldview bolstering is not empirically supported.
• Landau, M. J., Johns, M., Greenberg, J., Martens, A., Pyszczynski, T., Goldenberg, J. L., & Solomon, S. (2004). A function of form: Terror management and structuring the social world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(2), 190-210.
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  PMID: 15301627;Abstract: Drawing on lay epistemology theory (A. W. Kruglanski, 1980, 1989), the authors assessed a terror management analysis (J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, & T. Pyszczynski, 1997) of the psychological function of structuring social information. Seven studies tested variations of the hypothesis that simple, benign interpretations of social information function, in part, to manage death-related anxiety. In Studies 1-4, mortality salience (MS) exaggerated primacy effects and reliance on representative information, decreased preference for a behaviorally inconsistent target among those high in personal need for structure (PNS), and increased high-PNS participants' preference for interpersonal balance. In Studies 5-7, MS increased high-PNS participants' preference for interpretations that suggest a just world and a benevolent causal order of events in the social world.
• Landau, M. J., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Cohen, F., Pyszczynski, T., Arndt, J., Miller, C. H., Ogilvie, D. M., & Cook, A. (2004). Deliver us from evil: The effects of mortality salience and reminders of 9/11 on support for President George W. Bush. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(9), 1136-1150.
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  PMID: 15359017;Abstract: According to terror management theory, heightened concerns about mortality should intensify the appeal of charismatic leaders. To assess this idea, we investigated how thoughts about death and the 9/11 terrorist attacks influence Americans' attitudes toward current U.S. President George W. Bush. Study 1 found that reminding people of their own mortality (mortality salience) increased support for Bush and his counterterrorism policies. Study 2 demonstrated that subliminal exposure to 9/11-related stimuli brought death-related thoughts closer to consciousness. Study 3 showed that reminders of both mortality and 9/11 increased support for Bush. In Study 4, mortality salience led participants to become more favorable toward Bush and voting for him in the upcoming election but less favorable toward Presidential candidate John Kerry and voting for him. Discussion focused on the role of terror management processes in allegiance to charismatic leaders and political decision making.
• Martens, A., Greenberg, J., Schimel, J., & Landau, M. J. (2004). Ageism and death: Effects of mortality salience and perceived similarity to elders on reactions to elderly people. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(12), 1524-1536.
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  PMID: 15536237;Abstract: The present research investigated the hypotheses that elderly people can be reminders of our mortality and that concerns about our own mortality can therefore instigate ageism. In Study 1, college-age participants who saw photos of two elderly people subsequently showed more death accessibility than participants who saw photos of only younger people. In Study 2, making mortality salient for participants increased distancing from the average elderly person and decreased perceptions that the average elderly person possesses favorable altitudes. Mortality salience did not affect ratings of teenagers. In Study 3, these mortality salience effects were moderated by prior reported similarity to elderly people. Distancing from, and derogation of, elderly people after mortality salience occurred only in participants who, weeks before the study, rated their personalities as relatively similar to the average elderly person's. Discussion addresses distinguishing ageism from other forms of prejudice, as well as possibilities for reducing ageism.
• Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2004). Converging toward an integrated theory of self-esteem: Reply to Crocker and Nuer (2004), Ryan and Deci (2004), and Leary (2004). Psychological Bulletin, 130(3), 483-488.
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  Abstract: In this response to the commentaries regarding their terror management analysis of self-esteem (T. Pyszczynski, J. Greenberg, S. Solomon, J. Arndt, & J. Schimel, 2004), the authors focus on the convergence on certain points regarding self-esteem as a way of progressing toward an integrative perspective. In doing so, they briefly discuss how the need for self-esteem relates to anxiety, interpersonal relations, growth, evolution, and death. They also discuss sources of self-esteem, whether the pursuit of self-esteem is good or bad, and whether such a pursuit could fruitfully be abandoned. They conclude that self-esteem buffers anxiety, is greatly influenced by social relations, and can either facilitate or undermine growth and that the value of the pursuit of self-esteem depends on the sources on which it is based but that its pursuit is too inextricably woven into the way people manage their anxieties and regulate their behavior to ever be abandoned.
• Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2004). Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 130(3), 435-468.
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  PMID: 15122930;Abstract: Terror management theory (TMT; J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski, & S. Solomon, 1986) posits that people are motivated to pursue positive self-evaluations because self-esteem provides a buffer against the omnipresent potential for anxiety engendered by the uniquely human awareness of mortality. Empirical evidence relevant to the theory is reviewed showing that high levels of self-esteem reduce anxiety and anxiety-related defensive behavior, reminders of one's mortality increase self-esteem striving and defense of self-esteem against threats in a variety of domains, high levels of self-esteem eliminate the effect of reminders of mortality on both self-esteem striving and the accessibility of death-related thoughts, and convincing people of the existence of an afterlife eliminates the effect of mortality salience on self-esteem striving. TMT is compared with other explanations for why people need self-esteem, and a critique of the most prominent of these, sociometer theory, is provided.
• Goldenberg, J. L., Landau, M. J., Pyszczynski, T., Cox, C. R., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Dunnam, H. (2003). Gender-Typical Responses to Sexual and Emotional Infidelity as a Function of Mortality Salience Induced Self-Esteem Striving. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(12), 1585-1595.
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  PMID: 15018688;Abstract: The authors propose that gender-differentiated patterns of jealousy in response to sexual and emotional infidelity are engendered by the differential impact of each event on self-esteem for men and women. Study 1 demonstrated that men derive relatively more self-esteem from their sex lives, whereas women's self-esteem is more contingent on romantic commitment. Based on terror management theory, it is predicted that if gender-differentiated responses to infidelity are motivated by gender-specific contingencies for self-esteem, they should be intensified following reminders of mortality. In Study 2, mortality salience (MS) increased distress in response to sexual infidelity for men and emotional infidelity for women. Study 3 demonstrated that following MS, men who place high value on sex in romantic relationships exhibited greater distress in response to sexual infidelity, but low -ex-value men's distress was attenuated. The authors discuss the implications for evolutionary and self-esteem-based accounts of jealousy as well as possible integration of these perspectives.
• Greenberg, J., & Jonas, E. (2003). Psychological Motives and Political Orientation - The Left, the Right, and the Rigid: Comment on Jost et al. (2003). Psychological Bulletin, 129(3), 376-382.
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  PMID: 12784935;Abstract: Presenting an impressive model based on a large body of evidence, J. T. Jost, J. Glaser, A.W. Kruglanski, and F. J. Sulloway (2003) proposed that political conservatism uniquely serves epistemic, existential, and ideological needs driven by fears and uncertainties. The authors offer an alternative view based on conceptual considerations, historical events, features of communist ideology and practice, and additional social science research not reviewed by Jost et al. (2003). First, the authors take issue with Jost et al. (2003) description of the two core components of political conservatism. Second, they propose that the motives in the model are equally well served by rigid adherence to any extreme ideology regardless of whether it is right wing or left wing.
• Greenberg, J., Martens, A., Jonas, E., Eisenstadt, D., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (2003). Psychological Defense in Anticipation of Anxiety: Eliminating the Potential for Anxiety Eliminates the Effect of Mortality Salience on Worldview Defense. Psychological Science, 14(5), 516-519.
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  PMID: 12930486;Abstract: A large body of research has shown that when people are reminded of their mortality, their defense of their cultural worldview intensifies. Although some psychological defenses seem to be instigated by negative affective responses to threat, mortality salience does not appear to arouse such affect. Terror management theory posits that the potential to experience anxiety, rather than the actual experience of anxiety, underlies these effects of mortality salience. If this is correct, then mortality-salience effects should be reduced when participants believe they are not capable of reacting to the reminder of mortality with anxiety. In a test of this hypothesis, participants consumed a placebo purported to either block anxiety or enhance memory. Then we manipulated mortality salience, and participants evaluated pro- and anti-American essays as a measure of worldview defense. Although mortality salience intensified worldview defense in the memory-enhancer condition, this effect was completely eliminated in the anxiety-blacker condition. The results suggest that some psychological defenses serve to avert the experience of anxiety rather than to ameliorate actually experienced anxiety.
• Jonas, E., Greenberg, J., & Frey, D. (2003). Connecting terror management and dissonance theory: Evidence that mortality salience increases the preference for supporting information after decisions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(9), 1181-1189.
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  PMID: 15189612;Abstract: From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to pursue cognitive consistency. The authors investigated this notion with regard to dissonance theory starting from the finding of research on "selective exposure to information" that after having made a decision, people prefer consonant over dissonant information. The authors found that following mortality salience, people indeed showed an increased preference for information that supported their decision compared to information conflicting with it. However, this only occurred with regard to a worldview-relevant decision case. For a fictitious decision scenario, mortality salience did not affect information seeking. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
• Schimel, J., Greenberg, J., & Martens, A. (2003). Evidence that projection of a feared trait can serve a defensive function. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29(8), 969-979.
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  PMID: 15189616;Abstract: Two experiments tested the notion that allowing people to project a feared trait onto another individual would facilitate denial of the trait. In Study 1, participants were given feedback that they were high or low in repressed anger and were allowed to rate an ambiguous target on anger or not. Participants who received high (vs. low) anger feedback rated the target especially high on anger. In addition, participants who received high anger feedback and who were allowed to project their anger had the lowest anger accessibility on a word completion exercise. Study 2 replicated these basic findings using a different trait dimension (dishonesty) and a direct measure of denial (self-attributions of dishonesty). Specifically, in Study 2, participants who received high dishonesty feedback and who were allowed to project dishonesty reported having an especially low level of dishonesty. Discussion focused on the relationship between classic projection and other forms of psychological defense.
• Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2003). Fear of death and human destructiveness. Psychoanalytic Review, 90(4), 457-474.
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  PMID: 14694760;
• Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., & Cook, A. (2002). Mortality salience and the spreading activation of worldview-relevant constructs: Exploring the cognitive architecture of terror management. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131(3), 307-324.
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  PMID: 12214749;Abstract: Seven experiments assessed the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that reminding people of their mortality would increase accessibility of constructs central to their worldview. Experiment 1 found that mortality primes, relative to control primes, increased accessibility of nationalistic constructs for men but not for women. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and also found that mortality salience increased romantic accessibility for women but not for men. Four subsequent experiments supported the role of unconscious death-related ideation in producing these effects. A final experiment demonstrated that situational primes can increase the accessibility of nationalistic constructs for women after mortality salience. The roles of situational cues and individual differences in the effects of exposure to death-related stimuli on worldview-relevant construct accessibility are discussed.
• Arndt, J., Schimel, J., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2002). The intrinsic self and defensiveness: Evidence that activating the intrinsic self reduces self-handicapping and conformity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(5), 671-683.
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  Abstract: Two studies were conducted to assess the hypothesis that shifting individuals' base of self-esteem to more stable, intrinsic self-attributes would reduce psychological defensiveness in the form of self-handicapping attributions and conformity. In Study 1, participants visualized an individual who liked them contingently or noncontingently, or who was neutral toward them, and then made attributions for an impending test performance. Participants who visualized the noncontingently accepting other made fewer self-handicapping attributions. In Study 2, participants wrote about an intrinsic self-attribute, an achievement, or a neutral event and then evaluated several abstract art paintings while knowing how other participants purportedly rated the paintings. Participants for whom the intrinsic self was primed conformed less to others' judgments relative to achievement self-primed and control participants. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for understanding the connection between self-esteem and defensiveness. © 2002 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Arndt, J., Schimel, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (2002). To belong or not to belong, that is the question: Terror management and identification with gender and ethnicity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(1), 26-43.
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  PMID: 12088130;Abstract: The terror management prediction that reminders of death motivate in-group identification assumes people view their identifications positively. However, when the in-group is framed negatively, mortality salience should lead to disidentification. Study 1 found that mortality salience increased women's perceived similarity to other women except under gender-based stereotype threat. In Study 2, mortality salience and a negative ethnic prime led Hispanic as well as Anglo participants to derogate paintings attributed to Hispanic (but not Anglo-American) aritsts. Study 3 added a neutral prime condition and used a more direct measure of psychological distancing. Mortality salience and the negative prime led Hispanic participants to view themselves as especially different from a fellow Hispanic. Implications for understanding in-group derogation and disidentification are briefly discussed.
• Goldenberg, J. L., Cox, C. R., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2002). Understanding human ambivalence about sex: The effects of stripping sex of meaning. Journal of Sex Research, 39(4), 310-320.
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  PMID: 12545414;Abstract: We offer a theoretical perspective to provide insight into why people are ambivalent about sex and why cultures regulate sex and attach symbolic meaning to it. Building on terror management theory, we propose that sex is problematic for humankind in part because it reminds us of our creaturely mortal nature. Two experiments investigated the effects of reminding people of the similarity between humans and other animals on their reactions to the physical aspects of sex. In Study 1, priming human-animal similarities led to increased accessibility of death-related thoughts after thinking about the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In Study 2, when participants were reminded of similarities between humans and other animals, mortality salience resulted in decreased attraction to the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In each study, priming thoughts about how humans are distinct from animals eliminated the association between sex and death.
• Jonas, E., Schimel, J., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2002). The scrooge effect: Evidence that mortality salience increases prosocial attitudes and behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(10), 1342-1353.
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  Abstract: From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to express culturally prescribed prosocial attitudes and engage in culturally prescribed prosocial behaviors. Two studies supported these hypotheses. In Study 1, people were interviewed in close proximity to a funeral home or several blocks away and were asked to indicate their attitudes toward two charities they deemed important. Those who were interviewed in front of the funeral home reported more favorability toward these charities than those who were interviewed several blocks away. In Study 2, the authors found that following mortality salience, people gave more money to a charity supporting an American cause than people who had been exposed to an aversive control topic. However, mortality salience had no effect on the amount of money given to a foreign cause. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. © 2002 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
• Arndt, J., J., J., & Greenberg, J. (2001). Traces of terror: Subliminal death primes and facial electromyographic indices of affect. Motivation and Emotion, 25(3), 253-277.
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  Abstract: Previous research has found that both explicit and implicit reminders of one's mortality provoke hostile reactions to those who threaten one's worldview, but do not create conscious negative affect or electrodermal arousal. This study was conducted to investigate subtle affective reactions to subliminal death primes as indexed by measures of facial electromyography (EMG). Fifty-four participants were exposed to masked presentations of either the word "dead" or "pain," and then to a worldview threatening essay. Facial EMG was recorded throughout. Analyses found the expected increase in worldview defense following mortality primes. Analyses also uncovered a novel finding with greater corrugator EMG specifically during exposure to the subliminal death but not subliminal pain primes, pointing to the sensitivity of facial EMG to unconscious cognition. However, there was little evidence for a mediating role of affect on worldview defense following exposure to death primes. Implications for understanding terror management processes and the effects of unconscious cognition on emotion are briefly discussed.
• Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Kluck, B., & Cornwell, R. (2001). I am not an animal: Mortality salience, disgust, and the denial of human creatureliness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130(3), 427-435.
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  PMID: 11561918;Abstract: The present research investigated the need to distinguish humans from animals and tested the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that this need stems in part from existential mortality concerns. Specifically, the authors suggest that being an animal is threatening because it reminds people of their vulnerability to death; therefore, reminding people of their mortality was hypothesized to increase the need to distance from animals. In support, Study 1 revealed that reminders of death led to an increased emotional reaction of disgust to body products and animals. Study 2 showed that compared to a control condition, mortality salience led to greater preference for an essay describing people as distinct from animals; and within the mortality salient condition but not the control condition, the essay emphasizing differences from other animals was preferred to the essay emphasizing similarities. The implications of these results for understanding why humans are so invested in beautifying their bodies and denying creaturely aspects of themselves are discussed.
• Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Schimel, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (2001). Clarifying the Function of Mortality Salience-Induced Worldview Defense: Renewed Suppression or Reduced Accessibility of Death-Related Thoughts?. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37(1), 70-76.
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  Abstract: Previous terror management research has shown that following mortality salience, there is an effortful suppression of death-related thoughts, reducing death-thought accessibility. This is followed, after a delay, by an increase in death thought accessibility, which instigates defense of the cultural worldview; that defense, in turn, reduces accessibility of death-related thoughts. Prior research has not shown, however, whether this postworldview defense reduction in death thought accessibility is due to an actual dissipation or to renewed efforts at suppressing such cognitions. The present study assessed these two possibilities by manipulating whether participants contemplated their mortality, had the opportunity for worldview defense, and were under high or low cognitive load. Results supported the dissipation explanation by showing that high cognitive load had no effect on levels of death thought accessibility after participants defended their worldview in response to mortality salience. © 2001 Academic Press.
• Greenberg, J., Schimel, J., Arndt, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. L. (2001). Being accepted for who we are: evidence that social validation of the intrinsic self reduces general defensiveness. Journal of personality and social psychology, 80(1).
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  Three studies examined the possibility that being liked intrinsically by others--for who one is--reduces self-esteem defense, whereas being liked for what one has achieved does not. All 3 studies contrasted the effects on self-esteem defense of liking based on intrinsic or achievement-related aspects of self. Study 1 showed that thoughts of being liked intrinsically reduced defensive bias toward downward social comparison. Study 2 demonstrated that being liked for intrinsic aspects of self reduced participants' tendency to defensively distance themselves from a negatively portrayed other. Study 3 revealed that being liked for intrinsic aspects of self encouraged a preference for upward over downward counterfactuals for a negative event. In all 3 studies, similar reductions in defensiveness were not found when liking was based on achievements. Discussion focuses on implications for understanding the functional value of different bases of self-worth.
• Greenberg, J., Schimel, J., Martens, A., Solomon, S., & Pyszcznyski, T. (2001). Sympathy for the devil: Evidence that reminding Whites of their mortality promotes more favorable reactions to White racists. Motivation and Emotion, 25(2), 113-133.
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  Abstract: Terror management research has often shown that after reminders of mortality, people show greater investment in and support for groups to which they belong. The question for the present research was whether or not this would extend to Euro American investment in their identification as White. Although it seemed unlikely that White participants would directly exhibit increased identification as Whites, we hypothesized that mortality salience would increase sympathy for other Whites who expressed racial pride or favoritism toward Whites. In support of the hypothesis, a White person expressing pride in his race was viewed by White participants as particularly racist relative to a Black person who does so in Study 1, but was deemed less racist after White participants were reminded of their own mortality in Study 2. Similarly, in Study 3, White participants rated an explicitly racist White employer as less racist when they were reminded beforehand of their own mortality. The results were discussed in terms of implications for affiliation with racist ideologies and terror management defenses.
• Schimel, J., Arndt, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (2001). Being accepted for who we are: Evidence that social validation of the intrinsic self reduces general defensiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(1), 35-52.
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  PMID: 11195889;Abstract: Three studies examined the possibility that being liked intrinsically by others - for who one is - reduces self-esteem defense, whereas being liked for what one has achieved does not. All 3 studies contrasted the effects on self-esteem defense of liking based on intrinsic or achievement-related aspects of self. Study 1 showed that thoughts of being liked intrinsically reduced defensive bias toward downward social comparison. Study 2 demonstrated that being liked for intrinsic aspects of self reduced participants' tendency to defensively distance themselves from a negatively portrayed other. Study 3 revealed that being liked for intrinsic aspects of self encouraged a preference for upward over downward counterfactuals for a negative event. In all 3 studies, similar reductions in defensiveness were not found when liking was based on achievements. Discussion focuses on implications for understanding the functional value of different bases of self-worth.
• Dechesne, M., Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2000). Terror management and the vicissitudes of sports fan affiliation: The effects of mortality salience on optimism and fan identification. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30(6), 813-835.
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  Abstract: The present research examined the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that identifications with sports teams shield against the potential consequences of awareness of death. Experiment 1 demonstrated that Dutch participants who were reminded of their death expressed greater optimism about the results of the national soccer team compared to a control condition. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated this finding with American participants and college sports teams. In addition, Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis that success of a team is a prerequisite for sports fan affiliation to function as a buffer against death concerns. Before the college football season began, participants who were reminded about death expressed greater relative preference for a more salient, but less successful college football team over a national college champion basketball team compared to control participants. However, after the football team lost its first game of the season, participants who were reminded about death indicated greater relative preference for the successful basketball team. Results are discussed with regard to the psychological function of social identifications. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.
• Goldenberg, J. L., McCoy, S. K., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2000). The body as a source of self-esteem: The effect of mortality salience on identification with one's body, interest in sex, and appearance monitoring. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(1), 118-130.
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  PMID: 10909882;Abstract: The present research investigated the role of the physical body as a source of self-esteem and tested the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that reminding people of their mortality increases self-esteem striving in the form of identification with one's body, interest in sex, and appearance monitoring. The results revealed that individuals high in body esteem responded to mortality salience manipulations with increased identification with their physical bodies in Study 1 and with increased interest in sex in Study 2. Study 3 showed that reminders of death led to decreased appearance monitoring among appearance-oriented participants who were low in body esteem. These findings provide insight into why people often go to extreme lengths to meet cultural standards for the body and its appearance.
• Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2000). Fleeing the body: A terror management perspective on the problem of human corporeality. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4(3), 200-218.
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  Abstract: From the perspective of terror management theory, the human body is problematic because it serves as a perpetual reminder of the inevitability of death. Human beings confront this problem through the development of cultural worldviews that imbue reality - and the body as part of that reality - with abstract symbolic meaning. This fanciful flight from death is in turn the psychological impetus for distancing from other animals and the need to regulate behaviors that remind us of our physical nature. This analysis is applied to questions concerning why people are embarrassed and disgusted by their bodies' functions; why sex is such a common source of problems, difficulties, regulations, and ritualizations; why sex tends to be associated with romantic love; and why cultures value physical attractiveness and objectify women. This article then briefly considers implications of this analysis for understanding psychological problems related to the physical body and cultural variations in the need to separate oneself from the natural world.
• Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Simon, L., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (2000). Proximal and distal defenses in response to reminders of one's mortality: Evidence of a temporal sequence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(1), 91-99.
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  Abstract: The present study was designed to build on prior terror management research by testing the hypothesis that death-related thought first activates direct defenses to minimize the threat (proximal defense) and then later triggers symbolic cultural worldview defense (distal defense). After mortality salience, participants were either distracted from death-related thought or not and then completed either a measure of distal defense and then a measure of proximal defense or a proximal defense measure and then a distal defense measure. Results supported the authors' predictions. Proximal defense in the form of vulnerability denial emerged only when participants had immediately before been thinking about death. In contrast, distal defense only emerged when participants were previously distracted from death-related thought. Discussion focuses on implications of these results for understanding the sequence of defenses initiated by mortality salience.
• Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2000). Proximal and distal defense: A new perspective on unconscious motivation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(5), 156-160.
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  Abstract: Death-related thoughts produce different effects on thought and behavior when they are in current focal attention and when they are on the fringes of consciousness. When such thoughts are conscious, people attempt to either remove them from consciousness or push death into the distant future by distorting their beliefs to logically imply that they have many remaining years to live. When such thoughts are highly accessible but outside current focal attention, people increase efforts to view themselves as persons of value living in a meaningful universe. In this way, awarenss of the inevitability of death produces diverse effects on human thought and behavior that bear little obvious resemblance to the problem of death.
• Schimel, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., O'Mahen, H., & Arndt, J. (2000). Running from the shadow: Psychological distancing from others to deny characteristics people fear in themselves. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(3), 446-462.
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  PMID: 10743873;Abstract: Four experiments tested the hypothesis that people distance themselves from others who display characteristics they fear in themselves. In Study 1, participants were given false feedback that they were high or low in repressed anger and were given information about a person who became angry and responded in a violent or nonviolent manner. High anger feedback participants distanced themselves only from the violent person. In Study 2, high anger feedback led to distancing from a violent other but not a dishonest other, whereas dishonesty feedback led to distancing from a dishonest other but not a violent other. The results of Studies 3 and 4 replicated and extended the distancing effect with an anger induction: Participants who were insulted distanced themselves from an angry/violent person, and verbalizing their emotions about being insulted eliminated this effect. Implications for understanding defenses against undesirable self-attributions are discussed.
• Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2000). Pride and prejudice: Fear of death and social behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(6), 200-204.
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  Abstract: Terror management theory posits that awareness of mortality engenders a potential for paralyzing terror, which is assuaged by cultural worldviews: humanly created, shared beliefs that provide individuals with the sense they are valuable members of an enduring, meaningful universe (self-esteem), and hence are qualified for safety and continuance beyond death. Thus, self-esteem serves the fundamental psychological function of buffering anxiety. In support of this view, studies have shown that bolstering self-esteem reduces anxiety and that reminders of mortality intensify striving for self-esteem; this research suggests that self-esteem is critical for psychological equanimity. Cultural worldviews serve the fundamental psychological function of providing the basis for death transcendence. To the extent this is true, reminders of mortality should stimulate bolstering of one's worldview. More than 80 studies have supported this idea, most commonly by demonstrating that making death momentarily salient increases liking for people who support one's worldview and hostility toward those with alternative worldviews. This work helps explain human beings' dreadful history of intergroup prejudice and violence: The mere existence of people with different beliefs threatens our primary basis of psychological security; we therefore respond by derogation, assimilation efforts, or annihilation.
• Arndt, J., & Greenberg, J. (1999). The effects of a self-esteem boost and mortality salience on responses to boost relevant and irrelevant worldview threats. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(11), 1331-1341.
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  Abstract: Previous research found that raising self-esteem attenuates mortality salience effects on reactions to cultural worldview threats. The present study assessed whether raising self-esteem attenuates such effects when a target specifically threatened the dimension on which the boost was predicated. Participants (a) received positive personality feedback emphasizing likelihood of success either in their major or a different domain or neutral feedback, (b) contemplated their mortality or a control topic, and (c) evaluated targets threatening beliefs about the United States and the participant's major. Replicating earlier findings, after mortality salience, neutral feedback participants derogated the anti-U.S. target, whereas positive feedback participants did not. However, if the feedback mentioned participants' major, mortality salience led to derogation of the anti-major target, even if the feedback was positive. These findings indicate that when a target threatens a dimension on which a self-esteem boost is predicated, such a boost will not deter derogation following mortality salience.
• Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Schimel, J. (1999). Creativity and terror management: Evidence that creative activity increases guilt and social projection following mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(1), 19-32.
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  Abstract: The present research, based on the ideas of O. Rank (1932/1989) and E. Becker (1973), was designed to test the hypotheses that engaging in creative expression after personal mortality has been made salient will lead to both increased feelings of guilt and a desire to enhance social connectedness. In Study 1, the authors used a 2 (mortality salience vs. control) × 2 (creative pretask vs. noncreative pretask) between-subjects factorial design and measured self-report guilt. Results indicated that participants who were reminded of their death and completed the creative pretask expressed more guilt than all other participants. In Study 2 this effect was replicated with a modification of the creativity treatment. In Study 3, the same conditions leading to increased guilt also led mortality-salient creative-task participants to express higher levels of social projection, an index of perceived social connectedness. Implications of these results for creativity, the interpersonal nature of guilt, and terror management theory are briefly discussed.
• Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., Johnson, K. D., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (1999). The Appeal of Tragedy: A Terror Management Perspective. Media Psychology, 1(4), 313-329.
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  Abstract: The experiment reported in this article assessed the terror management explanation of the appeal of tragedy. From this perspective, vicarious experience of tragedy, such as through film and literature, provides a safe way of approaching the fear associated with one's own mortality. Thus, we hypothesized that reminding participants of their mortality would increase liking for and emotional response to a tragic excerpt from a novel. Participants were randomly assigned to answer open-ended questions about either their own death or a neutral topic and then read two excerpts from Ernest Hemingway novels, one tragic and one nontragic in content. In support of the terror management hypothesis, participants in the mortality salience condition responded more emotionally to, and were more touched by, the tragic excerpt, found the nontragic excerpt less enjoyable, and cared less for the female character in the nontragic passage than did the control participants.
• Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., McCoy, S. K., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (1999). Death, sex, love, and neuroticism: Why is sex such a problem?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1173-1187.
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  PMID: 10626370;Abstract: Terror management theory posits that sex is a ubiquitous human problem because the creaturely aspects of sex make apparent our animal nature, which reminds us of our vulnerability and mortality. People minimize this threat by investing in the symbolic meaning offered by the cultural worldview. Because people high in neuroticism have difficulty finding or sustaining meaning, sex is a particular problem for them. In Study 1, mortality salience caused high-neuroticism participants to find the physical aspects of sex less appealing. Study 2 revealed that for such individuals thoughts of physical sex increase the accessibility of death-related thoughts. This finding was replicated in Study 3, which also showed that providing meaning by associating sex with love reduces the accessibility of death-related thoughts in response to thoughts of physical sex. These findings provide insight into why people high in neuroticism have conflicting thoughts about sexuality and why sexuality is so often regulated and romanticized.
• Lieberman, J. D., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & McGregor, H. A. (1999). A hot new way to measure aggression: Hot sauce allocation. Aggressive Behavior, 25(5), 331-348.
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  Abstract: Laboratory experiments investigating aggressive behavior have operationalized and assessed aggression in a variety of ways; however, these measures are often problematic because they do not create a situation in which participants perceive potential for real harm to come to the target, there is a risk of actual harm to the target, or they are too familiar to participants. To overcome these limitations, we developed a new method for measuring aggression, specifically, the amount of hot sauce administered to a target known to dislike spicy foods. We summarize a series of experiments assessing theory-based hypotheses regarding aggression in which this measure is employed. We then briefly consider the strengths and limitations of this new measure. Aggr. Behav. 25:331-348, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
• Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Greenberg, J. (1999). A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: An extension of terror management theory. Psychological Review, 106(4), 835-845.
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  PMID: 10560330;Abstract: Distinct defensive processes are activated by conscious and nonconscious but accessible thoughts of death. Proximal defenses, which entail suppressing death-related thoughts or pushing the problem of death into the distant future by denying one's vulnerability, are rational, threat-focused, and activated when thoughts of death are in current focal attention. Distal terror management defenses, which entail maintaining self-esteem and faith in one's cultural worldview, function to control the potential for anxiety that results from knowing that death is inevitable. These defenses are experiential, are not related to the problem of death in any semantic or logical way, and are increasingly activated as the accessibility of death-related thoughts increases, up to the point at which such thoughts enter consciousness and proximal threat-focused defenses are initiated. Experimental evidence for this analysis is presented.
• Schimel, J., Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., Waxmonsky, J., & Arndt, J. (1999). Stereotypes and terror management: Evidence that mortality salience enhances stereotypic thinking and preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(5), 905-926.
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  PMID: 10573872;Abstract: If stereotypes function to protect people against death-related concerns, then mortality salience should increase stereotypic thinking and preferences for stereotype-confirming individuals. Study 1 demonstrated that mortality salience increased stereotyping of Germans. In Study 2, it increased participants' tendency to generate more explanations for stereotype-inconsistent than stereotype-consistent gender role behavior. In Study 3, mortality salience increased participants' liking for a stereotype-consistent African American and decreased their liking for a stereotype-inconsistent African American; control participants exhibited the opposite preference. Study 4 replicated this pattern with evaluations of stereotype-confirming or stereotype-disconfirming men and women. Study 5 showed that, among participants high in need for closure, mortality salience led to decreased liking for a stereotype-inconsistent gay man.
• Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Simon, L., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1998). Terror management and self-awareness: Evidence that mortality salience provokes avoidance of the self-focused state. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24(11), 1216-1227.
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  Abstract: Two studies assessed the terror management hypothesis that when mortality is salient, people will avoid stimuli that increase self-awareness. In Study 1, we measured the length of time that participants wrote about either their death or an exam in cubicles that either did or did not contain a large mirror. In Study 2, participants completed either a death anxiety scale or a future concerns scale and then wrote a story fostering either an internal or external focus of attention. As predicted, in Study 1, the self-focusing stimulus reduced the amount of time that participants spent in the cubicles contemplating their mortality. In Study 2, mortality-salient participants wrote less when the task prompted an internal focus of attention than when it prompted an external focus. Across both studies, no differences emerged between participants in the control conditions. Implications of this research for understanding the relationship between terror management processes and self-awareness are briefly discussed.
• McGregor, H. A., Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Lieberman, J. D., Solomon, S., Simon, L., & Pyszczynski, T. (1998). Terror Management and Aggression: Evidence That Mortality Salience Motivates Aggression Against Worldview-Threatening Others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(3), 590-605.
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  PMID: 9523407;Abstract: The hypothesis that mortality salience (MS) motivates aggression against worldview-threating others was tested in 4 studies. In Study 1, the experimenters induced participants to write about either their own death or a control topic, presented them with a target who either disparaged their political views or did not, and gave them the opportunity to choose the amount of hot sauce the target would have to consume. As predicted, MS participants allocated a particularly large amount of hot sauce to the worldview-threatening target. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors found that following MS induction, the opportunity to express a negative attitude toward the critical target eliminated aggression and the opportunity to aggress against the target eliminated derogation. This suggests that derogation and aggression are two alternative modes of responding to MS that serve the same psychological function. Finally, Study 4 showed that MS did not encourage aggression against a person who allocated unpleasant juice to the participant, supporting the specificity of MS-induced aggression to worldview-threatening others.
• Simon, L., Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1998). Terror Management and Meaning: Evidence That the Opportunity to Defend the Worldview in Response to Mortality Salience Increases the Meaningfulness of Life in the Mildly Depressed. Journal of Personality, 66(3), 359-382.
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  PMID: 9615422;Abstract: Previous terror management research has demonstrated that mildly depressed participants show a greater increase in worldview defense in response to reminders of their mortality than do nondepressed participants. Because the cultural worldview is posited to provide a meaningful conception of life, we hypothesized that mildly depressed participants who defend their worldview in response to mortality salience (MS) would increase their perception that the world is meaningful. A preliminary study first examined the Kunzendorf No Meaning Scale as a measure to assess perceptions of meaning. In the primary study, mildly depressed and nondepressed participants contemplated their own mortality or a neutral topic, evaluated two targets in a manner that either allowed them to defend their worldview or that did not, and then completed the Kunzendorf No Meaning Scale. As predicted, mildly depressed participants who had the opportunity to defend their worldview in response to mortality salience reported greater meaning in life than did mildly depressed participants who did not have the opportunity to defend their worldview, or mildly depressed participants not exposed to mortality salience. Implications for understanding and treating depression are briefly discussed.
• Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1998). Tales from the crypt: On the role of death in life. Zygon, 33(1), 9-43.
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  Abstract: An existential psychodynamic theory is presented based on Ernest Becker's claim that self-esteem and cultural worldviews function to ameliorate the anxiety associated with the uniquely human awareness of vulnerability and mortality. Psychological equanimity is hypothesized to require (1) a shared set of beliefs about reality that imbues the universe with stability, meaning, and permanence; (2) standards by which individuals can judge themselves to be of value; and (3) promises of safety and the transcendence of death to those who meet the standards of value. An empirical research program in support of this theory is then described, and the personal and interpersonal implications of these ideas are briefly considered. © 1998 by the Joint Publication of Board of Zygon.
• Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1997). Subliminal exposure to death-related stimuli increases defense of the cultural worldview. Psychological Science, 8(5), 379-385.
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  Abstract: Three experiments reported here provide empirical support for the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that unconscious concerns about death motivate allegiance to cultural beliefs. Study 1 contrasted exposure to a subliminal death-related stimulus, a standard mortality-salience treatment, and a neutral subliminal stimulus, and found that both the subliminal and the standard reminder of mortality led to more favorable evaluations of people who praised subjects' cultural worldview and more unfavorable evaluations of those who challenged it. Study 2 replicated this finding by comparing the effects of exposure to subliminal death stimuli and subliminal pain stimuli. Study 3 contrasted subliminal death stimuli, supraliminal death stimuli, and subliminal pain stimuli and found that only subliminal death stimuli produced these effects.
• Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Simon, L. (1997). Suppression, Accessibility of Death-Related Thoughts, and Cultural Worldview Defense: Exploring the Psychodynamics of Terror Management. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 5-18.
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  PMID: 9216076;Abstract: Previous research has shown that after a mortality salience (MS) treatment, death thought accessibility and worldview defense are initially low and then increase after a delay, suggesting that a person's initial response to conscious thoughts of mortality is to actively suppress death thoughts. If so, then high cognitive load, by disrupting suppression efforts, should lead to immediate increases in death thought accessibility and cultural worldview defense. Studies 1 and 2 supported this reasoning. Specifically, Study 1 replicated the delayed increase in death accessibility after MS among low cognitive load participants but showed a reversed pattern among participants under high cognitive load. Study 2 showed that, unlike low cognitive load participants, high cognitive load participants exhibited immediate increases in pro-American bias after MS. Study 3 demonstrated that worldview defense in response to MS reduces the delayed increase in death accessibility. Implications of these findings for understanding both terror management processes and psychological defense in general are discussed.
• Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Pyszczynski, T. (1997). Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews: Empirical Assessments and Conceptual Refinements. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 29(C), 61-139.
• Harmon-Jones, E., Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & McGregor, H. (1997). Terror Management Theory and Self-Esteem: Evidence That Increased Self-Esteem Reduces Mortality Salience Effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(1), 24-36.
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  PMID: 9008372;Abstract: On the basis of the terror management theory proposition that self-esteem provides protection against concerns about mortality, it was hypothesized that self-esteem would reduce the worldview defense produced by mortality salience (MS). The results of Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed this hypothesis by showing that individuals with high self-esteem (manipulated in Experiment 1; dispositional in Experiment 2) did not respond to MS with increased worldview defense, whereas individuals with moderate self-esteem did. The results of Experiment 3 suggested that the effects of the first 2 experiments may have occurred because high self-esteem facilitates the suppression of death constructs following MS.
• James, K., & Greenberg, J. (1997). Beliefs about self and about gender groups: Interactive effects on the spatial performance of women. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 19(4), 411-425.
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  Abstract: Projection of own characteristics onto an in-group, internalization of in-grcup characteristics into self-conceptions, and the implications of these two processes for one type of cognitive performance among women (spatial skill) were examined. Focus on gender or self and expected method of performance evaluation (male-female comparison or individual comparison [IC]) were varied before high-and low-self-esteem (SE) women completed a spatial performance test. The manipulations and the SE grouping factor interacted to influence spatial skill scores significantly. The results are interpreted as indicating situationally induced self-and group stereotype influences on manifest spatial skill.
• Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Pyszczynski, T., Clement, R., & Solomon, S. (1997). Perceived consensus, uniqueness, and terror management: Compensatory responses to threats to inclusion and distinctiveness following mortality salience. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(10), 1055-1065.
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  Abstract: An experiment assessed the proposition that competing motives for inclusion and individuation both function to control concerns about mortality. Combining ideas from terror management theory and optimal distinctiveness theory, the authors hypothesized that mortality salience would increase the tendency of participants given feedback that they had strong conformist tendencies to underestimate social consensus for their attitudes and the tendency of participants given feedback that they were deviant to exaggerate social consensus for their attitudes. Participants were given either one or theother type of feedback, responded to open-ended questions about either their own death or their next important exam, computed a measure of social projection in which they indicated their own attitudes, and then estimated the percentage of the general population that shared their opinions. Results on a social projection measure consisting of the partial correlation between own and others' attitudes, controlling for social desirability, provided strong support for the hypotheses.
• Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Harmon-Jones, E., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., & Abend, T. (1997). Terror management and cognitive-experiential self-theory: Evidence that terror management occurs in the experiential system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(5), 1132-1146.
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  PMID: 9150588;Abstract: 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. Copyright 1997 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.
• Harmon-Jones, E., Brehm, J. W., Greenberg, J., Simon, L., & Nelson, D. E. (1996). Evidence That the Production of Aversive Consequences Is Not Necessary to Create Cognitive Dissonance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(1), 5-16.
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  Abstract: The present authors hypothesized, in contrast to 1 influential revision of cognitive dissonance theory, that the production of aversive consequences is not necessary to create cognitive dissonance and that cognitive dissonance will occur even when aversive consequences are not produced. In Experiment 1, participants drank a pleasant- or unpleasant-tasting beverage and were given high or low choice to write a sentence that said they liked the beverage. Participants threw the paper away once they had written the sentence and then rated how much they liked the beverage. In support of the hypothesis, unpleasant-tasting beverage/high-choice participants liked the beverage more than unpleasant-tasting beverage/low-choice participants. A 2nd experiment replicated this effect, using a different counterattitudinal action and different choice manipulation. By demonstrating that the manipulation of dissonance produced increased physiological arousal, a 3rd experiment suggested that self-perception theory could not alternatively explain the results of Experiments 1 and 2.
• Harmon-Jones, E., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Simon, L. (1996). The effects of mortality salience on intergroup bias between minimal groups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 26(4), 677-681.
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  Abstract: We tested the hypothesis, derived from terror management theory, that mortality salience would increase intergroup bias between minimal groups. After assignment to groups, participants wrote about death or a neutral topic, and rated the personality characteristics of the ingroup and outgroup. Results supported the hypothesis.
• Pyszczynski, T., Wicklund, R. A., Floresku, S., Koch, H., Gauch, G., Solomon, S., & Greenberg, J. (1996). Whistling in the Dark: Exaggerated Consensus Estimates in Response to Incidental Reminders of Mortality. Psychological Science, 7(6), 332-336.
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  Abstract: Terror management theory posits that cultural worldviews function to provide protection against anxiety concerning human vulnerability and mortality and that their effectiveness as buffers against such anxiety is maintained through a process of consensual validation. Two field experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that incidental reminders of one's mortality increase the need to believe that others share one's worldview. In both studies, passersby on city streets were asked to estimate the extent of social consensus for culturally relevant attitudes, 100 m before passing a funeral home, 100 m after passing a funeral home, or directly in front of a funeral home. In the first study, conducted in Germany, subjects were asked to estimate the percentage of Germans who shared their opinions about a proposal to change the German constitution to restrict the immigration of foreigners; in the second study, conducted in the United States, subjects were asked to estimate the percentage of Americans who shared their opinions about the teaching of Christian values in the public schools. In both studies, subjects who held the minority position on the issue estimated greater consensus for their opinions when interviewed directly in front of a funeral home than when interviewed either before or after passing it.
• Simon, L., & Greenberg, J. (1996). Further progress in understanding the effects of derogatory ethnic labels: The role of preexisting attitudes toward the targeted group. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22(12), 1195-1204.
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  Abstract: To assess the impact of derogatory ethnic labels (DELs) on evaluations of both the target of the DEL and the person making the comment, White subjects who had pro-Black, anti-Black, or ambivalent attitudes were randomly assigned to read a DEL, an ethnic criticism, or no remark at all. Subsequent evaluations of the maker and the target of the comment were assessed, as well as subjects' affective reactions to reading the comment. In response to reading a DEL, all subjects derogated the person who made the comment. Anti-Black subjects rated the Black target more negatively on positive traits, pro-Black subjects did not alter their ratings of the target, and ambivalent subjects compensated by rating the target more favorably following the DEL. Affectively, ambivalent subjects generally reported more guilt and hostility than other subjects, and reading the DEL or the ethnic criticism led to more hostility than reading no comment at all.
• Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Harmon-Jones, E., Solomon, S., & Pyszczynski, T. (1996). Mild depression, mortality salience, and defense of the worldview: Evidence of intensified terror management in the mildly depressed. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22(1), 81-90.
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  Abstract: Based on a terror management analysis of depression, the authors hypothesized that mildly depressed individuals would engage in especially vigorous worldview defense after mortality salience. Two studies were conducted in which mildly depressed and nondepressed American college students contemplated their own mortality or a neutral topic and then evaluated targets who supported or threatened aspects of their worldviews. Replicating previous research, subjects who contemplated their own mortality engaged in more defense of the worldview (more positive reactions to worldview supporters and more negative reactions to worldview threateners). Moreover, as predicted, mildly depressed subjects in both studies responded to mortality salience with significantly more worldview defense than did nondepressed subjects. Implications of these results for understanding and treating depression are briefly considered.
• Simon, L., Greenberg, J., & Brehm, J. (1995). Trivialization: The Forgotten Mode of Dissonance Reduction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(2), 247-260.
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  Abstract: Trivialization as a mode of dissonance reduction and the conditions under which it is likely to occur were explored in 4 studies. Study 1 tested and supported the hypothesis that when the preexisting attitude is made salient, participants will trivialize the dissonant cognitions rather than change their attitudes. Study 2 tested and supported the hypothesis that following a counterattitudinal behavior, participants will choose the first mode of dissonance reduction provided for them, whether it is trivialization or attitude change. Study 3 tested and supported the hypothesis that following a counter attitudinal behavior, the typical self-affirmation treatment leads to trivialization. Study 4 demonstrated that providing a trivializing frame by making an important issue salient also encourages trivialization rather than attitude change even when there was no opportunity for self-affirmation. The implications for cognitive dissonance theory and research are briefly discussed. © 1995 American Psychological Association.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Simon, L., & Breus, M. (1994). Role of Consciousness and Accessibility of Death-Related Thoughts in Mortality Salience Effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(4), 627-637.
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  PMID: 7965609;Abstract: On the basis of terror management theory, research has shown that subtle mortality salience inductions engender increased prejudice, nationalism, and intergroup bias. Study 1 replicated this effect (increased preference for a pro-U.S. author over an anti-U.S. author) and found weaker effects when Ss are led to think more deeply about mortality or about the death of a loved one. Study 2 showed that this effect is not produced by thoughts of non-death-related aversive events. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that this effect occurs only if Ss are distracted from mortality salience before assessment of its effects. Study 4 revealed that although the accessibility of death-related thoughts does not increase immediately after mortality salience, it does increase after Ss are distracted from mortality salience. These findings suggest that mortality salience effects are unique to thoughts of death and occur primarily when such thoughts are highly accessible but outside of consciousness.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Pinel, E., Simon, L., & Jordan, K. (1993). Effects of Self-Esteem on Vulnerability-Denying Defensive Distortions: Further Evidence of an Anxiety-Buffering Function of Self-Esteem. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 29(3), 229-251.
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  Abstract: Two studies were conducted to assess the proposition that self-esteem serves an anxiety-buffering function. In Study 1, it was hypothesized that raising self-esteem would reduce the need to deny vulnerability to early death. In support of this hypothesis, positive personality feedback eliminated subjects′ tendency to bias emotionality reports to deny vulnerability to a short life expectancy-except when mortality had been made salient to the subjects. Study 2 conceptually replicated this effect by demonstrating that whereas subjects low in trait self-esteem biased emotionality reports to deny vulnerability to a short life expectancy, subjects high in trait self-esteem did not exhibit such a bias. Thus, converging evidence that self-esteem reduces vulnerability-denying defensive distortions was obtained. © 1993 Academic Press. All rights reserved.
• Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Sideris, J., & Stubing, M. J. (1993). Emotional Expression and the Reduction of Motivated Cognitive Bias: Evidence From Cognitive Dissonance and Distancing From Victims' Paradigms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(2), 177-186.
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  PMID: 8433271;Abstract: Two experiments tested whether expression of emotions from which motivated cognitive biases presumably provide protection would reduce the extent of such biases. In Study 1, we hypothesized that expressing any tension produced by writing a counterattitudinal essay would reduce the extent of dissonance-reducing attitude change. To test this hypothesis, Ss were induced to write an essay arguing for higher tuition. High-choice Ss were either encouraged to express their emotions, to suppress them, or to do neither. As expected, high-choice-express Ss exhibited the least attitude change. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that expressing fear of cancer would reduce the extent of defensive distancing from cancer patients, but expressing sympathy would not. Although control Ss clearly distanced from cancer patients, fear-expression Ss did not. Implications for understanding the role of affect in defense are discussed.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Burling, J., & Tibbs, K. (1992). Depression, self-focused attention, and the self-serving attributional bias. Personality and Individual Differences, 13(9), 959-965.
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  Abstract: Research suggests that nondepressed and depressed individuals differ in their attributions for success and failure: whereas nondepressed individuals exhibit more internal attributions for success than for failure (the self-serving bias), this bias is attentuated for depressed individuals. It has also been found that whereas nondepressed individuals prefer self-focus after success to self-focus after failure, depressed individuals prefer self-focus after failure to self-focus after success (i.e. they exhibit a depressive self-focusing style). Pyszczynski and Greenberg [(1987a) Coping with negative life events: Clinical and social psychological perspectives. New York: Academic Press; (1987b) Psychological Bulletin, 102, 122-138] have proposed that this depressive self-focusing style accounts for the lack of a self-serving attributional bias in depressed persons. To test this idea, depressed and nondepressed subjects were led to experience a success or failure. These subjects were then led to focus either internally or externally, in order to create conditions that simulate either the depressive or nondepressive pattern of attentional focus following performance outcomes. As predicted, conditions analogous to the depressive self-focusing style led to the typical depressed pattern of outcome attributions; in contrast, conditions analogous to the nondepressive pattern of attentional focus led to a self-serving attributional bias for all subjects. © 1992.
• Greenberg, J., Simon, L., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Chatel, D. (1992). Terror Management and Tolerance: Does Mortality Salience Always Intensify Negative Reactions to Others Who Threaten One's Worldview?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(2), 212-220.
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  PMID: 1403612;Abstract: Terror management research has shown that reminding Ss of their mortality leads to intolerance. The present research assessed whether mortality salience would lead to increased intolerance when the value of tolerance is highly accessible. In Study 1, given that liberals value tolerance more than conservatives, it was hypothesized that with mortality salience, dislike of dissimilar others would increase among conservatives but decrease among liberals. Liberal and conservative Ss were induced to think about their own mortality or a neutral topic and then were asked to evaluate 2 target persons, 1 liberal, the other conservative. Ss' evaluations of the targets supported these hypotheses. In Study 2, the value of tolerance was primed for half the Ss and, under mortality-salient or control conditions, Ss evaluated a target person who criticized the United States. Mortality salience did not lead to negative reactions to the critic when the value of tolerance was highly accessible.
• Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., Rosenblatt, A., Burling, J., Lyon, D., Simon, L., & Pinel, E. (1992). Why Do People Need Self-Esteem? Converging Evidence That Self-Esteem Serves an Anxiety-Buffering Function. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(6), 913-922.
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  PMID: 1460559;Abstract: Three studies were conducted to assess the proposition that self-esteem serves an anxiety-buffering function. In Study 1, it was hypothesized that raising self-esteem would reduce anxiety in response to vivid images of death. In support of this hypothesis, Ss who received positive personality feedback reported less anxiety in response to a video about death than did neutral feedback Ss. In Studies 2 and 3, it was hypothesized that increasing self-esteem would reduce anxiety among individuals anticipating painful shock. Consistent with this hypothesis, both success and positive personality feedback reduced Ss' physiological arousal in response to subsequent threat of shock. Thus, converging evidence of an anxiety-buffering function of self-esteem was obtained.
• Greenberg, J., Lyon, D., & Greenberg, J. L. (1991). Evidence of codependency in women with an alcoholic parent: helping out Mr. Wrong. Journal of personality and social psychology, 61(3).
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  A conceptualization of codependency and its development, which is based largely on the writings of Karen Horney, is presented. It is proposed that having learned to obtain approval and self-esteem by conforming to the demands of an exploitive person, women with alcoholic parents will continue to seek opportunities to help such people. On the basis of this analysis, it was hypothesized that women with alcoholic parents would be more helpful to an experimenter portrayed as exploitive than to one portrayed as nurturant; women with nonalcoholic parents were expected to exhibit the opposite pattern. The results strongly supported the existence of codependent behavior in the women with alcoholic parents. The implication of these findings and directions for future research were briefly discussed.
• Lyon, D., & Greenberg, J. (1991). Evidence of Codependency in Women With an Alcoholic Parent: Helping Out Mr. Wrong. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(3), 435-439.
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  PMID: 1941514;Abstract: A conceptualization of codependency and its development, which is based largely on the writings of Karen Horney, is presented. It is proposed that having learned to obtain approval and self-esteem by conforming to the demands of an exploitive person, women with alcoholic parents will continue to seek opportunities to help such people. On the basis of this analysis, it was hypothesized that women with alcoholic parents would be more helpful to an experimenter portrayed as exploitive than to one portrayed as nurturant; women with nonalcoholic parents were expected to exhibit the opposite pattern. The results strongly supported the existence of codependent behavior in the women with alcoholic parents. The implication of these findings and directions for future research were briefly discussed.
• Pyszczynski, T., Hamilton, J., Greenberg, J., & Nix, G. (1991). On the relationship between self-focused attention and psychological disorder: A critical reappraisal. Psychological Bulletin, 110(3), 538-543.
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  PMID: 1758922;Abstract: A recent review of the literature on the role of self-focused attention in psychological dysfunction (Ingram, 1990) is critically examined. This article (a) reexamines the evidence relevant to Ingram's proposal that self-awareness is a nonspecific factor involved in virtually all forms of psychopathology and argues that this conclusion is not warranted by the existing evidence; (b) takes issue with his premise that the fact that self-awareness is associated with a variety of psychological dysfunctions poses a conceptual dilemma; (c) corrects several important inaccuracies and mischaracterizations in his presentation of Carver and Scheier's (1981) cybernetic control theory and Pyszczynski and Greenberg's (1987) self-regulatory perseveration theory; and (d) critiques the "self-absorption" model that he proposed as an alternative to extant theories and concludes that this conceptualization does not add to the understanding of either self-awareness processes or psychopathology.
• Rosenblatt, A., & Greenberg, J. (1991). Examining the World of the Depressed: Do Depressed People Prefer Others Who Are Depressed?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(4), 620-629.
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  PMID: 2037970;Abstract: Two studies were conducted to examine the interpersonal world of the depressed person. In Study 1, depression levels and perceptions of depressed and nondepressed people and their best friend were assessed to test the hypothesis that depressed Ss have best friends who are themselves more depressed than the best friends of nondepressed Ss. The hypothesis was confirmed, suggesting that depressed persons may prefer others who also tend toward depression. To examine this possibility, in Study 2 depressed and nondepressed college students spoke with one another in either depressed-depressed, nondepressed-depressed, or nondepressed-nondepressed pairs. It was found that depressed Ss felt worse than nondepressed Ss after speaking with nondepressed targets, but not after speaking with depressed targets. There were no differences in liking or in perceived similarity between the groups. Implications for the social world of the depressed person are discussed.
• Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1991). A Terror Management Theory of Social Behavior: The Psychological Functions of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 24(C), 93-159.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Rosenblatt, A., Veeder, M., Kirkland, S., & Lyon, D. (1990). Evidence for Terror Management Theory II: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to Those Who Threaten or Bolster the Cultural Worldview. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(2), 308-318.
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  Abstract: Three experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis, derived from terror management theory, that reminding people of their mortality increases attraction to those who consensually validate their beliefs and decreases attraction to those who threaten their beliefs. In Study 1, subjects with a Christian religious background were asked to form impressions of Christian and Jewish target persons. Before doing so, mortality was made salient to half of the subjects. In support of predictions, mortality salience led to more positive evaluations of the in-group member (the Christian) and more negative evaluations of the out-group member (the Jew). In Study 2, mortality salience led to especially negative evaluations of an attitudinally dissimilar other, but only among subjects high in authoritarianism. In Study 3, mortality salience led to especially positive reactions to someone who directly praised subjects' cultural worldviews and especially negative reactions to someone who criticized them. The implications of these findings for understanding in-group favoritism, prejudice, and intolerance of deviance are discussed.
• Pyszczynski, T., Hamilton, J. C., Herring, F. H., & Greenberg, J. (1989). Depression, Self-Focused Attention, and the Negative Memory Bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(2), 351-357.
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  Abstract: On the basis of self-regulatory perseveration theory, we hypothesized that the negative memory bias commonly found among depressed people is mediated by excess levels of self-focused attention and thus can be reduced by preventing depressed people from focusing on themselves. In Experiment 1, nondepressed and subclinically depressed college students were induced to focus either on themselves or externally and then to recall 10 events that had happened to themselves during the previous 2 weeks. Consistent with our hypotheses, events recalled by depressed Ss were more negative than events recalled by nondepressed Ss under conditions of self-focus but not under conditions of external focus. We conducted Experiment 2 to determine whether this effect was specific to self-referent events or generalizable to events that happened to other people. Experiment 2's findings replicated the previous findings for self-referent events but showed a different pattern for recall of events that happened to others, suggesting that self-focus reduces the negative memory bias among depressed individuals by deactivating their self-schemas. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
• Rosenblatt, A., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Lyon, D. (1989). Evidence For Terror Management Theory: I. The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to Those Who Violate or Uphold Cultural Values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(4), 681-690.
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  PMID: 2795438;Abstract: On the basis of terror management theory, it was hypothesized that when mortality is made salient, Ss would respond especially positively toward those who uphold cultural values and especially negatively toward those who violate cultural values. In Experiment 1, judges recommended especially harsh bonds for a prostitute when mortality was made salient. Experiment 2 replicated this finding with student Ss and demonstrated that it occurs only among Ss with relatively negative attitudes toward prostitution. Experiment 3 demonstrated that mortality salience also leads to larger reward recommendations for a hero who upheld cultural values. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that the mortality salience effect does not result from heightened self-awareness or physiological arousal. Experiment 6 replicated the punishment effect with a different mortality salience manipulation. Implications for the role of fear of death in social behavior are discussed.
• Greenberg, J., & Wursten, A. (1988). The Psychologist and the Psychiatrist as Expert Witnesses: Perceived Credibility and Influence. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 19(4), 373-378.
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  Abstract: We assessed the relative perceptions and influences of MD and PhD expert witnesses. Subjects in favor of or against the insanity defense and with strong or weak issue involvement read a transcript of a burglary and assault case in which either (a) a PhD testified for the defense and an MD testified for the prosecution or (b) an MD testified for the defense and a PhD testified for the prosecution. Verdicts, general attitude measures, and specific witness credibility evaluations indicated a medical bias, primarily in the PhD-defense/MD-prosecution condition. Limitations and implications are discussed.
• Greenberg, J., Rosenblatt, A., & Greenberg, J. L. (1988). Depression and interpersonal attraction: the role of perceived similarity. Journal of personality and social psychology, 55(1).
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  We hypothesized that depressed individuals are generally viewed as dissimilar and that this perceived dissimilarity contributes to negative reactions to the depressed. In addition, we hypothesized that if perceived similarity affects liking of depressed individuals, then nondepressed subjects should prefer nondepressed targets, but depressed subjects should not share this preference. To test these hypotheses, depressed and nondepressed subjects received information about two targets, both either depressed or nondepressed, one attitudinally dissimilar and one attitudinally similar. They were then asked to fill out an attraction measure and an interest in meeting measure for each target. The results clearly supported the primary hypotheses, demonstrating that nondepressed subjects preferred nondepressed targets and perceived them as more similar than depressed targets, and that this preference for nondepressed targets is not shared by depressed subjects. Tests of supplementary hypotheses also confirmed that depressed subjects perceive their best friends as being more depressed and more dissimilar than do nondepressed subjects. The implications of these findings for the social world of the depressed were discussed.
• Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Steinberg, L. (1988). A Reaction to Greenwald, Pratkanis, Leippe, and Baumgardner (1986): Under What Conditions Does Research Obstruct Theory Progress?. Psychological Review, 95(4), 566-571.
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  Abstract: Greenwald, Pratkanis, Leippe, and Baumgardner (1986) argued that a theory-testing research orientation contributes to a confirmation bias that impedes the progress of research. To eliminate this confirmation bias, they proposed two complementary result-centered approaches: the method of condition seeking and the design approach. We argue that Greenwald et al. confused the relation between theory and research and that the result-centered strategies they proposed would in no way minimize the bias. We also suggest that result-centered research can impede the progress of psychology because it retards theoretical, methodological, and technological advancement, and encourages increasingly narrow and trivial research endeavors. We conclude by discussing ways to minimize these problems.
• Rosenblatt, A., & Greenberg, J. (1988). Depression and Interpersonal Attraction: The Role of Perceived Similarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(1), 112-119.
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  PMID: 3418485;Abstract: We hypothesized that depressed individuals are generally viewed as dissimilar and that this perceived dissimilarity contributes to negative reactions to the depressed. In addition, we hypothesized that if perceived similarity affects liking of depressed individuals, then nondepressed subjects should prefer nondepressed targets, but depressed subjects should not share this preference. To test these hypotheses, depressed and nondepressed subjects received information about two targets, both either depressed or nondepressed, one attitudinally dissimilar and one attitudinally similar. They were then asked to fill out an attraction measure and an interest in meeting measure for each target. The results clearly supported the primary hypotheses, demonstrating that nondepressed subjects preferred nondepressed targets and perceived them as more similar than depressed targets, and that this preference for nondepressed targets is not shared by depressed subjects. Tests of supplementary hypotheses also confirmed that depressed subjects perceive their best friends as being more depressed and more dissimilar than do nondepressed subjects. The implications of these findings for the social world of the depressed were discussed.
• Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (1987). Self-Regulatory Perseveration and the Depressive Self-Focusing Style: A Self-Awareness Theory of Reactive Depression. Psychological Bulletin, 102(1), 122-138.
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  PMID: 3615702;Abstract: In this article, we apply theory and research on self-focused attention and self-regulatory processes to the problem of depression and use this framework to integrate the roles played by a variety of psychological processes emphasized by other theories of the development and maintenance of depression. We propose that depression occurs after the loss of an important source of self-worth when an individual becomes stuck in a self-regulatory cycle in which no responses to reduce the discrepancy between actual and desired states are available. Consequently, the individual falls into a pattern of virtually constant self-focus, resulting in intensified negative affect, self-derogation, further negative outcomes, and a depressive self-focusing style in which he or she self-focuses a great deal after negative outcomes but very little after positive outcomes. Eventually, these factors lead to a negative self-image, which may take on value by providing an explanation for the individual's plight and by helping the individual avoid further disappointments. The depressive self-focusing style then maintains and exacerbates the depressive disorder. We review findings from laboratory studies of mild to moderately depressed people, correlational studies of more severely depressed people, and clinical observations with respect to consistency with the theory. © 1987 American Psychological Association.
• Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (1987). Toward an Integration of Cognitive and Motivational Perspectives on Social Inference: A Biased Hypothesis-Testing Model. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 20(C), 297-340.
• Pyszczynski, T., Holt, K., & Greenberg, J. (1987). Depression, Self-Focused Attention, and Expectancies for Positive and Negative Future Life Events for Self and Others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(5), 994-1001.
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  PMID: 3585706;Abstract: In two studies, we examined depressed and nondepressed persons' judgments of the probability of future positive and negative life events occurring to themselves and to others. Study 1 demonstrated that depressed subjects were generally less optimistic than their nondepressed counterparts: Although nondepressed subjects rated positive events as more likely to happen to themselves than negative events, depressed subjects did not. In addition, relative to nondepressed subjects, depressed subjects rated positive events as less likely to occur to themselves and more likely to occur to others and negative events as more likely to occur to both self and others. Study 2 investigated the role that differential levels of self-focused attention might play in mediating these differences. On the basis of prior findings that depressed persons generally engage in higher levels of self-focus than nondepressed persons do and the notion that self-focus activates one's self-schema, we hypothesized that inducing depressed subjects to focus externally would attenuate their pessimistic tendencies. Data from Study 2 supported the hypothesis that high levels of self-focus partially mediate depressive pessimism: Whereas self-focused depressed subjects were more pessimistic than nondepressed subjects, externally focused depressed subjects were not. The role of attentional focus in maintaining these and other depressive pessimistic tendencies was discussed. © 1987 American Psychological Association.
• Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1986). Persistent High Self-Focus After Failure and Low Self-Focus After Success. The Depressive Self-Focusing Style. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50(5), 1039-1044.
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  PMID: 3712228;Abstract: Two studies were conducted to assess the spontaneous self-focusing tendencies of depressed and nondepressed individuals after success and failure. Based on a self-regulatory perseveration theory of depression, it was expected that depressed individuals would be especially high in self-focus after failure and low in self-focus after success. The results of Experiment 1 suggested that immediately after an outcome, both depressed and nondepressed individuals are more self-focused after failure than after success. This finding led us to hypothesize that differences between depressed and nondepressed individuals in self-focus following success and failure emerge over time. Specifically, immediately following an outcome, both types of individuals self-focus more after failure because of self-regulatory concerns. However, over time, depressed individuals persist in higher levels of self-focus after failure than after success, whereas nondepressed individuals shift to the opposite, more hedonically beneficial pattern. The results of Experiment 2 provided clear support for these hypotheses. Theoretical implications of these results were discussed. © 1986 American Psychological Association.
• Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (1986). Evidence for a depressive self-focusing style. Journal of Research in Personality, 20(1), 95-106.
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  Abstract: An experiment was conducted to assess the possibility that depressed persons have a unique self-focusing style in which they increase their level of self-focus after failures and decrease their level of self-focus after successes. Nondepressed and mildly depressed college students were randomly assigned to succeed or fail on a supposed test of verbal abilities or to a no-outcome control group that did not take the test. Subjects were then taken to a second room and given 10 min to work on two sets of puzzles, one of which was positioned in front of a large mirror. As in previous research on self-focus, the amount of time spent in front of the mirror was taken as a measure of aversion to self-focus. As predicted, depressed success subjects spent significantly less time in front of the mirror than did depressed control, depressed failure, or nondepressed success subjects. The time spent in front of the mirror by nondepressed subjects, however, was apparently unaffected by their performance outcomes. Implications of this depressive self-focusing style for the esteem, attributions, affect, motivation, and performance of depressed persons were discussed. © 1986.
• Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1985). Compensatory Self-Inflation. A Response to the Threat to Self-Regard of Public Failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(1), 273-280.
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  Abstract: It was hypothesized that because public evaluative situations are most likely to encourage conditional self-regard, an overevaluation of self-image as a way to compensate for the threat of failure (compensatory self-inflation) is likely to occur if a failure is public but not if it is private. In a test of this idea, subjects either succeeded or failed on a test, and the outcome was either known or not known to others. Half of the subjects were subsequently required to evaluate the positive and negative aspects of the test. Then the favorability of self-image of all the subjects was assessed. The self-images of subjects who evaluated the test were not affected by the outcome manipulation. Compared with these subjects, among subjects who did not evaluate the test, favorability of self-image was increased after public failure and decreased after private failure. The hypothesis that compensatory self-inflation occurs after public but not private failure was confirmed. © 1985 American Psychological Association.
• Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1985). The effect of an overheard ethnic slur on evaluations of the target: How to spread a social disease. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21(1), 61-72.
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  Abstract: An experiment was conducted to assess the effects of an ethnic slur on evaluations of a targeted minority group member by those who overheard the slur. White subjects plus four confederates participated in a study ostensibly concerned with debating skills. Two of the confederates, one of whom was black, were always picked to engage in a debate which the others were to evaluate. The black debator either won or lost the debate. After the debate, one confederate-evaluator criticized the black in a manner that either did or did not involve an ethnic slur; in a control condition, no such comment was made. Based on the notion that ethnic slurs activate negative schemata regarding members of the targeted minority group, it was predicted that when the black debator lost the debate, the ethnic slur would lead to lower evaluations of his skill. This hypothesis was supported. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed. © 1985.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Stine, P. (1985). Social anxiety and anticipation of future interaction as determinants of the favorability of self-presentation. Journal of Research in Personality, 19(1), 1-11.
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  Abstract: Based on a self-presentational approach to social anxiety, it was hypothesized that (1) low social anxiety individuals respond to the expectation of further personal interaction with another person by increasing the favorability of their self-presentations; (2) high social anxiety individuals do not increase the favorability of their self-presentations when they expect further interaction, and (3) positive evaluations from an interaction partner tend to reduce differences between low and high social anxiety individuals. To test these hypotheses, individuals previously determined to be either low or high in dispositional social anxiety were asked to write 10 self-descriptive statements to be passed to an opposite sex partner, with whom the subjects either would or would not engage in further personal interaction. Prior to writing the self-descriptions, subjects were given either positive or neutral evaluations, supposedly written by the other person. The results supported the first two, but not the third, hypotheses. The implications of these findings for a self-presentational model of social anxiety were discussed. © 1985.
• Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (1985). Depression and Preference for Self-Focusing Stimuli After Success and Failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(4), 1066-1075.
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  PMID: 4057045;Abstract: Depressed individuals, who tend to have large perceived-self/ideal-self discrepancies, have been shown to be particularly high in private self-consciousness. On the bases of this finding and of several converging theoretical perspectives, we hypothesized that depressives, unlike nondepressives, do not find self-focus more aversive after failure than after success, and thus either (a) show no differential preference for self-focusing stimuli after success versus after failure (weak hypothesis), or (b) prefer self-focusing stimuli after failure over self-focusing stimuli after success (strong hypothesis). Depressed and nondepressed college students succeeded or failed on a supposed test of verbal intelligence, and then worked on two sets of puzzles, one in the presence and one in the absence of a self-focusing stimulus (mirror). Whereas nondepressed subjects liked the mirror-associated puzzle more after success than after failure, depressed subjects did not; depressed subjects tended to like the mirror-associated puzzle more after failure than after success. Nondepressed subjects also exhibited a self-serving pattern of attributions, viewing the test as less valid and luck as more responsible for their performance after failure than after success; depressed subjects showed no such differences. In consistency with their failure to use defensive strategies, depressed subjects showed a decrease in self-esteem after failure; nondepressed subjects showed no such change. © 1985 American Psychological Association.
• Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & LaPrelle, J. (1985). Social comparison after success and failure: Biased search for information consistent with a self-serving conclusion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21(2), 195-211.
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  Abstract: Based on the traditional and attributional perspectives on social comparison, it was hypothesized that the search for social comparison information after performance outcomes is biased so as to provide evidence consistent with a favorable self-evaluation. In Experiment 1, subjects were led to believe that they obtained 16 or 8 out of 20 items correct on a bogus social sensitivity test and were then led to expect that most other students performed either well or poorly on the test. They were then given the opportunity to inspect up to 50 scored answer sheets from previous subjects. Consistent with the hypothesis, failure subjects requested more information when they expected it to reveal that most students performed poorly than when they expected it to reveal that most students performed well; success subjects showed little interest in this additional information, regardless of their expectancies as to what it would reveal. Experiment 2 employed a different approach to manipulating performance outcomes and led subjects to expect that most other subjects performed better, the same, or worse than themselves. Regardless of their own performance, subjects showed the least interest in additional information in the higher score expectancy condition and the most interest in additional information in the lower score expectancy condition. The role that this information search bias may play in producing self-serving attributions for success and failure and maintaining positive self-evaluations was discussed. © 1985.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Paisley, C. (1984). Effect of extrinsic incentives on use of test anxiety as an anticipatory attributional defense: Playing it cool when the stakes are high. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47(5), 1136-1145.
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  PMID: 6520705;Abstract: Assessed the effect of extrinsic incentives on the use of test anxiety as a self-handicapping strategy. It was hypothesized that although reports of anxiety may be greater when such symptoms can serve a defensive function, this effect occurs only when extrinsic incentives are low and not under conditions of high extrinsic incentive. 84 male undergraduates anticipated taking a test of intellectual abilities and either were led to believe that test anxiety has no effect on test performance or were given no particular information about the relation between test anxiety and performance. Ss were offered either $5 or $25 for obtaining the highest score on the test. Consistent with predictions, no-information Ss reported greater test anxiety before the test than did those who believed that test anxiety was unrelated to performance, but only when the extrinsic incentive for performance was low. However, these Ss did not report greater cognitive interference or exhibit lower test scores than did Ss in other conditions. It is suggested that the defensive strategy used by these Ss consisted of altering perceptions of anxiety, rather than anxiety itself. Implications of the absence of self-handicapping under high incentive conditions are discussed. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1984 American Psychological Association.
• Brehm, J. W., Wright, R. A., Solomon, S., Silka, L., & Greenberg, J. (1983). Perceived difficulty, energization, and the magnitude of goal valence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19(1), 21-48.
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  Abstract: This paper examines the proposition that the mobilization of energy and consequent magnitude of valence of a potential outcome (e.g., goal) is a function of what the individual perceives can and must be done in order to attain or avoid the outcome. An outcome that is difficult to attain or avoid requires a relatively high level of energization and will be relatively attractive, if positive, or unpleasant, if negative. Outcomes that are easy or impossible to attain or avoid require little or no energization and will be relatively low in attractiveness, if positive, or low in unpleasantness, if negative. This formulation was supported by four experiments that demonstrated (a) attractiveness of a goal is a nonmonotonic function of perceived difficulty of attaining it; (b) unpleasantness of a potential negative outcome is a nonmonotonic function of perceived difficulty of avoiding it; (c) the nonmonotonic effect of perceived difficulty on goal attractiveness disappears once instrumental behavior has been completed; and (d) the nonmonotonic effect of perceived difficulty on unpleasantness of a potential negative outcome occurs in immediate but not distant anticipation of initiating instrumental behavior. Alternative explanations, theoretical problems, and implications are discussed. © 1983.
• Holmes, D. S., Solomon, S., Cappo, B. M., & Greenberg, J. L. (1983). Effects of Transcendental Meditation versus resting on physiological and subjective arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(6), 1245-1252.
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  PMID: 6348250;Abstract: On 4 successive days, 10 highly trained and experienced meditators (aged 26-54 yrs) were asked to relax for 5 min, meditate for 20 min, and then relax for 5 min. In contrast, 10 other Ss (aged 22-32 yrs) who had no training or experience with meditation were asked to relax for 5 min, rest for 20 min, and then relax for 5 min. Physiological arousal (heart and respiration rates, skin resistance, and blood pressure) and subjective arousal (cognitive, somatic, and relaxation) were measured throughout the experiment. Prior to meditating or resting, meditators tended to have higher heart rates and diastolic blood pressure than did nonmeditators. Meditation was associated with generally reduced arousal; but while meditating, meditators did not evidence lower levels of arousal than nonmeditators did while resting. Results place qualifications on previous studies of the effects of meditation on arousal. Implications for the study of personality functioning, stress management, and psychotherapy are discussed. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1983 American Psychological Association.
• Pyszczynski, T., & Greenberg, J. (1983). Determinants of reduction in intended effort as a strategy for coping with anticipated failure. Journal of Research in Personality, 17(4), 412-422.
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  Abstract: The present study investigated the use of reduction in intended effort as a strategy for protecting self-esteem from the threat of anticipated failure. It was hypothesized that people reduce the amount of effort they intend to exert when they expect a low probability of success on a highly ego-relevant task. Female subjects anticipated taking an easy (high probability of success) or difficult (low probability of success) test that was either high or low in ego relevance. Subjects' levels of intended effort and other task-relevant cognitions were assessed. It was found that subjects in the low-probability condition intended to exert less effort on the highly ego-relevant test than did subjects in the high-probability condition; probability of success had no effect on intended effort level on the low ego-relevance test. Subjects also reported that it was a worse day for a test in the low-probability condition than in the high-probability condition. The relevance of these findings to the egotism explanation of learned helplessness effects and general theories of motivation was discussed. © 1983.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1982). The self-serving attributional bias: Beyond self-presentation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 18(1), 56-67.
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  Abstract: An experiment was conducted to provide empirical support for the notion that asymmetrical causal attributions for favorable and unfavorable outcomes result from a self-serving attributional bias that occurs independently of self-presentational concerns. Subjects did either well or poorly on an ego-involving test for which their performance, attributions, and evaluations of the test were either public or private. A pattern of self-serving responses for subjects' attributions and evaluations of the test was found in the private conditions, thus providing evidence of the influence of outcome favorability on individuals' perceptions of causality. Theoretical and practical implications of these finding are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered. © 1982.
• Pyszczynski, T. A., & Greenberg, J. (1981). Role of disconfirmed expectancies in the instigation of attributional processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40(1), 31-38.
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  Abstract: Tested the hypothesis that individuals engage in more thorough attributional processing for unexpected events than they do for expected events. 51 undergraduates observed the experimenter asking a confederate either a small or large favor. The small request led to an expectancy of compliance; the large request led to expectancy of refusal. The confederate then either did or did not comply with the request, thus either confirming or disconfirming Ss' expectancies. Ss were than allowed to look at any 5 of the confederates' responses to a 10-item questionnaire that the confederate had supposedly filled out earlier. Five of the items on the questionnaire were relevant to helping, and 5 were of general interest. As predicted, Ss chose more helping-relevant items when their expectancies had been disconfirmed. Implications for attributions for the behavior of stereotyped out-group members are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1981 American Psychological Association.
• Smith, T. W., & Greenberg, J. (1981). Depression and self-focused attention. Motivation and Emotion, 5(4), 323-331.
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  Abstract: Recent research on self-focused attention has indicated effects that parallel several cognitive and affective phenomena associated with depression. Specifically, discrepancies between perceived real and ideal self, increased affective response, self-attribution for negative events, and accurate self-reports occur both in depression and as a result of self-focused attention. A study is reported that investigated the relationship between depression and a measure of private self-consciousness, a dispositional measure of the tendency to attend to one's inner thoughts and feelings. As predicted, a reliable positive relationship was found. The potential role of self-focused attention in maintaining and exacerbating depression was discussed. © 1981 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

Presentations

• Greenberg, J. (2016, spring). Terror management theory and research. Psi Chi, University of Arizona..
• Greenberg, J. L., darrell, a., pyszczynski, t., & lifshin, u. (2015, spring). Religious and Scientific Paths to Immortality: A Clash of Cultures?. Immortality Project Capstone Conference, Riverside, CA..
• Sullivan, D. L., Sullivan, D., Greenberg, J. L., & Greenberg, J. (2015, April). The Psychology of Herzog's "Grizzly Man". Loft Cinema's Science on Screen Series.

Poster Presentations

• Greenberg, J. L., & Helm, p. (2016, spring). Existential isolation, attachment, and death thought accessibility.. 17th annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, CA..
• Greenberg, J. L., Sullivan, d., & Lifshin, u. (2016, spring). I am not an animal – I am an American: Dissociation from animals and worldview defense in terror management theory.. 17th annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, CA..
• Soenke, M., & Greenberg, J. (2013, January). Are you smarter than a cetacean: Investigating the relationship between reminders of death and concerns about human intelligence. Poster presented at the 14th annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. New Orleans, LA.
• Soenke, M., Greenberg, J., & Focella, E. (2012). Memento mori: Remembering the realization of one’s own mortality. Poster at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference. San Diego, CA.