Significance-Quest Theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5832005 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Arie W Kruglanski (0000-0002-4777-9299, University of Maryland, College Park, corresponding author), Erica Molinario (0000-0002-8421-7594, Florida Gulf Coast University), Katarzyna Jaśko (0000-0002-3195-8268, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Psychology), Douglas Webber (0000-0002-8305-4869, Virginia Commonwealth University), N Pontus Leander (0000-0002-3073-5038, University of Groningen), Antonio Pierro (0000-0003-3847-2241, Sapienza University of Rome) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1050-1071 |
| Publication date | 2022-02-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Perspectives on Psychological Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1745-6916 • E-ISSN: 1745-6924 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/17456916211034825 |
| PMID | 35133911 |
| OpenAlex | W4210824986 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 61 |
| References cited | 120 |
Even though the motivation to feel worthy, to be respected, and to matter to others has been identified for centuries by scholars, the antecedents, consequences, and conditions of its activation have not been systematically analyzed or integrated. The purpose of this article is to offer such an integration. We feature a motivational construct, the quest for significance, defined as the need to have social worth. This need is typically fulfilled by a sense of measuring up to the values one shares with significant others. Our significance-quest theory (SQT) assumes that the need for significance is universal, whereas the means of satisfying it depend on the sociocultural context in which one's values are embedded. Those means are identified in a narrative supported and validated by one's network, or reference group. The quest for significance is activated by significance loss and/or the opportunity for significance gain. It motivates behavior that aims to affirm, realize, and/or show commitment to an important value. The SQT is consistent with large bodies of prior research and supported by novel studies in multiple laboratory and field settings. It transcends prior understandings and offers guidance for further study of this essential human motivation
Value (mathematics · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Social and Intergroup Psychology
Inside the Radicalized Mind
Towards an understanding of performative allyship
Radicalisation as redemption
Self-Worth of Social-Political Activists
Sex differences in the mediation role of political mobilization between the search for status and risk-taking behaviors in adolescents
Significance quest; Understanding the psychology of husband's intimate partner violence towards wives
Trauma and the extremist life cycle
Vulnerable Online
From conspiracies to insurgence
Personality and sex differences in mattering and purpose-in-life
Antimafia action
Why do people share (mis)information? Power motives in social media
The mirage of the jihad. Disenchantment as the pathway to disengagement of female jihadists. A case study about radicalization in Spanish prisons ( El espejismo de la yihad. El desencanto como camino para la desvinculación de las mujeres yihadistas. Un estudio de caso sobre la radicalización en las cárceles españolas )
The quest for significance and resistance to criminality
Processes of radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism ( Procesos de radicalización, extremismo violento y terrorismo )
Sharenting as a Bridge
World Beliefs Predict the Maintenance of Satisfying Communal Relationships
Predicting Behaviors Towards Biodiversity and Natural Habitat Conservation
Context-Tailored or User-Tailored
Community-Driven Brakes on Violent Extremism
Significance Quest
How to explain the German East–West divide in support of a populist radical right party (AfD)
When Need Fulfillment Motivates
People act extremely toward their amorous partner when they feel insignificant
The Power of Justice
Everyday discrimination and cancer metaphor preferences
Honor Endorsement in Male Youth
Examining the relationship between quest for significance and smartphone addiction
Ideological identity
The potential role of psychological time in the study of violent radicalisation, deradicalisation, and disengagement
The we—sum of its parts or something else
Pursuing ideological passion in Islamic radical group’s insurgency
Validation of an Inventory of Sensitivity to Ideological Radicalization (Isir-14) in a Mexican Sample
The paradoxical effects of PVE programs
Mere exposure to conspiracy theories
Understanding (non)involvement in terrorist violence
Power of the network and power from the network
Group responses to deviance
Fairy Tales in War and Conflict
Radicalized Mainstream
Two Sources of Alienation from Society
Extremism and Radicalisation. A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence for Personality, Quest for Significance, Spirituality and Intolerance of Uncertainty
Integrating insights into radicalization
Frustration–aggression hypothesis reconsidered
The (not so) vicious cycle of national narcissism
Motivational underpinnings of support for radical political leaders
Ambition‐driven aggression in response to significance‐threatening frustration
Two wrongs is what makes it more right
Perceiving others as responsive lessens prejudice
Support for Research on Violent Extremism Can Save Lives
To Cancel or Not to Cancel. That Is the Question. The Role of Quest for Significance and Significance Loss in Cancel Culture
Romantic Relationships as a Source of Significance
Fear of being single and extreme behaviors aimed at finding a romantic partner
Studiare la radicalizzazione jihadista
The Quest for Significance and Mattering
Meaningfulness of Work for People Participating in Individual Placement and Support
Longitudinal effects of helping war refugees on intergroup threat and fear of war
Undermining the experience of task‐related success by illegitimate tasks
We had a lot of fun
A threat-complexity hypothesis of conspiracy thinking during the Covid-19 pandemic
Unsorted Significance
Continuities in social research
Despotism, Social Evolution, and Differential Reproduction
The Psychology of Extremism
Advances In Experimental Social Psychology
Frustration and aggression.
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
The nature and function of self-esteem
The Burden of Stigma on Health and Well-Being
Person–Organization Fit, Job Choice Decisions, and Organizational Entry
A theory of goal systems
Ostracism
Groups as epistemic providers
Religiosity, Social Self-Esteem, and Psychological Adjustment
Symbolic Self-Completion, Attempted Influence, and Self-Deprecation
Social Acceptance and Rejection
Ostracism
I. The frustration-aggression hypothesis.
Self-esteem and Psychological Well-being
The People Make the Place
Responses to Social Exclusion
Power, approach, and inhibition.
Self-discrepancy
The Psychology of Self-Affirmation
Stigma
The achievement motive.
Summing Up
Life Histories, Blood Revenge, and Warfare in a Tribal Population
Group members' reactions to opinion deviates and conformists at varying degrees of proximity to decision deadline and of environmental noise
The Psychology of Self‐defense
The Three Pillars of Radicalization
Extremism and the Psychology of Uncertainty
Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
When Beliefs Yield to Evidence
Beyond the Debate
Secure Versus Fragile High Self‐Esteem as a Predictor of Verbal Defensiveness
Stereotyping and its threat are real
Status Dynamics
Group Cohesiveness
Is the desire for status a fundamental human motive? A review of the empirical literature
What a difference two years make
Culture and getting to yes
On the relation between social class and prejudice
Social Support, Dissent and Conformity
Rebel with a Cause
Prejudice as self-image maintenance
Human status criteria
Significant others and contingencies of self-worth
Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together
The motivational looking glass
Self-esteem depends on the beholder
Beyond pleasure and pain
Terrorism—A (self) love story
A Theory of Social Comparison Processes
Deradicalizing Detained Terrorists
The Psychology of Radicalization and Deradicalization
Fully Committed
Quest for Significance and Violent Extremism
It Runs in the Family
Effects of social exclusion on cognitive processes
Does power corrupt
Superstars and me
The psychology of martyrdom
Identity fusion and self-sacrifice
The road to extremism
Contingencies of Self-Worth in College Students
When opportunity knocks
Defensive Zeal and the Uncertain Self
Increasing the salience of one's best selves can undermine inspiration by outstanding role models
Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations
Mass shootings and the salience of guns as means of compensation for thwarted goals
Frustration-affirmation? Thwarted goals motivate compliance with social norms for violence and nonviolence
Hunting, social status and biological fitness
The Social Psychology of Stigma
The meaning in life questionnaire
Why do good hunters have higher reproductive success
Commitment and Social Organization
An Analysis of Sect Development
Groups Reward Individual Sacrifice
Deviation, rejection, and communication
A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgment
The Costly Pursuit of Self-Esteem
Radicalism and the Organization of Radical Movements
Reference groups, membership groups, and attitude change
The devoted actor's will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict
Political conservatism as motivated social cognition
The need to belong
Greedy Organisations
On Cultural and Reproductive Success
Gun Control in the Crosshairs
Conceptualizing Stigma
Culture Wars and Covid-19 Conduct
Make America Christian Again
The Devoted Actor
The Pentecostalist Minister
Hunting Ability and Reproductive Success Among Male Ache Foragers
When Morality Opposes Justice
| Unique citing works | 61 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 12,2 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 61 |