From the Grave to the Cradle
Evidence That Mortality Salience Engenders a Desire for Offspring
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6202991 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Arnaud Wisman (0000-0002-7197-9207, University of Kent), Jamie L Goldenberg (0000-0003-0097-094X, University of South Florida) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 46-61 |
| Publication date | 2005-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/0022-3514.89.1.46 |
| PMID | 16060742 |
| OpenAlex | W2138678018 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 53 |
| References cited | 75 |
On the basis of terror management theory, the authors hypothesized that reminders of mortality (mortality salience) should promote the desire for offspring to the extent that it does not conflict with other self-relevant worldviews that also serve to manage existential concerns. In 3 studies, men, but not women, desired more children after mortality salience compared with various control conditions. In support of the authors' hypothesis that women's desire for offspring was inhibited as a function of concerns about career success, Study 3 showed that career strivings moderated the effect of mortality salience on a desire for offspring for female participants only; furthermore, Study 4 revealed that when the compatibility of having children and a career was made salient, female participants responded to mortality salience with an increased number of desired children. Taken together, the findings suggest that a desire for offspring can function as a terror management defense mechanism
Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Existentialism · Mortality salience · Offspring · Salience (neuroscience) · Terror management theory · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology
Supernatural Beliefs, Unconscious Threat and Judgment Bias in Tibetan Buddhists
The Reproductive Ecology of Industrial Societies, Part II
Toward a greater understanding of the emotional dynamics of the mortality salience manipulation
Unconscious vigilance
Threat and Defense
When Death is Good for Life
Thirty Years of Terror Management Theory
The behavioural constellation of deprivation
Two Decades of Terror Management Theory
Mortality salience shifts moral judgment
“Love Over Fear”
Understanding terror states of online users in the context of Covid-19
The Terror Management Function of Descendent Continuity
Familial Self as a Potent Source of Affirmation
Life after death
The Case of Pre‐24 February 2022 Ukrainian Migrants and War Refugees in Poland
Religious Fundamentalism and Terror Management
The Postself and Terror Management Theory
Beyond Death’s (and Conception’s) Door
Death Awareness, Maternal Separation Anxiety, and Attachment Style Among First-Time Mothers—A Terror Management Perspective
Apocalypse now
Psychological Defenses Against Death Anxiety
Terror management theory in action during a realtime mortality salience experience
Long live A(me)rica! An examination of the interplay between nationalistic–symbolic immortality striving and belief in life after death
Terror management and adults' attachment to their parents
Toward Understanding the Fame Game
Religious Fundamentalism and Terror Management
Death and Love Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic”
Effect of childbearing deadline on women’s wanted fertility
Mortality salience, religiosity, and indefinite life extension
Beyond terror
Applying terror management theory as a framework to understand the impact of heightened mortality salience on children, adolescents, and their parents
Encounters with offspring help terminally ill adult patients cope with death anxiety
The effect of mortality salience on weapon bias
Mortality salience and namesaking
Fear of death mediates ostracism distress and the moderating role of attachment internal working models
Self‐transcendence as a psychological parenthood motive
Romantic love versus reproduction opportunities
The Ultimate Resistance
The role of mortality awareness in heroic enactment
Mortality salience and the desire for offspring
Perceived collective continuity and ingroup identification as defence against death awareness
Viewing leisure as wasteful undermines enjoyment
Boredom Increases Impulsiveness
Mortality perceptions in the context of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis
Why Does Ingroup Identification Shield People from Death Anxiety
No Country for Old Men
The Reproductive Ecology of Industrial Societies, Part I
Familial Deaths and First Birth
The Effects of Death Reminders on Sex Differences in Prejudice Toward Gay Men and Lesbians
Fertility Preferences and Cognition
A Little Piece of Me
Effects of Uncertainty and Mortality Salience on Worldview Defense Reactions in Turkey
The embarrassment of riches
The family, society, and the individual
Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences
In the wake of 9/11
Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews
Belief in Supernatural Agents in the Face of Death
A Terror Management Theory of Social Behavior
Subliminal Exposure to Death-Related Stimuli Increases Defense of the Cultural Worldview
Life course transitions and natural disaster
A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts
Mortality salience and the spreading activation of worldview-relevant constructs
The Existential Function of Close Relationships
Evolutionary Social Psychology and Family Homicide
Toward a Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model of Social Behavior
Childhood Experience, Interpersonal Development, and Reproductive Strategy
The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I
The Psychology of Self-Affirmation
A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects.
White Weddings
The attraction paradigm
Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect
Infertility and psychological distress
Women's Employment and Family Relations
Age and gender differences in college students' attitudes toward women
Belief in afterlife as a moderator of fear of death
Terror management and the vicissitudes of sports fan affiliation
Is there an innate need for children
Understanding human ambivalence about sex
Attachment, Self-Esteem, Worldviews, and Terror Management
Basking in reflected glory
Terror management and tolerance
Evidence for terror management theory II
Strategies for coping with infertility
Evidence for terror management theory
Literal and symbolic immortality
Changes in U.S. Men's Attitudes Toward the Family Provider Role, 1972-1989
The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research
The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research
Role of consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortality salience effects
Suppression, accessibility of death-related thoughts, and cultural worldview defense
Effect of induced fear of death on belief in afterlife
The impact of mortality salience on reckless driving
Terror management and aggression
Derogation and distancing as terror management strategies
Sharing of home responsibilities between professionally employed women and their husbands
Hiding in the crowd
Death, sex, love, and neuroticism
Symbolic immortality and the management of the terror of death
When a child dies
Fear of death and the judgment of social transgressions
To belong or not to belong, that is the question
The Family, Society, and the Individual
Sociobiology
Changing Attitudes toward Family Issues in the United States
The Personal and Marital Adjustment of Mothers and of Voluntarily and Involuntarily Childless Wives
Family Employment Status and Gender Role Attitudes
Attitudes Toward Women's Familial Roles
Gender And Elder Care In China
Satisfaction With Work and Family Life
| Unique citing works | 53 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,65 |
| Citation span | 2006 - 2026 (21) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 49 |