social-psychological outcomes of contemplating mortality
Psychological Science 22(8) 998 –1000 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0956797611415542 http://pss.sagepub.com
Blood donation is an important expression of prosocial behav- ior in modern society. The extent to which thinking about death increases intentions to donate blood is the focus of the experiment reported in this article.
The dual-existential-systems model (Cozzolino, 2006) explores the social-psychological outcomes of contemplating mortality. Drawing on evidence from dual-process models (Deutsch & Strack, 2006) and particularly on the differentia- tion between abstract and specific cognitive processes (Mar- solek, 1999), Cozzolino (2006) posited that thoughts about death activate two distinct systems: the abstract existential system and the specific existential system. As the names sug- gest, the former system is activated by abstract thoughts about death, and the latter by specific and individuated thoughts (i.e., focusing on the circumstances surrounding death: details of how, when, and where). These two systems induce different cognitive, motivational, and behavioral outcomes.
The proposal for the abstract existential system is based on terror management theory (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solo- mon, 1986), which claims that desire for survival conflicts with awareness of death, creating the potential for overwhelm- ing terror. To defend against this terror, individuals endorse and adhere to cultural worldviews (i.e., social beliefs or norms), which provide a sense of meaning, enhance self- esteem, and buffer death anxiety. Research supporting this theory has relied on mortality-salience (MS) manipulations (e.g., asking participants to respond to two open-ended ques- tions about death). This research has demonstrated that such exposure to abstract, “subtle reminders of death” (Pyszczyn- ski, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt, & Schimel, 2004, p. 439) motivates defensiveness and adherence to salient social norms (Gailliot, Stillman, Schmeichel, Maner, & Plant, 2008).
Mortality awareness is far from subtle or abstract, however, for individuals who are actually facing life-threatening situations and are acutely aware of how and when they may die. Research on posttraumatic growth (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004) and near- death experiences (Ring, 1984) has demonstrated that specific and individuated awareness of mortality can generate growth- oriented processes that involve strengthening the self and repri- oritizing worldviews. Indeed, Cozzolino Staples, Meyers, and
Samboceti (2004) found that a death-reflection (DR) manipula- tion, in which participants first imagined dying in an apartment fire and then responded to four open-ended questions related to this scenario (see the Supplemental Material available online), had such effects. Content analyses revealed that participants wrote more about individuated experiences of the self, and less about abstract worldviews, after the DR manipulation than after an MS manipulation (Cozzolino et al., 2004). Additionally, par- ticipants in DR conditions have demonstrated reduced greed, heightened spirituality, and enhanced gratitude compared with participants in MS conditions (Cozzolino et al., 2004; Frias, Wat- kins, Webber, & Froh, 2011).
In other studies, participants who experienced an MS manipulation donated more money to charities than did con- trol participants (Hirschberger, Ein-Dor, & Almakias, 2008; Jonas, Schimel, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2002). However, because MS generates an aversion to physicality (Goldenberg, 2005), participants in the MS condition donated less to organ- donation charities than did control participants (Hirschberger et al., 2008). Despite this aversion, we predicted that partici- pants who experienced an MS manipulation would intend to donate blood when the need was high, to satisfy desires to adhere to cultural expectations. In contrast, a previous study of greed (Cozzolino et al., 2004) demonstrated that participants in a DR condition evidenced less selfishness than participants in an MS condition regardless of how much they endorsed cul- turally prescribed values of pursuing wealth. Thus, we pre- dicted that a DR manipulation would increase intentions to donate blood irrespective of perceived need for blood.
Method Ninety individuals (31 male, 59 female; ages 17–76 years, M = 41.90, SD = 15.15) were recruited in a British town center and randomly assigned to a DR, MS, or control condition.
Corresponding Author: Laura E. R. Blackie, University of Essex, Department of Psychology, Wivenhoe Park, Cochester CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom E-mail: lblack@essex.ac.uk
Of Blood and Death: A Test of Dual- Existential Systems in the Context of Prosocial Intentions
Laura E. R. Blackie and Philip J. Cozzolino University of Essex
Received 2/16/11; Revision accepted 4/28/11
Short Report
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Death Awareness and Prosocial Intentions 999
Participants in the DR condition imagined the fire scenario described earlier and then answered four open-ended ques- tions related to this experience. Participants in the MS condi- tion answered two open-ended questions about death, whereas participants in the control condition answered two open-ended questions about a visit to the dentist. After a standard delay task, participants read one of two articles purportedly from the BBC News. One article reported that blood donations were “at record highs,” and thus the need for blood was low; the second article reported that donations were “at record lows,” and thus the need was high. Participants were then offered a pamphlet guaranteeing fast registration at a local center seeking dona- tions that day. They were told that pamphlets were in short supply, and to take one only if they actually intended to donate. Thus, the dependent measure, which represented intentions to donate blood, was binary (pamphlet taken or refused). (For additional methodological details on the three conditions and the delay task, see the Supplemental Material.)
Results Conducting a logistic regression, we coded “took pamphlet” as 1 (n = 45) and “refused pamphlet” as 0 (n = 45) and dummy- coded the condition variable, comparing the MS and DR con- ditions in the first variable (MS1) and the MS and control conditions in the second (MS2). Controlling for participants’ past blood-donation behavior, we regressed the pamphlet vari- able onto MS1, MS2, article (high vs. low need for blood), and the interactions. This analysis revealed significant interactions (see Fig. 1) between article and MS1 (b = 2.51, p < .05, odds ratio = 12.29) and between article and MS2 (b = 2.97, p < .05, odds ratio = 19.55). Probing each level of the moderator (Hayes & Matthes, 2009) revealed that participants in the MS and DR conditions did not differ in intentions to donate blood when the need for blood was high (p = .58). However, when
the need was low, participants in the DR condition demon- strated greater intentions to donate than did participants in the MS condition (b = 2.94, p < .01). Participants in the MS condi- tion demonstrated greater intentions to donate blood compared with control participants only when the need was high (b = 2.78, p < .05). A third dummy variable comparing the control and DR conditions revealed only an effect of condition, as par- ticipants in the DR condition expressed greater intentions to donate blood compared with control participants regardless of social need (b = 3.20, p < .01, odds ratio = 24.52).
Discussion Our results are consistent with research demonstrating that MS generates an aversion to bodily fluids (Goldenberg et al., 2001) and organ donation (Hirschberger et al., 2008), as participants in the MS condition evidenced little intention to donate blood when the social need was low. Despite this aversion, partici- pants in this condition showed increased intentions to donate blood when the sociocultural value of the behavior was salient (Gailliot et al., 2008). Although we did not include a nonphysi- cality condition, MS has been shown to increase prosociality when the body is not salient (Hirschberger et al., 2008); thus, the effect of need on intentions to donate blood in the MS condition strongly suggests that the physicality of blood donation played a key role in shaping the behavior of participants in this condi- tion. In contrast, contemplating mortality in a specific and indi- viduated manner (DR) heightened participants’ intentions to donate blood regardless of the need for blood. Of course, it is unlikely that DR manipulations enhance prosociality uncondi- tionally; for example, lower levels of prosociality among par- ticipants who experience a DR manipulation might be seen when the value of the behavior is not linked to a specific out- come (e.g., broad donation appeals). Although we do not know if our participants actually donated blood, our study demon- strates that thinking about death can increase prosocial inten- tions, especially when the expectation of helping is emphasized via broad social and cultural appeals (e.g., in the media).
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.
Supplemental Material
Additional supporting information may be found at http://pss .sagepub.com/content/by/supplemental-data
References
Cozzolino, P. J. (2006). Death contemplation, growth, and defense: Converging evidence of dual-existential systems? Psychological Inquiry, 17, 278–287.
Cozzolino, P. J., Staples, A. D., Meyers, L. S., & Samboceti, J. (2004). Greed, death, and values: From terror management to transcen- dence management theory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 278–292.
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