Mortality Salience and Worldview Affirmation Strengthen Support for Foreign Products
Abstract
Research in terror management theory shows that, when reminded of their own death, people experience an elevated need to feel secure in their cultural worldview. This effect has consequences for consumer behavior. One unexplored possibility is that a worldview-affirming prime will buffer anxiety and actually increase willingness to purchase products representative of a foreign worldview after a death reminder. In our study, we first induced mortality or failure salience in 137 Austrian residents. Participants then read a diary entry about a holiday spent either in the mountains of Austria or in foreign countries. Finally, we measured willingness to pay a higher price for a local (“Fair Milk”) versus a foreign product (“fair trade”). Analyses showed that following mortality salience (compared to failure salience) the worldview-affirming prime (a diary entry about Austrian culture) uniquely increased willingness to pay higher prices for foreign products.
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Several studies within the consumer domain focused on worldview primes, such as social norms, worldview affirmation, or the presence of karma, with mixed results.
“Several studies within the consumer domain focused on this by including primes related to world views, such as different (social) norms (Fritsche et al. 2010; Jonas et al. 2013), worldview affirmation (Sullivan et al. 2011), or the presence of karma (Chen et al. 2019), with mixed results.”
From Terror Management Theory in the Consumer Domain: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis on Mortality Salience Driven Consumer Responses (2025) · cites this paper as Sullivan et al. 2011
Cites
Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Rosenblatt, A., Veeder, M., Kirkland, S., & Lyon, D. (1990) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.58.2.308 · Cited by 1,412 · see citing works
The Urge to Splurge: A Terror Management Account of Materialism and Consumer Behavior
Arndt, J., Solomon, S., Kasser, T., & Sheldon, K. M. (2004) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15327663jcp1403_2 · Cited by 463 · see citing works
The Scrooge Effect: Evidence that mortality salience increases prosocial attitudes and behavior
Jonas, E., Schimel, J., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2002) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/014616702236834 · Cited by 420 · see citing works
Self-citationJonas, E., Martens, A., Niesta Kayser, D., Fritsche, I., Sullivan, D., & Greenberg, J. (2008) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0013593 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
General and personal mortality salience and nationalistic bias
Nelson, L. J., Moore, D. L., Olivetti, J., & Scott, T. (1997) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167297238008 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Jonas, E., Fritsche, I., & Greenberg, J. (2005) · Journal of Economic Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.joep.2004.02.003 · Cited by 68 · cited 2× · see citing works
“It is also possible that a nonstudent sample is necessary to observe mortality salience-induced preference for local products, as has been the case in prior research (Jonas et al., 2005).”
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Jonas, E., McGregor, I., Klackl, J., Agroskin, D., Fritsche, I., Holbrook, C., Nash, K., Proulx, T., & Quirin, M. (2014) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-800052-6.00004-4 · Cited by 447 · see citing works
Self-citationJonas, E., & Fritsche, I. (2013) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/a0033052 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Self-citationCox, C. R., Darrell, A., & Arrowood, R. B. (2019) · Handbook of Terror Management Theory · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-811844-3.00004-4 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Consumer Culture as Worldview Defense
Fransen, M. L., Arendsen, J., & Das, E. (2019) · Handbook of Terror Management Theory · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-811844-3.00020-2 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Economic and Psychological Determinants of Consumer Behavior
Kirchler, E., & Hoelzl, E. (2011) · Zeitschrift für Psychologie · doi:10.1027/2151-2604/a000072 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Arendsen, J. L., Brugman, B. C., van Koningsbruggen, G. M., & Fransen, M. L. (2025) · International Journal of Consumer Studies · doi:10.1111/ijcs.70056 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“Sullivan et al. (2011) predicted a positive interaction effect be-tween MS and a worldview affirmation prime on willingness to pay for foreign products.”
The Cycle of Intergroup Conflict
Reiß, S., & Jonas, E. (2019) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-811844-3.00019-6 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Sullivan, D., Jonas, E., & Jodlbauer, B.
- Affiliations
- University of Kansas (US)
- University of Salzburg (AT)
- Venue
- Zeitschrift für Psychologie
- Publisher
- Hogrefe Publishing Group
- Published
- 2011-01
- Volume
- 219
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 224-230
- ISSN
- 0044-3409 (ISSN-L)
- 2190-8370
- 2151-2604
- OpenAlex
- W2059904656
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 1.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Zeitschrift für Psychologie (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Keywords
- mortality salience, terror management theory, foreign products, willingness to pay, consumer behavior, cultural worldview, fair trade
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