Evidence of mortality salience and psychological defenses in bottled water campaigns
Abstract
Environmental campaigns provide information to encourage people to alter their behaviors but with mixed success. Terror Management Theory (TMT)—and the influence of mortality reminders—offers a useful framework for understanding environmentally significant behaviors, and provides critical insights for developing more effective environmental communications. TMT indicators guided our analysis of Canadian corporate, pro-bottled water advertising, and public, anti-bottled water campaigns. We found that pro-bottled water advertisements had a greater capacity to manage death anxieties because they better support the audiences' self-esteem, provide the audience with opportunities to engage in worldview defense, and symbolically extend the consumers' perceived lifespan.
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- Authors
- Cote, S., & Wolfe, S. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Waterloo (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Wolfe, S. E.
- Venue
- Applied Environmental Education & Communication
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2017-12-05
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 281-298
- ISSN
- 1533-015X (ISSN-L)
- 1533-0389
- OpenAlex
- W2774844778
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 0.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Applied Environmental Education & Communication (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
- Keywords
- mortality salience, terror management theory, environmental campaigns, fear of death, worldview defense, self-esteem, lifespan extension, environmental communication, consumer behavior change
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