The DOI matches its Crossref record; 181 of the 181 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Meaning Maintenance Model: On the Coherence of Social Motivations
Abstract
The meaning maintenance model (MMM) proposes that people have a needfor meaning; that is, a need to perceive events through a prism of mental representations of expected relations that organizes their perceptions of the world. When people's sense of meaning is threatened, they reaffirm alternative representations as a way to regain meaning-a process termedfluid compensation. According to the model, people can reaffirm meaning in domains that are differentfrom the domain in which the threat occurred. Evidenceforfluid compensation can be observed following a variety of psychological threats, including most especially threats to the self, such as self-esteem threats, feelings of uncertainty, interpersonal rejection, and mortality salience. People respond to these diverse threats in highly similar ways, which suggests that a range of psychological motivations are expressions of a singular impulse to generate and maintain a sense of meaning.
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“The creation and maintenance of meaning comprises a sense of self-continuity, a connection between the self, others and the environment (Baumeister and Vohs, 2002; Heine et al., 2006), and the feeling that one’s existence matters.”
From Collective Trauma and the Social Construction of Meaning (2018) · cites this paper as Heine et al., 2006
In the citing paper
“When a sense of meaning is threatened, the individual may compensate for an inability to reach one set of goals by shifting effort toward another set (known as fluid compensation; Heine et al., 2006; Proulx, 2012).”
From Extension of the Transdiagnostic Model to Focus on Intolerance of Uncertainty: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Treatment (2014) · cites this paper as Heine et al., 2006
In the citing paper
“Heine, Proulx, and Vohs (2006) proposed that the superordinate goal of humans is to generate a life with meaning.”
From Extension of the Transdiagnostic Model to Focus on Intolerance of Uncertainty: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Treatment (2014) · cites this paper as Heine, Proulx, and Vohs, 2006
In the citing paper
“Psychological models, such as the uncertainty-identity theory [156], meaning maintenance model [157], and compensatory control theory [158,159], have elaborated on how the defensive need to alleviate uncertainty leads to group identification, ideological inflexibility, and dogmatism.”
From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [157]
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BackgroundInfluentialKay, A. C., Laurin, K., Fitzsimons, G. M., & Landau, M. J. (2014) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/a0034462 · Cited by 93
“…evidence in support of a range of current theories positing a functional account to the apparent motivation to seek out and preserve beliefs in structure (e.g., Heine et al., 2006; Kay et al., 2008; Landau, Sullivan, Keefer, Rothschild, & Osman, 2012; Proulx, Inzlicht, & Harmon-Jones, 2012).”
BackgroundWhy Religion’s Burdens Are Light: From Religiosity to Implicit Self-Regulation
Koole, S. L., McCullough, M. E., Kuhl, J., & Roelofsma, P. H. M. P. (2010) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868309351109 · Cited by 130
Narrative transportation: How stories shape how we see ourselves and the world
Green, M. C., & Appel, M. (2024) · Advances in experimental social psychology · doi:10.1016/bs.aesp.2024.03.002 · Cited by 133
Different Groups, Different Motives
Easterbrook, M. J., & Vignoles, V. L. (2012) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167212444614 · Cited by 104
Stillman, T. F., Lambert, N. M., Fincham, F. D., & Baumeister, R. F. (2010) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550610378382 · Cited by 94
Nash, K. A., McGregor, I., & Prentice, M. S. (2011) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0025944 · Cited by 89
Koole, S. L., Tjew-A-Sin, M., & Schneider, I. K. (2013) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797613483478 · Cited by 89
Newman, D. B., & Nezlek, J. B. (2017) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2017.06.039 · Cited by 88
Protective Gun Ownership as a Coping Mechanism
Buttrick, N. R. (2020) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691619898847 · Cited by 89
“When that questioning happens, one’s sense of meaning may be lowered, which has been theorized to lead to self-regulatory attempts to increase meaning (Heine, Proulx, & Vohs, 2006; Heintzelman & King, 2014a; C. L. Park, 2010; Proulx & Inzlicht, 2012; Tullett, Teper, & Inzlicht, 2011).”
BackgroundVess, M., Arndt, J., Cox, C. R., Routledge, C., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2009) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0015545 · Cited by 87
Sublimation, culture, and creativity.
Kim, E., Zeppenfeld, V. A., & Cohen, D. (2013) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0033487 · Cited by 90
It’s not your fault: The social costs of claiming discrimination on behalf of someone else
Eliezer, D., & Major, B. (2012) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430211432894 · Cited by 88
Stitching time: Vintage consumption connects the past, present, and future
Sarial‐Abi, G., Vohs, K. D., Hamilton, R., & Ulqinaku, A. (2016) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2016.06.004 · Cited by 86
“Damaging one's self-esteem (Tesser, 2000), undermining the certainty of one's beliefs or understanding (Heine et al., 2006), diminishing one's relationships with others (White, Argo, & Sengupta, 2012), and contemplating one's eventual death (Greenberg, Solomon, & Arndt, 2008) have all been found to threaten meaning fr…”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSelf-citationHogg, M. A. (2021) · Advances in experimental social psychology · doi:10.1016/bs.aesp.2021.04.004 · Cited by 86
Molden, D. C., & Higgins, E. T. (2012) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734689.013.0020 · Cited by 86
Hirschberger, G., Ein‐Dor, T., Leidner, B., & Saguy, T. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01877 · Cited by 85
“…December 2016 | Volume 7 | Article 1877 the literature to consider more than one, singular existential threat (e.g., the meaning maintenance model; Heine et al., 2006), which enables a more nuanced understanding of the role of threat in political conflict (Rovenpor et al., 2016), to date, a…”
BackgroundForgiveness Increases Meaning in Life
Tongeren, D. R. V., Green, J. D., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., Davis, J. L., & Ramos, M. J. (2014) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550614541298 · Cited by 86
“Previous approaches have highlighted the importance of relationship quality in providing meaning (Van Tongeren et al., 2014), suggesting that perhaps the value of relationships may serve as a proxy for meaningfulness (Heine et al., 2006).”
BackgroundInfluentialConsequence-Cause Matching: Looking to the Consequences of Events to Infer Their Causes
LeBoeuf, R. A., & Norton, M. I. (2012) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/662372 · Cited by 85
“Thus, although prior research suggests that consequences of an event may influence perceptions of that event (see also Baron and Hershey 1988; Hoch and Loewenstein 1989; Rozin and Stellar 2009), still unknown is whether people allow incidental, arbitrarily determined consequences of an event to…”
BackgroundPrayer, self-affirmation, and distraction improve recovery from short-term ostracism
Hales, A. H., Wesselmann, E. D., & Williams, K. D. (2016) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2016.01.002 · Cited by 92
Randles, D., Proulx, T., & Heine, S. J. (2010) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.07.020 · Cited by 85
Self-citationDeath, Life, Scarcity, and Value: An Alternative Perspective on the Meaning of Death
King, L. A., Hicks, J. A., & Abdelkhalik, J. (2009) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02466.x · Cited by 83
The Frog in Kierkegaard’s Beer: Finding Meaning in the Threat‐Compensation Literature
Proulx, T., & Heine, S. J. (2010) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00304.x · Cited by 88
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Heine, S. J., Proulx, T., & Vohs, K. D.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2006-05
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 88-110
- ISSN
- 1088-8683 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7957
- OpenAlex
- W2156155183
- Cited by
- 1,437
- References
- 180
- Citations by year
- 2026: 108 · 2025: 106 · 2024: 92 · 2023: 90 · 2022: 101 · 2021: 100 · 2020: 123 · 2019: 86 · 2018: 60 · 2017: 73 · 2016: 62 · 2015: 74 · 2014: 75 · 2013: 72 · 2012: 61
- FWCI
- 2.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01mh060155-04)
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH060155-01A2)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Keywords
- need for meaning, psychological threat, self-esteem threat, uncertainty, interpersonal rejection, mortality salience, social motivation, meaning maintenance
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Motivation, Self Concept, Semantics, Social Behavior, Symbolism
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