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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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Landau, M. J., Kosloff, S., & Schmeichel, B. J. (2010) · Self and Identity · doi:10.1080/15298860903557243 · Cited by 40
Dark Knights: When and Why an Employee Becomes a Workplace Vigilante
DeCelles, K. A., & Aquino, K. F. (2019) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.2017.0300 · Cited by 36
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Taylor, N., & Noseworthy, T. J. (2019) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1002/jcpy.1127 · Cited by 41
Whatever Happened to "What Might Have Been"?
King, L. A., & Hicks, J. A. (2007) · Cited by 35
Loss of Control and Self-Regulation: The Role of Childhood Lessons
VanBergen, N., & Laran, J. (2016) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1093/jcr/ucw042 · Cited by 37
“We propose a process we call socialization compensation, whereby the perceived violation of lessons associated with a goal (e.g., low personal control) will trigger a compensatory process (Heine, Proulx, and Vohs 2006; Kim and Gal 2014).”
MethodBeyond terror: Towards a paradigm shift in the study of threat and culture
Martin, L. L., & van den Bos, K. (2014) · European Review of Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/10463283.2014.923144 · Cited by 76
Threat-Compensation in Social Psychology: Is There a Core Motivation?
Proulx, T. (2012) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.2012.30.6.643 · Cited by 35
Self-citationBrannon, S. M., Sacchi, D. L. M., & Gawronski, B. (2017) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2016.12.011 · Cited by 35
Adam‐Troian, J., Baidada, O., Arciszewski, T., Apostolidis, T., Çelebi, E. Y., & Yurtbakan, T. (2019) · Aggressive Behavior · doi:10.1002/ab.21863 · Cited by 41
Compensatory routes to object attachment
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Consequences of Cultural Fluency
Mourey, J. A., Lam, B. C. P., & Oyserman, D. (2015) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.2015.33.4.308 · Cited by 36
Soutter, A. K., Gilmore, A. M., & O’Steen, B. (2010) · Journal of Happiness Studies · doi:10.1007/s10902-010-9219-5 · Cited by 47
Death anxiety in persons with HIV/AIDS: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Miller, A. K., Lee, B. L., & Henderson, C. E. (2012) · Death Studies · doi:10.1080/07481187.2011.604467 · Cited by 52
“Alternately, creative interventions focused on DA in particular might be crafted around the advanced state of knowledge on successful defenses to mortality salience, including enhancing self-relational meaning representations alternate to the threat (ie, fluid compensation; Heine, Proulx, & Vohs, 2006 ) and amplifying…”
BackgroundEmotionally extreme life experiences are more meaningful
Murphy, S. C., & Bastian, B. B. (2019) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2019.1639795 · Cited by 40
Affirming belief in scientific progress reduces environmentally friendly behaviour
Meijers, M. H. C., & Rutjens, B. T. (2014) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2009 · Cited by 42
Rutjens, B. T., van Harreveld, F., van der Pligt, J., van Elk, M., & Pyszczynski, T. (2014) · International Journal for the Psychology of Religion · doi:10.1080/10508619.2014.990345 · Cited by 36
“…triggers a need for existential comfort (e.g., Rutjens & Loseman, 2010; Shepherd, Kay, Landau, & Keefer, 2011, but see Fritsche et al., 2008; Heine et al., 2006), and so the current findings suggest that a belief in social-moral progress has qualitatively different psychological functions…”
Gal, D. (2015) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9781107706552.010 · Cited by 36
Lischetzke, T., Izydorczyk, D., Hüller, C., & Appel, M. (2017) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2017.02.001 · Cited by 36
“We’re not scum, we’re human”: Agential responses in the face of meaningless work
Bailey, C., & Madden, A. (2019) · Scandinavian Journal of Management · doi:10.1016/j.scaman.2019.101064 · Cited by 34
Ratner, K., Burrow, A. L., Burd, K. A., & Hill, P. L. (2019) · Applied Developmental Science · doi:10.1080/10888691.2019.1659140 · Cited by 40
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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