Mortality salience effects fail to replicate in traditional and novel measures
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Abstract
Mortality salience (MS) effects, where death reminders lead to ingroup-bias and defensive protection of one’s world-view, have been claimed to be a fundamental human motivator. MS phenomena have ostensibly been identified in several hundred studies within the “terror management theory” framework, but transparent and high-powered replications are lacking. Experiment 1 (N = 101 Norwegian lab participants) aimed to replicate the traditional MSeffect on national patriotism, with additional novel measures of democratic values and pro-sociality. Experiment2 (N = 784 US online participants) aimed to replicate the MS effect on national patriotism in a larger sample, with ingroup identification and pro-sociality as additional outcome measures. The results showed that neither experiment replicated the traditional MS effect on national patriotism. The experiments also failed to support conceptual replications and underlying mechanisms on democratic values, processing speed, psychophysiological responses, ingroup identification, and pro-sociality. This indicates that the effect of death reminders is less robust and generalizable than previously assumed.
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These null findings add to a growing list of recent TMT studies that failed to replicate basic MS effects in reasonable, or even ideal, conditions.
“These null findings add to a growing list of recent TMT studies that failed to replicate basic MS effects in reasonable, or even ideal, conditions [47–50].”
From Not so terrifying after all? A set of failed replications of the mortality salience effects of Terror Management Theory (2023) · cites this paper as [47]
There have long been failures to replicate some of the basic effects seen in the TMT literature.
“There have also long been failures to replicate some of the basic effects seen in TMT literature [e.g., Ochsman, personal communication, cited in 27], even with meticulous methods, faithful experimental conditions, and enviable sample sizes [31, 32, 47–50].”
From Not so terrifying after all? A set of failed replications of the mortality salience effects of Terror Management Theory (2023) · cites this paper as [47]
Other failures to replicate also included young and/or undergraduate samples.
“However, other failures to replicate also included young and/or undergraduate samples [47–50].”
From Not so terrifying after all? A set of failed replications of the mortality salience effects of Terror Management Theory (2023) · cites this paper as [47]
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Schindler, S., Reinhardt, N., & Reinhard, M.-A. (2021) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104087 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Sætrevik, B., & Sjåstad, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Bergen (NO)
- Norwegian School of Economics (NO)
- Venue
- Meta-Psychology
- Publisher
- Linnaeus University
- Published
- 2022-01-17
- Volume
- 6
- ISSN
- 2003-2714 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4220934489
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 2 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 3.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- Meta-Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Keywords
- mortality salience, terror management theory, replication failure, national patriotism, ingroup identification, prosocial behavior, democratic values, death reminders, processing speed, psychophysiological responses, conceptual replication
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