When the reaper becomes a salesman: The influence of terror management on product preferences

“Surprise occurs in reaction to unexpected stimuli, or those that deviate from the status quo (e.g., Kahneman & Miller, 1986).”

“…underlies the stronger materialistic tendencies following a death prime (proposed by Arndt et al., 2004), and an urge to reduce anxiety by adhering to one’s cultural worldview (which is a general prediction of TMT; Greenberg et al., 1986) to underlie the relative preference towards familiar brands.”

“The theory is inspired by seminal anthropologist Ernest Becker (1973), whose tome The Denial of Death led social psychologists Greenberg, Pyszczynski and Solomon (1986) to formulate TMT.”

“The two most prominent defense mechanisms against terror, cited within the TMT literature, are (1) self-esteem striving, and (2) a greater adherence to one’s cultural worldviews (Greenberg et al., 1997).”

“Ever since the conceptualization of bounded rationality by Nobel laureate Herbert Simon (1967), emotional states and unconscious primes are found to be a ubiquitous force in many degrees of social behavior and decision making (Lerner, Li Valdeselo & Kassam, 2015; Bargh, 2002).”

“And because most death cues do not capture focal attention, but instead influence behavior unconsciously (Pyszczynski et al., 1999), the effect of Mortality Salience on openness to new products is likely to be most pronounced for behavior occurring similarly unconscious, automatic and habitual…”

“The PANAS is also widely embraced because it is able to uncover unintended extraneous influences on affect caused by the death prime (PANAS is used by 47.7% of TMT research; Burke et al., 2010).”

“As individuals differ in the range of their daily emotional ebb and flow (Larsen & Diener, 1987; Eaton & Funder, 2001), a study comparing Mortality Salience with a baseline neutral emotional state is desirable.”

“Note that brand familiarity is likely to exert great influence on buying behavior regardless of mortality salience, as it helps to greatly cut down on time and effort as a choice heuristic at the point of purchase (Hoyer & Brown, 1990).”

“Note that all participants clearly favor familiar brands, which is consistent with the well-documented consumer preference for familiarity (Park & Lessig, 1981).”

“For example, thoughts of death could induce a state of powerlessness, which in turn leads participants to “self-medicate” by choosing high-status products that restore their feelings of power (Rucker & Galinsky, 2008).”

“In a similar study conducted during George W. Bush’s presidency, a death prime increased people’s support for Bush as seating president, while decreasing support for his democratic opponent John Kerry (Landau et al., 2004).”

“…death cues do not capture focal attention, but instead influence behavior unconsciously (Pyszczynski et al., 1999), the effect of Mortality Salience on openness to new products is likely to be most pronounced for behavior occurring similarly unconscious, automatic and habitual (Wood & Neal, 2009).”

“by Nobel laureate Herbert Simon (1967), emotional states and unconscious primes are found to be a ubiquitous force in many degrees of social behavior and decision making (Lerner, Li Valdeselo & Kassam, 2015; Bargh, 2002).”

“Page 39 Page 39 research showing that people who are primed with death develop higher expectations about their future income (Kasser and Sheldon, 2000), it could be argued that the same process causes them to bid substantially higher to acquire conspicuous products compared to control participants.”

“by Nobel laureate Herbert Simon (1967), emotional states and unconscious primes are found to be a ubiquitous force in many degrees of social behavior and decision making (Lerner, Li Valdeselo & Kassam, 2015; Bargh, 2002).”

“…Mediation effects We argue that the need to repair self-esteem underlies the stronger materialistic tendencies following a death prime (proposed by Arndt et al., 2004), and an urge to reduce anxiety by adhering to one’s cultural worldview (which is a general prediction of TMT; Greenberg et al.,…”

“High-status products have indeed been found to at least temporarily increase one’s sense of self-worth (Sivanathan & Pettit, 2010).”

“This resonates with the recurrent Terror Management finding that cultural icons are often used to distance oneself from the fear of death (Greenberg et al., 1995), a role that may be naturally fulfilled by the symbolic power of brands (Elliott, 1994).”

“…(Schimel, Simon, Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon & Waxmonsky, 1998), aggression (McCregor, Lieberman, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt & Simon, 1998), health behavior (Goldenberg & Arndt, 2008), selfregulation (Ferraro, Shiv & Bettman, 2005) and even reckless driving (Ben-Ari, Florian & Mikulincer, 1999).”

“Although some first endeavors applied to the ‘buying arena’ have been made (Mandel & Heine, 1999; Ferraro et al., 2005; Fransen, Fennis, Pruyn & Das, 2008), its empirical underpinnings need further rigor to be useful in practice.”

“Unfamiliar products are only disliked when launched by unfamiliar brands, which fits well with the recurring finding that Mortality Salience heightens the need for symbolic meaning and its effects diminish when this meaning comes to surface (Landau et al., 2006).”

“This resonates with the recurrent Terror Management finding that cultural icons are often used to distance oneself from the fear of death (Greenberg et al., 1995), a role that may be naturally fulfilled by the symbolic power of brands (Elliott, 1994).”

“This resonates with the recurrent Terror Management finding that cultural icons are often used to distance oneself from the fear of death (Greenberg et al., 1995), a role that may be naturally fulfilled by the symbolic power of brands (Elliott, 1994).”

“As individuals differ in the range of their daily emotional ebb and flow (Larsen & Diener, 1987; Eaton & Funder, 2001), a study comparing Mortality Salience with a baseline neutral emotional state is desirable.”

“It corroborates earlier findings that mortality salience increases preference for domestic products (Fransen et al., 2008), while further illuminating the symbolic role fulfilled by brands.”

“And this effect ought to be more apparent in cultures that strongly associate consumption with status (e.g., western industrialized societies; Maheswaran & Agrawal, 2004).”

“One way to address this point would be the use of a willingness-to-pay (WTP) measure (Poletiek & Stolker, 2004), where participants indicate the maximum price they would be willing to give in exchange for each product.”

“Likewise, Van Bommel et al. (2015) expected MS to increase the appeal of conspicuous and familiar brands.”

“For example, mortality salience may lead to higher or lower willingness of donation (Gailliot et al., 2008; Jonas et al., 2013 ), as well as the intention of risk taking (Ben-Ari et al., 1999; Bommel et al., 2015 ).”