Self-Consciousness and Death Cognitions from a Terror Management Perspective

Abstract

Two studies explored the connection between self-consciousness and death cognitions. In Study 1 (n = 56), a positive association was found between accessibility of death-related thoughts and the ruminative dimension of self-consciousness. In Study 2 (n = 212), a mortality salience induction led to higher validation of cultural worldviews (a more severe perception of social transgressions) than a control group, but only among individuals with lower self-consciousness, whereas participants characterized by higher self-consciousness did not make increased use of this cultural anxiety buffer. Rather, their naturally heightened death awareness led them to react to social transgressors in a neutral condition in the way usually found only after a mortality salience induction. Gender could not alternatively account for these findings. The results are explained in terms of terror management theory. It is suggested that a high level of self-consciousness may serve as an internal death reminder, leading to greater cultural worldview validation on a regular basis.

Lost in the crowd: Conformity as escape following disbelief in free will

“…Further, we predicted that conformity in response to a meaning threat (e.g., disbelief in free will) is enacted to address the perceived meaninglessness of those threats, in particular at high levels of self-awareness. Perceptions of meaninglessness are sourced in the symbolic self (Carver, 1975;Duval & Wicklund, 1972;Gollwitzer & Wicklund, 1985;Silvia & Duval, 2001;Silvia & Phillips, 2013) and enhanced under conditions of greater self-awareness (Sedikides & Skowronski, 2003;Taubman Ben-Ari & Noy, 2010). We predicted that the proposed indirect effect of disbelief in free will on conformity would be stronger at higher levels of self-awareness (e.g., a conditional indirect effect), in line with previous existential escape literature (Moynihan et al, 2015(Moynihan et al, , 2017b.…”

“…Consistently, perceptions of meaning-threats are enhanced under conditions of greater self-awareness (Sedikides & Skowronski, 2003;Taubman Ben-Ari & Noy, 2010). These discrepancies encourage people to address their adverse self-awareness (e.g., Arndt, Greenberg, Simon, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1998;Carver, 1975;Duval & Wicklund, 1972;Gollwitzer & Wicklund, 1985;Silvia & Duval, 2001;Silvia & Phillips, 2013).…”

“…Perceptions of meaninglessness are sourced in the symbolic self (Carver, 1975;Duval & Wicklund, 1972;Gollwitzer & Wicklund, 1985;Silvia & Duval, 2001;Silvia & Phillips, 2013) and enhanced under conditions of greater self-awareness (Sedikides & Skowronski, 2003;Taubman Ben-Ari & Noy, 2010). Perceptions of meaninglessness are sourced in the symbolic self (Carver, 1975;Duval & Wicklund, 1972;Gollwitzer & Wicklund, 1985;Silvia & Duval, 2001;Silvia & Phillips, 2013) and enhanced under conditions of greater self-awareness (Sedikides & Skowronski, 2003;Taubman Ben-Ari & Noy, 2010).…”

“…We propose that conformity is a means of dealing with adverse perceptions of meaninglessness, captured by self-awareness (e.g., Wisman, 2006;Wisman & Koole, 2003). The extent to which people are affected by a challenge to meaning depends on how strongly they are inclined to introspection, represented by individual differences in self-awareness (Taubman Ben-Ari & Noy, 2010;Wisman, Heflick, & Goldenberg, 2015). Thus, people with a tendency for symbolic self-awareness are more acutely aware if a lack of meaning is present (Kim et al, 2014).…”

“…Critically, Wisman (2006) argues that conformity engenders a loss of self-awareness in some cases (e.g., Diener, 1979;Mullen, 1991;Zimbardo, 2007). Since perceptions of meaninglessness are enhanced under conditions of greater self-awareness (Sedikides & Skowronski, 2003;Taubman Ben-Ari & Noy, 2010), conformity, as an existential escape response, may be a particularly useful means to address the threat of disbelief in free will and specifically the meaninglessness that the threat signals. Thus, by abandoning the facility needed to perceive meaning threats (Kim et al, 2014;Sedikides & Skowronski, 2003), conformity would be an appropriate means to counteract the problematic meaninglessness signaled by disbelief in free will, particularly among those high in self-awareness (Wisman, 2006).…”