The Influence Of Mortality Salience On Conspicuous Prosocial Behavior

According to terror management theory,people are anxious because they realize that death is inevitable,so they construct a series of defense mechanisms(cultural worldview,self-esteem,intimate relationships,etc.)to deal with death anxiety.These defense mechanisms are activated when individuals feel threatened by death in order to reduce or eliminate the resulting anxiety.The study found that prosocial behavior,as the behavior advocated by the cultural worldview,can effectively alleviate death anxiety,so experiencing mortality salience will affect individual prosocial behavior.However,domestic studies pay little attention to whether mortality salience have different effects on prosocial behaviors when they have certain characteristics or attributes.We think that the prosocial behavior that helps to shape the image of the individual in the eyes of others and can be publicly displayed to others is conspicuous,and it is called conspicuous prosocial behavior.The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of mortality salience on conspicuous prosocial behavior,and try to further explore its internal mechanism.Therefore,this study designed three experiments to study the influence of death reminder on different specific behaviors of conspicuous prosocial behavior(conspicuous donation,conspicuous benevolence and conspicuous consumption of prosocial products),and to explore the influence of death reminder on conspicuous prosocial behavior.The first experiment is a 2(mortality salience vs.control group)×2(public admission vs.non-public admission)inter-subject experimental design,which aims to explore the influence of mortality salience on conspicuous pro-social behavior from the perspective of conspicuous donation behavior.In the experiment,whether the donation is conspicuous or not is manipulated by whether it is publicly recognized.The results show that mortality salience make individuals more willing to engage in conspicuous donation.Moreover,when the donation behavior is publicly recognized(conspicuous),individuals who experience mortality salience are more willing to donate and donate more money.The second experiment is a single-factor(mortality salience vs.control group)inter-subject design.From the perspective of conspicuous benevolence,the experiment discusses the influence of mortality salience on conspicuous prosocial behavior and the mediating role of self-esteem needs in the relationship between the two.The results show that,compared with the control group who experienced toothache salience,the subjects who experienced mortality salience were more willing to participate in conspicuous benevolence,and the self-esteem needs played a mediating role in the influence of mortality salience on the willingness to participate in conspicuous benevolence.The third experiment is a single-factor(mortality salience vs.control group)inter-subject design.From the perspective of conspicuous prosocial product purchase,the experiment discusses the influence of mortality salience on conspicuous prosocial behavior and the mediating role of searching for meaning in life in the relationship between the two.The experimental results show that,compared with the control group who experienced toothache salience,the subjects who experienced mortality salience had a higher willingness to buy conspicuous pro-social products,and the search for meaning in life played a mediating role in the influence of mortality salience on the willingness to buy conspicuous prosocial products.To sum up,the results of this study show that mortality salience can promote individual conspicuous pro-social behavior,while the self-esteem needs and the search for meaning of life mediate the influence of death reminder on conspicuous prosocial behavior.The research results provide a new idea for how to promote people’s prosocial behavior.