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Mortality Salience Increases Personal Relevance of the Norm of Reciprocity

Mortality Salience Increases Personal Relevance of the Norm of Reciprocity Abstract Research on terror management theory found evidence that people under mortality salience strive to live up to salient cultural norms and values, like egalitarianism, pacifism, or helpfulness. A basic, strongly internalized norm in most human societies is the norm of reciprocity: people should support those who supported them (i.e., positive reciprocity), and people should injure those who injured them (i.e., negative reciprocity), respectively. In an experiment (N = 98; 47 women, 51 men), mortality salience overall significantly increased personal relevance of the norm of reciprocity (M = 4.45, SD = 0.65) compared to a control condition (M = 4.19, SD = 0.59). Specifically, under mortality salience there was higher motivation to punish those who treated them unfavourably (negative norm of reciprocity). Unexpectedly, relevance of the norm of positive reciprocity remained unaffected by mortality salience. Implications and limitations are discussed. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Psychological Reports SAGE

Mortality Salience Increases Personal Relevance of the Norm of Reciprocity

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References (48)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2012 SAGE Publications
ISSN
0033-2941
eISSN
1558-691X
DOI
10.2466/20.02.21.pr0.111.5.565-574
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract Research on terror management theory found evidence that people under mortality salience strive to live up to salient cultural norms and values, like egalitarianism, pacifism, or helpfulness. A basic, strongly internalized norm in most human societies is the norm of reciprocity: people should support those who supported them (i.e., positive reciprocity), and people should injure those who injured them (i.e., negative reciprocity), respectively. In an experiment (N = 98; 47 women, 51 men), mortality salience overall significantly increased personal relevance of the norm of reciprocity (M = 4.45, SD = 0.65) compared to a control condition (M = 4.19, SD = 0.59). Specifically, under mortality salience there was higher motivation to punish those who treated them unfavourably (negative norm of reciprocity). Unexpectedly, relevance of the norm of positive reciprocity remained unaffected by mortality salience. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Journal

Psychological ReportsSAGE

Published: Oct 1, 2012

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