Mortality salience and the desire for oVspring夽 , 夽夽
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Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 753–762
www.elsevier.com/locate/jesp
Mortality salience and the desire for oVspring夽 , 夽夽
Immo Fritsche a,¤, Eva Jonas b, Peter Fischer c, Nicolas Koranyi a, Nicole Berger a,
Beatrice Fleischmann a
a
Friedrich-Schilller-Universität Jena, Humboldtstr. 26, D-07743 Jena, Germany
b
Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg, Austria
c
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany
Received 4 August 2005; revised 7 June 2006
Available online 22 November 2006
Communicated by Stasser
Abstract
Research on terror management theory (TMT) illustrates that following mortality salience (MS) people defend their cultural world-
views and bolster self-esteem to transcend death. Recently, research additionally showed that MS increased self-reports of the number of
children desired in Dutch men but not in Dutch women. We conducted three studies to further investigate the role of desire for oVspring
in terror management. In Study 1, we conceptually replicated previous Wndings for Germany and found increased desire for oVspring fol-
lowing MS in both men and women. Extending prior research Study 2 revealed that following MS not only was the accessibility of death-
related thoughts increased, but also the accessibility of thoughts related to oVspring. Finally, Study 3 suggested that the MS eVect on
ingroup bias was eliminated under conditions of oVspring salience. Relating these Wndings to TMT, anticipated or actual oVspring is dis-
cussed as a buVer against existential anxiety.
© 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Motivation to have own children; Terror management theory; Self; Ingroup bias
Death and birth are the fundamental boundaries of indi- lives, they have the power to create new life by raising
vidual existence. It can be deeply distressing to face the inevi- oVspring. In this paper we investigate how the interplay
tability of one’s own death. However, at the same time, it is between mortality awareness and the potential to have own
wonderful and reassuring that by giving birth and raising oVspring inXuences social cognition and behavior. More spe-
children, life can be created out of nothing. Although ciWcally, we focus on the role oVspring concerns play in
humans are not able to determine the length of their own eVects of mortality salience (MS) on intergroup behavior.
This leads us to take an extended look at terror management
夽
Immo Fritsche, Institut für Psychologie, Lehrstuhl für Sozialpsychologie, processes, as they are described in terror management theory
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany; Eva Jonas, Fachbereich Psy- (TMT; e.g., Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997).
chologie, Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg, Austria; Peter Fischer, Depart-
ment of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany; Terror management theory
Nicolas Koranyi, Institut für Psychology, Lehrstuhl für Sozialpsychologie,
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany; Nicole Berger, Institut für Psy-
chology, Lehrstuhl für Sozialpsychologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Terror management theory (TMT), which has been
Germany; Beatrice Fleischmann, Institut für Psychology, Lehrstuhl für Soz- derived from the writings of the cultural anthropologist
ialpsychologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany. Ernest Becker (e.g., Becker, 1973), suggests that both cul-
夽夽
The authors thank Pia Braun and Dieter Frey for their help with ture- and group-related behavior are ultimately rooted in
Study 1 and Thomas Kessler as well as two anonymous reviewers for their
valuable comments on an earlier version of this text.
the self-preservation motive (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, &
*
Corresponding author. Solomon, 1997; for overviews see also Greenberg et al.,
E-mail address: Immo.Fritsche@uni-jena.de (I. Fritsche). 1997; Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2004). It is thus
0022-1031/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.10.003754 I. Fritsche et al. / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 753–762
held that death is the fundamental problem of human exis- thus be a very secure minimum anchor of the social self. In
tence. The basic model of TMT states that the human common understanding parents remain parents and chil-
capacity to foresee one’s own death together with a basic dren remain children no matter what diVerences they may
desire for survival cause a potential for existential terror to have and no matter how their relationship develops. In line
occur. TMT attributes adaptive value to preventing this with this, for instance, in the case of a parent’s death, most
anxiety from occurring, as otherwise it would leave us para- laws guarantee that children receive at least statutory por-
lyzed. It is argued that two related anxiety buVers have tions of their parent’s inheritance.
developed that prevent the terror of mortality from enter- Furthermore, own children are obvious proof of an indi-
ing daily consciousness: worldview defense (WD) and the vidual’s existence and of his/her impact on the world. This
self-esteem buVer. Individuals may try to strengthen a cul- impact may even be signiWcant long after the individual has
ture-based worldview as a symbolic – and potentially died, as generations of possible grandchildren would never
immortal – extension of the mortal self. This WD is itself have been born without the work of this ancestor.
complemented by the self-esteem buVer, i.e., the individual’s There is indirect evidence from TMT literature on the
belief that he/she is fulWlling the culturally prescribed stan- anxiety buVering function of relationship commitment that
dards and thus is personally linked to the culture of value. biological reproduction might act as an anxiety buVer.
In the most classical test of TMT mortality salience is Here, Florian, Mikulincer, and Hirschberger (2002) found
manipulated experimentally, for instance by the instruction increased reports of romantic commitment following MS
to write down thoughts and feelings associated with one’s (Study 1) and a moderation of MS eVects on WD (Study 2).
own death or with a topic unrelated to death (mortality not This moderation indicates reduced MS eVects under condi-
salient: MNS), such as watching television or suVering den- tions of increased salience of commitment to a romantic
tal pain (e.g., Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczyn- relationship. In another study, Hirschberger, Florian, and
ski, & Lyon, 1989). Research has found a broad variety of Mikulincer (2002) found that following MS, people were
MS eVects on WD and on variables related to self-esteem. willing to make more compromises in mate selection. Spec-
For instance, MS (vs. MNS) participants punished ingroup ulating on why relationship commitment might be relevant
norm breakers more severely (Rosenblatt et al., 1989), under conditions of MS leads to one of the most basic func-
increased prosocial behavior towards ingroup members tions of selecting a mate, namely, producing oVspring.
(Jonas, Schimel, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2002) and also Thinking about the increased likelihood of having oVspring
exhibited higher levels of relative favoritism towards due to a romantic relationship may buVer death-related
ingroups over outgroups (ingroup bias; Castano, Yzerbyt, worries. However, it is still an open question whether the
Paladino, & Sacchi, 2002; Fritsche & Jonas, 2005; Green- eVects regarding romantic commitment can be traced back
berg et al., 1990; Harmon-Jones, Greenberg, Solomon, & to increased likelihood of reproduction. Mikulincer, Flo-
Simon, 1996). They also had increased perceptions of rian, and Hirschberger (2003) point out that romantic rela-
ingroup entitativity and identiWcation (Castano et al., tionships may buVer existential anxiety by satisfying
2002), liked others with stereotypic attributes more (Schi- attachment concerns. Furthermore, living in romantic part-
mel et al., 1999), and showed increased estimates of social nerships is assumed to be an important component of most
consensus (Pyszczynski et al., 1996). Evidence for the exis- cultural worldviews as well as a source of self-esteem,
tence of the self-esteem buVer has been found, for example, which, according to TMT, is a buVer against death anxiety.
by Dechesne et al. (2003). In that study participants in the In the present research, we investigate whether anticipating
MS group bolstered self-esteem more strongly than MNS oVspring alone is suYcient to buVer death-anxiety.
participants by attributing higher accuracy to a positive Recently, Wisman and Goldenberg (2005) tested the
personality feedback (for a similar Wnding see Mikulincer & hypothesis that MS increases the number of children people
Florian, 2002). In addition, Harmon-Jones et al. (1997) intend to have. For male but not for female Dutch partici-
have shown that MS-eVects on WD are eliminated follow- pants, this hypothesis was supported in three studies. For
ing an experimentally induced boost in self-esteem. female participants, the authors showed that the MS eVect
on number of children wanted was moderated by individ-
Reproduction and terror management processes ual worldviews regarding the relative importance of career
strivings as well as by beliefs about compatibility or incom-
The ultimate goal of terror management processes is patibility of motherhood and career. Thus, MS decreased
assumed to be attaining immortality of the self. In WD and the number of desired children for those women who
self-esteem anxiety buVer mechanisms the self is seen as strongly emphasized career strivings and had no eVect in
being extended to the self’s culture and hence, the cultural those who less strongly approved of having a career (Study
worldview represents a potentially immortal self in a sym- 3). However, Study 4 showed that if the compatibility of
bolic fashion (for a discussion of symbolic and literal motherhood and career was pronounced MS increased the
immortality see Dechesne et al., 2003). An alternative number of children women desired to have. If incompatibil-
method of preserving one’s self might be to transmit one’s ity was pronounced MS had no eVect. The authors argue
genes and one’s sense of self to oVspring. A family is one of that both procreation strivings as well as career strivings
the most naturally perceived social categories, and might may be important constituents of women’s cultural world-I. Fritsche et al. / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 753–762 755
views. Therefore, following MS both these strivings may be attaining this by extending the self to a generative
of increased importance. However, when motherhood and organism.
career are perceived as being incompatible career strivings In contrast to the research by Wisman and Goldenberg
may neutralize or even reverse the anxiety buVering func- (2005) we decided to operationalize desire for oVspring not
tion that desiring oVspring might have. by asking about the number of children people wanted to
Another perspective on why oVspring concerns may be have but by asking about the desire to have any children at
relevant to terror management comes from evolutionary all. We propose that this absolute decision for or against
theory. Here, it is not individual self-preservation but rather children should be less prone to being inXuenced by speciWc
preservation of individual characteristics by raising one’s conXicting worldviews such as those regarding women’s
own children, and thus reproduction that is the underlying career strivings (Wisman & Goldenberg, 2005). Thus, in our
principle guiding behavior (e.g., Hamilton, 1964; Dawkins, study we did not expect MS eVects on desire for oVspring to
1976). In line with this notion a speciWc preference structure be moderated by participant’s gender.
that works in favor of reproduction might have evolved
phylogenetically. As Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski Method
(1997) put it, diVerent psychologically rooted motives exist
that may be assumed to be functionally equivalent in serv- Participants and design
ing reproduction, including the “desires for life, sex, and the At the University of Munich we asked 15 men and 79
survival of one’s oVspring” (p. 60). However, in line with women with an average age of M D 24.0 (SD D 5.2) to par-
evolutionary reasoning it might be plausible to assume a ticipate in a short questionnaire study on diVerent attitudes
psychological structure that regulates the hierarchy of these towards their own life and society. Eight of them indicated
motives in accordance with their functionality for repro- having children.1
duction. If such a motivational structure exists, losing the We used a one factor design with two conditions, manip-
opportunity to have children might be the ultimate threat ulating MS (MS/MNS).
rather than losing one’s own life (which does not necessar-
ily imply that reproduction has not taken place). Being Procedure and materials
reminded of the opportunity to have children might there- On receiving a packet of questionnaires participants Wrst
fore reduce the threat of being mortal. read a brief instruction. MS was then manipulated using an
adaptation of “The Projective Life Attitudes Assessment”
The present research that has been used in previous studies on terror manage-
ment (cf. Dechesne et al., 2003). In the MS condition partic-
In this paper we present three studies in which we further ipants were asked to write down the Wrst sentence that came
explored the general assumption that pursuing and antic- to their mind when they thought about their own death. In
ipating own biological reproduction might work as a buVer the control condition, the same question was asked with
of existential anxiety. This assumption is based on the idea regard to dental pain. We then used the PANAS scales
that the biological reproduction of one’s own characteris- (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988; in a German version by
tics might be an eVective way of attaining symbolic immor- Krohne, EgloV, Kohlmann, & Tausch, 1996) as a Wller ques-
tality of the individual self. Additionally, in a hierarchy of tionnaire to enable us to measure our central dependent
motives, reproduction may even be more important than variables after a delay in line with the procedure used in
the desire for individual self-preservation. From this latter preceding MS-studies (e.g., Arndt, Greenberg, Solomon,
perspective, death anxiety would serve the reproduction Pyszczynski, & Simon, 1997). As has been reported in other
motive. Hence, if reproduction is anticipated threats to the terror management research, MS did not inXuence the
life of the individual self would cease to be worrying. PANAS-values. This was also the case in Studies 2 and 3.
We conducted Study 1 to test the hypothesis that the Thus, we did not include the PANAS-values in any of the
desire for oVspring is increased following MS for German following analyses.
participants. In Study 2, we proposed that if reproduction After two questions concerning parental status, the par-
acts as an anxiety buVer, the accessibility of children- ticipants were asked, in a dichotomous format, whether or
related thoughts should be increased following MS. Finally, not they had a general desire to have own children one day.
in Study 3, we investigated whether the salience of one’s Then, as our central dependent measure, participants were
own oVspring eliminates the MS eVect on WD. asked to answer six Likert-type items regarding their desire
to have any own children on 11-point scales. The questions
Study 1 were “How strong is your desire for children at present?”
(from 0 D “not at all” to 10 D “very much”), “When do you
In Study 1, we examined the hypothesis that desire for
oVspring is increased following MS in a German sample. 1
We included both parents and non-parents in the main analyses, as the
This idea is grounded in the assumptions that MS causes eVect of MS on the desire for having children should not be restricted to
the desire to ensure symbolic immortality and that strivings the wish for a Wrst own child but is also assumed to apply to the urge for
for oVspring are a way of increasing the likelihood of additional children.756 I. Fritsche et al. / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 753–762
intend to fulWl your desire for children?” (from 1 D “in 1 eVect on desirability of oVspring for women, our Study 1
year” to 11 D “more than 10” years), “Can you imagine revealed that MS increased the desire to have any chil-
that you won’t have own children?” (from 0 D “not at all” dren at all in both men and women. This diVerence in
to 10 D “very much”; inverted), “Would you like the idea of results might be related to the way in which desire for
having a child soon?” (from 0 D “not at all” to 10 D “very oVspring was operationalized in the two (sets of) studies.
much”), “How important is it for you to prevent pregnancy The Wisman and Goldenberg studies diVer from Study 1
by using contraceptives?” (from 0 D “not at all” to regarding the operationalization of procreation strivings.
10 D “very much”; inverted), and “How likely do you think Whereas in Study 1 participants were asked whether they
it is – independent of your desire for children – that you will wished to have any children at all, in the Wisman and
have at least one child at some point in the future?” (from Goldenberg studies they were asked about how many
0 D “not at all” to 10 D “very much”). children they wanted to have. Yet, it might be necessary
At the end of the study, participants were debriefed and to diVerentiate between the desire to have more or less
thanked for their participation. children and the desire to have at least one child (instead
of having no child at all). For buVering existential threat,
Results the latter desire might be more important than the
former. If it is ensured that one will have at least one
None of the participants in the MS condition indicated child a stream of descendants is possible, if it is not, indi-
that he/she had no general desire to have children, whereas viduals may face a signiWcant proof of their own demise.
in the MNS condition one man and Wve women out of 44 Whereas under MS the question of how many children
participants (13.6%) indicated having no general desire for individuals intend to have may be subject to conXict with
children, (1) D 7.14; p < .01. The eVect remained signiWcant diVerent aspects of their worldview, the desire for at least
if all 15 men were excluded from the analysis. one child should be signiWcantly less questioned under
We computed a composite measure of desire for most conditions.
oVspring by calculating the mean over all respective items However, we cannot preclude that cultural diVerences
excluding the item on use of contraceptives due to a low between the Dutch samples and the sample in Study 1 may
corrected item-total correlation of rit D .10. The reliability also be responsible for the lack of any interaction between
of the resulting Wve-item measure was acceptable, D .75. MS and gender. Cultural background of the respondents
We then submitted this index to a 2 (MS/MNS) £ 2 (male/ can be assumed to determine the extent to which opposed
female) ANOVA. This analysis revealed a main eVect of worldviews, like importance of women’s career strivings,
MS, F(1,90) D 7.80; p < .01, indicating increased desire to might outweigh oVspring concerns. Here, the results by
have oVspring in MS participants compared to MNS par- Wisman and Goldenberg (2005) may be due to a speciWc
ticipants. No other eVects reached signiWcance (for cell Dutch situation. In Germany, the situation might be quite
means see Table 1). diVerent, since within the last 5 years a major public debate
The results did not change when we excluded partici- has developed that stresses (too) low birth rates and the
pants who reported having children from the analyses. desirability of academic women having children. Hence, in
our German sample strong pro-oVspring worldviews may
Discussion have reduced a possible conXict between the desire for
oVspring and women’s career strivings by increasing the rel-
In Study 1, the hypothesis of increased desire to have ative weight of the former desire.
oVspring could be conWrmed for both the dichotomous and The result that MS eVects on self-reported desire for
the continuous measure of desire to have oVspring. These oVspring can be found for participants of both genders
Wndings suggest that having own children might be impor- highlights the generality of a possible anxiety buVering
tant to buVer the death threat. function of oVspring-related thoughts. In Study 2, we
The results of Study 1 replicate previous Wndings by therefore wanted to extend Study 1 as well as the Wisman
Wisman and Goldenberg (2005) who found Dutch men and Goldenberg studies by testing whether oVspring
to increase the number of children desired following MS. buVer processes can also be detected implicitly by
However, whereas these authors did not Wnd any MS measuring the accessibility of oVspring-related thoughts
following MS.
Table 1
Desire for oVspring: means, standard deviations and sub-sample sizes for Study 2
MS and gender (Study 1)
Mortality salience condition In Study 2, we wanted to investigate the anxiety
buVering function of anticipated oVspring more closely.
Mortality salient (MS) Mortality not salient (MNS)
TMT research has shown that increased WD following
M SD (n) M SD (n)
MS is accompanied by increased accessibility of death-
Women 6.21 1.61 (43) 4.26 1.95 (36) related thoughts (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, Solomon,
Men 5.20 0.42 (6) 4.38 1.86 (9)
Simon, & Breus, 1994; Arndt et al., 1997). Moreover,I. Fritsche et al. / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 753–762 757
Arndt, Greenberg, and Cook (2002) have also found that imagine that they would die of an infectious disease.3
the accessibility of worldview-related concepts increases Following that, they were asked two questions: (1) Please
following MS. They infer that MS automatically brieXy describe the emotions that the thought of your
increases the activation of those concepts that are func- own death arouses in you. (2) Please jot down as speciW-
tional for buVering death anxiety. Based on this research cally as you can the thoughts that occur to you about
we assume that if having or anticipating children acts as what happens as you die of the disease and once you are
an anxiety buVer, oVspring-related thoughts should be physically dead. In the MNS condition the participants
increased in the MS compared to the MNS condition. We were asked to write about having dental pain. This was
tested this hypothesis in Study 2. followed by Wller questionnaires in order to distract the
participants from actively thinking about the treatments.
Method As Wllers we used the German version of the PANAS
(Krohne et al., 1996) for both sub-samples and in the
Participants and design Jena and Magdeburg sample we also added a question-
For this study, we merged the data sets of two samples, naire on sleeping and wakening patterns.
one recruited at the Universities of Jena and Magdeburg A word completion task served as the dependent mea-
and the other at the University of Munich. In Jena and sure of oVspring- and death-related thoughts. In this task
Magdeburg we approached 99 female and 15 male stu- participants were asked to complete 24 word fragments to
dents with a mean age of M D 21.4 (SD D 3.3) to Wll out a give the Wrst word that came into their mind. Among 17
questionnaire on motivation research. For some of the Wller fragments, six fragments could be completed to yield
students participation was recognized as fulWlling part of the death-related words grave (“Grab”),4 corpse (“Leiche”),
a course requirement. We excluded two participants who gravestone (“Grabstein”), coYn (“Sarg”), obituary
reported a suspicion about the purpose of the dependent (“Todesanzeige”), and death or dead (“Tod/tot”). We com-
measure in the post-experimental questionnaire from the puted an accessibility score for death-related words by
sample, leaving us with a sample of 112 participants (97 summing up all fragments that were completed to give
women, 15 men) with a mean age of M D 21.4 (SD D 3.3). death-related words. OVspring accessibility was measured
In the Munich sample 73 students (44 women, 28 men, by a single word fragment that could be completed to chil-
one missing value) with a mean age of M D 27.9 dren (“Kinder”). Alternatively, this latter word-fragment
(SD D 11.7) were asked to take part in a set of diverse could have also been completed as cows (“Rinder”), Wnder
psychological studies in which they would have to Wll out (“Finder”), or less (“minder”).
some questionnaires about diVerent aspects of their lives. After Wlling out a further questionnaire, not relevant to
We excluded three participants who failed to comply the present study, participants were checked for suspicion,
with the instructions, hence, the resulting sample con- debriefed and thanked for their participation.
sisted of 43 women and 26 men (one missing value) with
a mean age of M D 28 (SD D 11.9). Merging the two data Results and discussion
sets resulted in a Wnal sample of 140 women, 41 men and
one person of unspeciWed gender with a mean age of First, we checked whether the Wndings from terror man-
M D 24 (SD D 8.4). agement research concerning increased accessibility of
The study was based on a one factor (MS/MNS) design. death-related words following MS could be replicated. A t-
test revealed signiWcantly increased accessibility rates for
Procedure and materials death-related words in the MS (M D 0.78; SD D 0.88) com-
The participants received a packet of questionnaires, pared to the MNS (M D 0.55; SD D 0.78) condition,
introduced by a brief general instruction and followed by t(142) D 1.63; p D .05 (one-tailed). Then, we tested our main
a warm-up questionnaire.2 We then manipulated MS by hypothesis regarding children-related completions by cal-
randomly assigning each participant to one of two culating a 2 (MS/MNS) £ 2 (male/female) ANOVA.5 As
diVerent tasks. Both tasks were framed as a projective predicted, the only eVect we found was a main eVect for
personality inventory and consisted of similar questions
3
that had been adapted from the classical MS-treatment In contrast to classic manipulations of MS we introduced an infec-
used by Greenberg and colleagues (e.g., Rosenblatt et al., tious disease as the cause of death. That was in order to make this con-
dition comparable to a second experimental condition involving an
1989). In the MS condition, participants were asked to
infectious disease which we ran in the Magdeburg sub-sample. As this
additional condition has no bearing on this paper, it is not considered
2
Please note that the questionnaire used in Jena and Magdeburg di- any further.
Vered from the one used in Munich with regard to the warm-up questions. 4
Letters that had been left out in the task material are printed in italics.
In Jena and Magdeburg we asked participants to Wll out the Desirability of 5
Although our dependent variable is dichotomous (1, children-related
Control Scale (Burger & Cooper, 1979). In Munich we asked them to write completion; 0, other completion), according to Cox (1970, p. 16) analysis
a short essay about diVerent aspects of life, such as, for example, their of variance is justiWed if the means are approximately within the range of
thoughts about trees or life in Munich. However, as the tests of the hy- .20 and .90, which is the case for our data. Separate 2-tests conWrmed the
pothesis were not inXuenced by the sub-sample, we make no further refer- eVect of MS on children-related word-completions for both women,
ence to this diVerence. 2(1) D 5.68; p < .05, and men, 2(1) D 2.94; p < .09.758 I. Fritsche et al. / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 753–762
MS, F(1,139) D 4.87; p < .05, indicating increased children- East and West Germans by East Germans we only included
related word completions in the MS (M D 0.85; SD D 0.36) those participants who indicated that they had been born in
compared to the MNS condition (M D 0.68; SD D 0.47). East Germany and that their lives were still centred in East
The Wnding that MS increases the accessibility of Germany. This left 58 participants in our sample (26
oVspring-related thoughts supplements the results of Study women and 32 men).
1 suggesting that oVspring-related thoughts function as a The study used a 2 (MS/MNS) £ 2 (oVspring salient/not
buVer against MS eVects. Thus our Wndings extend the salient) £ 2 (evaluation of East/West Germans) design with
results of Arndt et al. (2002) who found that MS increased repeated measurement on the last factor.
the accessibility of thoughts related to nationalism for men
as well as the accessibility of thoughts related to romantic Procedure and materials
commitment for women. In our study, however, we found The participants were seated in an area separated oV
the MS eVect on the accessibility of oVspring-related from the entrance hall where they received a packet of
thoughts for both men and women. Although future questionnaires. Following a general instruction, we Wrst
research using a multiple- instead of a one-item measure of manipulated the salience of oVspring by either asking the
accessibility of oVspring-related thoughts is advisable, our participants to answer two questions about having own
results are a Wrst step suggesting that anticipating or think- children or about watching television. After that, the partic-
ing about own children might work as an anxiety buVer for ipants were asked to respond to two similar questions that
both women and men. either concerned their own death or suVering dental pain.
If having children plays a role in buVering death anxi- These two questions served as the manipulation of MS. For
ety one can further assume that the salience of own chil- each manipulation, participants were randomly assigned to
dren might reduce MS eVects on an alternative anxiety one of the two conditions. Similar to the MS manipulation
buVer such as cultural WD. We investigated this notion in in Studies 1 and 2, both tasks were framed as a projective
Study 3. personality inventory and consisted of similar questions.
The questions were, “1. Please brieXy describe the emotions
Study 3 that the thought of (having own children/watching televi-
sion; your own death/dental pain) arouses in you”, and “2.
In Study 3, we tested the hypothesis that MS eVects on Please jot down spontaneously and as speciWcally as you
WD disappear under conditions of salient oVspring. We can the thoughts that occur to you about (what it will be
manipulated oVspring salience by asking the participants to like when you have own children/what it is like when you
write about what it would be like if they had children of are watching television; what happens as you die and once
their own one day. We did not directly manipulate whether you are physically dead/what happens as you suVer dental
oVspring is anticipated or not as two pre-studies had indi- pain and after you have had dental pain)”.
cated the diYculty in manipulating the perceived likelihood Then the participants Wlled out the German PANAS
of having oVspring in the student population. In these pre- (Krohne et al., 1996) and a lengthy questionnaire about
studies, a direct manipulation did not succeed, maybe due sleeping and wakening patterns that both served as Wller
to relatively strong preexisting beliefs about the likelihood questionnaires distracting the participants from the experi-
of oVspring or the work of a ceiling eVect. That is, after mental treatments. In the next block of the questionnaire
reading a text on either high or low likelihood of having the participants were told that we were now interested in
children, students rated the likelihood of having own chil- their personal judgments and perceptions in diVerent areas.
dren one day on a 10-point scale as M D 8.47 (SD D 1.85) To introduce the idea of judging social groups on certain
and M D 8.62 (SD D 1.66). In a control group that did not attributes, we Wrst inserted a further Wller questionnaire
involve any prior thought about the likelihood of having about the evaluation of four diVerent professional groups
oVspring, students even estimated the likelihood at to be rated on both four positive and four negative adjec-
M D 9.10 (SD D 1.20). As students are obviously very opti- tives. After that, the task changed to the evaluation of East
mistic about becoming parents at some time in the future, and West Germans, presented in counterbalanced order.
the salience of oVspring might be suYcient to buVer death For each target group, the participants rated the degree to
anxiety in this population. which 16 positive and 16 negative adjectives appropriately
described the group on 10-point scales from 1 D “not at all”
Method to 10 D “very much”. The adjectives had been chosen to
represent attributes that are stereotypical for one of the two
Participants and design groups or for neither of them, for example, adjectives such
In the entrance hall of the University of Jena, we asked as helpful, uncertain (stereotypic for East Germans), elo-
70 students (33 women and 37 men) with an average age of quent, know-all (stereotypic for West Germans), apprecia-
23.4 years to Wll out a questionnaire on personality and tive and stupid (not relevant to either stereotype). The
social perception. We oVered a payment of 2 Euros for par- selection was taken from a pool of pre-tested adjectives.
ticipating in the 20-min study. Due to the nature of our To check the eVectiveness of the oVspring salience
dependent measure, which referred to the evaluation of manipulation, we included an open question on the lastI. Fritsche et al. / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 753–762 759
page of the questionnaire. Participants were asked to To explore the nature of the observed three-way interac-
imagine that they would, at some point in the future, be tion between target group, MS and oVspring salience in more
able to give some money to somebody, and to indicate detail we calculated separate 2 (MS/MNS) £ 2 (male/
which potential beneWciary they would consider Wrst. The female) £ 2 (ingroup/outgroup target) analyses for oVspring
answers were coded regarding whether the participants salient and oVspring not salient participants. As predicted, a
mentioned own children and own family or others (parents, marginally signiWcant interaction of MS and target group was
charities, unidentiWed others). After answering some Wnal found for oVspring not salient participants, F(1,24) D 3.42;
sociodemographic questions, participants were debriefed, p < .08, but not for those in the oVspring salient group. Simple
paid, and thanked for their participation. eVect analyses for oVspring not salient participants showed
that outgroup evaluation was decreased following MS vs.
Results MNS, F(1,24) D 4.68; p < .05. For ingroup evaluation no eVect
occurred. Looked at diVerently, relative favoritism towards
We computed composite scores for the evaluation of the ingroup over the outgroup was more pronounced in the
East (ingroup) and West Germans (outgroup) by subtract- MS condition, F(1,24) D 19.75; p < .001, than in the MNS con-
ing the negative attribute values from the positive ones. For dition, F(1,24) D 4.01; p < .06.
both the evaluation of the East Germans ( D .85) and that Conducting simple eVect analyses for oVspring salient
of the West Germans ( D .88) we obtained satisfactory participants led to the unexpected result that here MS vs.
scale reliabilities. The manipulation check indicates a suc- MNS was followed by a signiWcant increase in outgroup
cessful manipulation of oVspring salience as the relative evaluation, F(1,26) D 5.68; p < .05. Analyzed from a diVer-
magnitude of selecting children and family as the beneW- ent angle, ingroup favoritism occurred in the MNS condi-
ciary was increased in the oVspring salient conditions (66%) tion, F(1,26) D 4.67; p < .05, but was non-existent in the
compared to the TV salient conditions (37%), 2(1) D 4.54; MS condition.
p < .05. The results did not change when we excluded one partic-
We submitted the composite scores for target group ipant who reported having children from the analyses.
evaluations to a 2 (MS/MNS) £ 2 (oVspring salient/
oVspring not salient) £ 2 (male/female) £ 2 (ingroup/out- Discussion
group target) ANOVA with repeated measures on the last
factor. A main eVect was identiWed for the target factor, In line with our hypothesis, we found that oVspring
F(1,50) D 20.87; p < .001, indicating more positive evalua- salience moderates the MS eVect on outgroup evaluation.
tion of the ingroup than the outgroup. No other main eVect This supports the notion that the salience of oVspring acts
was found. An unexpected two-way interaction eVect as an anxiety buVer helping people to cope with existential
occurred for target group and oVspring salience, threat.
F(1,50) D 5.13; p < .05, reXecting ingroup bias in the televi- For ingroup evaluations, we did not Wnd any MS eVect,
sion salient condition only, F(1,50) D 22.83; p < .001. Fur- indicating that defending the cultural worldview from threats
thermore, a marginal target–gender interaction occurred, had priority over supporting validators of the cultural world-
F(1,50) D 3.15; p < .09, that resulted from the fact that view. A complicating factor, however, was that in the
ingroup bias was signiWcant in men, F(1,50) D 22.48; oVspring salient condition not only was the MS eVect on
p < .001, but only marginally signiWcant in women, evaluations of the outgroup eliminated, we even found a
F(1,50) D 3.53; p < .07. There was also a marginal two-way trend for its reversal. That is, in the MS and oVspring salient
interaction of MS and oVspring salience, F(1,50) D 3.44; condition the outgroup was evaluated as positively as the
p < .07, indicating marginally increased group evaluations ingroup. An explanation for this unexpected pattern could be
in the oVspring salient vs. non-salient condition for MS par- that anticipated oVspring might only become psychologically
ticipants, F(1,50) D 3.58; p < .07. However, most impor- signiWcant in the MS condition. Here, anticipated oVspring
tantly, the analysis revealed the predicted three-way might signal symbolic safety from all subsequent threats to
interaction, F(1,50) D 5.94; p < .05 (for cell means see Table one’s individual existence, including those that might be
2). No other eVects reached signiWcance. chronically salient even in the MNS conditions. As a conse-
Table 2
Group evalutations: means, standard deviations and sub-sample sizes for MS, oVspring salience and target group conditions (Study 3)
Mortality salience condition
OVspring salient OVspring not salient
Mortality salient (MS) Mortality not salient (MNS) Mortality salient (MS) Mortality not salient (MNS)
M SD/n M SD/n M SD/n M SD/n
Ingroup evaluation 1.65 1.33/17 1.80 1.12/13 2.30 1.44/13 2.08 2.06/15
Outgroup evaluation 1.63 1.43/17 0.42 0.98/13 ¡0.39 1.44/13 0.71 1.63/15760 I. Fritsche et al. / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 753–762
quence, ingroup bias is reduced to zero. In addition, one may results focuses on the diVerent ways in which oVspring con-
speculate that, if raising oVspring becomes more important cerns were operationalized in our studies compared to those
following MS, evaluating West Germans more positively by Wisman and Goldenberg (2005). In our studies we had a
may serve to mitigate possible future intergroup conXicts dichotomous understanding of desiring and having
which, in turn, might be beneWcial for own children who oVspring (or not) which is expressed in the Study 1 measure
would have to grow up in a uniWed country. in which we asked about the desire to have at least one child.
This is in contrast to the latter authors who asked about the
General discussion number of children people desired. We think that increasing
the subjective likelihood of having any oVspring at all
In three studies we found evidence that anticipated should be a highly preferential buVer against existential
oVspring is important for buVering MS eVects on WD. fears as it suggests immortality in both a literal as well as in
Whereas in Study 1 MS participants exhibited increased a symbolic way. In addition, never having children seems to
desire for oVspring, in Study 2 we found that MS increased be perceived as the lack of an essential element of life in
not only death-related but also children-related thoughts. most cultures. Therefore, conXicting worldviews would have
In Study 3, the salience of having own oVspring eliminated to be extremely strong to interfere with the oVspring buVer’s
the MS eVect of increasing WD. These Wndings highlight utility. This may be diVerent for the question of how many
the importance of oVspring-related thoughts in coping with own children one wishes to have. As soon as a minimal
existential threats. Our Wndings not only show that children number of children is secured, having more or less children
are important in coping with existential anxiety but, fur- becomes a question of coming more or less close to the
thermore, they may also contribute to a better understand- demands of the cultural worldview. Only at this stage con-
ing of why having children is so important for life- Xicting worldviews may be taken into consideration which
satisfaction and well-being. may decrease the number of children desired under MS.
This may explain why females’ perceptions of incompatibil-
The oVspring buVer in context ity of motherhood and career concerns have decreased the
number of desired children in the Wisman and Goldenberg
In pointing to the important role of oVspring in managing studies: In none of their studies, not even in the MS-condi-
existential terror our Wndings conceptually replicate prior tions, was the mean number of desired children below 2 for
research by Wisman and Goldenberg (2005). However, our females (Study 1: M D 2.3; SD D 1.00; Study 2: M D 2.37;
results also extend this research as (a) we measured desire for SD D 1.23; Study 3: M D 2.03; SD D 1.19; Study 4: M D 2.38;
oVspring in Study 1 by asking for the desire to have any chil- SD D 0.76; M D 2.75; SD D 1.43) and the respective standard
dren at all instead of asking for the number of children desired. deviations suggest that in each of the experimental groups
This diVerence in measures may explain why we received MS only a small proportion of women can have indicated a
eVects for both men and women. Further, (b) in Study 2 we number of desired children below 1. Hence, the lack of MS
used an implicit measure of oVspring concerns which is also eVects for women might be traced back to the fact that by
thought to represent whether or not children concerns are acti- indicating a number of desired children higher than zero the
vated and not whether concerns about having many children female participants in these studies had already stated their
are activated. This measure also proved to be sensitive for wish to have descendents which should secure oVspring.
detecting MS eVects for both genders. Finally, (c) Study 3 pro- Therefore, conXict between diVerent ways of worldview con-
vides direct evidence for an anxiety buVering function of think- Wrmation (having many children vs. having a career) had the
ing about anticipated or actual oVspring as thoughts related to potential to block the striving for more children under MS
own children eliminated the WD reaction which otherwise fol- for women. For men, higher perceived compatibility of pro-
lowed MS. This Wnding adds to other TMT research showing creation and career concerns may have prevented such a
that activation of one anxiety buVer eliminates the use of conXict from ever having occurred.
another. For example, this has been shown for self-esteem As a possible additional explanation for the lack of any
(Harmon-Jones et al., 1997), where boosts in self-esteem pre- interaction eVect involving gender in our data we also have to
vented MS from increasing defensive reactions towards a pro- consider a possible diVerence in motherhood-related cultural
and an anti-American essay. A similar reduction of MS eVects worldview between the Netherlands and Germany. In 2003,
on WD has also been found for thoughts about romantic rela- the year our studies took place, Germany had the lowest birth
tionship commitment (Florian et al., 2002), aYrmation of per- rate in the European Union (EU; 8.7 births per 1000 inhabit-
sonal values (Schmeichel & Martens, 2005) and aYrmation of ants) while the Netherlands was among the three countries
religious beliefs (Jonas & Fischer, 2006). with the highest birth rate in the EU (12.4 births per 1000
Although at Wrst glance, our results are incompatible inhabitants; Bundeszentrale für politische Aufklärung, 2004).
with Wisman and Goldenberg’s (2005) Wnding that gender In Germany these data and the anticipation of dramatic
moderates MS eVects on procreation strivings, we in fact demographic changes gave rise to a broad public debate on
believe that our Wndings are perfectly consistent with the how to increase the birth rate and how to encourage young
results and theorizing by Wisman and Goldenberg. A possi- people to have children. This public climate should have led
ble explanation for the missing impact of gender in our to an explicit pro-parenthood norm in society which, in turn,I. Fritsche et al. / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 753–762 761
may have fostered increased pro-motherhood attitudes in It might be too early to choose between these two inter-
German compared to Dutch women. As Wisman and Gold- pretations. In a response to comments on TMT, criticizing
enberg (2005) have shown, the relative value of children vs. its missing link to modern evolutionary theory, Solomon
career concerns might be assumed to moderate the eVect of et al. (1997) state that although the successful transmission
MS on number of desired children. Consequently, for Ger- of genes by raising one’s own children might be the select-
man in contrast to Dutch women, the anxiety buVering func- ing principle in the background, it is not clear whether the
tion of desire for oVspring may have been less restricted by transmission of genes is also psychologically represented as
the competing cultural worldview of valuing a career. a desired end state. Generally accepting evolutionary the-
ory, the authors suggest that self-preservation has been
OVspring and self-preservation selected as a guiding principle of human motivation due to
its high value for reproductive Wtness. The question of
According to TMT, people are most fundamentally whether reproduction concerns are manifested as a psycho-
motivated to preserve their individual existence. Thus, the logical structure warrants future research.
awareness of one’s own mortality has the potential to cre- However, taking both TMT and the evolutionary notion
ate existential terror. The stability of cultural ingroups is seriously may lead to a reWnement of the motivational
assumed to work as an anxiety buVer because the pro- propositions underlying TMT. What may be concluded
longed existence of social aggregates to which the individ- from our Wndings is that having oVspring is strongly related
ual belongs contributes to a sense of symbolic immortality to the preservation of aspects of the human self. Whether
of the individual (e.g., Castano & Dechesne, 2005). Like- individual self-preservation or reproduction of own charac-
wise, the prolonged existence of one’s own children might teristics is the driving motive might be reduced to the ques-
similarly act as a buVer against death anxiety. That is, tion “what aspects of the self are included when one speaks
oVspring may be perceived as an accessible means of attain- of self-preservation?”. Psychologically, there may be no
ing symbolic immortality, as the self is extended to a gener- sharp diVerence between the self as a biological entity and
ative organism. In addition, this organism is perceived as the self as a collection of an individual’s characteristics and
being physiologically and psychologically similar to the belongings. Instead, these diVerent aspects of the self might
individual self, thus being a good symbolic representative converge in a psychological concept of the self. Such a con-
of the individual self. Our results support the notion of cept of the self implies both an individual self as well as a
anticipated oVspring acting as a buVer against existential social self that is derived from individual characteristics
anxiety, as in Study 1 and Study 2 increased reproduction- and attachments. Such a construct of self is complex, highly
related intentions and increased activation of children- Xexible to situational demands and might include others in
related thoughts may have been welcome to buVer death the deWnition of the self (e.g. Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher,
anxiety. Additionally, and similar to other anxiety buVer & Wetherell, 1987). One’s own children may be a part of
studies (Harmon-Jones et al., 1997; Florian et al., 2002), in most social selves that one has. This might be due to a high
Study 3 the salience of anticipating oVspring might have degree of identiWcation (Bischof, 1989) with and a great
made further increased anxiety buVering by WD unneces- amount of perceived – or anticipated – similarities with
sary and thus might have eliminated the MS eVect on WD. one’s own children. In addition to this centrality of children
Evolutionary theory might suggest a slightly diVerent for the self, children may themselves reproduce and have
interpretation. In contrast to TMT, the preservation of own own children. Thus, having children might start – or rather
characteristics rather than the preservation of an individ- continue – the transmission of the self into the future. There
ual’s existence is assumed to be the master principle guiding may be diVerent ways of doing this, but oVspring can be
behavior and perhaps also humans’ motivational prefer- one path to – more or less symbolic – immortality.
ences. This means that if own death is salient, this may ulti-
mately pose a threat to perceived capabilities of individual
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