The anxiety-buffering function of close relationships: evidence that relationship commitment acts as a terror management mechanism.

@article{Florian2002TheAF,
  title={The anxiety-buffering function of close relationships: evidence that relationship commitment acts as a terror management mechanism.},
  author={V. Florian and M. Mikulincer and G. Hirschberger},
  journal={Journal of personality and social psychology},
  year={2002},
  volume={82 4},
  pages={
          527-42
        }
}
Three studies examined the terror management function of romantic commitment. In Study 1 (N = 94), making mortality salient led to higher reports of romantic commitment on the Dimensions of Commitment Inventory (J. M. Adams & W. H. Jones, 1997) than control conditions. In Study 2 (N = 60), the contextual salience of thoughts about romantic commitment reduced the effects of mortality salience on judgments of social transgressions. In Study 3 (N = 100), the induction of thoughts about problems in… Expand
View on PubMed
www1.psych.purdue.edu
258 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
15
Background Citations
65
Methods Citations
9
Results Citations
13

Paper Mentions

Blog Post
Love and immortality
Mind Hacks
15 February 2009

258 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Terror management and close relationships: Evidence that mortality salience reduces commitment among partners with different worldviews
This study examined the effects of partner similarity versus differences from the perspective of terror management theory. Two hundred and sixty-six undergraduate students currently in a romantic… Expand
The Role of Close Relationships in Terror Management: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda
TLDR
A range of dispositional and situational moderating factors influence either the activation or inhibition of relational strivings to manage heightened death awareness, the most influential being attachment, gender, and relationship-contingent self-esteem. Expand
The Existential Function of Close Relationships: Introducing Death Into the Science of Love
TLDR
Empirical evidence is presented supporting the possibility that close relationships function as a related yet separate mechanism from the self-esteem and cultural worldview defenses. Expand
Till death do us part: Terror management and forgiveness in close relationships
Two experiments extended terror management theory to investigate forgiveness in close relationships. We hypothesized that mortality salience would elicit less forgiveness in less committed… Expand
Exploring the Mortality Salience Paradox: The Effects of High-Risk Employment on Interpersonal Decision Making
Past research concerning Terror Management Theory (TMT) has displayed self-esteem bolstering and cultural worldview validation to be the foundation of subconscious defense mechanisms against… Expand
Scared to death or scared to love? Terror management theory and close relationships seeking
To cope with paralyzing terror awakened by thoughts of their own death people usually use two defense mechanisms: cultural worldview and self-esteem. Recent studies suggest that also close… Expand
Desire to work as a death anxiety buffer mechanism.
TLDR
Although two different cultures with contrasting work values were examined, the results were consistent, indicating that the desire to work serves as a death anxiety buffer mechanism in both cultures. Expand
How sweet it is to be loved by you: the role of perceived regard in the terror management of close relationships.
TLDR
The present results suggest that perceptions of regard play an important role in why people pursue close relationships in the face of existential concerns. Expand
Terror Management Theory: Interplay between Mortality Salience, Death-Thoughts, and Overall Worldview Defense
TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY: INTERPLAY BETWEEN MORTALITY SALIENCE, DEATH-THOUGHTS, AND OVERALL WORLDVIEW DEFENSE Sharon R. Shatil, B.A., M.S. Marquette University, 2012 This study examines both the… Expand
Work, love, and death‐thought accessibility: A terror management investigation
TLDR
This work examines how considerations of loss of employment relates to the accessibility of death-related cognition, and the moderating role of job market health, and involvement in close relationships, and finds that considering unemployment led to greater death cognition, but not for those involved in a close relationship. Expand
...
1
2
3
4
5
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 76 REFERENCES
Symbolic immortality and the management of the terror of death: the moderating role of attachment style.
TLDR
Three studies were designed to examine the contribution of R. J. Lifton's (1979) symbolic immortality construct to the management of the terror of death and to investigate whether attachment style may underlie this contribution, and revealed an inverse correlation between self-reports of symbolic immortality and fear of personal death. Expand
Exploring individual differences in reactions to mortality salience: does attachment style regulate terror management mechanisms?
TLDR
Mortality salience led to an increase in the sense of symbolic immortality as well as in the desire of intimacy only among secure persons, but not among avoidant and anxious-ambivalent persons. Expand
Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews: Empirical Assessments and Conceptual Refinements
Publisher Summary This chapter proposes that the potential for abject terror created by the awareness of the inevitability of death in an animal instinctively programmed for self-preservation and… Expand
Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values.
TLDR
It is shown that the mortality salience effect does not result from heightened self-awareness or physiological arousal, and implications for the role of fear of death in social behavior are discussed. Expand
Terror Management and Self-Awareness: Evidence that Mortality Salience Provokes Avoidance of the Self-Focused State
Two studies assessed the terror management hypothesis that when mortality is salient, people will avoid stimuli that increase self-awareness. In Study 1, we measured the length of time that… Expand
Evidence for terror management theory II: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the cultural worldview.
Three experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis, derived from terror management theory, that reminding people of their mortality increases attraction to those who consensually validate their… Expand
Fear of death and the judgment of social transgressions: a multidimensional test of terror management theory.
TLDR
Findings indicate that the effects of mortality salience depend on the aspect of death that is made salient, the aspectof death that individuals most fear, and the type of the judged transgression. Expand
The conceptualization of marital commitment: An integrative analysis.
Although theoretical statements regarding the conceptualization of marital commitment abound in the literature, no research has attempted to compare these conceptualizations empirically. Six studies… Expand
A Terror Management Theory of Social Behavior: The Psychological Functions of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews
Publisher Summary This chapter deals with terror management theory that attempts to contribute to the understanding of social behavior by focusing on the essential being and circumstance of the human… Expand
Creativity and terror management: Evidence that creative activity increases guilt and social projection following mortality salience
The present research, based on the ideas of O. Rank (1932/1989) and E. Becker (1973), was designed to test the hypotheses that engaging in creative expression after personal mortality has been made… Expand
...
1
2
3
4
5
...