From the Grave to the Cradle: Evidence That Mortality Salience Engenders a Desire for Offspring
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2005
Keywords
mortality salience, desire for offspring, gender, procreation, existential concerns, worldviews, terror management theory
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.1.46
Abstract
On the basis of terror management theory, the authors hypothesized that reminders of mortality (mortality salience) should promote the desire for offspring to the extent that it does not conflict with other self-relevant worldviews that also serve to manage existential concerns. In 3 studies, men, but not women, desired more children after mortality salience compared with various control conditions. In support of the authors' hypothesis that women's desire for offspring was inhibited as a function of concerns about career success, Study 3 showed that career strivings moderated the effect of mortality salience on a desire for offspring for female participants only; furthermore, Study 4 revealed that when the compatibility of having children and a career was made salient, female participants responded to mortality salience with an increased number of desired children. Taken together, the findings suggest that a desire for offspring can function as a terror management defense mechanism.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, v. 89, issue 1, p. 46-61.
Scholar Commons Citation
Wisman, Arnaud and Goldenberg, Jamie L., "From the Grave to the Cradle: Evidence That Mortality Salience Engenders a Desire for Offspring" (2005). Psychology Faculty Publications. 1510.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1510
