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What is the main focus of this research?

How death thoughts (mortality salience) influence consumer behavior, and whether transcendence can reduce that effect.

What theory is this based on?

Terror Management Theory — the idea that people cope with fear of death by boosting self-esteem, often through materialism and consumption.

What did Kasser et al. find about death and consumption?

Activation of death thoughts increased:

• Desire for luxury goods

• Financial expectations

• Greed for rare natural resources

What did Zawadzka (2006) replicate?

That death thoughts lead to more spontaneous and planned luxury spending

Popielarska’s 4 Motives for Consumption

1. Hedonistic – for pleasure

2. Status – to show power or wealth

3. Relational – to connect with loved ones

4. Personality Expression – to reflect identity

What are the two mechanisms that explain death-related consumption?

• Self-esteem boosting: Seen in status and personality purchases

• Escapism via transcendence: Seen in hedonistic and relational purchases

Experiment 1

Students were given 10,000 zł and shown pictures activating death thoughts and/or transcendence. They chose how much to spend.

• Transcendence → more spending on status goods

• Death → more relational spending, unless transcendence was also activated (interaction effect)

🧪 Experiment 2 (N = 144)

Unlimited imaginary money (e.g., “You won a huge prize”).

Transcendence again increased status purchases

🧪 Experiment 3

Used scrambled sentences to activate transcendence.

• Transcendence × Death →

  • More hedonistic purchases

  • More relational spending

  • More personality-based buying

  • More total products bought

Experiment 4

What stood out in the final experiment?

• Transcendence →

  • More status purchases

  • More products overall

• Death × Transcendence interaction →

  • More hedonistic and personality-expression spending

What overall effect did transcendence have?

• Increased spending on status goods

• Often increased total number of products bought

• Sometimes reduced the egoistic effects of death reminders

How did mortality salience affect behavior?

• Increased desire for relational and hedonistic purchases

• But this was reduced or changed when transcendence was also activated

Were results consistent?

Partially — transcendence’s effect was strong on status spending, but other effects varied depending on the product type and experiment.