Of trophies and pillars: exploring the terror management functions of short-term and long-term relationship partners.
Prior terror management research shows that mortality salience (MS) motivates both self-esteem striving and worldview bolstering. The present research examined these processes in the context of dating preferences. It was hypothesized that in short-term romantic contexts, MS-induced self-esteem striving motivates interest in dating a physically attractive other, whereas in long-term romantic contexts, MS-induced motives for worldview validation heighten interest in dating a same-religion other. Study 1 showed that in a short-term dating context, MS increased preference for an attractive but religiously dissimilar person, whereas in a long-term dating context, MS increased preference for a religiously similar, less attractive person. Study 2 clarified that MS motivates preference for attractive short-term partners for their self-enhancing properties rather than their potential sexual availability. Study 3 supported the theorized processes, showing that under MS, self-esteem-relevant constructs became spontaneously accessible in short-term dating contexts, whereas worldview-relevant constructs became spontaneously accessible in long-term dating contexts.
Kosloff
Spee
S
Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0068, USA. kosloff@email.arizona.edu
Greenberg
Jeff
J
Sullivan
Daniel
D
Weise
David
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001504:Beauty; D003380:Courtship / Q000523:psychology*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires