Ideological and personal zeal reactions to threat among people with high self-esteem: Motivated promotion focus

consensus and is intolerant of dissent. Zeal is powerful. It perennially fuels commitment to idealistic extremes that are construed as noble by advocates and as antisocial by others. As a recent example, the Al-Qaeda attacks of September 11th, 2001, were fueled by the terrorists ’ zeal, and the United States’s militant reaction was arguably as zealous (McGregor, Nail, Marigold, & Kang, 2005; Pyszczynski et al., 2006). This research illuminates a basic goal-regulation process that can account for why people tend to be attracted to elements of zeal, especially after experiencing threats. In doing so it clarifies the con-troversial role of self-esteem as a moderator of zealous reactions to mortality salience. Most importantly, it sup-ports a new, integrative understanding of theoretically estranged but empirically compatible research findings on zealous reactions to mortality salience and other threats. Authors ’ Note: The authors thank Lauren Brewer for her help in the prepa-ration of this manuscript and Denise Marigold and Joanne Wood for help-ful comments. This research was supported by a standard research gran

Morality salience increases adherence to salient norms and values

Four studies indicate that mortality salience increases adherence to social norms and values, but only when cultural norms and values are salient. In Study 1, mortality salience coupled with a reminder about cultural values of egalitarianism reduced prejudice toward Blacks among non-Black participants. In Studies 2 through 4, a mortality salience induction (e.g., walking through a cemetery) increased self-reported and actual helping behavior only when the cultural value of helping was salient. These results suggest that people may adhere to norms and values so as to manage awareness of death