346 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories
conscious, they manipulated death salience in university students (60% female). The
outcome variable for the study was how much disgust participants expressed on a
questionnaire. The independent variables were whether one’s own mortality was
made salient or not and whether there was a delay in the disgust measure or not.
Disgust was measured by the Disgust Sensitivity scale, without its “death” subscale
(Haidt, McCauley, & Rozin, 1994). Responses were made on a 9-point Likert scale,
and example items included statements such as “You see maggots on a piece of
meat in an outside garbage pail”; “If I see someone vomit, it makes me sick to my
stomach”; and “It would bother me.” Thoughts of death were made salient by ask-
ing participants to write down the feelings that thoughts of their own death aroused
in them. They were also asked to write down what they think will happen to them
when they physically die. The neutral (nonsalient) condition simply had participants
write down what they would feel watching TV. Delay was manipulated by includ-
ing a word game that took 5 minutes to complete for half of the participants. In the
delay condition, participants wrote down thoughts (about death or TV), completed
the word game, and then completed the disgust measure. In the immediate condition,
the word game preceded the writing about death task.
Results of the manipulation supported the hypothesis. Disgust reactions were
greatest after death had been made salient and even more so when there had been
a delay between mortality salience and disgust evaluations. Participants in the
neutral (TV) and delay condition showed the same level of disgust as the partici-
pants in the death salience and immediate condition. Goldenberg and colleagues
interpreted these results as support for the basic terror management assumption that
people distance themselves from animals because animals remind them of their
own physical bodies and death.
The research based on terror management theory and disgust sensitivity has
developed into an impressive body of work that points to the general conclusion that
human disgust, particularly disgust related to human features that remind us of our
animal nature (such as breast-feeding), serves the function of defending against the
existential threat posed by our inevitable death.Finding Meaning in the Mitwelt: Attachment
and Close Relationships
“When Marvin Gaye first recorded the song How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)
in 1964, he started with the lyric of needing the shelter of someone’s arms. This
need for close relationships appears to be exacerbated by confrontations with the
fragility of life” (Cox & Arndt, 2012, p. 616). Indeed, a great deal of empirical
research has demonstrated that people’s attachments to others in close relationships
serve a terror management function (e.g., Mikulincer, Florian, & Hirschberger,
2003). In other words, one way we manage our awareness of our mortality is by
investing in May’s Mitwelt: in loving relationships. Indeed, reminding people of
death leads to them initiating interactions with other people (Taubman-Ben-Ari,
Findler, & Mikulincer, 2002), to increase their desire for intimacy and commitment
(May’s “Eros” form of love) in their romantic partnerships (Florian, Mikulincer,
& Hirschberger, 2002), and even to lead adult children to express closer feelings
toward their parents (Cox et al., 2008). Studies have also reversed the relationship