Individual Differences in Coping with Mortality Salience in Germany vs. Poland: Cultural World View or Personal View Defense?

• Authors: Kamila Wojdylo , Miguel Kazén , Julius Kuhl , Olga Mitina
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

We investigated the influence of personality and culture on effects of mortality salience (MS) over cultural worldview defense (CWVD). We hypothesized that CWVD reactions to MS differ between Germany and Poland because of the higher conservatism of the latter country, and that they are moderated by action vs. state orientation. In this study German (N=112) and Polish (N=72), participants were exposed either to MS or to a control condition (dental pain). Punishment ratings to trivial offences and serious social transgressions were measures of CWVD. Results showed that social transgressions in both conditions were more strongly punished in Poland than in Germany. Additionally, compared to the control condition, under MS action oriented punished serious transgressions more strongly in Germany whereas state oriented punished serious transgressions more strongly in Poland. That is, the effects of MS on CWVD are moderated by personality and culture. We interpret the opposite pattern of punishment to serious social transgressions given by action and state orientedin in Germany and Poland, respectively, according to the higher emotional autonomy of action-oriented persons in either culture.

Keywords

EN

Terror Management Theory; PSI Theory; Germany; Poland; Action Orientation

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 249-256

Dates

published

2014-06-01

online

2014-06-17

Contributors

author

Kamila Wojdylo

• Gdansk University, Poland

author

Miguel Kazén

• Faculty of Human Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Department of Human Sciences, University of Osnabrück, Seminarstr. 20, 49074, Osnabrück, Germany

author

Julius Kuhl

• Faculty of Human Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Department of Human Sciences, University of Osnabrück, Seminarstr. 20, 49074, Osnabrück, Germany

author

Olga Mitina

• Lomonosov Moscow State University and Moscow City University, Russia

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/ppb-2014-0030