IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jmsjnl/v8y2020i4p65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Behavioral Effects of Mortality Salience: An Experimental Study

Author

Listed:
  • Leila E. Zein
  • Hussein Akil
  • Said Hussein

Abstract

The study is intended to explain the effect of Mortality Salience (MS) on consumer behaviors. In a first part, we present a state of the art of Terror Management Theory (TMT) and its contributions in management sciences by focusing on the impact of MS on consumption. In a second part, we illustrate the results of an experiment testing the effect of death reminders on consumption choices. The results of the experiment show that the reminders of death generate, for the most part of participants, pro-materialistic consumption choices. Based on these results, we highlight the effect the death reminders can generate on Lebanese consumers.

Suggested Citation

  • Leila E. Zein & Hussein Akil & Said Hussein, 2020. "Behavioral Effects of Mortality Salience: An Experimental Study," Journal of Management and Sustainability, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(4), pages 1-65, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jmsjnl:v:8:y:2020:i:4:p:65
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jms/article/download/0/0/37542/37901
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jms/article/view/0/37542
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aric Rindfleisch & James E. Burroughs & Nancy Wong, 2009. "The Safety of Objects: Materialism, Existential Insecurity, and Brand Connection," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(1), pages 1-16, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Xing (Stella) & Wan, Lisa C. & Yi, Xiao (Shannon), 2022. "Humanoid versus non-humanoid robots: How mortality salience shapes preference for robot services under the COVID-19 pandemic?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    2. Liselot Hudders & Mario Pandelaere, 2012. "The Silver Lining of Materialism: The Impact of Luxury Consumption on Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 411-437, June.
    3. Hawkins, Matthew A., 2020. "The moderating effect of need for belonging and communal-brand connection on counterfeit purchasing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Elisa Ciaramelli & Caterina Giannetti & Raimondello Orsini, 2019. "Does death make us all equal? Materialism and status-seeking under Mortality Salience," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 66(1), pages 57-78, March.
    5. Zhou, Ling & Wang, Tao & Zhang, Qin & Mou, Yupeng, 2013. "Consumer insecurity and preference for nostalgic products: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(12), pages 2406-2411.
    6. Matthew Hawkins, 2020. "The moderating effect of need for belonging and communal-brand connection on counterfeit purchasing," Post-Print hal-02943037, HAL.
    7. Anwar Sadat Shimul & Ian Phau & Michael Lwin, 2019. "Conceptualising luxury brand attachment: scale development and validation," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(6), pages 675-690, November.
    8. Mittal, Banwari, 2015. "Self-concept clarity: Exploring its role in consumer behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 98-110.
    9. Zheng, Xiaoying & Ruan, Chenhan & Zheng, Lei, 2021. "Money or love? The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer life goals and subjective well-being," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 626-633.
    10. Stokburger-Sauer, Nicola E. & Teichmann, Karin, 2013. "Is luxury just a female thing? The role of gender in luxury brand consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 889-896.
    11. Fleura Bardhi & Giana M. Eckhardt, 2017. "Liquid Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(3), pages 582-597.
    12. Baldauf, Artur & Cravens, Karen S. & Diamantopoulos, Adamantios & Zeugner-Roth, Katharina Petra, 2009. "The Impact of Product-Country Image and Marketing Efforts on Retailer-Perceived Brand Equity: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(4), pages 437-452.
    13. Jinfeng (Jenny) Jiao & Fang‐Chi Lu & Nuoya Chen, 2022. "Deriving happiness through extraordinary or ordinary brand experiences in times of COVID‐19 threat," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 1392-1419, September.
    14. He, Hongwei & Li, Yan & Harris, Lloyd, 2012. "Social identity perspective on brand loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 648-657.
    15. Rahimah, Anni & Khalil, Shadab & Dang, Huu Phuc & Ming-Sung Cheng, Julian, 2020. "The terror of death and consumers’ sustainability attitudes," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    16. Stokburger-Sauer, Nicola & Ratneshwar, S. & Sen, Sankar, 2012. "Drivers of consumer–brand identification," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 406-418.
    17. Fei Teng & Jiaxin Shi & Xijing Wang & Zhansheng Chen, 2022. "The Association between COVID-19-Related Wellbeing with Materialism and Perceived Threat," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-12, January.
    18. Strizhakova, Yuliya & Coulter, Robin A., 2013. "The “green” side of materialism in emerging BRIC and developed markets: The moderating role of global cultural identity," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 69-82.
    19. Fazli-Salehi, Reza & Torres, Ivonne M. & Madadi, Rozbeh & Zúñiga, Miguel Ángel, 2021. "Multicultural advertising: The impact of consumers’ self-concept clarity and materialism on self-brand connection and communal-brand connection," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 46-57.
    20. Dalia Antinienė & Rosita Lekavičienė & Aušra Rūtelionė & Beata Šeinauskienė, 2022. "Emotional intelligence training as an intervention to diminish consumer materialism," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 10(1), pages 328-343, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:jmsjnl:v:8:y:2020:i:4:p:65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.