All rights reserved. 0093-5301/2008/3502-0010$10.00
The Sweet Escape: Effects of Mortality Salience on Consumption Quantities for High‐ and Low‐Self‐Esteem Consumers
This research demonstrates that exposure to death‐related stimuli can increase consumers’ amounts of purchasing and consumption. We demonstrate that consumers who have been recently reminded of their own impending mortality wish to purchase higher quantities of food products (and actually eat higher quantities) than do their control counterparts. This effect occurs primarily among low‐self‐esteem consumers. We explain our findings in terms of escape from self‐awareness. Low (but not high) self‐esteem participants overconsume in response to a mortality salience activation as a means to escape from self‐awareness. We also address alternative explanations for these effects.
Electronically published May 14, 2008
Cited by
James E. Burroughs
Nancy Wong, John Deighton served as editor and Deborah MacInnis served as associate editor for this article.. The Safety of Objects: Materialism, Existential Insecurity, and Brand Connection. Journal of Consumer Research 0:0, 000-000
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Naomi Mandel is associate professor of marketing, and Dean’s Council of 100 Distinguished Scholars, at the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 874106, Tempe, AZ 85287‐4106 (naomi.mandel@asu.edu). Dirk Smeesters is associate professor of marketing at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, Netherlands (dsmeesters@rsm.nl). Corresponding author: Naomi Mandel. The authors would like to thank Katherine Loveland, Amy Dalton, Lacey Wieser, and participants in a doctoral seminar at Tilburg University for their helpful comments.