How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You: The Role of Perceived Regard in the Terror Management of Close Relationships

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology Vol. 102; no. 3; pp. 616 - 632
• Main Authors: Cox, Cathy R, Arndt, Jamie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-03-2012
• Subjects: Accessibility; Adolescent; Adult; Affectivity. Emotion; Attitude to Death; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition; Dating; Death and Dying; Death awareness; Emotions; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Interpersonal Relationships; Love; Male; Mortality; Object Attachment; Parents; Perception; Personal relationships; Personality. Affectivity; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Romantic relationships; Romanticism; Self Concept; Self esteem; Social Perception; Social psychology; Studies; Terror; Terror Management Theory; Young Adult; mortality salience; close relationships; terror management theory; relationship self-esteem; perceived regard; Human; Affect affectivity; Affective attachment; Social relation; Social interaction; Mortality; Self esteem; Terror management theory
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/a0025947

Drawing from
terror management theory, the present research examined whether people turn to
close relationships to manage the awareness of mortality because they serve as a
source of perceived regard. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that mortality salience
(MS) leads people to exaggerate how positively their romantic partners see them
and demonstrated that people are more committed to their partners to the extent
that their romantic partners serve as a source of perceived regard after MS
(Study 3). Study 4 revealed that activating thoughts of perceived regard from a
partner in response to MS reduced death-thought accessibility. Studies 5 and 6
demonstrated that MS led high relationship contingent self-esteem individuals to
exaggerate perceived regard from a partner, and this heightened regard led to
greater commitment to one's partner. Study 7 examined attachment style
differences and found that after MS, anxious individuals exaggerated how
positively their parents see them, whereas secure individuals exaggerated how
positively their romantic partners see them. Together, the present results
suggest that perceptions of regard play an important role in why people pursue
close relationships in the face of existential concerns.