Motivational and Cultural Variations in Mortality Salience Effects: Contemplations on Terror Management Theory and Consumer Behavior

Terror management theory provides a viable framework to examine the effects of mortality salience (MS) and related coping behaviors.We explore the utility of viewing MS effects from an information processing perspective and discuss the implications for understanding consumer behavior. We suggest that a better understanding of the motivational nature of MS and the underlying processes could provide additional insights on the persuasive impact of MS. We also anticipate effects of MS to differ across cultures and predict some novel outcomes. Finally, we outline several potential avenues for investigating MS effects in consumer domains such as branding and advertising.