Open to death: A moderating role of openness to experience in terror management

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 71 (2017) 117–127

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Open to death: A moderating role of openness to experience in terror management Patrick Boyd ⁎, Kasey Lynn Morris, Jamie L. Goldenberg University of South Florida, United States

H I G H L I G H T S • • • • •

Openness moderates mortality salience effects. Low openness individuals exhibit defensive responses following MS. Defensiveness following MS by those low in openness decreases death ideation. High openness individuals are insulated from defending following MS. Curiosity may insulate those high in openness from responding to MS defensively.

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Article history: Received 2 December 2016 Revised 9 March 2017 Accepted 10 March 2017 Available online xxxx Keywords: Terror management theory Mortality salience Openness Curiosity Facebook

a b s t r a c t Research on terror management theory demonstrates that people respond to reminders of mortality with defenses aimed at maintaining their self-esteem and defending cultural worldviews. We posited that being open to experience should allow individuals to process death more receptively (i.e., with curiosity), attenuating the need to bolster self-esteem or defend worldviews, because death is a novel experience. Across three studies, dispositional openness moderated reactions to mortality salience. Individuals low in openness to experience responded to mortality salience with increased self-esteem striving (Study 1) and worldview defense (Study 2), and this functioned to decrease the subsequent availability of death-related thought (Study 2). Individuals high in openness to experience did not exhibit these same defense tendencies. Study 3 examined a possible mechanism for the attenuated effects observed among high openness individuals: increased curiosity in response to mortality salience was found to decrease worldview defense, but only for those high in openness. Together this research depicts openness as a resource facilitating reduced defensiveness following mortality salience. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

“To die, to sleep –To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub, For in this sleep of death what dreams may come…” [―William Shakespeare, Hamlet]

1. Introduction There is an infinite array of possibilities accompanying one's eventual death, ranging from a journey to heaven or the underworld, to reincarnation into a new physical form, to infinite nothingness—and even in the case of nothingness, there may be cognitive and sensory experiences along the way. The only thing certain about death is that no living person

⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, PCD 4118G, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620, United States. E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Boyd).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.03.003 0022-1031/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

has experienced it (permanently). That in itself may be cause for terror; at the same time, it may, for some individuals, be a source of intrigue. Because the end of life is a novel experience, people high in the personality trait openness to experience (see e.g., Connelly, Ones, & Chernyshenko, 2014) may, on some level, be able to curtail the psychological threat associated with death because it invokes curiosity and interest instead of only fear. Using terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) as a theoretical platform, the novel idea explored within this paper is that individuals highly receptive to new experiences might respond less defensively to thoughts of their own mortality because death is the ultimate new experience. 1.1. Terror management theory Human beings are capable of contemplating their eventual death, and in response to this, and perhaps in part because of the uncertainty associated with this awareness (McGregor, Zanna, Holmes, & Spencer,

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2001), a variety of defensive reactions become engaged (Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Lyon, 1989). Based on the writings of Ernest Becker (1973), TMT explains how cultural belief systems and beliefs about one's own standing within a culture can be utilized as symbolic defenses, preventing death thoughts from reaching conscious awareness where they are most stressful (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon, 1999). An abundance of research supports the TMT position: When people are reminded of their mortality (mortality salience, MS), they defend with efforts to validate their cultural worldviews and boost their worth within their cultural system (i.e., increase selfesteem). For example, when mortality is salient people become more aggressive toward those who challenge their political orientation (McGregor et al., 1998), more punitive toward those who break the law (i.e., prostitutes; Rosenblatt et al., 1989), and increase attempts to validate values relevant to their identity (Halloran & Kashima, 2004). Moreover, these outcomes function to reduce the accessibility of death-related thought (e.g., Arndt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Simon, 1997), providing further support for the utility of these responses in defending against mortality awareness. The effects of MS have been found to be reliable across genders and age groups, with few exceptions (Burke, Martens, & Faucher, 2010). These effects have also been found operationalizing MS in different ways (e.g., subliminal priming, open-ended response prompts, close-ended true/false questionnaires) and not in response to other aversive comparison conditions (e.g., paralysis, public speaking, dental exam, or other psychologically and physically painful scenarios). 1.2. Moderators of terror management effects From the perspective of TMT, the need to defend in response to the awareness of death is empirically reliable, and psychologically inevitable, but there are moderators of these effects. The extent to which people invest their identities in particular cultural worldviews and contingencies of self-esteem predicts whether they respond to MS with efforts aimed at bolstering their self-esteem within corresponding contingencies. For example, whether or not an individual drives fast or requests sunscreen with higher SPF when mortality is salient is contingent on whether they derive self-esteem from being a fast driver (Ben-Ari, Florian, & Mikulincer, 1999) or having a fair complexion (Cox et al., 2009). Individuals also differ in the degree to which they prefer coherent and structured views of the world (personal need for structure, PNS; Neuberg & Newsom, 1993), and to the degree that they do, reactions to mortality reminders are associated with the need for structure (e.g., decreased preference for abstract art, Landau, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Martens, 2006). Thus, individuals invest in different sources of meaning and value, and by virtue of this, specific responses to MS can be predicted. Beyond the specific domains that individuals invest in for their psychological equanimity, the effects of MS can be moderated by variables that function as more generalized “cultural anxiety buffers.” For instance, to the extent that self-esteem offers psychological protection from thoughts of death, having a lot of it is predicted by TMT to buffer the effects of mortality awareness across the board. There is evidence that high dispositional or experimentally-boosted self-esteem reduces the need to defend when one's worldview is threatened after MS (HarmonJones et al., 1997). Moreover, individuals with low self-esteem respond to mortality reminders with decreases in life-satisfaction and perceived meaningfulness of life (Routledge et al., 2010), and also with efforts and behaviors aimed at avoiding a focus on the self (Wisman, Heflick, & Goldenberg, 2015). Like self-esteem, other bases of security, such as religious fundamentalism (Friedman & Rholes, 2008), intrinsic religiosity (Golec de Zavala, Cichocka, Orehek, & Abdollahi, 2012; Jonas & Fischer, 2006), and relationship security (Mikulincer & Florian, 2000) also decrease defensiveness in response to MS. Whereas self-esteem and other security-conferring variables presumably work as a buffer (Hart, Shaver, & Goldenberg, 2005), ameliorating defensiveness by providing a layer of psychological protection against

mortality concerns, mindfulness has recently been identified as a variable that affects how MS reminders are processed in the first place (Niemiec et al., 2010). Specifically, individuals high in trait mindfulness do not respond to MS with the immediate suppression of death ideation (Study 7), and also spend more time writing about death in response to openended prompts, which in turn decreases defensiveness (Study 6). Mindfulness allows individuals to process information experientially and in a non-judgmental manner (Langer, 1989), which likely gives mindful individuals a considerable advantage when contemplating death. Furthermore, there is evidence indicating that the combination of heightened mindfulness and trait level curiosity can decrease defensiveness in response to existential threats; although for those high in mindfulness and low in curiosity, defensiveness is not reduced (Kashdan, Afram, Brown, Birnbeck, & Drvoshanov, 2011). This provides preliminary evidence that curiosity may also be instrumental in processing reminders of death. Relevant to the research at hand, these findings open the door to the possibility that some individuals may be able to approach and process death with openness and receptivity. 1.3. Openness to experience Openness to experience, one of the Big Five personality traits (Costa & McCrae, 1992), is typically described as the degree to which individuals are inquisitive and curious, receptive to various experiences and ideas, and value novelty (Costa & McCrae, 1992; McCrae & Costa, 1983). As with other basic personality traits, openness is relatively stable over the lifespan, although it tends to peak in early adulthood and gradually decline (McCrae & Sutin, 2009). High levels of trait openness are associated with a host of positive outcomes such as increased verbal intelligence (DeYoung, Quilty, Peterson, & Gray, 2014), greater artistic interest (Larson, Rottinghaus, & Borgen, 2002), and greater achievement in occupational settings requiring curiosity or creativity (Woo, Chernyshenko, Stark, & Conz, 2014). Openness is also positively associated with trait curiosity (Kashdan et al., 2009) and finding things interesting (e.g., poems, Silvia & Sanders, 2010), both of which are linked to greater psychological well-being (e.g., Kashdan et al., 2009; Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2004; Silvia, 2006). In describing openness to experience, McCrae and Costa (1997) suggest that openness can be understood “in both structural and motivational terms. Openness is seen in the breadth, depth, and permeability of consciousness, and in the recurrent need to enlarge and examine experience” (p. 826). Openness to experience is also associated with particular sensory and cognitive experiences, such as chills in response to sudden beauty (McCrae, 2007), déjà vu (McCrae, 1994), and an increased propensity for awe-like experiences (i.e., while viewing beautiful photos or listening to music, Silvia, Fayn, Nusbaum, & Beaty, 2015). Individuals high in openness seem to derive greater existential benefits from the world, in a sense transcending the self and reaping more reward from experiences (e.g., “I feel that my individual life is a part of a greater whole,” Levenson, Jennings, Aldwin, & Shiraishi, 2005). High trait openness individuals also exhibit reduced levels of prejudice and more tolerance for diversity (Homan et al., 2008; Sibley & Duckitt, 2009). Thus, these individuals may be less likely to defend against MS with rigid adherence to a particular cultural worldview. But beyond this, the psychological profile of individuals high in openness suggests that they should be less threatened in general by the prospect of their own death. That is, the way in which individuals high in openness approach and cognitively process information may allow them to be more receptive to experiences that are novel (e.g., death), because they are curious about and interested in them. 2. General overview To date, consideration of openness to experience in terror management has, for the most part, been limited to controlling for its effects while exploring other related constructs, such as mindfulness

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(Niemiec et al., 2010), curiosity (Kashdan et al., 2011), and cultural exploration (Routledge & Arndt, 2009; Zhang, Schimel, & Faucher, 2014). The aim of the current research is to investigate openness, instead, as a general moderator of terror management effects. If it is the case that individuals high in openness are able to find redeeming qualities in the prospect of their own death (i.e., interest, intrigue, and curiosity), this should mitigate their need to bolster self-esteem and defend cultural worldviews. We conducted three studies with this aim in mind. First, we examined responses following MS using a novel operationalization of selfesteem striving. In Study 1, we predicted that for Facebook users, MS would promote increased intentions to use Facebook, as well as perceived popularity on it (e.g., number of friends), and that these outcomes would occur to the extent that they invest their identity in Facebook following MS. But we predicted these responses would only be exhibited by those in need of defending—that is, individuals low in openness. Study 2 examined the generalizability of these results beyond self-esteem striving by examining a tried and true measure of worldview defense within TMT literature (i.e., punishment of a prostitute, Rosenblatt et al., 1989). We expected that only individuals low in openness would respond to mortality reminders with worldview defense, and that, as in other research (Arndt et al., 1997), utilization of defenses by these individuals would function to reduce the accessibility of deathrelated thoughts. Finally, in Study 3, we examined a mechanism for attenuated worldview defense in high openness individuals by pitting curiosity against fear as a mediator of defensiveness in response to MS. We predicted that curiosity aroused from thinking about death, and not fear, would reduce the need to defend, but only for individuals high in openness. Sample size across the three studies was established using a medium effect size (based on prior TMT research, Burke et al., 2010), an alpha of 0.05, and power of 0.80. It was determined that approximately 200 participants per study would be required to detect an effect. Across the three studies the mean sample size was 202 (SD = 15.56), with no study having fewer than 191 participants. All study manipulations and measures have been reported, and any data exclusions have been identified. 3. Study 1: effects of openness to experience on self-esteem striving Study 1 constitutes the first test of whether trait levels of openness to experience can impact self-esteem striving in response to MS. Burgeoning experimental research involving social media engagement has shown that self-oriented activities on Facebook can be selfaffirming and provide explicit and implicit boosts to self-esteem (Gonzales & Hancock, 2011; Toma, 2013; Toma & Hancock, 2013). In this vein, we examined Facebook as a platform through which its users can boost their self-esteem in response to reminders of mortality. To the extent that MS makes identity maintenance a pressing concern, we considered that Facebook users may respond to MS by increasing their endorsement of Facebook as a source of identity, and in this way, allow for self-esteem striving on this social media platform to be used as a psychological defense against the threat of mortality. Specifically, we hypothesized that following MS, low, but not high, openness to experience Facebook users would increase intentions to engage in activities on Facebook as well as perceive themselves to be more popular on it (e.g., higher estimations of number of friends), and this would occur through the mediating mechanism of identity investment in Facebook. 3.1. Method 3.1.1. Participants and procedure One hundred ninety-one “Facebook Users Only” were recruited from Amazon's mTurk to participate in an online study entitled “Personality and Online Habits” (97 female, 87 male, 7 declining to

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state; Mage = 33.75). Most participants reported being Caucasian (78%), middle class (60.2%), heterosexual (90.2%), and English speakers (98.4%). An exploratory boxplot analysis, which uses the interquartile range (IQR) of the primary dependent variable (intentions to use Facebook) to plot the distribution of the data around the median, was used to identify outliers by condition. Values falling outside 1.5 times the upper and lower bounds of the IQR (roughly 99% of the distribution) are considered outliers. No outliers were identified. 3.1.2. Materials1 3.1.2.1. Facebook use. In order to control for its effects, participants were given one item assessing the amount of time they spend on Facebook. Participants were asked, “on average, how much time do you spend using Facebook each day,” on a scale of 1 to 7 (b20 min per day to N120 min per day). 3.1.2.2. Self-esteem scale. To distract from any focus on openness, and also to control for any pre-existing differences, participants completed a 10-item self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965; e.g., “At times I think I am no good at all”), and indicated the extent to which they agreed with each of the statements on a scale from 1 to 4 (strongly agree to strongly disagree). The scale exhibited excellent reliability (α = 0.93). 3.1.2.3. Openness to experience. Openness to experience was assessed with the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI; Gosling, Rentfrow, & Swann, 2003), which measures each of the Big 5 dimensions using two items. The two items for openness are “conventional, uncreative” (reverse scored) and “open to new experiences, complex.” Participants rated the degree to which they believed each item described them, with responses ranging from 1 to 7 (disagree strongly to agree strongly), and the items were averaged to create a composite of openness to experience. Past research indicates that the openness subscale exhibits good test-retest reliability (r = 0.62), and correlates positively with other established openness measures (e.g., Big-Five Inventory; r = 0.65) (Gosling et al., 2003). 3.1.2.4. Mortality salience. We used a 15-item true/false questionnaire to prime thoughts of death (see Burke et al., 2010, for a meta-analysis attesting to the effectiveness of this approach). Participants were randomly assigned to answer questions about dying (e.g., “I am very much afraid to die”) or parallel questions about experiencing pain (e.g., “I am very much afraid of being in pain”) (Templer, 1970). 3.1.2.5. PANAS-X. To examine affective differences between the experimental and control groups (and also to provide the necessary delay after the MS manipulation, Arndt et al., 1997), participants were then given a 64-item questionnaire adapted from Watson and Clark (1994). Lambert et al. (2014) expanded the traditional PANAS-X to also include additional items (e.g., “fearful” and “terrified”) to create a 5-item fear scale (α = 0.91). Positive (α = 0.90) and negative affect (α = 0.93) were also assessed. Participants indicated on a 1 to 5 (very slightly or not at all to extremely) scale the extent to which they were feeling each emotion in that moment. 3.1.2.6. Identity investment in Facebook. Three items, embedded within a 9-item scale measuring meaning attached to various Facebook activities (developed for this study), measured the degree that one's identity is invested in Facebook (i.e., “Facebook allows me to express myself,” “Facebook helps define who I am as an individual to others,” and “Facebook give me a clearer sense of identity”). Responses ranged from 1 to 7 (strongly disagree to strongly agree) (α = 0.85). 1 Means, standard deviations, and bivariate correlations between measured variables for all studies are available in the Supplementary material.

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3.1.2.7. Intentions to use Facebook. Six items assessed participants' interest in engaging in Facebook activities. The items were presented in a random order and included: “edit or update your profile,” “comment on your friends' profile,” “view your friends' profile,” “view your newsfeed,” “comment on things you see in your newsfeed,” and “present interests to friends by posting content.” Responses ranged from 1 to 7 (not at all appealing to extremely appealing) (α = 0.91). 3.1.2.8. Perceived Facebook popularity. Three free response items assessed estimated number of friends on Facebook, number of photos “tagged” in, and number of friends participants thought viewed their profile each day. Estimated number of friends (skewness = 12.09), photos (skewness = 2.64), and profile views (skewness = 8.92) were positively skewed. Thus, data were transformed using a log10 transformation after adding a constant to account for values of zero. The resulting data were normally distributed for all three variables (skewness = −0.84; −0.46; 0.36, respectively). Scores were then standardized and a 3-item mean score composite of Facebook popularity was created (α = 0.68). 3.1.2.9. Demographics. Participants then responded to several demographic items regarding their gender, age, race, economic background, sexual orientation, and native language. Additional questions probed for suspicion (no participants indicated being aware of the study hypotheses) and engagement in other activities during the study.2 3.2. Results To test the hypothesis that openness would moderate self-esteem striving on Facebook following MS, through increased identity investment in Facebook, we used a moderated mediation approach (PROCESS Model 7; Hayes, 2013). Effects were estimated from 20,000 biascorrected bootstrap samples with MS (0 = pain, 1 = mortality) as the predictor, openness as the moderator, and identity investment in Facebook mediating self-esteem striving outcomes (i.e., intentions to use Facebook; perceptions of popularity). The model was run twice to test the effects on each outcome measure. There was no direct effect of MS, b = 0.16, SE = 0.21, t(187) = 0.74, p = 0.458, 95% confidence interval (CI) = [−0.26, 0.58], or openness, b = −0.03, SE = 0.09, t(187) = −0.36, p = 0.719, CI = [−0.20, 0.14], on identity investment in Facebook, however, the openness × MS interaction was significant, b = −0.37, SE = 0.17, t(187) = −2.17, p = 0.032, (CI) = [− 0.71, −0.03]. As can be seen in Fig. 1, MS increased identity investment in Facebook (compared to those not primed with MS), but only for individuals low in openness, b = 0.62, SE = 0.30, t(187) = 2.06, p = 0.040, CI = [0.03, 1.21]. MS did not impact identity investment in Facebook for individuals high or moderately high in openness. In the first model with intentions to use Facebook as the outcome, the direct effect of MS on the dependent variable was not significant, b = 0.02, SE = 0.18, t(187) = 0.11, p = 0.913, CI = [−0.34, 0.38]; however, increased identity investment in Facebook did significantly predict an increase in intentions to use Facebook, b = 0.54, SE = 0.06, t(187) = 8.88, p b 0.001, CI = [0.42, 0.66]. To examine the hypothesized mediation effect, conditional indirect effects were explored using the pick-a-point technique at ± 1 SD from the mean for the moderator (Hayes, 2013). For low openness individuals, the confidence interval did not include zero (mean estimate = 0.34, Boot SE = 0.18, CI = [0.02, 0.71]) indicating a statistically definitive indirect effect. Among those participants low in openness, MS increased identity investment in Facebook (compared to those not primed with MS), which, in turn, was associated with increased intentions to use Facebook; the 2 We also assessed frequency of posting content on Facebook, likelihood of deleting one's Facebook profile for exploratory purposes. These variables were not used in our analysis.

Fig. 1. Identity investment in Facebook as a function of openness and MS. Note. Higher scores indicate increased identity investment in Facebook. Conditional effects of MS onidentity investment in FB: low openness: effect = 0.62, SE = 0.30, t(187) = 2.06, p = 0.040, CI = 0.03, 1.21*; mid openness: effect = 0.16, SE = 0.21, t(187) = 0.74, p = 0.458, CI = − 0.26, 0.58; high openness: effect = −0.30, SE =0.30, t(187) = −1.01, p = 0.315, CI = −0.90, 0.29.

bootstrapped confidence intervals of the indirect effect for those high in openness (mean estimate = − 0.17, Boot SE = 0.18, CI = [−0.53, 0.19]) and moderately high (mean estimate = 0.09, Boot SE = 0.12, CI = [−0.14, 0.33]) included zero. In the second model with perceived Facebook popularity as the outcome, the direct effect of MS on the dependent measure was not significant, b = −0.03, SE = 0.11, t(185) = −0.24, p = 0.807, CI = [−0.24, 0.19]; however, increased identity investment in Facebook was positively associated with perceived Facebook popularity, b = 0.18, SE = 0.04, t(185) = 5.01, p b 0.001, CI = [0.11, 0.26]. Once again, the test of the conditional indirect effect was statistically definitive for low openness individuals (mean estimate = 0.11, Boot SE = 0.07, CI = [0.003, 0.27]), but not for those high in openness (mean estimate = − 0.06, Boot SE = 0.06, CI = [−0.21, 0.05]) or moderately high (mean estimate = 0.02, Boot SE = 0.04, CI = [−0.05, 0.11]). Results indicated that MS increased identity investment in Facebook (compared to those not primed with death), which in turn was associated with increased perceptions of Facebook popularity, but only for individuals low in openness. The path estimates and bootstrapped confidence intervals for all conditional indirect effects are presented in Fig. 2. We also conducted the two analyses controlling for Facebook use in the final path of the model, and doing so did not impact the conclusions of the previously reported results. Furthermore, when self-esteem was used as a control variable in a similar fashion the results were also unaffected. Another set of analyses was used to determine if affect differed as a function of MS and openness and neither MS, nor its interaction with openness, influenced positive, negative, or fear-specific affect (ps N 0.465).

3.3. Discussion We found support for the hypothesis that high levels of openness functioned to attenuate self-esteem striving following MS. Moreover, we operationalized self-esteem striving using a contemporarily relevant context (i.e., a social media platform). Specifically, we demonstrated that low openness Facebook users responded to MS by investing their identity in Facebook; this, in turn, was associated with increased intentions to use Facebook and perceived popularity on it. Individuals high in openness did not exhibit these responses. This study provides the first evidence that Facebook can be used as a vehicle to promote one's selfesteem in response to existential mortality concerns. Critically, this study also provides the first evidence that openness to experience is

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4.1.2. Materials 4.1.2.1. Openness to experience. See measure described in Study 1. 4.1.2.2. Prostitution attitudes questionnaire. Three items (“most prostitutes are morally corrupt,” “prostitution damages society's morals,” and “prostitution is a violation of women's human dignity,” Levin & Peled, 2011) assessed attitudes toward prostitution. Responses ranged from 1 to 7 (disagree completely to agree completely) and were averaged to create a composite score (α = 0.88). We also included filler items about economic, social, and political beliefs to detract from this study's focus on attitudes toward prostitution. 4.1.2.3. Mortality salience. See measure described in Study 1. Fig. 2. Openness moderating the effect of MS on intentions to use Facebook and Facebook popularity through identity investment in Facebook. Note. * = p b 0.05, ** = p b 0.01, *** = p b 0.001. Estimates above the line reflect the model with intentions to use Facebook as the outcome; estimates below the line reflect the model with Facebook popularity as the outcome. The first stage of the model is the same in both analyses. Conditional indirect effects of MS on intentions to use FB through identity investment in FB: low openness: effect = 0.34, SE = 0.18, CI = 0.02, 0.71*; mid openness: effect = 0.09, SE = 0.12, CI = −0.14, 0.33; high openness: effect = −0.17, SE = 0.18, CI = −0.53, 0.19. Conditional indirect effects of MS on FB popularity through identity investment in FB: low openness: effect = 0.11, SE =0.07, CI = 0.003, 0.27*; mid openness: effect = 0.02, SE = 0.04, CI = −0.05, 0.11; high openness: effect = −0.06, SE = 0.06, CI = −0.21, 0.05. Note. Conditional indirect effects are considered statistically definitive (*) when the confidence interval (CI) does not straddle zero. 0 = pain, 1 = mortality.

an important individual difference that affects how people respond to the awareness of death. 4. Study 2: effects of openness to experience on worldview defense Study 1 demonstrated support for openness as a moderator of selfesteem striving on a social media platform following reminders of death. However, our hypothesis suggests that the tempering of terror management defenses among those high in openness to experience is not limited to a particular type of defense (i.e., identity bolstering; selfesteem striving). Rather, individuals high in openness should, on the whole, be less defensive after being reminded of death. It is therefore important to show that the effects extend to other defenses aside from self-esteem striving. Toward this end, the aim of Study 2 was to move the focus from self-esteem striving to worldview defense. Participants were primed with thoughts of death (or pain, to serve a control) and then had the opportunity to assess bail for a woman arrested for prostitution, a scenario found to elicit worldview defense (e.g., Rosenblatt et al., 1989). We hypothesized that defensive responses following MS (i.e., higher bail) would be limited to individuals low in openness, and this effect would be observed even after controlling for attitudes toward prostitution. Finally, because terror management defenses function to decrease the accessibility of death thought (e.g., Arndt et al., 1997), we measured death thought accessibility at the end of the experiment and hypothesized that defensive responses exhibited by low, but not high, openness individuals would decrease the accessibility of death thoughts. 4.1. Method 4.1.1. Participants and procedure Two hundred four Amazon mTurk users were recruited to participate in an online study entitled “Personality and Morality.” As in Study 1, an exploratory boxplot analysis on the primary dependent variable (prostitute bail) was used to identify outliers in each condition. Thirteen outliers were identified and excluded from analysis (7 from the pain and 6 from the MS condition), leaving a total of 191 participants (89 female, 94 male, 8 declining to report; Mage = 36.79). Most participants reported being Caucasian (79.2%), heterosexual (88%), and English speakers (98.9%).

4.1.2.4. PANAS-X. See measure described in Study 1. 4.1.2.5. Prostitution scenario and bail. Participants read an ostensible police report (“record of arrest”) for “Stephanie,” a 26 year-old white female arrested for prostitution by the Tampa Police Department in 2002 (modeled after Rosenblatt et al., 1989). Participants were asked to “assess bail for a legal case,” and were told it was for an individual charged with prostitution. To make the record of arrest appear more authentic, pertinent personal information for the arrestee was blacked out. Participants were asked to recommend bail for the defendant using a sliding scale with endpoints at $0 and $999. Originally, the bail set was non-normally distributed (skewness = 1.53, kurtosis = 2.67), but following the boxplot analysis, removal of outliers resulted in a more normal distribution of data (skewness = 0.78, kurtosis = 0.06). 4.1.2.6. Death thought accessibility. To examine the impact that amount of bail had on the accessibility of death-related thought, participants completed the most commonly used measure of death though accessibility (Hayes, Schimel, Arndt, & Faucher, 2010). This measure utilizes a word stem completion paradigm in which participants respond to 25 different stems. Six of the word stems can be completed with either a neutral or death-related word (e.g., COFF__ __ as coffee or coffin; DE__ __ as deer or dead). The number of stems completed with deathrelated words are summed to create a death thought accessibility score. This tool has been shown to effectively assess death thought accessibility following MS (e.g., Arndt et al., 1997, see Hayes et al., 2010 for a review), and has also demonstrated convergent validity with a lexical decision task measuring death thought, which controlled for word length, fluency, and frequency (see Schimel, Hayes, Williams, & Jahrig, 2007; Hayes, Schimel, Faucher, & Williams, 2008). 4.1.2.7. Demographics. Participants then responded to a similar set of demographic items as in Study 1.3 4.2. Results 4.2.1. Prostitute bail To determine if openness moderated bail set for a prostitute after MS, a regression analysis was performed (PROCESS Model 1; Hayes, 2013). There were no direct effects of MS, b = 22.66, SE = 20.46, t(187) = 1.11, p = 0.270, CI = [−17.70, 63.02] or openness, b = −11.92, SE = 7.89, t(187) = −1.51, p = 0.132, CI = [−27.48, 3.64] on prostitute bail. However, the predicted openness × MS interaction was significant, b = −45.28, SE = 15.60, t(187) = −2.90, p = 0.004, CI = [−76.05, −14.51]. As can be seen in Fig. 3, for low openness participants, MS increased bail relative to the control group, b = 82.04, SE = 28.94, t(187) = 2.83, p = 0.005, CI = [24.94, 139.13]. The effect of MS for those high in openness was not significant, b = −36.72, SE = 28.92, 3 Political beliefs were assessed again for exploratory purposes, but not used in our analyses.

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the confidence intervals for those high in openness (mean estimate = 0.05, Boot SE = 0.05, CI = [−0.01, 0.17]) and moderately high (mean estimate = −0.03, Boot SE = 0.03, CI = [−0.14, 0.01]) included zero. Results indicated that participants primed with MS set higher bail than those not primed with death, which in turn served to decrease death thought accessibility, but only among those low in openness to experience. 4.3. Discussion

Fig. 3. Bail set for prostitute as a function of openness and MS. Note. Higher scores indicate greater willingness to punish moral transgressor. Conditional effects of MS on prostitute bail: low openness: effect = 82.04, SE = 28.94, t(187) = 2.83, p = 0.005, CI = 24.94, 139.13**; mid openness: effect = 20.46, SE = 1.11, t(187) = 1.11, p = 0.270, CI = − 17.70, 63.02; high openness: effect = −36.72, SE = 28.92, t(187) = −1.27, p = 0.206, CI = −93.77, 20.33.

t(187) = −1.27, p = 0.206, CI = [− 93.77, 20.33], nor was it for those moderately high in openness, b = 22.66, SE = 20.46, t(187) = 1.11, p = 0.270, CI = [−17.70, 63.02]. We also examined the relationship between openness and prostitution attitudes, and did not observe a significant correlation (r = −0.04, p = 0.586). Nonetheless, we conducted the analysis controlling for prostitution attitudes, and doing so did not impact the conclusions of the previously reported results. As in Study 1, affective responses were assessed. Again, neither MS, nor its interaction with openness, influenced affect (ps N 0.538). 4.2.2. Death thought accessibility mediated by prostitute bail To examine if the increased bail set by low openness individuals affected the accessibility of death-related thought, we conducted a moderated mediation analysis (PROCESS Model 7; Hayes, 2013) as in Study 1. We estimated effects with MS (0 = pain, 1 = mortality) as the predictor, openness as the moderator, prostitute bail as the mediator, and death thought accessibility as the outcome (see Fig. 4 for conceptual model and bootstrapped confidence intervals). As predicted, we found a statistically definitive conditional indirect effect for low openness individuals (mean estimate = −0.11, Boot SE = 0.06, CI = [−0.28, −0.02]);

Study 2 provided further support for our hypothesis by demonstrating that attenuated defensive responses by high openness individuals following MS are not limited to self-esteem striving, but also include worldview defense. We found that worldview defense was elicited in response to MS among individuals low in openness, whereas their high openness counterparts did not exhibit the same reaction. Furthermore, the results remained significant even after controlling for attitudes toward prostitution. Study 2 also allowed for an important conceptual link to be made between worldview defense and the accessibility of death thought. The results suggest that for low openness individuals, defensive responses following MS do in fact serve a psychologically protective function by decreasing death ideation, but this may not be necessary for others (i.e., high openness individuals). 5. Study 3: curiosity as a mechanism for attenuated worldview defense The aim of Study 3 was to examine curiosity as a potential mechanism through which high levels of openness result in attenuated MS effects. We posited that the lack of defensiveness among high openness individuals can be attributed to some redeeming qualities associated with the thought of one's death—specifically, for these individuals, there may be something intriguing associated with the prospect of death. In light of findings from Studies 1 and 2, and research demonstrating a relationship between openness and curiosity (Kashdan et al., 2009), we hypothesized that for high, but not low, openness individuals, increased levels of curiosity would function to decrease worldview defense (i.e., prostitute bail). To that end, we modified the PANAS-X to tap into the affective response of curiosity, and we tested this analytically by pitting curiosity against fear as another possible mediator of the effects. That is, we wanted to examine the specificity of increased curiosity, as opposed to decreased fear, among high openness individuals as the mechanism in reducing defensiveness. Additionally, this allowed us to address the alternative explanation that increased fear among low openness individuals was increasing defensiveness. Although we found no evidence of fear in response to the close-ended MS inductions in Studies 1 and 2, nor any evidence that fear mediated the observed effects for low openness individuals, other research has demonstrated that open-ended MS prompts (as is used in this study) increase fear responses (Lambert et al., 2014). To further isolate the effects of the mediators, we controlled for positive and negative affect so as to not conflate curiosity and fear with these more general forms of affect. Finally, we modified the control condition of the open-ended MS manipulation by having participants consider going blind (rather than experiencing extreme pain). Like death (but unlike pain), going completely blind should be a novel experience for participants, and therefore be more comparable to death because not only is it aversive, but likely something that none of the participants have ever experienced. 5.1. Method

Fig. 4. Openness moderating the effect of MS on death accessibility through prostitute bail. Note. * = p b 0.05, ** = p b 0.01. Conditional indirect effects of MS on DTA through prostitute bail: low openness: effect = −0.11, SE = 0.06, CI = −0.28, −0.02*; mid openness: effect = −0.03, SE = 0.03, CI = −0.14, 0.01; high openness: effect = 0.05, SE = 0.05, CI = − 0.01, 0.17. Note. Conditional indirect effects are considered statistically definitive (*) when the confidence interval (CI) does not straddle zero. 0 = pain, 1 = mortality.

5.1.1. Participants and procedure Two hundred thirty-six Amazon mTurk users participated in this online study entitled “Personality and Morality.” As in the previous studies, an exploratory boxplot analysis was used to identify outliers on the primary dependent variable (prostitute bail). Twelve outliers were

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identified and excluded from the analysis (6 from the blindness and 6 from the MS condition), leaving a total of 224 participants (118 female, 101 male, 5 declining to report; Mage = 35.36). Most participants reported being Caucasian (78.3%), heterosexual (89.5%), and English speakers (97.2%). 5.1.2. Materials 5.1.2.1. Personal need for structure (PNS). Before completing the measure of openness, participants were given the 12-item PNS scale (Neuberg & Newsom, 1993; e.g., “I enjoy having a clear and structured mode of life,” from 1 to 6, strongly disagree to strongly agree). This measure was included both to distract from the focus on openness, and to provide an assessment of the effect of openness above and beyond a related, but distinct, construct. The scale exhibited excellent reliability (α = 0.90). 5.1.2.2. Openness to experience. See measure described in Study 1. 5.1.2.3. Prostitution attitudes questionnaire. See measure described in Study 2. 5.1.2.4. Mortality salience and blindness control. Participants were randomly assigned to answer two open-ended questions related to death or going blind (Koca-Atabey & Ӧner-Ӧzkan, 2014). This control condition was introduced so participants would consider a threatening, but novel, experience to serve as a true control for the death manipulation. In the MS condition, participants were asked to, “Please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouses in you,” and “Jot down, as specifically as you can, what you think will happen to you as you physically die and once you are physically dead.” In the blindness control, participants were given parallel questions about “becoming totally blind.” 5.1.2.5. Expanded PANAS-X. Participants were given the same questionnaire used in Studies 1 and 2 with two additional items (“curious” and “intrigued”) added at the end to tap into curiosity. Four subscales were pulled from this 66-item measure including a 3-item measure of curiosity (e.g., “interested,” “curious,” and “intrigued”; α = 0.77), the 5-item measure of fear described in Study 1 (α = 0.91), a 9-item measure of positive affect (α = 0.89), and an 8-item measure of negative affect (α = 0.92). Typically, the positive and negative affect subscales include 10 items, but “interested,” and “afraid” and “scared,” were removed from their respective scales so they were not confounded with the curiosity and fear composites.

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5.2.2. Prostitute bail mediated by affect To examine the mediating influence of fear and curiosity on prostitute bail as a function of openness and MS, a moderated mediation analysis was conducted (PROCESS Model 7; Hayes, 2013). We estimated effects with MS as the predictor (0 = blindness, 1 = mortality), openness to experience as the moderator, curiosity and fear as mediators operating in parallel, and prostitute bail as the outcome. This analysis tests the indirect effect of one mediator while controlling for the other. Positive and negative affect were also controlled for. There was not a significant direct effect of MS on fear, b = − 0.02, SE = 0.05, t(218) = − 0.42, p = 0.672, CI = [− 0.12, 0.08], however there was a significant effect of openness, b = 0.06, SE = 0.02, t(218) = 3.07, p = 0.002, CI = [0.02, 0.10]. Unexpectedly, high openness was associated with increased fear. Critically though, openness and MS did not interact to influence fear responses, b = 0.002, SE = 0.04, t(218) = 0.05, p = 0.959, CI = [− 0.07, 0.08]. With respect to curiosity, there was a direct effect of MS, b = 0.20, SE = 0.09, t(218) = 2.18, p = 0.030, CI = [0.02, 0.38], but not of openness, b = 0.03, SE = 0.04, t(218) = 0.88, p = 0.379, CI = [− 0.04, 0.11]. While the openness × MS interaction did not reach statistical significance, b = 0.12, SE = 0.07, t(218) = 1.65, p = 0.100, CI = [− 0.02, 0.25], high openness individuals were responding to MS with increased curiosity, b = 0.35, SE = 0.13, t(218) = 2.72, p = 0.007, CI = [0.10, 0.61]. A similar effect was observed among those with moderate levels of openness, b = 0.20, SE = 0.09, t(218) = 2.18, (p = 0.030), CI = [0.02, 0.38], but not among participants low in openness, b = 0.05, SE = 0.13, t(218) = 0.37, (p = 0.716), CI = [− 0.21, 0.31] (see Fig. 5). To examine the hypothesis that MS would reduce worldview defense through increased curiosity for individuals high in openness, we assessed the conditional indirect effects using the pick-a-point approach. The conditional indirect effect for high openness did not include zero, indicating a statistically definitive effect (mean estimate = −10.38, Boot SE = 6.52, CI = [−28.18, −1.09]). For participants high in openness to experience, MS increased curiosity (compared to the blindness control), which, in turn, was associated with decreased prostitute bail. Curiosity levels for those with moderately high levels of openness mediated prostitute bail in the same direction, although this bootstrapped confidence interval was closer to zero, indicating a weaker effect (mean estimate = −5.89, Boot SE = 3.93, CI = [−17.21, −0.41]). This effect was not observed for individuals low in openness (mean estimate = −1.41, Boot SE = 3.99, CI = [− 12.51, 4.91]). All conditional indirect effects using fear as a mediator included zero (see Fig. 6 for conceptual model and bootstrapped confidence intervals).

5.1.2.6. Prostitution scenario and setting bail amount. See description in Study 2. 5.1.2.7. Demographics. Participants then responded to the same demographic items as in Study 2.4 5.2. Results 5.2.1. Prostitute bail To determine if openness moderated the effect of MS on prostitute bail, a regression analysis was conducted (PROCESS Model 1; Hayes, 2013). There was a direct effect of openness on prostitute bail, b = − 23.02, SE = 9.22, t(220) = − 2.50, p = 0.013, CI = [−41.18, −4.85], with high openness individuals assessing lower bail, but no direct effect of MS, b = −4.55, SE = 24.27, t(220) = −0.19, p = 0.852, CI = [−18.61, 54.12]. The openness × MS interaction was not significant, b = 17.75, SE = 18.45, t(220) = 0.96, p = 0.337, CI = [− 18.61, 54.12]. 4 A brief 3-item self-esteem measure was included in the demographics section of the study for exploratory purposes.

Fig. 5. Curiosity as a function of openness and MS. Note. Higher scores indicate greater curiosity.

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account of the relationship with curiosity provoked from consideration of one's death. Because curiosity has been shown to have a positive relationship with openness (Kashdan et al., 2009), and is sometimes used as a facet of openness (Hogan & Hogan, 2007), it is important to consider whether the curiosity incited by thinking about death for high openness individuals is indeed distinct from general openness. With respect to this question, we did not find a significant correlation between openness and curiosity in this study (r = 0.09 overall, and r = −0.02 within the control condition [which would not be influenced by experimental procedures], both ns). Relevantly, we measured curiosity with items added to the end of a scale (PANAS-X) designed to specifically assess state affect. This is in contrast to the previously documented relationship between openness and dispositional curiosity (Kashdan et al., 2009). Although this study does have the limitation of not relying on an established measure of curiosity, it suggests that curiosity as an affective state is distinct from dispositional openness, and plays a role in attenuating MS effects for high openness individuals. 6. General discussion Fig. 6. Openness moderating the effect of MS on prostitute bail through curiosity and fear. Note. † = p ≤ 0.10, * = p b 0.05, ** = p b 0.01, *** = p b 0.001. Estimates above the line reflect the model with Curiosity as the mediator; estimates below the line reflect the model with Fear as the mediator. Positive and negative affect are controlled for in all stages of analysis. Conditional effects of MS on curiosity: low openness: effect = 0.05, SE = 0.13, t(218) = 0.37, p = 0.716, CI = −0.21, 0.31; mid openness: effect = 0.20, SE = 0.09, t(218) = 2.18, p = 0.030, CI =0.02, 0.38*; high openness: effect = 0.35, SE = 0.13, t(218) = 2.72, p = 0.007, CI = 0.10, 0.61**. Conditional effects of MS on fear: low openness: effect = −0.02, SE = 0.07, t(218) = −0.33, p = 0.739, CI = −0.16, 0.11; mid openness: effect = −0.02, SE = 0.05, t(218) = −0.42, p = 0.672, CI = −0.12, 0.08; high openness: effect = −0.02, SE = 0.07, t(218) = −0.26, p = 0.793, CI = −0.15, 0.12. Conditional indirect effects of MS on prostitute bail through curiosity: low openness: effect = −1.41, SE = 3.99, CI = −12.51, 4.91; mid openness: effect = −5.89, SE = 3.93, CI = −17.21, −0.41*; high openness: effect = −10.38, SE = 6.52, CI = −28.18, −1.09*. Conditional indirect effects of MS on prostitute bail through fear: low openness: effect = 0.54, SE = 3.22, CI = −3.65, 10.60; mid openness: effect = 0.48, SE = 2.33, CI = −2.04, 8.34; high openness: effect = 0.42, SE = 3.01, CI = −3.29, 10.51. Note. Conditional indirect effects are considered statistically definitive (*) when the confidence interval (CI) does not straddle zero. 0 = blindness, 1 = mortality.

We conducted the aforementioned analysis controlling for PNS in addition to positive and negative affect, and doing so did not impact the conclusion of previously reported result.

5.3. Discussion Study 3 provided support for our hypothesis, demonstrating that increased curiosity in response to MS among high (and moderately high) openness individuals was related to attenuated worldview defense. This was not the case with fear, arguing against the possibility that tempered defensiveness for high openness individuals was on account of decreased fear, or alternatively, increased fear among those low in openness. It should be noted that there was no significant moderation by openness on the dependent variable of prostitute bail as in Study 2, and that the mediating variable of curiosity was required to demonstrate a relationship between openness, MS, and prostitute bail. This study may have failed to replicate the findings from Study 2 for a number of reasons, including the assessment of curiosity just before the prostitute bail scenario. It is possible that simply responding to these items interfered with the tendency to respond defensively, notably because they came just before the measure of defense (i.e., they were at the very end of the PANAS-X). In addition, this study used a control condition (i.e., blindness) that may share some features with more physical aspects of dying (e.g., death results in the loss of all senses, including one's ability to see), potentially resulting in some defensiveness. Although we are unable to identify the exact cause of the lack of replication, this study does demonstrate support for the hypothesized model in which decreased defenses for high openness individuals are on

Across three studies, dispositional levels of openness moderated individuals' responses to reminders of their mortality. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that individuals low in openness responded to MS with defenses rooted in self-esteem (intentions to use, and perceived popularity on Facebook as a function of identity investment; Study 1) and with a traditional worldview defense (increased bail set for a prostitute), which in turn reduced death thought accessibility (Study 2). High openness individuals did not respond with these defensive reactions in either of these studies. Study 3 then examined a hypothesized mechanism for the mitigated responses by those high in openness, demonstrating that curiosity felt by high openness individuals in response to thinking about death was related to decreased worldview defense. Additional variables (e.g., Facebook use, self-esteem, attitudes toward prostitution, and personal need for structure) were controlled for and shown not to account for the effects, providing evidence for the robust effects of openness. 6.1. Role of affect in terror management Given that recent research has identified fear as a critical affective component involved in some terror management processes (Lambert et al., 2014), it is perhaps surprising that openness did not interact with MS to influence fear-related affect. Study 3 specifically examined this, and also introduced a novel measure of affect conceptually related to openness (i.e., curiosity) against which fear responses could be measured. Ultimately, we found that the attenuated effects for high openness individuals following MS were not accounted for by decreased fear, but instead, by increased curiosity. Of course, examination of how openness levels may impact additional types of affect, or even momentary orientations (approach vs. avoidance), following death reminders is needed. Utilization of other methodological approaches, including physiological and behavioral assessments, should also be considered when addressing such questions. This research was initially designed to provide a theoretical basis for openness as a moderator of terror management effects (Studies 1 and 2), and subsequently, to examine why high openness individuals were not responding defensively (Study 3). To the extent that a positive emotion like curiosity is considered approach-oriented, the results paint a picture of how high openness individuals may take an approach-oriented stance after considering their mortality. Though the study was not designed to take into consideration why low openness individuals were behaving defensively, they may have been taking an avoidanceoriented stance, in contrast to their high openness counterparts, which our affective measure (PANAS-X) and its subscales (e.g., fear) were not sensitive enough to pick up on. Designing a study intended

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to measure actual avoidance or approach orientations toward death using openness as a moderator could help further examine what was driving our effects. In sum, these findings help provide yet another example of how specific types of affect (in this case, curiosity) may be relevant when discussing terror management processes and also adds to the recent discussions about affective changes after death thought is elicited (Kelley, Crowell, Tang, Harmon-Jones, & Schmeichel, 2015; Lambert et al., 2014). 6.2. Measuring openness The effects of openness in the current studies were demonstrated using the TIPI (Gosling et al., 2003). We opted to administer this brief measure to maximize the impact of the experimental manipulations and to conceal the focus on openness. Though this measure has been shown to be reliable and valid (Gosling et al., 2003; Ehrhart et al., 2009), going forward it may prove useful to include scales that measure specific facets of openness, such as ideas or values (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992), curiosity and culture (HPI; Hogan & Hogan, 2007), or broader related aspects of openness such as openness to experience and intellect (BFAS; DeYoung, Quilty, & Peterson, 2007). In considering specific facets of openness (of which there are many), the “curiosity” facet of openness, typically measured by the HPI but possibly picked up on by the broad TIPI we used, could have been driving our effects. In light of past research indicating a relationship between general openness and dispositional curiosity (Kashdan et al., 2009), this only reinforces this idea. In Study 3 we did not find a significant correlation between state curiosity and general openness, but this may have been due to the manner in which we measured state curiosity. Additionally, the “culture” facet measured by the HPI might also play a key role when one considers the critical value culture has more generally in assuaging death anxieties. Even the “fantasy” facet of the NEO-PI-R may inform the manner in which participants engage with MS prompts. The ability to entertain a broad array of outcomes accompanying death (some bad, some potentially good) may decrease how threatened one feels in response to it. Consideration of the previously mentioned facets of openness in future research, as well as dispositional curiosity, will elucidate whether the broad conceptualization of openness (used in this research), or specific facets/aspects of openness, are better predictors of MS effects.

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creativity; e.g., Connelly et al., 2014), there is the additional perk of being less susceptible to defensive responses following reminders of death. The implications of non-defensiveness from our findings provide a platform with which greater tolerance of outgroups can be facilitated by creating environments that nurture and value openness, and promotes the idea that death awareness does not necessarily have to perpetuate intolerance and increase hostility, but can instead promote more positive outcomes (Vail et al., 2012). Our findings also speak to an editorial by Wong and Tomer (2011) that called for a greater emphasis to be placed on active acceptance of death in order to fully engage life. Openness provides a fitting example, suggesting that ascribing positive qualities to that which one is most fearful (death) can pave the way for greater tolerance and potentially decrease prejudice and discrimination, thus allowing for a more fulfilling life. 6.4. Future directions The current studies highlight a number of exciting possibilities for future research. Specifically, if individuals high in openness are protected from defensiveness in response to death, the question that follows is whether openness can be altered (despite evidence that it is relatively stable throughout life, McCrae & Sutin, 2009). There is at least one study we know of (Schutte, Malouff, Segrera, Wolf, & Rodgers, 2003) where the researchers successfully manipulated openness (as well as agreeableness, and extraversion) by having participants imagine themselves in situations meant to induce changes in these constructs (e.g., “imagine yourself completely absorbed listening to music”). Although, it is likely that these changes to Big Five personality traits (coined “Big Five states”) are short lived, this suggests that it may be possible to experimentally impact openness levels. Schema activation related to open or closed-mindsets (e.g., through subliminal priming) may prove to be a useful experimental platform through which dispositional tendencies can be manipulated to temporarily impact defensiveness. In addition, experiencing novel situations (e.g., studying abroad, starting a new job, or beginning a new relationship) may facilitate openness, and potentially help foster less defensive reactions after one thinks about death. Clearly, there is more work to be done. 6.5. Limitations

6.3. Implications for non-defensiveness This research adds to a body of work demonstrating that some individuals may respond non-defensively to the awareness of mortality because of the unique way they reflect upon it. The current studies, research on mindfulness (Niemiec et al., 2010), and research demonstrating that Buddhist monks respond non-defensively following MS (Park & Pyszczynski, 2016) provide examples of how a particular disposition can ameliorate the need to defend following MS. These works go beyond showing moderation of defenses as a function of individual differences in self-esteem (e.g., esteem derived from driving behaviors, being tan, or dispositional self-esteem; Ben-Ari et al., 1999; Cox et al., 2009; Harmon-Jones et al., 1997) or structured views of the world (e.g., Landau et al., 2006), to suggest that these individuals, in a sense, are okay with death. Clearly though, this is a difficult point to make—that the absence of a response on a dependent measure reflects more than simply a lack of defensiveness on the measure per se, but instead non-defensiveness resulting from the way MS is processed. Put differently, eliminating the outcome (i.e., self-esteem striving and worldview defense) does not necessarily imply that the cause has also been extinguished (i.e., death anxiety). Although, in our work, replicating the nondefensiveness finding for high openness individuals across two domains is supportive of this position, additional research would be helpful to continue to validate the assertion. To the extent that this is true, it implies that in addition to the many other documented benefits associated with high in openness (e.g., educational achievement, tolerance, and

We have touched on a few limitations concerning the specific measures of openness used and specific defenses employed in these studies. In addition, the online platform used in this research potentially limits the studies' external validity, which could be addressed with laboratory research, and also more naturalistic studies. Another limitation was that openness was measured at the outset of each experiment, potentially activating openness among individuals high in this disposition. Additional measures related to the construct of openness (e.g., Intolerance for Ambiguity, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Trait Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II; Budner, 1962; Brown & Ryan, 2003; Kashdan et al., 2009) should be assessed in order to provide additional evidence for the discriminant validity of openness in terror management research. Our measured variables of interest in these studies (i.e., the mediators and outcomes) were primarily self-reported internal states (e.g., identity investment and self-esteem striving in Study 1; curiosity and worldview defense in Study 3). Though we relied on these types of measures for practical reasons, such research designs can be problematic when interpreting mediation analyses because they impede the ability to distinguish a genuine mediator from a correlate of the dependent variable (cf. Fiedler, Schott, & Meiser, 2011). Though we cannot establish true cause and effect, mediation is still an appropriate analytic tool for testing these “naturally occurring” a priori hypotheses for indirect relationships, and a significant result meets a necessary, but not sufficient, criteria for causality (Fiedler et al., 2011). In other words, we

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have garnered evidence for a possible causal process, bolstered by conceptual replication across studies; but, as Fiedler and colleagues note, such findings should not be misconstrued as the final link in the progression of scientific inference, or as confirmation of a variable as the “true” mediator. Going forward, it will be important to consider issues of causality in research design, perhaps conducting multiple experiments to test the hypothesized causal chains of events (Spencer, Zanna, & Fong, 2005), relying on experimentally manipulated mediators (Bullock, Green, & Ha, 2010), or employing longitudinal designs to establish temporal precedence (Kline, 2015). 7. Conclusion This work provides the first evidence that the types of experiences people high in openness are open to are not limited to experiences in this life. The first two studies provided evidence that openness moderates defensive responses to reminders of mortality. High openness was found to ameliorate both self-esteem striving and worldview defense. A third study demonstrated that curiosity provoked by thoughts of death may contribute to this tendency. There is clearly more work to be done, but this research opens the door to openness as an important personality difference to investigate in context of terror management. Appendix A. Supplementary data Supplementary data to this article can be found online at http://dx. doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.03.003. References Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Simon, L. (1997). Suppression, accessibility of death-related thoughts, and cultural worldview defense: Exploring the psychodynamics of terror management. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 5–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.1.5. Becker, E. (1973). The denial of death. New York: Free Press. Ben-Ari, O. T., Florian, V., & Mikulincer, M. (1999). The impact of mortality salience on reckless driving: A test of terror management mechanisms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(1), 35–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.1.35. Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822–848. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822. Budner, S. (1962). Intolerance of ambiguity as a personality variable. Journal of Personality, 30(1), 29–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1962.tb02303.x. Bullock, J. G., Green, D. P., & Ha, S. E. (2010). Yes, but what's the mechanism? (don't expect an easy answer). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(4), 550–558. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018933. Burke, B. L., Martens, A., & Faucher, E. H. (2010). Two decades of terror management theory: A meta-analysis of mortality salience research. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(2), 155–195. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1088868309352321. Connelly, B. S., Ones, D. S., & Chernyshenko, O. S. (2014). Introducing the special section on openness to experience: Review of openness taxonomies, measurement, and nomological net. Journal of Personality Assessment, 96(1), 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1080/00223891.2013.830620. Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) AND NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. Cox, C. R., Cooper, D. P., Vess, M., Arndt, J., Goldenberg, J. L., & Routledge, C. (2009). Bronze is beautiful but pale can be pretty: The effects of appearance standards and mortality salience on sun-tanning outcomes. Health Psychology, 28(6), 746–752. http://dx.doi. org/10.1037/a0016388. DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 880–896. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880. DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., Peterson, J. B., & Gray, J. R. (2014). Openness to experience, intellect, and cognitive ability. Journal of Personality Assessment, 96(1), 46–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2013.806327. Ehrhart, M. G., Ehrhart, K. H., Roesch, S. C., Chung-Herrera, B. G., Nadler, K., & Bradshaw, K. (2009). Testing the latent factor structure and construct validity of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(8), 900–905. http://dx. doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.07.012. Fiedler, K., Schott, M., & Meiser, T. (2011). What mediation analysis can (not) do. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47(6), 1231–1236. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp. 2011.05.007. Friedman, M., & Rholes, W. S. (2008). Religious fundamentalism and terror management. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 18(1), 36–52.

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