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Researcher effects on mortality salience research: a meta-analytic moderator analysis
Chih-Long Yen1, Chung-Ping Cheng2
1Department of Counseling and I/O Psychology, Ming Chuan University, Taiwan. dragon1943@mail2000.com.tw
Death Studies
|February 14, 2014
Summary
Terror management theory (TMT) research shows significant effects of mortality salience (MS). However, a reanalysis revealed that specific research teams, particularly an American team, reported larger effect sizes than others.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Terror Management Theory
Background:
- Terror management theory (TMT) posits that awareness of mortality (mortality salience, MS) influences self-esteem and worldview.
- A prior meta-analysis confirmed substantial MS effects (r = .35) across 164 studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate potential researcher effects within TMT research.
- To identify if specific research groups contribute to observed effect sizes.
Main Methods:
- Reanalysis of data from a meta-analysis of 164 TMT studies.
- Cluster analysis of authorships to identify distinct research teams (American Team A, Israeli Team I).
- Comparison of effect sizes between identified teams and other researchers.
Main Results:
- Two major research teams were identified: an American team (Team A) and an Israeli team (Team I).
- Team A, responsible for over 50% of MS experiments, reported a significantly larger average effect size (r = .41) compared to other researchers (r = .30).
- Observed cultural differences in TMT research may stem from research teams rather than sample origins.
Conclusions:
- Researcher effects, specifically from Team A, appear to inflate effect sizes in TMT research.
- The findings suggest a need to consider researcher and team-specific influences in TMT and potentially other psychological research areas.
- Attributed cultural differences may be artifacts of specific research groups' methodologies or biases.
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