Profound Versus Superficial Coping With Mortality Threats: Action Orientation Moderates Implicit but Not Explicit...

Mortality salience (MS) strengthens cultural values but individuals might differ in whether this process operates at a superficial, explicit level only or also at a profound, implicit level. Two studies investigated whether explicit and implicit attitudes toward Muslims after an MS induction vary as a function of threat-related action orientation (AOT), an efficient form of self-regulation of emotion and behavior that draws on the activation of the implicit, integrated self. In Study 1, there was a main effect of MS on explicit prejudice but only participants with high levels of AOT showed reduced implicit prejudice following MS. In Study 2, this interaction effect was replicated using an alternative implicit measure of prejudice. Defense in response to MS might thus not be a uniform phenomenon but might be composed of processes operating on different (i.e., profound vs. superficial) levels that vary with types of self-regulation such as high versus low AOT.