Follow the Norm!

Terror management research shows that mortality salience (MS) increases people’s attempts to live up to cultural standards. However, as cultures value very different and sometimes even contradictory standards, it is often difficult to derive specific predictions. Previous research identified the salience of injunctive norms (norms based on moral prescriptions) as an important moderator. We tested whether the influence of MS also depended on the salience of descriptive norms, which refer to what most people actually do in a particular situation. We, indeed, found that only when showing people that fellow ingroup members were optimistic (as opposed to pessimistic) that Germany would win the soccer world championship, did MS increase participants’ tendency to likewise express optimism about the team.