From the Grave to the Cradle: Evidence That Mortality Salience Engenders a Desire for Offspring

On the basis of terror management theory, the authors hypothesized that reminders of mortality (mortality

self-relevant worldviews that also serve to manage existential concerns. In 3 studies, men, but not

support of the authors’ hypothesis that women’s desire for offspring was inhibited as a function of

salience on a desire for offspring for female participants only; furthermore, Study 4 revealed that when

mortality salience with an increased number of desired children. Taken together, the findings suggest that

a desire for offspring can function as a terror management defense mechanism.