Towards Understanding Creative Ingenuity in Dire Situations

From deadly natural disasters to terrorism and wars to violent crimes, today’s 24/7 media constantly exposes us to information that makes our own mortality salient. At times, we may even be quite close to such misfortunes (e.g., living in the areas ravaged by Superstorm Sandy or Hurricane Katrina). This research explores how mortality salience affects people’s creative ability and what type of individuals are more sensitive to this effect. Prior research suggests that mortality salience elicits existential anxiety and, to buffer against this paralyzing anxiety, people deploy terror management strategies to create a sense of meaning and order that can transcend death (e.g., Solomon et al.1991; Greenberg et al. 1997). Because cultural values provide meaning and structure to one’s world and represent permanence beyond an individual’s demise, mortality salience intensifies people’s adherence to their cultural values and worldviews (e.g., Greenberg et al. 1990; Rosenblatt et al. 1989). Supporting this theorization, a large number of studies show that the onset of mortality salience can alter evaluations of self and others (Burke et al. 2010). These effects have also been shown to be non-consciousness and unique to mortality salience (as opposed other aversive situations; Greenberg et al. 1994).