Re-examining the relationship between mortality salience and prosocial behavior in Chinese context

ABSTRACT

Given the mixed findings regarding the relationship between mortality salience (MS) and prosocial behavior, the present research retested how MS influences prosocial behaviors in Chinese culture. Results showed that although participants have different levels of death thought accessibility between an organ donation scenario and a general charity scenario, their willingness for prosocial behaviors were not significantly different between the two scenarios, indicating that under the influence of Chinese culture MS did not decrease prosocial behaviors. The findings point to the importance of uncovering the role of Chinese philosophy about death and life in shaping people’s positive death reflection.