The terror of death and consumers’ sustainability attitudes

Abstract

Applying Terror Management Theory, this research attempts to investigate how the terror of death perception affects consumers' sustainability attitudes under the contingent condition of religiosity. This field study was conducted in Malang, Indonesia. The findings disclose that both mortality salience and self-esteem increase materialism. Materialism is found to intensify consumers’ sustainability attitudes of green concern and consumer social responsibility (CnSR). It is also found that religiosity strengthens the effect of mortality salience on materialism and that of materialism on CnSR. Contrarily, religiosity weakens the effects of materialism on green concern. However, there is no statistical support for the moderating effect of religiosity on the linkage between self-esteem and materialism.