In daily life, people face numerous failures and threats. Prior research indicates that self-esteem, close relationship and worldview can function as buffering resources against various threats to the self and eventually reduce defensive responses and promote adaptive behavior. In this research, we proposed that home can also serve as buffering resource. Activated sense of home may allow individuals to evaluate threatening information in a more open and objective way, to experience less threat anxiety, and to respond to threat in a less defensive way. To test our hypotheses, three studies were conducted. Study 1 showed that home-primed participants showed a more open attitude towards the threatening information (experiment 1) and performed better in the subsequent Spatial Rotation Test (experiment 2) than the controlled group. Study 3 showed that priming home reduced anxiety caused by the salience of death, manifesting as reduced interest in materialistic consumption compared with the control group. Three studies provide convergent and consistent support for the buffering function of home in coping with threat.
修改评论