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© The Author(s) 2018
Brian M. YoungConsumer Psychologyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90911-0_12
12. And Now the End Is Near…
Brian M. Young1
(1)The Business School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Brian M. Young
Email: [email protected]
And Now the End Is Near…
In two ways of course as the end of the book is imminent and we also need to look at consumption surrounding death and dying . The event of death, so inevitable and yet so unexpected when it does occur as it will to all of us, will always be disruptive even as we anticipate and prepare as part of growing much older and accepting death as imminent, which is part of the process of dying. The themes in much of this book deal with how we are caught up in the complexity of living a life and no preparation 1 for disposition can anticipate when and where we die and whether it will be violent, lingering, quick or peaceful. Material possessions still have a role in many analyses of this event and Turley and O’Donohoe (2012) review much of the relevant literature on bereavement as well as providing an account of their own research in this area. For the bereaved, objects associated with the deceased can impact one with a startling intensity at cognitive, affective and conative levels. Privately one is assaulted threefold by these and it’s likely that the public rituals associated with grieving in different cultures exist partly to assuage and transform ‘raw’ emotions into the ‘cooked’ display of grief (see section on “Claude Lévi-Strauss and Raw/Cooked” in Chapter 2). Funeral services or ceremonies whether they are religious or humanist also mark a socially recognised transformation which is as ancient as humanity itself. Relationships with the deceased are often maintained by the proxy of ‘the grave’ which can range from a simple name plaque on a wall in the cemetery or even just a name in a book at the crematorium to elaborately decorated last resting places 2 which are maintained regularly with flowers and cleaning. Other cultures such as Chinese have their own traditions for graveyards and passing through this final stage but I am talking about the ones I am familiar with in England. Often the deceased has left instructions as to the way he or she wants the funeral to be conducted and what should be done with the body, and remaining material possessions and financial affairs are usually listed and elaborated in the will.
I want now to explore a theory which would predict that death does cast a shadow over the thoughts and feelings of Homo sapiens . I use the scientific term for our species deliberately because although this theory is relevant for describing older people, it is theorised as a characteristic of humanity that has emerged from our evolutionary history.
Terror Management Theory
This theory makes particular claims about the nature of the human condition and although its origins can be traced back to writings of Becker in the 1970s (Becker, 1971, 1973) its provenance is firmly rooted in evolutionary psychology . The argument is simple. Staying alive is adaptive and we do that instinctively but as we are a species that has developed metacognitive thinking and are self-aware then we know that death is inevitable. We have also developed cultural world views that differ across history and cultures. These can contain views about why we are here, how we should behave, and also our role as individuals and how we can ‘live’ after we die. Either we live symbolically through others’ memories of us as well as maintaining continuity through the family generation, or literally live in an after-life as many religions claim (Pyszczynski, 2004). This cultural world view can cushion us against the terror associated with death and can also enhance our self-esteem (Harmon-Jones, Greenberg, Solomon, & Simon, 1996). In addition the ‘intergroup bias in minimal groups ’ which is a tendency to favour the in-group when faced with intergroup discrimination simply on the basis of being a member of that in-group, was strengthened when mortality was made more salient (Harmon-Jones et al., op. cit.). One would predict this as comradeship, group solidarity, and neighbourliness usually increase when death is not far away.
The serious reader might want to explore Pyszczynski , Solomon, and Greenberg (2015) for an extended exposition on the subject and their programme of research includes “the development of terror management processes and the anxiety-buffering system over the course of childhood and individual life-spans” (p. 5) so it is certainly relevant for this book. One of the central tenets of their theory is that self-esteem has a privileged place as a mental construct as it reflects one’s self worth and, together with membership of a culture that shares a world view emphasising either literal or symbolic immortality , 3 the maintenance of one’s self-esteem is vital in keeping fear of death at bay. Indeed one of the experimental paradigms used in research in this area is to heighten mortality salience i.e. make ideas about life’s finitude more immediate to the mind using techniques such as priming (see Chapter 4) and then assess other changes that occur. These are listed (op. cit., section “The Evidence”) and discussed although the details need not concern us apart from noting that the general influence of increasing mortality salience is to make one more biased toward the in-group and wary of out-group individuals as well as wanting to remain together more. The temptation however to go further and talk about for example how the threat of nuclear war or invasion might produce general shifts in public opinion in a more conservative and less outgoing way is not mentioned however. Section “The Hierarchy of Effects” should be relevant as it deals with the development of these systems in children. Only one study is cited (Florian & Mikulincer, 1998) which seemed to show that in-group favouritism 4 which is used to manage death concerns exists in children somewhere between 7 and 11 years (Pyszczynski , et al., 2015, p. 22). Children who are older than that will be able to modify their social identities accordingly when death concerns are induced. For older adults then the authors argue that if mortality salience is induced and death becomes more salient these older adults will increase what is known as their “…prosocial generative concern for future generations” (Maxfield et al., 2014). 5
Some authors use terror management as theoretical support for their research. For example Rindfleisch , Burroughs, and Wong (2009) provided us with an interesting argument that would suggest that when they wrote in the first decade of this century, existential insecurity was heightened with insecure roles, and an undermining of the structural institutions of family, community, and religion. This lack of certainty which was described as consisting of ‘existential tremors ’ (op. cit., p. 3) would then provide a set of conditions that terror management would be able to explain. We don’t need to induce them in the short-term as many of the experiments did as they are there as part of life at that time. The management of the anxiety that is induced should be predicable from terror management theory with friendship groups providing solace and a general wariness about strangers and out-group members. However the authors also argued that brands are sought out in the face of anxiety about death . The authors’ argument hinges relies heavily on the importance of materialism , which is a value where goods and other material objects play a pivotal and important role in one’s life. In order to understand it however we need a brief excursion into materialism as a concept in consumer research.
A Quick Primer on Materialism
Your major life goals might be things like having a happy family, doing a job you are content with, maintaining good relationships with your family and friends. Or they might include being successful with a good home in a respectable neighbourhood, being able to wear expensive and fashionable clothes and take holidays in expensive hotels and entertaining lavishly. If the second list (the materialistic ones) dominate and are the ones you think about most th
en you are high in materialism. The most recent set of scales to measure it can be found in Richins (2004) and she used attitude statements like ‘I like to own things that impress people’ and ‘I’d be happier if I could afford to buy more things’. Participants usually will respond using a scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’. It’s not a difficult measure to use and it’s fairly robust. In addition it’s not too technical and people will have thoughts and feelings about it and take a position on how materialistic they and their friends might be. As a value, its role is frequently discussed in the literature so we read for example that it is a good predictor of compulsive buying (Dittmar, 2005). It’s also up there with right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation in predicting racism (Roets, van Hiel, & Cornelis, 2006).
However ‘not-materialism’ is rarely defined in the literature although it seems to be an interest in people rather than things. Does it mean frugality where you get pleasure not spending money, eating and living simply, and generally see that as a right and moral way to conduct yourself? Or does it mean that love of material possessions is not and possibly never the right way but rather we should value human relationships instead? Usually it’s implied from the context that low materialists are interested and engaged in human relationships rather than material goods and services. But frugality may be an opposite (Pepper, Jackson, & Uzzell, 2009) or indeed might be another mental construct altogether, rather than part of the package of the ‘non-materialist’, disliking racism in all its forms, keen on other people, and generally sensible with goods and concerned about the environment (Kilbourne & Pickett, 2008).
Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton (1980) drew a distinction between instrumental materialism and terminal materialism . It means that if your goals are ultimately to do with possessions and owning stuff then you are terminally materialistic. Instrumental materialism is much more liberating and I am instrumentally materialistic and proud! I like the good life when I can get it and I have worked hard to achieve that but ultimately other more satisfying goals to do with human relationships come first. If I want to buy books to improve my understanding or appreciation of life, or spend money on flights where I’m not cramped up in seat for 13 hours then I’ll do that as I’ll be able in the end to get so much out of the experience of wherever the destination is—especially if I take the family too.
More on Terror Management
Returning now to terror management, when anxiety about death becomes salient, then, according to the argument put forward by Rindfleisch , et al. (2009) above, communities should adopt a particular structure with coherent and protective in-groups and antipathy at best, aggression at worst displayed toward out-groups. However it is known and recognised that those individuals high in materialism have difficulty making friends and have weak or poor relationships with others (op. cit., p. 4), with the remedy sought for this condition being more material objects. So more things are acquired and consumed as a substitute for the friendship of others. Where do brands come in? In 2008, a lengthy chapter by Allen, Fournier , and Miller on Brands and their Meaning Makers in the weighty and seminal Handbook of Consumer Psychology emerged and was then available to a receptive audience of psychologists involved in consumer research. Much of the content was recognisable to consumer researchers from other disciplines such as consumer culture theory but for many psychologists it was a novelty. A major theme was how the meaning of brands were co-constructed by individuals and groups with special interests in specific brands such as Red Bull (caffeine and vitamin enhanced energy drink) or Harley Davidson (‘sit up and beg’ motor bike) and the emphasis was most certainly on the role of the consumer as meaning maker rather than the firm. The extent to which Red Bull for example started life as a drink brand that looked impossible to market and ended up as an iconic brand dominating the energy drink category worldwide for young people, is a story of stories largely generated by those brand consumers following the journey of their own Red Bull (see Allen, Fournier, & Miller, op. cit., pp. 796–797). There is every reason to suppose that the co-creation of meaning is in the hands of consumers using social networks now and in the future and that these groups, endorsers and supporters and endorsers of brands will parody, exalt and endorse their brands and mock the competition. Many iconic representations are parodied and these parodies become the next generation of brand representations. Brands are then empowering especially for users in the context of collective consumption . Not only are they empowering in the sense the audience takes over but the individual uses brands as an extension of the self and as tools to seek solidarity rather than just to better one’s personal status relative to others. In the face of existential insecurity materialistic individuals may choose to enhance these brand connections so as to maintain and sustain their sense of meaning and purpose (op. cit., p. 11). Choi, Kwon, and Lee (2007) using survey data taken in 2002 just after the ‘9-11’ terrorist attack on New York demonstrated that fear of becoming a terrorism victim was positively related to brand name consumption and compulsive consumption , another piece of evidence that mortality salience can influence consumption. Finally, Arndt , Solomon, Kasser, and Sheldon (2004a, b) provide a useful, clear and eloquent accompaniment to our brief look at terror management and its role in consumption and consumer behaviour and I would recommend these papers for the serious student and researcher. However although intimations of mortality and how this affects consumption, materialism and consumer behaviour via so-called managing of terror are important there is one group of people who have already experienced the imminence of dying and avoided it. Do these survivors of terminal illness or accidents that brought them to death ’s door think differently about values , material or otherwise? Let’s end this section with a list culled from Noyes (1980) who interviewed 215 people who had a near-death experience . The experience of coming back from the brink reduced fear of death, heightened a sense of relative invulnerability, was associated with a feeling of special importance or destiny and a belief in continued existence. Life is precious and the priorities of life were re-examined. Life should be lived less cautiously, and uncontrollable events faced more passively. This equanimity and the feeling that what almost slipped through your fingers was very important is something that we could all learn from.
…and a Funeral
The end has been and gone. The party’s over and someone else has to clear up after you. If you have been thoughtful and prepared then your children or other relatives won’t have to pay as you will have left something in your will to cover funeral expenses or have taken out an insurance policy to cover it. It’s not cheap, dying . Dakers (2016) estimated the average cost including lawyers for the estate, funeral arrangements and post-funeral wake as just over £8 K. Funeral rites are a staple for students of social anthropology and stories of what the ancients believed in and how other cultures treat their dead abound. For example we are told that Tibetans leave bodies on the ground so that birds can feast on them and that valuable possessions and food are often buried with the corpse to accompany and feed him or her on the route to the afterlife. In 1963, Jessica Mitford ’s book on The American way of death was published and I recall reading it and discussing it avidly with friends. At that time in Scotland, America was still held in awe as the place to go and admire and here was some evidence that the wilder excesses of the culture of ‘making a quick buck’ were seriously dysfunctional. Although many popular accounts probably improve just a little bit with the telling, this book suggested to me that a chapter on the consumer psychology of the last act of disposing would be quite full. It is shall we say thriving. There is not that much however in the way of traditional consumer psychology and more, much more in the areas of cultural studies and sociological enquiry.
I mentioned funeral costs above. Valentine and Woodthorpe (2014) were interested in funeral welfare i.e. social support for funeral costs if you are poor and can’t afford the cost. Bereavement, apart from the likelihood of losing part or ev
en the whole of the family income comes as an emotional blow which can affect employability as well. The state in the UK will step in with a funeral expenses payment that is far less than the funeral estimate quoted by Dakers (2016). Valentine and Woodthorpe argued strongly that the British system emphasises welfare dependency rather than entitlement, which in turn stigmatises those who want to ensure that the deceased person receives a ‘dignified’ send-off (op. cit., p. 515). A ‘dignified send-off’ suggests that after death the social standing of the family and the deceased is recognised and that there are pressures to do the right thing both as a private and intimate farewell and as a public display within the community. 6
Although a funeral can be seen as a public and private way of signalling the death of a person, those who were his friends and relatives still have a lot of redefining to do concerning their new roles without the deceased. There is emotional work to be done and the period after the funeral can often be harrowing for those who were close. Flowers, plaques, or even just tidying and tending the grave can help. Drenten , McManus, and Labrecque (2017) called this restorative giving as it is neither selfless nor exchange based but the benefits gained by maintaining a symbolic relationship with the deceased are emotionally beneficial.
There is a literature on the different ways we are supposed to treat the dead body and dispose of it depending on our religion (including no religion) and rules, customs and regulations of our own country. After a brief scan of the literature, including a paper by Walter (2005) 7 listing various ways European and North American cultures have of disposing of the body, my own preferred anatomy of disposal is structured as the answer to various questions: Bury or burn? Private or public? Shown or hidden? Traditional/religious or modern, humanist etc.? For example in the Irish Republic (Eire) it is customary for the body to be dressed and shown at the wake at home and on the night before the funeral it is transferred to the church where it is waked by relatives praying for the soul of the departed. Here the ritual is traditional and religious and the body is shown and then buried (laid to rest). The debate over cremation versus burial has a history and by the 1930s it had become an available and popular option in Britain. The service according to Parsons (2012) used recorded music such as various funeral marches and ‘serious’ music by Chopin, Elgar, Handel, and Schumann. 8 Consequently the possibility of a secular service became more likely and with it the loosening of the grip organised religion had on this part of disposal services. Gradually music choice became more a reflection of the interests and passions and generally a celebration of the life of the deceased rather than part of a religious ritual that covers that liminal state after death and before disposition . We read for example that “At the cremation service of Harry Pollitt, general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain in July 1960, Paul Robeson sang ‘Joe Hill’” (Parsons, op. cit., p. 133). Now, over the last 10 years to the time of writing ‘My Way…’ has been top of the crematorium hit parade.
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