The self-protective altruist: Terror management and the ambivalent nature of prosocial behavior

argued that generous and compassionate behaviors restore the belief that one is a valuable member in a mean-ingful world—a belief that defends the self from the threat-ening awareness of personal mortality. Thus, by behaving in a prosocial manner one benefits by successfully sup-pressing anxiety-provoking cognitions about death. However, other research has shown that at times the awareness of death does not promote prosocial motiva-tions and may in fact diminish prosocial tendencies. This line of research has shown that reminders of death may lead to compassion withdrawal from people with disabilities (Hirschberger, Florian, & Mikulincer, 2005) and to greater motivations to blame or derogate inno