Researcher Effects on Mortality Salience Research: A Meta-Analytic Moderator Analysis

A recent meta-analysis of 164 terror management theory (TMT) papers indicated that mortality salience (MS) yields substantial effects (r =.35) on worldview and self-esteem-related dependent variables (B. L. Burke, A. Martens, & E. H. Faucher, 2010). This study reanalyzed the data to explore the researcher effects of TMT. By cluster-analyzing the authorships of each study, two major TMT research teams were identified, namely, an American team (Team A) and an Israeli team (Team I). The majority of MS experiments were conducted by or related to a small number of researchers (Team A, 50.2%). The average effect size of Team A (r =.41) was significantly greater than that of other researchers (r =.30). Further analysis revealed that cultural differences found in TMT research may be due to the teams themselves, rather than to sample regions. The reasons behind these findings are proposed.