Currencies as cultural symbols - an existential psychological perspective on reactions of Germans toward the Euro

From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to maintain faith in one's own cultural worldview. We investigated this notion with regard to reactions of Germans towards a recent political-economic issue, the introduction of the ne,,v European currency, the Euro. In Study I we found among students that a mortality salience prime led to a decreased liking of the new European currency compared to a control prime. However, the attitude towards the German Mark was not significantly affected by mortality salience. Study 2 replicated the decreased liking of the Euro for a sample of older pedestrians who were interviewed in front of a cemetery compared to participants who were interviewed several blocks away. In addition, mortality salient participants also revealed a marginal increased liking of the German Mark. Moreover, similar findings occurred on a general composite measure of preference for German items over non-German items. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.