Abstract

Travis Proulx and Michael Inzlicht offer an intriguing and ambitious model that seeks to parsimoniously capture the full range of meaning threats and the many psychological mechanisms that people use to cope with those threats. In this commentary, we articulate both our agreements and our disagreements with their meaning maintenance model (MMM). In general, we find the model both compelling and intriguing, and we find promise in several of its core assertions. However, we believe the current model, like any incipient model, has yet to incorporate some critical core constructs. In addition to sharing our views in this commentary, we raise questions that future theoretical and empirical work could pursue to offer greater clarification and lead to a more complete model.

Citation

Galinsky, Adam, J. Whitson, L. Huang, and Derek D. Rucker. "Not so fluid and not so meaningful: Toward an appreciation of content-specific compensation." Psychological Inquiry 23 (2012): 339-345.

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