Abstract: Mortality cues are ubiquitous in human life. Mortality cues have important influences on consumers’ decision-making. This research proposes that mortality salience ( MS) leads individuals to engage in differentiation of consumer patience based on their fresh start mindset ( FSM). Fresh Start Mindset (FSM) is the belief that people can make a new start, start a new journey, as well as start a new chapter regardless of their past or current situation. Based on terror management theory (TMT) , this research focuses on the impact of mortality salience on consumer patience and explores its underlying psychological mechanism (i. e. future time perspective, FTP). Our research adds to the literature in several ways. On the one hand, we contribute to the extant literature on terror management theory. We take a new perspective on this factor (i. e. fresh start mindset) to identify one important boundary condition for mortality salience effects on consumer patience. On the other hand, at a deeper level, we extend the psychology literature by establishing the underlying mechanism (i. e. the temporal perspective) by which consumers become more patient in the face of mortality salience. This research also provides some useful implications for enterprise managers and hospice care providers. Theoretical, practical implications, as well as avenues for future research with regards to our findings are discussed.

Key words: mortality salience, fresh start mindset, consumer patience, ?future time perspective, urging clue