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ABSTRACTResearch derived from terror management theory suggests that reliance on a terror-managing set of beliefs when reminded of death can influence one’s perception of meaning in life. The present research builds on prior work suggesting that religious concepts help to manage the awareness of death, and expands on that work to explore the challenges of religious and atheistic terror management. It was hypothesized that religious participants would be able to sustain perceived meaning in life when reminded of death, but that atheists would be vulnerable to a reduction in meaning when reminded of death. To test that idea, Christians and atheists were first reminded of either mortality or a control topic, and then asked to rate how strongly they felt life was meaningful. Results indicated that ratings of meaning in life were lower in the mortality salience condition, relative to the control condition, among the atheists but not among the Christians. Implications regarding religious and non-religious terror management strategies are discussed.

Two polymorphs of l,2-dihydro-6-neopentyl-2-oxonicotinic acid have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermal (hot-stage) microscopy (HSM). In batch-scale preparation, form I was crystallized in ethanol–water (3:1), while form II was obtained by recrystallization from acetone–water (2:1). The melting points for forms I and II are 193 and 196°C, respectively. Thermal studies (DSC and HSM) showed that form II melts at 196°C, while form I melts at 193°C, immediately followed by a resolidification and remelt at 196°C. The conversion of form II to form I was accomplished by recrystallization from ethanol or methanol, and the form I-to-form II transition was obtained by controlled heating of form I around 194°C. Quantitative XRD was used to determine the polymorphic composition, with a detection limit of less than 1% of the minor form and a linearity of 0–10% form I in form II (correlation coefficient of 0.999).