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Approximately 25% of accidents in the United States are caused by texting while driving, prompting the creation of several media campaigns to reduce such risky behavior. The current research examined whether death-related advertisements increase cell phone use while driving. Studies 1-3 found that individuals engaged in greater distracted driving in the presence of a mortality-themed texting advertisement. Study 2 demonstrated that participants were more likely to text on their cell phone using a driving simulator, leading to more swerving and collisions after viewing a death-related (vs. neutral) poster. Finally, using eye-tracking, Study 3 showed that participants who viewed a death advertisement looked away from the road and texted more as compared to persons in the control condition. Implications and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research, utilising a terror management theory perspective, examined the effects of death awareness on Christians' explicit and implicit image of Jesus. Following exposure to mortality salience, participants were asked to complete a reverse correlation task (Study 1) or a forensic sketch task (Study 2) in an attempt to create an image of Christ. All composites were coded on multiple emotional dimensions (i.e., disgust, contempt, neutrality, happiness, fear, sadness, anger, & surprise). Across studies, the results revealed that participants primed with death created more overtly positive images of Jesus (i.e., less implicit anger, contempt, disgust; more happiness; greater explicit contempt). These findings suggest that a benevolent Christ serves as part of Christians' religious worldviews. A positive Jesus may thus function by protecting individuals against existential anxieties associated with the awareness of death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terror management theory suggests people can manage existential concerns through faith in their cultural systems, including religious beliefs. It is not clear, however, how people with a religious "quest" orientation manage such existential concerns. The present research explored the intersection between existential concern and religious quest. Quest individuals experience doubt, which comes at the cost of greater death-related anxieties (Study 1, n= 654), cognitions (Study 2, n = 167), and vulnerability against mortality reminders (Study 3, n= 226). Second, mortality salience (MS) led people high in quest to become more culturally open-minded (Study 4, n = 100), and less likely to believe-in or commit-to their supernatural agent (Study 5, n = 120). These responses were mitigated when quest individuals were first prompted to explore (a step toward resolving) their doubts and uncertainties (Study 6, n = 462). Implications for quest orientation and existential defense- vs. growth-motivation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current work examined the association between existential isolation and religious quest orientation (i.e., spiritual belief uncertainty). First, Study 1 measured existential isolation and quest religiosity along with several measures of social isolation. Replicating past research, existential isolation was positively related to alienation and loneliness but negatively associated with belonging needs and social desirability. More importantly, however, quest religiosity was associated with reduced existential isolation. Building on these results, Study 2 sought to understand how existential isolation and quest religiosity related to well-being by using path modeling. We found that greater quest religiosity was related to lower existential isolation, which in turn, predicted increased psychological and spiritual well-being. These results suggest a complex relationship between existential isolation among the religiously skeptical, and that their openness and acceptance may help them cope with isolation and enjoy psychological benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People often use metaphors to discuss their financial prospects – for example, finding a fortune or searching for wealth. The purpose of the present research was to utilize conceptual metaphor theory to study the effect of metaphor use on money anxiety and spending intentions. Specifically, in three experiments, participants were randomly assigned to complete a word search puzzle where they either found the word fortune or where they searched but were unable to find the word wealth. The results revealed that the act of finding the word fortune in comparison to searching for wealth decreased concerns about money (Studies 1–3) and increased spending intentions (Study 3). These findings suggest how the activation of subtle money-related metaphors can influence attitudes and perceptions toward money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the role of internalised religious beliefs in defending against existential concerns aroused from a creaturely Jesus. Prior work has found that biologically human traits (e.g., vomiting, sweating, etc.) can increase death concerns when applied to both humans and a god. Intrinsic beliefs, however, have been shown to reduce mortality awareness. In the current study, religious participants were primed with thoughts of either a human or neutral Jesus followed by a single item measure about fear of death. A moderated regression analysis found that whereas high intrinsic individuals were buffered from existential concerns, low intrinsic individuals experienced a greater fear of death when primed with a human Jesus. These results replicate prior work within terror management theory and the psychology of religion suggesting that internalised beliefs serve a protective function against existential anxieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial security (i.e., a person’s sense that they can afford the things they need now and in the foreseeable future) contributes to psychological health and well-being. In the present research, we explored the implications of financial security for perceptions of meaning in life. In Study 1, we found that perceptions of financial insecurity predicted perceptions of meaning in life above and beyond income. Further, income only predicted perceptions of meaning to the extent that it was associated with reduced financial insecurity. In Studies 2 and 3, we found that financial security threats undermined perceptions of meaning in life. Taken together, these studies suggest that maintaining financial security is important for a sense of meaning in life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

According to terror management theory, individuals defend their cultural beliefs following mortality salience. The current research examined whether naturally occurring instances of death (i.e., Ebola) correspond to results found in laboratory studies. The results of two experiments demonstrated that participants experienced a greater accessibility of death-related thoughts in response to an Ebola prime during a regional outbreak. Study 2 also showed that increased mortality awareness following an Ebola manipulation was associated with greater worldview defense (i.e., religious fundamentalism). Together, these results suggest that reminders of death in the form of a disease threat operate similarly to a mortality salience manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective:Previous research has shown that nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, leads to greater feelings of optimism, with other work demonstrating that optimistic thinking (general & health-orientated) is associated with better physical and psychological health. Integrating these two lines of research, the current studies examined whether nostalgia-induced health optimism promotes attitudes and behaviours associated with better physical well-being. Methods:Participants, in three experiments, were randomly assigned to write about either a nostalgic or ordinary event. Following this, everyone completed a measure of health optimism (Studies 1–3), measures of health attitudes (Study 2) and had their physical activity monitored over the course of 2 weeks (Study 3). Results:The results revealed that, in comparison to control conditions, nostalgic reverie led to greater health optimism (Studies 1–3). Further, heightened health optimism following nostalgic reflection led to more positive health attitudes (Study 2), and increased physical activity over a two-week period (i.e. Fitbit activity trackers; Study 3). Conclusions:These findings highlight the importance of nostalgia on health attitudes and behaviours. Specifically, this work suggests that nostalgia can be used as a mechanism to increase the importance, perceived efficacy and behaviour associated with better physical health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research examined whether people imitate the language style of others (i.e., the use of function words) as a form of liking when mortality concerns are salient. In Study 1, participants answered questions about death or public speaking and then engaged in an instant messaging conversation with a confederate. In Study 2, participant pairs verbally discussed a news article about increasing homicide rates or the rise in academic pressure. Next, everyone completed measures of self-esteem, life satisfaction, and relationship need satisfaction. The results revealed that, in comparison to the control conditions, participants exhibited greater language style matching (LSM) following reminders of death (Studies 1 & 2). Further, mediational analyses showed that higher LSM after mortality salience was associated with better psychological and social well-being (Study 2). Although the threat of death has been shown to make people more hostile and disparaging toward dissimilar others, the present work suggests that individuals, even strangers, may feel closer through language coordination following thoughts of mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined how breast cancer diagnosis influences underlying cognitions and explicit worries about death, and their roles in health-related quality of life (QOL). Forty-two women who underwent surgery for the removal of either a cancerous or benign breast mass indicated their worries about dying and completed measures of death-thought accessibility and QOL. Women with cancer reported lowered physical, emotional, and functional well-being. Further, although they did not differ in explicit worry about death, women with cancer (compared to those with a benign mass) evidenced greater death-thought accessibility, which in turn mediated the effect of cancer diagnosis on well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We offer a theoretical perspective to provide insight into why people are ambivalent about sex and why cultures regulate sex and attach symbolic meaning to it. Building on terror management theory, we propose that sex is problematic for humankind in part because it reminds us of our creaturely mortal nature. Two experiments investigated the effects of reminding people of the similarity between humans and other animals on their reactions to the physical aspects of sex. In Study 1, priming human-animal similarities led to increased accessibility of death-related thoughts after thinking about the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In Study 2, when participants were reminded of similarities between humans and other animals, mortality salience resulted in decreased attraction to the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In each study, priming thoughts about how humans are distinct from animals eliminated the association between sex and death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]