Search

Terror management theory posits that people tend to respond defensively to reminders of death, including worldview defense, self-esteem striving, and suppression of death thoughts. Seven experiments examined whether trait mindfulness--a disposition characterized by receptive attention to present experience--reduced defensive responses to mortality salience (MS). Under MS, less mindful individuals showed higher worldview defense (Studies 1-3) and self-esteem striving (Study 5), yet more mindful individuals did not defend a constellation of values theoretically associated with mindfulness (Study 4). To explain these findings through proximal defense processes, Study 6 showed that more mindful individuals wrote about their death for a longer period of time, which partially mediated the inverse association between trait mindfulness and worldview defense. Study 7 demonstrated that trait mindfulness predicted less suppression of death thoughts immediately following MS. The discussion highlights the relevance of mindfulness to theories that emphasize the nature of conscious processing in understanding responses to threat. Keywords: mindfulness, mortality salience, self-determination theory, terror management theory DOI: 10.1037/a0019388

How we react to humanitarian crises, epidemics, and other tragic events involving the loss of human lives depends largely on the extent to which we are moved by the size of their associated death tolls. Many studies have demonstrated that people generally exhibit a diminishing sensitivity to the number of human fatalities and, equivalently, a preference for risky (vs. sure) alternatives in decisions under risk involving human losses. However, the reason for this tendency remains unknown. Here we show that the distributions of event-related death tolls that people observe govern their evaluations of, and risk preferences concerning, human fatalities. In particular, we show that our diminishing sensitivity to human fatalities follows from the fact that these death tolls are approximately power-law distributed. We further show that, by manipulating the distribution of mortality-related events that people observe, we can alter their risk preferences in decisions involving fatalities. Finally, we show that the tendency to be risk-seeking in mortality-related decisions is lower in countries in which high-mortality events are more frequently observed. Our results support a model of magnitude evaluation based on memory sampling and relative judgment. This model departs from the utility-based approaches typically encountered in psychology and economics in that it does not rely on stable, underlying value representations to explain valuation and choice, or on choice behavior to derive value functions. Instead, preferences concerning human fatalities emerge spontaneously from the distributions of sampled events and the relative nature of the evaluation process. decision-making | psychophysics | risk preferences | value of human lives | decision by sampling doi/10.1073/pnas.0908980106

The relationships between economic conditions, cultural characteristics, personality dimensions, intelligence scores, and road-traffic accident mortality rates were investigated in 30 member and five accession countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Economic indicators included the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, the unemployment rate, and the Gini index. Cultural variables included five Hofstede's cultural dimensions, seven Schwartz cultural value dimensions, NEO-PI-R scales, and the intelligence quotient (IQ). The results showed positive associations between favorable economic conditions (high income per capita, high employment rate, and low income inequality) and high traffic safety. Countries with higher road-traffic accident fatality rates were characterized by higher power distance and uncertainty avoidance as well as embeddedness and emphasis on social hierarchy. Countries with lower road-traffic accident fatality rates were more individualistic, egalitarian, and emphasized autonomy of individuals. Conscientiousness (from NEO-PI-R) and IQ correlated negatively with road-traffic accident fatalities. DOI 10.2466/PMS.109.2.531-545

Objectives. The purpose of this exploratory study was to see if meaning in life is associated with mortality in old age. Methods. Interviews were conducted with a nationwide sample of older adults (N = 1,361). Data were collected on meaning in life, mortality, and select control measures. Results. Three main findings emerged from this study. First, the data suggest that older people with a strong sense of meaning in life are less likely to die over the study follow-up period than those who do not have a strong sense of meaning. Second, the findings indicate that the effect of meaning on mortality can be attributed to the potentially important indirect effect that operates through health. Third, further analysis revealed that one dimension of meaning--having a strong sense of purpose in life--has a stronger relationship with mortality than other facets of meaning. The main study findings were observed after the effects of attendance at religious services and emotional support were controlled statistically. Discussion. If the results from this study can be replicated, then interventions should be designed to help older people find a greater sense of purpose in life. Key Words: Meaning in life--Mortality.

Research indicates that people respond to the elicitation of death thoughts by dogmatically defending their cultural worldviews. The current research examines the potential for conditions of creativity, a construct associated with open-mindedness, to promote a more explorative reaction to the threat of death thoughts. In Studies 1 and 2, thoughts of death or a control topic were activated and then participants engaged in either a creative or a control task. In Study 3, thoughts of death or a control topic were activated and then participants were presented with information suggesting that creativity is or is not culturally valued. After these conditions, social, intellectual, and environmental exploration (Study 1) and cultural worldview exploration (Studies 2 and 3) were measured. Results indicated that both engaging in a creative task and being informed that creativity is culturally valued facilitated exploration in response to thinking about death. Conceptual and applied implications are discussed. Keywords: terror management; mortality salience; creativity; exploration

Fear of dying and death may be universal, but individuals differ in their emotional reactions to dying and death. The present study included a sample of 133 Chinese university students who were Christians. The authors tested a mediation model which posited that intrinsic religiosity, but not extrinsic religiosity, lowered anxiety toward the dying and death of self and someone close through fostering perceived purpose in life. Structural Equation Modeling results supported a partial mediating role of purpose in life. Moreover, participants were more anxious toward the dying and death of someone close than those of themselves. Discussion focuses on the protective role of intrinsic religiosity on dying and death anxiety.

Terror management research has shown that mortality salience (MS) leads to increased support and defense of cultural ingroups and their norms (i.e., worldview defense, WD). The authors investigated whether these effects can be understood as efforts to restore a generalized sense of control by strengthening one's social ingroup. In Studies 1-3, the authors found that WD was only increased following pure death salience, compared with both dental pain salience and salience of self-determined death. As both the pure death and the self-determined death conditions increased accessibility of death-related thoughts (Study 4), these results do not emerge because only the pure death induction makes death salient. At the same time, Study 5 showed that implicitly measured control motivation was increased in the pure death salience condition but not under salience of both self-determined death and dental pain. Finally, in Study 6, the authors manipulated MS and control salience (CS) independently and found a main effect for CS but not for MS on WD. The results are discussed with regard to a group-based control restoration account of terror management findings. Keywords: desire for control, mortality salience, intergroup behavior

Four studies indicate that mortality salience increases adherence to social norms and values, but only when cultural norms and values are salient. In Study 1, mortality salience coupled with a reminder about cultural values of egalitarianism reduced prejudice toward Blacks among non-Black participants. In Studies 2 through 4, a mortality salience induction (e.g., walking through a cemetery) increased self-reported and actual helping behavior only when the cultural value of helping was salient. These results suggest that people may adhere to norms and values so as to manage awareness of death. Keywords: mortality salience; prejudice; helping; social norms

Four studies explored the effects of providing mortality-related health-risk information from a terror management theory perspective. Study 1 (N = 48) revealed that exposure to information about the mortality-related risks of driving made mortality salient for young male drivers. Studies 2 (N = 60) and 3 (N = 139) demonstrated that young male drivers who perceived driving (fast) to be beneficial for self-esteem reported higher intentions to take driving risks (Study 2) and drive fast (Study 3) after exposure to such information compared to controls. Study 3 further demonstrated that the inclusion of a prime to behave responsibly eliminated this effect. Study 4 (N = 92) revealed that exposure to this prime alongside the mortality-related information generated increased accessibility of responsibility-related constructs and reduced accessibility of mortality-related constructs among young male drivers. The implications of these findings for terror management theory are discussed. Keywords: terror management theory; mortality salience; health-risk information; driving; health promotion campaigns

Six studies examined the role of young adults' parental attachment in terror management. Studies 1-3 revealed that activating thoughts of one's parent in response to mortality salience (MS) reduced death-thought accessibility and worldview defense and increased feelings of self-worth. Studies 4-5 demonstrated that MS led to greater ease of recalling positive maternal interactions and greater difficulty recalling negative interactions, and increased attraction to a stranger who was described as being similar to one's parent. If reliance on parents for terror management purposes reflects the operation of attachment mechanisms, then such effects should vary on the basis of an individual's attachment style. Study 6 demonstrated that, after MS. insecure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with their parents, whereas secure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with romantic partners. Keywords: terror management, mortality salience, adult attachment, close relationships, parents

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.03.028 Byline: Akizumi Tsutsumi (a), Kazunori Kayaba (b), Kumi Hirokawa (c), Shizukiyo Ishikawa (d) Keywords: Cardiovascular diseases; Cohort studies; Mortality; Neoplasms; Stress; Psychological; Workplace; Japan Abstract: We prospectively investigated the association between psychosocial job characteristics according to the job demand-control model and the risk of mortality in a Japanese community-based working population. A baseline examination conducted from 1992 to 1995 determined the socioeconomic, behavioural, and biological risks in addition to the psychosocial job characteristics of 3178 male and 3331 female workers aged 65 and under and free from cancer and cardiovascular diseases. During the 9-year follow-up study, 157 men and 64 women died. In the follow-up, the results of Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that men with concurrent high job demands and high job control (an active job) had the lowest risk of mortality from all causes. Compared with the low demand and high control job category, the multivariate relative risk of an active job was 0.53 (95% confidence interval: 0.31, 0.89). This finding appeared largely attributable to a reduction in cancer mortality. Job characteristics were not associated with cardiovascular diseases or external causes of mortality. For women, no significant associations were observed. The findings suggest that an active job has a beneficial effect on the health of Japanese male workers. Investigating of the effect of psychosocial job characteristics on cancer might therefore provide valuable insights into the health of workers. Author Affiliation: (a) University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (b) Saitama Prefectural University, Japan (c) Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Japan (d) Jichi Medical School, Japan

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2005.10.004 Byline: Allan S. Jaffe (a), Harlan M. Krumholz (b), Diane J. Catellier (c), Kenneth E. Freedland (d), Vera Bittner (e), James A. Blumenthal (f), James E. Calvin (g), James Norman (h), Rafael Sequeira (i), Christopher O'Connor (j), Michael W. Rich (k), David Sheps (l), Colin Wu (m) Abstract: Patients with myocardial infarction (MI) are at further increased risk for untoward events when patients also exhibit low social support and/or depression. The ENRICHD study was the largest controlled trial in post-MI patients attempting to treat these psychological comorbidities and provides an opportunity to examine the medical and psychological characteristics that may affect risk in this population. Author Affiliation: (a) Cardiovascular Division, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN (b) Cardiovascular Division, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT (c) Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC (d) Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (e) Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL (f) Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC (g) Cardiovascular Division, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Lukes Medical Center, Chicago, IL (h) Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (i) Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL (j) Cardiovascular Division, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC (k) Cardiovascular Division, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO (l) Cardiovascular Division, University of Florida School of Medicine, Gainesville, FL (m) Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD Article History: Received 2 February 2005; Accepted 3 October 2005 Article Note: (footnote) [star] This study was supported by contracts NO1-HC-55140, NO1-HC-55141, NO1-HC-55142, NO1-HC-55143, NO1-HC-55144, NO1-HC-55145, NO1-HC-55146, NO1-HC-55147, and NO1-HC-55148. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. Pfizer Inc provided sertraline (Zoloft) for the study.

According to the dual defense model of terror management, proximal defenses are engaged to reduce the conscious impact of mortality salience, whereas thoughts of death outside of conscious awareness motivate distal defenses aimed at maintaining self-esteem. Two experiments examined these ideas by assessing women's intentions to engage in tanning-related behavior. In Study 1, when concerns about death (relative to dental pain) were in focal attention, participants increased intentions to protect themselves from dangerous sun exposure. In contrast, when thoughts about death were outside of focal attention, participants decreased interest in sun protection. In Stud), 2, participants primed to associate tanned skin with an attractive appearance responded to mortality concerns outside of focal attention with increased interest in tanning products and services. These findings are discussed in relation to the dual-defense model of terror management, societal determinants of self-esteem, and implications for health risk and promotion. Keywords: tanning; self-esteem; mortality salience; proximal defenses; distal defenses

Research supporting terror management theory has shown that participants facing their death (via mortality salience) exhibit more greed than do control participants. The present research attempts to distinguish mortality salience from other forms of mortality awareness. Specifically, the authors look to reports of near-death experiences and posttraumatic growth which reveal that many people who nearly die come to view seeking wealth and possessions as empty and meaningless. Guided by these reports, a manipulation called death reflection was generated. In Study 1, highly extrinsic participants who experienced death reflection exhibited intrinsic behavior. In Study 2, the manipulation was validated, and in Study 3, death reflection and mortality salience manipulations were compared. Results showed that mortality salience led highly extrinsic participants to manifest greed, whereas death reflection again generated intrinsic, unselfish behavior. The construct of value orientation is discussed along with the contrast between death reflection manipulation and mortality salience. Keywords: greed; death reflection; mortality salience

From the perspective of terror management theory, reminders of mortality should intensify the desire to express culturally prescribed prosocial attitudes and engage in culturally prescribed prosocial behaviors. Two studies supported these hypotheses. In Study 1, people were interviewed in close proximity to a funeral home or several blocks away and were asked to indicate their attitudes toward two charities they deemed important. Those who were interviewed in front of the funeral home reported more favorability toward these charities than those who were interviewed several blocks away. In Study 2, the authors found that following mortality salience, people gave more money to a charity supporting an American cause than people who had been exposed to an aversive control topic. However, mortality salience had no effect on the amount of money given to a foreign cause. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Seven experiments assessed the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that reminding people of their mortality would increase accessibility of constructs central to their worldview. Experiment 1 found that mortality primes, relative to control primes, increased accessibility of nationalistic constructs for men but not for women. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and also found that mortality salience increased romantic accessibility for women but not for men. Four subsequent experiments supported the role of unconscious death-related ideation in producing these effects. A final experiment demonstrated that situational primes can increase the accessibility of nationalistic constructs for women after mortality salience. The roles of situational cues and individual differences in the effects of exposure to death-related stimuli on worldview-relevant construct accessibility are discussed.

The terror management prediction that reminders of death motivate in-group identification assumes people view their identifications positively. However, when the in-group is framed negatively, mortality salience should lead to disidentification. Study 1 found that mortality salience increased women's perceived similarity to other women except under gender-based stereotype threat. In Study 2, mortality salience and a negative ethnic prime led Hispanic as well as Anglo participants to derogate paintings attributed to Hispanic (but not Anglo-American) artists. Study 3 added a neutral prime condition and used a more direct measure of psychological distancing. Mortality salience and the negative prime led Hispanic participants to view themselves as especially different from a fellow Hispanic. Implications for understanding in-group derogation and disidentification are briefly discussed.

Two studies examined the effects of mortality salience inductions on men and women's willingness to engage in risk-taking behaviors. In Study 1, a sample of American college students (N = 101) were exposed to either a mortality salient or a control condition and then rated their willingness to engage in a variety of risk-taking activities. In Study 2, a sample of Israeli high-school students (N = 106) completed a self-esteem measure, were exposed to either a mortality salient or control condition, and then rated their willingness to use various psychoactive substances that were offered in three different hypothetical scenarios. In both studies, findings indicated that mortality salience led to higher willingness to engage in risky behaviors in men but not in women. Study 2 also revealed that self-esteem moderated the effect of mortality salience on the willingness to use psychoactive substances but only when they were offered by a friend. The discussion offers a terror management perspective of risk-taking behaviors.

This article examines the psychological processes activated by mortality awareness in college students. Findings indicate that the contemplation of morality results in a greater need to defend personal beliefs about the world and reduces accessibility to death-related thoughts due to cognitive dissipation, not suppression.

Data were collected, refined, and analyzed on 654 men and 210 women in Lewis Terman's 'gifted children' longitudinal study to examine links between masculinity and mortality. Masculinity measures included gender diagnosticity ( GD) scores, measuring the male- or female-typicality of occupational preferences in 1940 and masculinity-femininity (M-F) scores from the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB). Hazard analyses showed GD was significantly related to mortality for both men and women (interquartile relative hazard 1.25 for men and 1.62 for women), with masculine women and masculine men more likely to die at any given age. SVIB M-F was similarly related to mortality for both men and women (respective interquartile relative hazards = 1.26 and 1.36). The effects remained significant after controlling for certain health behaviors and Big Five traits.

The goals of this study were: (a) to examine whether personality scales, meaningful in contemporary terms, could be derived from archival data; and (b) to use these scales to aid our understanding of the relation of personality to mortality. NEO PI-R data and a battery of archival items, taken from Terman's Life Cycle Study, were collected on two new samples (sample 1 mean age = 11.9, n = 167; sample 2 mean age = 22.2, n = 203). Measurement invariance of the archival scales was assessed, and validity was examined using both rational analyses and associations with the Five Factor Model. It was demonstrated that interpretable scales can be derived from 50- to 70-year-old archival data. The archival adult personality data were then used to predict mortality. Conscientiousness remains the strongest personality predictor of longevity. Criteria for establishing the validity of archivally derived scales are suggested.

Terror management theory posits that sex is a ubiquitous human problem because the creaturely aspects of sex make apparent our animal nature, which reminds us of our vulnerability and mortality. People minimize this threat by investing in the symbolic meaning offered by the cultural worldview. Because people high in neuroticism have difficulty finding or sustaining meaning, sex is a particular problem for them. In Study 1, mortality salience caused high-neuroticism participants to find the physical aspects of sex less appealing. Study 2 revealed that for such individuals thoughts of physical sex increase the accessibility of death-related thoughts. This finding was replicated in Study 3, which also showed that providing meaning by associating sex with love reduces the accessibility of death-related thoughts in response to thoughts of physical sex. These findings provide insight into why people high in neuroticism have conflicting thoughts about sexuality and why sexuality is so often regulated and romanticized.

It has been established that eminent creative writers tend to die younger than their counterparts in other creative-achievement domains. The present study replicates these findings using a data set of 2102 eminent historical subjects from seven different disciplines, and reviews three extant explanations for this phenomenon. Each explanation was tested using an indicator of versatility. None of the life-span hypotheses extended from each explanation to the interaction of achievement domain x versatility was supported. In particular, no models were able to account for the precipitous decrease (2.7 to 8.6 years) in the life spans of versatile scientists when compared to nonversatile scientists. Consequently, a new explanatory model was proposed that draws on psychopathology, vocation choice, and personality characteristics as factors underlying the apparent differences in life span across achievement domains and versatility.

People aged eighty-five years and over (the oldest old) will form an increasing proportion of the population of New Zealand and many other countries. Because of their smaller numbers and relative inaccessibility, their health status has sometimes been extrapolated from populations of people aged sixty-five to eighty-four years. For people aged sixty-five to eighty-four years an exponential relationship is seen between age and morbidity and mortality. We explore if this exponential relationship extends to people aged ninety years and over. We analyzed data from the New Zealand 1991 Census and 1992 hospital discharge records and, for people aged sixty to eighty-nine years, confirmed an exponential relationship between age and mortality, inactivity, hospital utilization, and occupation of residential institutions. This exponential trend did not continue for people aged ninety years and over for whom mortality rates and indicators of morbidity were considerably lower than expected, and conclude that the actual health status of people aged ninety years and over is better than the status extrapolated from that of people aged sixty to eighty-nine years.

A study was conducted to determine the interrelationships between stress, mortality and religion since it was believed that religion played a significant role in assisting individuals to cope with adversities. It was hypothesized that the concept of meaning has an impact on the stressors emanating from highly regarded roles and mortality. Results indicated that religion is beneficial in aiding older people deal with stress. Also, roles that were highly regarded by older adults contributed to their meaning of life.

Previous terror management research has demonstrated that mildly depressed participants show a greater increase in worldview defense in response to reminders of their mortality than do nondepressed participants. Because the cultural worldview is posited to provide a meaningful conception of life, we hypothesized that mildly depressed participants who defend their worldview in response to mortality salience (MS) would increase their perception that the world is meaningful. A preliminary study first examined the Kunzendorf No Meaning Scale as a measure to assess perceptions of meaning. In the primary study, mildly depressed and nondepressed participants contemplated their own mortality or a neutral topic, evaluated two targets in a manner that either allowed them to defend their worldview or that did not, and then completed the Kunzendorf No Meaning Scale. As predicted, mildly depressed participants who had the opportunity to defend their worldview in response to mortality salience reported greater meaning in life than did mildly depressed participants who did not have the opportunity to defend their worldview, or mildly depressed participants not exposed to mortality salience. Implications for understanding and treating depression are briefly discussed.

Previous research has shown that after a mortality salience (MS) treatment, death thought accessibility and worldview defense are initially low and then increase after a delay, suggesting that a person's initial response to conscious thoughts of mortality is to actively suppress death thoughts. If so, then high cognitive load, by disrupting suppression efforts, should lead to immediate increases in death thought accessibility and cultural worldview defense. Studies 1 and 2 supported this reasoning. Specifically, Study 1 replicated the delayed increase in death accessibility after MS among low cognitive load participants but showed a reversed pattern among participants under high cognitive load. Study 2 showed that, unlike low cognitive load participants, high cognitive load participants exhibited immediate increases in pro-American bias after MS. Study 3 demonstrated that worldview defense in response to MS reduces the delayed increase in death accessibility. Implications of these findings for understanding both terror management processes and psychological defense in general are discussed.

The public's perceived susceptibility to health risks does not always accurately reflect the epidemiological estimates of actual risk. We assessed whether this discrepancy exists for HIV infection by outlining and comparing the actual statistical probabilities of acquiring HIV and another sexually transmitted disease (chlamydia) with the perceived probabilities of acquiring these diseases for heterosexuals who do not use intravenous drugs. Our analysis of heterosexual college students' perceived probabilities revealed that they do not distinguish between chlamydia and HIV infection: Their predictions are accurate estimates of the probability of chlamydial infection but overestimates of the probability of HIV infection. We also found no relationship between the frequency of participants' risk-reducing behaviors and their perceived probability of HIV infection., The public's perceived susceptibility to health risks does not always accurately reflect the statistical estimates of actual risk (for review, see Weinstein, 1989). It is assumed that a discrepancy between [...]

The effect of perceived control on health has been examined extensively in the gerontological literature. A question that has received little attention, however, is whether perceived control affords similar benefits to all older adults. In a longitudinal study we examined the effect of perceived control, in combination with functional status and age, on perceived health, morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality. The analyses showed that perceived control interacted with functional status for old-old (80+ years old) adults, but not for young-old (65-79 years old) adults in terms of perceived health, hospitalization, and mortality. For perceived health, feeling in control was of benefit to old-old adults with some functional impairment, but not to those with little impairment. Moreover, a greater sense of control was associated with lower rates of hospitalization and mortality for old-old individuals with little functional impairment. These results highlight the usefulness of examining the buffering effects of perceived control in relation to different age groups.

Incidental reminders of mortality-related stimuli increase the tendency of people to exaggerate social consensus estimates for culturally relevant attitudes. This increase in social consensus estimates is mainly evident in people holding minority views on an issue. The fact that similar others consensually validate one's worldviews, whereas dissimilar others threaten this view, mediates the influence of mortality salience.

A five-year follow-up study reveals that trait and state curiosity has a predictive role in the longevity of older adults aged around 70.6 yrs. Survivors have higher levels of trait and state curiosity than those who died, after excluding the interactional effect of other risk factors. Mortality is unrelated to smoking, education, systolic blood pressure and cholesterol. Both men and women exhibit similar patterns of state curiosity-mortality association.

The publication of Laura Mulvey's 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' in 1978 initiated a dialogue about the function of the 'gaze' that has subsequently moved beyond the boundaries of film [...]

On the basis of terror management theory, research has shown that subtle mortality salience inductions engender increased prejudice, nationalism, and intergroup bias. Study 1 replicated this effect (increased preference for a pro-U.S. author over an anti-U.S. author) and found weaker effects when Ss are led to think more deeply about mortality or about the death of a loved one. Study 2 showed that this effect is not produced by thoughts of non-death-related aversive events. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that this effect occurs only if Ss are distracted from mortality salience before assessment of its effects. Study 4 revealed that although the accessibility of death-related thoughts does not increase immediately after mortality salience, it does increase after Ss are distracted from mortality salience. These findings suggest that mortality salience effects are unique to thoughts of death and occur primarily when such thoughts are highly accessible but outside of consciousness.

There is growing evidence to suggest that the ways in which people think about their health problems may have significant implications for psychological and physical well-being. This possibility has the greatest consequences for those groups facing health problems on a daily basis, in particular, the elderly. This study examined the role of perceived health barriers and value for health in later life. A Perceived Health Barriers (absent, present) by Health Value (low, medium, high) 2 X 3 factorial design was analyzed for younger and older seniors on: number of life-threatening diseases, need for health care, and life satisfaction. In addition, a longitudinal design was used to examine the joint roles of perceived health barriers (PHBs) and health value (HV) on mortality. Findings generally indicated that individuals' PHBs and HV are associated with health-related outcomes; however, the results differed for young and old elders. Among young elders, those with PHBs and those with high HV had the most negative profile. That is, they had more diseases, higher health care needs, and lower life satisfaction. Among older elders, the findings were more complicated in that the relationship between PHB and the outcomes depended on HV. Overall, the patterns for old elders suggest that perceived health barriers are most relevant among those with medium value for health and least relevant among those with low value for health.

Terror management research has shown that reminding Ss of their mortality leads to intolerance. The present research assessed whether mortality salience would lead to increased intolerance when the value of tolerance is highly accessible. In Study 1, given that liberals value tolerance more than conservatives, it was hypothesized that with mortality salience, dislike of dissimilar others would increase among conservatives but decrease among liberals. Liberal and conservative Ss were induced to think about their own mortality or a neutral topic and then were asked to evaluate 2 target persons, 1 liberal, the other conservative. Ss evaluations of the targets supported these hypotheses. In Study 2, the value of tolerance was primed for half the Ss and, under mortality-salient or control conditions, Ss evaluated a target person who criticized the United States. Mortality salience did not lead to negative reactions to the critic when the value of tolerance was highly accessible.