Oh Death Where is Thy Sting: Hopes for Immortality Moderate the Impact of Mortality Salience on Death Anxiety
Kristin Thomas, Kimyana Brown, Jacob Maddox
Terror Management Theory (TMT; Pyszczynski et al., 2015) asserts that cultural beliefs ward off conscious fears of death by providing hope for symbolic and/or literal immortality. There is some evidence from previous research supporting this assertion. For example, higher levels of symbolic immorality were associated with lower reported fears of death (Drolet, 1990) and mortality salience increased expressed beliefs in literal immortality (Conn et al., 1996). The goal of the present study was to more directly assess the anxiety-buffering function of participants' initial beliefs in symbolic and literal immortality when confronted with reminders of mortality. Undergraduate students (n = 119) participated in our study in two parts. In part 1, participants completed measures of their beliefs in symbolic and literal immortality. In part 2, participants were randomly assigned to write about either personal mortality or failure and following a delay completed a fear of death scale. Data analysis is in progress. We anticipate that hierarchical multiple regression will show that death anxiety is higher in the mortality salience than the control condition but that this difference only emerges for participants who lack confidence in achieving symbolic immortality and those who have low levels of belief in literal immortality.
Kristin Thomas is currently a senior psychology and criminology double major from Piedmont, South Carolina. While at Lander University, she has been the president of the Psi Chi Honor Society, a supplemental instructor for PSYC 101, a tutor for many different psychology and criminology classes, and a tutor at the campus’ writing center. As a member of Dr. Bassett’s Experimental Existential Psychology Lab for the past two years she has presented research at The Carolina Undergraduate Social Science Symposium, the UGA Annual Convention of the Behavioral Sciences, and the Lander University Student Academic Symposium. She has also volunteered at the Perry Correctional Institution in Pelzer, SC assisting Dr. Linda Carson with educational workshops. After graduating in May 2024, Kristin plans on attending graduate school to obtain her master’s in clinical psychology.
Kimyana Brown is a graduating senior from Irmo, SC. She is triple majoring in psychology, human services, and sociology and is minoring in child and family studies, pre-social work, and non-profit management. This is her second semester as a part of Dr. Bassett’s Experimental Existential Psychology Lab. She is the president of both the Psychology Club and Tau Upsilon Alpha Honor Society, Vice president of Lander’s Campus activity Board (CAB), Secretary for the Student Needs Group, a member of Psi Chi Honor Society and the Co-Curricular Committee CAB Student Representative. She has also been a supplemental instructor for psychology 101/102 courses for the last 3 years. She completed a semester long internship at DSS in Greenwood. After graduating she will be attending graduate school to obtain her master’s in social work.
Jacob Maddox is a sophomore psychology major from Simpsonville, South Carolina. He is a Writing Center tutor at Lander University and an intern at the Project Hope Foundation in Greenwood, South Carolina. For the last two semesters, he has been a research assistant in Dr. Bassett’s Experimental Existential Psychology Lab. After graduating from Lander University, he plans to pursue a career as an ABA therapist.