Cancer and the threat of death
The cognitive dynamics of death-thought suppression and its impact on behavioral health intentions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6204830 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jamie Arndt (University of Missouri), Alison Cook (0000-0003-0374-9167, University of Missouri), Jamie L Goldenberg (0000-0003-0097-094X, University of South Florida), Cathy R Cox (0000-0002-1940-3788, University of Missouri) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 92 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 12-29 |
| Publication date | 2007-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.12 |
| PMID | 17201539 |
| OpenAlex | W2110888066 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 36 |
| References cited | 39 |
Five studies examined the cognitive association between thoughts of cancer and thoughts of death and their implication for screening intentions. Study 1 found that explicit contemplation of cancer did not increase death-thought accessibility. In support of the hypothesis that this reflects suppression of death-related thoughts, Study 2 found that individuals who thought about cancer exhibited elevated death-thought accessibility under high cognitive load, and Study 3 demonstrated that subliminal primes of the word cancer led to increased death-thought accessibility. Study 4 revealed lower levels of death-thought accessibility when perceived vulnerability to cancer was high, once again suggesting suppression of death-related thoughts in response to conscious threats associated with cancer. Study 5 extended the analysis by finding that after cancer salience, high cognitive load, which presumably disrupts suppression of the association between cancer and death, decreased cancer-related self-exam intentions. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding terror management, priming and suppression, and responses to cancer are discussed
Cancer · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Mortality salience · Priming (agriculture) · Psychiatry · Salience (neuroscience) · Terror management theory · Clinical Psychology · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Media Influence and Health · Medicine · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology
Extent of trauma exposure and PTSD symptom severity as predictors of anxiety-buffer functioning
A theoretical and empirical review of the death-thought accessibility concept in terror management research
The implications of death for health
Israeli Public Opinion on the Use of Nuclear Weapons
A Terror Management Analysis of the Psychological Functions of Religion
The Impact of the Threat of Death on Self-Gifting
Will Life Extension Affect Our Social Judgments? Evidence That the Possibility of Indefinite Life Extension Increases Harshness Toward Social Transgressors
Two Decades of Terror Management Theory
Mortality Salience and Symbols of Cultural Worldview Affect the Desirability of a Stressful Job
How family support alleviates death anxiety in breast cancer patients
Reactance, Mortality Salience, and Skin-Cancer Prevention Among Young Adults
How healthcare workers respond to Covid-19
Coronavirus-Related Searches on the Internet Predict Covid-19 Vaccination Rates in the Real World
Testing the Death Thought Suppression and Rebound Hypothesis
Mortality Salience Increases Defensive Distancing From People With Terminal Cancer
On Social Death
Ebola salience, death-thought accessibility, and worldview defense
Existential Threat or Dissociative Response? Examining Defensive Avoidance of Point-of-Care Testing Devices Through a Terror Management Theory Framework
Testing terror management health model and integrating its predictions with the theory of psychological reactance
Exploring the existential function of religion
Objectification as Self-affirmation in the Context of a Death-relevant Health Threat
Empowering the self
Adjustment Disorder in the Face of Covid-19 Outbreak
Disease, death, morality, and politics
A systematic review of psychological correlates of HIV testing intention
Health Beliefs and Breast Cancer Screening in Rural Appalachia
Shutting the door on death
Do Pandemics Trigger Death Thoughts
Pearls in the desert
Evidence for the DTA hypothesis II
Diverging effects of mortality salience on variety seeking
Uncovering an existential barrier to breast self-exam behavior
The aftermath of destruction
Feeling too isolated to be vaccinated? The contributing role of subjective interpersonal isolation factors towards Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance
Perceptions of cancer as a death sentence
Investigating the impact of gender and existential anxiety on the willingness to participate in point-of-care testing for cardiovascular disease
The Death-Anxiety Buffering Function of Close Relationships
A theory of goal systems
Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews
Subliminal Exposure to Death-Related Stimuli Increases Defense of the Cultural Worldview
Deliver us from Evil
Confession, Inhibition, and Disease
A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts
Proximal and Distal Defenses in Response to Reminders of One’s Mortality
A Time to Tan
Ironic processes of mental control.
The Causes and Consequences of a Need for Self-Esteem
A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing.
Importance of Fatalism in Understanding Mammography Screening in Rural Elderly Women
Public Self and Private Self
Why Do People Need Self-Esteem? A Theoretical and Empirical Review
Sexual Attitudes, Cognitive Associative Networks, and Perceived Vulnerability to Unplanned Pregnancy
Understanding human ambivalence about sex
Evidence for terror management theory II
The role of attribution of motivation in producing postsuppressional rebound
Clarifying the Function of Mortality Salience-Induced Worldview Defense
Priming against your will
The return of dispositionalism
The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research
Role of consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortality salience effects
Suppression, accessibility of death-related thoughts, and cultural worldview defense
The trouble of thinking
Attractiveness of the underling
Terror management and cognitive-experiential self-theory
On the spontaneity of trait attribution
Ironic processes in the mental control of mood and mood-related thought
Forgetting all else
Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans
When opportunity knocks
Liking Is for Doing
The dispositional inference strikes back
Expression after suppression
Emotion and adherence to treatment in people with asthma
The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology
| Unique citing works | 36 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,89 |
| Citation span | 2007 - 2026 (20) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 34 |