Suppression, accessibility of death-related thoughts, and cultural worldview defense
Exploring the psychodynamics of terror management
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6206909 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jamie Arndt, Maria Arndt (0000-0002-3446-372X, University of Arizona, corresponding author), Jeff Greenberg (0000-0002-2206-0771), Sheldon Solomon (0000-0002-7035-2082, University of Colorado Colorado Springs), Tom Pyszczynski (0000-0003-4008-3384, University of Maryland, College Park), Et Al, Linda Simon, et al et al |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 5-18 |
| Publication date | 1997-01-01 |
| 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//0022-3514.73.1.5 |
| PMID | 9216076 |
| OpenAlex | W2002766498 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 171 |
| References cited | 2 |
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 increase 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.
Anxiety · Cognition · Cognitive bias · Cognitive Load · Cognitive psychology · Death anxiety · Mortality salience · Psychiatry · Psychodynamics · Psychotherapist · Salience (neuroscience · Terror management theory · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology
The memory remains
Extent of trauma exposure and PTSD symptom severity as predictors of anxiety-buffer functioning
Supernatural Beliefs, Unconscious Threat and Judgment Bias in Tibetan Buddhists
The effect of mortality salience and belief in afterlife on the manifestation of homonegativity
Death anxiety and psychological distress post-donation in non-directed living kidney donors
The Association Between Thoughts of Defecation and Thoughts of Death
Imagining parental sexuality
A theoretical and empirical review of the death-thought accessibility concept in terror management research
A Terror Management Perspective on Ageism
Trio of terror (pregnancy, menstruation, and breastfeeding)
Terror management and attributions of blame to innocent victims
We are people”
Reducing defensive responses to thoughts of death
Sublimation, culture, and creativity
Unconscious vigilance
Enjoying life in the face of death
Experimental Existential Psychology
In the wake of 9/11
Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews
A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts
The implications of death for health
The Death-Anxiety Buffering Function of Close Relationships
Belief in Supernatural Agents in the Face of Death
Self-Affirmation and Mortality Salience
Mortality Salience Increases Adherence to Salient Norms and Values
Deliver us from Evil
Thirty Years of Terror Management Theory
When Asking “Why” Does Not Hurt Distinguishing Rumination From Reflective Processing of Negative Emotions
Mortality salience and the spreading activation of worldview-relevant constructs
The Value of Believing in Free Will
Proximal and Distal Defenses in Response to Reminders of One’s Mortality
Fleeing the Body
A Time to Tan
The Physiology of Willpower
Thought Suppression
Driven Toward Care, Avoiding the End
An empirical comparison of the Extended Parallel Process Model with the Terror Management Health Model
Unconscious death thoughts
The Urge to Splurge
The Dark Side of Safety
An Investigation Into the Unconscious Influence of Mortality Salience Upon Sentencing Decisions
Two Decades of Terror Management Theory
Health consequences of a death threat
The influence of fear of isolation on contact experience disclosure
Understanding user responses to the Covid-19 pandemic on Twitter from a terror management theory perspective
The Pollyanna Effect
An existential perspective on interpersonal closeness and social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic
To the Victors Go the Existential Spoils
Towards an Anxiety-Buffer Disruption Approach to Depression
Perceived Similarity of the Self to Animals, Creativity, and Anxiety
Memento mori
Feeling alone in your subjectivity
Testing the Death Thought Suppression and Rebound Hypothesis
Psychological Factors in Terrorism and Counterterrorism
How Movies Can Ease the Fear of Death
The society-supporting self
I am not an animal—I am an American
Anxiety and Intergroup Bias
Death Concerns and Other Adaptive Challenges
A March to a Better World? Religiosity and the Existential Function of Belief in Social-Moral Progress
The Postself and Terror Management Theory
Is There a Dark Side to Humility? Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Evidence for Existential Costs of Humility
Exploring the role of humor in the management of existential anxiety
Facing finitude
How and why terrorism corrupts the consistency principle of organizational justice
Materialism moderates the impact of mortality salience on impulsive tendencies toward luxury brands
Apocalypse now
Loss Anxiety
Conceptualizing Death in a Worldview Consistent, Meaningful Way and Its Effects on Worldview Defense
Evidence That Thinking About Death Relates to Time-Estimation Behavior
Psychological Defenses Against Death Anxiety
Ebola salience, death-thought accessibility, and worldview defense
Loss and lastingness? Further exploring the relationship between the death of a close other, belief in an everlasting soul, and terror management processes
The effect of death education on fear of death amongst Italian adolescents
Can religious norms reduce violent attitudes? Experimental evidence from a Muslim–Christian conflict
In Defense of the Body
Smoke Your Troubles Away
The gravity of unwanted thoughts
The influence of cognitive and emotional suppression on overgeneral autobiographical memory retrieval
Immigrant perpetrators in the news
Attitudes Towards Science
The dynamics of death and meaning
Being present in the face of existential threat
Religious magnanimity
The role of control motivation in mortality salience effects on ingroup support and defense
Interdependent self-construals mitigate the fear of death and augment the willingness to become a martyr
Adjusting to death
Cancer and the threat of death
Death, sex, love, and neuroticism
Terror management and cognitive-experiential self-theory
Threat and defense as goal regulation
Is death really the worm at the core? Converging evidence that worldview threat increases death-thought accessibility
Terror management theory and self-esteem revisited
Managing the death of close others
The true self and existential structure? Unexpected effects of mortality salience and personal need for structure on belief in a true self
Uncertainty Threat and Inhibition of Compensatory Behaviors
An initial investigation of the role of death concerns in evaluations of metaphoric language about God
Aspects of Love
Examining Belief in a Just World, Religious Worldviews, and Self-Esteem Within the Framework of Terror Management Theory
Desiring and Avoiding Close Romantic Attachment in Response to Mortality Salience
| Unique citing works | 167 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5,9 |
| Citation span | 1997 - 2026 (30) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 155 |