Two decades of terror management theory: a meta-analysis of mortality salience research

Gerascophobia or Excessive Fear of Aging Scale (GEFAS): Development, validation, and exploration of psychometric properties of a brief instrument using classical testing theory and item response theory

BACKGROUND

Gerascophobia, or excessive fear of aging, is thought to be caused by a mixture of cognitive, experiential, and physiological factors acting on a person at particular time points. Measurement tools for evaluating geraschophobia remain insufficiently developed, despite this commonplace fear's distress.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the current study was to develop and validate the Gerascophobia or Excessive Fear of Aging Scale (GEFAS) and analyze its psychometric properties.

METHODS

Three successive investigations were carried out with a total of 1594 participants. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate the construct validity of the GEFAS. Convergent and discriminant validity was assessed by examining relationships with measures of depression, anxiety, stress, death anxiety, psychosocial illness, and life satisfaction. Multiple linear regression was used to investigate factors that predict fear of aging.

RESULTS

The GEFAS demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach alpha >0.8). Factor analysis supported a single-factor solution for the scale (fitness indices CFI, TLI, NNFI, NFI, RFI, and MFI all > 0.95; RMSEA=0.06. Significant positive correlations were found between fear of aging and depression (r = 0.270; p < 0.01), anxiety (r = 0.311; p < 0.01), stress (r = 0.285; p < 0.01), death anxiety (r = 0.600; p < 0.01), and psychosocial illness (r = 0.243; p < 0.01). A significant inverse correlation was observed with life satisfaction. Gender differences were also noted, with women exhibiting greater fear of aging than men (p < 0.01; d = 0.488).

CONCLUSION

The GEFAS fills a significant gap in the psychological/psychiatric literature as a useful tool for evaluating the fear of aging. The study concludes that the excessive fear of aging contributes to poor mental health.

The Power of Death Valence: A Revised Terror Management Process

Terror management strategies (TMS) are assumed to affect social prejudice. In a prior study, positive death valence in wave 1 reduced gender-related stereotypes in wave 2. Psychosocial intervention against prejudice requires a deeper understanding of the terror management process. We investigated the relationships between death anxiety, death valence, mortality salience and TMS in a mixed method study. Participants showed complex emotions in the face of death, including fear, anxiety, sadness and ambivalent calm. Positive death valence was associated with more conscious fear, but with less implicit death anxiety, while negative death valence was associated with more death denial. In conclusion, we propose death anxiety as a distal precursor and death valence as a proximate precursor of the plural TMS that are triggered by mortality salience.

Reactance, Mortality Salience, and Skin-Cancer Prevention Among Young Adults

In an experiment (N = 206) using skin cancer prevention messages and a 2 (mortality: salient, control) × 2 (freedom-limiting language: freedom-limiting, autonomy-supportive) independent-group design, we tested the terror management health model and integrated its predictions with the theory of psychological reactance. We used a sample of young adults because they are most at risk for excessive tanning. Consistent with the study predictions about proximal defenses, mortality salience significantly increased intentions to wear sunscreen all year around, relative to the control condition. A significant interaction between freedom-limiting language and mortality salience on behavioral intention to purchase high-SPF lotion revealed that, when a freedom-limiting message was paired with mortality salience, intentions to purchase high-SPF lotion were significantly greater as compared to autonomy-supportive language, indicating that mortality salience mitigated the maladaptive effects of reactance. These results add to a growing body of research identifying boundary conditions for reactance effects and, further, point to the utility of directive (albeit freedom-limiting language) in health-prevention messages attempting to communicate deadly health risks.

From dread to disorder: A meta-analysis of the impact of death anxiety on mental illness symptoms

Growing research suggests that death anxiety may be transdiagnostic, playing a key role in the development and symptomology of psychopathology. This meta-analysis examined the relationship between death anxiety and mental illness symptoms. In total, 104 papers were included, representing cross-sectional data from 99 studies (ntotal = 24,434), and experimental data from 11 studies (ntotal = 1372). Meta-analyses of cross-sectional studies indicated a moderate correlation (r = 0.397) between death anxiety and overall mental illness symptoms. The clinical nature of the group emerged as a significant moderator of this effect. In addition, the relationship between death anxiety and mental illness symptoms was larger for clinical samples (r = 0.580), and for anxiety-related symptoms (r = 0.506) than for depression. Additional meta-analyses of 11 mortality salience studies revealed that death reminders had an overall moderate impact on clinical symptoms (Hedge's g = 0.481). The relevance of the sample to the symptom being measured significantly predicted this relationship; that is, the effect was moderate-to-large (Hedge's g = 0.671) when excluding comparison subgroups for which the effect was not predicted by the authors. The clinical nature of the sample did not significantly moderate the effect. The experimental studies were generally of higher quality and lower risk of publication bias compared to cross-sectional studies. These findings support the strong transdiagnostic role of death anxiety across numerous disorders. Clinical implications include the potential need to treat death anxiety directly, to maximise long-term therapy benefits.

What Makes the Time Tradeoff Tick? A Sociopsychological Explanation

BACKGROUND

A theoretical interpretation of factors influencing time tradeoff (TTO) scores is lacking. In this conceptual study, we use a sociopsychological theory, terror management theory (TMT), to explain how death thoughts may play a role in the TTO method. TMT describes how respondents suppress death thoughts by invoking psychological defenses, such as self-esteem, and by bolstering cultural values.

RESEARCH QUESTION

What is the relation between TMT and TTO scores?

METHODS

A framework is developed to link TMT to TTO scores. Predictions of the framework pertain to the directionality of relations between characteristics (e.g., being religious) affecting TTO scores. These predictions are then tested against the findings in the literature.

RESULTS

The value "prolonging life" can be used as a linking pin between TTO and TMT as it is relevant for both TMT and TTO. It is argued that the value "prolonging life" is related to TTO scores but also to TMT defense strengths. Thus, TMT defense strengths become associated with trading. Directionality predictions of the framework were confirmed in 34 out of 39 retrospective tests (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Directionalities of relations between TTO scores and socioeconomic characteristics, euthanasia, subjective life expectancy, and religion were explained in terms of TMT defense strengths. Our framework offers a theory-based and parsimonious framework to think about characteristics influencing TTO scores.

HIGHLIGHTS

Terror management theory (TMT) is a sociopsychological theory about death thoughts.Several factors are known to influence TTO scores.A new framework applies TMT to TTO scores to interpret such factors.Our framework is mostly of importance to health economists studying the TTO.

An Investigation Into the Unconscious Influence of Mortality Salience Upon Sentencing Decisions

This study aimed to explore if unconscious awareness of death influences the harshness of offender sentencing. According to Terror Management Theory death is anxiety-provoking, and self-esteem and a belief in a shared cultural worldview keep anxiety at bay. When these factors are challenged then death awareness increases. These dynamics could be relevant in a court setting in which judges have to make decisions regarding offenders who may have different world views and in cases that trigger the awareness of mortality. We used subliminal priming to activate the awareness of death and recorded the effect it had on decision-making against a hypothetical offender. Participants (N = 303) were recruited and randomly assigned to either an experimental mortality condition or a neutral control condition. Analysis revealed that death-related subliminal priming brought about harsher sentencing effects than the control. The results suggest that subconscious awareness of death may bias decision-making when sentencing.

Reducing PTSD in mass medical events: An immediate preventive intervention

A preventive approach to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) through an Immediate Psycho-Trauma Intervention (IPTI) may significantly reduce PTSD likelihood and provide a cost-effective way to alleviate suffering. This mixed-method study 1) compared medics who received an IPTI to those who did not after a mass medical event, 2) compared the number medics diagnosed with PTSD from the IPTI group to the minimum number in similar cases reported in the literature. The results indicated that 1.09 % of the medics who underwent the IPTI (N = 275) followed by peer discussion groups and a memorial ceremony were formally diagnosed with PTSD in contrast to the 5 %-20 % reported in similar circumstances. Of these, all but three resumed work within their emergency medical teams. In the one-year qualitative follow-up interviews (N = 14), the IPTI recipients exhibited significantly fewer PTSD symptoms and negative effects than the non-IPTI group. They reported fewer negative themes and a reduced need for professional psycho-trauma assistance, with no significant differences in event recollections between groups. These findings point to the efficacy of the VIOS IPTI in mitigating PTSD risk and suggest its potential for widespread application in clinical settings as a preemptive measure in response to traumatic events.

Mortality salience and helping behavior amidst public crisis: cross-sectional evidence during COVID-19

Background

As a real mortality salience, a public crisis would have a major impact on individual minds, behaviors, and lifestyles. COVID-19 provides us with a stark real-world example to understand these implications. Previous research has revealed that some individuals become more willing to help the infected at the risk of their own lives, while others become more self-centered and indifferent during COVID-19. To explain this paradoxical phenomenon, our study used two rival mediators in the relationship between mortality salience and helping behavior during COVID-19: death anxiety and death reflection.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among Chinese college students (N = 684) during the pandemic. We used a parallel mediation model to explore the mediating roles of death anxiety and death reflection in the relationship between mortality salience and helping behavior during COVID-19.

Results

The results of our study indicate two key findings. First, mortality salience is negatively related to helping behavior during COVID-19 via death anxiety. This suggests that individuals with higher levels of mortality salience experienced increased death anxiety, which in turn led to a decrease in helping behavior. Second, mortality salience is positively related to helping behavior during COVID-19 via death reflection. This indicates that individuals with higher levels of mortality salience engaged in deeper reflection on death, which subsequently resulted in an increase in helping behavior.

Conclusion

Our study provides valuable insights into the complex relationship between mortality salience and helping behaviors in the time of public crisis, and can help lead to more positive attitudes toward public crisis events such as COVID-19.

Suicidal ideations and self-dehumanization in recently detoxified patients with severe alcohol use disorder: an experimental exploration through joint explicit-implicit measures

BACKGROUND

Metadehumanization (the feeling of being considered as less than human by others) is a pervasive phenomenon in psychiatric states, notably promoting self-dehumanization and suicide antecedents. However, its role in suicidal ideations among patients with addictive disorders remains unexplored. We thus investigated the involvement of metadehumanization/self-dehumanization in suicidal ideations and suicidal thoughts interference in severe alcohol use disorder.

METHODS

We measured metadehumanization, suicidal ideations, and desire for social contact through questionnaires among 35 recently detoxified patients with severe alcohol use disorder (26 males). We measured animalistic/mechanistic self-dehumanization using an Implicit Association Task, and suicidal thoughts interference using a Stroop Task with suicide-related words. We performed regression analyses while controlling for depression/anxiety.

RESULTS

Animalistic self-dehumanization was positively associated with suicidal thoughts interference and with decreased desire for social interactions, such link being absent for metadehumanization or mechanistic self-dehumanization.

CONCLUSIONS

This link between self-dehumanization and suicide-related factors suggests that a reduced sense of belonging to humanity is associated with self-harm antecedents. Results also emphasize the importance of using indirect measures to investigate sensitive variables, such as self-dehumanization and suicidal thoughts.

When Fears Come True: An Experimental Approximation of Patient Comprehension During Initial Cancer Diagnoses

An experiment (N = 624 U.S. adults) was designed to approximate how well patients attend to information during a cancer-related doctor visit. To make this assessment, we manipulated mortality salience (present, absent) and language complexity (simple words, complex words) to understand whether these factors impact newly diagnosed patients' ability to attend to relevant treatment information. Message attention was measured through a comprehension quiz and a signal detection task. We found that a state of heightened mortality salience slightly improved message comprehension. We also found that language simplicity in an article about skin cancer treatment improved comprehension and attention, particularly under conditions of high mortality salience. These findings suggest that practitioners should use simple language when discussing health care options with their patients.

To Protect or to Kill? Environmental Contingent Self-Worth Moderates Death Prime Effects on Animal-Based Attitudes

Lifshin et al. found that death primes increased support for killing animals, suggesting that the killing of animals serves a terror management function. The present research adds to this by suggesting that protecting animals can also serve a terror management function when people see such behaviors as culturally valuable. In three studies (N = 765), environmental contingent self-worth (ECSW) moderated the effect of death primes on attitudes toward animals. Attitudes toward animals also mediated the effect of a death prime on increased power-based invulnerability for those with low ECSW and decreased power-based invulnerability for those with high ECSW (Study 3). Finally, we found little support that death primes influenced beliefs regarding human-animal superiority (Study 1 and 2) or similarity (Study 2). Our findings therefore provide partial support for past terror management research and further the understanding regarding how to promote more benevolent human-animal relations.

Imagine That You Died. Would You Still Smoke?: How Death Reflection Affects Health Message Reception Through Personal Growth and Identification

Terror management research has found that mortality salience increases self-esteem preservation, which tends to produce counter-persuasive effects in the health context. The present study examines the persuasive potentials of an alternative mortality prime, death reflection, in a between-subjects online experiment with current smokers (N = 92). We tested the effects of two death primes on their posttraumatic growth, identification with a story character, and quitting intentions after exposure to an anti-smoking PSA. The results showed that only death reflection significantly affected quitting intentions through two serial mediators. First, death reflection promoted a greater sense of posttraumatic growth than the control condition, whereas mortality salience did not. Second, the increased sense of growth enhanced identification with a testimonial character in the anti-smoking PSA, which, in turn, lowered quitting intentions. Implications for health communication are discussed.

The Psychopathological Predictors and Effects of Death Anxiety

Death anxiety has been linked to several psychopathological conditions. However, the causes, comorbidity, and differential diagnosis of death anxiety is unexplored. This paper stands out by identifying common predictors of death anxiety and exploring the potential of death anxiety as a predictor for other psychological conditions. The paper reports the findings of four consecutive studies that involved a total of 2291 conveniently selected participants including 861 men and 1430 women. We focused on clarifying both the predictors of death anxiety and the psychopathological consequences emerging from it. Our findings established depression, anxiety, stress, fear of aging, and reduced life satisfaction as predictors of death anxiety. Psychosocial illness, sleep disturbances, aggression, and daily hassles were established as the adverse outcomes of death anxiety. Fear of aging was the most significant predictor of death anxiety and daily hassles emerged as the most significant adverse consequence of death anxiety.

Intergenerational Clustering of Under-Five Mortality: A Cohort Perspective in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

A burgeoning demographic literature documents the exceedingly high rates at which contemporary cohorts of women across the Global South experience the death of their children-even amid historic declines in child mortality. Yet, the patterning of maternal bereavement remains underinvestigated, as does the extent to which it replicates across generations of the same family. To that end, we ask: Are the surviving daughters of bereaved mothers more likely to eventually experience maternal bereavement? How does the intergenerational clustering of maternal bereavement vary across countries and cohorts? To answer these questions, we make use of Demographic and Health Survey Program data from 50 low- and middle-income countries, encompassing data on 1.05 million women and their mothers spanning three decadal birth cohorts. Descriptive results demonstrate that maternal bereavement is increasingly patterned intergenerationally across cohorts, with most women experiencing the same fate as their mothers. Multivariable hazard models further show that, on average, women whose mothers were maternally bereaved have significantly increased odds of losing a child themselves. In most countries, the association is stable across cohorts; however, in select countries, the risk associated with having a bereaved mother is shrinking among more recent birth cohorts.

E-mmortal: Death Anxiety is Related to Selfie Behaviors

Given the widespread phenomenon of selfies, numerous studies are examining the motivations behind taking and sharing selfies. The current paper suggests an additional possible motivation, namely, decreasing death anxiety. People are motivated to decrease their death anxiety by preserving a fake feeling of immortality. One known way to achieve this goal is by using photography. Therefore, we suggest that selfie behaviors are a way to fulfill the need to remain immortal. A hundred undergraduate students (Mage = 22.33) answered self-reported questionnaires regarding selfie motivations, selfie-taking frequency, selfie-sharing frequency, and death anxiety. All of those selfie measurements were indeed positively related to death anxiety. Moreover, many previous studies suggested that narcissism motivates selfie behaviors. In an exploratory approach, we examined whether death anxiety mediates this relationship. Indeed, death anxiety fully mediated the relationships between narcissism and selfie motivations and between narcissism and selfie-taking frequency, suggesting that the well-documented association between selfie behaviors and narcissism might be driven by death anxiety. Those preliminary results indicate that death anxiety is associated with selfie behaviors, opening new avenues for understanding the motivations underlying selfie behaviors.

When meaning in life protects against fear of death: The moderating role of self-alienation

OBJECTIVE

A sense of meaning in life (MIL) is thought to help protect people against experiencing explicit anxiety about death. However, the experience of meaning is complex and subjective and may relate to death anxiety in nuanced ways. We examine how self-alienation-a feeling of not knowing/being disconnected from one's self-might moderate the relationship between MIL and death anxiety.

METHOD

Across five studies, we tested the hypothesis that MIL would negatively predict death anxiety more strongly for people relatively low in self-alienation. These studies were similar in design and included exploratory, confirmatory, and pre-registered tests.

RESULTS

A meta-regression across our five studies (N = 2001) provided clear evidence that MIL was most strongly associated with lower death anxiety at low self-alienation. We also observed that MIL was positively associated with death anxiety at high self-alienation. These effects were consistent in direction but inconsistent in strength.

CONCLUSIONS

We interpreted these results as evidence that MIL is existentially protective when experienced in combination with a relatively strong, clear, and connected sense of self. In contrast, MIL may be existentially problematic when people feel relatively unaware and disconnected from themselves. These findings align with aspects of terror management theory and highlight the potentially complex ways that MIL might relate to death anxiety.

A Distant Ally?: Mortality Salience and Parasocial Attachment

Research in Terror Management Theory finds that close interpersonal relationships (e.g., parents, romantic partners) mitigate threat reactions to reminders of mortality. Parasocial relationships (imagined relationships with media personalities) afford many of the same benefits as interpersonal relationships. Do these benefits extend to mortality concerns? We investigated whether those with strong parasocial attachments were differentially influenced by reminders of death. Results showed that those with strong parasocial relationships had more defensive reactions to a mortality prime, suggesting that such attachments may not afford the same existential benefits given by close human others and may instead indicate a heightened vulnerability.

Big Data Analysis of Terror Management Theory's Predictions in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The current study aimed to address the limitations of the terror management theory literature by using big data analysis to examine the theory's predictions in the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, Google Trends were examined before and after the first COVID-19 case was identified in Singapore. The results showed that there was a significant increase in mortality salience, intergroup conflict, and prosocial behavior, and a significant decrease in materialism after the first COVID-19 case was identified. However, no significant differences were found for anxiety. Limitations include the assumption that search terms reflect intentions that would eventually lead to a relevant behavior and the lack of data from other sources to corroborate with the results from Google Trends. Future research could use data from other sources to examine the effects of COVID-19 on theoretically relevant behaviors.

Do Experimental Manipulations of Pathogen Avoidance Motivations Influence Conformity?

By conforming to ingroup norms, individuals coordinate with other group members, preserve cohesion, and avoid costs of exclusion. Previous experiments have shown that increased concerns about infectious disease increase conformity. However, coordination with other group members has multiple benefits, most of which exist independent of pathogenic infection. Hence, a strong causal effect of pathogen avoidance motivations on conformity seems unlikely. Results from five experiments (N = 1,931) showed only limited support for the hypothesis that experimentally increasing pathogen avoidance motivations influences conformity. Overall, our findings are not consistent with the notion that the human mind contains a fast-acting psychological mechanism that regulates conformity as a function of short-term pathogen avoidance motivations.

Death anxiety and religiosity in a multicultural sample: a pilot study examining curvilinearity, age and gender in Singapore

This study investigated the association between multidimensional death anxiety and religiosity in multicultural Singapore by examining potential variations by age and gender. We also explored the possibility of a curvilinear effect, where highly religious or non-religious individuals report lower death anxiety than moderately religious people, forming an inverted U-curve pattern. Data were collected from 110 participants using questionnaires that assessed death anxiety and religiosity. Parametric and non-parametric tests were then conducted. The findings showed that women had significantly higher death anxiety and religiosity than men, and highly and moderately religious people had significantly higher death anxiety than non-religious people. People of all age groups had similar levels of death anxiety. These findings highlight the importance of developing targeted death anxiety interventions that integrate spiritual aspects in Singapore so that clinicians can provide culturally competent care.

Starving off death: Mortality salience impacts women's body image and disordered eating

From a Terror Management perspective, the pursuit of thinness that characterizes eating disorders (EDs) is arguably a culturally endorsed way to mitigate death anxiety. In the present studies, we used the mortality salience (MS) paradigm to examine whether priming death increases ED symptoms. We recruited two samples of women from undergraduate (Study 1, N = 120), and clinically relevant (Study 2, N = 154) populations. After priming, participants completed measures of potential confounds (e.g., neuroticism, affect). Next, we assessed ED attitudes and behavior using a portion size estimation task, and measures of body dissatisfaction and eating intention. Study 1 findings were inconsistent with the claimed role of death anxiety in ED related behavior. However, in Study 2, MS priming led to increased dissatisfaction with current thinness and smaller portion sizes for high-fat compared to low-fat food. Overall, the results suggest that death anxiety may, at least partially, drive ED symptoms.

Armed conflict, insecurity, and attitudes toward women's and girls' reproductive autonomy in Nigeria

BACKGROUND

Armed conflict and insecurity have been linked to deteriorations in reproductive health and rights globally. In Nigeria, armed violence has taken a significant toll on women's and girls' health and safety. However, knowledge is limited about how conflict shapes attitudes surrounding their ability to make autonomous decisions on relationships and childbearing. Drawing on a socioecological framework and terror management theory, we aimed to investigate the association between conflict, insecurity, and attitudes toward women's and girls' reproductive autonomy in Nigeria.

METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from two sources: the World Values Survey (WVS) and the Uppsala Conflict Data Program-Georeferenced Event Dataset (UCDP-GED). Nationally representative data on attitudes of 559 men and 534 women was collected by WVS in 2017-2018. Linear probability models estimated the association between attitudes toward five dimensions of women and girl's reproductive autonomy (contraception, safe abortion, marital decision-making, delayed childbearing, early marriage), respondents' perceptions of neighborhood insecurity using WVS data, and geospatial measures of conflict exposure drawn from UCDP-GED.

RESULTS

Exposure to armed conflict and perceived neighborhood insecurity were associated with more supportive attitudes toward access to safe abortion among both men and women. Among women, conflict exposure was associated with higher support for contraception and the perception that early marriage can provide girls with security. Conflict-affected men were more likely to support a delay in girls' childbearing.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that conflict and insecurity pose a threat to, but also facilitate opportunities for, women's and girls' reproductive autonomy. Contraception, abortion, early marriage, and postponement or childbearing may be perceived as risk-aversion strategies in response to mortality threats, livelihood losses, and conflict-driven sexual violence. Our findings foreshadow changes in fertility and relationship patterns in conflict-affected Nigeria and highlight the need for health programming to ensure access to contraception and safe abortion services.

Investigating mortality salience as a potential causal influence and moderator of responses to laboratory pain

Background

Because pain can have profound ramifications for quality of life and daily functioning, understanding nuances in the interplay of psychosocial experiences with pain perception is vital for effective pain management. In separate lines of research, pain resilience and mortality salience have emerged as potentially important psychological correlates of reduced pain severity and increased tolerance of pain. However, to date, there has been a paucity of research examining potentially interactive effects of these factors on pain perception. To address this gap, the present experiment investigated mortality salience as a causal influence on tolerance of laboratory pain and a moderator of associations between pain resilience and pain tolerance within a Chinese sample.

Methods

Participants were healthy young Chinese adults (86 women, 84 men) who first completed a brief initial cold pressor test (CPT) followed by measures of demographics and pain resilience. Subsequently, participants randomly assigned to a mortality salience (MS) condition completed two open-ended essay questions in which they wrote about their death as well as a death anxiety scale while those randomly assigned to a control condition completed analogous tasks about watching television. Finally, all participants engaged in a delay task and a second CPT designed to measure post-manipulation pain tolerance and subjective pain intensity levels.

Results

MS condition cohorts showed greater pain tolerance than controls on the post-manipulation CPT, though pain intensity levels did not differ between groups. Moderator analyses indicated that the relationship between the behavior perseverance facet of pain resilience and pain tolerance was significantly stronger among MS condition participants than controls.

Conclusions

This experiment is the first to document potential causal effects of MS on pain tolerance and Ms as a moderator of the association between self-reported behavior perseverance and behavioral pain tolerance. Findings provide foundations for extensions within clinical pain samples.

Dressing up social psychology: Empirically investigating the psychological functions of clothing using the example of symbolic protection

Clothing behaviour remains an understudied research area within social psychology. Through the present research, we aim to anchor attire as an empirical research subject by investigating the psychological properties of one of its functionalities, namely, to provide protection. We argue that attire's undisputed role in shielding humans from environmental hazards may extend to the psychological level and protect them from the incorporeal consequences of existential threats symbolically. In this Registered Report, a mixed-methods approach links an ecologically valid field study of self-presentation in social media posts during Russia's war on Ukraine (Study 1; N = 248) with supraliminal priming of mortality salience in an online experiment (Study 2; N = 248). Across both studies, we expect that mortality concerns let people accentuate the physically protective attributes of clothing (e.g. more layers of clothing) and resort to more in-group prototypical dress styles (i.e. more gender-stereotypical). Findings show that people adjust their clothing preferences in response to existential threats, favouring in-group prototypical clothing (more gender-typical for both women and men in Study 1) and physically protective attire (higher in women and lower in men in Study 2) during high (vs. low) levels of existential threat. By positioning clothing as a research area within social psychology, our goal is to stimulate a wave of research on its profound role for humankind. Furthermore, we provide a dynamic and robust methodological approach to researching terror management theory.

"Death and Love Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic": Effects of Pathogen Threats on Online Dating and Social Distancing From Life-History Strategy Perspectives

Drawing from the terror management theory (TMT) and evolutionary perspectives of Life-History Strategy, a between-subject online experiment examined the interaction effects of pre-existing death anxiety, fear-inducing media content (coronavirus threat vs. gun violence threat vs. low threat mental disorder), and intrasexual competition for mates on online dating intentions and social distancing intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicate the interaction effects of participants' pre-experimental death anxiety and different types of fear-inducing media content on perceived fear and intention to use online dating websites/apps as well as the interaction effects of pre-experimental intrasexual competitiveness and fear-inducing media content on social distancing intention in the context of online dating. Theoretical contributions to the terror management literature and practical implications for the online dating industry are discussed.

The Effect of Death Anxiety on Work Passion: Moderating Roles of Work Centrality and Work Connection

Fear of death is an emotional manifestation of the instinct for self-preservation. Any threat to our existence induces an anxiety response. Death anxiety can trigger obsessive-compulsive behaviours, such as an obsessive passion for work. Using a sample of 314 participants (68.2% female), with a mean age of 38.97 years (SD = 10.36), this study sought to observe the predictive effect of death anxiety on work passion, as well as the moderating effect of work-family centrality and connection on the relationship between anxiety and passion. The results revealed that death anxiety negatively affects harmonious passion, and positively affects obsessive passion. Work centrality did not moderate the influence of death anxiety on harmonious and obsessive passion. Nonetheless, work connection moderated the influence of death anxiety on harmonious passion. The negative influence of death anxiety on harmonious passion was greater in a group with high work connection than a group with low connection.

Death and Sexuality: Mortality Salience Increases Heteronormative Preferences and Stereotyping Among Those with High Need for Closure

Terror Management Theory has shown that mortality salience can increase outgroup stereotyping and dislike of people who are different. We examined heterosexual participant reactions to profiles of homosexual and heterosexual men after mortality salience utilizing need for closure (NFC) as a moderating variable. We also examined the role of death-thought accessibility (DTA) in these effects. Among those with high NFC, mortality salience increased stereotyping and preference for the heterosexual individual. This effect only occurred when participants examined the profiles before completing the DTA measure. Control participants showed parallel reactions to the mortality salience condition when completing the DTA measure first. We found no reliable effects of mortality salience increasing DTA, and defensiveness decreasing DTA. The current findings demonstrate how two different death reminders can affect reactions to homosexual men among those in high NFC. Potential reasons for the lack of support for DTA in these effects are discussed.

Impact of COVID-19 on mental health of health care workers in Spain: a mix-methods study

BACKGROUND

Spain's lockdown measures couldn't prevent the severe impact of the COVID-19 first wave, leading to high infections, deaths, and strain on healthcare workers (HCWs). This study aimed to explore the mental health impact on HCWs in the Balearic Islands during the initial months of the pandemic, the influencing factors, and the experiences of those in a COVID-19 environment.

METHODS

Using a mixed-methods approach, the study encompassed quantitative and qualitative elements. Cross-sectional survey data from April to June 2020 comprised HCWs who were emailed invitations. The survey covered demographics, work, clinical and COVID-19 variables, along with psychological distress and PTSD symptoms, using validated measures. Additionally, semi-structured interviews with HCWs offered qualitative insights.

RESULTS

Three hundred thirty-six HCWs averaging 46.8 years, mainly women (79.2%), primarily nurses in primary care with over 10 years of experience. Anxiety symptoms were reported by 28.8%, 65.1% noted worsened sleep quality, and 27.7% increased psychoactive drug usage. Psychological distress affected 55.2%, while 27.9% exhibited PTSD symptoms. Gender, age, experience, COVID-19 patient contact, and workload correlated with distress, PTSD symptoms, sleep quality, and psychoactive drug usage. Interviews uncovered discomfort sources, such as fear of infection and lack of control, leading to coping strategies like information avoidance and seeking support.

LIMITATIONS

Static cross-sectional design, non-probabilistic sample, and telephone interviews affecting non-verbal cues, with interviews conducted during early pandemic lockdown.

CONCLUSIONS

HCWs faced significant psychological distress during the pandemic's first wave, underscoring the necessity for robust support and resources to counteract its impact on mental health.

Death Anxiety is Associated With Less Health Behavior for Individuals Low in Action Orientation

Research has shown that death anxiety relates to less health behavior. The present study proposes that action orientation moderates this association. That is, it is hypothesized that death anxiety and health behavior relate negatively only in individuals low in action orientation. German adults (N = 187; aged 19-86) provided self-reports on health behavior, action orientation, death anxiety, social desirability, and sociodemographics. Analyses yielded a significant moderation effect of action orientation on the link between death anxiety and health behavior over and above significant relationships of action orientation, social desirability, age, and gender, respectively, with health behavior. As hypothesized, a significantly negative association of death anxiety and health behavior was found only given low action orientation but not among high action orientation individuals. This suggests that self-regulation plays a decisive role in whether death anxiety and health behavior relate to each other.

Death Anxiety in Caregivers of Chronic Patients

This study aimed to determine the extent to which caregivers of patients with chronic illnesses experience death anxiety, and which variables from caregivers and patients might potentially be related to their death anxiety. It also aimed to compare the levels of death anxiety between patients and caregivers. Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Psychology Database, Cochrane, and Google Scholar were searched for original studies available until December 2022 that quantitatively addressed death anxiety in family and informal caregivers of individuals with chronic illnesses. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed, and a meta-analysis was conducted using Hedges' g as the effect size index and the DerSimonian-Laird method to analyze differences between patients and caregivers in death anxiety. The results of the 11 included studies showed moderate levels of death anxiety in caregivers, and the meta-analysis (k = 7; 614 patients and 586 caregivers) revealed non-significant differences between the death anxiety experienced by patients and caregivers (pooled Hedges' g = -0.03, 95% CI = -0.29 to 0.25, p = 0.802). Some sociodemographic and psychological factors (e.g., gender, depression, and anxiety) might be related to the death anxiety experienced, but additional research is necessary to validate these findings.

Continuities and discontinuities in the cultural evolution of global consciousness

Global consciousness (GC), encompassing cosmopolitan orientation, global orientations (i.e. openness to multicultural experiences) and identification with all humanity, is a relatively stable individual difference that is strongly associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, less ingroup favouritism and prejudice, and greater pandemic prevention safety behaviours. Little is known about how it is socialized in everyday life. Using stratified samples from six societies, socializing institution factors correlating positively with GC were education, white collar work (and its higher income) and religiosity. However, GC also decreased with increasing age, contradicting a 'wisdom of elders' transmission of social learning, and not replicating typical findings that general prosociality increases with age. Longitudinal findings were that empathy-building, network-enhancing elements like getting married or welcoming a new infant, increased GC the most across a three-month interval. Instrumental gains like receiving a promotion (or getting a better job) also showed positive effects. Less intuitively, death of a close-other enhanced rather than reduced GC. Perhaps this was achieved through the ritualized management of meaning where a sense of the smallness of self is associated with growth of empathy for the human condition, as a more discontinuous or opportunistic form of culture-based learning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.

Subliminal mortality salience does not increase physical strength output in double-blind randomized controlled trial

Introduction

Using the morality salience paradigm, this research tested whether subliminal death stimuli lead to increased physical strength. Moreover, it was investigated if mindfulness and self-esteem instability influence terror management.

Methods

In total, data from 160 undergraduate sports students were analyzed. Participants completed a word decision task in which they were presented with either the word death or pain for 28.5 ms. Before and after the task, their grip strength was measured using a hand dynamometer.

Results

Linear mixed models could neither confirm the effect of the mortality salience hypothesis on strength nor an influence of mindfulness and self-esteem.

Discussion

The results raise the question of a potential influence of subliminal mortality salience on athletic performance and how mindfulness and self-esteem instability affect terror management.

Exposure to the Death of Others during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Growing Mistrust in Medical Institutions as a Result of Personal Loss

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The prominence of death during the COVID-19 pandemic was heightened by the potential of personally knowing someone who lost their life to the virus. The terror management theory (TMT) suggests that the salient presence of death has a pronounced effect on behavior and may result in the ossification of beliefs and actions aligned with one's worldview (i.e., the mortality salience hypothesis). In this study, we evaluated how death exposure early in the COVID-19 pandemic could enact the process of firming up held beliefs and attitudes related to health and safety. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that exposure to a personal loss during the pandemic would strengthen participants' baseline attitudes and behaviors regarding COVID-19 safety guidelines.

METHOD

Data were analyzed from a prospective, regional survey administered at two time points during the pandemic, June-July 2020 and May 2021, in five United States northeastern states. Baseline and follow-up surveys were administered approximately 12 months apart, with adherence to public guidance and death exposure measured at both timepoints and other safety measures at follow-up only.

FINDINGS

Our results indicated that there were significant main effects of death exposure on guideline adherence and support for COVID-related public policy. Contrary to the mortality salience hypothesis, death exposures after baseline were related to higher medical mistrust at follow-up for those high in adherence at baseline, rather than those with low adherence.

CONCLUSION

Our results offer some conflicting evidence to the mortality salience hypothesis. Rather than entrench people in their worldviews, death in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to sway people away from their initial stances. This finding has important implications for TMT literature and for the COVID-19 pandemic response.

How Mortality Salience and Self-Construal Make a Difference: An Online Experiment to Test Perception of Importance of COVID-19 Vaccines in China

To better understand why Chinese residents' COVID-19 perceptions of the importance of vaccination change dramatically over time, this research used an online lab-like experiment to test the antecedents of individuals' perception of the importance of COVID-19 vaccines. We find that participants who view themselves as separate from others (i.e. independent self-construal) perceive COVID-19 vaccines as more important than Hepatitis B vaccines (i.e. control group), regardless of how salient mortality is for them. In contrast, among participants who view themselves as a part of their social groups (i.e. interdependent self-construal), awareness of death (i.e. mortality salience) plays a moderating role. Specifically, when mortality is salient, COVID-19 vaccines are considered more important than Hepatitis B vaccines; when morality is not salient, vaccine type does not make a difference on perceptions of vaccine importance.

Existential threat and responses to emotional displays of ingroup and outgroup members

The present research investigates how emotional displays shape reactions to ingroup and outgroup members when people are reminded of death. We hypothesized that under mortality salience, emotions that signal social distance promote worldview defense (i.e., increased ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation), whereas emotions that signal affiliation promote affiliation need (i.e., reduced ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation). In three studies, participants viewed emotional displays of ingroup and/or outgroup members after a mortality salience or control manipulation. Results revealed that under mortality salience, anger increased ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation (Study 1), enhanced perceived overlap with the ingroup (Study 3), and increased positive facial behavior to ingroup displays-measured via the Facial Action Coding System (Studies 1 and 2) and electromyography of the zygomaticus major muscle (Study 3). In contrast, happiness decreased ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation (Study 2), and increased positive facial behavior towards outgroup members (Study 3). The findings suggest that, in times of threat, emotional displays can determine whether people move away from unfamiliar others or try to form as many friendly relations as possible.

The effects of death awareness and reactance on texting-and-driving prevention

Using a 2 (mortality: salient, control) × 2 (freedom-limiting language: freedom-limiting, autonomy-supportive) independent-group design, this study examined the relationship between mortality salience and psychological reactance in the context of texting-and-driving prevention messages. The terror management health model and the theory of psychological reactance guided study predictions. Results showed mortality salience produced adaptive effects on attitudes toward texting-and-driving prevention and behavioral intentions to reduce unsafe driving practices. Additionally, some evidence for the effectiveness of directive, albeit freedom-limiting communication, emerged. These and other results are discussed along with the implications, limitations, and future research directions.

Examining terror management theory in Ukraine: impact of air-raid alarms and explosions on mental health, somatic symptoms, and well-being

Objective

This study sought to evaluate Terror Management Theory (TMT) assumptions about death awareness and its psychological impact in the context of a real-world war situation with high external validity. We examined if factors such as habituation to war circumstances and psychological resilience could buffer the effects on civilians' anxiety, physical and mental health, and affect.

Method

We implemented a pre-registered smartphone-based experience sampling method study over four weeks, with 307 participants (k = 7,824) living in war-affected areas in Ukraine whereby participants were regularly exposed to war situations, including air-raid alarms, explosions, and infrastructural problems.

Results

The data indicated that war situations significantly increased anxiety, negatively impacting mental health, and raising somatic symptom severity. While habituation showed a mild buffering effect on these impacts, resilience did not.

Conclusion

This real-world investigation supports TMT's fundamental assumptions about death awareness and its psychological implications. However, even amidst the presence of real, life-threatening situations, the buffering effects of habituation were surprisingly minimal. This suggests that further exploration of TMT's buffering factors in real-world scenarios is warranted.

The role of death-related advertisements in cell phone use while driving

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.

Intraindividual Changes in Political Identity Strength (But Not Direction) Are Associated With Political Animosity in the United States and the Netherlands

We test if within-person changes in political identities are associated with within-person changes in political animosity in two longitudinal studies (United States N = 552, Waves = 26; Netherlands N = 1,670, Waves = 12). Typical studies examine cross-sectional associations without assessing within-person change. Our work provides a stronger test of the relationship. We find that within-person changes in the strength of people's ideological and partisan identities are associated with increased political animosity. We found no such associations with within-person changes in identity direction. These patterns were robust to covariates and emerged in both studies. In addition to these average effects, we found substantial heterogeneity across participants in the associations among identity strength, identity direction, and political animosity. We did not find robust and replicable moderators for this heterogeneity. These findings suggest that identity strength (but not identity direction) is a key, if heterogenous, factor in changes in political animosity.

Meaning and blame: Meaning threats increase victim blaming, but profession and art can diminish it

Previous work suggests that people have a need for meaning, and that when meaning is threatened, efforts are undertaken to restore a sense of meaning. We hypothesized that a meaning threat (i.e., reminders of death) would increase victim blaming of a domestic violence victim since doing so can restore a sense of meaning-that people get what they deserve-but for those with advanced knowledge of victimology, such as trained counsellors, this effect would be diminished since victim blaming runs counter to their meaning framework that bad things can happen to good people. In addition, because art can provide a sense of meaning, we hypothesized that either creating meaningful art or observing art and finding meaning within it would diminish blaming a domestic violence victim since having a sense of meaning should diminish the need to restore meaning via victim blaming. Over five studies with undergraduate and trained counsellors, we found support for the hypotheses, and a meta-analysis on the victim blaming effect suggested a small, though significant, effect size of d = .28. These findings enhance our understanding of various factors that affect victim blaming, and they point towards relatively easy to administer interventions to diminish it.

Feasibility and Acceptability of an Online Oncologist Training to Optimize Oncologist-Patient Communication and Value-Concordant Care in Advanced Cancer

Introduction: This pilot study tested the feasibility and acceptability of a low-resource-intensive scalable online communication training designed to improve oncologists' skills in prognostic and value-concordant care discussions with advanced cancer patients. Methods: The training consisted of on-demand videos on how to convey prognostic information, manage patient emotions, and elicit patient values and incorporate these values into treatment decision making. Post-intervention, oncologists reported on their perceptions of the training. Results: Fifteen oncologists were enrolled, of whom, 13 completed the training, and 14 completed post-intervention interviews. Most oncologists reported the intervention was acceptable: 92.9% indicated the intervention was "moderately" to "very helpful"; 78.6% rated it as "somewhat" to "very much" impactful on their communication with patients. Conclusions: The present self-paced online communication training was acceptable to oncologists, supporting additional research, including evaluating intervention efficacy for improving oncologists' communication skills and value-concordant care in advanced cancer.

Rumination moderates the longitudinal associations of awareness of age-related change with depressive and anxiety symptoms

OBJECTIVE

Lower awareness of age-related gains (AARC-gains) and higher awareness of age-related losses (AARC-losses) may be risk factors for depressive and anxiety symptoms. We explored whether: (1) Baseline AARC-gains and AARC-losses predict depressive and anxiety symptoms at one-year follow-up; (2) age and rumination moderate these associations; (3) levels of AARC-gains and AARC-losses differ among individuals with different combinations of current and past depression and/or with different combinations of current and past anxiety.

METHODS

In this one-year longitudinal cohort study participants (N = 3386; mean age = 66.0; SD = 6.93) completed measures of AARC-gains, AARC-losses, rumination, depression, anxiety, and lifetime diagnosis of depression and anxiety in 2019 and 2020. Regression models with tests of interaction were used.

RESULTS

Higher AARC-losses, but not lower AARC-gains, predicted more depressive and anxiety symptoms. Age did not moderate these associations. Associations of lower AARC-gains and higher AARC-losses with more depressive symptoms and of higher AARC-losses with more anxiety symptoms were stronger in those with higher rumination. Individuals with both current and past depression reported highest AARC-losses and lowest AARC-gains. Those with current, but not past anxiety, reported highest AARC-losses.

CONCLUSION

Perceiving many age-related losses may place individuals at risk of depressive and anxiety symptoms, especially those who frequently ruminate.

Reminders of Mortality: Investigating the Effects of Different Mortality Saliences on Somatosensory Neural Activity

The Terror Management Theory (TMT) offered a great deal of generative hypotheses that have been tested in a plethora of studies. However, there is a still substantive lack of clarity about the interpretation of TMT-driven effects and their underlying neurological mechanisms. Here, we aimed to expand upon previous research by introducing two novel methodological manipulations aimed to enhance the effects of mortality salience (MS). We presented participants with the idea of the participants' romantic partner's death as well as increased the perceived threat of somatosensory stimuli. Linear mixed modelling disclosed the greater effects of MS directed at one's romantic partner on pain perception (as opposed to the participant's own mortality). The theta event-related oscillatory activity measured at the vertex of the scalp was significantly lower compared to the control condition. We suggest that MS aimed at one's romantic partner can result in increased effects on perceptual experience; however, the underlying neural activities are not reflected by a classical measure of cortical arousal.

Social-coalitional trait is related to coping capacity with mortality threat: association with leadership and a reduced parietal response to mortality salience

Introduction

Coping with mortality threat, a psychological threat unique to humans and distinct from general emotional distress, is traditionally characterized by immediate suppression and prolonged worldview defense within the framework of the influential terror management theory (TMT). Views regarding the personality-trait concepts for this coping capacity diverge: some favor a broad definition based on general psychological attitudes (e.g., hardiness), while others prefer a narrow definition linked to interpersonal attitudes related to social coalition (e.g., attachment style and self-transcendence).

Methods

Using functional MRI, we presented healthy older participants with death-related words and explored correlations between the neural responses to mortality threat and the factor scores of the Power to Live questionnaire, which measures eight resilience-related psychobehavioral traits.

Results

We observed a significant association between the factor score and a neural response only for leadership; individuals with a high leadership score exhibited reduced neural response to mortality salience in the right inferior parietal lobule.

Discussion

Within the TMT framework, our findings align with the concept of the immediate suppression of death-thought accessibility associated with a secure attachment style, a trait conceptually linked to leadership. These findings highlight the unique role for the narrowly defined social-coalitional trait during the immediate stage of the coping process with mortality salience, in contrast to the broadly defined resilience-related personality traits associated with a prolonged worldview defense process. The deterioration of this coping process could constitute a distinct aspect of psychopathology, separate from dysfunction in general emotion regulation.

Do mortality cues increase state autonomy? The moderating roles of trait autonomy, flexibility, and curiosity

This study tested the effects of deep and subtle mortality cues on state autonomy, in addition to the moderating roles of trait autonomy, psychological flexibility, and curiosity. Australian undergraduate students (N = 442) self-reported on moderator variables before being randomly allocated to receive either deep mortality cues, subtle mortality cues, or a control task, and finally reported their state autonomy for life goals. Trait autonomy did not moderate the effect of mortality cues on state autonomy. However, for individuals high on psychological flexibility, any mortality cues led to increased state autonomy compared to the control. For individuals high on curiosity, there was some evidence that only deep mortality cues led to increased state autonomy. These findings help clarify the nature of growth outcomes (in terms of more authentic, autonomous motivation for life goals), and the personal characteristics that facilitate growth-oriented processing of death awareness.

Death Distress and Religiosity Among Spanish Patients Diagnosed With Depression and Anxiety

Death is a common source of uncertainty and fear for humans. Religious beliefs are among the strategies that alleviate such discomfort. The aim of this study was to explore the correlation between Death Distress and religious practices while considering other associated variables (near-death experiences, death of loved ones, and psychiatric diagnoses). The Death Anxiety Scale, Death Depression Scale-Revised, and Death Obsession Scale were administered to 400 Spanish psychiatric outpatients. Anxiety was found to be crucial for the development of Death Distress across all associations. A relation between Death Distress and Catholicism was found, albeit significantly mediated by the frequency of practice.

Not so terrifying after all? A set of failed replications of the mortality salience effects of Terror Management Theory

Terror Management Theory (TMT) postulates that humans, in response to awareness of their death, developed complex defenses to remove the salience and discomfort stemming from those thoughts. In a standard paradigm to test this theory, an individual is presented with a death-related prime (Mortality Salience; MS), such as writing the details of their own death, or something neutral, such as watching television. After a distractor task (for delay), participants complete the dependent variable, such as rating how much they like or agree with a pro- or anti-national essay and its author. Individuals in the MS condition typically exhibit greater worldview defense than control conditions by rating the pro-national essay more positively and the anti-national essay more negatively. We completed five separate studies across five unique samples with the goal of replicating and extending this well-established pattern to provide further understanding of the phenomena that underlie the effects of MS. However, despite using standard procedures, we were unable to replicate basic patterns of the dependent variable in the MS conditions. We also pooled all responses into two meta-analyses, one examining all dependent variables and one focusing on the anti-national essay; yet the effect sizes in these analyses did not significantly differ from zero. We discuss the methodological and theoretical implications of these (unintended) failures to replicate. It is not clear if these null findings were due to methodological limitations, restraints of online/crowd-sourced recruitment, or ever-evolving sociocultural factors.

Evaluating Rural Ethiopian Youths' Willingness and Competency to Promote Literacy Regarding G × E Influences on Podoconiosis

INTRODUCTION

Engaging youth as peer educators has yet to be considered to promote literacy concerning conjoint genetic and environmental (G × E) influences on health conditions. Whether youth living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) could and would be willing to serve as lay educators of G × E education is unclear.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey of youth living in Southern Ethiopia was conducted from August to September 2017. Trained data collectors administered the survey on 377 randomly selected youth who ranged in age from 15 to 24; 52% were female and 95% reported having some formal education. Self-reported willingness and a constructed competency score were assessed. Bivariate analyses tested for factors associated with willingness and competency to serve as lay G × E literacy builders.

RESULTS

Competency and willingness were significantly greater (p < 0.05) for youth who were male, had some formal education, and had civic or leadership experience. Differences in median willingness were significant for youth who scored as more competent versus those who scored as less competent (p < 0.001). There were no characteristics that moderated the association of competency with willingness.

CONCLUSION

Youth peer educator programs hold promise for disseminating improved G Χ E literacy and reducing stigma associated with deterministic misunderstandings. Thoughtful recruitment and training strategies will be needed to ensure that the broadest representation of youth in LMIC contexts has the opportunity to serve in this role, particularly girls and those without formal education.

The vegan dilemma: Do peaceful protests worsen attitudes to veganism?

A body of research has shown that violent protests reduce support for social movements. However, few studies have examined whether the same is true for protests which are peaceful, yet disruptive (e.g., blocking traffic). Across two pre-registered experimental studies, we explored whether pro-vegan protests that are depicted as causing social disruption lead to more negative attitudes towards veganism, compared to non-disruptive protests or a control condition. Study 1 utilised a combined sample of Australian and United Kingdom residents (N = 449; M_age = 24.7 years). Study 2 employed a larger sample of undergraduate Australian students (N = 934; M_age = 19.8 years). In Study 1, disruptive protests were associated with more negative attitudes towards vegans, but only among women. In Study 2, no such effect was found. Instead, a significant main effect was found for the protest's cause (vegan vs. fast fashion), but not protest type (disruptive vs. non-disruptive). That is, reading about a vegan protest, irrespective of how disruptive it was, led to worse attitudes towards vegans, and greater defense of meat consumption (i.e., endorsement of meat eating as natural, necessary, and normal), than reading about a control protest. This effect was mediated by the perceived immorality of the protestors, and, in turn, reduced identification with them. Taking together both studies, the purported location of the protest (i.e., domestic vs. overseas) did not significantly impact attitudes toward the protestors. The current findings suggest that depictions of vegan protests elicit worse attitudes toward this movement, regardless of how peaceful that protest may be. Future research is needed to examine whether other forms of advocacy can ameliorate negative reactions to vegan activism.

The Associations Between Death Anxiety, Supernatural Beliefs, Caring for Loved Ones and Attachments

Despite extensive efforts in a better understanding of associations between death anxiety and various factors, efforts studying the complex associations across those variables are still limited. This study was conducted to better understand the possible complexity between death anxiety and myriad of factors, by first extracting the most important features, and then assessing the complexity of variables by checking all pairwise interaction terms. We found most of associated factors of death anxiety are related to the concept of attachment or caring for loved ones. Ill-effect attachment with positive associations with death anxiety included factors such as attachment to the physical side of oneself, being alone before death, and the possibility of death being the end of us. On the other hand, supernatural conceptions of worldviews such as believing in God, believing that the soul is separate from body, and being religious buffer against the death anxiety.