Over 20 years of research on terror management theory has demonstrated that reminders of death (mortality salience; MS) heighten individuals' investment in prioritized bases of value and meaning. Research in this vein has shown that MS intensifies people's efforts to demonstrate personal value on tasks relevant to their self-esteem ("self-esteem striving"). Though much work illustrates that such responses function to mitigate death-related concerns, to date no work has directly assessed the particular regulatory mechanisms that implement MS-induced self-esteem striving. The present study aimed to do so by measuring neural indices of performance monitoring. During a tasked framed as diagnostic of self-esteem relevant attributes, participants were randomly assigned to receive subliminal primes of the word death or of control terms. Response-locked brain signals were recorded to assess reactivity to correct and incorrect responses during the task. Results showed that death-primed (vs. control) participants exhibited greater neural reactivity following error commission as indexed by larger amplitude of the Error Related Negativity (ERN). Death-primed (vs. control) participants also exhibited intensified behavioral efforts to improve their performance following error commission (i.e., post-error slowing, post-error accuracy), effects that were likely mediated by the activity of neural mechanisms that generate the ERN. Furthermore, among death-primed participants, behavioral improvements on the self-esteem relevant task correlated with attenuations in death thought accessibility. Receiving death primes did not influence neural reactivity to correct responses (Correct Related Negativity; CRN) nor did it heighten a neural index of explicit error awareness (Error Positivity; Pe). Together these findings suggest that MS-induced self-esteem striving is implemented via automatic monitoring and avoidance of errors. The role of avoidance motivation in self-esteem striving is thus discussed.

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Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) is one of the most influential social psychological theories of group behavior and intergroup relations. Early social identity research focused on many different group processes; however, the motivation behind group identification was not fully explored. Researchers have proposed a variety of accounts for why people join and identify with groups. This dissertation unravels the relationship between, on the one hand, mortality salience, self-related uncertainty and self-esteem, and on the other group identification and ingroup defense. The general hypothesis derived from uncertainty-identity theory (Hogg, 2010) is that uncertainty and not fear of death or pursuit of self-esteem motivate people to identify with and defend their groups, and that identification mediates the relationship between uncertainty and defense of the group. Experiment 1 (N = 112) tested the relationship between uncertainty and self-esteem on defense of the ingroup, with the additional test of the mediating effects of identification with the group between uncertainty and ingroup defense. Results showed that uncertainty and not self-esteem motivate people to identify with a group, to defend their group, and that group defense is mediated by identification. Experiment 2 (N = 112) provided a replication of the typical TMT study, which suggests that self-esteem will buffer the effects of mortality salience on ingroup defense, with the additional test of the mediating effects of identification between mortality salience and defense of one's group. As predicted, mortality salience only increased identification and defense of the group when self-esteem was not enhanced, as well, the interactive effects of mortality salience and self-esteem on defense was mediated by identification. Experiment 3 (N = 294) was a combination of both Experiments 1 and 2 and tested the hypothesis that uncertainty would moderate the relationship between self-esteem and mortality salience on group identification and ingroup defense. Exactly as predicted, only under high uncertainty the typical TMT results are demonstrated. Results across these three experiments demonstrate that self-uncertainty plays a significant role in reactions to mortality salience, and support uncertainty-identity theory's analysis of the role of self-uncertainty in ideological conviction and group behavior.

Abstract This thesis addresses the issue of the effects of (repeated) exposure to death-related news content systematically and programmatically through a four-phase research project using a Terror Management Theory (TMT) framework. The central research questions that are posed include, ‘What are the effects for individuals of exposure to death in TV news?’; ‘When will individuals personalise death-related TV news as opposed to feel desensitised to it?’; and, ‘How do individuals cope with repeated exposure to death in TV news?’ The first three chapters provide an extensive literature review that integrates current research from the media effects and mass communication literature with that of experimental findings based on TMT. This leads to an overview of the research program. Then, a series of empirical chapters present findings from six experiments, using a mixed methods approach that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative data and analyses. Finally, in Chapter 9 trends within the quantitative and qualitative data across the studies are discussed along with the theoretical and broader implications of the findings. Overall, there are three primary aims of the research. (1.) To examine a) whether death in news media can prime personal mortality salience, thus eliciting death thought accessibility and cultural worldview fluid compensation defensive outcomes as theorised by TMT (increased nationalism, endorsement of affiliation needs and self-esteem bolstering), and b) whether it is only particular portrayals of death in news media that work this way (i.e., whether there are critical factors such as viewer-victim similarity or level of exposure, as identified in the media effects literature) that play a significant moderating role. (2.) To explore whether it is necessary for the outcomes of exposure to death in news media to be defensive or whether there are alternative and more pro-social outcomes related to the extent that the viewer elaborates cognitively on the content or views more rationally (as implicated in Cozzolino, Staples, Meyers, & Sambceti, 2004). This could be as a function of individual differences (e.g., in cognitive thinking style) or as a function of the situational or contextual factors that prompt one to consider death-related news content more personally (emotionally) versus rationally. (3.) To ask about the “repeated” nature of death primes in news media, given that news media is unique in its daily emphasis on death-related content. Towards this aim we seek to answer the following: Does repeated exposure lead to accentuation of the defensive fluid compensation effects or does it lead to diminished effects because of desensitisation and depersonalisation? This third aim is potentially the most complex and is an under-researched area with important real-world implications. Specifically, Study 1 addresses reactions to death in TV news using a written stimulus task for a range of dependent variables– namely, death thought accessibility, cultural worldview endorsement, and cultural worldview defence. Examining the same dependent variables, Studies 2 and 3 explore the effects of actual TV news footage of a bus crash with multiple fatalities and the role of viewer-victim similarity. Study 4 examines what happens when explicit instructions to imagine your own death are given while watching the same TV news footage. Next, Study 5 examines whether more pro-social effects rather than the typical TMT defensive reactions are possible when a method by Cozzolino et al. (2004) that involves deeper death reflection and the role of cognitive elaboration are explored. Finally, Study 6 addresses the question of repeated exposure to death in TV news, with a focus on whether prior death exposure leads to attenuation or heightening of typical TMT defensive outcomes. Together, results from the six studies indicate that exposure to death-related TV news does not lead inevitably to defensive reactions. While there is strong evidence that death in TV news increases death thought accessibility (especially compared to a non-death TV news control), critically, whether personal mortality salience (as evidenced by self and other death thoughts) is resultant is more variable. Qualitative data shows that people have a range of defensive strategies and resources available to them and that we are honed at detecting personal relevance. Rather than viewing desensitisation as a negative by-product of TV news consumption it seems that the self-protective features of desensitisation are note-worthy. Detachment or neutrality seems to help individuals cope with the barrage of death-related images and sound bytes broadcast via TV news. Conversely, a sensitivity to detect personal relevance helps serve an important surveillance function also geared towards self-protection and meaning making. When there is maximal similarity with the victims of TV news stories portraying death, we can expect viewers to perceive high personal relevance, to personalise news content and to process the content more emotionally, as opposed to feeling desensitised. Although the buffering role of high rational thinking was weak overall, contrary to TMT-based predictions higher rational thinkers were found to be more prone to cultural worldview defence in a number of instances. The theoretical implications for TMT, social identity-based theories, Cozzolino et al.s (2004) work, and relevant media effects literature are discussed. The primary implication for TMT is evidence that death-related TV news footage has the capacity to make personal mortality salient and that higher death thought accessibility often can be evoked by death-related TV news. However, when subsequent measurement of cultural worldview defence is undertaken after a three-minute delay, higher death thought accessibility does not necessarily lead to consistent evidence of defensive fluid compensation effects. These two dependent variables have not been measured together in the literature to date, so these findings provide a significant theoretical distinction for TMT. While death in TV news more likely promotes procreation or family-related defensiveness than national bias, a range of factors (such as detecting self-relevance, viewer-victim similarity, and one’s ability to adopt a rational thinking style) moderate effects in various situations. In particular, factors such as contextual news features, rational thinking, shock value or spontaneous realisation of relevance, and reminders of one’s own family or of one’s own or others’ death are important.

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To examine how awareness of death (cues) influences believers with implicit and explicit images of Jesus with terror management theory. Previous research has found with terror management theory (TMT), that a persons view of their God provides an understanding of their worldviews and motivations. There is much evidence to suggest that character assessments, or individual differences in personality, are closely tied to people’s facial appearance and their trustworthiness. In this study using TMT, we are able to relate death thoughts to their visual perceptions of Jesus. In over 30 years, empirical research has demonstrated that reminders of morality leads people to defend their worldviews. The purpose of this research was to understand if specific words alluding to death would change how Christian individuals mentally see their Christ in comparison with no priming. We specifically have hypothesized that people who were reminded of death words would illustrate a more positive, empathetic Christ and a more neutral Christ with the lack of priming.

The present study examines whether or not a person's anxiety level might be linked to their learning performance. Many studies in the past have examined math and test anxiety, but the present study will examine the effects of death anxiety on learning performance. Individual's anxiety will attempt to be induced through fear of death. Participants were presented a set of four symptoms, similar to Gluck and Bower's 1988 category learning study. The participants were asked whether or not they think the symptoms of the patient are positive for COVID-19 or positive for the flu. The hypothesis was that there would be a negative correlation between death anxiety and learning performance (i.e. participants who score high in death anxiety will score with lower accuracy in the learning task). The signal detection model was used to analyze the data for accuracy levels, the ability to discriminate between categories (d'), and the response bias towards COVID-19 (β). The present study found results to support the hypothesis that high death anxiety caused lower performance levels. Results found that death anxiety is a predictor of classification of bias towards a more serious disease in classification. This bias seems to be unrelated to state anxiety, or STAI scores. The signal detection model indicates a predicted effect on discriminability index, which negatively correlated to pre-experiment death anxiety levels. Additionally, although the predicted response bias showed up in the data, it was not correlated with death anxiety levels. There was also no relation to political affiliation, which was thought to bias beliefs about COVID-19.

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