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.

According to Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) a key function of cultural worldviews is facilitating people's belief that they are different from animals and therefore more than physical creatures fated to obliteration upon death. We sought to investigate the relationship between peoples’ perceived similarity to animals (PSA) and their investment in their ingroup cultural-worldviews, creativity and personal achievement, as ways of managing their awareness of death. We focused on four central hypotheses: (1) high faith in cultural worldviews should reduce PSA; (2) people who view themselves less similar to animals (low-PSA) should be more invested in their cultural worldview, especially after death primes; (3) people who view themselves as more similar to animals (high-PSA), should invest more in personal achievement and creativity as a terror management strategy and (4) be more prone to experience anxiety, particularly after a threat to their creativity. Supporting Hypotheses 1 and 2 we found that: validation of cultural worldviews reduces PSA (Study 1); low-PSA individuals cared more about their ingroup identity and worldviews and perceived other cultures as more different (Studies 2a-2b); after death primes low-PSA individuals defended their groups' cultural worldview more (Studies 3-4), and liked people from other cultures less (Studies 5-6). Hypothesis 3 was partially supported: PSA was positively correlated to importance of creativity, openness and performance on a creativity task (Studies 7, 9 and 10), but it was not correlated with self-reported or projected need for achievement (Studies 7 and 8), or with creative story writing (Studies 8). Hypothesis 4 was also partially supported: PSA was positively related to trait-anxiety (Study 9), and to levels of death thought accessibility (Study 10), and high-PSA individuals experienced more anxiety after receiving negative feedback about their creativity (Study 10). The implications these findings to the field of social psychology are discussed.

Gegenstand der Arbeit: Die Erinnerung an die eigene Sterblichkeit – das exklusive Bewusstsein des Menschen als selbstreflexives Lebewesen an die Endlichkeit des eigenen Lebens – ist für ihn ein Aspekt, der aufgrund seines biologisch begründeten Selbsterhaltungstriebs ein hohes Angstpotential in sich birgt. Es beeinflusst uns zumindest implizit in vielfältiger Weise. Insbesondere durch die Medien werden wir häufig mit der eigenen Vergänglichkeit konfrontiert und dennoch scheinen wir nicht in ständiger Angst oder Panik zu leben, was zu der Frage führt: Wie gelingt uns das? Hier bietet die Terror Management Theorie von Solomon, Greenberg und Pyszczynski (1991) einen interessanten und mittlerweile breit erforschten Erklärungsansatz, der sozialpsychologische und evolutionspsychologische Erkenntnisse zu einer integrativen und funktionalen Theorie vereint, in deren Kern die eigene Kultur und deren akzeptierte Mitgliedschaft als Angstpuffer fungieren und die Stärkung der eigenen kulturellen Weltsicht (bzw. Abwertung fremder kultureller Sichten) als Bewältigungsmechanismus funktioniert. Obwohl die Theorie von Terror und Angst ausgeht, misslang bisher in der Terror Management Forschung der Nachweis eines systematischen Einflusses von Befindlichkeiten oder Affekten. Aber welche – wenn auch implizit wirkende – Rolle spielen Affekte im Terror Management Prozess? Dieser Frage widmet sich die vorliegende Arbeit und versucht eine systematische Antwort, indem sie die impliziten affektiven Prozesse durch eine multimethodal angelegte Untersuchung genauer analysiert. Hinzugezogen wird in diesem Zusammenhang außerdem das Persönlichkeitskonstrukt der Persönlichkeits- System- Interaktions- Theorie (PSI- Theorie) von Kuhl (1981). Untersuchungsdesign: Die Überprüfung der Hypothesen erfolgt über Varianzanalysen in einem experimentellen Design mit einer Stichprobe von 138 Personen im Alter von 18 bis 79 Jahren. Methode: Die Hypothesen werden über einen multimethodalen Ansatz geprüft. Neben der klassischen Überprüfung des Mortalitätssalienz- Effekts werden hierzu über verschiedene Parameter neben der expliziten Ebene auch implizite affektive Reaktionen erfasst. In diesem Zusammenhang werden psychophysiologische Reaktionen über das Objective Emotional Assessment (OEA, Boucsein, Schaefer, Schwerdtfeger, Busch & Eisfeld, 1999) erfasst und implizit- kognitive Reaktionen über den Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT, Quirin, Kazén & Kuhl, 2009). Ergebnisse: Im Ergebnis der vorliegenden Untersuchung zeigte sich, dass zwar dem klassischen Mortalitätssalienz- Effekt erhöhter Fremdgruppenabwertungstendenz klar entsprochen wird (p= 0,00), der Affekt jedoch – wie zunächst vermutet – keine bedeutsame Rolle zu spielen scheint. Weder auf kognitiver noch auf physiologischer Ebene ergaben sich in der Experimentalgruppe signifikant erhöhte negative Befindlichkeiten (ps > 0,21). Schlussfolgerung: Ausgehend vom Untersuchungsergebnis werden ein stärker kognitiv orientierter Erklärungsansatz der Terror Management Prozesse unter Hinzuziehung des Einflusses prospektiver Handlungsorientierung sowie Implikationen für weitere Forschungsvorhaben diskutiert.

Following the 9/11 terror attacks, many Americans experienced some form of habit or mood-altering stress though, most had received their impressions of the violence via distributed media reporting rather than firsthand exposure. Researchers have found that the propagating effects of media broadcasting can exasperate the effects of terror. However, little is known of how reports of terror violence affect group dynamics in geographically distant nations. The purpose of this study, following terror management theory, was to understand if terrorist violence influences cognitive and implicit racial evaluations in a culturally similar, but geographically distant, population. The study's design was a quantitative natural experiment. Time of completing the assessment, either before or after the 2015 Paris Bataclan terror attack, comprised the 2-level independent variable; the dependent variables were the Race Implicit Association Test (IAT) and a cognitive evaluation of racial anxiety. Age and religiosity served as covariates. The target population included White citizen residents of the United States over the age of 18; 263 participants were derived from archival data. Comparisons of raw IAT scores showed an 8% increase in negative implicit racial evaluations following the attack; however, the MANCOVA failed to achieve multivariate significance (p > .05). Despite the lack of statistical significance, important details on implicit racial attitudes were uncovered. Results of this study have the potential to foster positive social change by informing individuals on how their implicit associations might be affected following exposure to reports of terrorist violence. Additionally, these findings may guide national security and intelligence professional's development of post-attack response measures and task forces.

Facing imminent death can be an unremitting problem for hospice patients who lack psychological support for existential concerns that contribute to depressive symptoms and suffering. According to terror management theory, spiritual and religious beliefs are a common means of coping with mortality at the end of life, and few studies have considered how hospice patients feel about their impending death. This was a quantitative, cross-sectional study that examined whether spirituality and religious coping moderated the relationship between imminent death concerns and depressive symptoms in 54 hospice patients. Participants completed a self-administered survey that included the Templer Death Anxiety scale, Brief RCOPE, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Spiritual Well-Being scale. Data analyses included multiple regression, Pearson correlation, independent sample t tests, and Cronbach's alpha test of reliability. Spirituality and religious coping did not significantly moderate the relationship between imminent death concerns and depressive symptoms. Total spirituality, meaning, and peace were significant predictors of depressive symptoms. A recommendation is to develop more research using terror management theory with participants such as hospice patients who are directly facing their imminent death. Positive social change is promoted by highlighting the importance of discussing death and dying with hospice patients, and recognizing religion and spirituality as valid influences to psychological health. This study's findings could lead to further research in developing psychological interventions that target depression and minimize existential distress for patients at the end of their life.

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Previous research has found a correlation between death anxiety and self esteem. Researchers have found that both self-esteem and death anxiety play a significant role in an individual's behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate a correlation, if any, between death anxiety and self esteem using death related scenarios. It was hypothesized the high death anxiety groups will have lower self-esteem than the low death anxiety group, and that the low self-esteem group will have higher death anxiety than the high self-esteem group. Results of an ANOVA indicate that there is a significant difference between the high death anxiety group and low death anxiety group concerning self-esteem. The results also indicate that there is a significant difference between the low self-esteem group and the high self-esteem group concerning death anxiety. Overall it was found that there was significant negative correlation between death anxiety and self-esteem.

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.

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