Losing My Religion: Examining Effective Prompts for Mortality Salience
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Junior
Major
Psychology
Minor
History
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Jana Hackathorn
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
Problem: Terror Management Theory (TMT) poses that mortality salience (MS), the awareness that one's death is inevitable, leads individuals to engage in behaviors that defend self-esteem, enhance one's worldview, and reduce death anxiety (see Pyszczynski et al., 2021). Traditionally, methodology to study this randomly assigns participants to write an essay about what happens to them in death (MS condition) or to write about something else that is aversive but not death-related (Control). However, a series of studies over the past 8 years have failed to replicate even the basic findings. It is believed that the traditional methodology paradigm is ineffective in explaining why expected outcomes have been difficult to ascertain. Specifically, participants' writings were not about what happens after death, but instead contained explanations of spiritual joy. Thus, the current study will attempt a new manipulation to engage MS effects to successfully replicate past TMT findings.
Procedure: The purpose of the study is two-fold: create a new MS manipulation that is effective for highly evangelical populations and replicate past TMT findings regarding internal and external motivations. Similar to traditional methodology, participants will complete the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1989). Then, they will be tasked with writing one of three essays: feelings about an upcoming exam (control), what they think happens when they die (traditional), and what will happen biologically when they die and are decomposing (new bio-death condition). After a 10-15 minute filler task, the final task will be an assessment of their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and aspirations.
Expected Results: It is expected that the new bio-death condition will report higher extrinsic motivation than the remaining two conditions, as found in Greenberg et al. (1986), indicating that the new essay prompt is effective in this population. Additionally, it is expected that self-esteem will moderate this effect, in that high self-esteem will exacerbate the effect, similar to past studies. Additionally, it is unclear whether intrinsic motivations will be affected in the same way, but they will be assessed. Data collection is currently underway (n = 15) and should be completed by February 2026. ANOVAs and ANCOVAs will be conducted to assess the hypotheses.
Conclusions and Implications: Results of this study may have important implications for the continued study of TMT. Further data evaluations may suggest that certain subject variables (i.e., religious affiliations) have created mortality coping mechanisms, which may have impeded past research in this area.
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Losing My Religion: Examining Effective Prompts for Mortality Salience
Problem: Terror Management Theory (TMT) poses that mortality salience (MS), the awareness that one's death is inevitable, leads individuals to engage in behaviors that defend self-esteem, enhance one's worldview, and reduce death anxiety (see Pyszczynski et al., 2021). Traditionally, methodology to study this randomly assigns participants to write an essay about what happens to them in death (MS condition) or to write about something else that is aversive but not death-related (Control). However, a series of studies over the past 8 years have failed to replicate even the basic findings. It is believed that the traditional methodology paradigm is ineffective in explaining why expected outcomes have been difficult to ascertain. Specifically, participants' writings were not about what happens after death, but instead contained explanations of spiritual joy. Thus, the current study will attempt a new manipulation to engage MS effects to successfully replicate past TMT findings.
Procedure: The purpose of the study is two-fold: create a new MS manipulation that is effective for highly evangelical populations and replicate past TMT findings regarding internal and external motivations. Similar to traditional methodology, participants will complete the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1989). Then, they will be tasked with writing one of three essays: feelings about an upcoming exam (control), what they think happens when they die (traditional), and what will happen biologically when they die and are decomposing (new bio-death condition). After a 10-15 minute filler task, the final task will be an assessment of their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and aspirations.
Expected Results: It is expected that the new bio-death condition will report higher extrinsic motivation than the remaining two conditions, as found in Greenberg et al. (1986), indicating that the new essay prompt is effective in this population. Additionally, it is expected that self-esteem will moderate this effect, in that high self-esteem will exacerbate the effect, similar to past studies. Additionally, it is unclear whether intrinsic motivations will be affected in the same way, but they will be assessed. Data collection is currently underway (n = 15) and should be completed by February 2026. ANOVAs and ANCOVAs will be conducted to assess the hypotheses.
Conclusions and Implications: Results of this study may have important implications for the continued study of TMT. Further data evaluations may suggest that certain subject variables (i.e., religious affiliations) have created mortality coping mechanisms, which may have impeded past research in this area.