Mortality awareness and risk-taking in late adolescence

The relationship of mortality awareness to sexual, drug, and athletic risk-taking by male and female college students was measured using two questionnaires. Regression analyses of Study 1 data revealed: (a) significantly greater sexual risk-taking among males (n = 68) than among females (n = 119) beta = -.20, p less than .01; (b) a significant negative relationship of mortality awareness to sexual risk-taking in males, beta = -.36, p less than .01; and (c) no relationship of mortality awareness to reported drug use or athletic risk-taking. Regression analyses of data from Study 2, which included only male subjects (n = 40), revealed that initial mortality awareness was significantly related to sexual risk-taking (beta = -.33, p less than .05), but that manipulated awareness of death did not affect willingness to take sexual risks. It was suggested that mortality awareness may reduce the taking of risks that present nonsalient consequences, and that the consequences of risky sexual behavior may be less salient for males than for females.