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Delay and death-thought accessibility: a meta-analysis
Christopher T Steinman1, John A Updegraff2
1Kent State University, OH, USA csteinma@kent.edu.
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
|October 8, 2015
Summary
Terror Management Theory suggests threats increase death-thought accessibility (DTA). Explicit death threats show stronger DTA with longer delays or task-switching, while non-death threats show weaker DTA with task-switching.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Terror Management Theory (TMT) posits that awareness of mortality influences human behavior.
- The dual-process component of TMT suggests different threat types affect death-thought accessibility (DTA) over varying delays.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how explicitly death-related versus non-death-related threats influence DTA.
- To examine the moderating roles of delay intervals and task-switching on DTA.
Main Methods:
- A meta-analysis of experimental studies on TMT threats and DTA.
- Studies were coded based on threat explicitness (death-related vs. not), delay duration, and task-switching during the delay.
Main Results:
- Death-related threats yielded larger DTA effect sizes with increased task-switching or longer delays.
- Non-death-related threats showed smaller DTA effect sizes with increased task-switching.
- Findings partially support TMT's dual-process predictions regarding delay and DTA.
Conclusions:
- The impact of threat type on DTA is moderated by delay and task-switching.
- Results offer nuanced support for TMT's dual-process model, highlighting differences in how explicit and implicit threats operate.
- Further research is needed to fully elucidate these mechanisms.
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