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Updated: Jun 13, 2025

Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses
Published on: September 28, 2018
The impact of death priming on climate change denial: a preliminary investigation
Zach Gerber1, David Anaki1,2
1Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel.
Background:
Climate change denial (CCD) has been found to be more pronounced among individuals with a conservative political orientation. Terror Management Theory posits that an individual's worldview serves as a primary defense mechanism in coping with existential threats, such as the reality of climate change. Drawing on these premises, we conducted preliminary research investigating the impact of death priming on CCD from the Terror management theory perspective.
Methods And Results:
We administered a death priming task and measured CCD in its immediate wake or following a delay task. We confirmed among 219 Amazon's MTurk participants that immediately following death priming, CCD was reduced among all participants. In the delayed death priming condition, we acquired preliminary evidence that CCD was heightened among Republican participants.
Conclusions:
These findings demonstrate the relevance of death priming to CCD tendencies and potentially spawn future research regarding CCD as a particular form of coping with existential threats.
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