The impact of mortality awareness on meaning in life among Christians and atheists
Research derived from terror management theory suggests that reliance on a terror-managing set of beliefs when reminded of death can influence one’s perception of meaning in life. The present research builds on prior work suggesting that religious concepts help to manage the awareness of death, and...
| Published in: | Religion, brain & behavior |
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| Authors: | ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
2018
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| In: |
Religion, brain & behavior
Year: 2018, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 44-56 |
| Further subjects: | B
Atheism
B Terror management B Christian B Religion B mortality salience B Purpose B Meaning |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Research derived from terror management theory suggests that reliance on a terror-managing set of beliefs when reminded of death can influence one’s perception of meaning in life. The present research builds on prior work suggesting that religious concepts help to manage the awareness of death, and expands on that work to explore the challenges of religious and atheistic terror management. It was hypothesized that religious participants would be able to sustain perceived meaning in life when reminded of death, but that atheists would be vulnerable to a reduction in meaning when reminded of death. To test that idea, Christians and atheists were first reminded of either mortality or a control topic, and then asked to rate how strongly they felt life was meaningful. Results indicated that ratings of meaning in life were lower in the mortality salience condition, relative to the control condition, among the atheists but not among the Christians. Implications regarding religious and non-religious terror management strategies are discussed. |
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| ISSN: | 2153-5981 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2016.1238845 |