Investigating the Role of Normative Support in Atheists' Perceptions of Meaning Following Reminders of Death

According to terror management theory, humans rely on meaningful and permanence-promising cultural worldviews, like religion, to manage mortality concerns. Prior research indicates that, compared to religious individuals, atheists experience lower levels of meaning in life following reminders of death. The present study investigated whether reminders of death would change atheists' meaning in life after exposure to normative support for atheism. Atheists (N = 222) were either reminded of death or a control topic (dental pain) and exposed to information portraying atheism as either common or rare, and then asked to rate their perceived meaning in life. Results showed that reminders of death reduced meaning in life among atheists who were told that atheism is common. Results were consistent with the view that atheism reflects the rejection of religious faith rather than a meaningful secular terror managing worldview. Discussion considers implications for maintaining healthy existential wellbeing, identifies limitations, and highlights future research directions

Women want the heavens, men want the earth

This version of the article may not completely replicate the final version published in Journal of Individual Differences.. It is not the version of record and is therefore not suitable for citation. The version of record can be found at https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a00028

Afterlife Beliefs, Life Extension and Gender: Evidence for Life Extension Technologies Reduces Death Thought Accessibility Among Males

Purpose: This study investigates whether reading about Indefinite Life Extension (ILE) can reduce death thought accessibility, particularly among men, as a way to manage death-related concerns. The study aims to explore gender differences in the psychological function of ILE as a terror management strategy. Methodology: An experimental design was used, involving 110 American undergraduate students. Participants were randomly assigned to read about ILE, the afterlife, or a neutral technological advance (teleportation) following a mortality salience prime. The primary outcome measured was death thought accessibility (DTA), with gender as a key variable. Findings: The results revealed that, after being reminded of mortality, reading about the possibility of ILE significantly reduced DTA among men compared to the control condition. However, this effect was not observed among women, who did not show a similar reduction in DTA after reading about ILE. Research Implications: These findings contribute to the growing literature on the terror management function of ILE, highlighting the role of gender in moderating responses to death-related concerns. The study suggests that ILE may serve as an effective strategy for men in managing existential anxiety, whereas women may rely more on traditional beliefs in the afterlife. Originality/Value: This study offers new insights into the gender-specific psychological mechanisms underlying the appeal of life extension technologies, expanding the understanding of how different groups use ILE as a tool for managing death anxiety

The role of positive emotion eliciting activities at promoting physiological recovery from sadness

The current study investigated whether positive emotion eliciting activities facilitate the physiological, as well as subjective emotional, recovery from feelings of sadness and grief. Results indicated that participants who read a funny or neutral article after writing about the death of someone close had greater decreases in sadness and increases in positive emotion than participants who read an article about coping with grief. The funny and neutral articles were also associated with greater decreases in corrugator supercilii muscle activity. Positive emotion eliciting activities had no effect on zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi muscle activity, heart rate, or respiratory sinus arrhythmia

The Impact of Mortality Awareness on Meaning in Life Among Christians and Atheists

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. 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

Evidence for a role of death thought in American attitudes toward symbols of Islam

Four studies were conducted to examine how concerns about mortality contribute to Americans\u27 negative attitudes and behavior toward symbols of Islam. Study 1 found that a subtle reminder of death decreased support for the Ground Zero mosque, and increased the distance from Ground Zero that people felt was appropriate for a mosque to be built. Study 2 found that asking people to think about a mosque being built in their neighborhood increased the accessibility of implicit death thoughts. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 and showed that thinking of a church or synagogue did not produce the same effect as thinking of a mosque. Study 4 found that heightened death thought accessibility in response to a mortality salience induction was eliminated when the participants read a newspaper account of the desecration of the Quran

Gender, Life Extension and Terror management: Evidence for Life Extension Technologies Reduces Death Thought Accessibility Among Males

Abstract: Previous findings suggest Indefinite Life Extension (ILE) can serve a way to manage death related concerns (e.g., Lifshin et al., 2018), especially among men (e.g., Lifshin et al., 2019). In this study (N = 110) we experimentally tested if reading about the possibility of life extension would reduce death thought accessibility after a reminder of mortality compared to reading about the possibility of an afterlife, or about a neutral technological advance (teleportation), among American undergraduate students. Results indicate that reading that ILE is possible after mortality has been primed reduced the accessibility of death related thoughts compared to the control condition among men, but not among women. These findings add to the literature supporting the potential terror management function of ILE, and the gender differences that exist in this domain

Photo-Cross-Linked Anion Exchange Membranes with Improved Water Management and Conductivity

Robust, cross-linked anion exchange membranes (AEMs) were prepared from solvent-processable polyisoprene-<i>ran</i>-poly­(vinylbenzyltrimethylammonium chloride) (PI-<i>ran</i>-P­[VBTMA]­[Cl]) ionomers via photoinitiated thiol–ene chemistry. Two series of membranes were prepared choosing two dithiol cross-linkers, 1,10-decanedithiol and 2,2′-(ethylenedioxy)­diethanethiol, selected for their different hydrophobicities. A strong correlation was found between the choice of dithiol cross-linker, water uptake, morphology, and the ion conductivity of the membranes. Results were compared with previous findings of thermally cross-linked AEMs from analogous random copolymers. Comparably high chloride ion conductivities were obtained at low to moderate ion exchange capacities (IECs) with significantly low water uptake values. It was shown that by choosing a hydrophilic cross-linker ion cluster formation may be suppressed and ion conduction improved. This study highlights that it is possible to promote ion conductivities for low IEC membranes (<1 mmol/g) by forming well-connected, ion conducting network morphology. This observation paves the way for mechanically robust ion conducting membranes with enhanced conductivities and better water management