Effects of Mortality Salience and Religion on Aggression

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine the effects of mortality salience (MS) and religion on aggression. Participants were 120 students (58.3% females; 73.3% with religion) from a private university in Singapore. They were randomly assigned to either the MS condition or the control condition, asked to remember a time when they were deeply hurt or offended by a person, and provided an opportunity for revenge by sticking pins into a voodoo doll that represented the person. The results showed that participants in the MS condition inserted a significantly higher number of pins into the voodoo doll than participants in the control condition. However, this effect was not moderated by religion and extent of belief in God. Limitations include the consideration of participants with religion as one group for data analysis. Future research directions include recruiting a larger and more diverse group of participants.