Mortality Salience and Metabolism: Glucose Drinks Reduce Worldview Defense Caused by Mortality Salience

Matthew T Gailliot

doi:10.4236/psych.2012.311149

Abstract

The current work tested the hypothesis that a glucose drink would reduce worldview defense following mortality salience. Participants consumed either a glucose drink or placebo, wrote about either death or dental pain, and then completed a measure of worldview defense (viewing positively someone with pro-US views and viewing negatively someone with anti-US views). Mortality salience increased world- view defense among participants who consumed a placebo but not among participants who consumed a glucose drink. Glucose might reduce defensiveness after mortality salience by increasing the effectiveness of the self-controlled suppression of death-related thought, by providing resources to cope with mortality salience and reducing its threatening nature, or by distancing the individual from actual physical death.

Highlights

Reminders of mortality are commonplace, yet people often avoid thinking about death because thoughts of dying can be personally threatening (e.g., Aries, 1981; Becker, 1973)
Tests of simple effects indicated that mortality salience, compared to dental pain salience, increased worldview defense in the placebo condition, F(1,42) = 4.23, p < .05, but not in the glucose-drink condition, F < 1, ns
Consistent with past work, the current study found that mortality salience increased worldview defense

Summary

Introduction

Reminders of mortality are commonplace, yet people often avoid thinking about death because thoughts of dying can be personally threatening (e.g., Aries, 1981; Becker, 1973). The threatening nature of mortality triggers defensive reactions that function to reduce awareness of death (e.g., Florian & Mikulincer, 1997; Greenberg et al, 1990; Heine, Harihara, & Niiya, 2002; Landau et al, 2004; Ochsmann & Mathey, 1994). The current work focused on the biology of responses to death reminders. It is posited that avoiding thoughts of death is demanding, psychological work that requires additional metabolic energy. When metabolic energy is low, death should be more threatening. The prediction was that lower glucose— the primary energy for the brain—would increase defensive responding to mortality reminders

Methods

Results

Conclusion