Sex differences in attitudes toward death: a replication.

Abstract

Lester (1970) analyzed questionnaire data from college students published in 1936 (Middleton, 1936) and found that, in general, males were more likely to think about death and dying but had less negative affective responses to death and dying. The present note reports an attempt to replicate these results with questionnaire data obtained from students in 1970. Ss were 175 males and 236 females, median age 20 (range 18 to 24), who were taking courses in psychology.' Males were more likely to picmre themselves vividly in their imagination as dead (x' = 4.49)=, less likely to entertain thoughts of dying from a specific disease (x' = 4.35), less likely to wish that they were dead (xa = 8.48), less likely to be depressed by funeral services (x2 = 11.85) and by cemeteries (x3 = 13.91), less likely to be depressed by death stories (x' = 14.39), more likely to want to know for certain whether there is a life after death (x2 = 7.15), and less likely to believe in a life after death (x2 = 4.36): The sexes did not differ in frequency of thinking about their own death (females less often), frequency of vividly picturing themselves in their imagination as dead (females less often): frequency of entertaining thoughts of dying from a specific disease (males less often), entertaining thoughts of dying in an accident and the frequency of such thoughts (females less likely); imagining death as painful (females less likely), dreams of dying (females less often), avoidance of funerals (males less avoidance), liking to read death stories (females less), frequency of reading death stories (males less), fascination with newspaper stories about death (females less), fear of death (males less), wish to live after death (females less likely), worry over the question of a future life (females less), and degree of change in their manner of living if they knew for certain whether there was a life after death (females less). The differences in this study are similar to those of the previous report. The males were more likely to think about death than were females (on 4 of the 6 relevant items) but had less negative affective reaction to death (on 4 of the 5 relevant items). However, the extent of present differences was less than in the previous report.