Death, quest, and self-esteem: re-examining the role of self-esteem and religion following mortality salience

Terror management theory suggests that when mortality concerns are salient, religion can serve as a defence in order to boost self-esteem and shield against the potential for anxiety. The current study examined whether individual differences in religious orientation (i.e., quest) interacted with rem...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Arrowood, Robert B. (Author) ; Coleman, Thomas J. (Author) ; Swanson, Sally B. (Author) ; Hood, Ralph W. (Author) ; Cox, Cathy R. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge 2018
In: Religion, brain & behavior
Year: 2018, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 69-76
Further subjects:B Mortality
B Individual differences
B terror management theory
B Self-esteem
B Quest
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Terror management theory suggests that when mortality concerns are salient, religion can serve as a defence in order to boost self-esteem and shield against the potential for anxiety. The current study examined whether individual differences in religious orientation (i.e., quest) interacted with reminders of death to influence well-being. To the extent that religiosity buffers against mortality awareness on defensiveness, the present results demonstrated that individuals high in quest orientation, in comparison to low-quest-orientated individuals, reported lower well-being (i.e., self-esteem) following reminders of death. These results add to the existing body of literature suggesting that thoughts of death can serve to decrease well-being, but that this effect is influenced by individual differences, namely trait quest religiosity.
ISSN:2153-5981
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2016.1238843