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COVID-19’s Effects on Mortality Salience, Death Anxiety, and Worldview Defense

by Sahvannah K Shavers

Institution:	Stephen F. Austin State University
Department:	Psychology
Degree:	MA- Psychology
Year:	2022
Keywords:	Social and Cultural Anthropology; Social Psychology
Posted:	3/25/2025
Record ID:	2225739
Full text PDF:	https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/452 https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/context/etds/article/1473/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf

Abstract

Since late-2019, the world has been trying to overcome an invisible killer: COVID-19. With near constant reminders of the virus the knowledge that a tiny viral particle has potential to harm or even kill has become overwhelming for many. Terror Management Theory (TMT) suggests that when individuals are reminded of their own death people take part in culturally appropriate activities and defend their own culture as ways to alleviate this increased death anxiety. The current study aims to identify whether 1) reminders of COVID-19 prime death thoughts, 2) reminders of COVID-19 increase death anxiety, and 3) increased death anxiety from COVID-19 reminders also increase worldview defense. The results have provided evidence that thinking about COVID-19 does not prime death anxiety reducing behaviors.