Ageism and Death: Effects of Mortality Salience and Perceived Similarity to Elders on Reactions to Elderly People

Martens, Andy; Greenberg, Jeff; Schimel, Jeff; Landau, Mark J.

doi:10.1177/0146167204271185

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

2004

DOI: 10.1177/0146167204271185

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Ageism and Death: Effects of Mortality Salience and Perceived Similarity to Elders on Reactions to Elderly People

Andy Martens

¹

,

Jeff Greenberg

²

,

Jeff Schimel

³

et al.

Abstract: The present research investigated the hypotheses that elderly people can be reminders of our mortality and that concerns about our own mortality can therefore instigate ageism. In Study 1, college-age participants who saw photos of two elderly people subsequently showed more death accessibility than participants who saw photos of only younger people. In Study 2, making mortality salient for participants increased distancing from the average elderly person and decreased perceptions that the average elderly pers… Show more

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Cited by 158 publications

(136 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…To put it differently, after subliminal exposures to the concept of older people, participants had higher DTA. These results are consistent with the results obtained by Martens et al (2004) and indicate that the concept of aging and older people is strongly associated with the concept of death in memory.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Older people and death-thought accessibility: The association between death and older people in memory

Boudjemadi

¹

,

Posner

²

,

Bastart

³

2020

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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“…To put it differently, after subliminal exposures to the concept of older people, participants had higher DTA. These results are consistent with the results obtained by Martens et al (2004) and indicate that the concept of aging and older people is strongly associated with the concept of death in memory.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Older people and death-thought accessibility: The association between death and older people in memory

Boudjemadi

¹

,

Posner

²

,

Bastart

³

2020

Get access via publisher Add to dashboard Cite

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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“…While our findings regarding the main effect of both anxieties are in accordance with previous studies (e.g., Allan et al, 2014;Bodner & Cohen-Fridel, 2014;Martens et al, 2004), the significant interaction provides important information regarding the moderating effect of one anxiety on the other when predicting ageism. This is also in line with the Terror Management Theory, which contends that ageism may function as a way to decrease people's awareness of their own mortality and that such awareness is being activated by their existential concerns (Martens et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

The interaction between aging and death anxieties predicts ageism

Bodner

¹

,

Shrira

²

,

Bergman

³

et al. 2015

Personality and Individual Differences

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

“…This suggests that a death prime can, in the absence of an afterlife affirmation, promote heightened worldview defences even when death is already salient. This is consistent with Martens and colleagues’ (2004) findings: death thoughts were increased by images of elderly adults, which all participants viewed; but, a mortality salience prime following these images increased denigration of the elderly. In both cases (exposure to elderly adults and afterlife information), priming death twice was unavoidable.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

No atheists in foxholes: Arguments for (but not against) afterlife belief buffers mortality salience effects for atheists

Heflick

¹

,

Goldenberg

²

2011

British J Social Psychol

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Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

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