Exploring individual differences in reactions to mortality salience: does attachment style regulate terror management mechanisms?

Five studies examined the contribution of attachment style to mortality salience effects. In Study 1, mortality salience led to more severe judgments of transgressions only among anxious-ambivalent and avoidant persons but not among secure persons. In addition, whereas anxious-ambivalent persons showed immediate and delayed increases in severity judgments, avoidant persons showed this response only after a delay period. In Study 2, anxious-ambivalent persons showed immediate and delayed increases in death-thought accessibility after death reminders. Avoidant and secure persons showed this effect only after a delay period. Study 3 revealed that worldview defense in response to mortality salience reduced death-thought accessibility only among avoidant persons. Studies 4-5 revealed that mortality salience led to an increase in the sense of symbolic immortality as well as in the desire of intimacy only among secure persons, but not among avoidant and anxious-ambivalent persons.

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