TERROR MANAGEMENT AND SELF-AWARENESS - EVIDENCE THAT MORTALITY SALIENCE PROVOKES AVOIDANCE OF THE SELF-FOCUSED STATE

Two studies assessed the terror management hypothesis that when mortal ity is salient, people will avoid stimuli that increase self-awareness . In Study I, we measured the length of time that participants wrote a bout either their death or an exam in cubicles that either did or did not contain a large mirror In Study 2, participants completed either a death anxiety scale or a future concerns scab and than wrote a story fostering either an internal or external focus of attention. As predic ted in Study I, the self-focusing stimulus reduced the amount of time that participants spent in the cubicles contemplating their mortality. In Study 2, mortality-salient participants wrote less when the task p rompted an internal focus of attention than when it prompted an extern al focus. Across both studies, no differences emerged between particip ants in the control conditions. Implications of this research for unde rstanding the relationship between terror management processes and sel f-awareness are briefly discussed.