An existentialist view on mortality salience effects: Personal hardiness, death-thought accessibility, and cultural worldview defence

Two studies examined the possible moderating role of hardiness on reactions to mortality salience inductions. A sample of 240 Israeli undergraduate st udents completed a hardiness scale, were exposed to a mortality salience or control induction, and then either rated the severity and punishment of 10 social transgressions (Study 1, N = 120) or performed a word-stem completi on task, which tapped the accessibility of death-related thoughts (Study 2, N = 120). Results indicated that a mortality salience induction led to mor e severe judgments of social transgressions as well as to more severe punis hments than a control induction only among participants scoring low in the hardiness scale. However, a mortality salience induction led to a higher co gnitive accessibility of death-related thoughts than a control condition re gardless of participants' hardiness scores. The discussion emphasizes the i mportance of considering inner resources when examining reactions to mortal ity reminders.