Rol 1

Does exposure to death lead to death acceptance?
Running head: DOES EXPOSURE TO DEATH LEAD TO DEATH ACCEPTANCE?
Does Exposure to Death Lead to Death Acceptance? A Terror Management Investigation in Varanasi,
India.
Dissertation
December 10th, 2013
Silvia FernandezCampos
New School for Social Research
New York, USA

UMI Number: 3612082
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS

The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,
a note will indicate the deletion.
UMI 3612082
Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
All rights reserved. This work is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code
ProQuest LLC.
789 East Eisenhower Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346
Does exposure to death lead to death acceptance? 2
Abstract
Is exposure to death the formula to accept one´s own demise? The present research tested terror
management theory among groups with varying degrees and types of exposures to death from Varanasi
to find an answer. Study 1 included 120 funerary workers and 120 farmers. Participants were reminded
of their death or a control topic and then reported their level of cultural worldview defense
operationalized as attachment and glorification of India and proIndia bias. Farmers increased their
worldview defense following death reminders. This increase brought farmers to the same high level of
worldview defense displayed, independently from the condition, by funerary workers. This was
interpreted as support for the idea that chronic exposure to death leads to a chronic use of cultural
worldview defense. Study 2 tested whether a more experiential form of exposure to death involved in
going through a terminal illness is the silver bullet to accept death. A group of 30 terminal cancer patients
and 30 farmers with no major health concerns from Varanasi completed similar measures as in Study 1.
Death reminders increased attachment to India in both groups. These findings suggest that daily
exposure to death – at least to dead bodies and illness symptoms – or a Hindu cyclical view of life and
death do not lead to death acceptance. Alternative types of exposure to death are offered in the
discussion as possible roads to reach death acceptance.
Keywords: Death exposure, death acceptance, terror management, Hinduism, Varanasi.

To my parents Luis and Belen for their unconditional love and support
and
To my brother David for his inspiring calm and creative way of being
Acknowledgments
This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of so many people. I would like
to thank first and foremost those who gave me life; my parents Luis and Belen. Thank you for your
unconditional love and support in all my journeys. The secure, generous, and empathic nest you provide
me with has allowed me to fly high and experience life as an adventure. You are my greatest gift.
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Prof. Emanuele Castano, who inspired
me to reflect about life and death through the light of fascinating existential theories and whose original
and counterintuitive perspectives on the social world we live in has greatly influenced my own way of
thinking about humanity. Thank you for the cuttingedge feedback, great opportunities, space in the lab,
and support that made this work possible and allowed me to grow. My deepest gratitude is also to
members of my committee. Thank you Prof. Lisa Rubin for your wise advice and support, especially
when I needed it most. Your multilevel understanding and brave way of approaching difficult social,
gender, and health paradoxes are very encouraging for all of us and make a difference. Thank you Prof.
Joan Miller for your sharp and generous feedback on this work and for teaching me the importance of
being sensitive to the cultural filters that bias what we see and the need to go beyond them.
I am indebted to Prof. Indramani Singh and students Trayambak Tiwari, Gaurav Kumar Rai,
Upagya Rai, Richa Singh, and Proshanto Kr.Saha at Banaras Hindu University for helping me in
Varanasi when I was a total stranger. Without your collaboration and data collection in difficult places
such as crematory grounds and hospitals, this work would not have been possible. Thank you also to
those I met on the riverbanks of Varanasi, who expanded my mind by breaking the schemas I had
about how the world works, and who showed me how to tolerate uncertainty and chaos a bit better.
I extend my gratitude to the Faculty at the New School for giving me the dissertation fellowship
that made this work possible, to Janiera Warren for encouraging me to fly out of the nest and finish this
dissertation. And also to my lab and nearlab friends; Tom, Geoff, Roberto, Berni, Billy, Gul, Claudia,
Ashley, Jeremy, Katie, Hannah, David, and Kelly for their helpful feedback and fun times. Thanks also
to Prof. Josh Hart for the good conversations about life, death, and attachment that influenced this
work.
I am immensely grateful to my yoga teachers Leigh, Julianna, and Summer, who taught me how
to understand the world though my body, appreciate the beauty of impermanence, and let go of what
must die with each breath so there is space for new beginnings.
Special thanks also to my brother David for being a natural born yogi whose endless calm,
creativity, and wisdom continues to inspire me, and to my best friends Paloma, Carlota, Leyla, Laura,
Caitling, and Rose who always make me laugh even when it is difficult to.
Finally, I wish to thank my beloved relatives and friends for their support throughout the
duration of my studies. Thanks to Abuelo Paco, Abuela Victoria, Cuqui, Paco, Cristina, Jose, Concha,
Juancarlos, Bea, Carlos, Rocio, Javier, Patricia, Adriana, Guille, Pepemanu, Alvi, Tere, Luna, Marisol,
Tamoa, Analau, Marina, Jeremy, Lorenzo, Pablo, Zoe, Juhi, Andrew, Pauline, Tom, Geoff, Roberto,
Neema, Christine, Daniel, Ira, Emma, Dain, Seth, Jessica, and Sondra.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………...7
Varanasi……………………………………………………………………….7
Terror management theory………………………………………………..…. 9
The role of exposure to death……………………………………………...…10
OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT RESEARCH…………………………...….…....14
STUDY 1: FUNERARY WORKERS………………………………………….…....16
Method………………………………………………………………………..16
Results………………………………………………………………………...20
STUDY 2: CANCER PATIENTS…………………………………………….…...…27
Method………………………………………………………………………..28
Results…………………………………………………………………….…..32
GENERAL DISCUSSION………………………………………………….…….…..37
Limitations………………………………………………………………….…41
Final remarks……………………………………………………………….…44
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………….….46
APPENDICES....……………………………………………………………………...49
Few places are as suffused with death as is Varanasi. The dead and the dying are incessantly
brought to Varanasi from distant parts of India. According to the Vedas, ancient Hindu scriptures
written thousands of years ago, when one dies in this holy place one reaches Moksha, the end of the
cycle of deaths and rebirths. The lord of death Shiva himself whispers in one´s ear the mantra needed
to remove the layers of ignorance leaving one soul ready to be united with Brahma, the eternal soul
(Eck, 1982; Parry, 1994).
Every day, as the sun rises, dozens of Indians go to bathe and pray in the sacred Ganges River.
Although the Ganges is the most polluted river in the world, Hindus believe that its waters have the
power to clean one’s karma from wrong past deeds. Manikarnika and Harishchandra, the riverside
cremation grounds, are allocated at the shores of the Ganges, where most public activity takes place.
And so death can be seen and smelled in the acrid smoke that rises from riverside funeral pyres.
Around 150 dead bodies from all parts of India arrive each day in Varanasi in order to be
burned and thrown in the Ganges. During the day of the cremation, family members carry the corpse to
the shores of the Ganges and give it one last bath. They usually wear white clothing and do not cry, as
the public display of sadness is thought to bring bad luck to the person who is about to be cremated.
The cadaver is then given to Agni, the Hindu God of fire (Parry, 1994).
In the Ganges River, pilgrims bathe and residents wash their clothes as corpses float by.
Children, pregnant women, holy men, and those who died of pot disease or snake bite, are tied to
heavy stones and sunk in the water. Hindus believe that they are already pure and do not need to be
further purified with the holy fire. Especially when the tide is high, corpses may come untied from the
stone and float in the superficies of the River becoming accessible to everyone´s gaze.
Varanasi attracts both the dying and those who wish to die in this holy place. Indians with
various sickness and renouncers – ascetis who give up possessions and relationships to focus on god
(Hausner, 2007)– populate the streets and riverbanks of Varanasi awaiting their death (Eck, 1982). The
most radical renouncers, the aghoris, live in the crematory grounds, adorn themselves in funeral ash, eat
from bowls formed of human skulls, and even use human corpses in secret rituals (Svoboda, 1986).
For Hindus, dying in Varanasi is a blessing. This offers a direct route to end one´s samsara. The
doctrine of samsara holds that we have lived and died many times in the past, and that the present life is
just a mere stage of a large chain of reincarnations. Our karmas – misdeeds accumulated in previous
lifetimes – keep the wheel of samsara turning and make us suffer millions of rebirths (Satchidananda,
1978). One may reincarnate in up to 8.4 million living forms including a worm, a mosquito, and a
donkey, until one gets a human body again. Being born with a human body in Varanasi is a gift that
should not to be wasted, since it is here where the painful cycle of reincarnations ends and one can
reaching enlightenment (Parry, 1994).
Over the centuries, travelers, writers, and philosophers across the globe have come to this
unique place to reflect about life, death, and the nature of the self. I arrived in Varanasi some years ago
looking for the formula for death acceptance. Almost everybody I asked in Varanasi about their death
told me that there is nothing to fear about death and that being surrounded by death helps one to accept
this inevitable reality. At that time I was reading Ernest Becker (1973), who doubted that, deep down,
human beings are psychologically equipped to accept their own death. I began inquiring: Have Indians
from Varanasi reached a subconscious acceptance of their own death? To explore this question, I
tested terror management theory in this sacred place.

Terror Management Theory
Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986), based on
Ernest Becker’s (1973) theorizing, proposes that a great deal of what we do and think is motivated by
our deeply ingrained need to deny our death. Specifically, TMT posits that the potential paralyzing
terror linked to the awareness of our annihilation prompts us to deny our death through the use of
subconscious defenses. In order to manage the terror of death, individuals (a) immerse themselves in
cultural worldviews that give life a subjective sense of meaning and permanence, (b) strengthen their
selfesteem, chiefly through believing that one is a valuable member of a meaningful world, and (c)
heighten their motivation to form and maintain close relationships. For instance, attending a religious
ceremony, celebrating a national holiday, raising a family, or writing a book are all means by which
individuals are able to feel symbolically immortal and keep the terror of death at bay according to TMT.
Experiments testing TMT have repeatedly found that when people are exposed to reminders of
their own mortality –referred to as the Mortality Salience (MS) hypothesis they respond by defending
their cultural worldviews, enhancing their selfesteem and attachments to loved ones. For instance,
hundreds of studies show that reminding people of their death leads to more positive evaluations of
similar others and negative evaluations of dissimilar others (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski,
1997), more favorable reactions of those who meet moral standards, and harsher reactions to moral
transgressors (Rosenblatt, A., Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Lyon, 1989); increased ingroup
identification and intergroup bias (Castano, Yzerbyt, Paladino, & Sacchi, 2002; Castano 2004);
heightened motivation to form and maintain relationships (Mikulincer, Florian, & Hirschberger, 2004;
Hart, Shaver, & Goldenberg, 2005) and increased aggression to dissimilar others (McGregor,
Lieberman, Solomon, Greenberg, Arndt, & Simon, 1998).

Although some studies have found support for TMT with populations outside the western
world, for example with Australian Aborigines (Salzman & Halloran, 2004; Kashima, Halloran, Yuki, &
Kashima, 2004), in Japan (Heine & Bhungalias, 2002), and with Chinese and Iranian Muslims
(Pyszczynski, Abdollahi, Solomon, Greenberg, Cohen, & Weise, 2006), the majority of TMT research
has been conducted in individualistic cultures such as the United States, Canada, and Western Europe.
In addition to differences regarding the emphasis placed on the nature of the self (Markus & Kitayama,
1991), societies and cultures differ in the nature of the philosophical and religious systems that they
embrace and, in turn, their views on life and death (Young & Morris, 2004). In contrast to predominant
linear JudeoChristian and Muslim notions of life and death, where one lives and dies only once, Hindus
believe that we have lived and died many times in the past. It could be argued that the cyclical Hindu
view of life and death, where death is not the end, provides a more potent anxiety buffer system –or that
it even eliminated the need to use defenses given that death in Hinduism is not the end.
Given that the vast majority of TMT research has included young western students with little
exposure to death, Varanasi, where death is much more present in daily life as described above,
provides an ideal niche to test the boundaries of TMT, both in terms of varying philosophical views on
the meanings of death and individual differences on death exposure.
The Proposed Role of Exposure to Death in Terror Management
There was a time when death in the West was more present. In Europe in the Middle Ages, for
instance, The Black Death brought illness and body decay to the forefront of people´s consciousness,
killing nearly half of the population. Christian monks carried skulls to remember their expiring nature and
called death the great equalizer. Death did not make distinctions on which door to knock. Since then, as
people´s sense of self, afterlife beliefs, and death practices changed, the connection with death has been
lost (Ariès, 1981). Nowadays, death in most western cultures is kept in the background of most
people’s existence, restricted to TV news, casual passes by funeral homes, and physical illness. Dead
bodies are rarely on display, and when they are, we go to great distance to eliminate from them the signs
of death and decomposition. Furthermore, people in the west increasingly die alone in hospitals,
separated from their communities, and are often sedated with heavy doses of drugs (Mitford, 1998;
Robben, 2004). Within this culture of death stigmatization, it is not surprising that TMT has found
support. There is little room for acceptance for that which we avoid. The next challenge for TMT is to
test its tenets among groups with more exposure to death than the young western samples included in
most TMT studies. To the best of my knowledge, no TMT studies have included populations with daily
high exposure to death.
The idea that exposure to death facilitates death acceptance is not new. Contemplative
practitioners across millennia (Satchidananda, 1978; Dalai Lama, 2002; Loy, 1996), existential thinkers
(Kierkegaard, 1957; Heidegger, 1966), and palliative care providers (KüblerRoss, 1997) propose
that confronting our ontological anxiety is the road to accept our expiring nature. For instance,
Kierkegaard (1957) proposed that the only way out is through, and that in order to deal with the anxiety
linked to death one needs to approach death and become throughly anxious. Once the anxiety devours
its own end, one reaches a stage of peace with one´s own existential situation.
Although the posttraumatic growth literature has not found evidence for the idea that death
exposure leads to death acceptance, research steaming from this field shows that confrontations with
death have a powerful impact on our psyche (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2001; JanoffBulman & Yopyk,
2004). Concretely, near death experiences, such as those involved in traumatic events (e.g.,
interpersonal violence, natural disasters), have a profound and enduring impact on the way survivors
understand life and relate to others. JanoffBulman & Yopyk (2004), for instance, found that near death
experiences involve both losses and benefits: Most survivors lose meaning as comprehensibility (the
assumptions to live in a safe, controllable, and just world are broken) but gain meaning as significance,
realizing that life can no longer be taken for granted and increasing their appreciation for life, connection
with loved ones and spirituality.
Palliative care providers also highlight the powerful impact that direct confrontations with death
have in our psyche. A diagnosis of a terminal cancer, for instance, forces one to confront the idea of
one’s own death in a very direct and imminent way. The “not me, not now” simply do not work. And
one’s own body announces its own dissolution (Goldenberg et al., 2001; 2004) through physical
symptoms such as bleeding, vomiting, pain, and weight loss, to name a few.
Elizabeth KüblerRoss (1997), a pioneer in the field of death and dying, proposed that direct
confrontations with mortality prepare dying patients to reach a stage of death acceptance. She spent her
life accompying terminally ill patients and, based on her experiences, introduced a wellknow model of
the five stages that those who are dying usually go through. These stages include denial (e.g., not me),
anger (e.g., why me?), bargaining (e.g., just a bit more time), depression (e.g., sense of impeding lost),
and acceptance (e.g., I guess this is it). Not everybody goes through all the stages. They are not linear
or mutually exclusive. People may go back and forth in between stages, and some may never reach
some of them. Nevertheless, as KüblerRoss observed, most people, if they had enough time, reach a
stage of death acceptance. She describes this stage as the end of the dying struggle, where emotional
pain is no longer present and the person is at peace with the prospect of his/her imminent death. This
acceptance, however, should not be mistaken for a happy stage. As KüblerRoss noticed, “it is almost
void of feelings” (1997, pp.124). To conclude, both posttraumatic growth research and observations
from palliative caregivers and existential thinkers provide evidence for the idea that exposure to death
impact our psyche in a profound way. The time is ripe now to explore whether confrontations with
death allow us to accept our inevitable end.
Hypotheses
Two possible outcomes of a chronic exposure to death were considered. I call the Immunization
Hypothesis (IH) and the Chronic Defense Hypotheses (CDH). The IH proposes that chronic exposure
to death (e.g., dead bodies, illness symptoms) leads to a subconscious acceptance of death and predicts
that individuals with chronic exposure to death are immune to the effects of death reminders. This may
be due to two reasons. First, constant exposure may engender habituation to the stimulus (i.e., death
reminder), and it thus no longer triggers a response. Second, the threat inherent to the stimulus may
prompt the individual to do deep psychological work, resulting, in this case, in a subconscious
acceptance of the inevitability of death. The IH is consistent with contemplative practitioners
(Satchidananda, 1978, Dalai Lama, 2002; Loy, 1996) and palliative care providers (KüblerRoss,
1997) theorizing on the importance of confronting our death to accept this reality.
The CDH follows TMT and poses that chronic exposure to death leads to a chronic use of
cultural worldview defense. That is, constantly being reminded of death would motivate individuals to
chronically use the defenses that help them to handle the existential anxiety linked to death. To give an
example, if the sight of cadavers is constantly reminding you of your fate, and thus threatening your
psychological equanimity, a more intense and recurrent use of the coping mechanism that you use to
handle death may be needed. This hypothesis is an extension of the classical mortality salience
hypothesis and follows TMT premises. That is, at a deep level, human beings are not able to accept
their mortality and invariably use subconscious defenses to keep the terror of death at bay.
Overview of the Current Research
To explore whether chronic exposure to death leads to a subconscious acceptance of one´s
own death the present research tested TMT in Varanasi, where, as described above, death permeates
every sphere of people´s existence. Two studies tested the mortality salience hypothesis among groups
with varying degrees and types of exposure to death, such as funerary workers, farmers, and cancer
patients.
Study 1 investigated whether exposure to dead bodies leads to death acceptance. This study
included a group of funerary workers who burn cadavers daily in the burning grounds of Varanasi
(highdeathexposure group) and a group of farmers living far from the crematory grounds of Varanasi
(relatively lowdeathexposure group). Following classical TMT research (Greenberg, Solomon, &
Pyszczynski, 1997), half of each group was reminded of their death and half of a control topic. Then,
participants completed a distraction task and then reported their level of cultural worldview defense –
operationalized here as attachment and glorification of India and proIndia bias.
The logic of including a distraction task in TMT research is that the MS effects ultimately
emerge when thoughts of death are outside of focal attention but hyperaccessible at a subconscious
level. To further clarify, TMT asserts that when people are reminded of their death they use proximal
defenses (rational and conscious defenses such as “not me, not now”) to suppress death thoughts and
move them away from consciousness. During the distraction task, there is a paradoxical
hyperaccessibility of death thoughts, which, in turn, triggers the use of distal defenses (irrational and
subconscious defenses such as cultural worldview defense) in order to dissipate thoughts of death
(Greenberg, Arndt, Schimel, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 2001).

A second study was conducted to examine the impact of a different type of chronic exposure to
death on people´s psyche, such as the one encountered by those facing terminal illnesses. In contrast to
funerary workers who are exposed to other people´s dead bodies, people dying from a terminal illness
are exposed to concrete and experiential death reminders – such as thoughts about their imminent death
and illness symptoms (e.g., nausea, pain, and weight loss).
The strong link between death and body functions has been empirically established by Jamie
Goldenberg and colleagues (Goldenberg, Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, Kluck, & Cornwell,
2001; Goldenberg & Roberts, 2004), who have found that bodily products (e.g., excretions,
menstruation, and mother’s milk) and bodily functions (e.g., sex, excretion) heightened deaththought
accessibility. Thus, this research assumes that experiencing illness symptoms is a form of chronic
exposure to death in one´s own body.
The methodological design of this study is the same as in Study 1. Two groups were included: a
group with terminal cancer receiving treatment at Banaras Hindu University Hospital
(highdeathexposure group) and a group of farmers with no major health concerns (relatively
lowdeathexposure group). After death or control reminders, participants indicated their levels of
cultural worldview defense operationalized as attachment to India and evaluation of moral transgressors.
If the IH is correct, then funerary workers and cancer patients, due to their chronic exposure to
death, may have reached a deep acceptance of their own death and would not respond to experimental
reminders of their own death. These groups, in contrast with their respective comparative
lowdeathexposure groups, would show low levels of cultural worldview defense across conditions. If
the CDH is correct, then funerary workers and cancer patients have not reach a deep acceptance of
their own death. Instead, their high levels of exposure to death would lead to a chronic use of cultural
worldview defense and they would report high levels of such defense across conditions. Comparing the
pattern of results among body would help to disentangle whether the IH or the CDH applies.
Study 1
This study tested the MS hypothesis among two groups with varying degrees of exposure to
death from Varanasi. The highdeathexposure group was composed of funerary workers and death
priest with daily exposure to dead bodies. The lowdeathexposure group included farmers living in
villages approximately 15 miles away from the crematory grounds of Varanasi (Govardhanpur, Malaia,
and Madarawan) with comparatively lower exposure to dead bodies. The method of this study follows
classical TMT research design (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997): Participants from each
group were reminded of their death or a control topic, completed a distraction task, and then reported
their levels of cultural worldview defense operationalized as attachment and glorification to India and
proIndia bias.
The first goal of this study was to test whether the MS effect can be replicated among Hindus.
Because Hindus have a very different representation of life and death, it is possible that they may not be
(as) sensitive to MS manipulation. The second goal was to test the impact of chronic death exposure on
individuals´ reaction to experimental MS inductions. If the IH is correct, then farmers with low exposure
to death would show the classical MS effects and funerary workers would display low levels of defense
across conditions. If the CDH is correct, then farmers would show the classical MS effects and funerary
workers would report high levels of cultural worldview defense across conditions.
Method
Participants. 254 male Indians from Varanasi aged between 18 and 85, with a mean age of
37 were included in this study. Women were excluded from the subject pool because they do not work
in crematory grounds in Varanasi. Out of the 254 participants, 14 individuals were excluded because
they did not complete all the measures. The total sample consisted of two groups. The firsts group
consisted of 120 individuals with high exposure to death reminders who work near or in crematory
grounds of Varanasi such as funerary workers, boatmen, and death priest. The second group consisted
of 120 farmers from villages of Varanasi living and working far from crematory ground. The two
samples showed similar demographic characteristics. For instance, the mean age for the first group is
38.56 years (SD = 14.81), and for the second it is 36 (SD = 13.83). The vast majority of participants
in both subsamples are married (71% of the first group, 86% of the second group). The majority of
both groups have a very low financial status of 0 to 5,000 rupees (approximately 0 to 120 American
dollars) per month (90% of the first group, 85% of the second group). Considering education level, only
10% from each group have some college; 40% in the first, and 30% in the second group completed
only elementary school, and 28% and 50%, respectively, completed high school.
Materials and Procedure
Six Indian students from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) collected the data in the crematory
grounds and villages of Varanasi in exchange for research credits. Students worked in pairs,
approaching potential participants in their place of work and asking them to participate in a study about
interpersonal judgments and aesthetic preferences lasting approximately 30 minutes in exchange for 50
rupees (approximately 1.00 American dollar). If they agreed to collaborate, participants completed the
measures in a tea shop near their place of work. The questionnaire was initially written in English and
then translated to Hindi by two Indian psychology students fluent in English. This translation was further
reviewed by the third author of the present research, an experienced Indian crosscultural researcher
who is fluent in English and Hindi.
Half of the participants in each group were randomly assigned to an MS condition and the other
half to a control condition. The first part of the questionnaire differed for the MS and control condition.
In the MS condition, participants completed a 15item questionnaire measuring their thoughts and
feelings regarding their own death (used in previous studies; for details, see Greenberg et al., 1994;
Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). Examples of questions are “Do you worry that you may
be alone when you are dying?” and “Do you worry that those you care about may not remember you
after your death?” Participants indicated whether the statement is true or false. In the control condition,
participants completed a 15item questionnaire (equivalent in structure to the previous) measuring their
thoughts and feelings regarding flying a kite, a common practice in Varanasi.
Following the MS or control questionnaire, all participants completed a distraction task that
consisted of choosing which picture they prefer among six pairs of pictures. The pictures represent two
landscapes, two animals, and two kinds of flowers. As explained above, a distraction task is needed
for the MS to emerge (Greenberg et al., 1994).
Next, all participants completed several dependent variables (attachment and glorification of
India and evalution of anti and proIndia statements) and reported demographics and their level of death
exposure. Materials are indicated below.
Attachment and Glorification of India. Previous studies have shown MS manipulations to
increase clinging to the ingroup (Castano, 2004) and identification with it (Castano, Yzerbyt, Paladino,
& Sacchi, 2002). Accordingly, and adapted version of Roccas, Klar, and Liviatan (2006) attachment
and glorification scale was used to assess participants´level of cultural worldview defense. This scale
measures two aspects of identification with a nation, namely, attachment and glorification. The
attachment subscale includes ítems such as “It is important to me to view myself as an Indian.” The
glorification of India subscale includes ítems such as “Compared to other nations, we are a very moral
nation.” Each subscale is composed of 8 items and participants answered the items on a 1 (strongly
disagree ) to 7 (strongly agree ) scale.
Evaluation of the authors of proIndia and anti India statements. Participants were
asked to evaluate the authors of four short pro and antiIndia statements created for this study. The
logic of including short statements rather than a longer anti and proIndia essays was to shorten the
survey. Contrary to undergraduates students routinely included in psychological research, farmers and
funerary workers from Varanasi are not used to filling out questionnaires. The antiIndia statements
consisted of a foreigner criticizing the Hindu custom of removing the shoes before entering in a temple
(Item 1) and Indian spiritual practices such as meditation (Item 2). To give an example, participants read
the following statement (Item 2): “A foreigner is looking at a yogi doing meditation. He says: ‘Meditation
is stupid. Indian people should be working instead of loosing their time. Indians can be very hypocritical
losing their time doing yoga or meditation while they always trick each other to get some rupees.’” After
reading each statement, participants were asked, “How much do you like this person?” and “How much
do you think that this person should be punished?” The proIndia statements consisted of a foreigner
praising Indian spiritual practices (Item 1) and Indian family values (Item 2). Participants were then
asked, “How much do you like this person?” and “How much do you think that this person should be
rewarded/praised?” Participants rated the anti and proIndia items on a 6point scale rating from 1 (not
at all ) to 6 (extremely ).
Religion. Participants also completed several measures regarding their level of religiosity,
exposure to death, and sociodemographic characteristics. A simple sixitem questionnaire measuring

participants’ level of religious faith and practices was created starting from the Religious Background
and Behavior Questionnaire (RBB; Connors, Tonigan, & William, 1996) and the Abbreviated Santa
Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ; Plante, Vallaeys, Sherman, & Wallston,
2002) (see Appendix A). Examples from this questionnaire include “How often do you attend puja
(religious ceremony)?” and “How much does your religion provide meaning and purpose in your life?”
Participants rated each item using a 6point Likert scale from 1 (never ) to 6 (always ).
Death Exposure. To measure participants´ exposure to death, the Death in Everyday Life scale
(DEL) was created for this study. The DEL (see Appendix B) is composed of 10 short sentences in a
language accesible to the general adult population in India and focuses on physical exposure to death
such as seeing a dead body, a cremation, a funerary procession, or a fatal accident (e.g., “How often do
you see a dead body?” or “How often do you pass by a funeral home or crematory place?”).
Participants indicated how often they experience what is indicated in each item using an 8point scale
from 1 (never ) to 8 (more than once a day ). Finally, several questions about sociodemographic
characteristics including age, marital status, level of education, and monthly income were included at the
end of the questionnaire.
Results
First, an ANOVA using condition (MS vs. control) and death exposure (low vs. high) as
between participants factors on biographical characteristics was computed. This revealed a main effect
of death exposure on religion, F (1, 236) = 4.83, p < .03, = .020, such that high exposure
individuals were less likely to be married, and a main effects of condition on marital status, F (1, 236) =
3.79, p < .05, = .015, and education, F (1, 236) = 3.96, p < .05, = .016, such that MS
participants were more likely to report being married and reported higher educational levels compared
to participants in the control condition. The effects of condition are in line with TMT, as people would
exaggerate the importance of their romantic relationship (Mikulincer et al., 2003; 2004) and want to
present themselves as more educated when primed with death. However, as both of these variables
can have exact, actual answers, it is also possible that despite random assignment to the two groups
these differences are actual differences between the two groups.
Death Exposure. To secure that participants working in crematory grounds encounter more
death reminders in their everyday life routine than farmers working in the field, 9 of the 10 items
comprising the DEL were averaged (α = .84; M = 4.72, SD = 1.07). Item 6 (Read or watch news
about people dying) was excluded because of its low itemtotal correlation. An ANOVA using
condition (MS vs. control) and death exposure (low vs. high) as between participants factors and the
DEL score as dependent variable was computed, and revealed a main effect of death exposure, F (1,
236) = 669.95, p < .001, = .74, such that high exposure participants reported greater exposure to
death (M= 5.61) than farmers working in the villages (M= 3.63).
Religiosity. A total religiosity score was calculated averaging the items comprising of the
religiosity scale created for this study (α = .80; M = 3.85, SD = 0.89). The same ANOVA indictaed
above on religiosity revealed a main effect of death exposure, F (1, 236) = 95.30, p < .001, = .28,
and of condition, F (1, 236) = 4.83, p < .02, = .02, but not a significant interaction effect. The
high death exposure group showed higher level of religiosity (M= 4.33) than the low death exposure
group (M= 3.38). This finding can be simply due to the fact that the high death exposure group worked
in an environment in which religion was most salient, or, more interesting from our theoretical standpoint,
to the fact that individuals who are constantly exposed to death may have a greater need to cling to
religious beliefs and practices. The other main effect occurred because participants in the MS condition
who reported higher levels of religiosity (M = 3.96) as compared to those in the control condition (M =
3.75). This, of course, is in line with TMT, but it could also be due to an unlucky coincidence.
Attachment and glorification. Attachment and glorification scores were computed by
averaging the items of the two scales (α = .76 and .60, M = 6.41 and 5.51, SD = .54 and .73,
respectively) and analyzed separately by means of an ANOVA using condition (MS vs. control) and
death exposure (low vs. high) as between participants factors. With regard to attachment, both main
effects were significant but as the interaction was also significant only the interaction is discussed, F (1,
236) = 4.97, p < .02, = .02. The same pattern of results was found for glorification with a significant
interaction, F (1, 236) = 11.68, p < .01, = .04. As can be seen in Table 1, while in the high death
exposure group there were no significant differences between MS and control condition (for both
attachment to and glorification of India), in the low death exposure group, the manipulation had a strong
effect. Looking at the means from another perspective, while in the control condition high death
exposure individuals scored higher than low exposure individuals, once reminded of their death, the low
death exposure group scored as high as the high exposure group in either experimental conditions.
Table 1. Mean Scores and Standard Deviations on the Dependent Variables Attachment and
Glorification Scale as a Function of Death Exposure and Type of Experimental Condition
Attachment Glorification n
High death exposure

Mortality salient 6.53 a (.63) 5.57 a (.76) 60
Neutral 6.47 a (.32) 5.69 a (.58) 60
Low death exposure
Mortality Salient 6.50 a (.34) 5.73 a (.65) 60
Neutral 6.14 b (.68) 5.14 b (.78) 60
Note. Means in the same column with different subscripts differ at p < .05 or less. Standard deviations
are in parenthesis.
Evaluation of the authors of proIndia and antiIndia statements. Judgments of liking and
suggested punishment for antiIndia and proIndia cases were analyzed separately. For the antiIndia
judgments, a fourway analysis of variance with condition (MS vs. control) and deathexposure
(highexposure vs. lowexposure) as betweenparticipants factors and case (case1 vs. case2) and
judgment (liking vs. punishment) as withinparticipants factor was computed first. As the fourway
interaction was not significant, but the three way involving condition, deathexposure, and judgment
was, F (1, 236) = 10.74, p < .001, = .04, the two scenarios were collapsed and a 3way ANOVA
with these three factors only was recomputed . The patter of means was consistent with those found for
attachment and glorification of India. As shown in Table 2, while in the control condition high death
exposure individuals dislike more and punish more the authors of antiIndia statements than low
exposure individuals, once remided of their death the low death exposure group scored showed similar
judgments as the high exposure group in either conditions.
For the proIndia judgments, the same fourway ANOVA as for antiIndia judgments was
computed. Neither the scenario nor the nature of the question (like, reward) moderated the significant
interaction between condition and deathexposure, F (1, 236) = 3.98, p < 04, = .03. Accordingly,
both proIndia scenarios and judgment questions (How much do you like this person? and How much
reward?) were collapsed and an ANOVA was recomputed which replicated the abovementioned
significant interaction. The pattern of means is consistent with the results found for the other dependent
variables (see Table 2). While in the control condition high death exposure individuals scored higher in
liking and reward than low exposure individuals, once primed with death the low death exposure group
scored as high as the high exposure group in either experimental conditions.
Table 2. Mean Scores and Standard Deviations on the Dependent Variable Evaluation Ratings of
a Foreigner Criticizing / Praising India as a Function of Death Exposure and Type of
Experimental Condition
AntiIndia AntiIndia ProIndia n

liking punishment liking and reward
High death exposure group

Mortality salient 1.15 a(.34) 4.42 a(.1.42) 7.87 a(1.44) 60
Neutral 1.12 a(.31) 4.64 a(1.22) 7.82 a(1.15) 60
Low death exposure group

Mortality Salient 1.38 a(.49) 4.52 a(1.24) 7.94 a(1.04) 60
Neutral 1.84 b(.83) 3.91 b(1.42) 7.17 b(1.43) 60
are in parenthesis.
Overall, the results obtained from all the dependent variables show a similar pattern (see Figure
1 below illustrating the general pattern of results). Among individuals with high death exposure, a
mortality salience manipulation does not increase identification (either attachment of glorification) with
India and does not impact their perception of a critic or a supporter of Indian habits. Among low death
exposure participants, however, there are significant differences between the MS and control group.
While in the control condition high death exposure individuals scored higher in all the dependent
variables (attachment to and glorification of India, stronger negative evaluations of a foreigner criticizing
India, and more favorable opinions of a foreigner praising India) than low death exposure individuals,
once reminded of death, the low death exposure group scored as high as the high exposure group in
either experimental conditions.
Figure 1. Attachment to India as a Function of Death Exposure and Experimental

Condition
In order to establish whether the effects described above for attachment, glorification, and
evaluation of authors of proIndia and antiIndia statements were affected by some of the variables
discussed above that differed between the high and low death exposure groups and between MS and
control condition participants (e.g., education or religiousness), ANOVAs were recomputed adding
these variables as covariates, one at the time. This did not affect the results, suggesting that these
variables do not play a role in the emergence of the effects on the dependent variables.
To test the moderating role of chronic exposure to death on the effect of mortality salience, the
procedure outlined by Muller, Judd and Yzerbyt (2005) to test for a mediated moderation was used.
The results of this test, however, were inconclusive. In other words, this study does not find evidence in
support of the meditational role of selfreported death exposure on the observed effects – this point is
further address in the discussion.

Discussion
The present study tested whether exposure to death among funerary workers leads to a
subconscious acceptance of death. The MS effects were tested in two groups of Indians categorized
into high and low death exposure on the basis of their profession (funerary workers vs. farmers). The
apriori categorization found support in the selfreport measure assessing the frequency of death
exposure, but because such a quasiexperimental design opens the door for possible confounds,
additional variables were measured to ensure that the two groups did not vary significantly on other
important dimensions. Despite that the two groups did differ on some variables, the main results held
regardless of whether such variables were included as covariates.
These results provide initial evidence for the chronic defense hypothesis: Among the group of
farmers with relatively low death exposure, mortality reminders led to a sharp increase in the levels of
cultural worldview defense –increased attachment and glorification of India and proIndia bias. This
increase brings farmers in the sample to the same high level of CWD displayed, independently from the
condition, by funerary workers (highdeathexposure group). Nevertheless, this study did not find
conclusive evidence about the specific processes that led to chronic cultural worldview defense among
funerary workers. Future research could further investigate the mediating role of chronic exposure in
producing the effects observed in this study.
To conclude, although this is only preliminary evidence, one conclusion that can be drawn from
these findings is that neither chronic exposure to death –to dead bodies in particular – nor a Hindu
cyclical view of life and death –given that the MS effects were found among Hindu farmers – are the
silver bullets that one may have hoped for. This is further addressed in the general discussion.
Study 2
To explore whether a more experiential type of exposure to death leads to death acceptance, a
second study was conducted including terminal cancer patients from Varanasi. People enduring a
terminal illness are confronted with thoughts of their imminent death and experience mortality reminders
in their body in the form of illness symptoms such as bleeding, vomiting, and losing weight. This
experiential and concrete chronic exposure to death may allow people who are dying to reach a stage of
death acceptance. As KüblerRoss (1997) pointed out, most terminally ill patients, if had enough time,
reach a stage almost void of feelings in which they are at peace with the idea of their own departure.
This study included a group with terminal cancer receiving treatment at Banaras Hindu
University Hospital (highdeathexposure group), and a group of farmers working in the villages of
Varanasi (lowdeathexposure group). As in study 1, participants were reminded of their death or a
control topic, completed a distraction task, and then filled out measures assessing their cultural
worldview defense, operationalized as attachment to India and evaluation of moral transgressors.
Afterwards, participants reported their level of exposure to death, both in terms of the presence of
health problems (e.g. illness symptoms) and exposure to dead bodies as measured by the DEL.
The same IH and CDH predictions specified in study 1 apply here. If the IH is correct, then the
low death exposure group would show the classical MS effects and the high death exposure group
would show comparatively lower levels of defense across conditions. If the CDH is correct, then the
high death exposure group would report chronic high levels of defense across conditions. Comparing
the pattern of results across high and low death exposure groups would allow to disentangle whether the
IH or the CDH applies.

Method
Participants. This study included 59 Indians from Varanasi. Half of the sample was composed
of Indians with terminal cancer and the other half was composed of Indians with no major health
concerns. Both women and men were included in the sample. Unfortunately, this study failed to record
participants´ gender. The mean age is 43 and ranged between 22 and 72. The highdeathexposure
group is older (M = 48; SD = 14.37) than the lowdeathexposure group (M = 39.55; SD = 3. 76).
All participants except two are married and all are Hindu. The majority of both groups have a low
financial status of less than 2000 rupees (approximately 0 to 300 American dollars) per month.
Regarding education, the highdeathexposure group reported higher levels of education. Among this
group, 13% completed elementary school, 26% completed high school, 36% completed their bachelor,
and 23% completed graduate studies. For the lowdeathexposure group, 20% attended elementary
school, 55 % completed high school, and few completed their bachelor (17%) or graduate studies
(5%).
All participants in the high death exposure group reported advanced stages of cancer and
severe symptomatology. All reported experiencing at least two of the following list of symptoms: pain,
vomiting, nausea, difficulty swallowing, fatigue, weight loss, digestion problems, and breathing problems.
The most common types of cancer were throat (8), cervix (5), blood (4), and lung cancer (4).
Participants also reported breast (2), prostate (1), liver (3), kidney (1), pancreas (1), and bone cancer
(1). This report is consistent with data from the World Health Organization (WHO), which shows that
throat cancer (esophagus, larynx) is the most common type of cancer in India, together with cervix and
breast cancer among women and lung cancer among men. Cancer in India, although less frequent than in
countries like United States, is the second largest noncommunicable disease after heart disease and its
rates keep increasing as life style changes (e.g. poor diet, tobacco, alcohol, lack of physical exercise)
and expected lifespan increases (Misra, Chatterjee, & Rao, 2003).
Materials and Procedure
Six Indian students from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) collected the data in Banaras Hindu
University Hospital and in villages of Varanasi. Permission from the hospital to collect data was
obtained. Students worked in pairs, and approached potential participants in the waiting rooms of the
hospital’s oncology building. Long lines of people queue up outside the hospital buildings, thus, the
waiting areas are usually on the street. Farmers were approached in their villages at their place of work.
Data collectors asked participants if they would like to complete a study about psychology that lasts
approximately 30 minutes in exchange for 300 rupees ($5 approx.). If they agreed to collaborate,
participants completed the measures in the same place where they were approached. Participants with
cancer were given an additional amount after this research was conducted to compensate them for
taking the time to fill out this survey in spite of their health problems. A total of $7000 from the
dissertation fellowship received to complete this research was sent to this group.
The procedure of this study follows the classical MS experiments (Greenberg et at., 1990),
which includes a death reminder, a distraction task, and devices measuring the level of cultural
worldview defense. Half of the participants in each group were randomly assigned to an MS condition
and the other half to a neutral condition. The first part of the questionnaire differed for the MS and
control condition. In the MS condition, participants were reminded of their death. An openended
question used in previous TMT research (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997) was included to
remind participants of their death, such as: “Please briefly describe the thoughts and emotions that the
thought of your death arouses in you.” Participants in the control condition were asked “Please briefly
describe the thoughts and emotions that the thought of taking a walk arouses in you”. Next, all
participants completed a distraction task in which they indicated their preference over several
landscapes, animals, food, and objects.
Afterwards, all participants completed several devices measuring their level of cultural
worldview defense operationalized as evaluations of moral transgressors and attachment to India. An
assessment of participants´ mood was included to ensure that this variable does not account for the
possible pattern of results. After, participants´ levels of death exposure in terms of health problems and
exposure to dead bodies as measured by the DEL were assessed. Finally, participants indicated their
level of religiosity and demographic characteristics. Measures in Study 2 were reduced as much as
possible to avoid fatiguing participants. Materials are indicated below.
Evaluation of moral transgressors. Participants read three short scenarios of moral
transgressions and rated the deserved punishment for the transgressor in a 1 to 7 scale (1 = very light
punishment to 7 = very heavy punishment) and the estimated fine that transgressors should pay.
Previous TMT research has shown that death reminders lead to harsher evaluations for moral
transgressors (Rosenblatt et al., 1989). The short scenarios included are summaries of news reported in
Indian newspapers and include:
Scenario 1. Police apprehended a man for committing a robbery at knifepoint in a
residence. The thief forcibly entered the house, held the occupant at knifepoint, and
robbed valuable jewellery.
Scenario 2. Police arrested a man at the Mumbai airport trying to smuggle drugs to
Southern parts of India.

Scenario 3. A man was arrested on Sunday after seriously beating his friend, who ended
up in the hospital with 2 skull fractures in the head.
Attachment to India. A reduced version of the attachment subscale of the Identification/
Glorification Scale (IGS) developed by Roccas, Klar, and Liviatan (2006) was used to measure
participnats´ level of attachment to India. This was the same adapted scale included in Study 1.
Participants indicated from 1 = strongly agree to 7 = strongly disagree their level of agreement with four
items from this subscale including “Being an Indian is an important part of who I am (item 2), and
“When I talk about Indians I usually say “we” rather than “they” (item 4).
Mood. Participants indicated their mood reporting the extent to which they experience several
states from 1 (= Not at all) to 100 (=Very much). Negative mood was assessed with three ítems:
worries, fear, and anxiety. Positive mood was composed of: Confidence, calmness, and comfort.
Religiosity. The same religiosity scale developed in Study 1 was included here (see Appendix
B). Participants indicated on a 1 to 100 scale (1= Never to 100= always) the extent to which they
engage in several religious activities such as praying and attending a religious ceremony.
Health. Three items assessed health, conceived here as an indication of participants exposure to
bodily reminders of death. Participants rated their overall health on a scale from 1 to 100 (1 = very
poor health, 100 = very good health), indicated the extent to which they were experiencing pain in the
present moment on a 1 to 100 scale (1= Not at all to 100 =Very much), and then indicated the
frequency in which they experience illness symptoms on a 1 to 8 scale where 1 = never, 2 = once in a
lifetime, 3 = once a year, 4 = once a month, 5 = once a week, 6 = several times a week, 7 = almost
everyday, 8 = more than once a day. Only the group with cancer indicate afterwards the type of cancer
they have and the main symptoms they usually experience. Similar assessments of overall health (e.g.
presence of pain, presence of symptoms, and overall health ratings) have been included in research by
the World Health Organization. These short items were preferred over more exhaustive health scales to
abbreviate the survey as much as possible.
Death exposure. The DEL scale created in Study 1 was included in this study. Participants
indicated on a 1 to 8 scale (1 = never, 2 = once in a lifetime, 3 = once a year, 4 = once a month, 5 =
once a week, 6 = several times a week, 7 = almost everyday, 8 = more than once a day) how often
they experienced was indicated in the items.
Results
Several ANOVAs using condition (MS vs. control) and death exposure group (low vs. high) as
betweenparticipant factors on biographical characteristics, religiosity, and mood were first computed to
assess possible differences between groups. There was a main effect of group on age, F (1, 55) = 9.54,
p < .05, ηp2 = .148. The high death exposure group is older (M =48, SD = 14.37) than the low death
exposure group (M = 39.55, SD = 3.76). No main effects of condition or interaction effect of condition
and group on age were found, however.
Chisquare analyses revealed a marginal significant difference across the high and low death
group in terms of financial status ( χ² ( 4 , N = 59) = 7.79, p =.09) such that the high death exposure
group reported higher financial status than the low death exposure group. A chisquare test revealed
significant differences in the level of education among high and low death groups ( 4 , N = 59) = 9.68, p
<.05. The high death exposure group reported higher education than the financial low death exposure
group. However, there were not significant differences across experimental conditions in terms of
education level or financial status.
The items composing the religion scale were averaged into total religiosity score (α = .82, M =
70.07, SD = 12.26). There was a main effect of group on religiosity, F (1,55) = 27, p < .001, ηp2 =
.32, such that the low exposure to death group reported being more religious (M = 80, SD = 9.74) than
the high death exposure group (M = 60.44, SD = 17.59). No main effects of condition or interaction
effect of condition and group on religiosity were found.
Items assesing negative mood (worries, fear, anxiety) and reversed items measuring positive
mood (security, calmness, confidence) were averaged into a total negative mood score (α = .901; M =
34.94, SD = 22). The same ANOVA analysis revealed a main effect of group on mood ( F ( 1,55) =
38.42, p <.001, ηp2 = .41), such as the high death exposure group reported more negative mood ( M =
51.84, SD = 24.88) than the low death exposure group ( M = 19.93, SD = 10.89). No main effects of
condition or interaction effects of condition and group were found.
Health. To secure that cancer patients have higher exposure to bodily reminders of death than
farmers, ANOVAs of condition and group on health were computed. After reversing the pain and
illness symptoms items, and centering the three items measuring health (overall health, pain, and
frequency of illness symptoms), these items were averaged into a total health score (α = .608). Higher
scores indicate better health. An ANOVA of condition and group on health revealed a main effect of
group (F (1, 55) = 87.30, p <. 001, ηp2 =. 61), such that the high death exposure group reported less
overall health (M = .65, SD = .71) than the low death exposure group (M = .67, SD = .29). No main
effects of condition (F (1,55) = 1.80, p = .181) or interaction effects of group and condition on health
were found (F (1,55) = .289, p = .593). Looking at the pain and illness symptoms items separately, the
group with cancer reported experiencing more pain (M = 59.37, SD = 25.37) than the low death
exposure group (M = 12.09, SD = 13.08), F (1, 55) = 75.63, p < .001, ηp2 = .57. Also, high death
exposure group reported more illness symptoms (M = 5.10, SD = 1.72) than the low death exposure
group (M = 3, SD = .7), F (1,55) = 38.35, p < .001, ηp2 = .41.
Death exposure. The DEL items were averaged into a total DEL score (α = .889; M = 3,03,
SD = 1.25). Item 6 was excluded because of its low itemtotal correlation. An ANOVA using condition
and group on the DEL score was computed and revealed a main effect of group, F (1,55) = 23.65, p
<.001, ηp2 = .30. The group with cancer reported more exposure to death (M = 3.7, SD = 1.4) than
the low death exposure group (M = 2.34, SD = .50). There were not main effects of condition or
interaction effects of group and condition on death exposure.
Evaluation of moral transgressors. Judgments of punishment and assigned fines for the three
scenarios were analyzed separately. An ANOVA on condition and group on punishment was
computed which revealed a main effect of group ( F (1,55) = 9.60, p <.01, ηp2 = .149) such that those
in the healthy group assigned higher punishment ( M = 5.87, SD = .53) than those in the group with
cancer ( M = 5.18, SD = 1.04). There were no main effects of condition (F (1, 55) = .145, p = .705)
or interaction effect of condition and group on punishment (F (1, 55) = .276 , p = .602). The same
analysis was conducted for assigned fine after excluding several outliers. A similar pattern of results
emerged: There was main effect of group ( F (1, 35) = 11.34, p < .01, ηp2 = .245), such that the
healthy group assigned higher fines ( M = 75,74 Rupees, SD = 22.68 ) than the group with cancer ( M
= 48.83, SD = 15.87). There were no main effects of condition or interaction effects of condition and
group on assigned fine. Given that there were no effects of condition on this variable, these results will
not be further discussed.
Attachment to India. The four items measuring attachment were averaged into a total
attachment score (α = .716, M = 6.35, SD = .57). An ANOVA using condition (MS vs. control) and
group (cancer vs. health) as betweenparticipant factor on attachment was computed and revealed no
main effects of group (F (1, 55) = 1.975 , p = .166) or interaction effects of group and condition on
attachment (F (1, 55) = .521 , p = .474). There was a main effect of condition on attachment to India
(F (1, 55) = 8.116, p <.01, ηp2 =.129) such that participants in the MS condition reported more
attachment to India ( M = 6.55, SD = .52) than those in control condition ( M = 6.14, SD = .56). Both
groups, when reminded of their death, increased their level of attachment to India (See Table 3 and
Figure 2).
Table 3. Mean Scores and Standard Deviations on the Dependent Variable Attachment Scale as
a Function of Death Exposure and Type of Experimental Condition
Attachment n
High death exposure group

Mortality salient 6.40 a (.52) 15
Neutral 6.10 b (.61) 15
Low death exposure group

Mortality Salient 6.70 a (.49) 15
Neutral 6.19 b (.52) 14
are in parenthesis.
Figure 2. Attachment to India as a Function of Exposure to Death and Experimental

Condition
To establish whether the effects described above for attachment, were affected by some the
variables that differed across groups (e.g., age, education, religiousness, mood, health, death
exposure), an ANOVA was recomputed of adding these variables as covariates, one at a time. This did
not affect the results, suggesting that these variables did not play a role in the emergence of the effects.
Discussion
This study explored whether the sort of experiential chronic exposure to death involved in going
through a terminal illness leads to death acceptance. The MS effects were tested among a group of
terminal cancer patients (highdeathexposure group) and among of group of farmers with no major
health concerns (lowdeathexposure group). The apriori categorization found support in the
selfreport measure assessing health (conceived here as an indication of bodily reminders of death) and
death exposure as assessed by the DEL. To discount the effect of possible confounds, additional
variables were measured. Despite that the two groups differed on several variables (e.g., age,
education, religiosity, mood), the main results held regardless of whether such variables were included
as covariates.
The MS effects were found in both the high and low death exposure groups. Both groups
enhanced their attachment to India after death reminders. The MS effects, however, were not found in
the evaluation of moral transgressors. Perhaps the moral transgressions created for this study failed to
capture changes in this dimension. Future research could include scenarios of moral transgressors
already used in past TMT research (Rosenblatt et al., 1989; Niemiec et al., 2010) to test whether the
lack of effects obtained in this study reflects poor measurement.
These results suggest that going through a terminal illness does not necessarily lead to a deep
acceptance of one´s own death. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the cancer patients included in this
research reported financial worries (income of less than $300 a month) and family burdens (e.g. worries
about how one´s family is going to keep on going after one´s own death) which may make it harder for
them to reach a state of death acceptance. Future research could explore what type of life conditions
when experiencing a terminal illness facilitate or hinder a state of peace about one´s departure.
General Discussion
Decades ago, Ernest Becker (1973) proposed that the only solutions to the problem of death
are denial or madness. As he remarks, “to see the world as it really is is devastating and terrifying …it
places a trembling animal at the mercy of the entire cosmos and the problem of the meaning of it” (1973,
pp.60). Since then, terror management theory has accumulated an impressive body of research
supporting Becker´s ideas and has stimulated a lively debate within and beyond the borders of the
discipline of psychology. Over three hundred terror management studies show that humans are not
psychologically equipped to accept their death and invariably use subconscious defenses to keep the
terror of death at bay (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986; Greenberg, Solomon, &
Pyszczynski, 1997).
The present research tested the boundaries of TMT in the unique city of Varanasi, both in terms
of individual differences with respect to death exposure, and in terms of the belief systems that humans
use to make sense of death and fend off deathrelated anxiety. Unlike any other place on earth, death in
Varanasi permeates every sphere of Indians´ lives. Dead bodies and sick people populate the Ganges
River and streets of Varanasi. Death in Varanasi is not something to hide, but a blessing to celebrate. It
is in this holy place where Hindus can finally reach Moksha, the end of their cycle of deaths and
rebirths.
It was argued that the chronic exposure to death that Indians encounter in Varanasi would make
them immune to death (Immunization Hypothesis, IH) since constant exposure to death would lead to
habituation to the stimulus (e.g., death) and lack of reaction to it. Or it may prompt Indians to do some
deep psychological work on the problem of death and this would lead to a subconscious acceptance of
death. This was not the case. Two experiments found support for TMT among groups with varying
degrees and types of exposure to death. The first study tested the MS effects in a group of funerary
wokers (highdeath exposure group) and a group of Hindu farmers living far from the crematory
grounds (lowdeath exposure group). Farmers increased their worldview defense following death
reminders. This increase brought farmers to the same high level of worldview defense displayed,
independently from the condition, by funerary workers. This pattern of findings across groups and
conditions were interpreted as evidence supporting the CDH hypothesis, which follows TMT and posits
that chronic exposure to death leads to chronic cultural worldview defense (Fernandez, Castano, &
Singh, 2010).
To further explore whether other types of more experiential exposure to death would lead to
death acceptance, a second experiment was conducted among terminal cancer patients receiving
treatment at Banaras Hindu University Hospital (Varanasi) (highdeath exposure group) and a group of
farmers with no major health concerns (lowdeath exposure group). Following KüblerRoss (1997),
who observed that the majority of dying patients reach a stage of death acceptance, it was argued that
perhaps Indians with cancer who are confronted with thoughts about their immediate death and who
experience death reminders in their body in the form of illness symptoms (e.g., bleeding, nausea, pain,
weight loss) may be at ease with the idea of their own departure. This was not supported in this study.
Both groups, when reminded of their death, increased their level of attachment to India. Sadly, it might
be that no amount of exposure to death may be enough to make us stop reacting to what we perceive
as the annihilation of our own self.
Intriguingly, cancer patients responded to experimental death reminders increasing their
attachment to India rather than showing the same chronic cultural worldview defense across conditions
found among funerary workers. One possible explanation for this divergence is that perhaps the group
with cancer is chronically using other types of defenses that were not measured in study 2, such as
attachment to loved ones rather than attachment to India. This line of reasoning is consistent with
Cozzolino´s (2006) research, which found that, in contrast to abstract reminders of death typically
included in TMT research (e.g., “write about the thoughts and emotions linked to your own death”),
which motivate the use of abstract cultural worldview defense (e.g., nationalism), more concrete and
realistic death reflections (e.g. imagining oneself dying of asphyxia in an apartment fire) trigger primarily
the use of growth oriented responses, such as heightened attachment to loved ones and appreciation of
life. In contrast to funerary workers who are exposed to corpses (3rd person death exposure), cancer
patients experience 1st person and unavoidable reminders of their death in the form of illness symptoms
and thoughts about their immediate death. Following Cozzolino´s findings (2006), it could be argued
that while funerary workers are chronically using abstract defenses (e.g. attachment to India), terminal ill
patients are chronically using more personal defenses (e.g., attachment to loved ones). This would
explain why cancer patients in study 2 increased their attachment to India after experimental death
reminders: Since attachment to India is not the sort of primary defense they are using chronically, their
levels on this dimension are low in the control conditions and, once reminded of their death in a classical
TMT abstract way, they would increase their use of abstract defenses (e.g., attachment to India).
One could argue that encountering corpses is a concrete type of death reminder. Nevertheless,
there are good reasons to think that this is not the case in the context of Varanasi. Although seeing a
corpse may be especially threatening and salient for Westerners who rarely see dead bodies, funerary
workers burn dozens of cadavers each day. Accordingly, it makes sense to expect that funerary
workers may have learnt ways to disengage –at least at a conscious level – the idea of their own death
from the dozen of cadavers they burn and perceive them not as concrete reminders of their own death
but rather as material they encounter in their everyday life. This is consistent with the many conversations
I had with funerary workers from Varanasi who view corpses as mere “earth material” as one of them
called. In short, funerary workers´exposure to 3rd person reminders of death would lead to the chronic
use of classic abstract TMT defenses (e.g., attachment to India), as was found in study 1. Future
research could explore the mentioned possibilities by assessing different types of defenses after MS
inductions among groups exposed to concrete and 1st person versus abstract and 3rd person death
reminders.
Although this research only provides some preliminary evidence on the role of death exposure
on people´s psyche, one conclusion can be draw from the pattern of findings across studies: Exposure
to death does not seem the silver bullet to reach a subconscious acceptance of one´s own death. And
neither does a cyclical Hindu view of life and death. As mentioned in the introduction, it could be
argued that a Hindu cyclical conception of existence, where one has lived and died many times in the
past and where the approaching death is just one more among many others, could make the problem of
death less threatening than other linear JudeoChristian and Muslim conceptions of life and death,
where, if one dies, that is pretty much the end. The findings from this research suggest that while
Hinduism may constitute an anxiety buffer mechanism in and of itself, it does not resolve the question of
death at the subconscious level, as indicated by the fact that death reminders elicited the usual effects
among the Hindu groups included in this research. This data is consistent with research supporting TMT
acrosscultures, such as with Australian Aborigines (Salzman& Halloran, 2004), Japanese populations
(Heine, Harihara, & Niiya, 2002), and Iranian Muslisms (Pyszczynski et al., 2006), and suggest that
TMT is a robust framework to explain human motivations across the globe.
Limitations and Future Research
The quasiexperimental design and the mediated moderation analyses conducted in the first
study did not find conclusive evidence about the specific processes that led to chronic cultural
worldview defense among funerary workers. Other variables that were not measured could have
contributed to the pattern of results observed. Such limitation is inherent to the type of design that is
needed to investigate the specific question of death exposure in an ecologically valid manner. Future
research could investigate the mediating role of chronic exposure in producing the effects observed in
this study by manipulating the extent to which participants confront their death over time (e.g. attend an
eightweek death meditation course) and assess the impact of such exposure.
Regarding the second study, future research could explore whether other dying samples with
different life conditions, as the ones reported by the group with cancer included in this research, may be
more ready to accept their death at a deep level. For instance, TMT could be tested among older dying
people who lived a full life – whatever that means – and who do not experience major family burdens.
As KüblerRoss (1997) noted, old age, having resolve one´s own “business,” and not feeling family
pressure “to stay,” help dying people to die peacefully.
In addition, different types of exposure to death (e.g. abstract vs. concrete, physical vs. mental,
peaceful vs. unpeaceful) may impact differently people´s psyche. For instance, mental exposure to
death (e, g., meditate about one´s own death in a calm way) may be more successful than physical
exposure to death (e.g., observing dead bodies) to accept death. This is in line with what Indian yogis
following The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Satchidananda, 1978) and Buddhist monks following The
Tibetan Book of the Dead (Thurman, 2005) practice. Specifically, these traditions propose to
contemplate the thoughts and emotions that arise when we think about our death without reacting to
them, so that we can familiarize ourselves with the states that surround our mortality and thus do not
react with terror at the doors of death. For instance, the Dalai Lama (2002) in this book Advice on
Dying, encourages us to pay attention to “portents of death” (pp.118) – conscious states linked to
death– such as sleeping, breathing, fainting, sneezing, and having an orgasm, and to observe the
impermanent nature of our bodily sensations, thoughts, and emotions through the use of meditative,
breathing, and posture techniques, so that we can experientially and deeply understand our impermanent
nature and be at peace with our impeding dissolution. Future studies could test the mortality salience
hypothesis among Buddhist monks or Indian yogis who meditate habitually on their impermanent nature
to test the effectiveness of these practices to calm deathrelated anxiety.
In addition, these contemplative traditions suggest that the quality (e.g., mindful processing of
death thoughts) and not just the quantity (e.g., amount of dead bodies observed) of death exposure may
trace the golden road to reach death acceptance. This is consistent with new promising research on
mindfulness and death. Niemiec and colleagues (Niemiec et al., 2010) have recently found that trait
mindfulness – receptive attention to the present moment – eliminates the mortality salience effects.
Concretely, they found that participants who were high in trait mindfulness did not respond defensively
to death reminders and spent more time writing about their death than low trait mindfulness participants.
As they suggested, longer and non reactive considerations of death (such as the ones practiced by
Buddhist monks) may lead to less suppression of death thoughts and, consequently, do not need to use
subconscious defenses when reminded of death. In other words, if we deal with the problem of death
conscious enough time, we may not need to further deal with it at a subconscious level. Future research
could ask participants to think about their death under mindful instructions to test whether this is the key
to be at peace with death.
Finally, it should be noted that the present research conceived death acceptance in a simple and
operational way as the lack of reactions to death reminders. As death researchers have stressed, death
acceptance is a complex and multidimensional construct (Robben, 2004). Future research could
address questions such as: Does accepting death means to be indifferent toward death reminders? Are
there different types of death acceptance? Is death acceptance a transitory state or a permanent trait?
And finally, is death acceptance a desirable state? By bringing up the complexity of the construct of
death acceptance my aim is to highlight the necessity to remain humble when drawing final conclusions
about how humans digest the greatest mystery of their existence.
Final Remarks on the Bright Side of Death
Clov: Do you believe in the life to come?

Hamm: Mine was always that.
– Samuel Beckett, conversation from the Endgame
To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of
the nest...To live is to be willing to die over and over again.
– Pema Chödrön, 2000, pp.71.
Should we approach death more often if this does not seem to help us reach a subconscious
acceptance of our demise? My answer is yes. As contemplative practitioners (Satchidananda, 1978;
Chödrön, 2000; Dalai Lama, 2002), existential thinkers (Kierkegaard, 1957; Frankl, 1965;
JanoffBulman & Yopyk, 2004), and palliative care providers (KüblerRoss, 1997) have highlighted,
recognizing the fragility of our lives may help us realize that life can no longer be taken for granted and
live our life more fully. After all, perhaps our greatest paradox is not that despite all of the wonderful
things we live and create, we still have to die, but to know that we are going to die and to waste our
precious time in things that do not really matter.
Even Becker, who viewed our solutions to the problem of death as scarce, by the end of The
Denial of Death (1973) intertwines Kierkegaard´s (1955) ideas to suggest that ontological distress and
growth may coexist. In his own words, “man has to have the courage to be himself…to face up the
eternal contradictions of the real world…his courage to face the anxiety of meaninglessness becomes a
true cosmic heroism” (1997, p.279). We have the choice to embrace our death more bravely so that
we can squeeze out the best of our life more thoroughly. Realizing that we and everybody we love will
die may help us appreciate what life offers us right now and spend our time doing what we truly value.
In this way, death can be a wake up call for those sleepwalking through life.
REFERENCES
Ariès, P. (1981). The Hour of Our Death: The Classic History of Western Attitudes Toward
Death Over the Last One Thousand Years. New York: Random House.
Arndt, J., Cook, A., Goldenberg, J., Cox, C. (2007). Cancer and the threat of death: The
cognitive dynamics of deaththought suppression and its impact on behavioural
health intentions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 1229.
Becker, E. (1973). The Denial of Death. New York: Free Press Paperbacks.
Becker, E. (1975). Escape from Evil. New York: Free Press Paperbacks.
Calhoun, L. G., & Tedeschi, R. G. (2001). Posttraumatic growth: The positive lessons of loss. In
R. A. Neimeyer (Ed.). Meaning Reconstructions and the Experience of Loss (pp.157
172). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Castano, E. ( 2004). In case of death, cling to the ingroup. European Journal of Social
Psychology, 34, 375384.
Castano, E., Yzerbyt, V., Paladino, M., Sacchi, S. (2002). I belong, therefore, I exist: Ingroup
identification, ingroup entitativity, and ingroup bias. Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin, 28, 135145.
Chödrön, P. (2000). When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times. Boston:
Shambala Classics.
Connors, G. J., Tonigan, J. S., & William, R. M. (1996). A measure of religious
background and behaviour for use in behavior change research. Psychology of
Addictive Behaviors, 10, 9096.
Cozzolino, P. J. (2006). Death contemplation, growth, and defense: Converging evidence of
dualexistential systems? Psychological Inquiry, 17, 278287.
Dalai Lama. (2002). Advice on Dying and Living a Better Life. London: Random House.
Eck, D. L. (1982). Banaras: City of Light. New York: Columbian University Press.
Fernandez, S., Castano, E., & Singh, I. (2010). Managing death in the burning grounds of
Varanasi:A terror management investigation. Journal of CrossCultural Psychology, 41,
182194.
Frankl, V. E. (1965). Man´s Search for Meaning. Boston: Beacon Press.
Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Kluck, B., & Cornwell,
R. (2001). I am not an animal: mortality salience, disgust, and the denial of
human creatureliness. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 427
435.
Goldenberg, J. L., & Roberts, T. (2004). The beast within the beauty: An existential
perspective on the objectification and condemnation of women. In J. Greenberg,
S. L. Koole, & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of Experimental Existential
Psychology (pp.7185). New York: Guilford.
Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of
the need for selfesteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.),
Public self and private self (pp. 189212). New York: SprinderVerlag.
Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Pyszczynski, T. (1997). Terror management theory of
selfesteem and cultural worldviews: Empirical assessments and conceptual
refinements. In P.M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology,
(Vol 29, pp. 61139). San Diego, Academic Press, Inc.
Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Schimel, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (2001). Clarifying
the function of mortality salienceinduced worldview defense: Renewed
suppression or reduced accessibility of deathrelated thoughts? Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 7076.
Hart, J., Shaver, P. R., & Goldenberg, J. L., (2005). Attachment, selfEsteem, worldviews, and
terror management: Evidence for a tripartite security system. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 6, 9991013.
Hausner, S. L. (2007). Wandering with Sadhus: Ascetics in the Hindu Himalayas. Indiana:
Indiana University Place.
Heidegger, M. (1966). Conversations on a country path about thinking. In: Discourse
On Thinking (pp.19441945). New York: Haper Torchbooks.
Heine, S. J., Harihara, M., & Niiya, Y. (2002). Terror management in Japan. Asian
Journal of Social Psychology, 5, 187196.
JanoffBulman, R., & Yopyk, D. J. (2004). Random outcomes and valued commitments:
Existential dilemmas and the paradox of meaning. In J. Greenberg, S. L. Koole, & T.
Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology (pp. 122138).
New York: Guilford Press.
Kashima, E.S., Halloran, M., Yuki, M., & Kashima, Y. (2004). The effects of personal
and collective mortality salience on individualism : Comparing Australians and
Japanese with higher and lower selfesteem. Journal of Experimental Social
Kierkegaard, S. (1957). The Concept of Dread. Princeton: University Press.
KüblerRoss, E. (1997). On Death and Dying. New York: Scribner Classics.
Liebert, M. A. (2003). Importance of complementary and alternative cancer therapies in
palliative oncology in India. Journal of Alternative and Complementary
Medicine, 6, 811812.
Loy, D. (1996). Lack and Transcendence. The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy,
Existentialism, and Buddhism. New York, NY: Humanity Books.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion,
and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253.
McGregor, H., Lieberman, J. D., Solomon, S., Greenberg, T., Arndt, J., Simon, L., et al. (1998).
Terror management and aggression: Evidence that mortality salience motivates aggression against
worldview threatening others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 590–605.
Mikulincer, M., Florian, V., & Hirschberger, G. (2004). The terror of death and the quest for
love: An existential perspective on close relationships. In J. Greenberg, S. L. Koole, & T.
Pyszczynski (Eds.),Handbook of experimental existential psychology (pp. 287–304). New
York: Guilford.
Mitfrod, R. (1998). The American Way of Death. New York: Random House.
Muller, D., Yzerbyt, V.Y, & Judd, C.M. (2005) When Moderation Is Mediated andMediation Is
Moderated. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 852863.
Niemiec, C. P., Brown, K. W., Kashdan, T. B., Cozzolino, P. J., Breen, W. E., LevesqueBristol,
C., & Ryan, R. M. (2010). Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait
mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 99, 344365.
Parry, J. P. (1994). Death in Banaras. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Plante, T. G., Vallaeys, C. L., Sherman, A. C., & Wallston, K. A. (2002). The development of a
brief version of the Santa Clara strength of religious faith questionnaire. Pastoral
Pyszczynski, T., Abdollahi, A., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Cohen, F., & Weise, D.
(2006). Mortality salience, martyrdom, and military might: The Great Satan
versus the Axis of Evil. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 525
537.
Robben, A. C. G. M. (2004). Death, Mourning, and Burial: A Crosscultural Reader. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing.
Rocass, S., Klar, Y., & Liviatan, I. (2006). The paradox of groupbased guilt: Modes of national
identification, conflict vehemence, and reactions to the ingroup’s moral violations.Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 689711.
Rosenblatt, A., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Lyon, D. (1989). Evidence for
terror management theory I: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who
violate or uphold cultural values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 681
690.
Satchidananda, S. S. (1978). The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Virginia: Integral Yoga Publications.
Svoboda, R. E. (1986). Aghora: At the Left Hand of God. New Delhi: Rupa.co.
Salzman, M. B., & Halloran, M. J. (2004). Cultural trauma and recovery: Cultural
meaning, selfesteem, and the reconstruction of the cultural anxiety buffer. In J.
Greenberg, S. L. Koole, & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of experimental
existential psychology (pp. 231246). New York: Guilford.
Thurman, R. A. F . (2005). The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Book of Natural Liberation
Through Understanding in the Between. New York: Penguin Books.
Vail, K. E., Juhl, J., Arndt, J., Vess, M., Routledge, C., & Rutjens, B. T. (2012). When death is
good for life: Considering the positive trajectories of terror management. Personality and
Social Psychology Review, 16, 303 329.
Yalom, I. D. (1980). Existential Psychology. New York: Basic Books.
Young, M. J., & Morris, M. W. (2004). Existential meanings and cultural models: The
interplay of personal and supernatural agency in American and Hindu ways of
responding to uncertainty. In J. Greenberg, S. L. Koole, & T. Psyzczynski
(Eds.), Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology (pp.215230). New
York: Guilford.
APPENDIX
Appendix A
Religious Faith and Practice Questionnaire
1. How much does your religion provide meaning and purpose in your life?
2. How often do you ask for advice to a Brahman (priest) or Saddhu (holy man) when you have to take an important
decision in life?
3. How often do you think about God?
4. How often do you pray?
5. How often do you attend puja (religious ceremony)?
6. How often do you visit temples?
Appendix B
Death in Everyday Life Scale
1. See a dead body.
2. See a cremation or a burial.
3. Pass by a funeral home or crematory ghat.
4. See a person who will die soon.
5. Talk about death.
6. Read or watch news about people dying on TV, Internet, newspaper, or magazines.
7. See a fatal accident (in which someone was severely injured or died).
8. Attend the anniversary or remember someone who had died.
9. See a funerary procession in the street or any other ritual.
10. How many death bodies have you seen in your life?

Rol 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Rol 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Does exposure to death lead to death acceptance?

Running head: DOES EXPOSURE TO DEATH LEAD TO DEATH ACCEPTANCE?

December 10th, 2013

New School for Social Research

New York, USA

All rights reserved

INFORMATION TO ALL USERS

discussion as possible roads to reach death acceptance.

Keywords: Death exposure, death acceptance, terror management, Hinduism, Varanasi.

Terror management theory………………………………………………..…. 9

The role of exposure to death……………………………………………...…10

OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT RESEARCH…………………………...….…....14

STUDY 1: FUNERARY WORKERS………………………………………….…....16

STUDY 2: CANCER PATIENTS…………………………………………….…...…27

(Eck, 1982; Parry, 1994).

reaching enlightenment (Parry, 1994).

tested terror management theory in this sacred place.

Terror Management Theory

Lieberman, Solomon, Greenberg, Arndt, & Simon, 1998).

the meanings of death and individual differences on death exposure.

The Proposed Role of Exposure to Death in Terror Management

high exposure to death.

with loved ones and spirituality.

death allow us to accept our inevitable end.

acceptance of the inevitability of death. The IH is consistent with contemplative practitioners

Overview of the Current Research

To explore whether chronic exposure to death leads to a subconscious acceptance of one´s

operationalized here as attachment and glorification of India and pro­India bias.

(Greenberg, Arndt, Schimel, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 2001).

and illness symptoms (e.g., nausea, pain, and weight loss).

exposure to death in one´s own body.

Materials and Procedure

who is fluent in English and Hindi.

thoughts and feelings regarding flying a kite, a common practice in Varanasi.

for the MS to emerge (Greenberg et al., 1994).

exposure. Materials are indicated below.

Attachment and Glorification of India. Previous studies have shown MS manipulations to

disagree ) to 7 (strongly agree ) scale.

exposure to death, and sociodemographic characteristics. A simple six­item questionnaire measuring

end of the questionnaire.

these differences are actual differences between the two groups.

Attachment and glorification. Attachment and glorification scores were computed by

High death exposure

Neutral 6.14 b (.68) 5.14 b (.78) 60

judgments as the high exposure group in either conditions.

scored as high as the high exposure group in either experimental conditions.

Anti­India Anti­India Pro­India n

High death exposure group

Low death exposure group

either experimental conditions.

Figure 1. Attachment to India as a Function of Death Exposure and Experimental

further address in the discussion.

regardless of whether such variables were included as covariates.

producing the effects observed in this study.

Varanasi (low­death­exposure group). As in study 1, participants were reminded of their death or a

worldview defense, operationalized as attachment to India and evaluation of moral transgressors.

IH or the CDH applies.

and expected lifespan increases (Misra, Chatterjee, & Rao, 2003).

Materials and Procedure

landscapes, animals, food, and objects.

worldview defense operationalized as evaluations of moral transgressors and attachment to India. An

possible to avoid fatiguing participants. Materials are indicated below.

operationalized here as attachment and glorification of India and proIndia bias.

exposure to death, and sociodemographic characteristics. A simple sixitem questionnaire measuring

AntiIndia AntiIndia ProIndia n

Varanasi (lowdeathexposure group). As in study 1, participants were reminded of their death or a

to test the effectiveness of these practices to calm deathrelated anxiety.