Death and Injustice: The relationship between mortality salience and just world beliefs on need for meaning

Authors' Affiliations

Victoria Wright, Department of psychology, University of Virginia College at Wise, Wise, VA

Location

D.P. Culp Center Ballroom

Start Date

4-5-2024 9:00 AM

End Date

4-5-2024 11:30 AM

Poster Number

173

Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor

Robert Arrowood

Faculty Sponsor's Department

Psychology

Classification of First Author

Undergraduate Student

Competition Type

Competitive

Type

Poster Presentation

Presentation Category

Social Sciences

Abstract or Artist's Statement

Research using Terror Management Theory (Greenberg et al., 1986; Pyszczynski et al. 2021) demonstrates that existential fears relating to death are coped with and satiated by our self-esteem and cultural worldview. These worldviews are important as they require individuals to believe that the world is predictable and just. Just World Theory (Lerner, 1980) suggests that humans inherently want to feel that they live in a just world in order to maintain meaning in life. From the perspective of terror management and just world, the present research examines the potential downstream effects of both death awareness and just world beliefs on the need for meaning. Specifically, we hypothesize that individuals who are reminded of their death will be protected from existential anxiety if they view the world as just; however, those with beliefs that the world is unjust will increase their need for meaning. Using moderated regression, the results demonstrated that need for meaning increased among those with low just world beliefs who were primed with death awareness. These findings shed insight into the potential protective nature of just world beliefs as well as the sheer impact of existential concerns.

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Apr 5th, 9:00 AM Apr 5th, 11:30 AM

Death and Injustice: The relationship between mortality salience and just world beliefs on need for meaning

D.P. Culp Center Ballroom

Research using Terror Management Theory (Greenberg et al., 1986; Pyszczynski et al. 2021) demonstrates that existential fears relating to death are coped with and satiated by our self-esteem and cultural worldview. These worldviews are important as they require individuals to believe that the world is predictable and just. Just World Theory (Lerner, 1980) suggests that humans inherently want to feel that they live in a just world in order to maintain meaning in life. From the perspective of terror management and just world, the present research examines the potential downstream effects of both death awareness and just world beliefs on the need for meaning. Specifically, we hypothesize that individuals who are reminded of their death will be protected from existential anxiety if they view the world as just; however, those with beliefs that the world is unjust will increase their need for meaning. Using moderated regression, the results demonstrated that need for meaning increased among those with low just world beliefs who were primed with death awareness. These findings shed insight into the potential protective nature of just world beliefs as well as the sheer impact of existential concerns.