Mammograms and the management of existential discomfort: Threats associated with the physicality of the body and neuroticism

Abstract

The current research employs ideas from terror management theory to investigate why mammograms may be psychologically problematic. This perspective suggests that individuals, particularly those high in neuroticism, are threatened by that which reminds them of their physical and mortal nature. In Study 1, a laboratory experiment demonstrated that when concerns about mortality were primed, reminders of one's physical nature (i.e. creatureliness) led women who were high in neuroticism to report reduced willingness to imagine undergoing a mammogram. In Study 2, a field experiment among women receiving a mammogram showed that priming creatureliness increased perceptions of discomfort with the procedure for women high in neuroticism. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• mammograms
• mortality salience
• creatureliness
• neuroticism

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by NCI grant R01 CA96581. The authors wish to thank Dr Karen Lindfors and her staff at the mammography clinic at the UCD Medical Center for their support and invaluable assistance on this project.

Notes

Notes

1. The analysis on negative affect did, however, reveal a 2-way interaction between neuroticism and the creatureliness prime, B = −0.008 SE =.026, t = −3.47, p =0.001, with high neurotics reporting significantly more negative affect when primed with creatureliness as compared to human uniqueness, B = −0.771 SE = 0.177, t = −4.35, p < 0.0005, and also as compared to the low neurotics primed with creatureliness, B =0.111 SE =0.020, t = 5.65, p < 0.0005. There was also a main effect of neuroticism, B =0.006 SE = 0.014, t = 4.46, p < 0.0005, and creatureliness, b = −0.334 SE = 0.131, t = −2.62, p = 0.01, which were subsumed by this interaction.

2. The effect for the tax audit condition remained non-significant when each of the covariates that were tested in the mammogram condition were tested in the tax audit condition (p > 0.65).