Improving the efficacy of appearance-based sun exposure interventions with the terror management health model

Abstract

The terror management health model (TMHM) suggests that when thoughts of death are accessible people become increasingly motivated to bolster their self-esteem relative to their health, because doing so offers psychological protection against mortality concerns. Two studies examined sun protection intentions as a function of mortality reminders and an appearance-based intervention. In Study 1, participants given a sun protection message that primed mortality and shown a UV-filtered photo of their face reported greater intentions to use sun protection on their face, and took more sunscreen samples than participants shown a regular photo of their face. In Study 2, reminders of mortality increased participants’ intentions to use facial sun protection when the UV photo was specifically framed as revealing appearance consequences of tanning, compared to when the photo was framed as revealing health consequences or when no photo was shown. These findings extend the TMHM, and provide preliminary evidence that appearance-based tanning interventions have a greater influence on sun protection intentions under conditions that prime thoughts of death. We discuss implications of the findings, and highlight the need for additional research examining the applicability to long-term tanning behaviour.

Keywords:

• tanning
• UV imaging
• mortality salience
• self-esteem

Funding

Preparation for this article was partially supported by National Cancer Institute [grant number R01CA09658].

Notes

1. We did not include a manipulation check measuring activation of thoughts of death because previous research has indicated that measuring death thought accessibility could bring thoughts of mortality back into focal awareness (Hayes, Schimel, Arndt, & Faucher, 2010), which would disrupt the hypothesised process of interest.