Mortality salience in professionals witnessing death: The effects of mortality manipulation on doctors’ evaluations

Abstract

This study investigates whether frequently witnessing death leads to desensitization in terms of death anxiety. A total of 163 individuals, comprising 71 doctors from branches with high death rates and 92 doctors from branches where mortality is rarely seen, participated in this study. An experiment was conducted employing a classical version of mortality salience manipulation, which is often used in terror management research, to test the study’s hypothesis. The results supported the hypothesis only with regard to altruism-egoism, providing partial support for the effect of desensitization. This subject needs to be studied further.