Imagine That You Died. Would You Still Smoke?: How Death Reflection Affects Health Message Reception Through Personal Growth and Identification

ABSTRACT

Terror management research has found that mortality salience increases self-esteem preservation, which tends to produce counter-persuasive effects in the health context. The present study examines the persuasive potentials of an alternative mortality prime, death reflection, in a between-subjects online experiment with current smokers (N = 92). We tested the effects of two death primes on their posttraumatic growth, identification with a story character, and quitting intentions after exposure to an anti-smoking PSA. The results showed that only death reflection significantly affected quitting intentions through two serial mediators. First, death reflection promoted a greater sense of posttraumatic growth than the control condition, whereas mortality salience did not. Second, the increased sense of growth enhanced identification with a testimonial character in the anti-smoking PSA, which, in turn, lowered quitting intentions. Implications for health communication are discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. One participant was removed for both failing to complete the writing task and adequately read instructions. A second case was removed for repeated participation.

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.