Death Be Not Profane: Mortality Salience and Euphemism Use

Abstract

Terror management theorists have documented the impact of mortality salience on socioemotional outcomes but not communication behavior. The reported research explored the influence of mortality salience on language used to describe bodily processes. Consistent with findings that humans cope with death anxiety through psychological distancing from their vulnerable bodies, participants for whom mortality was made salient were more likely than control participants to describe bodily processes using euphemisms. Rate of euphemism use for eliminatory functions exceeded that for copulation overall, suggesting stronger creaturely associations with elimination. Our findings indicate that psychological distancing evoked by mortality salience is manifested in communication behavior.

Keywords:

• Death
• Euphemism
• Mortality Salience
• Politeness
• Terror Management

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Tatsuya Imai, Tiara Naputi, Angela Niedermyer, Andrew Tollison, and Eiko Yasui for their assistance in data collection, four anonymous coders, and an anonymous reviewer for her comments on a previous version of this manuscript.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nancy L. McCallum

Nancy L. McCallum is a graduate student in the Department of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.

Matthew S. McGlone

Matthew S. McGlone is an Associate Professor in the same department.