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ABSTRACT
Terror management theory suggests that when mortality concerns are salient, religion can serve as a defence in order to boost self-esteem and shield against the potential for anxiety. The current study examined whether individual differences in religious orientation (i.e., quest) interacted with reminders of death to influence well-being. To the extent that religiosity buffers against mortality awareness on defensiveness, the present results demonstrated that individuals high in quest orientation, in comparison to low-quest-orientated individuals, reported lower well-being (i.e., self-esteem) following reminders of death. These results add to the existing body of literature suggesting that thoughts of death can serve to decrease well-being, but that this effect is influenced by individual differences, namely trait quest religiosity.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Admittedly, several participants responded with other and self-identified as a specific Christian denomination. These participants were recorded as Christian, but it does suggest that some other participants may still be Christian but were misidentified in the analyses.
2 An additional study further suggested that mortality salience did not influence scores on the quest religiosity scale, t(75) = 0.96, p = 0.34.
3 All results held significance while statistically controlling for individuals’ religious orientation.