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Cited by 54Death Anxiety and Social ExclusionCOVID-19 and Mental HealthCommunication and COVID-19 Impact

Death anxiety, death reflection and interpersonal communication as predictors of social distance towards people infected with COVID 19

Open access
Curșeu, Petru Lucian, Coman, Andra Diana, Panchenko, Anton, Fodor, Oana Cătălina, Rațiu, Lucia·2023·Current Psychology
DOI 10.1007/s12144-020-01171-8PMC PMC7930891
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Abstract

Our study investigates several antecedents and consequences of negative emotional reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic in a cross-national sample of 737 participants. Our results show that COVID-19 anxiety and negative mood are positively predicted by death anxiety and the use in communication of general COVID-19 information. Death reflection reduces negative mood in relation to COVID-19 and attenuates the positive association between death anxiety on the one hand and the negative mood and anxiety in relation to COVID-19 on the other hand. The use of humoristic information about COVID-19 reduces anxiety and social distance towards people infected with COVID-19 and also attenuates the positive association between the use in communication of general COVID-19 information and negative mood in relation to COVID-19. Our results also show that the association between death anxiety and social distance towards those infected with COVID-19 is mediated by anxiety and negative mood in relation to COVID-19. Finally, the association between the use of COVID-19 information in interpersonal communication and social distance is mediated by anxiety and negative mood in relation to COVID-19. The study thus reveals specific insights for tailored interventions to reduce negativity towards people infected with COVID-19.

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  • The three means by which humor buffers against death anxiety identified in this study are in line with previous studies indicating different coping strategies with death anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “These means of buffering against death anxiety are in line with previous studies, indicating different yet similarly intended coping strategies with death anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

    From When the times get tough the toughs get funny: Means by which humor buffers against death anxiety emerged during COVID-19 outbreak (2022) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Results (page not specified) show that death reflection weakens the association between death anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety or negative mood. The Discussion (page not specified) also describes humor in communication as a buffer against COVID-19 anxiety. The paper does not establish that humor specifically buffers death anxiety or identify three such means; those details are not supported by this source. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Research also shows that social connection, achievement, and religion all played an important role in warding off death anxiety caused by the pandemic.

    “Research also shows that social connection, achievement, and religion all played an important role in warding off death anxiety caused by the pandemic [62].”

    From When the times get tough the toughs get funny: Means by which humor buffers against death anxiety emerged during COVID-19 outbreak (2022) · cites this paper as [62]

    The Discussion says death reflection alleviated the link between death anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety, and that humor in communication buffered anxiety related to the virus. The Methods describe ‘connection to others’ as one dimension of a death-reflection scale, but no passage found says social connection, achievement, or religion warded off death anxiety; searches for those terms and related wording did not establish the claim. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.74)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Curșeu, P. L., Coman, A. D., Panchenko, A., Fodor, O. C., & Rațiu, L.
Affiliations
Babeș-Bolyai University (RO)
Corresponding author
Curșeu, Petru Lucian
ORCID
Venue
Current Psychology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2021-03-04
Volume
42
Issue
2
Pages
1490-1503
ISSN
  • 1046-1310 (ISSN-L)
  • 1936-4733
DOI
10.1007/s12144-020-01171-8
PMC
PMC7930891
OpenAlex
W3133881165
Cited by
54
References
11
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 10
FWCI
9.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Current Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DSpace (Open University in the Netherlands) (submittedVersion)
  • DSpace (Open University in the Netherlands) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
Keywords
fear of death, COVID-19 pandemic, social distance, interpersonal communication, COVID-19 information, humor, negative mood, COVID-19 anxiety, stigma

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