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Terror Management and Meaning: Evidence That the Opportunity to Defend the Worldview in Response to Mortality Salience Increases the Meaningfulness of Life in the Mildly Depressed
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Previous terror management research has demonstrated that mildly depressed participants show a greater increase in worldview defense in response to reminders of their mortality than do nondepressed participants. Because the cultural worldview is posited to provide a meaningful conception of life, we hypothesized that mildly depressed participants who defend their worldview in response to mortality salience (MS) would increase their perception that the world is meaningful. A preliminary study first examined the Kunzendorf No Meaning Scale as a measure to assess perceptions of meaning. In the primary study, mildly depressed and nondepressed participants contemplated their own mortality or a neutral topic, evaluated two targets in a manner that either allowed them to defend their worldview or that did not, and then completed the Kunzendorf No Meaning Scale. As predicted, mildly depressed participants who had the opportunity to defend their worldview in response to mortality salience reported greater meaning in life than did mildly depressed participants who did not have the opportunity to defend their worldview, or mildly depressed participants not exposed to mortality salience. Implications for understanding and treating depression are briefly discussed.
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“Moreover, correlational research has shown that the opportunity for worldview defense in response to mortality salience among mildly depressed individuals is also associated with greater self-reported meaning in life than for mildly depressed individuals not given this opportunity (Simon et al., 1998).”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Simon et al., 1998
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“These findings suggest that bolstering worldview beliefs may increase life meaning among depressed individuals (Simon et al., 1998).”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Simon et al., 1998
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“According to Terror Management Theory, depression is caused by fragile faith in cultural worldviews and an inefficient capacity to buffer anxiety and to cultivate meaning, self-esteem, and fulfilling relationships (Maxfield et al., 2014;Simon et al., 1998).”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Simon et al., 1998
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“Depressive disorders may be associated with, or exacerbated by, existential despair and lack of meaning (Ghaemi, 2007;Havens & Ghaemi, 2005;Simon, Arndt, Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1998).”
From Death anxiety and its role in psychopathology: Reviewing the status of a transdiagnostic construct (2014) · cites this paper as Simon, Arndt, Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1998
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“In an earlier study, upon which this study was based, Simon et al. (1998) threatened worldviews by presenting their (American) study participants with anti-American essays.”
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“In this regard, it was found that mildly depressed patients who were able to activate their TMT defenses following the experimental activation of death awareness demonstrated increased meaning in life in comparison to a control group which was prevented from such activation (Simon et al., 1998).”
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“Other work has shown that when managing the awareness of death, the opportunity to engage in worldview defence (versus not engaging in such defense) can help maintain the perception of meaning in life (Simon et al., 1998).”
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“standards of value and behavior and the promise of transcendence (Simon et al., 1998).”
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“…but seems to be unlikely as (a) previous studies have shown that mildly depressed individuals make greater use of the cultural anxiety buffer (Simon et al., 1998), thus it can be inferred that people higher on rumination reacted with heightened death thought accessibility to this their inner…”
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“should be interpreted with caution because one item was used to measure symbolic immortality, a complicated and potentially multidimensional construct.(41) In this vein, other work has found”
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Khoo, G. S. (2017) · Media Psychology · doi:10.1080/15213269.2017.1338965 · Cited by 12
“Unlike depressed persons who could be prompted to defend their worldview as a form of meaning-making (Simon et al., 1998), trauma survivors tend to reappraise their now-broken worldview as a means of “cognitive processing and restructuring” (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004, p.”
BackgroundInfluentialVail, K. E., Courtney, E. P., Goncy, E. A., Cornelius, T. M., & Edmondson, D. E. (2019) · Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1521/jscp.2019.38.6.501 · Cited by 12
The Effect of Mortality Salience on the Evaluation of Humorous Material
Hackney, C. H. (2011) · The Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/00224540903366735 · Cited by 11
Altıntaş, H. K., & Şahin, N. E. (2025) · BMC Geriatrics · doi:10.1186/s12877-025-05839-3 · Cited by 10
“In the literature, it has been argued that individuals with depression tend to experience death anxiety more because they experience more negative emotions [50].”
Terror management theory and scrupulosity: An experimental investigation
Fergus, T. A., & Valentiner, D. P. (2012) · Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2012.01.003 · Cited by 10
Mascaro, N. (2014) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-0308-5_16 · Cited by 10
Lee, S. M., Heflick, N. A., Park, J. W., Kim, H., Koo, J., & Chun, S. (2017) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1007/s11031-017-9615-9 · Cited by 9
“Worldview defense and self-esteem are also associated cross-culturally with better mental health when mortality is salient, including the belief that life is meaningful (Simon et al. 2008), feelings of hopefulness, and stability (as opposed to increases) of negative affective states (Routledge et al.”
BackgroundChmielewski, F., Hanning, S., Swidder-Darku, J., Ueberberg, B., Juckel, G., & Mavrogiorgou, P. (2019) · Verhaltenstherapie · doi:10.1159/000503979 · Cited by 11
“…der TMT, die in ihren Untersuchungen mit leicht depressiven Patienten zeigen konnten, dass diese Patienten nach Konfrontation mit der eigenen Sterblichkeit stärker und vehementer das eigene Kultur- und Weltbild verteidigten und schließlich darin auch einen Sinn im Leben sahen [Simon et al., 1998].”
BackgroundBulut, M. B. (2020) · OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying · doi:10.1177/0030222820928148 · Cited by 10
“…2008; Arndt et al., 1999; Burke et al., 2013; Cox et al., 2008; Dalda, 2011; Florian et al., 2002; Jonas et al., 2013; McGregor et al., 1998; Renkema et al., 2008; Simon et al., 1998; Taubman-Ben-Ari, 2011; U gurlar, 2011) while it is not supported in others (Do gulu, 2012; Şimşek, 2005).”
BackgroundWu, L. (2019) · Journal of Marketing Communications · doi:10.1080/13527266.2018.1461125 · Cited by 10
“Since perceptions of life meaning help individuals eliminate their death-related anxiety (Routledge and Juhl 2010; Simon et al. 1998), the message appeal of moral beauty may elicit favorable responses under mortality salience (Hofer 2013).”
BackgroundMeasuring Subjective Wellbeing
Fabian, M. (2022) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780197635261.003.0011 · Cited by 8
Woo, J.-H., & Bae, S.-M. (2025) · OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying · doi:10.1177/00302228221115586 · Cited by 7
“Simon et al. (1998) argued that people who experience depression are more likely to be overwhelmed by death anxiety because they experience more negative emotions.”
Roseby, W., Kettner, H., Roseman, L., Spriggs, M. J., Lyons, T., Peill, J., Giribaldi, B., Erritzøe, D., Nutt, D. J., & Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1580663 · Cited by 8
Arrowood, R. B., Cox, C. R., & Ekas, N. V. (2017) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2017.03.016 · Cited by 6
Is the Proposed Role of Excessive Reassurance-Seeking in Depression Excessive?
Greenberg, J. (2016) · Cited by 6
Self-citationThe effect of mortality salience on weapon bias
Bradley, K. I., & Kennison, S. M. (2011) · International Journal of Intercultural Relations · doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.09.006 · Cited by 6
Hackney, C. H. (2009) · doi:10.1002/9780470682203.ch19 · Cited by 6
Which Cognitive Biases can Exacerbate our Workload?
Moss, S. A., Wilson, S. G., & Davis, J. M. (2016) · Australasian Journal of Organisational Psychology · doi:10.1017/orp.2016.1 · Cited by 5
“To override the sense of futility this insight can evoke, individuals like to believe their contributions to society will persist indefinitely (Simon et al., 1998).”
Francois, E. J. (2010) · ProQuest LLC eBooks · Cited by 4
Dehşet Yönetimi Kuramı Çerçevesinde Benlik Saygısı ve Bağlanmanın Rolü
Koç, V., & Kafa, G. (2018) · Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar - Current Approaches in Psychiatry · doi:10.18863/pgy.419330 · Cited by 4
Diverging effect of mortality salience on risk taking: the moderating role of time horizon
Xiao, H., Liu, H., Guo, J., Chen, Y., Liu, H., Wang, Z., & Shang, Z. (2023) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-023-05157-0 · Cited by 3
“Mortality salience may evoke people’s emotional responses such as anxious and fear, which might lead them to seek coping strategies and take defensive actions (Simon et al., 1998).”
Fears of Death and Their Relationship to Mental Health
Zuccala, M., & Menzies, R. E. (2022) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-06932-1_4 · Cited by 3
Hirano, K., Oba, K., Saito, T. I., Kawashima, R., & Sugiura, M. (2023) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1188878 · Cited by 3
“, 2014) and its connection to mental disorders (Simon et al., 1998; Menzies et al., 2021).”
BackgroundA Theory of Subjective WellbeingPreprint
Fabian, M. (2019) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3319510 · Cited by 4
Zhou, J. L., Zhou, F., Tang, Y., & Ma, J. (2025) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-025-03037-9 · Cited by 2
“However, a high level of suicidal intent is not necessarily indicative of a fear of death but, rather, an extreme fear of death [66, 67].”
Lv, F., Feng, R., Tan, J., Li, J., Liu, Y., & Gao, D. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1512074 · Cited by 2
Fabian, M. (2022) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780197635261.003.0002 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Simon, L., Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- University of Colorado Colorado Springs (US)
- Skidmore College (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1998-06
- Volume
- 66
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 359-382
- ISSN
- 0022-3506 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-6494
- OpenAlex
- W1595608663
- Cited by
- 127
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 3.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- Journal of Personality (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UA Campus Repository (The University of Arizona) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Keywords
- terror management theory, mortality salience, worldview defense, meaning in life, mild depression, cultural worldview, depression treatment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analysis of Variance, Attitude to Death, Depression, Female, Humans, Life Change Events, Male, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Severity of Illness Index, Social Perception
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