Who's Afraid of Death and Terrorists? Investigating Moderating Effects of Sense of Coherence, Mindfulness, Neuroticism, and Meaning in Life on Mortality Salience

Abstract

Sense of coherence (SOC) is thought to be a stress-buffering personality construct. We explored if SOC has a moderating effect on the distress experienced following mortality salience. SOC, mindfulness, neuroticism, and meaning in life were measured as potential moderators. Participants reported on death anxiety and completed a worldview defense task. Results indicated that all potential moderators were correlated with death anxiety, but not with worldview defense. Yet despite a large sample no main effect for the mortality salience induction could be found. Results highlight the importance of various personality variables on death anxiety.