title: Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience.
abstract: Terror management theory posits that people tend to respond defensively to reminders of death, including worldview defense, self-esteem striving, and suppression of death thoughts. Seven experiments examined whether trait mindfulness-a disposition characterized by receptive attention to present experience-reduced defensive responses to mortality salience (MS). Under MS, less mindful individuals showed higher worldview defense (Studies 1-3) and self-esteem striving (Study 5), yet more mindful individuals did not defend a constellation of values theoretically associated with mindfulness (Study 4). To explain these findings through proximal defense processes, Study 6 showed that more mindful individuals wrote about their death for a longer period of time, which partially mediated the inverse association between trait mindfulness and worldview defense. Study 7 demonstrated that trait mindfulness predicted less suppression of death thoughts immediately following MS. The discussion highlights the relevance of mindfulness to theories that emphasize the nature of conscious processing in understanding responses to threat.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, Meliora Hall, R.C. Box 270266, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA. niemiec@psych.rochester.edu
authors.forename: Christopher P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Niemiec
authors.forename: Kirk Warren
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Todd B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Kashdan
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Cozzolino
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Breen
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Levesque-Bristol
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult