Mortality salience reduces attentional bias for fear-relevantanimals

摘要

This research investigated the influence ofreminders of mortality on biased attention for fear-relevantanimals across 2 studies. In each study, participants com-pleted a baseline dot-probe test of attention to fear-relevantanimals (snakes and spiders). After random assignment,participants completed a mortality salience or controlwriting task (about watching television in Study 1 and aboutwriting an important exam in Study 2). Finally, participantscompleted the dot-probe measure a second time. In bothstudies, those in the mortality salience condition showed asignificant reduction in bias for fear-relevant animals frombaseline to post-manipulation, whereas no change wasfound for those in the control conditions. These data suggestthat the previously demonstrated lack of emotional responseto mortality salience may, in part, result from the avoidanceof fear-relevant stimuli.