Kelly Wetzel, Jayden Ramirez De Arellano, & Dr. Melissa Soenke
Abstract
Terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) posits that we naturally fear mortality and attempt to decrease anxiety by increasing self-esteem and adhering to cultural worldviews which provide meaning to life. Past research supports cultural worldviews and self-esteem as strategies for relieving anxiety. Exercise and health are central values of many contemporary worldviews and can also be viewed as a literal means to prolong life (Andreasson et al., 2016). Additionally, exercise is linked to increased self-esteem in gym attendees because it is an important value of gym culture (Zervou et al., 2017). For instance, basketball players primed with death increased their performance in the sport when considered a valuable activity (Zestcott et al., 2016). The same was discovered for strength trainers with increases in strength occurring after mortality primes when self-esteem was derived from lifting weights (Peters et al., 2005). The current study builds on this past research to investigate whether anxiety about mortality can be reduced by increasing self-esteem through exercise. The way to test this relationship is to utilize the mortality salience (MS) hypothesis, the process of bringing death to the forefront of a person’s mind to increase need for these protective structures. The participants are randomly assigned to either think about their death (MS) or a control topic and then asked to lift 3 or 5lb weights for at least 1 minute. The dependent measure will be which weights participants choose, how many reps with the weights they complete, and their ratings of self-esteem on the Rosenberg self-esteem scale after lifting weights. Based on previous research, it is hypothesized that if self-esteem protects against mortality salience, then the need for exercise will increase. It is anticipated that fitness plays a considerable role in how we gain self-esteem and manage anxiety-inducing thoughts about health and death.
Details
Session 1
11:15am – 12:30pm
Del Norte Hall
Room C: 1535
