Death Anxiety is Associated With Less Health Behavior for Individuals Low in Action Orientation

Abstract

Research has shown that death anxiety relates to less health behavior. The present study proposes that action orientation moderates this association. That is, it is hypothesized that death anxiety and health behavior relate negatively only in individuals low in action orientation. German adults (N = 187; aged 19–86) provided self-reports on health behavior, action orientation, death anxiety, social desirability, and sociodemographics. Analyses yielded a significant moderation effect of action orientation on the link between death anxiety and health behavior over and above significant relationships of action orientation, social desirability, age, and gender, respectively, with health behavior. As hypothesized, a significantly negative association of death anxiety and health behavior was found only given low action orientation but not among high action orientation individuals. This suggests that self-regulation plays a decisive role in whether death anxiety and health behavior relate to each other.