Self-Construal and the Fear of Death

Abstract

Orehek, Sasota, Kruglanski, Dechesne, and Ridgeway (2014) reported that priming students with self-construals (reading paragraphs focusing on the self vs others) increased their general fear of death. The Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale measures the fear of death of the self separately from the fear of death of others, and so it was predicted that priming students with self-construals would affect only the fear of death of self. Using a sample of 64 female and 27 male undergraduate students (M age = 20.5 yr., SD = 1.6), an attempt was made to replicate Orehek's finding, having the students read the same paragraphs used by Orehek, et al. prior to completing the fear of death scale. Scores on the Collett-Lester scale for the fears of death of self, dying of self, death of others, and dying of others were not affected by self-construal priming, thereby not replicating the effect of self-construing on the fear of death nor the present hypothesis.