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Death anxiety and sexual risk-taking: different manifestations of the process of defense

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Abstract

College students(n = 162) completed measures of death anxiety and sexual risk-taking, with a thought listing procedure in-between. Those who completed the death anxiety measure first (Death Salient condition) reportedgreater willingness to engage in high-risk sexual behavior than the Non-Death Salient group. This result was consistent with the hypothesis that evoking death anxiety would produce denial-based defensive activity. Also, Death Salient participants reporting more death thoughts were lower on risk-taking, as predicted. Interestingly, Death Salient participants reporting stressful thoughts about issues unrelated to personal mortality (displacement) were also less willing to engage in high-risk sexual behavior. The results are discussed in relation to a new, avowal-based model of the process of psychological defense.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stephen F. Austin State University, USA

    Gary G. Ford, Jennifer J. Ewing, Angela M. Ford, Nikki L. Ferguson & Wendy Y. Sherman

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  1. Gary G. Ford
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  2. Jennifer J. Ewing
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  3. Angela M. Ford
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  4. Nikki L. Ferguson
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  5. Wendy Y. Sherman
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Correspondence to Gary G. Ford.

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Ford, G.G., Ewing, J.J., Ford, A.M. et al. Death anxiety and sexual risk-taking: different manifestations of the process of defense. Curr Psychol 23, 147–160 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02903075

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