Older adults process emotional information differently than younger adults and may demonstrate less of a negativity bias on cognitive tasks. The Iowa Gambling Task designed by A. Bechara, H. Damasio, D. Tranel, and A. R. Damasio (1997) has been used to examine the integration of emotion and cognition in a risky-choice decision task and may give insight into differences in the decision-making strategies in younger and older adults. Eighty-eight younger adults (18-34 years) and 67 older adults (65-88 years) completed the Iowa Gambling Task. Using a theoretical decomposition of the task designed by J. R. Busemeyer and J. C. Stout (2002), the authors found that both groups were successful at solving the task but used very different strategies that reflected each group's strength. For younger adults, that strength was learning and memory. For older adults, that strength was an accurate representation of wins and losses (valence).

Two experiments explored age differences in response to reminders of death. Terror management research has shown that death reminders lead to increased adherence to and defense of one's cultural worldview. In Study 1, the effect of mortality salience (MS) on evaluations of moral transgressions made by younger and older adults was compared. Whereas younger adults showed the typical pattern of harsher judgments in response to MS, older adults did not. Study 2 compared younger and older adults' responses to both the typical MS induction and a more subtle death reminder. Whereas younger adults responded to both MS inductions with harsher evaluations, older adults made significantly less harsh evaluations after the subtle MS induction. Explanations for this developmental shift in responses to reminders of death are discussed. Keywordsterror management; fear of death; moral judgments and aging; healthy aging Aging entails more than just the emergence of new wrinkles, impaired memory, or increased joint pain; it also entails knowing that one is moving inexorably closer to death. For older adults, frequent medical problems, loss of loved ones, and deteriorating cognitive abilities are just a few reminders that the end of life is drawing nearer. Terror management theory (TMT; Correspondence NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptGreenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) asserts that awareness of the inevitability of death has a potent impact on human judgment and behavior. Empirical support for TMT has been obtained in a large body of research (for a review, see showing that reminders of mortality increase young adults' self-esteem striving and defense of their cherished beliefs and values (i.e., their cultural worldviews). Although people of varying ages have been included in these studies, none of this research has explicitly examined these processes in older adults. Given older adults' more frequent encounters with mortality; the changes in cognitive, social, and emotional functioning that occur in later life; and the adaptations they often make in response to these changing life circumstances (e.g., P. B. Baltes & Baltes, 1990; Brandtstadter & Greve, 1994;Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995), it seems likely that this population would differ in their responses to mortality. Research is needed to assess possible age-related differences in the use and adaptation of terror management processes to cope with reminders of mortality. The research reported here explored this issue by testing hypotheses derived from an integration of TMT with ideas from a variety of developmental theories. Following Becker (1973), TMT posits that the uniquely human knowledge of the inevitability of death in an organism that is biologically oriented toward staying alive creates the potential for paralyzing terror. People are protected from the anxiety that awareness of death would otherwise produce by maintaining faith in their cultural worldviews and attaining self-esteem by living up to the standards of that w...

Six studies examined the role of young adults' parental attachment in terror management. Studies 1-3 revealed that activating thoughts of one's parent in response to mortality salience (MS) reduced death-thought accessibility and worldview defense and increased feelings of self-worth. Studies 4-5 demonstrated that MS led to greater ease of recalling positive maternal interactions and greater difficulty recalling negative interactions, and increased attraction to a stranger who was described as being similar to one's parent. If reliance on parents for terror management purposes reflects the operation of attachment mechanisms, then such effects should vary on the basis of an individual's attachment style. Study 6 demonstrated that, after MS, insecure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with their parents, whereas secure individuals were more likely to rely on relationships with romantic partners.

Five studies examined the cognitive association between thoughts of cancer and thoughts of death and their implication for screening intentions. Study 1 found that explicit contemplation of cancer did not increase death-thought accessibility. In support of the hypothesis that this reflects suppression of death-related thoughts, Study 2 found that individuals who thought about cancer exhibited elevated death-thought accessibility under high cognitive load, and Study 3 demonstrated that subliminal primes of the word cancer led to increased death-thought accessibility. Study 4 revealed lower levels of death-thought accessibility when perceived vulnerability to cancer was high, once again suggesting suppression of death-related thoughts in response to conscious threats associated with cancer. Study 5 extended the analysis by finding that after cancer salience, high cognitive load, which presumably disrupts suppression of the association between cancer and death, decreased cancer-related self-exam intentions. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding terror management, priming and suppression, and responses to cancer are discussed.

We offer a theoretical perspective to provide insight into why people are ambivalent about sex and why cultures regulate sex and attach symbolic meaning to it. Building on terror management theory, we propose that sex is problematic for humankind in part because it reminds us of our creaturely mortal nature. Two experiments investigated the effects of reminding people of the similarity between humans and other animals on their reactions to the physical aspects of sex. In Study 1, priming human-animal similarities led to increased accessibility of death-related thoughts after thinking about the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In Study 2, when participants were reminded of similarities between humans and other animals, mortality salience resulted in decreased attraction to the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In each study, priming thoughts about how humans are distinct from animals eliminated the association between sex and death.