Death and Television: Terror Management Theory and Themes of Law and Justice on Television

Abstract

Based on terror management theory, it was hypothesized that media choices may be affected by the salience of death-related thoughts. Three experiments with samples of undergraduate students were conducted to investigate whether such a process would affect preferences for law and justice television programming. In the first experiment (n = 132), individuals for whom mortality had been made salient through experimental induction preferred more programs with law and justice themes than individuals for whom mortality had not been made salient. In the second experiment (n = 761), this effect was observed regardless of trust in law enforcement and only for participants induced to think about death, not those induced to think about pain. In the third experiment (n = 163), participants for whom mortality was salient who watched a crime drama that showed justice being carried out showed a diminished self-enhancing bias compared to participants who watched a version of the same program in which justice was thwarted. Results indicate that entertainment choices are influenced by thought of death beyond simply seeking distraction and that entertainment programming emphasizing justice can effectively ameliorate existential anxiety that arises from thoughts of death.

The end of immortality - Death dating and defense preprint

“…In addition, our study was a first attempt to address the impact of intergroup versus interpersonal differences in online social encounters under conditions of MS. Because of the increasing usage of the Internet for interpersonal communication (Konijn et al, 2008) and initial evidence that MS affects online behavior (Chopik & Edelstein, 2014), understanding the impact of MS on mediated interaction is worth studying. Our results add to prior evidence that MS does affect mediated social encounters (Frischlich et al, 2015;Frischlich, Rieger, & Rutkowski, 2014) and extends research on the positive effects of media content (Hofer, 2013;Taylor, 2012) by pointing to the adverse effects of differences in mediated interactions. Returning to the notion by Harwood, Giles, and Palomares (2005) that intergroup and interpersonal relationships can be either salient or not in a communicative interaction, our study points to a dominant influence of intergroup differences under conditions of MS.…”

Dying to Watch

“…First, as noted above, past research has demonstrated that MS influences sex-related outcomes (Lam et al, 2009; Taubman-Ben-Ari, 2004), possibly as a function of a process by which salient cognitions result in the increased availability or accessibility of related cognitions (see Price & Tewksbury, 1997). Second, research conducted on the impact of MS, under the umbrella of TMT, has demonstrated that MS affects a wide variety of social behaviors, including preferences for certain types of media content (see Lavine, Lodge, & Freitas, 2005; Taylor, 2012; Walsh & Smith, 2007).…”

“…Thus, under MS, women made selections that would emphasize salient elements of their worldview. Finally, one study found that MS was linked to an increase in preference for crime dramas and other programming that emphasized themes of justice (Taylor, 2012). Klimmt (2011) has also argued that complex media content may offer a sort of solace that constitutes a kind of distal defense in and of itself.…”

How Movies Can Ease the Fear of Death: The Survival or Death of the Protagonists in Meaningful Movies

“…First, many entertainment offerings are enjoyable and pleasurable to watch (Vorderer et al, 2004), and positive affect may contribute to the mechanisms that serve as anxiety buffers (e.g., DeWall & Baumeister, 2007). Second, films can provide hope and solace (Klimmt, 2011), justice (Taylor, 2012), and they can portray similar people and cultural worldviews (Hoffner & Buchanan, 2005), moral values and virtues (Oliver et al, 2012), and close (mediated) relationships (Hartmann & Goldhoorn, 2011). Mechanisms such as transportation and identification that are triggered by entertainment can further lead to changes in one's self-concept (Sestir & Green, 2010).…”