The Smolensk Disaster and the Dynamics of Death-Related Thoughts Accessibility

Abstract

The article describes a study concerning death-related thoughts following the crash of the Polish Tu-154M plane with the Polish president and other members of an official Polish delegation on-board. In the study, the DRT (Death Related Thoughts) scale was used. The results showed that thoughts about death in a sample of Polish students (N=120) increased immediately after the plane crash, and after a few weeks the level measured was even higher. The obtained results also show a relatively strong positive correlation between the results of the DRT scale and the amount of information about the presidential plane crash presented in the massmedia.