The effect of death awareness on risk taking – The role of cultural worldviews

Risk-taking behaviors are investigated extensively because of the practical implications toward the reduction and prevention of the phenomenon. The current series of studies was conducted to explore the mechanisms that drive adolescents to take risks in general, and specifically in driving, drug use, alcohol and sexual activity. According to the literature, one motive underlying adolescents’ tendency to engage in risky behavior is death anxiety, a type of anxiety shared by all humans, that affects their attitudes and behaviors.

The current study explored adolescents' risk taking based on the perspective of Terror Management Theory (TMT; Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 1991). TMT posits that cultural worldviews buffer terror of death. To the best of our knowledge, the present study was the first to examine the role of national worldviews in the willingness to take risks. In addition, the willingness to take risks was examined at differing levels of death exposure. This was achieved both by mortality salience manipulation, as in most TMT studies, and in a more naturalistic way, as varying levels of mortality salience are  part of life in Israel, routinely and during war.  

Study 1 included a sample of 316 adolescents (M=17.36, SD=0.60) and examined the influence of death reminders on the willingness to take risks, while examining the role of national worldviews. Participants were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions, each condition involved different primes: death salience, aversive topic salience (control), positive national worldview salience combined with death salience, and positive national worldview salience combined with aversive topic salience. Study 2 included a sample of 420 adolescents (M=17.49, SD=0.63). This study examined, in reality, the contribution of national identity salience combined with mortality salience to the willingness to take risks, during national memorial days: Memorial Day of Holocaust Remembrance, Memorial Day of Israeli fallen, and upon adolescents` return from their visit to the death camps in Poland. The participants who were measured at these times (three groups) were compared to participants measured at a neutral time (control group). Study 3 included a sample of 311 adolescents (M=17.61, SD=0.61). This study was conducted after the end of war in Israel ("Operation Cast Lead") and examined the role of national worldviews in the effect of realistic mortality salience on the willingness to take risks among adolescents. Participants formed  five groups according to death exposure level: war salience- ongoing exposure to rockets, war salience- temporary exposure to rockets, war salience –  no exposure to rockets, mortality salience (also no exposure to rockets), and aversive topic salience (also no exposure to rockets; control).

The first two studies hypothesized that mortality salience whould increase adolescents' willingness to take risks, while national worldviews’ validation whould decrease their willingness to take risks in situations of mortality salience, both under manipulation condition and reality condition (at memorial days).  The research question of study 3 was whether there would be differences in adolescents' willingness to take risks, related to the level of death exposure. Additionally, all three studies hypothesized that males would report a greater willingness to take risks than females.

Findings revealed that, contrary to hypotheses, mortality salience manipulation did not increase the willingness to take risks and positive national worldviews did not moderate the willingness to take various risks under mortality salience conditions. However, there was a moderating effect of national identification on the willingness to take risks when death was out of awareness, in most risk areas. Furthermore, positive national worldview manipulation moderated the willingness to use drugs among participants for whom this risk is relevant to their self-esteem. In contrast, the combined manipulations of mortality salience and national worldview salience increased the willingness to use drugs, among males and among those with strong national identification.

Other findings show that, on Holocaust Memorial Day and after the journey to Poland, adolescents were more willing to take risks in the areas of alcohol and drug use, respectively. In contrast, exposure to real death threat at the war led to little willingness to take risks of alcohol and greater willingness to take risks in sexual activity compared to a control group. As hypothesized, in all the studies males expressed greater willingness to take risks than females.

The study contributes to expand knowledge and promote understanding of risk-taking behaviors in light of awareness of death, an awareness that is present in inner mental life as well as external reality. This indicates the importance of examining Terror Management Theory ideas in the field, outside the laboratory. The uniqueness of this study is in the fact that it examined the dynamics of various mechanisms, such as cultural worldviews and self-esteem validation, on death anxiety management as reflected in risky behaviors among adolescence. The discussion of the findings reflects the understanding of risk-taking behaviors as a means of managing death anxiety along with managing emotional developmental needs of adolescents. Additionally, this study has practical implications that emerge from revealing the moderating potential of national identification on risky behaviors, as well as from finding that willingness to take risks increases during times of significant realistic exposure to death. The findings highlight the need to design interventions to reduce and prevent risk-taking in general, and the use of drugs in particular, when external reality arouses death anxiety.