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. 2022;46(7):1706-1715.
doi: 10.1080/07481187.2020.1846228. Epub 2020 Nov 13.

Methodological weakness of the death-word-fragment task: Alternative implicit death anxiety measures

Priyanka A Naidu  1 , Trevor J Hine  1 , A Ian Glendon  1   2   3
Affiliations

Methodological weakness of the death-word-fragment task: Alternative implicit death anxiety measures

Priyanka A Naidu et al. Death Stud. 2022.

Abstract

The efficacy of different implicit death anxiety measures was examined. In Study 1 (N = 133), the death-word-fragment task (DWFT), commonly used to test death-thought accessibility in terror management theory (TMT) research, did not differentiate between mortality salience (MS) and control conditions. Instead, death-related word completions were associated with word dimensions other than MS induction. Study 2 (N = 155) tested three implicit measures (lexical-decision task, dot-probe task, ambiguous pictures task), which differentiated between conditions, revealing greater sensitivity than the DWFT. As TMT research widens its scope, investigating measures to capture implicit death concerns is important.

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