Author(s)

Matthew T. Gailliot

Psychology Department, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, USA.

The current work tested the hypothesis that a glucose drink would reduce worldview defense following mortality salience. Participants consumed either a glucose drink or placebo, wrote about either death or dental pain, and then completed a measure of worldview defense (viewing positively someone with pro-US views and viewing negatively someone with anti-US views). Mortality salience increased world- view defense among participants who consumed a placebo but not among participants who consumed a glucose drink. Glucose might reduce defensiveness after mortality salience by increasing the effectiveness of the self-controlled suppression of death-related thought, by providing resources to cope with mortality salience and reducing its threatening nature, or by distancing the individual from actual physical death.

Mortality Salience; Glucose; Metabolism; Worldview Defense

Gailliot, M. (2012). Mortality Salience and Metabolism: Glucose Drinks Reduce Worldview Defense Caused by Mortality Salience. Psychology, 3, 991-996. doi: 10.4236/psych.2012.311149.