Shutting the Door on Death: Low Openness Individuals Become Less Open (to Death) Following Mortality Reminders.

Objective We examine if individuals low in openness cope with death reminders (i.e., mortality salience) by becoming less open and more avoidant of death. Method In Study 1, openness was measured before and after a mortality salience manipulation (N = 128; M-age = 35.82; 54.7% male; 85.2% Caucasian). In Study 2, we measured openness, manipulated mortality salience, and measured implicit avoidance of death-related words using a lexical decision task (N = 162; M-age = 20.58; 72.8% female; 43.8% Caucasian). We predicted that for low, but not high, openness individuals, mortality salience would further decrease openness and increase the speed of responses aimed at avoiding death. Results For low openness individuals, mortality salience decreased openness scores (Study 1) and caused faster avoidance responses toward death-related words. High openness individuals demonstrated slower avoidance responses (Study 2). Conclusions A spiraling effect may occur where mortality salience causes low openness people to become even less open, and avoid death, positioning them to respond defensively.