Buried in belongings: Investigating death anxiety and the effects of mortality salience on hoarding symptoms

Death anxiety has been argued to be a transdiagnostic construct, underlying several mental disorders. Preliminary correlational studies have highlighted the potential relevance of death anxiety in Hoarding Disorder (HD). We examined whether reminders of death increase hoarding symptoms, using an online mortality salience study. We recruited a community sample (N = 315), who completed experimental measures of hoarding following a mortality salience prime, followed by self-report measures of death anxiety and hoarding severity. As expected, a significant correlation was found between death anxiety and hoarding severity. However, in the overall sample, there were no significant differences between salience conditions in hoarding-related symptoms. These findings do not support the notion that death anxiety plays a central role in HD. Future research should explore whether mortality salience effects emerge in clinical samples or using in-person laboratory measures of hoarding symptoms.