Evaluating explicit and implicit death attitudes in funeral and university students

The present paper describes two studies assessing the relation of implicit death attitudes as measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to explicit death attitudes as measured by questionnaires. In Study 1, 45 university students and 51 funeral service students completed the revised Death Anxiety Scale (DAS-R) and completed paper and pencil versions of the IAT measuring how much they implicitly associated death with bad vs. good (death valence), with anxious vs. calm (death anxiety), and with others vs. self (death denial). Both groups showed stronger implicit associations of death with anxious rather than calm and bad rather than good. Higher explicit death anxiety was associated with more implicit denial of death. Compared to university students, funeral students scored lower on the DAS-R and the IAT measure of implicit denial of death. In Study 2, 103 university students completed the DAS-R, completed Palm Pilot versions of the IAT measuring death valence, death anxiety, and death denial, and responded to questions about mortality-related decisions. Greater self-reported death anxiety was associated with less approval of physician-assisted suicide, whereas greater implicit denial of death was associated with less interest in having a living will and pre-arranging one's funeral.