Attitudes toward Death: A Desensitization Hypothesis

Attitudes toward death is a subject largely overlooked by psychology. This article reports on the development of a Likert-type scale measuring attitude toward death. Item analysis produced 32 items, with a corrected split-half reliability coefficient of .92. The scale did not predict differences between donors and professors and did not relate to age, sex, or self-esteem. It did, however, correlate negatively with religiosity, level of education, and positively with exposure to deaths of non-intimate persons. The results suggest that positive attitudes toward death are indicated by a non-religious outlook, low investment in self-relevant goals, and exposure to non-intimate (and less traumatic) deaths.