Thoughts and emotions evoked by thinking about own death: American versus Japanese undergraduates.
The prompts "What emotions does the thought of your own death arouse in you?" and "What will happen to you when your body dies?" have been used to induce anxiety in Terror Management Theory. The current study investigated how the responses to these prompts may reveal cross-national differences by us...
| Published in: | Death Studies Vol. 50; no. 1; pp. 147 - 156 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=189731276&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 189731276 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 07481187 DEA jtl: Death Studies issn: 07481187 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2026 vid: 50 iid: 1 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 189731276 10.1080/07481187.2024.2414934 ppf: 147 ppct: 9 formats: tig: atl: Thoughts and emotions evoked by thinking about own death: American versus Japanese undergraduates. aug: au: Taku, Kanako Dominick, Whitney Jeong, Seokjun Lee, Raejung Kim, Jinho affil: Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA Department of AI and Big Data, Swiss School of Management, Bellinzona, Switzerland su: Japan United States Language & languages Death Sadness Undergraduates Emotions Anxiety International relations Religion Interment Student attitudes Data mining T-test (Statistics) Computer software Surveys Data analysis software Thought & thinking sug: subj: Language & languages Death Sadness Undergraduates Emotions Anxiety International relations Religion Interment Student attitudes Japan United States Computer and Computer Peripheral Equipment and Software Merchant Wholesalers Computer and software stores Software publishers (except video game publishers) Computer, computer peripheral and pre-packaged software merchant wholesalers Foreign affairs International Affairs Data mining T-test (Statistics) Computer software Surveys Data analysis software Thought & thinking ab: The prompts "What emotions does the thought of your own death arouse in you?" and "What will happen to you when your body dies?" have been used to induce anxiety in Terror Management Theory. The current study investigated how the responses to these prompts may reveal cross-national differences by using a text-mining approach. Undergraduates in the US (n = 298) and Japan (n = 212) participated in the study. Across both groups, anxiety was the most common emotion. Cross-national differences also emerged, such that students in the US were more likely to mention sadness, funeral, and religiosity for the first prompt, and acceptance, spiritual change, and religiosity for the second prompt. Students in Japan were more likely to mention regret for the first, and sadness, emptiness, and funeral for the second prompt. Results revealed differences and similarities in thoughts and emotions people associate with when thinking about own death. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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