Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology July 26, 2010 Christopher P. Niemiec, Kirk Warren Brown, Todd B. Kashdan et al. 247 citations
Terror management theory posits that people tend to respond defensively to reminders of death, including worldview defense, self-esteem striving, and suppression of death thoughts. Seven experiments examined whether trait mindfulness-a disposition characterized by receptive attention to present experience-reduced defensive responses to mortality salience (MS). Under MS, less mindful individuals...