Death can be good for your health: Fitness intentions as a proximal and distal defense against mortality salience

Although terror management theory has stimulated a wide body of research, no research to date has demonstrated empirically that intentions to engage in health-oriented behavior can function as a terror management defense. Toward this end, the present studies examined whether increased fitness intentions could be used as both a direct defense against conscious concerns with death, but also as an indirect defense against unconscious death concerns among individuals for whom fitness is important to their self-esteem. In Study 1, both high and low fitness esteem participants responded to reminders of mortality with immediate exaggerated fitness intentions, relative to controls. Study 2 replicated this effect, but also found that a similar increase in fitness intentions only emerged following a delay when fitness was important to the individuals' self-esteem. Discussion focuses on the implications for different types of psychological defense on heath-related behavior.