Evidence That Thinking About Death Relates to Time-Estimation Behavior

Time and death are linked—the passing of time brings us closer to death. Terror management theory proposes that awareness of death represents a potent problem that motivates a variety of psychological defenses (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1997 Greenberg , J. , Solomon , S. , & Pyszczynski , T. ( 1997 ). Terror management theory of self-esteem and social behavior: Empirical assessments and conceptual refinements . In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 29 , pp. 61 – 139 ). New York , NY : Academic Press .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). We tested the hypothesis that thinking about death motivates elongated perceptions of brief intervals of time. Studies 1 and 2 found that college students who reported thinking more frequently about death overestimated brief durations. Study 3 found evidence of the predicted causal relationship. Students assigned to think about death provided longer time estimates than those assigned to think about a control topic.