The Thrust of the Problem: Bodily Inhibitions and Guilt as a Function of Mortality Salience and Neuroticism
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2008
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00513.x
Abstract
We argue that existential concerns underlie discomfort with the physicality of the body and that activities likely to make individuals aware of their physical body (e.g., sex, dancing) may be inhibited and cause guilt. Further, individuals high in neuroticism may be especially vulnerable to such difficulties. To test this, individuals high and low in neuroticism were primed with thoughts about their mortality or a control topic and then engaged in an exercise designed to promote body awareness before self‐reporting guilt. A comparison group engaged in non‐body‐oriented behavior. The results revealed that high neuroticism participants inhibited their body‐oriented behavior when mortality was salient and that they experienced a marginal increase in guilt after performing the behavior in conjunction with mortality salience. Discussion focuses on the relationship between neuroticism, mortality salience, inhibition surrounding the body, and guilt.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Journal of Personality, v. 76, issue 5, p. 1055-1080
Scholar Commons Citation
Goldenberg, Jamie L.; Heflick, Nathan; and Cooper, Douglas P., "The Thrust of the Problem: Bodily Inhibitions and Guilt as a Function of Mortality Salience and Neuroticism" (2008). Psychology Faculty Publications. 1496.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/psy_facpub/1496
