Arndt Jamie, Cook Alison, Goldenberg Jamie L, Cox Cathy R
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2007 Jan;92(1):12-29. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.12.
Five studies examined the cognitive association between thoughts of cancer and thoughts of death and their implication for screening intentions. Study 1 found that explicit contemplation of cancer did not increase death-thought accessibility. In support of the hypothesis that this reflects suppression of death-related thoughts, Study 2 found that individuals who thought about cancer exhibited elevated death-thought accessibility under high cognitive load, and Study 3 demonstrated that subliminal primes of the word cancer led to increased death-thought accessibility. Study 4 revealed lower levels of death-thought accessibility when perceived vulnerability to cancer was high, once again suggesting suppression of death-related thoughts in response to conscious threats associated with cancer. Study 5 extended the analysis by finding that after cancer salience, high cognitive load, which presumably disrupts suppression of the association between cancer and death, decreased cancer-related self-exam intentions. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding terror management, priming and suppression, and responses to cancer are discussed.
五项研究考察了癌症念头与死亡念头之间的认知关联及其对筛查意愿的影响。研究1发现，对癌症的明确思考并未增加死亡念头的易及性。为支持这反映了对与死亡相关念头的抑制这一假设，研究2发现，思考癌症的个体在高认知负荷下表现出更高的死亡念头易及性，研究3表明，“癌症”一词的阈下启动刺激导致死亡念头易及性增加。研究4发现，当感知到患癌易感性较高时，死亡念头易及性水平较低，这再次表明，为应对与癌症相关的意识威胁，对与死亡相关的念头进行了抑制。研究5通过发现以下情况扩展了分析：在癌症凸显之后，高认知负荷（这大概会扰乱对癌症与死亡之间关联的抑制）降低了与癌症相关的自我检查意愿。文中讨论了对理解恐惧管理、启动与抑制以及对癌症的反应的理论和实际意义。
