Center for Mental Health Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
J Elder Abuse Negl. 2024 Jun;36(3):291-309. doi: 10.1080/08946566.2024.2350995. Epub 2024 May 5.
Death anxiety arousal, provoked by anticipating self-nonexistence, may be used as a fraud tactic by scammers on older adults; however, little is known about how it affects older adults' decision making when confronted with a scam and the mechanisms underlying these effects. This study used a questionnaire survey and experimental design to examine them. In Study 1, 307 older adults in China completed questionnaires. The results showed a positive link between death anxiety and vulnerability to fraud, partially mediated by materialism. In Study 2, 82 older adults in China were randomly assigned to the mortality salience group and control group to examine whether death anxiety arousal can increase older adults' vulnerability to fraud and the mediating role of materialism. The results indicated that death anxiety and materialism increase the risk of consumer products and services fraud; therefore, targeting these risk factors might protect older adults from fraud.
死亡焦虑被激发，源于对自我不存在的预期，可能被骗子利用来欺诈老年人；然而，对于这种焦虑如何影响老年人在面对骗局时的决策，以及这些影响的潜在机制，我们知之甚少。本研究使用问卷调查和实验设计来对此进行检验。在研究 1 中，307 名中国老年人完成了问卷调查。结果表明，死亡焦虑与对欺诈的脆弱性之间存在正相关，部分由物质主义介导。在研究 2 中，82 名中国老年人被随机分配到死亡凸显组和对照组，以检验死亡焦虑的激发是否会增加老年人对欺诈的脆弱性，以及物质主义的中介作用。结果表明，死亡焦虑和物质主义会增加消费产品和服务欺诈的风险；因此，针对这些风险因素可能有助于保护老年人免受欺诈。
