Self‐compassion facilitates responsiveness to existential threat: A brief report

Abstract

Abstract Terror management theory posits that validation of worldview and self‐esteem are primary defense mechanisms in keeping mortal concerns at bay, although potentially leading to the devaluation of others. Self‐compassion is considered a more inclusive defense mechanism. Drawing on preliminary research, we extended a previous investigation regarding the buffering role of self‐compassion within the Terror management theory paradigm. We embedded within a dot‐probe task a continuous death priming together with abstract and concrete threat images. We confirmed among 126 university students that following death priming, self‐compassion facilitated attentional attraction toward concrete threat and avoidance of abstract threat. These findings demonstrate the contribution of self‐compassion in coping simultaneously with different types of attentional threat and has potential to spawn future innovative research.

Keywords

• dot probe task
• self‐compassion
• terror management theory
• threat