Delay and death-thought accessibility: a meta-analysis.

The dual-process component of Terror Management Theory (TMT) proposes that different types of threats lead to increases in death-thought accessibility (DTA) after different delay intervals. Experimental studies of terror management threats' effect on DTA were collected and coded for their use of explicitly death-related (vs. not explicitly death-related) threats, and for their use of delay and task-switching during the delay. Results reveal that studies using death-related threats achieved larger DTA effect-sizes when they included more task-switching or a longer delay between the threat and the DTA measurement. In contrast, studies using threats that were not explicitly death-related achieved smaller DTA effect-sizes when they included more task-switching between the threat and the DTA measurement. These findings provide partial support for the dual-process component's predictions regarding delay and DTA. Limitations and future directions are discussed.