AUTHOR=Kehr Hugo M. , Bakaç Cafer , Jais Marius , Brunner Dorothee , Voigt Julian , Holzemer Lea TITLE=The Role of Death-Anxiety-Induced Fear of COVID-19 in Compliance With and Acceptance of Government-Issued COVID-19 Regulations JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=13 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.881603 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.881603 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

The present research was conducted to empirically examine whether death anxiety is the fundamental fear that feeds people’s fear of COVID-19 and leads to increased behavioral compliance with and acceptance of COVID-19 regulations. Results from an online survey of 313 participants from New York City show that death anxiety was, indeed, positively associated with behavioral compliance with, but not acceptance of, COVID-19 regulations via an increased fear of COVID-19. Hence, media campaigns that are designed to increase people’s compliance with restrictive COVID-19 measures by stirring up their death anxiety are likely to meet their target, but they do not necessarily lead to increased public acceptance of the measures taken.