Subliminal environmental cues make death thoughts more accessible in consciousness

Evidence

At any given moment, some thoughts pop into consciousness more easily than others. Recent—even subconscious—experiences make thoughts related to them more accessible. Highly accessible thoughts come to mind quite readily. They are, as it were, close to consciousness. Since you happened to walk by a Starbucks, you might complete the word stems as … But let’s say you passed a funeral parlor instead of a Starbucks on your way down the street. In that case, you would more likely complete the word stems as — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 175

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the accessibility/pop-into-consciousness framing that underlies the death-thought accessibility measure.