Rebecca Noble | The Daily Wildcat
Arizona guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright tips in a basket amid heavy defense during the Red and Blue scrimmage in McKale Center on Oct. 14. UA participants in a set of basketball tests scored more points after being prompted about death than those who were not given the prompt.
UA psychology doctoral students Uri Lifshin and Colin Zestcott conducted a study to determine how an individual’s awareness of their own mortality might affect athletic performance.
The study is based on terror management theory, the concept that human beings develop self-esteem to buffer against anxiety caused by an awareness of death.