Breaking the Chain: The Role of Irrational Thinking in Our Fear of War and Death

This paper sought to investigate the validity of a mediation model, where we hypothesized that the four irrational evaluations postulated by the Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) theory (demandingness, awfulizing, low frustration tolerance, and global evaluation) would mediate the relationship between perceived risk of war and death anxiety. A sample of 158 Romanian participants completed online self-report measures, namely the Death Anxiety Scale, The Attitudes and Beliefs Scale, and the Risk Perception Scale. Mediation analyses were employed to assess the validity of the model. Results confirmed that the relationship between perceived risk and death anxiety is mediated by awfulizing and low frustration tolerance beliefs. The present research lends support to the REBT theory and puts forward a cognitive background to war-related distress.