This study tested hypotheses derived from Affect Displacement Theory and Terror Management Theory. Childhood punishment experiences were hypothesized to predict a differential response to death reminders on measures of authoritarianism. Research on childhood punishment has found significant negative effects, both short and long-term. This study explored the interaction between self-reported childhood punishment experiences, gender, the effect of therapy and how these experiences interact with a mortality salience manipulation (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2000) to affect authoritarianism. Death reminders have been related to authoritarian and conservative attitudes (Greenberg et al., 1990; Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003b). 118 undergraduates were asked to recall childhood punishment experiences, with half randomly assigned to a mortality salience condition. The effect of this manipulation was assessed on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) (Altemeyer, 1996) Scale. Subjects reporting higher childhood punishment in the mortality salience condition expressed significantly more authoritarianism than low punishment subjects and subjects in the control condition. Results also replicated previous work on the relationship between childhood punishment and political attitudes (Milburn, Conrad, Sala, & Carberry, 1995).