Consequences of death awareness
So again, I am asking a question about a subject I am not too familiar with, just playfully interested.
As far as I have read, experiments concerning death denial and death awareness have caused individuals to think differently when faced with their own mortality.
Judges give higher bonds, people are less open to other cultures and religions, etc.
It seems that being reminded of death brings about a negative effect, enhancing the sense of your own importance and the importance of your own culture and group whatever it may be based on as opposed to 'others'.
But is there a positive set of thoughts, a positive response that arises from death awareness?
Have i just missed these responses or are they rare or not interesting or not as powerful as the negative mindset.
Has there been a positive response to the awareness of death?
As far as I have read, experiments concerning death denial and death awareness have caused individuals to think differently when faced with their own mortality.
Judges give higher bonds, people are less open to other cultures and religions, etc.
It seems that being reminded of death brings about a negative effect, enhancing the sense of your own importance and the importance of your own culture and group whatever it may be based on as opposed to 'others'.
But is there a positive set of thoughts, a positive response that arises from death awareness?
Have i just missed these responses or are they rare or not interesting or not as powerful as the negative mindset.
Has there been a positive response to the awareness of death?
Comments (9)
We go to sleep each night without any intention and we wake up without intention. It is cyclical, and sleep can be considered a period of renewal. Similarly, with death, we wipe the slate clean, as we do v with each new game we play. We start each game with the skills that we have learned but we have an opportunity to apply these skills to a new game, or a new canvas.
Death in such a manner can be viewed as a new canvas.
Could you unpack and explain this a bit more with regard to death awareness. Any links to share about how such experiments were conducted.
How does one know when a judge is aware of his own mortality versus when he is not and whether that significantly (or statistically) influences such decisions?
The YOLO factor.
I can't say that I agree with this. I determine things I need to do in the morning, before going to bed, and when I wake up those things are fresh in my mind. The power of memory is wonderfully capable of persisting right through sleep. Some times I wake up with the same song in my head as was there when I fell asleep. It may take conscious effort to remember things, but once they're there, the memories don't erase so easily.
But waking up is not a wiping the slate clean or starting a new game, because we carry on where we left off the day before, so how does the comparison work?
Birth retains past skills but has erased physical memories (in most cases) cleaning the slate and creating the possibilities for an entirely new game. Both cycles have similarities but differences.
you can look up experiments on death awareness conducted by Sheldon Solomon and his team.
Mortality Salience (wikipedia)
Terror Management Theory (Wikipedia)
[quote=eddiedean]It seems that being reminded of death brings about a negative effect, enhancing the sense of your own importance and the importance of your own culture and group whatever it may be based on as opposed to 'others'.[/quote]
Why not just characterize this as a "positive" effect, especially in rare cases where an existential threat (terror) is imminent like war. The amplification on "self-esteem" by MS would make sense as an evolutionary adaptation, priming the brain in facilitating action, decision-making and movement to avoid death.