the circle of death anxiety by Y Pylypko

belief in symbolic immortality

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reliance on symbolic immortality as a way to buffer the existential threat conveyed in notions of mortality link

Mortality salience and the desire for offspring

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anticipated or actual offspring is discussed as a buffer against existential anxiety.

Recently, research additionally showed that MS increased self-reports of the number of children desired in Dutch men but not in Dutch women. We conducted three studies to further investigate the role of desire for offspring in terror management. In Study 1, we conceptually replicated previous findings for Germany and found increased desire for offspring following MS in both men and women

reminders of mortality increase the death anxiety for individuals who lack meaning in life

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subtle reminders of mortality increase strivings for meaning.

lack of space or occasion where the person could question the meaning of life and their future

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denial of mortality

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increased death anxiety among 20-year-olds.

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As cognitive capacities develop with age, children become aware of their parents' mortality and limitations. At this point, death anxiety becomes the primary source of anxiety

“I recommend anti-depressants.” A study in the social denial of death

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Psychological Defenses Against Death Anxiety

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Terror Management Theory (cultural worldview and self-esteem as psychological buffers against death anxiety).
and Firestone's Separation Theory
Mikulincer, Florian, and Hirschberger (2003) postulated that the formation and maintenance of close personal relationships

existential anxiety.

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death anxiety

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antidepressant treatments

small reminders of personal death

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From the perspective of TMT, it motivate attempts to bolster self-esteem and to seek out close relationships.

Separation Theory

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personal success and genuine interpersonal intimacy may actually increase death concerns. Consequently, people engage in self-limiting and self-destructive behaviors involving shrinking back from intimacy in favor of comfortable illusions of connection. (it lacks the same empirical rigor as TMT)

terror managment theory literal and symbolic immortality (symbolic victory over death)

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Literal immortality beliefs provide hope that life will continue after physical death, as exemplified by afterlife concepts such as heaven, reincarnation, or joining with ancestral spirits. Symbolic immortality comes from contributing to something greater than oneself that will continue long after one has died, such as a family, nation, or the memories of others. people manage the potential for anxiety inherent in awareness of the inevitability of death by maintaining faith in their cultural worldviews, self-esteem, and close relationships; these anxiety-buffering systems mitigate existential terror by imparting a sense that one is a person of value living in a meaningful world. link

consumerism

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consumerism advanced in the conventional American worldview, in which what makes life meaningful is amassing material wealth, and still feel unprotected against existential anxiety because one's neighbors have bigger houses, nicer cars, and higher paying jobs.

existential anxiety

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immediately increased intentions to exercise (Arndt, Schimel, & Goldenberg, 2003), decreased intentions to engage in risky behaviors among those with an internal locus of control (Miller & Mulligan, 2002), greater immediate preference for high SPF sunscreen products (Routledge, Arndt, & Goldenberg, 2004),

have been shown to connect to difficulties with accepting other opinions

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increase participants' estimates of consensus for their opinions (Pyszczynski et al., 1996); (b) increase liking for similar others and derogation of dissimilar others (Greenberg et al., 1990); (c) result in harsher penalties for those who violate social norms (Florian & Mikulincer, 1997); (d) result in greater rewards for heroes who uphold valued tenets of one's cultural worldview (Rosenblatt, Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Lyon, 1989); (e) produce aggression against those who express contradictory worldviews (McGregor et al., 1998),

Experimental support for distal defenses (worldview defense)

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reminders of death increased self-esteem strivings as evidenced by more self-serving biases in attributing failure to external causes and success to internal causes (Mikulincer & Florian, 2002), greater identification with one's body among those for whom appearance was relevant to self-esteem
faster driving speed on a driving simulator among men for whom driving skill was relevant to self-esteem (Taubman Ben-Ari, Florian, & Mikulincer, 1999),

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in fact, it has repeatedly been demonstrated that the mortality salience induction does not make participants’ mood more negative (Arndt, Allen, & Greenberg, 2001) link

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solution the person finds in personal success still ignoring the need to face existential question an mortality silence results in worldview defense if exposed to mortality reminders

increased desire for symbolic immortality by making some meaningful connection to the world.

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mortality salience increased willingness to initiate social interaction (Taubman Ben-Ari, Findler, & Mikulincer, 2002)

acceptance of mortality

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life will not last idea

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separation theory

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The individual guards against interpersonal pain by adopting the stance that it is best not to get to close to others because they will just let you down and it is best not to feel too strongly for another because relationships do not last. Similarly, the individual guards against existential anxiety by adopting the stance that it is best not to experience life fully or to care passionately about things because life itself will not last.

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This identification gives rise to self-punishing fantasy processes in which the child attempts to pre-empt parental anger through an internal thought process of self-criticism.

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true intimacy with a romantic partner is also disruptive to the psychological defense system because it makes one vulnerable to interpersonal pain in that one might be rejected or frustrated and makes one vulnerable to death anxiety because following times of sexual or emotional bonding separation is bittersweet in that one becomes acutely aware of the impermanence of all things in existence.

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Critical self-attacks lead to greater anxiety, which, in turn, leads to greater reliance on self-nourishing behaviors in a vicious cycle.

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In particular, Terror Management Theory’s worldview defence hypothesis predicts that death anxiety is lowest among very religious and irreligious individuals, and highest among uncertain individuals

The religious correlates of death anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Likewise, the supposition that death anxiety motivates religious belief, which in turn mitigates death anxiety, predicts that religiosity increases with death anxiety among non-believers, and that death anxiety decreases as religiosity increases among believers

Failure Causes Fear: The Effect of Self-Esteem Threat on Death-Anxiety

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A self-esteem threat increased death-anxiety relative to a self-esteem boost and non-self threat control condition.

The influence of religion on death anxiety and death acceptance

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Belief in God’s existence (r = −0.27), and belief in the afterlife (r = −0.25) were both negatively correlated with death anxiety (p < 0.01), and positively correlated with death acceptance (respectively, r = 0.21 and r = 0.22, p < 0.05).

Contrasting the Effects of Mortality Salience and Future Time Limitation on Goal Prioritization in Older and Younger Adults

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Results showed that older adults allocated significantly more resources to emotionally close recipients who supported their cultural worldviews in conditions involving future time limitation and death reflection. They also allocated less resources to emotionally not close recipients who did not support their cultural worldviews in conditions involving future time limitation. Younger adults did not show these differences. Nor did mortality salience have any effect.

Discussion

These results suggest that future time perspective and death reflection shift age-related goals more than mortality salience.

mortality salience

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awareness of inevitability of death

stigmatisation of the topic in the society

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existential anxiety

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It involves all-encompassing questions about the meaning and purpose of life and one’s place in the world,