Woody Allen once said, “It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.” Sometimes awareness of mortality can be a little scary, or make life seem a bit bleak. But a new study finds that when we’re reminded of our mortality, we may actually be better to ourselves and kinder to others.
Authors of a new study reviewed earlier research that had set out to determine how the awareness of death might influence people’s positive behaviors towards others and themselves. Lead author Kenneth Vail and his team discussed some of the noteworthy findings. One study, for example, found that people are actually more likely to help out others when they are in the immediate vicinity of a cemetery.
When we’re reminded of our mortality, we may actually be better to ourselves and kinder to others.
When actors talked to unsuspecting passersby about the value of helping others, the passersby were more likely to help people who had dropped a notebook when they were near a cemetery, compared to people who hadn’t been “primed” in the same way.
Much research has focused on understanding how our awareness of death can promote negative or destructive behaviors. For example, one school of thought suggests that we engage in certain behaviors or maintain certain beliefs to deal with the unpleasant feelings of mortality. The authors of this study suggest that it might be more beneficial to understand how the motivations triggered by being aware of death can actually improve people's lives. They conclude by suggesting that the “dance with death can be a delicate but potentially elegant stride toward living the good life."
Vail is at the University of Missouri, and published the study in Personality and Social Psychology Review.
