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Is the Meaning of Life Also the Meaning of Death? A Terror Management Perspective Reply

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Abstract

The human quality of self-awareness makes individuals aware of their inventible death. How does this knowledge influence meaning in life and is influenced by it? Four studies examined the association between meaning in life and awareness of death, through a Terror Management Theory perspective. Study 1 assessed the effects of a mortality reminder on self-reports of meaning in life, while exploring the moderating role of self-esteem. The findings indicate a trend in which after a mortality salience induction, high self-esteem individuals tend to view their lives as more meaningful. Studies 2 and 3 examined the effect of thinking about the meaning of life on death-thought accessibility, and found it to be higher in both the mortality and meaning salience conditions, as compared to a control condition. Study 4 sought to discover whether reminders of one’s meaning in life would yield cultural worldview validation, and indeed revealed a more severe perception of social transgressions following both mortality and meaning salience. Findings highlight the understanding that meaning in life is a basic existential concept closely related to awareness of death’s inevitability.

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Notes

  1. No gender differences were found in the current series of studies, a finding consistent with the results of previous studies employing a variety of meaning scales (Baum and Stewart 1990; Debats 1998; Scannell et al. 2002), as well as with previous TMT studies.

  2. We used a neutral control topic in the current study. Several studies which have compared the effects of mortality salience with other aversive topics similarly report the unique effects of morality salience.

  3. Importantly, to rule out the option that the current findings are a result of a confounding between purpose in life and positive effect, the same regression was conducted on a score of purpose of life which was calculated of 3 items identified in a previous study (McGregor and Little 1998) as “purely” meaning-related (current Cronbach’s alpha = .67). This regression yielded identical results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Louis and Gabi Weisfeld School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, 52900, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Orit Taubman - Ben-Ari

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  1. Orit Taubman - Ben-Ari
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Correspondence to Orit Taubman - Ben-Ari.

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Components of Studies 1 and 4 were conducted as a part of the MA dissertation carried out at the School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University, by Oshrat Yamin, under the supervision of the author.

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Taubman - Ben-Ari, O. Is the Meaning of Life Also the Meaning of Death? A Terror Management Perspective Reply. J Happiness Stud 12, 385–399 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-010-9201-2

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