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Part III    Humanistic/Existential Theories370
haveshown thatconscious thoughts ofdeath mayhelphuman beings reprioritize 
theirlifegoals. Heidegger (1926/1962) referred tothisphenomenon asthe“awak -
ening experience,” andtoday weoften refertoitasa“reality check.” Forexample, 
longitudinal studies haveshown thatdaily conscious contemplations ofmortality led
people toplace greater value onpersonal, intrinsic goals overstatus-oriented, extrin -
sicgoals fortheirlife(Heflick, Goldenberg, Keroack, &Cooper, 2011; Lykins, Seger -
strom, Averill, Evans, &Kemeny, 2007). 
Additionally, imagining ourowndemise when wearehealthy appears tolead
tomore neurotic anxiety anddefensiveness thanfacing ouractual death ifitisimmi -
nent, justasMaywould predict. Goranson, Ritter, Waytz, Norton andGray (2017) 
compared thewords ofterminally illpatients anddeath-row inmates withforecasts 
ofeveryday people imagining themselves facing death. Inonestudy, theyfound that
theblogposts ofterminally illcancer patients tendtobecome more positive asdeath 
approaches, andtheyalsotendtobelessnegative andmore positive thanthefore-
casts ofnonpatients asked toimagine being terminally ill.Inasecond study, they
found thatthelastwords andpoetry ofdeath-row inmates arealsomore positive 
andlessnegative thantheforecasts ofnoninmates. Interestingly, thisdifference was
accounted for,inpart,byinmates’ greater focus ontheirmitwelt, theirsocial connec -
tions andspiritual life,intheirlastwords andpoetry. Asthese authors concluded, 
“Taken together, these longitudinal results suggest thatdeath never becomes worse 
asoneapproaches it”(Goranson etal.,2017, p.996). Rather, itbecomes better and
evensoothing toourpsyches, particularly if,asitnears, wecanreflect onandsolidify 
ourconnections withothers.
Butpositive outcomes havealsobeen discovered toarisefrom more noncon -
scious death awareness aswell.Forexample, Gailliot andcolleagues (2008) con-
ducted aclever fieldstudy inwhich aconfederate spoke loudly onacellphone 
within earshot ofpassersby about thevalue ofhelping others. Participants were 40%
more likely toactually helpasecond confederate whodropped something ifthey
were passing through acemetery thaniftheywere ablock further away, outofsight 
oftheheadstones! Another study bySchimel, Wohl, andWilliams (2006) found 
thatthevalues ofempathic people prepare them tobekindasameans ofmanag -
ingmorality awareness. These researchers hadhome team hockey fanscomplete 
anempathy scale andthenthefanswere reminded ofdeath. Next theyreadabout a
player either onthehome team, orrivalteam, whocommitted aggressive fouls dur-
ingagame. Mortality salience always ledtoforgiveness ofthehome team player, of
course, but,among themore empathic fans, italsoledtogreater forgiveness ofthe
opposing team player. 
Yetfurther studies haveshown thatourmost direct encounters withothers’ 
death areespecially prone toleadustoward pro-social andpersonal growth goals 
(recall thediscussion ofresearch onpost-traumatic growth andOVP intheRogers 
chapter). Vailandcolleagues (2012) believe thisisbecause suchencounters mixboth
conscious andnonconscious terror management processes. Individuals whosuffer 
trauma orthedeath ofaloved oneoften must reconstruct the“death denying sys-
temofmeaning” theypreviously held, shifting away from selfish, andtoward more 
growth-oriented, existential understandings oftheirworld. Inthisway,existentialists 
likeRollo Mayweresurely righttoemphasize theironic truth thatdeath canbepsy-
chically good forlife,ifwefacethefactofitwithcourage.Final PDF to printer