A few weeks ago, I posted about a study that looked at how mindfulness affected people’s reactions to thoughts of their own deaths. Thanks to a good-hearted reader, I now have a copy of the paper itself, which provides a lot more information than the news article I was using.
The research was done in the context of something called terror management theory, which suggests that humans are motivated strongly by the fear of death. Past research has shown that after being reminded of their own mortality, people tend to become more biased and judgmental (favoring their own group over others, choosing harsher punishments for various offenses). The idea, very roughly, is that people defend themselves against uneasiness about death by clinging more strongly to the things in their worldview that provide identity and meaning. The paper looks at how mindfulness influences this behavior.
One thing I wondered about was what measure was used to determine how mindful the participants were. It turns out that their degree of mindfulness was assessed using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). (The MAAS is described in this paper, which notes that it “is focused on the presence or absence of attention to and awareness of what is occurring in the present”; it suggests that the degree of mindfulness can be increased with practice, and describes some findings that indicated various correlations between MAAS results and the Big Five personality traits. Those two things together strike me as quite intriguing because they seem to me to be saying that perhaps some personality traits can, at least to some degree, be altered.)
Anyway, the paper about mindfulness and fear of death covered seven different studies that looked at a variety of interlinked questions. The general outline was that participants wrote about either what they imagined their own death would be like, or what watching television is like, and then answered a questionnaire that examined their attitudes or reactions (e.g., the degree to which they favored something written by a foreign, pro-US author versus something by a foreign, anti-US author). One thing that struck me was that in four of the seven studies, the participants were undergrads in their late teens and early twenties. In two of them, the age extended upward to the mid-thirties, and in one of them it extended up to the mid-sixties (the paper didn’t give a breakdown by age). I wonder how age differences might affect the results.
I personally have felt fairly anxious when thinking about my own death; being dead poses no terrors for me, because I think my consciousness will be extinguished when my brain dies. What bothers me is the moment of death and the knowledge that my time has run out: that there are no second chances left, that all of the things I haven’t been able to do or experience will remain forever undone. I have wondered how really old people, who realistically must know that their time on earth is mostly behind them and that death will come sooner rather than later, deal with what that must feel like. I can only assume that if I am fortunate enough to make it into my 80s or 90s, I will have found a way to cope. (I hope I’ll be cheerful enough that I can make jokes about not buying green bananas.) It would be interesting to know how more or less mindful people of different ages compared with each other in these sorts of studies (or if there’s any difference in younger people who have been in a life-threatening situation).
Woo! I am happy to hear about this study. I love thinking about death, so I like reading research on the subject, and this particular study gives me good practical advice (to work on my mindfulness).
You’re right that levity is at the center of death acceptance for so many of us. I sent my first message to my dying self at age 22, and have sent a number of messages since then. They are nothing very superstitious, just a marking of the moment and a memorable message to go along with it, in the hopes that I can (re-)collect them at some later point when I am nearing death. I don’t know if I will be lucky enough to know death is imminent when it comes, but in the meantime it’s satisfying to have some sort of connection to that final point on my timeline.
One of my favorite authors, Stephen Levine, noticed that folks have trouble letting go of their lives at the point of death. He advises young and healthy folks to think about and prepare for death by softening the identity/ego in advance, so we don’t freak out as much when it’s time to die. I find his “apologies” page very moving. http://levinetalks.com/Apologies
The discussion of terror management theory (“after being reminded of their own mortality, people tend to become more biased and judgmental (favoring their own group over others, choosing harsher punishments for various offenses)”) has some pretty clear political ramifications, and it seems that politicians of a certain stripe have become quite adept at using it to their advantage.
It’s a peripheral point, but I’m not persuaded when you write that the MAAS paper “suggests that the degree of mindfulness can be increased with practice, and describes some findings that indicated various correlations between MAAS results and the Big Five personality traits. Those two things together strike me as quite intriguing because they seem to me to be saying that perhaps some personality traits can, at least to some degree, be altered.”
Without having read all the details, I wouldn’t be inclined to read those results as supporting that conclusion. Suppose mindfulness (M) is determined by some combination of personality traits (P) and factors resulting from some combination of environment, education, and experience (E). Statistical study of a population would show a correlation between M and P, and also between M and E, but not necessarily between P and E. If an individual has some ability to control E, then that is true also of M to some degree, but not necessarily of P.
I agree that it would be very interesting to know how the results break down by age. Thanks for a very interesting post.
Sarah–Thanks for the Levine link. I also find the apologies posted there moving. I may try writing messages to my dying self. I have such a feeling of recoil when I think of it that acclimating to the idea seems useful.
Jay–Thanks for the statistical correction; I should have thought that through before speculating. That’s an excellent point about the political connection. I’ll be posting a somewhat related story soon.