The Other Side of Sadness by George A. Bonanno

Author:George A. Bonanno
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2010-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

The great discovery of TMT research is that most of us have, somewhere, simmering just below the surface of conscious awareness, a vague and fleeting dread of our own vulnerability and mortality. Even the simplest reminder of our mortality may dramatically alter our attitudes and behavior in ways that appear to be consistent with some of the larger claims of the theory.

Yet many psychologists find it difficult to accept the sweeping nature of the TMT theorists’ claims. For one thing, TMT assumes that the primary function of worldviews is to ward off death anxiety. Although the results of the TMT experiments are consistent with this hypothesis, there is nothing in these tests to show that lessening death anxiety is the sole or even the primary function of worldviews. More to the point, as critics of the TMT approach have been quick to point out, our brains probably evolved global belief systems in the service of far more pedestrian ends. Belief systems condense and catalog the world around us, for example, and thus help us to reliably predict what is likely to happen in a given situation. Shared beliefs also reinforce our membership in groups and cultures. When we feel that we belong to a larger whole, we are more likely to cooperate, to pool resources, and to work together to solve common problems.11 These functions promote survival and suggest that worldviews more than likely evolved for more basic purposes than to help us deal with death anxiety.

There is an even more intriguing limitation to the TMT paradigm. The mortality salience prompt works only when it is presented “at the fringes of consciousness” and not to full conscious attention.12 For example, in one study, American college students were given the standard mortality salience prompt (“briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouses in you”) and showed the typical increase in worldview strength, in this case greater pro-American bias in their evaluations of a political essay. However, the effect of the death questions was dramatically reduced if the students were asked to contemplate their own death at a deeper, more explicit level or for a longer period of time.13

Why would deeper or longer contemplation of death reduce the usual mortality salience effects seen in these studies? The explanation that TMT theorists give is somewhat circular: This result is caused by the worldview’s already having done its job in reducing death anxiety.14 Possibly, but there is another explanation: When we confront the idea of death in a more measured, reflective context, we react with less distress because we have time to contemplate its meaning. Most of us lead busy, hectic lives. We have places to be, schedules to keep, children to comfort, deadlines to meet, bills to pay, food to cook, and so on. A fleeting reminder of our own mortality in the midst of that activity may trigger a cascade of worries and fears, but even the busiest of us slow down eventually, and when we do, we can and often do ponder the larger questions in life.

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