348 Part III Humanistic/Existential Theories
and their parent evaluates them on the traits. They found that securely attached
individuals (versus anxious or avoidantly attached) were more prone to exaggerate
how positively their romantic partners see them after they were reminded of death
compared to the control condition. For those with the more anxious/preoccupied
attachment style, in contrast, death reminders led to greater perceived positive regard
from a parent. Those with avoidant attachment style showed no effect of mortality
salience on amount of perceived regard from either a parent or a romantic partner.
Taken together, this fascinating series of studies provides an interesting answer
to the question of why May’s Mitwelt provides a buffer from the anxiety and despair
that can be brought on by feelings of nonbeing. Our relationships with others pro-
vide us with a feeling of positive regard and hence a sense that we are significant.
May’s colleague Irvin Yalom (1980) wrote that reminders of our mortality can
motivate us to pursue the things that make life feel more meaningful. Cox and Arndt
(2012) conclude that “by understanding some of the ways in which people experi-
ence esteem-enhancing support from relationship figures, it may be possible to help
people confront core existential concerns with greater resilience” (p. 629).Growth in the Eigenwelt: There Is an Upside to Mortality
Awareness
The research to date on terror management theory, like that cited above, has
focused almost exclusively on what May would call the “neurotic anxiety” engen-
dered by mortality awareness, the uglier side of our defenses against the dread of
nonbeing. But May (1958a), like all existentialists, argued that a courageous facing
of the inevitability of our death enables us to rise above a defensive, conformist
existence to Dasein. Can existential concerns facilitate human growth? Newer
research is now confirming that, indeed, humans can exist creatively within the
threat of nonexistence.
Kenneth Vail and colleagues (2012) conducted a review of the literature on
the impact of both conscious and unconscious thoughts of death, and found evi-
dence for positive growth-oriented outcomes of each. In addition to the health and
fitness motivations engendered by proximal mortality awareness discussed above,
other studies have shown that conscious thoughts of death may help human beings
reprioritize their life goals. Heidegger (1926/1962) referred to this phenomenon as
the “awakening experience,” and today we often refer to it as a “reality check.”
For example, longitudinal studies have shown that daily conscious contemplations
of mortality led people to place greater value on personal, intrinsic goals over
status-oriented, extrinsic goals for their life (Heflick, Goldenberg, Keroack, &
Cooper, 2011; Lykins, Segerstrom, Averill, Evans, & Kemeny, 2007).
But positive outcomes have also been discovered to arise from more non-
conscious death awareness as well. For example, Gailliot and colleagues (2008)
conducted a clever field study in which a confederate spoke loudly on a cell phone
within earshot of passersby about the value of helping others. Participants were
40% more likely to actually help a second confederate who dropped something if
they were passing through a cemetery than if they were a block further away, out
of sight of the headstones! Another study by Schimel, Wohl, and Williams (2006)
found that the values of empathic people prepare them to be kind as a means of