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Three psychology professors wondered: Why not try to come up with empirically based experiments that would test how the fear of death influences people's behavior? Over 25 years, they did just that, testing their theory that fear of death is at the root of much human behavior and can, for instance, prompt judges to dole out harsher punishments, make children dislike people different from themselves and provoke intolerance and violence. The result is "The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life" (Random House, 2015), written by three authors including Sheldon Solomon, a long-time professor of psychology at Skidmore College whose lectures are very popular with students. Solomon, who wrote "The Worm at the Core" with co-authors Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski, will be at Northshire Bookstore on Saturday to discuss the very compelling book. He spoke recently about his research into fear of death. (Courtesy of the author)
Three psychology professors wondered: Why not try to come up with empirically based experiments that would test how the fear of death influences people's behavior?
Over 25 years, they did just that, testing their theory that fear of death is at the root of much human behavior and can, for instance, prompt judges to dole out harsher punishments, make children dislike people different from themselves and provoke intolerance and violence.
The result is "The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life" (Random House, 2015), written by three authors including Sheldon Solomon, a longtime professor of psychology at Skidmore College, whose lectures are very popular with students.
Solomon, who wrote "The Worm at the Core" with Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski, will be at Northshire Bookstore on Saturday to discuss the book. He spoke recently about his research into fear of death:
Q: Why is it important that we learn to become more comfortable with the idea of our own eventual demise? And is it possible to really become comfortable with that idea?
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A: It is important to come to terms with our own mortality, because when we fail to do so, death anxiety is repressed and subsequently resurfaces in unfortunate ways, making us hateful warmongering totalitarians plundering the planet in an insatiable quest for dollars and dross in an alcohol-, drug-, television-, and Facebook-induced stupor.
This is not to suggest, however, that it is possible, or for that matter desirable, to completely eliminate death anxiety — but this should not dissuade us from trying, because, to paraphrase the great psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, when parents have the courage to die their children will have the faith to live.
Q: Could you talk about violence done in the name of religion? Is it based in fear of death, too? Certainly some religious extremists have no problem meting out death to others, so in a sense they don't seem afraid of death.
A: Violence in the name of religion is based (at least in part) on fear of death, although it is important to note that the terror of death may be quite unconscious. In "The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism," historian Karen Armstrong argues that all religious extremists "fear annihilation, and try to fortify their beleaguered identity by means of a selective retrieval of certain doctrines and practices of the past."
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What: Sheldon Solomon — Skidmore psychology professor and founder of the popular Saratoga restaurant Esperanto — discusses his idea that unconscious fear of death drives much of our behavior. Staff from Esperanto will serve light refreshments. When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Northshire Bookstore, 424 Broadway, Saratoga Springs
Admission: Free
More info: http://northshire.com/event-list or 682-4200
In support of this view, in a set of experiments conducted in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, Iranians reminded of their mortality became more supportive of suicide bombing and more willing to become martyrs themselves; and conservative Americans reminded of their mortality became more supportive of pre-emptive nuclear, biological and chemical attacks on countries who posed no direct threat to us at the time.
In another study, Christians who read a (concocted) news report about hundreds of Islamic religious pilgrims perishing in a plane crash subsequently had lower levels of unconscious death anxiety — suggesting that the death of an enemy serves as a psychological bulwark against our own existential terror.
Q: What do you make of the popularity of murder mysteries and detective shows and other forms of entertainment that make us vividly imagine and feel our fear of death?
A: Murder mysteries, detective shows and horror films do indeed make us vividly imagine and feel our fear of death. However, and this is the important point, we always ultimately emerge unscathed. So in this sense, these kinds of experiences serve as a psychological inoculation to reduce our own death anxiety. Or, as Ernest Becker, quoting Aristotle, put it: "luck is when the guy next to you gets hit with the arrow."
Q: How hard was it to come up with experiments that would empirically measure how uncomfortable people became at thinking about death, and how these death reminders then went on to influence their behavior?
A: It took us a few years to figure out how to get people thinking about death. At first we just asked people questions like "Please briefly describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouse in you."
Then we got a bit more subtle; for example, interviewing people either in front of a funeral parlor or 100 meters to either side, or flashing the word "death" for 28 milliseconds on a computer screen while participants were engaged in another task — so fast that no one notices that they have seen the word. All of these methods produce the same wide-ranging effects on attitudes and behavior.
efloyd@nycap.rr.com.