Death reflection vs. death anxiety: Divergent paths to pro-sociality

This study compares how death awareness-specifically death anxiety and death reflection-differentially influences prosocial behavior, examining its underlying mechanisms. Using prosocial tendencies, public goods games (PGG), and actual donation behaviors as indicators, two studies (a survey and lab experiment) examined the mediating role of value orientations. The results demonstrated that death anxiety decreases individuals' prosocial tendencies and behaviors, whereas death reflection increases them. This impact operated through a dual-pathway mediating mechanism: self-enhancement values mediated the effect of death anxiety, whereas self-transcendence values mediated the effect of death reflection. The donation context moderated the two mediating pathways; participants experiencing death anxiety donated less in an anonymous (vs. public) donation context, while the opposite pattern emerged for those engaging in death reflection. This study revealed the positive and negative mechanisms through which death awareness influences prosocial behavior, providing further evidence for the potentially positive impact of death awareness.