From Terror to Transcendence: Death Reflection Promotes Preferences for Human Drama

ABSTRACT

Previous studies that examined the impact of death awareness on entertainment gratifications have used mortality salience. The present study introduces a more personal form of mortality priming called death reflection, which simulates near-death experiences. Compared to mortality salience, death reflection is a competing manipulation that has been found to promote positive outcomes, including improved self-perceptions, rather than worldview defense and self-esteem motives. A between-subjects online experiment (N = 108) was designed to test the main effects of two different death primes on emotional valence and arousal, meaningful affect, and genre preferences for sad drama and comedy. Results show that death reflection was distinct from mortality salience in its capacity to produce greater arousal and interest in watching sad drama. Furthermore, mediation analyses using structural equation modeling show indirect effects of death reflection on interest in sad drama through emotional intensity and self-perceptual depth as mediators. Death reflection as a mortality reminder is arguably more compatible with a key function of somber entertainment, including dramas and tragedies, which is to facilitate human insights and personal growth.