Death reminders make people insist humans differ from animals

Evidence

Then the participants read an essay entitled “The Most Important Things That I Have Learned About Human Nature.” One version of the essay argued that humans are very similar to animals. It noted that “the boundary between humans and animals is not as great as most people think…what appears to be the result of complex thought and free will is really just the result of our biological programming and simple learning experiences.” The other version stressed that humans are very different from other animals: “Although we humans have some things in common with other animals, human beings are truly unique…we are not simple selfish creatures driven by hunger and lust, but complex individuals with a will of our own, capable of making choices and creating our own destinies.” … Everyone then evaluated the essays and their authors. After thinking about pain, people found both essays equally compelling. However, after a reminder of death, the participants ardently preferred the essay stressing that humans are unique. Death thoughts also prod people to avoid activities that remind them of their animality. After pondering their mortality, men and women spent less time having a foot massage, and women were more reluctant to conduct breast self-exams. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 557

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the mortality-salience manipulations throughout Pyszczynski, Greenberg, and Solomon’s earlier terror-management studies — this is the book’s home turf. — connects to: Reason is what distinguishes redeemable humans from eternally trapped animals

Related

• Reason is what distinguishes redeemable humans from eternally trapped animals (similarity 0.92)
• Mortality reminders uniquely trigger worldview defense unlike other threats (similarity 0.81)
• No account of human behavior is complete without the awareness of death (similarity 0.80)
• Knowing how death awareness drives defenses enables more self-determined choices (similarity 0.80)
• Death awareness would have been lethal without simultaneous cultural adaptations to deny it (similarity 0.79)
• Death-awareness drives humans to cling to cultural worldviews and self-esteem (similarity 0.79)
• Fear of death ultimately reduces to thwarted biological survival instinct. (similarity 0.79)
• People unaware of their death fears are nonetheless governed by layered psychological defenses (similarity 0.79)
• Subtle death reminders drive worldview defense, self-esteem striving, and unhealthy behavior. (similarity 0.78)