When death knocks: Study explores life’s spookiest question

Death, terror and anxiety might sound like ingredients for the perfect Halloween haunted house, but they are also the focus of a serious study on the meaning of life.

This spooky season, as ghosts, goblins and plastic skeletons pop up on lawns across the country, a study funded through the University of Florida College of Nursing’s Center for Palliative Care Research and Education was recently published in Palliative & Supportive Care that explores how thoughts of death affect us emotionally.

The researchers surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults in a 20-minute online study that included a subtle mortality reminder, the psychological equivalent of whispering “Boo!” Then they measured what psychologists call “death-thought accessibility,” a task in which participants complete word puzzles that can reveal whether thoughts of death are bubbling close to the surface.

But here is the twist: The expected rise in hidden death thoughts never appeared.