Contemplating Mortality Can Be Good for Body Image

Source: Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash

“What would you do if you knew that you only had one year left to live?”

This is a question that you’ve probably heard before—perhaps at a dinner party or in a self-help book. The question is a powerful one because it can help people to identify what they truly value in life and re-evaluate how they are spending their precious time on Earth.

In support of this, research on people who have had life-threatening experiences—such as surviving cancer or a serious car accident—has shown that confrontation with death can lead to what is called post-traumatic growth. That is, they “take stock” and “rebuild” more authentic versions of themselves and their lives, driven more by their intrinsic values and less by what other people expect of them. Similarly, lab experiments have shown that thoughtfully reflecting on one’s own death can lead people to experience positive changes to their well-being, such as enhanced feelings of gratitude.

In a recently-published study conducted by my colleagues and me at Maastricht University, we wondered whether this phenomenon could be applied to the field of body image, too. Specifically, we asked: Does reflecting on one’s own death lead to improvements in how people feel about their bodies?

The Study

In the lab experiment, 158 women were randomized to complete one of three activities.

In the death reflection group, participants completed a death reflection activity (developed by Dr. Cozzolino and colleagues at The University of Essex, UK) that was shown to be effective in earlier research on other facets of well-being. In this activity, participants are given a scenario that describes, in vivid detail, an imagined death in an apartment fire. After imagining the scenario, participants answer a series of questions that mimic the adaptive reflections of people who have experienced post-traumatic growth. For example, they are asked to write about the life they had led up until that point and their thoughts and feelings during their final moments of life.

In the death-related comparison group, participants were merely asked to write down their thoughts and feelings about death. In the non-death-related comparison group, participants were asked to write down their thoughts and feelings about visiting the dentist. These comparison groups were included to ensure that any effects of the death reflection exercise were due to the adaptive manner in which the participants thought about their death—and not due to thoughts about death in general, or due to thinking about an unpleasant topic.

After completing their assigned activity, all participants filled in a series of questionnaires to assess how they felt about their bodies.

The key results are that the death reflection group experienced higher satisfaction with their body weight compared to the non-death-related comparison group. In addition, among participants who were particularly invested in their physical appearance, those in the death reflection group experienced higher satisfaction with their body shape compared to the participants in the death-related comparison group.

The Take-Home Message

This was the first study to test whether death reflection can impact how people feel about their bodies. The findings suggest that adaptively reflecting on one’s own death can lead to improvements in some facets of body image, such as satisfaction with body weight.

In line with research on post-traumatic growth, death reflection could encourage people to reconsider what they find valuable in life. This could put body concerns into perspective and help people to feel more satisfied with the body that they have right now—regardless of whether they perceive it to be “perfect” or not.

In this study, the findings for body shape satisfaction were particularly present for the women who were the most invested in their physical appearance. Perhaps these women stood the most to gain from contemplating their death and re-evaluating the importance that they place on their looks.

Death reflection did not lead to improvements in all facets of body image that were assessed, however. For example, we expected that death reflection would encourage the participants to experience less endorsement of societal beauty ideals and to instead perceive beauty in a broader variety of body shapes, sizes, ethnicities, etc. However, this was not the case. More time and reflection are probably needed to change deep-seated cultural beliefs.

As this was the very first study to explore the effects of death reflection on body image, more research is needed. In addition, it is important to underscore that death reflection will not be everyone’s cup of tea, nor is it a technique that people may want to use on a daily basis. However, we are hopeful that death reflection may be a valuable technique for many people, and as part of a broader toolkit to build positive body image and well-being.