As discussed earlier in this chapter, self-awareness is a prerequisite for experiencing existential anxiety. In support of this claim, research shows that simple self-awareness manipulations, such as viewing oneself in a mirror, increase the accessibility of thoughts about both life and death (Silvia, 2001). This suggests that escaping self-awareness would be one way to obviate the problem of thoughts of death. Indeed, research has shown that participants induced to write about death spend less time on the task when they are made to feel self-aware (Arndt, Greenberg, Simon, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1998). This indicates that self-awareness makes mortality thoughts either more accessible or more threatening.
According to self-awareness theory (Duval & Wicklund, 1972), self-focused attention triggers evaluative processes in which people compare themselves to whatever standards and values are currently salient. If they perceive themselves as falling short of these standards, they either change their behavior in the direction of the standards or attempt to resolve the distress this produces by trying to lose self-awareness (Carver & Scheier, 1981; Duval & Wicklund, 1972). TMT suggests that self-awareness leads to comparison with standards, and to behavior aimed at reducing any discrepancies that are detected, because self-awareness can cause a leakage of existential terror. As a way to buffer this terror, people strive to meet their standards of value and acquire the self-esteem this brings (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, & Hamilton, 1990), which both require comparisons with standards to effectively accomplish. Consistent with this analysis, self-awareness has been shown to lead to a host of behaviors that are also induced by mortality reminders—behaviors more in tune with both personal and social standards of value (Diener & Wallbom, 1976; Scheier & Carver, 1988; Wicklund, 1975) or behaviors aimed at maintaining self-esteem such as the self-serving attributional bias (Duval & Silvia, 2002; Federoff & Harvey, 1976).
The human eagerness to lose self-awareness, escape consciousness, or enter a state of forgetfulness of existence can thus be a response to existential anxiety. The TMT analysis suggests that underlying the desire to escape self-awareness is something even deeper than the wish to escape thoughts of one’s shortcomings or the modern culture’s emphasis on and fascination with selfhood (Baumeister, 1991)—it is the need to evade confrontation with the existential reality of death and the potential for terror this invokes. A variety of behaviors have been shown to reduce levels of self-awareness, including alcohol consumption (Hull, 1981), binge eating (Heatherton & Baumeister, 1991), television viewing (Moskalenko, & Heine, 2003), and sexual masochism (Baumeister, 1988). Spiritual exercises such as meditation are also considered to lead to lower levels of self-awareness (Baumeister, 1991). A myriad of religious doctrines converge on the importance of shedding the self and emphasize mystical practices that help one lose self-consciousness—such as reaching Nirvana in Buddhism or fanaa in Sufism. In principle, any absorbing activity can provide an effective means of escape. Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow, which he characterizes as a process that produces optimal human experience, similarly entails a loss of self-consciousness, a merging of action and awareness, and a transformation of one’s perception of time (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). It appears that avenues for escaping self-awareness can cover a broad range from the most sadly self-destructive to the most spiritually exalted, and according to TMT, they all help shield the individual from the existentially problematic implications of self-awareness.
Research testing the effects of mortality reminders on the desire to engage in activities that promote loss of self-awareness is still at a preliminary stage. Yet there are data showing that death-related stimuli increase consumers’ desire to purchase higher quantities of food products and lead them to actually eat higher quantities, particularly among those who have low self-esteem (Mandel & Smeesters, 2008). Similarly, Hirschberger and Ein-Dor (2005) found that eating a tasty snack eliminated the effects of MS on defensive responses. There is also a plethora of anecdotal evidence suggesting that after the 9/11 attacks, Americans resorted to drinking, gambling, renting videos, watching television, and shopping as a way to deal with the shock (Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Greenberg, 2003). The New York Times, for example, reports three months after the event that according to liquor distributors, “the dramatic rise in consumption of alcoholic beverages immediately after September 11 was a nationwide phenomenon” (Burros, 2001). This could be interpreted as an attempt on the Americans’ part to flee the massive existential insecurity produced by the 9/11 attacks. There is also indirect evidence for the idea that existential anxiety can generate the urge to escape self-awareness: Studies show that among restrained eaters, self-esteem threats increase the amount of eating (Heatherton, Herman, & Polivy, 1991; Polivy, Herman, & McFarlane, 1994), suggesting that a threat to one’s existential anxiety buffer might intensify the desire to lose self-awareness.
Under what conditions would existential anxiety drive people to shut off self-awareness, and under what conditions would it lead to a more active striving for meaning, value, and security? This question is critical, considering that people’s attempts to escape self-awareness sometimes occur through extremely self-destructive means. Previous research suggests that avoidance of self-awareness occurs primarily when people perceive the discrepancy between their current state and ideal state to be so high that it is unlikely to be reduced (Duval, Duval, & Mulilis, 1992). Drawing a parallel, we might predict that existential anxiety is most likely to lead to self-escapist behaviors when people perceive the gap between their actual self and ideal self as hardly bridgeable, when they are having extreme difficulties finding meaning in their lives or reconciling their worldviews with their life experiences. In other words, people would resort to escapism in the face of existential anxiety, when their anxiety buffers are—temporarily or chronically—not strong enough to provide protection. The most extreme, irreversible form of flight from the self is suicide (Baumeister, 1990), and in our analysis, people would be more likely to commit suicide when their anxiety buffers have stopped functioning entirely and the ensuing terror is overwhelming. An existence devoid of any meaning, value, or hope would turn self-awareness into an unbearable state and might make suicide an appealing escape. After all, ironically, dying seems to be the one certain way to rid oneself from existential anxiety for good (Greenberg, Solomon, & Arndt, 2008).
Escape from self-awareness might also be likely when people’s self-regulatory energies are depleted and they lack the stamina needed for actively pursuing death transcendence. Gailliot, Schmeichel, and Baumeister (2006) reported an inverse relationship between strength of self-control and the accessibility of death thoughts—people who are good at self-control seem to have lower levels of chronic death-thought accessibility, while reminders of mortality are shown to lead to poorer self-regulation. When we consider that lack of self-control would be associated with behaviors aimed at escaping the self, the moderating role of self-control in the relationship between death thoughts and the demand for losing self-awareness becomes apparent: If death thoughts reduce the capacity for self-control, they would be even more likely to lead to self-escapist behaviors. Discovering ways to prevent the depletion of self-regulatory resources in the face of existential anxiety, or to replenish them, seems thus a worthy goal for future research.
In sum, the capacity for existential anxiety is a consequence of self-awareness and the existential burden is felt most deeply when we are self-aware. In some instances, particularly when the anxiety buffer is doing a poor job in counteracting existential anxiety, people might choose to avoid the self-focused state as a way to make the problem of existence disappear. We have initial evidence on the role of existential anxiety in prompting the desire to escape self-awareness; however, we believe that the topic needs to be explored further, given the serious costs associated with destructive escape strategies.
The Oxford Handbook of Human Motivation
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