The Postself and Terror Management Theory: Reflecting on After Death Identity Buffers Existential Threat

In contemporary secular societies, ideas of an afterlife have become quite diverse, ranging from secular to religious and spiritual conceptions. In this article, an experimental study is reported in which the postself, a person's imagination of an after-death reputation, is tested as a protective buffer against mortality salience effects within a largely secular sample of participants. Before inducing mortality salience, the postself was affirmed or not affirmed. Results show that this reflection on personal continuity after death eliminates the effects of mortality salience on the accessibility of death-related thoughts. The discussion focuses on how the postself (the self will succeed death) relates to the more general concept of symbolic immortality (the self is part of a cultural worldview that will succeed death). Moreover, the relation between the postself and religiosity is discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.