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Blackpill "Study: Existential isolation linked to increased death thought accessibility"

blickpall

blickpall

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Research Study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656618302319

"News Article:" https://www.psypost.org/2019/09/stu...o-increased-death-thought-accessibility-54347

Article text:
New research published in the Journal of Research in Personality suggests that existential isolation — feeling alone in one’s experience and separate from other human beings — is related to higher levels of death-related cognitions.

“I have been continually interested in how individuals respond to existential concerns, that is, concerns of inevitable death, meaninglessness, freedom (and consequences) of choice, and inherent isolation,” said study author Peter Helm, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Missouri.

“Existential isolation in particular fascinates me because I believe there are numerous instances in our daily lives that can remind us of our inherent separation and yet there is almost no discussion of how this experience can have real repercussions. My broad program of research is aimed at uncovering the nature and consequences of feeling existentially isolated from others, and more broadly, how can we bridge the existential divide.”


In two surveys, which included a total of 1,545 introductory psychology students, the researchers found that feeling existentially isolated was associated with greater death thought accessibility.

Existential isolation was assessed by asking participants how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as “Other people usually do not understand my experiences.”

Death thought accessibility was measured with a word completion task, in which participants were asked to fill in the missing letters to various words. The completed words could be either death-related or neutral. For example, co__se could be completed as either course or corpse.

“This study is couched in the assumption that people have what researchers and clinicians might call ‘anxiety buffers.’ Anxiety buffers (such as self-esteem and faith in a cultural worldview) function to keep existential dread in check (i.e., the distressing feelings associated with pondering one’s inevitable death, the meaninglessness of life, etc),” Helm told PsyPost.

“These buffers are ultimately constructed and sustained via social validation – that the strength and perceived validity of our buffers depend, in part, on how much others in our social worlds agree that our worldviews are meaningful and justified.”


“Thus, one major takeaway is that experiences of existential isolation — having the feeling that other people in your social world do not, or cannot, understand your subjective experience — can actually weaken these buffers. Put differently, the experience of not feeling validated in your experience (i.e., feeling existentially isolated), appears to weaken our defensive buffers,” Helm explained.

“Another important take away, is that this study helps demonstrate that existential isolation is not just another form of loneliness. Certainly these two experiences are related, but they are not the same thing. Across all the studies reported in this paper existential isolation and loneliness do not produce the same effects.”

A follow-up experiment with 277 participants found that those primed with thoughts of existential isolation had higher death thought accessibility than participants primed with either loneliness or a neutral topic. But a second experiment of 92 participants failed the replicate these results — raising questions about the causal relationship between existential isolation and death thought accessibility.

“There are always caveats to research. One big one is that our observed effects were relatively small. While feeling existentially isolated was found to be consistently associated with a weaker or fragmented buffer, it appeared to only account for a small percent of the variance,” Helm said.

“Thus, while important, it is certainly not the whole picture. Another important caveat is that these studies were conducted with college students at a single university. It is entirely likely that other cultural settings, ages, etc. may produce different results.”

“That being said, this is among the first research studies examining how experiences of existential isolation can affect us. Thus while the generalizability of the study may be limited, it still offers (in my humble opinion) important information for future research,” Helm told PsyPost.

“I would love to see future research trying to uncover the mechanisms of exactly how feelings of existential isolation contribute to a weakening anxiety buffer. The proposed pathways examined in our studies produced mixed results, suggesting additional research is needed to better understand how and why this experience can be so threatening.”

“The subfield of experimental existential psychology is still fairly new and there are numerous questions that have yet to be addressed. This is particularly true for researchers studying the consequences of existential isolation,” Helm added.

“Over time, my hope is that research like this can help contribute to a more nuanced understanding of interpersonal relationships, and how individuals can feel validated and understood in an increasingly complex social world.”

The study, “Existential isolation and death thought accessibility“, was authored by Peter J. Helm, Uri Lifshin, Ronald Chau, and Jeff Greenberg.

Reddit thread:
 
tbh nothing can help me, i will die anyways even having gf and friends
 
I never realised exactly how many times I wished death upon myself until I decided to consciously count every time I did it, realised I was doing it at least 3 times a day. Not sure how I got to this point, I never plan on having these thoughts but they just turn up in my head.
 
so existentional isolation is like loneliness on steroid?
 
Imagine needing a study to think about things that are common and that are observable in society.. for people who are supposedly smart scientists sure seem slow on the uptake.
tbh nothing can help me, i will die anyways even having gf and friends
I take solace in the fact that we are all already dead. Nothing but rotting Corpses merely decomposing slowly.
I never realised exactly how many times I wished death upon myself until I decided to consciously count every time I did it, realised I was doing it at least 3 times a day. Not sure how I got to this point, I never plan on having these thoughts but they just turn up in my head.
I think I have an average of ten times a day that I wish death upon myself.. the thing with me is that my mind tends to want to kill others too.. I constantly have thoughts of hurting innocents, in gruesome horrific ways, really wish I didn't have them.
 
no kidding

living the same routine day after day, it's impossible not to start envisioning living like that until death

no gf means no future life complications like vacations, marriage, children, extended family being interested, etc
 
We are living death rejects.
 
Imagine needing a study to think about things that are common and that are observable in society.. for people who are supposedly smart scientists sure seem slow on the uptake.
I don't think you understand "science." Not everything that scientists study is groundbreaking. Studies like this help give a statistical backbone for further investigation and for discourse in general. Instead of talking about things from an anecdotal/personal perspective, you now have the numbers to demonstrate the prevalence of your experience.
 
I don’t know if I can get more isolated from humanity at this point. I mean, I’m a friendless, ugly, diseased, orthodox Christian traditionalist, conspiracy theorist, incel with Neo-Luddite tendencies.

I might relate with 0.1% of the world population.
 
no kidding

living the same routine day after day, it's impossible not to start envisioning living like that until death

no gf means no future life complications like vacations, marriage, children, extended family being interested, etc
 
I don't think you understand "science." Not everything that scientists study is groundbreaking. Studies like this help give a statistical backbone for further investigation and for discourse in general. Instead of talking about things from an anecdotal/personal perspective, you now have the numbers to demonstrate the prevalence of your experience.
I see.. you are correct. Personally I thought it would be obvious to know such things. Especially for scientists but it is as you say.. a road being laid down for further studies and analyses to better understanding.
 
I see.. you are correct. Personally I thought it would be obvious to know such things. Especially for scientists but it is as you say.. a road being laid down for further studies and analyses to better understanding.
Everything that seems "obvious" and that "everyone knows" will have at least one detractor that can say "where is the proof?" or one idiot who can say "nah, that's not true." For those situations, we need research studies like this one to establish what is "true" and "not true."
 
All I have are negative thoughts.
 
If you are strong, you'll accustom yourself to being alone at life, sooner or later you'll have to accept this.
 
Everything that seems "obvious" and that "everyone knows" will have at least one detractor that can say "where is the proof?" or one idiot who can say "nah, that's not true." For those situations, we need research studies like this one to establish what is "true" and "not true."
Couldn't have said it better myself. :feelsautistic:
 
Normies will say “you do you”
 
It's a lot like being ahead of the "mortality curve!"

Everything dies. But only we lonely men consider it often. Most of us have no great fear of it.

We survive the "deathpill" almost every day! Some handle it better than others... Others wish for it yet manage to stay alive. Others want to postpone it as long as they can out of curiosity.

It's inevitable!

Samurai and Other Warriors understand that only after you get beyond the fear of death can you truely be considered alive!
 
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