The key traits people define as having lived ‘a good life’ after death
Thirty -year -old declarations of death revealed the characteristics of people in their lives and how great crises reshape them.
A Michigan State University study examined the 9/11, 2008 financial crisis and how Covid pandema affects the characteristics that people associate with a good life, and investigated 38 million deaths based on 1994.
Professor David Markowitz, the chief author of the study, said: “Death announcements serve as a unique source of information on how societies value different types of life.
“They reveal a wider memorial patterns by showing who is remembered, what contributions and how cultural values are expressed with these memory actions.”
During the Covid pandemi, he found that references to philanthropists and others have fallen.
Prof Markowitz added: “At a time when communities made extraordinary sacrifices for collective goodness, the probability of emphasizing deaths of death has become lower.”
Because pandemi, usually talking about the tradition of religion, rising. He found a strong relationship between the deaths of Covid and the praise of tradition.
Researchers used 10 universal guides principles defined by Social Psychologist Shahalom H. Schwartz to classify the values visible in death announcements. Tradition, conformity, security, power, success and hedonism.
In general, tradition was the most commonly praised in 80 percent of death announcements. There was a philanthropy that emerged at 76 percent behind him.
Following the September 11 attacks, the declarations of death for the victims in New York contained more references from outside the state. At the same time, it has decreased to mention security -related values.
Prof Markowitz said: “These findings show that traumatic events not only affect how people react, but also how they make sense of meaning and memory. This effect may seem different depending on what people live and die.”
After the 2008 financial crisis, the declarations of death saw a decrease when the success was mentioned. A year later, they saw a brief increase in hedonism.
“Perhaps this return reflects a psychological development in which people begin to focus on satisfaction values instead of long -term personal survival.”
The study also described the differences between age and gender, and men enjoyed the more typically power, success and conformity and charitability and life of women. Elderly people’s death announcements emphasized more of the less common tradition and conformity among young people.
