Being present in the face of existential threat: The role of trait mindfulness in reducing defensive responses to mortality salience.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology July 26, 2010 Christopher P. Niemiec, Kirk Warren Brown, Todd B. Kashdan et al. 247 citations
People who are more mindful—characterized by receptive attention to present experience—show less defensive responding after being reminded of their own death. Seven experiments found that less mindful individuals displayed stronger worldview defense and self-esteem striving after mortality salience, whereas more mindful individuals did not defend values associated with mindfulness. More mindful participants wrote about their death for longer, which partly explained their reduced worldview defense, and they suppressed death thoughts less immediately after the reminder. The findings suggest mindfulness reduces typical defensive reactions to death awareness by altering conscious processing of threat.