Death attitudes and good life experience: the mediation and suppression effects of intrinsic and extrinsic goals

TL;DR

This study explores how attitudes toward death relate to a good life experience in China, finding that intrinsic goals help while extrinsic goals hinder this relationship.

Contribution

The study provides culture-specific insights into how death attitudes influence well-being through intrinsic and extrinsic goals in China.

Findings

Neutral acceptance of death is positively linked to a good life experience, while death anxiety is negatively linked.

Intrinsic goals mediate and extrinsic goals suppress the relationship between death attitudes and well-being.

Extrinsic goals consistently suppress effects in different frameworks, with unique mediation in family happiness.

Abstract

This study employs Heidegger's philosophy, Goal Content Theory, and Terror Management Theory to investigate the roles of intrinsic and extrinsic goals in the relationship between death attitudes (neutral acceptance vs. death anxiety) and the good life experience. Analyzing nationally representative data from the Chinese Social Mentality Survey (N=10,195), structural equation models revealed three key findings: (1) Neutral acceptance positively correlated with the good life experience, whereas death anxiety demonstrated negative associations; (2) In the primary conceptual model (Model 1), intrinsic goals mediated while extrinsic goals suppressed the relationship between the death attitudes and the good life experience; (3) Further model validation indicated that consistent suppression effects of extrinsic goals in national stability (Model 2) and personal richness (Model 4) frameworks, with distinctive dual mediation emerging in family happiness (Model 3). Notably, the personal richness model (Model 4) showed non-significant total effects despite preserved mediation patterns. These results advance existential psychology by elucidating culture-specific mechanisms through which death attitudes influences well-being in Chinese populations, while providing empirical validation and theoretical refinement of Goal Content Theory's cross-cultural applicability.

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