Dying Is Unexpectedly Positive

Dying Is Unexpectedly Positive. By Amelia Goranson et al.
Psychological Science, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797617701186

Abstract: In people’s imagination, dying seems dreadful; however, these perceptions may not reflect reality. In two studies, we compared the affective experience of people facing imminent death with that of people imagining imminent death. Study 1 revealed that blog posts of near-death patients with cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were more positive and less negative than the simulated blog posts of nonpatients — and also that the patients’ blog posts became more positive as death neared. Study 2 revealed that the last words of death-row inmates were more positive and less negative than the simulated last words of noninmates — and also that these last words were less negative than poetry written by death-row inmates. Together, these results suggest that the experience of dying — even because of terminal illness or execution — may be more pleasant than one imagines.