Death, love, and evolution: Conceptions of death beyond terror

Recent years have seen an influx in interest on the role of death anxiety in human behavior. Terror Management Theory prevails as the leading theoretical and empirical paradigm utilized in the literature; however emerging research has revealed serious shortcomings with the paradigm. In this paper we examine the concept of death anxiety from a socio-evolutionary perspective. We outline how the attachment system evolved to prevent death during an extended period of juvenile vulnerability and is further co-opted into adulthood to maintain survival. Through a broader understanding of contemporary evolutionary thinking, including attachment theory, we propose that the hitherto inconsistent and amorphous definition of death anxiety be more usefully re-conceptualized as a fear of premature death. We explore how this re-conceptualization can be used to help explicate phenomena that existing paradigms have until now struggled to explain.