New study sheds light on death anxiety’s impact on women’s body image

A new study published in the journal Death Studies has found that death anxiety, or the fear of one’s mortality, may significantly influence eating disorder behaviors, particularly among women with existing body image concerns or disordered eating patterns. The findings shed light on the underlying psychological mechanisms driving eating disorders and suggest new avenues for treatment.

Death anxiety is a fundamental human concern. It has been linked to various mental health issues, as individuals often develop defense mechanisms to cope with this fear. Previous research suggests that death anxiety may be a “transdiagnostic construct,” meaning it could underlie a variety of psychological disorders. The new study aimed to explore whether death anxiety plays a role in the development and severity of eating disorders, which have high mortality rates and are notoriously difficult to treat.

“Growing research has shown that death anxiety unconsciously shapes human behaviour, and underlies different mental health conditions. The desperate desire to be thin and the resulting restriction of food which characterises eating disorders could stem from these fears of death, but little research had been done on this topic,” said study author Rachel Menzies, a research fellow at The University of Sydney, director of the Menzies Anxiety Centre, and author of Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society.

The researchers conducted two studies to examine the impact of death anxiety on women’s body image and eating behaviors. In the first study, the researchers recruited a sample of 128 undergraduate women from the University of Sydney. In the second study, the researchers recruited a sample of 129 women who reported body image concerns or disordered eating behavior through paid social media advertisements and eating disorder support groups.

In both studies, the participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group was exposed to a mortality salience prime, which involved answering questions about their thoughts and feelings regarding their own death. This exercise was designed to activate death anxiety. The second group answered similarly structured questions about dental pain, serving as a neutral control condition.

Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, the mortality salience prime did not significantly impact the participants’ body dissatisfaction or eating behaviors in the first study. There was no notable difference in the dissatisfaction with their body thinness or muscularity between the death anxiety group and the control group.

However, in the second study, which included a clinically relevant sample, the researchers observed more pronounced effects of death anxiety on eating disorder behaviors. Women in the mortality salience prime group reported greater dissatisfaction with their current thinness compared to those in the control group, although their dissatisfaction with muscularity remained unaffected.

“I was slightly surprised that reminding women of death only increased their dissatisfaction with how thin they are, and not how muscular they are,” Menzies told PsyPost. “However, this makes sense given that our society emphasises thinness as a beauty standard for women, rather than muscularity (which is emphasised for men)”

Participants in the mortality salience prime group also chose smaller portions of high-fat snacks than those in the control group. This behavior aligns with disordered eating patterns, where individuals might restrict their intake of high-fat foods to maintain thinness.

The findings from these studies provide preliminary evidence that death anxiety can influence disordered eating behaviors, particularly among women with pre-existing body image concerns. The results suggest that death anxiety may drive women to adhere more strictly to cultural standards of thinness as a means of coping with their fear of death.

“Our behaviours are often influenced by things we aren’t consciously aware of,” Menzies said. “Underlying fears of death can shape your feelings about your appearance and weight, and the efforts you might be going to in order to improve it.”

But the study, like all research, includes some caveats. The clinically relevant sample, although high in eating disorder symptoms, was not verified through clinical diagnosis, which could affect the generalizability of the results.

“Whilst some of our sample reported seeking treatment for disordered eating and body image concerns, not all participants had,” Menzies noted. “This means that we don’t know whether the findings would be the same amongst women who were formally diagnosed with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. We also don’t know how these findings would apply to women with eating disorders which don’t center on food restriction, such as binge eating disorder.”

Future research should explore these dynamics further. Investigating whether interventions targeting death anxiety can improve eating disorder treatment outcomes would be a valuable next step.

“In the long-term, I hope to continue to explore the different behaviors and mental illnesses which are shaped by death anxiety,” Menzies said. “In particular, I plan to examine whether effectively treating death anxiety using evidence-based therapy can lead to improvement in broader mental health.”

The study, “Starving off death: Mortality salience impacts women’s body image and disordered eating,” was authored by Madeline Forrester, Louise Sharpe, and Rachel E. Menzies.