When Death is a Good Thing: A Model Examining Mortality Cues, Death Awareness, and Safety Behavior

Drawing from terror management theory (TMT) and posttraumatic growth (PTG) theory, we develop a framework outlining how mortality cues influence safety-related behavior (i.e., safety compliance and safety participation) through death awareness. Using data collected from 163 employees over a 12-month time period, we found support for our model. Specifically, mortality cues were positively related to both death anxiety and death reflection. In turn, death reflection was positively related to safety participation, but not safety compliance. This relationship was strengthened when psychological safety climate was low. Death anxiety was a predictor of safety performance only under certain psychological safety climate conditions. These findings highlight the conceptual differences between death anxiety and death reflection for researchers to consider in the future. In addition, for work settings where mortality cues inevitably occur, these findings provide an optimistic perspective for an otherwise unfortunate event.