Adapting to Existential Threat: Disrupted Neurophysiological Death-Denial Mechanisms in the Wake of COVID-19 Predict Diminished Environmental Concern

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated via a magnetoencephalography visual mismatch response (vMMR) paradigm that prediction-based neurophysiological mechanisms shielded the self from existential threat by attributing death to the other. A failed large-scale replication attempt of the paradigm, which took place in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, serendipitously allowed an exploratory ecological investigation of whether these death-denial brain mechanisms adapted to life situations in which mortality salience critically increased. Additionally, while a link between death processing and environmental concern has been previously hypothesized in the literature, it has not been rigorously demonstrated. Fifty participants underwent the vMMR death-denial task, measures of fear and anxiety of death, measures of death-related thought and behaviors avoidance, and an environmental attitudes survey. Overall, the vMMR results’ pattern supports their interpretation as indicating that the brain’s mortality defenses were impacted by COVID-19, with some evidence further suggesting that these were re-emerging as time passed from the pandemic’s onset. Additionally, a hierarchical regression showed that measures of death avoidance and denial—on the levels of neurophysiology, thought, and behavior—predicted pro-environmental concern, but that fear and anxiety of death did not. These findings highlight the malleability of the brain’s response to existential threat under extreme real-life conditions and demonstrate their possible downstream impact on pro-environmental attitudes.