The effects of corpse viewing and corpse condition on vigilance for deceased loved ones

One cognitive facet of the adaptive response to the absence of a valued relationship partner is increased vigilance toward indications of the agent's return, manifested in part as a lowered threshold for the detection of such indications. However, increased vigilance is dysfunctional when death is the cause of the partner's absence. Reliable cues of death should therefore diminish vigilance and raise detection thresholds. In the contemporary West, grief and related experiences often follow the death of a beloved pet, affording the opportunity to study the effects of exposure to cues of the death of a relationship partner free of the Western medicalized and professionalized aspects of human dying and mortuary preparation. Consonant with our thesis, in an online survey of 142 recently bereaved pet owners, we find evidence that seeing a corpse that exhibits reliable cues of death, such as grievous injuries or extensive disruptions to the body envelope, reduces vigilance to seek out the agent in the environment; in contrast, visual exposure to an intact corpse is insufficient to diminish vigilance for that agent. We discuss the implications of our evolutionary approach for bereavement research and modern funerary practices.