Mortality salience

[1] Mortality salience comes into effect because humans contribute all of their actions to either avoiding death or distracting themselves from contemplating it.

As an article states, "according to terror management theory, increased self-esteem should enhance the functioning of the cultural anxiety buffer and thereby provide protection against death concerns".

Studies also show that mortality salience can lead people to feel more inclined to punish what they believe to be minor moral transgressions.

Possible interpretations include cultural beliefs about maintaining moral codes leading to a successful afterlife as promised in religions incentivizing the punishment of moral transgressions, or that the increased punishments could simply represent a desire to be more impactful on the world before death, some other cause, or multiple.

[5] A study tested "the hypothesis that mortality salience intensifies gender differences in reactions to sexual and emotional infidelity".