SciAm : Thinking About Mortality Changes How We Act

"Psychological scientists Laura E. R. Blackie and Philip J. Cozzolino of the University of Essex in England have been exploring the idea that we are all governed by two disparate existential systems, each with its own distinct method of processing the idea of death. Both existential minds have the power to meaningfully change our attitudes and actions, but they work in very different—almost opposite—ways."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=two-faces-of-death&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_SP_20120206