A unique study of millions of obituaries reveals the values we cherish most and how crises from 9/11 to COVID-19 have reshaped our idea of a meaningful life.
When a loved one dies, we are faced with a daunting task: summarizing a lifetime in a few paragraphs. An obituary is more than a death announcement; it is a powerful cultural artifact, a final story that seeks to capture the essence of a person 1 . For centuries, these notices have served the living, providing funeral details and listing survivors. But what if we read them not as isolated tragedies, but as a vast dataset of human values? A groundbreaking study has done just that, analyzing 38 million obituaries over 30 years to uncover what we, as a society, believe constitutes a life well-lived. The findings offer a surprising window into our collective soul, revealing how our definition of a meaningful legacy shifts in response to traumatic events and differs across ages and genders 3 9 .
Obituaries serve as a unique source of information about how societies value different kinds of lives. They reveal broader patterns of remembrance by showing who is remembered, for what contributions, and how cultural values are expressed through these acts of memory 9 . Unlike studies that ask people how they wish to be remembered, obituaries show us how people are actually remembered by those who knew them best. This introduces a new framework for the psychological study of legacy, shifting the focus from aspiration to actualization 9 .
To systematically analyze the content of millions of obituaries, researchers from Michigan State University, Boston College, and Arizona State University turned to a established psychological theory: Schwartz's Theory of Basic Human Values 9 . This theory defines 10 universal guiding principles that motivate human behavior. By categorizing the language in obituaries according to these values, the researchers could quantify what we collectively praise and memorialize.
Independence and creativity.
Excitement and novelty.
Pleasure and enjoyment.
Personal success and capability.
Social status and control.
Safety and harmony.
Adherence to social norms.
Respect and acceptance of customs and ideas.
Caring for close others.
Understanding and tolerance for all people.
The scale of this study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is unprecedented 9 . The research team gathered a massive corpus of 38 million obituaries from the United States, spanning three decades from 1994 onward. Using computational linguistic methods, they analyzed the text of each obituary, searching for language that corresponded with the 10 Schwartz values.
This methodology allowed the researchers to track how the emphasis on these values changed over time, and how they were influenced by major cultural traumas.
The analysis revealed a clear hierarchy of values in American obituaries. The two most frequently praised values were:
Appeared in approximately 80% of obituaries, often indicated by involvement with religion 9 .
Appeared in approximately 76% of obituaries, characterized by being remembered as reliable, trustworthy, and caring for close others 9 .
This suggests that at a national level, we most highly prize a life of faith and kindness. The least common values, in contrast, were power and stimulation, indicating that social status and a thirst for novelty are less central to our posthumous narratives.
The study also uncovered significant demographic differences, revealing how gender stereotypes are embedded in our memorialization practices 9 .
"Gender stereotypes may not just reflect interpersonal and intergroup biases, but they may also be embedded, and transmitted across generations, in our cultural practices of legacy and memorialization."
Perhaps the most fascinating finding is how our collective values, as reflected in obituaries, are not static. They bend and shift in response to major national crises, acting as a barometer for our psychological state 3 9 .
| Crisis | Key Value Shift | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 9/11 Attacks | ↑ Tradition & Benevolence in NY; ↓ Security 3 9 | Shared trauma highlighted community and faith, while reducing the emphasis on safety. |
| 2008 Financial Crisis | ↓ Achievement; ↑ Hedonism (after 1 year) 3 9 | Focus shifted from career success to finding satisfaction and pleasure in life. |
| COVID-19 Pandemic | ↓ Benevolence; ↑ Tradition 3 9 | A paradoxical drop in mentions of caring for others during a health crisis, with a sustained focus on religion. |
The drop in benevolence during the COVID-19 pandemic was particularly striking. "During a time when communities were making extraordinary sacrifices for the collective good, obituaries became less likely to emphasise caring for others," observed Professor Markowitz 3 . This may reflect the social isolation and fragmentation of the period. Meanwhile, the rise in tradition suggests that in the face of widespread, unpredictable loss, people sought comfort in established customs and religion 9 .
The financial crisis prompted a reevaluation of what matters in life, with a noticeable shift away from career achievements toward personal satisfaction and enjoyment.
The pandemic created a complex response in memorialization practices, with increased focus on tradition despite decreased emphasis on benevolence.
Just as a laboratory scientist has a toolkit of reagents and instruments, the modern obituary researcher relies on a specific set of tools to deconstruct and analyze life stories.
| Tool | Function in Research |
|---|---|
| Computational Linguistics | Software algorithms analyze massive volumes of text to identify and categorize specific words and phrases related to human values 9 . |
| Schwartz's Value Framework | Provides the standardized, psychological "coding scheme" to consistently tag obituary content across millions of documents 9 . |
| Large-Scale Digital Archives | Online databases and newspaper archives provide the raw, historical data needed for longitudinal analysis over decades 9 . |
| Statistical Modeling | Allows researchers to identify significant correlations and trends, separating random noise from meaningful shifts linked to events like pandemics or financial crises 9 . |
"An obituary should be more about how someone lived versus the fact that they died."
While the large-scale study provides a macro-level view of societal values, the art of writing a single obituary remains a deeply personal act. Victoria Chang, a poet who wrote dozens of obituary poems after her mother's death, notes that "an obituary should be more about how someone lived versus the fact that they died" 1 . This sentiment is echoed by professional obituary writers, who emphasize capturing the person's true personality—their quirks, passions, and the stories that made them unique 7 8 .
The convergence is clear: both the personal and scientific approaches to obituaries seek to answer the same fundamental question, "What makes a life meaningful?" Whether it's a family member recalling how a loved one "could light up a room" 2 or a data trend showing a surge in "benevolence" after a tragedy, we are all engaged in the act of defining and celebrating a life well-lived.
The humble obituary, often tucked away in the back pages of a newspaper, is far more than a notice of death. It is a rich, dynamic, and surprisingly resilient record of our collective values, our response to trauma, and our evolving understanding of legacy. The 38-million-obituary study proves that our life stories are woven into a larger cultural narrative, one that changes with the times but consistently returns to core themes of love, faith, and connection.
"This person is dead. You're alive."
In the end, writing an obituary—whether for a loved one or for ourselves—is a profound act of storytelling. It is a wake-up call, as Victoria Chang suggests, that reminds us: "This person is dead. You're alive" 1 . These final stories are not just for the dead; they are a compass for the living, guiding us toward what truly matters.