ABSTRACT
It is considered to be a truism that older age brings us closer to our death. In spite of this, and quite paradoxically, fear of death was not found to be stronger in older adults. Quite the contrary, fear of death was found in general to decline in older age after peaking either in adolescence or in middle age. Structural questions regarding death anxiety (or, more generally, death attitudes) arise because of the view that death anxiety is multidimensional. The multidimensional view seems indeed to be universally accepted, at least in theory. It is conceivable that the older person succeeds in dealing with the perspective of a relatively close death and annihilation by excluding or limiting as much as possible death self-awareness. However, some empirical findings make such an interpretation difficult. There is indeed evidence that older adults are likely to be exposed to death more often and to think more about it.
