Psychologists have devoted substantial attention to social isolation and to loneliness but only recently have psychologists begun to consider existential isolation. Existential isolation is a unique form of interpersonal isolation, related to, but distinct from loneliness and social isolation. Feeling existentially isolated is the subjective sense one is alone in one's experience, and that others cannot understand one's perspective. In the current paper, we propose a conceptual model of existential isolation and review relevant evidence. The model proposes that the experience of existential isolation can be situational, context dependent, or a trait‐like pervasive sense that others do not validate one's subjective experience. The model posits acute and chronic causes of existential isolation and consequences of the state and trait forms of it. Reactions to state existential isolation produce momentary and short‐term effects whereby an individual's sense of validation of their worldview is threatened and attempts are made to eliminate this feeling. In contrast, trait existential isolation leads to reduced identification with cultural sources of meaning and withdrawal from seeking rewarding relationships, which leads to more long‐term consequences such as chronic need depletion and deficits in well‐being. We briefly discuss potential moderators that may affect whether and when individuals experience existential isolation and possible strategies for reducing existential isolation, and recommend directions for future research.

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Three studies investigated the effects of meditation on responses to reminders of death. Study 1 took a quasi-experimental approach, comparing defensive responses to mortality salience (MS) of South Korean participants with varying levels of experience with Buddhism and meditation. Whereas non-Buddhists without meditation showed the typical increase in worldview defense after mortality salience (MS), this effect was not found among non-Buddhists immediately after an initial meditation experience, nor among lay Buddhists who meditated regularly or Buddhist monks with intensive meditation experience. Study 2, a fully randomized experiment, showed that MS increased worldview defense among South Koreans at a meditation training who were assessed before meditating but not among participants assessed after their first meditation experience. Study 3 showed that whereas American students without prior meditation experience showed increased worldview defense and suppression of death-related thoughts after MS, these effects were eliminated immediately after an initial meditation experience. Death thought accessibility mediated the effect of MS on worldview defense without meditation, but meditation eliminated this mediation. (PsycINFO Database Record

Terror management research indicates that mortality salience (MS) increases support for violent solutions to conflict. The current research examines, in 4 experimental studies, whether this effect is primarily affected by rational considerations of costs of benefits, or whether a retributive justice mindset overrides a utilitarian calculus. In Study 1, justice primes increased, and utility primes decreased Palestinian citizens of Israel's support for violence when death was salient. Study 2 replicated this effect replacing the generic death prime with a reminder of the Nakba (Palestinian catastrophe). In Studies 3 and 4, MS increased support for military reprisals when justice concerns were high and expected utility was low among both Israelis and South Koreans. These results from 3 distinct cultural samples underscore the role of existential concerns in fostering support for violent solutions to conflict because of the perceived justice of violence, even when such violent policies are low in pragmatic utility.

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