How Ageism Impacts End Of Life Planning

Researcher Hal Hershfield studies how we can make better decisions today for our future selves and the people we will one day leave behind. His work also examines how society’s negative attitudes toward aging may prevent us from preparing for the end of life.

EW: Death is often considered taboo. Was there a defining moment that inspired you to discuss end-of-life experiences more openly?

Hal Hershfield: My research has always focused on long-term decision-making.

While writing my book, Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today, I realized that many of the decisions we make affect people beyond our own lifetimes.

Becoming more comfortable talking about death and mortality is a necessary first step toward understanding and making those decisions.

EW: How does your work intersect with conversations about grief and the end of life? What will you discuss on the End Well stage?

Hal: I study how people perceive their identities as either remaining consistent or changing over time, and how those perceptions influence long-term planning.

Planning for the end of one’s life may be the ultimate long-term decision.

At End Well, I plan to discuss techniques that caregivers and policymakers can use to help people take these conversations more seriously.

“Social scientists may be able to help the conversation along by identifying significant barriers to discussions surrounding death.”

EW: Cultures around the world have different practices and beliefs surrounding death. How has your cultural background shaped your perspective on mortality and grief?

Hal: I have spent my entire life in the United States, where attitudes toward aging may be less positive than they are in other parts of the world.

Those negative beliefs can influence how people think about mortality, making death a subject few want to confront directly.

EW: Which societal belief about death and dying most needs to be challenged?

Hal: The belief that death is something we can wait to discuss until we are older.

EW: How can different professions and disciplines work together to create more human-centered end-of-life care?

Hal: Medical professionals understand a great deal about how the body responds to dying. Psychiatrists understand the psychological effects of dying on patients and caregivers.

Social scientists can contribute by identifying the barriers that prevent people from discussing death in the first place.

Bringing those perspectives together could help make end-of-life conversations more accessible and effective.

EW: Is there a book, film, artwork, or other piece of media that profoundly influenced your views on mortality?

Hal: George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo is a beautiful meditation on the complicated emotions that shape grief.

Derek Parfit’s Reasons and Persons also includes passages that explore how our identities may continue through others after we die.

EW: Imagine the goals of End Well have been realized a decade from now. How would society approach the end of life differently?

Hal: More people would feel comfortable talking about death and making concrete plans for the end of their lives.