A new analysis of 38 million obituaries offers an unexpected window into what Americans believe makes a meaningful life—and raises striking questions for people of faith. The study, highlighted by StudyFinds and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that even in an increasingly secular culture, the values most often remembered at death are those that resonate deeply with Christian anthropology: faith, love, sacrifice, and community.
According to StudyFinds, researchers found that “tradition (particularly religious faith) appeared in 80% of obituaries, while benevolence (caring for others) appeared in 76%,” far surpassing achievement, status, or pleasure. Words connected to religious life—such as “faithful,” “church,” “Bible,” and “praying”—were among the most common signals of how families chose to describe the heart of a person’s identity.
David Markowitz, a communication professor at Michigan State University who co-led the study, relied on a values framework developed by psychologist Shalom Schwartz. According to the report, after faith and benevolence, the next most common values were universalism at 36 percent, self-direction at 30 percent, and hedonism at 28 percent. By contrast, “power and stimulation appeared in less than a quarter of obituaries.”
For Catholics, these trends echo long-standing teachings about the primacy of faith and charity—the virtues that ultimately shape one’s witness to Christ. The study suggests that when families must distill a person’s life into roughly 175 words, they choose what best reflects that person’s deepest commitments.
Yet cultural disruption appears to alter how families articulate a loved one’s legacy. The StudyFinds report notes that after the September 11 attacks, “references to tradition and benevolence increased,” while security-related language fell. The 2008 financial crisis led to declines in achievement-related language. These patterns reveal how collective suffering reshapes the language of remembrance, drawing people back toward what endures.
The COVID-19 pandemic had the most dramatic and lasting effect. According to StudyFinds, “benevolence language in obituaries dropped sharply one month into the pandemic and still hasn’t recovered four years later,” even though communities made extraordinary sacrifices for one another. Researchers suggest this may reflect the way social disruption hindered people’s ability to see or articulate acts of care, even when they were widespread.
Religious references shifted as well. According to the article, mentions of faith “initially dropped, then surged above baseline after two years,” moving from general spiritual vocabulary to more explicit expressions like “Allah,” “Islam,” and “Jesus.” This may point to a renewed desire for clarity and rootedness in the face of loss.
Gender patterns also persisted. StudyFinds reports that men were more often remembered for “achievement, power, and conformity,” while women were more likely to be described with language of “caring and pleasure.” Age affected patterns too: older adults were associated with more tradition and conformity, while younger individuals were described with more self-direction.
Despite these variations, one theme remains constant. The words chosen by loved ones—imperfect, compressed, and deeply intentional—tell a larger cultural story. As StudyFinds puts it, obituaries “encode what a community believes about a life well lived.”
For Catholics, the findings reinforce something central to the Gospel: at the end of a life, what matters most is not status or accomplishment, but fidelity, love, and the ways a person reflected God’s mercy to others. The values families choose to preserve in those final lines reveal not only who a person was, but what a people cherishes.
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