Confronting death, finding community: Understanding the value of the Death Café.

Authors

Nathaniel Speert, Marla Morden

Published in

Death studies. Pages 1-11. Nov 04, 2026. Epub Nov 04, 2026.

Abstract

Death Cafés encourage open discussion of mortality, yet scholars disagree whether their value lies in enduring personal benefits or in the communal experience of participation. In this mixed-methods study, 35 participants completed scales measuring death taboo and death anxiety before and after Death Café attendance (n = 16) or during a randomized waitlist comparison period (n = 19), and 12 of them completed semi-structured interviews. Death taboo increased in the comparison condition but not in the Death Café condition, and death anxiety did not change. Six themes emerged: confronting the death taboo, safe and supportive community, learning from others, coping with death and dying, living life more fully, and wanting the conversation to continue. Some participants described enduring personal benefits, but the communal experience of participation pervaded their accounts. Participants described how openly discussing mortality facilitated that communal experience. These findings are most consistent with community-oriented accounts of the Death Café.

PMID:
42981498
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 05 Nov 2026.

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