Recent Bereavement from Suicide and other Deaths: Can People Imagine it as it Really is?

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Abstract
To assess whether nonbereaved people could accurately imagine the experience of recent bereavement, especially following different causes of death, ninety-two undergraduates (36 men, 56 women), half of whom were bereaved in the past year, and half of whom were not, in a yoked design reported or imagined the subjective impact of the, death, prognosis for outcome, and perceived social support. Death was by suicide ( n = 10), accident ( n = 11), anticipated natural causes ( n = 12), or unanticipated natural causes ( n = 13). Unexpectedly, there were no significant differences between real and imagined groups. As expected, suicide entailed relatively more avoidance, poorer prognosis, and less quantity and quality of social support. An interaction indicated that participants imagined more contact with others the year before a suicidal death than actually occurred; and they imagined less contact with others the year before a natural unanticipated death than actually occurred. People can accurately imagine most bereavement experiences but cannot picture the long-term social isolation of suicidally bereaved persons.