"Mortality salience" refers to the awareness or reminder of one's own inevitable death. It is the understanding that our lives are finite and will eventually come to an end. Full definition
[5] Florette Cohen, Sheldon Solomon, Molly Maxfield, Tom Pyszczynski and Jeff Greenberg, «Fatal Attraction: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Evaluations of Charismatic, Task - Oriented, and Relationship - Oriented Leaders», Psychological Science, (2004), vol. (blog.politics.ox.ac.uk)
I hadn't either until I came across a recent research report titled «Solving the annuity puzzle: The role of mortality salience in retirement savings decumulation decisions.» (realdealretirement.com)
(3) Are changes in cortisol associated with mortality salience induction? (link.springer.com)