Terror management theory

Terror Management Theory (TMT), in social psychology, states that human behavior is mostly motivated by the fear of mortality. According to TMT theorists, symbols that create cultural worldviews are fiercely protected as representations of actual life. The Terror Management Theory posits that when people are reminded of their own deaths, they more readily enforce these symbols, often leading to punitive actions, violence, and war. Experiments have been performed to lend evidence to TMT, primarily carried out by Sheldon Solomon, Tom Pyszczynski, and Jeff Greenberg, seeking to provide proof that mortality salience, or the awareness of one's own death, affects the decision-making of individuals and groups of people.

The theory purports to help explain human activity both at the individual and societal level. It is derived from anthropologist Ernest Becker's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning work of nonfiction The Denial of Death, in which Becker argues all human action is taken to ignore or avoid the inevitability of death. The terror of absolute annihilation creates such a profound—albeit subconscious—anxiety in people (called cognitive dissonance) that they spend their lives attempting to make sense of it. On large scales, societies build symbols: laws, religious meaning systems, cultures, and belief systems to explain the significance of life, define what makes certain characteristics, skills, and talents extraordinary, reward others whom they find exemplify certain attributes, and punish or kill others who do not adhere to their cultural worldview. On an individual level, how well someone adheres to a cultural worldview is the same concept as self-esteem; people measure their own worth based on how well they live up to their culture's expectations.

Background

The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity—activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.

Ernest Becker, 1973

The culmination of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker's (1925–1974) life work was his 1973 book The Denial of Death in which he asserts that, as intelligent animals, humans are able to perceive the inevitability of their deaths. They therefore spend their lives building and believing in cultural elements that illustrate how to make themselves stand out as individuals and give their lives significance and meaning. Death creates an anxiety in humans; it strikes at unexpected and random moments, and its nature is essentially unknowable, causing people to spend most of their time and energy to explain, forestall, and avoid it.

Becker expounded upon the previous writings of Sigmund Freud, Søren Kierkegaard, Norman O. Brown, and Otto Rank, putting the greatest emphasis on Kierkegaard and Rank. According to clinical psychiatrist Morton Levitt, Becker replaces the Freudian preoccupation with sexuality with the fear of death as the primary motivation in human behavior.

People desire to think of themselves as beings of value and worth with a feeling of permanence, a concept in psychology known as self-esteem, that somewhat resolves the realization that people may be no more important than any other living thing. Becker refers to high self-esteem as heroism:

the problem of heroics is the central one of human life, that it goes deeper into human nature than anything else because it is based on organismic narcissism and on the child's need for self-esteem as the condition for his life. Society itself is a codified hero system, which means that society everywhere is a living myth of the significance of human life, a defiant creation of meaning.

The terror management theory suggests that peoples’ behavior is dependent upon fear; thus, support for the theory can be seen by examining peoples' reactions to death and their fear of death. Research not only shows peoples’ reactions to the fear of death, but to suffering as well. Death was welcomed in some cases, by patients and hospice volunteers, if it meant an end to suffering.

The reasons behind peoples' decisions regarding their own health can be explored through a terror management health model. Goldenberg & Arndt (2008) propose three different angles for approaching this topic. In their first proposition Goldenberg & Arndt (2008) examine how one's consciousness to death can lead them to make decisions, in regards to their health, that will attempt to remove the death thoughts from their consciousness. Additionally, the researchers suggest in their second proposition that unconscious death thoughts can in fact direct individuals towards decisions having to do with their self-esteem, as opposed to their health. Moreover, Goldenberg & Arndt (2008) explore in their final and third proposition how individuals' worry about their physical bodies can hinder their decision-making process, when they are engaging in health promotion decisions and activities.

Terror Management Health Model

The terror management health model (TMHM) explores the role that death plays on one's health and behavior. Goldenberg and Arndt (2008) state that the TMHM proposes the idea that death, despite its threatening nature, is in fact instrumental and purposeful in the conditioning of one's behavior towards the direction of a longer life.

According to Goldenberg and Arndt (2008), certain health behaviors such as breast self-exams can consciously activate and facilitate people to think of death, especially their own death. While death can be instrumental for individuals, in some cases, when breast self-exams activate peoples’ death thoughts an obstacle can present itself, in terms of health promotion, because individuals’ experience fear and threat.

On the other hand, death and thoughts of death can serve as a way of empowering the self, not as threats. Researchers, Cooper et al. (2011) explored the TMHM in terms of empowerment, specifically using breast self-exams (BSEs) under two conditions; when death thoughts were prompted, and when thoughts of death were non-conscious. According to the TMHM, peoples' health decisions, when death thoughts are non-conscious, should be based off of their motivations to act appropriately, in terms of the self and identity. Cooper et al. (2011) found that when morality and death thoughts were primed, women reported more empowerment feelings than those who were not prompted before performing a BSE.

Additionally, the TMHM suggests that morality awareness and self-esteem are important factors in individuals' decision-making and behaviors relating to their health. The TMHM explores how people will engage in behaviors, whether positive or negative, even with the heightened awareness of morality, in the attempt to conform to societies expectations and improve their self-esteem. The TMHM is useful in understanding what motivates individuals regarding their health decisions and behaviors.

In terms of smoking behaviors and attitudes, the impact of warnings with death messages depends on:

1). The individuals’ level of smoking-based self-esteem

2). The warnings actual degree of death information

TMT and Self-Esteem

Self-esteem lies at the heart of TMT, and is a fundamental part of its main experimental paradigms. TMT, fundamentally, seeks to elucidate the causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem, and theoretically, it draws heavily from Ernest Becker’s conceptions of culture and self-esteem (Becker, 1971; Becker, 1973). TMT does not just attempt to explain what self-esteem is, but rather tries to account for why we need self-esteem, and what psychological functions it may serve. The answer, according to TMT, is that self-esteem is used as a buffer for people to help them cope with anxiety; it a coping mechanism set in place to help control their terror, along with realizing that humans are animals just trying to manage the universe around them. That is the why. The what for TMT is that self-esteem is a sense of personal value, that is obtained by believing in two things:

1. the validity of one’s cultural worldview

2. that one is living up to standards that are part of the worldview

Self-esteem is the feeling that one is a valuable and essential agent in a universe that is fundamentally meaningful. Therefore, TMT’s conception of self-esteem hinges on the notion that self-esteem is socially constructed and maintained; that self-esteem is unintelligible irrespective of the particular culture that fostered those beliefs about the self, and of the other individuals within that culture that socially validate an individual’s self-esteem. Thus TMT is coherent with most notions of cultural relativism, in that there are as many ways that an individual can obtain and maintain self-esteem as there are cultural systems to frame it. This is precisely why self-esteem can be so tenuous and fragile: the very existence of other cultures and other esteemed individuals within those cultures threatens the very stability and validity of one’s own self-esteem, and hence, their sense of invulnerability (especially in the face of death). In sum, self-esteem serves as an anxiety buffer.

Critically, Hewstone et al. (2002) have questioned the causal direction between self-esteem and death-anxiety, asking questions such as, if peoples' need for self-esteem comes from the overall desire to reduce their death anxiety, or if it is the opposite. Individuals' reduction of death anxiety is coming from their overall need to increase their self-esteem in a positive manner.

Once again, research has demonstrated that in terms of health, self-esteem can play an important role. In some cases, people may be so concerned with their physical appearance and boosting their self-esteem that they ignore problems or concerns with their own physical health. Arndt et al. (2009) conducted three studies to examine how peer perceptions and social acceptance of smokers contributes to their quitting, as well as if, and why these people continue smoking for outside reasons, even when faced with thoughts of death and anti-smoking prompts. Tanning and exercising were also looked at in the researchers' studies. The studies found that people are influenced by the situations around them. Specifically, Arndt et al. (2009) found in terms of their self-esteem and health, that participants who saw someone exercising were more likely to increase their intentions to exercise. In addition, the researchers found in study two that how participants reacted to an anti-smoking commercial was affected by their motivation for smoking and the situation in which they were in. For instance, people who smoked for extrinsic reasons and were previously prompted with death reminders were more likely to be compelled by the anti-smoking message.

Self-Esteem as Anxiety Buffer

The anxiety buffer hypothesis starts with a brief look at the literature regarding children’s development of self-esteem (e.g., Becker, 1971/1973; Bowlby 1969/1982). Essentially, the human child is born completely helpless and dependent upon its caregivers, and learns through an extensive process of socialization that in order to maintain the feelings of security that come from being attached to the powerful other (i.e., the mother), he/she must concede its physicality and exchange it for a symbolic sense of self (i.e., self-esteem). In this way the child quickly learns that it's security is dependent upon living up to the standards and values of his/her caregivers, and ultimately, to his/her culture. The preeminent example of this process is in toilet training, whereby the child must give up the pleasure and convenience of soiling itself wherever/whenever, and adopt the largely arbitrary rules of the caregivers/culture that the toilet is the depository of human waste, and that to go elsewhere, is to result in shame and exclusion from the mother’s death-denying aura (cf. Becker, 1973).

Experimentally, then, the anxiety buffer hypothesis states that if self-esteem and faith in one’s cultural worldview serve an anxiety buffering purpose, then bolstering self-esteem (whether artificially, or by selecting participants that are naturally high in self-esteem) should decrease an individual’s proneness to anxiety, and serve as a "shield" against threats to their psychological equanimity. One of the first TMT studies demonstrated just this. Greenberg et al. (1992) found that (1) boosting levels of self-esteem with positive feedback reduced self-reported anxiety on a standard anxiety scale after viewing graphic depictions of death, (2) bolstered self-esteem led to less physiological arousal in anticipation of painful electric shocks, and (3) bolstered self-esteem made participants less likely to deny a short life expectancy (i.e., were realistic about their mortality).[15] Subsequent support for this hypothesis comes from a vast literature that is constantly growing. For an empirical review of self-esteem as an anxiety buffer in TMT, see Pyszczynski et al. (2004).

Furthermore, individuals’ levels of self-consciousness not only impacts their views on life, but more specifically, their views on death. Research has demonstrated that in some instances, individuals with higher levels of self-consciousness have increased death cognitions, and a generally more negative outlook on life.

Conversely, self-esteem can work in the opposite manner. Research has confirmed that individuals’ with higher self-esteem, particularly in regards to their behavior, have a more positive attitude towards their life. Specifically, death cognitions in the form of anti-smoking warnings were effective for smokers and in fact, increased their already positive attitudes towards the behavior. The reasons behind individuals optimistic attitudes towards smoking after morality was made salient are that once again, people use their positivity as a buffer to hide behind their fears. Anxiety buffers therefore, allow for individuals to cope with their fears in an easier manner. Furthermore, death cognitions might in fact make people engage in the said behavior (smoking in this instance) more.

TMT and Mortality Salience

The mortality salience hypothesis (MS) states that if indeed one’s cultural worldview, or their self-esteem serves a death-denying function, then threatening these constructs should produce defenses aimed at restoring psychological equanimity (i.e., returning the individual to a state of feeling invulnerable). In the MS paradigm, these "threats" are simply experimental reminders of one’s own death. This can, and has, taken many different forms in a variety of study paradigms (e.g., asking participants to write about their own death; conducting the experiment near funeral homes or cemeteries; having participants watch graphic depictions of death, etc.). Like the other TMT hypotheses, the literature supporting the MS hypothesis is vast and diverse. For a meta analysis of MS research, see Burke et al. (2010).

Experimentally, the MS hypothesis has been tested in close to 200 empirical articles. After being asked to write about their own death (vs. a neutral, non-death control topic, such as dental pain), and then following a brief delay (distal, worldview/self-esteem defenses work the best after a delay ... see Greenberg et al. (1994) for a discussion), the defenses are measured. In one early TMT study assessing the MS hypothesis, Greenberg et al. (1990) had Christian participants evaluate other Christian and Jewish students that were similar demographically, but differed in their religious affiliation. After being reminded of their death (experimental MS induction), Christian participants evaluated fellow Christians more positively, and Jewish participants more negatively, relative to the control condition. Conversely, bolstering self-esteem in these scenarios leads to less worldview defense and derogation of dissimilar others.

In addition, mortality salience has an influence on individuals and their decisions regarding their health. Cox et al. (2009) discuss morality salience in terms of suntanning. Specifically, the researchers found that participants who were prompted with the idea that pale was more socially attractive along with morality reminders, tended to lean towards decisions that resulted in more protective measures from the sun. The participants were placed in two different conditions; one group of participants were given an article relating to the fear of death, while the control group received an unrelated to death article dealing with the fear of public speaking. Additionally, they gave one group an article pertaining to the message that "bronze is beautiful," one relating to the idea that "pale is pretty," and one neutral article that did not speak of tan or pale skin tones. Finally, after introducing a delay activity, the researchers gave the participants a five-item questionnaire asking them about their future sun-tanning behaviors. The study illustrated that when tan skinned was associated with attractiveness, mortality salience positively affected peoples' intentions to suntan; however, when pale skin was associated with attractiveness peoples' intentions to tan decreased.

Morality and Self-Esteem on Health Risks

Morality and self-esteem both have an impact on health-related risks. Both of these factors are important aspects of the terror management theory. Jessop et al. (2008) study this relationship within 4 studies that all examine how people react when they are given information on risks, specifically, in terms of the morality related to the risks of driving. More specifically, the researchers were exploring how participants acted in terms of self-esteem, and its impact on how morality-related health-risk information would be received. Overall, Jessop et al. (2008) found that even when morality is prominent, people who engage in certain behaviors to improve their self-esteem have a greater chance of continuing with these activities. Morality and self-esteem are both factors that influence peoples' behaviors and decision-making regarding their health. Furthermore, individuals who are involved in behaviors and possess motivation to enhance their self-worth are less likely to be affected by the importance placed on health risks, in terms of morality.

Self-esteem is important when morality is made salient, because it can allow people a coping mechanism, one that can cushion individuals' fears; thus, impacting one’s attitudes towards a given behavior. Individuals who have higher levels of self-esteem regarding their behavior(s) are less likely to have their attitudes, and thus their behaviors changed regardless of morality salient or death messages. People will use their self-esteem to hide behind their fears of dying. In terms of smoking behaviors, people with higher smoking-based self-esteem are less susceptible to anti-smoking messages that relate to death; therefore, morality salience and death warnings afford them with an even more positive outlook on their behavior, or in this instance their smoking.

In the Hansen et al. (2010) experiment the researchers manipulated morality salience. In the experiment, Hansen et al. (2010) examined smokers’ attitudes towards the behavior of smoking. Actual warning labels were utilized to create morality salience in this specific experiment. The researchers first gave participants a questionnaire to measure their smoking-based self-esteem. Following the questionnaire, participants were randomly assigned to two different conditions; the first were given anti-smoking warning labels about death and the second, control group were exposed to anti-smoking warning labels not dealing with death. Before the participants’ attitudes towards smoking were taken the researchers introduced an unrelated question to provide a delay. Further research has demonstrated that delays allow morality salience to emerge because thoughts of death become non-conscious. Finally, participants were asked questions regarding their intended future smoking behavior. It should be noted however, that one weakness in their conduction was that the final questionnaire addressed opinions and behavioral questions, as opposed to the participants level of persuasion regarding the different anti-smoking warning labels.

Social Impacts and TMT

Many people are more motivated by social pressures, rather than health risks. Specifically for younger people, morality salience is stronger in eliciting changes of one's behavior when it brings awareness to the immediate loss of social status or position, rather than a loss, such as death that one can not imagine and feels far off. However, there are many different factors to take into consideration, such as how strongly an individual feels toward a decision, their level of self-esteem, and the situation around them. Particularly with peoples’ smoking behaviors, self-esteem and morality salience have different effects on individuals’ decisions. In terms of the longevity of their smoking decisions, it has been seen that individuals’ smoking habits are affected, in the short-term sense, when they are exposed to morality salience that interrelates with their own self-esteem. Moreover, people who viewed social exclusion prompts were more likely to quit smoking in the long run than those who were simply shown health-effects of smoking. More specifically, when people had high levels of self-esteem it was shown that that is when individuals' were more likely to quit smoking from the social pressure messages, rather than the health risk messages. In this specific instance, terror management, and specifically morality salience is showing how people are more motivated by the social pressures and consequences in their environment, rather than consequences relating to their health. This is mostly seen in young adult smokers with higher smoking-based self-esteems who are not thinking of their future health and the less-immediate affects of smoking on their health.

The TMT proposes that morality-related information regarding health risks influences peoples' decisions and behaviors. Additionally, societal pressure and self-esteem play a role in individuals' decisions regarding their behaviors. Research conducted by Jessop et al. (2008) demonstrated that self-esteem, as well as a desire to conform to one's cultural standards had an effect on young adult male drivers and their intentions to engage in the behavior of driving fast when morality-related risks of driving were made salient. Specifically, when young male drivers were given information regarding morality-based risks of driving, their intentions to drive fast increased on the condition that their driving behavior would in some way positively benefit their self-esteem and support their worldview.

Death Thought Accessibility

Another paradigm that TMT researchers use to get at unconscious concerns about death is what is known as the death thought accessibility (DTA) hypothesis. Essentially, the DTA hypothesis states that if individuals are motivated to avoid cognitions about death, and they avoid these cognitions by espousing a worldview or by buffering their self-esteem, then when threatened, an individual should possess more death-related cognitions (e.g., thoughts about death, and death-related stimuli) than they would when not threatened.

The DTA hypothesis has its origins in work by Greenberg et al. (1994) as an extension of their earlier terror management hypotheses (i.e., the anxiety buffer hypothesis and the mortality salience hypothesis). The researchers reasoned that if, as indicated by Wegner’s research on thought suppression (1994; 1997), thoughts that are purposely suppressed from conscious awareness are often brought back with ease, then following a delay death-thought cognitions should be more available to consciousness then (a) those who keep the death-thoughts in their consciousness the whole time, and (b) those who suppress the death-thoughts but are not provided a delay. That is precisely what they found. In these initial studies (i.e., Greenberg et al. (2004); Arndt et al. (1997)), and in numerous subsequent DTA studies, the main measure of DTA is a word fragment task, whereby participants can complete word fragments in distinctly death-related ways (e.g., coff_ _ as coffin, not coffee) or in non death-related ways (e.g., sk_ _l as skill, not skull). If death-thoughts are indeed more available to consciousness, then it stands to reason that the word fragments should be completed in a way that is semantically related to death.

Importance of the DTA Hypothesis

The introduction of this hypothesis has refined TMT, and led to new avenues of research that formerly could not be assessed due to the lack of an empirically validated way of measuring death-related cognitions. Also, the differentiation between proximal (conscious, near, and threat-focused) and distal (unconscious, distant, symbolic) defenses that have been derived from DTA studies have been extremely important in understanding how people deal with their terror.

Here it is important to note how the DTA paradigm subtly alters, and expands, TMT as a motivational theory. Instead of solely manipulating mortality, as in the mortality salience paradigm and witnessing its effects (e.g., nationalism, increased prejudice, risky sexual behavior, etc.), the DTA paradigm allows a measure of the death-related cognitions that result from various affronts to the self. Some examples of these are self-esteem threats, worldview threats, etc.; the DTA paradigm is therefore valuable in assessing the role of death-thoughts in self-esteem and worldview defenses. Furthermore, the DTA hypothesis lends unique support to TMT in that it corroborates its central hypothesis that death is uniquely problematic for human beings, and that it is fundamentally different in its effects than meaning threats (i.e., Heine et al. (2006)), and that is indeed death itself, and not uncertainty and lack of control associated with death; Fritsche et al. (2008) explore this idea.

Since its inception, the DTA hypothesis had been rapidly gaining ground in TMT investigations, and as of 2009, has been employed in over 60 published papers, with a total of more than 90 empirical studies.

Death Anxiety on Health Promotion

How people respond to their fears and anxiety of death is investigated in the TMT. Moreover, Taubman-Ben-Ari and Noy (2010) examine the idea that a persons' level of self-awareness and self-consciousness should be considered in relation to their responses to their anxiety and death cognitions. The more an individual is presented with their death or death cognitions in general, the more fear and anxiety one may have; therefore, to combat said anxiety one may implement anxiety buffers.

Due to a change in peoples’ lifestyles, in the direction of more unhealthy behaviors, the leading causes of death now, being cancer and heart disease, most definitely are related to individuals’ unhealthy behaviors Age and death anxiety both are factors that should be considered in the terror management theory, in relation to health-promoting behaviors. Age undoubtedly plays some kind of role in peoples’ health-promoting behaviors; however, if there is an actual age related effect on death anxiety and health-promoting behaviors has yet to be seen. Although, research has demonstrated that for young adults only, when they were prompted with death related scenarios, they yielded more health-promoting behaviors, compared to those participants in their sixties. In addition, death anxiety has been found to have an effect for young adults, on their behaviors of health promotion.

Emotions Involved in TMT

Terror management theory is a single master motivation theory, attempting to link human drives together under the rubric of the fear of death. According to Solomon et al. (1991), anxiety is a result of peoples' instincts to protect themselves. TMT further argues that fear of death is the central force in evolution, motivating genetic self-preservation instincts in species and promoting natural selection (Pyszczynski et al. (1997)). Emotion is both motivational (Lazarus, 1991) and evolutionary (Darwin, 1872). In spite of these obvious similarities, the amount of effort directed at examining affect and emotion in the process of terror management and elicited by mortality salience has been limited (Goldenberg et al. (2001)). The following will examine the role that emotion plays in the terror management and the discrete emotions elicited by mortality salient primes.

Emotion in the Process of Terror Management

Terror management theory is interested in the effect of fear in producing cultural worldview defense. Fear is a basic emotion typically associated with an active fight-or-flight response to a specific set of categorically similar primes (Curtis & Biran, 2001). For terror management, distal defense is akin to the fight-type response; individuals heighten the liking of similar others and accentuate their dislike of dissimilar others. Proximal defense, on the other hand, typically results in the flight response; given the lack of self-efficacy associated with the insurmountability of death, one simply takes evasive action and drives death-related thoughts from their mind through distraction (Pyszczynski et al. (1999)).

The effects of fear on attitude changes have been intensely debated. The orthodox view of fear appeals state that the level of fear is crucial to attitude outcomes. Research has shown that mortality salient fear associated with highly-hedonically relevant attitudes results in message rejection (Shehryar & Hunt, 2005). Individuals who highly enjoyed drinking alcohol rejected messages that linked drunk driving to death but accepted messages that tied drunk driving to arrest or social ostracism. TMT research therefore demonstrates that qualitative inquiry into the type of fear, not simply the gross amount of fear elicited, is crucial to the outcome of fear appeals on attitude change.

Experiential processing which relies on emotional memory is a crucial prerequisite to terror management processes. Rational processing, a logical, step-by-step system of cognitive evaluation, alternately impedes the cultural worldview defense mechanism intrinsic to terror management processes. Studies that varied experimenter formality/informality and explicit processing instructions demonstrate that worldview defense only occurs under conditions of emotional processing (Simon et al. (1997)). Cognitive evaluations interfere with the symbolic, often arbitrary, associations between novel cultural defenses and fear of death (Pyszczynski et al. (1999)). Emotion, then, lies at the heart of all terror management.

Emotional elicitation has not been found to be a prerequisite for terror management processes. Many terror management studies have examined elicited affect as a covariate to mortality salience (see Goldenberg et al. (2001)), and only one reviewed study has found elicited affect (fear) in the terror management process (Harmon-Jones et al. (1997)). Why? Terror management is a non-conscious process. The process occurs very quickly, imperceptibly, and automatically (Rosenblatt et al. (1989)). As Rosenblatt and colleagues put it, terror management is designed to prevent any person to experience emotions consciously.

Other discrete emotions have been conceptually linked to terror management, but have yet to be studied directly. Jealousy, often linked to romantic love (particularly in monogamous relationships but sometimes also in polyamorous relationships) ought to be heightened under conditions of mortality salience (Greenberg et al., 1986; Solomon et al., 1991). Shame, guilt, and humiliation are all associated with threats to self-esteem, a core terror management defense mechanism (Goldenberg et al., 2000; Greenberg et al., 1986; Solomon et al., 1991). Thus, mortality salience ought to paradoxically reduce the capacity for each by prompting independent self-esteem defense mechanisms. Anger and contempt have been neither directly examined nor hypothesized as outcomes of terror management theory, but both are likely accentuated by the outsider rejection mechanisms triggered by distal defense. Goldenberg et al. (2000) argue that pride, especially that related to body image, is explained by existential anxiety, but no studies yet conducted have examined pride as an outcome of mortality salience. Future research ought to examine these and other discrete emotions in the context of terror management theory.

Love and Terror Management

Of course, the unconscious process of terror management does produce conscious emotional responses. Many discrete emotional states are at least partially explained by terror management theory. Love, for instance, has been described as a need primarily for ordered interactions, lasting feelings of self-esteem and self-worth, which TMT associated directly with a prescribed role in a cultural drama and vicarious immortality (Greenberg et al. (1986); Solomon et al. (1991)).

Research corroborates the link between love and the fear of death. Studies reveal an association between close relationship seeking and mortality salience (for overview, see Mikulincer et al. (2003)). Moreover, further studies demonstrate that the desire for close relationships under conditions of mortality salience trumps other needs including self-esteem and maintenance (pride) or avoidance (shame/guilt) other emotions (Hirschberger et al. (2003)). Others argue that the perceived need to link sex with love is primarily due to existential anxiety, reflecting a need to reject the baser, animalistic need for sex (Goldenberg et al. (2000)). These authors argue that relationship-seeking is a largely independent defense against existential angst, functioning without the assistance of either the self-esteem or worldview defense explanations (Mikulincer et al. (2003)).

TMT and Leadership

It has been suggested that culture provides meaning, organization, and a coherent world view that diminishes the psychological terror caused by the knowledge of eventual death. The terror management theory can help to explain why a leader's popularity can grow substantially during times of crisis. When a follower's mortality is made prominent they will tend to show a strong preference for iconic leaders. A clear example of this is when George W. Bush's approval rating jumped almost 50 percent following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. As Forsyth (2009) posits, this tragedy made US citizens aware of their mortality, and Bush provided an antidote to these existential concerns by promising to bring justice to the terrorist group responsible for the attacks.

Researchers Cohen et al. (2004), in their particular study on TMT, tested the preferences for different types of leaders, while reminding people of their mortality. Three different candidates were presented to participants. The three leaders were of three different types: task-oriented (emphasized setting goals, strategic planning, and structure), relationship-oriented (emphasized compassion, trust, and confidence in others), and charismatic. The participants were then placed in one of two conditions: mortality salient or control group. In the former condition the participants were asked to describe the emotions surrounding their own death, as well as the physical act of the death itself, whereas the control group were asked similar questions about an upcoming exam. The results of the study were that the charismatic leader was favored more, and the relationship-oriented leader was favored less, in the mortality-salient condition. Further research has shown that mortality salient individuals also prefer leaders who are members of the same group, as well as men rather than women (Hoyt et al. (2010)). This has links to social role theory.

Criticisms

Several psychologists, especially evolutionary psychologists, have argued against terror management theory. A research paper written by UCLA Psychology and Anthropology researcher stated that It would be interesting for the field of psychology if there were to be a study of paralyzed states caused by anxiety that would only be alleviated with the reworking of a person's mental state. These authors instead explain human behavior is selected to urge people to avoid situations likely to lead to death. This suggests that mortality salience effects reflect adaptive responses to solve specific life-threats rather than an unconscious attempt to avoid this realization.

Prevalence of Death in TMT

Since findings on mortality salience and worldview defense were first published, other researchers have claimed that the effects may have been obtained due to reasons other than death itself, such as anxiety, fear, or other aversive stimuli such as pain. Other studies have found effects similar to those that MS results in – for example, thinking about difficult personal choices to be made, being made to respond to open-ended questions regarding uncertainty, thinking about being robbed, thinking about being socially isolated, and being told (falsely) that one’s life lacks meaning. While these cases exist, thoughts of death have since been compared to various aversive experimental controls, such as (but not limited to) thinking about: failure, writing a critical exam, public speaking with a considerable audience, being excluded, paralysis, dental pain, intense physical pain, etc. Of all of these (and more), no effects were found to be uniform with those elicited by thoughts of one’s death. Further, TMT does not claim that thoughts of death alone are endowed with the capacity to elicit defensive responses.

With regards to the studies that found similar effects, TMT theorists have argued that in the previously mentioned studies where death was not the subject thought about, the subjects would quite easily be related to death in an individual’s mind due to "linguistic or experiential connection with mortality"(p. 332). For example, being robbed invokes thoughts of violence and being unsafe in one’s own home – many people have died trying to protect their property and family. A second possible explanation for these results involves the death-thought accessibility hypothesis: these threats somehow sabotage crucial anxiety-buffering aspects of an individual’s worldview or self esteem, which increases their DTA. For example, one study found increased DTA in response to thoughts of antagonistic relations with attachment figures. (For a comprehensive review of the unique import of death, see Pyszczynski et al., 2006).

The Meaning Maintenance Model

The Meaning Maintenance Model (MMM) was initially introduced as a comprehensive motivational theory that claimed to subsume TMT, with alternative explanations for TMT findings. Essentially, it posits that people automatically give meaning to things, and when those meanings are somehow disrupted, it causes anxiety. In response, people concentrate on "‘meaning maintenance to reestablish their sense of symbolic unity’ and that such "meaning maintenance often involves the compensatory reaffirmation of alternative meaning structures." These meanings, among other things, should "provide a basis for prediction and control of our...environments, help [one] to cope with tragedy and trauma...and the symbolic cheating of death via adherence to the enduring values that these cultures provide."

TMT theorists argue that the MMM cannot describe why different sets of meaning are preferred for a symbol by different people, and that while they may exist, "different [(i.e., more concrete)] types of meaning have different psychological functions". For example, MMM theorists argue that all types of meaning are basically equal, and yet one could not compare the likelihood of defensive responses resulting from exposure to a deck of cards containing black hearts with something like the 9/11 terrorists attacks. TMT theorists argue, essentially, that unless something is an important element of a person’s anxiety-buffering worldview or self-esteem, it will not require broad meaning maintenance.

In sum, TMT theorists believe that the MMM cannot accurately claim to be an alternative to TMT because it does not seem to be able to explain the current breadth of TMT evidence. As an example, TMT theorists assert that mortality salience would not be a threat to meaning, since our eventual demise is a necessary condition of life. Therefore, it should not cause an individual to engage in general meaning maintenance. MMM also makes no attempt to explain why threatening meaning increases DTA.

Offensive Defensiveness

Some theorists have argued that it is not the idea of death and nonexistence that is unsettling to people, but the fact that uncertainty is involved. For example, these researchers posited that people defend themselves by "changing a fear response to uncertainty into a zealous or enthusiastic approach response in some other domain" (p. 336). TMT theorists agree that uncertainty can be disconcerting in some cases and it may even result in defense responses, but note that they believe the inescapability of death and the possibility of its finality regarding one’s existence is most unsettling. They ask, "‘Would death be any less frightening if you knew for certain that it would come next Tuesday at 5:15 P.M., and that your hopes for an afterlife were illusory?’.... Would you rather be certain that death is the end, or live with the uncertainty that it might not be" (p. 337)? They also note that people actually seek out some types of uncertainty, and that being uncertain is not always very unpleasant.

Though TMT theorists acknowledge that many responses to mortality salience (MS) involve greater approaches (zealousness) towards important worldviews, they also note examples of MS which resulted in the opposite, which Offensive Defensiveness cannot account for: when negative features of a group to which participants belong were made salient, people actively distanced themselves from that group under MS.

Evolutionary Psychology, Coalitional Psychology, and TMT

Several critiques have been proposed against TMT from evolutionary psychologists – for reasons including that fear is an adaptive response in individuals' that has come about as a result of natural selction; without these adaptions human beings would have never been able to avoid maladaptive situations. Thus, it is unlikely that people would have psychological ways of slowing-down anxiety. In response, TMT theorists argue that this critique is mixing up fear related to immediate danger with anxiety related to thoughts of threats that will or may occur eventually. TMT is talking about the protection that self-esteem and cultural worldviews offer against the threat of unavoidable death in the future. While anxiety may be adaptive in avoiding entering a dangerous place (e.g. because a predator may be waiting), this doesn’t mean that anxiety must be adaptive in all cases – just ask any clinician who helps people suffering from anxiety disorders. For a more comprehensive review of TMT and evolutionary psychology, see Landau et al., 2007.

Coalitional Psychology (CP) is presented as another alternative to TMT, which proposes that there is an evolutionary tendency to seek safety in groups (coalitions) as a reaction to adaptive threats. People already a part of coalitional groups seek to protect their membership by exhibiting their value to the group. In other words, "belief systems, cosmologies, values, rituals, and various other trappings of culture exist simply to facilitate group cohesiveness; thus any meaning, sense of personal value, or hope of death transcendence such beliefs may provide is purely epiphenomenal to their coalition-binding function." However, Landau et al. (2007) make several criticisms of this position, including the objection that CP cannot be a useful alternative for TMT because it doesn’t provide evidence that cannot be applied to any number of theories, and because it does not directly account for the empirical evidence supporting TMT.

See also

• Cognitive dissonance
• Social Psychology
• Existential Psychology
• Ernest Becker
• Otto Rank
• Flight from Death, a documentary film on this topic
• Memento mori

Bibliography

• Becker, Ernest (1973). The Denial of Death, The Free Press. ISBN 0029023807
• Pyszczynski, Thomas; Solomon, Sheldon; Greenberg, Jeff (2003). In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror, American Psychological Association. ISBN 1557989540
• Solomon, Sheldon, Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1991) "A terror management theory of social behavior: The psychological functions of esteem and cultural worldviews", in M. P. Zanna (Ed.) Advances in experimental social psychology Volume 24, Academic Press, pp. 93–159. ISBN 012015224X

External links

• Curtis, V. (2001). "Dirt, disgust, and disease: Is hygiene in our genes?". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 44 (1): 17–31. doi:10.1353/pbm.2001.0001. PMID 11253302. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Darwin, C. (1872/1998). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. 3rd edition,. London: Harper Collins. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
• Florian, V. (1997). "Fear of death and the judgment of social transgressions: a multidimensional test of terror". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 73 (2): 369–80. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.73.2.369. ISSN 0022-3514. PMID 9248054. {{cite journal}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |unused_data= ignored (help)
• Goldenberg, J.L. (2001). "I am not an animal: Mortality salience, disgust, and the denial of human creatureliness". Journal of Experimental Psychology. 130 (3): 427–435. PMID 11561918. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Goldenberg, J.L. (2000). "Fleeing the body: A terror management perspective on the problem of human corporeality". Personality & Social Psychology Review. 4 (3): 200–218. doi:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0403_1. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Greenberg, J. (1986). "title = The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory". In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.) (ed.). Public self and private self. New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 189–212. {{cite book}}: Missing pipe in: |chapter= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Greenberg, J. (1990). "Evidence for terror management theory. II: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to" (Fee required). Journal of personality and social psychology. 58 (2): 308–318. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.58.2.308. ISSN 0022-3514. 13817, 35400000600727.0100 (INIST-CNRS). Retrieved 2007-07-27. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |unused_data= ignored (help)
• Greenberg, J. (1997). "Terror management theory of self-esteem and cultural worldviews: Empirical assessments and". Advances in experimental social psychology. 29 (S 61): 139. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |unused_data= ignored (help)
• Hansen, J (2010). "When death makes you smoke: a terror management perspective on the effectiveness of cigarette on-pack warnings". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 46: 226. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.09.007. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Hirschberger, G. (2003). "Striving for romantic intimacy following partner complaint or partner criticism: A terror". Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. 20 (5): 675–687. doi:10.1177/02654075030205006. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |unused_data= ignored (help)
• Judis, J.B. (August 27, 2007). "Death grip: How political psychology explains Bush's ghastly success". New Republic.
• Lazarus, R.S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195069943.
• Mikulincer, M. (2003). "The existential function of close relationships. Introducing death into the science of love". Personality and Social Psychology Review. 7 (1): 20–40. doi:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0701_2. PMID 12584055. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Pyszczynski, T. (1997). "Why do we need what we need? A terror management perspective on the roots of human social motivation". Psychological Inquiry. 8 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0801_1. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Pyszczynski, T. (1999). "A dual process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: An". Psychology Review. 106 (4): 835–845. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.106.4.835. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |unused_data= ignored (help)
• Rosenblatt, A. (1989). "Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 57 (4): 681–90. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.57.4.681. ISSN 0022-3514. PMID 2795438. {{cite journal}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |unused_data= ignored (help)
• Royzman, E.B. (2001). "Something it takes to be an emotion: The interesting case of disgust". Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior. 31 (1): 29–59. doi:10.1111/1468-5914.00145. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Shehryar, O. (2005). "A terror management perspective on the persuasiveness of fear appeals". Journal of Consumer Psychology. 15 (4): 275–287. doi:10.1207/s15327663jcp1504_2. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Simon, L. (1998). "Terror management and meaning: Evidence that the opportunity to defend the worldview in response". Journal of Personality. 66 (3359–382): 359. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.00016. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |unused_data= ignored (help)
• Simon, L. (1997). "Terror management and Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory: Evidence that terror management occurs". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 72 (5): 1132–1146. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.72.5.1132. PMID 9150588. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |in= ignored (help)

Further resources

• Greenberg, J. (2004). Handbook of experimental existential psychology. Guilford Press. ISBN 1593850409. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Pyszczynski, T. (2004). "Fatal attraction. The effects of mortality salience on evaluations of charismatic, task-oriented,". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |unused_data= ignored (help)
• Gutierrez, C. (2006). "Consumer attraction to luxury brand products: Social affiliation in terror management theory". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Discusses TMT at length

• Griffin, R. (2007). Fascism & Modernism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1403987831.

TMT and Self-Esteem

• Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2004). "Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review". Psychological Bulletin, 130, 435-468.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Schmeichel, B.J., Gailliot, M.T., Filardo, E.A., McGregor, I., Gitter, S. & Baumeister, R.F. (2009). "Terror management theory and self esteem revisited: The roles of implicit and explicit self-esteem in mortality salience effects". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5),1077-1087.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Hansen, J., Winzeler, S., & Topolinski, S. (2010). When the death makes you smoke: A terror management perspective on the effectiveness of cigarette on-pack warnings. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46 (1), 226-228 doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2009.09.007