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Although all living things must die, humans are the only species who are aware of this unfortunate fact. How does this knowledge affect us? Inspired by Ernest Becker’s influential book, The Denial of Death (1973), social psychologists Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski developed terror management theory to explore the role that awareness of the inevitability of death plays in diverse aspects of human behavior. As of 2006, more than three hundred studies conducted in at least fourteen countries have supported the central ideas of this theory and have shown that awareness of death influences a broad range of behaviors that, on the surface, bear no obvious relation to the problem of human mortality.
Terror management theory suggests that the awareness of death in an animal that wants to live creates the potential for paralyzing terror. Humankind “solved” the problem of death by using its sophisticated intellectual abilities to give life meaning, value, and permanence, and by so doing, provided a means of managing the potential for terror that awareness of death creates. People manage terror by immersing themselves in a cultural worldview that provides a theory of reality, standards for valued behavior that confer self-esteem, and the promise of literal or symbolic immortality to those who live up to these standards. Literal immortality is provided by the religious aspects of the worldview that promise some form of afterlife; symbolic immortality is attained by contributing to and being part of something that continues long after one’s individual death, such as families, nations, or other valued groups. To effectively protect against existential terror, cultural worldviews and self-esteem requires ongoing validation by others. Those who share one’s worldview and believe in one’s value increase faith in the worldview and self-esteem, whereas those who disagree with one’s worldview or one’s value undermine this faith. To maintain the anxiety-buffering effectiveness of these structures, people exert great effort to keep their self-esteem and faith in their worldview strong and to ward off any threats to these beliefs that might arise.
Consistent with the theory, research has shown that: (1) bolstering self-esteem or faith in one’s worldview makes people less prone to anxiety; (2) reminders of death increase one’s striving for self-esteem and meaning, one’s structuring of information about oneself and the world, and one’s favorable reactions to people and ideas that support one’s worldview and unfavorable reactions to people and ideas that threaten it; (3) threats to one’s self-esteem or worldview bring thoughts of death closer to consciousness; and (4) increasing self-esteem, faith in one’s world-view, or belief in an afterlife reduce the effects of reminders of death on defensive behavior. The effect of death awareness on human behavior is largely unconscious. People use self-esteem and their worldviews to defend against death-related anxiety when thoughts of death are on the fringes of consciousness; conscious thoughts of death are defended in ways more directly related to the problem of death, by denying one’s vulnerability to disease or accident and promising to pursue a healthy lifestyle. When death-related thoughts come close to conscious awareness, this signals a potential increase in anxiety, which leads people to cling especially strongly to their worldviews and self-esteem and defend these structures against threat. These defensive reactions occur so rapidly that conscious fear of death is typically averted.
This work suggests that the problem of death lies at the root of the human quest for meaning and self-esteem, and that much human behavior is driven by the protection from existential anxiety that meaning and self-esteem provide. It also suggests that prejudice, hatred, and violence are often rooted in the threat to one’s protective shield posed by those with worldviews different from one’s own. Support for this view comes from studies showing that reminders of death increase stereotyping, hostility, and aggression toward those with different worldviews, favoritism toward one’s group, and prejudice toward those from different cultures, nations, and religions. These processes have been shown to play an important role in international conflict and terrorism. Studies have shown, for example, that reminders of death have led young Iranians, who normally oppose terrorist violence, to increase their support for such tactics, and reminders of death have led young Americans, who normally oppose extreme military action, to support preemptive war and the use of weapons that would kill thousands of innocent civilians as part of the struggle against terrorism. This research shows that fear plays an important role in promoting support for violent solutions to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
This research also suggests that individual psychological problems are often rooted in breakdowns in the protection from core human anxiety that results when one’s self-esteem or worldview is undermined. Reminders of death increase the severity of psychological symptoms, such as spider phobias and obsessive hand-washing, among those prone to these problems. People tend to be most happy and well-adjusted when they are able to view themselves as valuable contributors to a meaningful world. Although people have little conscious awareness of its impact, the problem of death exerts an important influence on most of what they do.
Bibliography:
- Becker, Ernest. 1973. The Denial of Death. New York: Free Press. Greenberg, Jeff, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski. 1997.
- Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Social Behavior: Empirical Assessments and Conceptual Refinements. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 29, ed. Mark P. Zanna, 61–139. New York: Academic Press.
- Pyszczynski, Tom, Sheldon Solomon, and Jeff Greenberg. 2003. In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
- Solomon, Sheldon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski. 1991. A Terror Management Theory of Social Behavior: The Psychological Functions of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 24, ed. Mark P. Zanna, 93–159. New York: Academic Press.
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