Terror management research: Prejudice and self-esteem striving.

2004 ◽  
pp. 71-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Pyszczynski ◽  
Sheldon Solomon ◽  
Jeff Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Management Research

Considering the roles of affect and culture in the enactment and enjoyment of cruelty

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spee Kosloff ◽  
Jeff Greenberg ◽  
Sheldon Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Cultural Framework

Research on aggression and terror management theory suggests shortcomings in Nell's analysis of cruelty. Hostile aggression and exposure to aggressive cues are not inherently reinforcing, though they may be enjoyed if construed within a meaningful cultural framework. Terror management research suggests that human cruelty stems from the desire to defend one's cultural worldview and to participate in a heroic triumph over evil.

scholarly journals Mindfulness of Death as a Tool for Mortality Salience Induction with Reference to Terror Management Theory

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 353
Author(s):  
Hyun Gong Moon
Keyword(s):  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Mindfulness Of Death

In this article, I argue that “mindfulness of death” (maraṇasati) can be a tool to induce mortality salience and can have a positive psychological impact. The mindfulness of death is described in detail in the early Buddhist texts Aṅguttara Nikāya and Visuddhimagga. The texts stress that death should be consciously connected with temporality and mindfulness. Here, I look at the mindfulness of death in relation to the mortality salience of terror management theory. “Mortality salience” is a term proposed in terror management theory that means “the state of conscious activation of the thoughts of death”. In addition, after conscious activation of the thought of death, I examine the psychological changes, such as the increase of pro-social attitudes which emphasizes ethics and morality, and the emphasis on the intrinsic value of life due to the operation of a cultural worldview and self-esteem. In this paper, I conclude that mindfulness of death can be an effective tool to induce mortality salience.

scholarly journals The great escape: The role of self-esteem and self-related cognition in terror management

2015 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 121-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Wisman ◽  
Nathan Heflick ◽  
Jamie L. Goldenberg
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem

scholarly journals An Atheist Perspective on Self-Esteem and Meaning Making While Under Death Awareness

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Joseph Coleman ◽  
Kenan Sevinç ◽  
Ralph Hood ◽  
Jonathan Jong
Keyword(s):  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Scientific Discovery ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Management Framework ◽  
Discovery Education ◽  
Theory Research ◽  
Existential Concerns

In accordance with Terror Management Theory research, secular beliefs can serve an important role for mitigating existential concerns by providing atheists with a method to attain personal meaning and bolster self-esteem. Although much research has suggested that religious beliefs are powerful defense mechanisms, these effects are limited or reveal more nuanced effects when attempting to explain atheists’ (non)belief structures. The possibility of nonbelief that provides meaning in the “here and now” is reinforced by the importance placed on scientific discovery, education, and social activism by many atheists. Thus, these values and ideologies can, and do, allow for empirically testable claims within a Terror Management framework. Although religious individuals can and largely do use religion as a defense strategy against existential concerns, purely secular ideologies are more effective for atheists providing evidence for a hierarchical approach and individual differences within worldview defenses. Evidence for and implications of these arguments are discussed.

Existential Meaning and Terror Management

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheldon Solomon ◽  
Jeff Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Psychological Disorders ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Symbolic Immortality ◽  
Religious Extremism ◽  
Human Awareness

Terror management theory (TMT) posits that the uniquely human awareness of death engenders potentially debilitating existential terror that is “managed” by subscribing to cultural worldviews providing a sense that life has meaning as well as opportunities to obtain self-esteem, in pursuit of psychological equanimity in the present and literal or symbolic immortality in the future. In empirical support of TMT, research has demonstrated that: self-esteem serves to buffer anxiety in general, and about death in particular; reminders of death increase defense of the cultural worldview and efforts to bolster self-esteem; threats to the cultural worldview or self-esteem increase the accessibility of implicit death thoughts; conscious and non-conscious thoughts of death instigate qualitatively different defensive processes; death reminders increase hostility toward people with different beliefs, affection for charismatic leaders, and support for political and religious extremism; and death reminders magnify symptoms of psychological disorders.

scholarly journals Are we truly special and unique? A replication of Goldenberg et al. (2001)

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 191114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Rodríguez-Ferreiro ◽  
Itxaso Barberia ◽  
Jordi González-Guerra ◽  
Miguel A. Vadillo
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Aversive Situation

According to the mortality salience hypothesis of terror management theory, reminders of our future death increase the necessity to validate our cultural worldview and to enhance our self-esteem. In Experiment 2 of the study ‘I am not an animal: Mortality salience, disgust, and the denial of human creatureliness’, Goldenberg et al. (Goldenberg et al. 2001 J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 130 , 427–435. ( doi:10.1037/0096-3445.130.3.427 )) observed that participants primed with questions about their death provided more positive evaluations to an essay describing humans as distinct from animals than control participants presented with questions regarding another aversive situation. In a replication of this experiment conducted with 128 volunteers, we did not observe evidence for a mortality salience effect.

In Defense of the Body: The Effect of Mortality Salience on Female Body Objectification

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelly Grabe ◽  
Clay Routledge ◽  
Alison Cook ◽  
Christie Andersen ◽  
Jamie Arndt
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Body ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
Body Objectification ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Self Objectification

Previous research has illustrated the negative psychological consequences of female body objectification. The present study explores how female body objectification may serve as a defense against unconscious existential fears. Drawing from terror management theory, an experiment was designed to test the potential functionality of female body objectification. Men and women were primed to think about either their own mortality or an aversive control topic, and levels of body objectification were then assessed for both self- and other (women)-objectification. Findings supported the hypothesis that priming mortality would increase both self- and other-objectification among women, and self-objectification among those who derive self-esteem from their body. Implications for this research are discussed.

scholarly journals Nothing or the opposite: intersecting terror management and objective self‐awareness

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Silvia
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
The Self ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Relevant Word ◽  
Eventual Death ◽  
Word Completion

The human capacity for self‐awareness allows people to envision their eventual death and thus creates the potential for debilitating anxiety. Terror management research has shown that self‐awareness exacerbates the experience of mortality salience. I suggest that self‐awareness alone can induce mortality salience through dialectical thinking. If constructs include a concept and its opposite, then focusing on one aspect should also increase awareness of the opposite. Focusing on the existing object self should thus lead to the recognition of the non‐existent self that is implied. In study 1, participants experienced one of two self‐awareness manipulations (exposure to a mirror, perceiving the self as distinctive) or no manipulation; mortality salience was measured using a death‐relevant word completion task. Both self‐awareness conditions reported significantly higher mortality salience than the control condition. In study 2, participants exposed to their reflection reported increased death salience and life salience (as measured by death‐ and life‐relevant word completion tasks) than a control group, which directly suggests that self‐awareness leads people to dialectically consider opposing facets of the self. Terror management and objective self‐awareness theories might thus be more intimately tied than was previously thought. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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