Raising the Specter of Death What Terror Management Theory Brings to the Study of Fear Appeals

Abstract

How do people respond to persuasive appeals that invoke the threat of death? This chapter calls attention to Terror Management Theory (TMT), a theoretical framework that considers the unique effects of raising the salience of one’s mortality and yet has remained largely outside the focus of inquiry into the effects of fear appeals. The distinct conceptual and predictive features of TMT, as well as their relevance to health and political communication research, are discussed and then juxtaposed with those found in the dominant strains of the fear appeal literature. The analysis articulates the theoretical and empirical implications of these conceptual differences and offers a set of testable predictive contrasts, with the goal of stimulating and facilitating new lines of fear appeal scholarship.