Return of the Living Dead

Abstract

No sensible person would deny that inevitability of death poses rather serious problem for humankind. Poets, novelists, theologians, philosophers, and artists have pondered this dilemma at great length, and provided dramatic depictions of human quest to cope with this unfortunate reality. It seems rather odd, then, that empirically oriented psychologists have devoted so little attention to psychological ramifications of uniquely human awareness of death. Could it be that, as Mikulincer and Florian suggest, this lack of interest in problem of death by those in business of explaining social behavior is the result of cognitive-emotional barrier that social psychologists build against threat of their own mortality? The central tenet of terror management theory (TMT) is that psychological ramifications of this most basic of all human dilemmas go far and deep. In target article, we argued that an instinctive desire for life is wellspring from which human motivation flows, and that problem of death lies at root of many of motives that social psychologists have studied throughout this century. It was extremely gratifying to read thoughtful commentary of our colleagues in response to TMT and research. Whereas 10 years ago, our claim that fear of death provides impetus for need for self-esteem and cultural affiliations was sometimes seen as patently absurd and unworthy of scholarly consideration, today most observers seem to agree that this argument merits serious debate. This is not to say that consensus on validity of our approach has been reached. Whereas Muraven and Baumeister lament rampant reductionism inherent in our approach and conclude that theory is simply wrong, Snyder takes opposite tack, arguing that TMT has become too complex and that a shave from Occam's razor is needed. More to our liking, Baron commends integrative power, parsimony, ... and unique predictions of TMT, and Paulhus and Trapnell describe TMT as a theory of monumental scope, trenchant explicatory power, and scintillating creativity (thanks guys, checks should be in mail any day now .. .). Clearly, TMT provokes widely varying reactions among different readers. However, even our staunchest critics seem willing to grant that fear of death plays some role in commitment to cultural beliefs and values. Of course our argument goes few steps farther than that, and this is where debate gets interesting. Although we would like to provide detailed responses to all of provocative questions and ideas raised by our colleagues, space limitations force us to confine our comments to what we see as most challenging and interesting common themes that emerged in theircommentaries.