Terror Management Theory Framework Research Articles

Social-coalitional trait is related to coping capacity with mortality threat: association with leadership and a reduced parietal response to mortality salience.

Coping with mortality threat, a psychological threat unique to humans and distinct from general emotional distress, is traditionally characterized by immediate suppression and prolonged worldview defense within the framework of the influential terror management theory (TMT). Views regarding the personality-trait concepts for this coping capacity diverge: some favor a broad definition based on general psychological attitudes (e.g., hardiness), while others prefer a narrow definition linked to interpersonal attitudes related to social coalition (e.g., attachment style and self-transcendence). Using functional MRI, we presented healthy older participants with death-related words and explored correlations between the neural responses to mortality threat and the factor scores of the Power to Live questionnaire, which measures eight resilience-related psychobehavioral traits. We observed a significant association between the factor score and a neural response only for leadership; individuals with a high leadership score exhibited reduced neural response to mortality salience in the right inferior parietal lobule. Within the TMT framework, our findings align with the concept of the immediate suppression of death-thought accessibility associated with a secure attachment style, a trait conceptually linked to leadership. These findings highlight the unique role for the narrowly defined social-coalitional trait during the immediate stage of the coping process with mortality salience, in contrast to the broadly defined resilience-related personality traits associated with a prolonged worldview defense process. The deterioration of this coping process could constitute a distinct aspect of psychopathology, separate from dysfunction in general emotion regulation.

Exploring fear of death and psychosis proneness: positive schizotypy as a function of death anxiety and maladaptive coping

ABSTRACT Objectives Death anxiety has been implicated in the development and continuation of various psychiatric conditions, although few studies have focused on the relationship between death anxiety and psychosis. The present study investigated whether this relationship extends to positive schizotypy, thus exploring death anxiety as a risk factor along a psychosis continuum. The study also explored whether the relationship is moderated by maladaptive coping. Method Relationships between death anxiety, maladaptive coping and positive schizotypy were investigated in a non-clinical sample (N = 61). Results As hypothesised, hierarchical regression analysis showed that death anxiety significantly predicted positive schizotypy. Furthermore, this relationship was moderated by maladaptive coping. That is, there was a significantly stronger positive association between death anxiety and positive schizotypy at higher versus lower levels of maladaptive coping. Conclusion These novel findings indicate that a relationship between death anxiety and psychosis may exist along a psychosis continuum; and this is especially pronounced for those who more often engage in maladaptive coping strategies. The findings are discussed within the framework of Terror Management Theory. Future experimental research is required to inform an accurate model of the role of death anxiety in the development of psychosis, thereby guiding effective interventions for those at risk.

Coronavirus and Politics: Demands and Values in the Age of the Pandemic

The article discusses the political eff ects of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the framework of Terror Management Theory. Growing fears caused by the pandemic provoke mortality salience across the globe. Political and psychological eff ects of mortality salience are manifested in the strengthening of conservative orientations and support for status quo. Awareness of mortality provides support to power structures, incumbent political leaders, strengthening patriotic attitudes and rejection of external groups. The pandemic strengthens the eff ect of rallying around the fl ag and results in an increase in the ratings of ruling political leaders. The growing support for political leaders confi rms the orientation towards maintaining the status quo and conservative attitudes. In a pandemic, patriotic feeling, the demand for order, the growth of distrust of fellow citizens, and the rejection of freedoms in favor of security come to the fore. In the context of mortality salience orientation to support specifi c types of political leadership is intensifying. It seems that in the near future, electorally successful types of leaders will include two major types. Firstly, politicians inclined to charismatic control of the trust of their supporters based on a confi dent and uncompromising orientation to their own ego, most often on the basis of previously gained fame. Secondly, those politicians who are capable of expressing simple human closeness to ordinary people and are focused on creating and maintaining social ties with a constituency. Charismatic leadership is oriented towards personal decision-making at leader’s own peril and risk. The second type is associated with horizontal dialogue with citizens. and creating the maximum numberof personal connections. In the current situation, the role of personal qualities of leaders will only grow, both as objects of attitudes and aspirations on the part of the masses, and as subjects of the political process, making political decisions that are crucial for society.

Examining Belief in a Just World, Religious Worldviews, and Self-Esteem Within the Framework of Terror Management Theory: Mortality Salient and Nonmortality Salient Organizations.

To sustain their lives has always been the main motivation of all the creatures, especially human beings. Just as there is always beginning of life, there is also an end of it for all living species. Human being is the only species that is aware of their mortality. According to terror management theory (TMT), this awareness causes some sort of anxiety. Human being, by their nature, do not want to be worried and want to cope with the anxiety in different ways. This study aims to test belief in a just world, religious worldviews, and self-esteem within the framework of TMT hypotheses in both mortality salient (n = 104) and nonmortality salient (n = 102) organizations. In each organization, half of the participants were reminded about death (experimental condition) and the other half about toothache (control condition). The required data for this study were collected by utilizing Life Satisfaction Scale, The Multidimensional Mortality Awareness Measure, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Belief in a Just World Scale, Self-Esteem Scale, Religious Worldviews Scale, and personal information form. Results indicated that there are no significant differences for self-esteem and religious worldviews between mortality salient and nonmortality salient samples, whereas there are significant mean differences for personal/general belief in a just world. The findings of this study are discussed within the framework of TMT literature.

Death anxiety in the time of COVID-19: theoretical explanations and clinical implications

(1)To understand terror management theory and its theoretical explanation of death anxiety in the context of COVID-19.(2)To understand the transdiagnostic role of death anxiety in mental health disorders.(3)To understand current treatment approaches for directly targeting death anxiety, and the importance of doing so to improve long-term treatment outcomes.

The Utility of a Positive Body Image Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults Who Perceive Death to Be Near and Fear It.

Physical changes are an inevitable part of the aging process. However, research has demonstrated inconclusive findings with regard to body image among older adults. This study attempts to clarify the utility of body image among this age-group, by adopting the framework of terror management theory. It is suggested that a positive body image may moderate the connection between two types of death concerns and psychological distress: subjective nearness-to-death and death anxiety. A convenience sample of 386 community-dwelling older adults, aged 60-97, filled scales measuring subjective nearness-to-death, positive body image, psychological distress, and death anxiety. A significant negative association was found between a positive body image and distress. Moreover, positive body image moderated the connection between distress and both subjective nearness-to-death and death anxiety. Thus, holding a positive image of the body seems to be an important resource for older adults when death is perceived to be near.

Subjective nearness-to-Death, filial obligations, and depressive symptoms: the case of Jews and Arabs in Israel

Objectives: Research has examined the link between subjective perceptions of life and death and psychological well-being. However, while cultural values were shown to provide a defense against death-related thoughts, little is known about specific cultural expectations with regard to this issue. Accordingly, the current study focused on two sub-cultures within the Israeli society, and examined whether filial obligations moderate the connection between subjective nearness-to-death and depressive symptoms. Moreover, the study also examined whether this moderating effect is culture-dependent, by examining differences between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel.Method: Data were collected from 337 participants, two-thirds of which were Jewish. Age ranged from 45 to 65 (M = 52.32, SD =4.49). All participants filled out scales examining subjective nearness-to-death, filial piety, and depressive symptoms.Results: Filial piety did not moderate the connection between subjective nearness-to-death and depressive symptoms for the entire cohort. However, a significant three-way interaction of cultural group × filial piety × subjective nearness-to-death was found, and further analyses demonstrated that filial piety served as a significant moderator among Jews, but not among Arabs.Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of examining subjective perceptions of mortality in a cultural context, as culture was shown to affect how such perceptions are connected with depressive symptoms. These effects are discussed from the framework of terror management theory within the context of the Israeli society, and future directions are suggested.

Would you fancy a premium five o’clock after the funeral? Application of Terror Management Theory in daily shopping decisions

The present study has investigated how fear-of-death activation affected consumer food product choices. Undergraduate students (N = 130; Mage = 22.7; Meage = 21) differing on the conscious fear of death level participated in this study. The participants were divided into two experimental and one control groups. In first experimental group fear of death was induced by asking the participants to read an euthanasia story, in second experimental group by asking them to picture their own death. All experimental groups filled a fear of death personality measure prior to the experiment. Afterwards, participants had to indicate their usual shopping preferences, by choosing between several standard and premium-looking food items which were selected in the pilot study. Results show a decreased number of premium product choices in the death activation groups. Conscious level of fear had no impact on those choices. Results are discussed under the terror management theory framework.

The Effect of Mortality Salience and Type of Life on Personality Evaluation.

Mortality salience, or awareness of the inevitability of one’s own death, generates a state of anxiety that triggers a defense mechanism for the control of thinking that affects different human activities and psychological processes. This study aims to analyze the effect of mortality salience on the formation of impressions. The sample comprised 135 women who made inferences about a woman’s personality from information about her life (type of life, LT: positive, negative), provided through five words, all positive or negative, that appeared surrounding a photograph, together with a sixth word that indicated whether she was “dead” or “alive” at the time (mortality manipulation, MM: dead, alive). The results pointed to a more negative assessment of life (Dead M - Alive M = -1.16, SE = .236, p < .001), emotional stability (Dead M - Alive M = -1.13, SE = .431, p = .010), and responsibility (Dead M - Alive M = -1.14, SE = .423, p = .008) only when the participants had access to negative information about the person assessed, and she was known to be dead. We discuss the results within the framework of Terror Management Theory, and analyze the different effects that the manipulation of mortality has on the formation of impressions depending on the type of information available.

DISTRESSFUL EMPATHY IN READING LITERATURE: THE CASE FOR TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY?

This article will investigate the extent to which predictions of Terror Management Theory also hold on reading literature. Indeed, death is ubiquitous in fiction. But does reading about it cause the same reactions as those predicted by Terror Management Theory? To answer this question, five reading experiments were carried out. The hypothesis, developed in the framework of Terror Management Theory, that direct confrontation with one’s mortality strengthens both prejudices against outsiders and enhances in-group values, was tested. Contrary to initial expectations, the results did not confirm the predictions, casting a shadow over the hypothesis of distressful empathy. This raises the question whether mortality salience in literary texts is different from other such confrontations. This leads us to the question why people indulge in such distressful emotions. It will be argued that confrontation with death in literature may actually relieve the tension produced by mortality reminders. This perspective may be linked to Aristotle’s notion of catharsis.

When the reaper becomes a salesman: The influence of terror management on product preferences

The present research investigates how consumer choice is affected by Terror Management Theory’s proposition of Mortality Salience increasing one’s cultural worldview defense and self-esteem striving. The study builds empirically upon prior theorizing by Arndt, Solomon, Kasser and Sheldon (2004) . During an experiment, we manipulated Mortality Salience and measured product preferences for conspicuousness and familiarity. Participants primed with death were more likely to choose conspicuous products, corroborating previous research of mortality salience raising materialistic tendencies. In addition, participants showed a tendency to prefer familiar brands. These results are in line with the Terror Management Theory framework.

Ageist attitudes block young adults' ability for compassion toward incapacitated older adults.

Upon encountering older adults, individuals display varying degrees of prosocial attitudes and behaviors. While some display compassion and empathy, others draw away and wish to maintain their distance from them. The current study examined if and how ageist attitudes influence the association between the sight of physical incapacity in older age and compassionate reactions toward them. We predicted that ageist attitudes would interfere with the ability to respond to them with compassion. Young adults (N = 149, ages 19-29) were randomly distributed into two experimental conditions, each viewing a short video portraying different aspects of older adult physicality; one group viewed older adults displaying incapacitated behavior, and the other viewed fit behavior. Participants subsequently filled out scales assessing aging anxieties, and ageist and compassionate attitudes. Ageism was associated with reduced compassion toward the figures. Moreover, viewing incapacitated older adults led to increased concern toward them and perceived efficacy in helping them. However, significant interactions proved that higher scores of ageism in response to the videos led to increased need for distance and reduced efficacy toward incapacitated adults, an effect not observed among subjects with lower ageism scores. Ageism seems to be a factor which disengages individuals from older adults displaying fragility, leading them to disregard social norms which dictate compassion. The results are discussed from the framework of terror management theory, as increased mortality salience and death-related thoughts could have led to the activation of negative attitudes which, in turn, reduce compassion.

Existential Threat or Dissociative Response? Examining Defensive Avoidance of Point-of-Care Testing Devices Through a Terror Management Theory Framework

Using a terror management theory framework, this study investigated if providing mortality reminders or self-esteem threats would lead participants to exhibit avoidant responses toward a point-of-care testing device for cardiovascular disease risk and if the nature of the device served to diminish the existential threat of cardiovascular disease. One hundred and twelve participants aged 40–55 years completed an experimental questionnaire. Findings indicated that participants were not existentially threatened by established terror management methodologies, potentially because of cross-cultural variability toward such methodologies. Highly positive appraisals of the device also suggest that similar technologies may beneficially affect the uptake of screening behaviors.

Existential function of babies: Babies as a buffer of death‐related anxiety

The present study examined babies as death anxiety buffers with Chinese participants in three experiments. In Experiment 1, death‐related thoughts increased college‐aged participants' interest in human babies. In Experiment 2, images of newborn animals reduced the number of death‐related thoughts recorded by college‐aged participants. In Experiment 3, female factory workers who read news articles describing deaths of babies had pessimistic estimations of their own life expectancies. An explanation of these results is provided within a terror management theory framework, with a primary focus on how babies reinforce cultural worldviews and enhance self‐esteem via the notion of symbolic immortality. Thus, the anxiety‐buffering function of baby is subsumed under cultural worldviews validation and self‐esteem enhancement.

Motivated Cultural Worldview Adherence and Culturally Loaded Test Performance

Academic tests and their conditions of administration are culturally loaded when they make salient culturally specific knowledge structures in addition to measuring the intended cognitive ability. Cultural loading demonstrably influences test performance, but why? Drawing on converging perspectives on the psychological function of culture, this article proposes that one factor is the individual's internal motivation to affirm and uphold the cultural worldview. This possibility is tested within the framework of terror management theory, which claims that cultural worldview adherence defends against mortality-related concerns. It is hypothesized that making mortality salient would (a) improve performance on standardized test items when, incidental to the problem structure, the correct answers affirm prevailing cultural stereotypes and (b) impair test performance when excelling violates stereotypic expectancies for one's group. Two studies provide support for these hypotheses. Implications for test validity are briefly discussed.

Motivation for Military Service: A Terror Management Perspective

This study examined the effects of mortality salience on the motivation for military service in Israel using the terror management theory framework. Shortly before conscription into the army, 156 young men completed a self-esteem scale and were then randomly assigned to either a mortality salience condition or a control condition. The dependent variables were self-reported motivation to serve in the army and anticipation of physical and mental hardships. Mortality salience was found to be associated with a higher level of motivation for military service and a higher anticipation of physical hardships in the army than the control condition, but only for high-self-esteem respondents. The results are discussed in view of the self-esteem and worldview defense mechanisms proposed by the terror management theory.

Terror Management in Childhood: Does Death Conceptualization Moderate the Effects of Mortality Salience on Acceptance of Similar and Different Others?

This study inquires whether terror management mechanisms depend on the development of the concept of death. Children aged 7 and 11 years (N = 104) were exposed to death salient or non-salient conditions and asked to rate their acceptance of in-group and out-group children. Death salience was manipulated by asking children to answer the Death Concept Scale before or after rating target stimuli. Children also answered a self-esteem scale, and their mothers completed a dogmatism scale. Death salience led to more acceptance of an in-group child and more rejection of an out-group child only among 11-year-old children. Among 7-year-old children, this manipulation led to a rejection of both in-group and out-group children. At both ages, these effects were mainly found among low self-esteem children and among children whose mothers scored high on the dogmatism scale. Results were discussed in the framework of terror management theory.