1 Terror Management Theory: New Perspectives on Mortality Awareness Terror management theory (TMT) posits that humans have

a need to buffer themselves against anxiety generated by awareness of their own mortality (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). A large number of studies have supported the basic hypotheses of TMT (Pyszczynski et al., 2004). TMT has important implications for a wide range of human problems, including prejudice, ambivalence about sex, objectification of womens bodies, and risk taking. TMT presents a unique theory of why people need self-esteem, although it may be more applicable to contingent selfesteem than intrinsic self-esteem (Ryan & Deci, 2004). A limitation of TMT is that it has primarily focused on death avoidance. Studies on near death experiences suggest that mortality awareness can actually enrich a persons life (Cozzolino et al., 2004). According to TMT, many maladaptive behaviours are pathological defensive responses to mortality concerns. Future TMT research might examine whether positive attitudes to mortality lead to more adaptive outcomes than avoidance-based strategies. Humans are like all other animals in that we have a strong will to survive, yet we are unique among animals in that we are aware that all our efforts to survive must inevitably fail. TMT proposes that much of human behaviour and culture serves to buffer individuals against existential anxiety created by awareness of our mortality (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). TMT has proposed two main anxietybuffering mechanisms. The first is belief in a cultural worldview (CWV) that gives human life significance and elevates humans above the plane of mere animal creatures. Living up to the standards of ones CWV creates a sense of connection to something larger and more enduring than ones individual self, and is a source of selfesteem. Striving to enhance ones self-esteem is the second main anxiety-buffering

2 mechanism. Self-esteem and belief in a CWV together allow a person to feel that their life is significant and that the world has meaning. Researchers have performed many experiments to test the anxiety-buffering effects of these two mechanisms. Research paradigms in TMT have typically induced a state of mortality salience (MS), awareness of ones eventual death, in participants usually by asking them to write about their thoughts and feelings about the prospect of death and dying. Subliminal priming of death-related words or subtle reminders of death (e.g. interviewing participants outside a funeral home) have also been used to induce MS. Research on the effects of MS has provided insight into prejudice and ethnocentrism related to worldview defence as well as the defensive functions of selfesteem (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). Many studies have found that compared to participants primed with a control topic, participants primed with MS typically respond with increased liking for target persons who are perceived as supporting the participants CWV and increased derogation for targets who do not support their CWV (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). For example, MS primed American participants gave more favourable ratings to the author of a pro-American essay and less favourable ratings to the author of an anti-American essay, compared to ratings of participants who experienced a neutral priming condition. Furthermore, when participants were allowed to defend their CWV after MS (such as by rating pro- versus anti-American essays) they experienced reduced accessibility of death-related thoughts (DTA). In contrast, participants who were not provided the opportunity to defend their CWV after MS experienced increased DTA. These findings provide evidence that worldview defence serves to suppress death-related thoughts (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997).

3 A related finding is that MS priming typically increases self-esteem strivings compared to a control prime (Pyszczynski et al., 2004). For example, participants who had positive evaluations of their bodies (body esteem) responded to MS by reporting greater identification with their bodies compared to high body esteem participants in a control condition (Goldenberg et al., 2000). In contrast, participants who were low in body esteem did not increase their identification with their bodies, presumably because doing so would not strengthen their self-esteem. Furthermore, studies have found that participants who have high self-esteem (either dispositional or experimentally induced through providing positive feedback) responded to MS with reduced worldview defence compared to participants who were lower in self-esteem (Pyszczynski et al., 2004). Additionally, after MS, participants with high self-esteem experienced reduced DTA compared to participants with low self-esteem (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). These findings provide evidence that self-esteem serves a similar function to worldview defence in suppressing death-related thoughts. A related finding is that participants who read an essay arguing for scientific evidence of an afterlife did not respond to MS with increased self-esteem striving or worldview defence, while participants who read an essay arguing against life after death did respond to MS with increased self-esteem striving and worldview defence (Dechesne et al., 2003). TMT researchers have argued that belief in a cultural worldview and high self-esteem provides one with a sense of symbolic immortality that buffers one against death anxiety (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). Belief in literal immortality therefore appears to fulfil the same function making self-esteem striving and worldview defence unnecessary (Dechesne et al., 2003). Self-esteem in TMT is primarily explained as a defensive reaction to death awareness and is conceived as being contingent on living up to culturally accepted

4 standards (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). Research on self-esteem (Schimel et al., 2001; Ryan & Deci, 2004) suggests that there are qualitative differences between self-esteem contingent on meeting external standards of value (contingent self-esteem) and self-esteem based on validation of intrinsic aspects of the self (intrinsic self-esteem). Intrinsic self-esteem tends to be more stable than contingent self-esteem (Schimel et al., 2001). Crocker and Nuer (2004) proposed that boosts to self-esteem based on meeting external contingencies generally are shortlived, and that self-esteem quickly returns to baseline levels. Hence, pursuing selfesteem is not likely to provide a stable defence against death-anxiety. TMT research has actually found that self-esteem strivings in response to mortality awareness often have maladaptive consequences, such as increased willingness to engage in reckless driving (Taubman Ben-Ari, Florian, & Mikulincer, 2002) and unsafe sex (Taubman Ben-Ari, Florian, 2004), as well as strengthening unhealthy attitudes to the body and to dieting (Goldenburg et al., 2005), resulting in behaviour that may, ironically, actually decrease ones life expectancy. Schimel et al. (2001) suggested that future studies could investigate whether intrinsic self-esteem provides a more effective (and more adaptive) buffer against death anxiety than contingent self-esteem. According to TMT, many of the maladaptive aspects of human culture result from defensive responses to death anxiety (Goldenberg et al., 2001) and a major strength of TMT is that it has provided empirical evidence for this proposition. In particular, TMT offers insights into why the regulation of human sexuality has been such a complex problem in human history and why so many cultures have negative attitudes towards sexuality (Goldenburg et al., 1999). Sex is a source of pleasure and hence potentially an affirmation of life, yet according to TMT, sex is a threatening reminder of human creatureliness (similarity to other animals) and hence of human

5 mortality. According to TMT assigning sex with symbolic meaning (e.g. an act of love) and/or regarding it as a source of self-esteem (e.g. evidence of ones attractiveness) reduces the threat associated with sex. Goldenburg et al. (2002) found that after reading an essay claiming that humans were highly similar to other animals (creatureliness prime), participants who rated physical aspects of sex experienced increased DTA, compared to participants who rated romantic aspects of sex. Participants who read an essay suggesting that humans are distinct from other animals who rated either physical or romantic sex did not differ in DTA. Goldenberg et al. (2002) suggested that the creatureliness prime had the effect of stripping physical sex of meaning, which made the association between sex and death more salient, whereas the symbolic value of romance may have buffered participants against the effects of the creatureliness prime. Other studies have found that after MS, mens ratings of the attractiveness of sexually alluring women decreases, and that their tolerance of aggression against women increases (Landau et al., 2006). Grabe et al. (2005) found that after MS women increase their objectification (importance of physical appearance) ratings of their own bodies and of womens bodies in general. These findings suggest that peoples attempts to cope with their awareness of mortality often lead to problematic consequences, such as negative attitudes to sexuality, and unhealthy attitudes towards ones body. These negative consequences might occur because denial of death and selfesteem striving may not be optimal ways of coping with awareness of ones mortality (Crocker & Nuer, 2004). A limitation of TMT is that to date it has largely been based on the presupposition that people can only cope with mortality by avoiding it. Crocker and Nuer (2004) proposed that a more adaptive way of approaching death awareness is to view it not as a source of dread but as a source of inspiration to be clear about

6 ones most important goals in life and to pursue them with vigour, because one has limited time in which to do so. Research on near death experience (NDE) has found that some people develop a positive attitude towards death after an NDE, claiming that mortality awareness gives them a renewed appreciation of life (Cozzolino et al., 2004). Cozzolino et al. attempted to experimentally simulate key aspects of the NDE by asking participants to imagine a scenario in which they die. This scenario was compared to a standard MS induction, which they regarded as inducing a more abstract awareness of death compared to their more concrete scenario. Participants in the NDE scenario reported more interest in spirituality and displayed less greed compared to participants in the MS condition. Therefore, death awareness seems to have a salubrious effect under certain conditions. A further area that TMT could explore is the relative importance of avoiding death compared to engaging life. Crocker and Nuria (2004) suggested that even if people could be convinced that they would never die (e.g. if scientists were to discover an immortality treatment) they would still struggle to find worthwhile purpose and meaning to their lives. However, this has not yet been empirically tested. In conclusion, TMT has made important contributions in illuminating the role of death awareness in human motivation. Defensive responses to death awareness are often maladaptive, therefore future research in TMT might investigate more adaptive perspectives on mortality. A positive view of mortality might make unhealthy selfesteem striving and worldview defence unnecessary, and allow people to embrace their creatureliness with less ambivalence. Future research paradigms might explore the effects of priming positive meanings of mortality on attitudes towards sexuality and the body, for example. Furthermore, the relationship between meaning in life and death awareness could be experimentally explored and clarified.

7 References Cozzolino, P.J., Staples, A.D., Meyers, L.S., & Samboceti, J. (2004). Greed, death, and values: From terror management to transcendence management theory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 278 292. Crocker, J. & Nuer, N. (2004). Do people need self-esteem? Comment on Pyszczynski et al. (2004). Psychological Bulletin, 130, 469 472. Dechesne, M., Pyszczynski, T., Arndt, J., Ransom, S., Sheldon, K.M., van Knippenburg, A., & Janssen, J. (2003). Literal and symbolic immortality: The effect of evidence of literal immortality on self-esteem striving in response to mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 722 -737. Goldenberg, J.L., Pyszczynski, T., McCoy, S.K., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (1999). Death, sex, love, and neuroticism: Why is sex such a problem? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1173 1187. Goldenberg, J.L., McCoy, S.K., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2000). The body as a source of self-esteem: The effect of mortality salience on identification with ones body, interest in sex, and appearance monitoring. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 118 130. Goldenberg, J.L., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Kluck, B., & Cornwell, R. (2001). I am not an animal: Mortality salience, disgust and the denial of human creatureliness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 427 435. Goldenberg, J.L., Cox, C.R., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (2002). Understanding human ambivalence about sex: The effects of stripping sex of meaning. The Journal of Sex Research, 39, 310 320.

8 Grabe, S., Routledge, C., Cook, A., Andersen, C., & Arndt, J. (2005). In defense of the body: The effect of mortality salience on female body objectification. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 29, 33 37. Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Pyszczynski, T. (1997). Terror management theory of self-esteem and cultural worldviews: Empirical assessments and conceptual refinements. In M.P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, volume 29. San Diego: Academic Press. Landau, M., Goldenberg, J.L., Greenberg, J., Gillath, O., Solomon, S., Cox, C.R., Martens, A., & Pyszczynski, T. (2006). The sirens call: Terror management and the threat of mens sexual attraction to women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 129 146. Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., Schimel, J. (2004). Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 435 468. Ryan, R.R. & Deci, E.L. (2004). Avoiding death or engaging life as accounts of meaning and culture: Comment on Pyszczynski et al. (2004). Psychological Bulletin, 130, 473 477. Taubman Ben-Ari, O. (2004). Intimacy and risky sexual behaviour What does it have to do with death? Death Studies, 28, 865 887. Taubman Ben-Ari, O., Florian, V., & Mikulincer, M. (1999). The impact of mortality salience on reckless driving: A test of terror management mechanisms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 35 45