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A popular belief regarding psychology of the self is that self-esteem plays an anxiety buffering
function in humans. This popular belief was introduced by Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon
(1986) when they developed the Terror Management Theory (TMT) to address what self-esteem
is and what psychological role it plays for human survival. Primarily, the theory states that self-
esteem is the feeling of having value in a meaningful universe and that humans have a strong
pervasive need for self-esteem because it protects them from the anxiety that their awareness of
vulnerability or mortality to the universe may create. In their research, Pyszczynski et al. (1986)
conducted experiments that found that individuals with higher self-esteem showed lower
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psychological arousal levels and anxiety levels in response to images of death or in anticipation
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of an incoming electric shock. According to this theory, self-esteem acts as an anxiety buffer
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because self-esteem allows humans to feel loved, valued and apart of a meaningful cultural
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worldview. These combat imminent feelings of anxiety that would otherwise appear if there is a
lack of self-esteem. In contemporary psychology, self-esteem can generally be defined as an

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evaluation of one’s self or one’s attitude towards themselves. There are different contemporary
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views of self-esteem. Global self-esteem is the general way people feel about themselves, state
self-esteem is the self evaluation to positive or negative events, domain specific self-esteem is
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the way people evaluate themselves in different fields or attributes, contingent self-esteem is the
feelings that an individual has when they believe they have matched up to an expectation or
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standard, and implicit self-esteem is the automatic, nonconscious emotional orientation towards
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the self. The hierarchical model of self-esteem implies that all these areas of self-esteem can
have a relationship with one another and influence each other, resulting in causal flow. Self-
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esteem can be linked to having many important psychological functions, but for the purpose of
this essay, it’s role in anxiety buffering will be focused on.
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DOES SELF-ESTEEM REALLY ACT AS AN ANXIETY BUFFER? 2
Schmeichel et al. (2009) conducted research and found evidence that directly supports the
Terror Management Theory (TMT). They conducted 3 studies that studied 3 different hypotheses
pertaining different aspects of TMT. Their first study was to test if individuals with low implicit
self-esteem would show increased defensiveness when morality salience is evoked. Mortality
salience is the awareness that one’s death is inevitable. One hundred and fifty-seven participants
were first measured on their implicit self-esteem levels and were told at later dates to write two
different essays, one about their death and one about a control topic (dental pain). Then, they
“had the opportunity to engage in worldview defense by evaluating a pro-U.S. and an anti-U.S.
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essay and their authors. Bias in favor of the pro-U.S. essay and author over the anti-U.S. essay
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and author was taken to indicate greater worldview defense. “We predicted that, consistent with
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TMT, participants who wrote about death would exhibit increased worldview defense, compared
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with participants who wrote about dental pain. However, we predicted that this effect would be
most pronounced among individuals lower in implicit self-esteem.” (Schmeichel et al. 2009).
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Results showed that those who wrote about the death essay showed more worldview defense
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when evaluating the pro and anti-U.S essays among those with low implicit self-esteem rather
than those with high implicit self-esteem. The second study tested the hypothesis that a boost in
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implicit self-esteem would result in a reduced effect of mortality salience on worldview defense.
Out of ninety-two participants, half of them wrote about their death and half of them wrote about
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dental pain just like in study 1. Then, half of the participants took part in an implicit self-esteem
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boosting task that was adapted from Dijksterhuis (2004) and the other half were the control
group with a no boost condition. Finally, both were asked to evaluate the same pro-U.S and anti-
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U.S essays and engage in worldview defense as the first study. Results showed that the group
with the manipulated boost in implicit self-esteem showed reduced worldview defense when in
the mortality salience condition. For their third study, the researchers tested the hypothesis that
both explicit and implicit self-esteem play a role in influencing reactions towards mortality
salience. Eighty participants were measured in their implicit self-esteem through the IAT
(Implicit Association Test) and their explicit self-esteem through the Rosenberg self-esteem
scale. These participants were then randomly assigned to either a morality salience induction
group where they were asked to describe the emotions they felt when thinking about their death,
or a control group where they were questioned about their feelings if they had to move away
from their family and friends. Finally, they were asked to rate on a scale of 1(not applicable) to
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9(very applicable), how accurate a pair of specific personality descriptions shown to them were
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at describing themselves. There were two personality descriptions, one that described a
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glowingly positive personality and the other was a negative personality. Results showed
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“mortality salience increased the endorsement of positive personality descriptions but only
among participants with the combination of low implicit and high explicit self-esteem”
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(Schmeichel et al. 2009). The evidence suggests that mortality salience is linked to an increase in
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attention for positive information (self-esteem seeking behaviour). All three studies showed
direct supporting evidence that having high self-esteem combats the psychological threat of
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death, showcasing the anxiety-buffering role that self-esteem plays in the self. An aspect of this
study that strongly validates its findings is its methodology in the experiments. The methodology
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was a strength because it used large sample sizes, random assignment, conducted manipulation
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checks, had control groups, and tested 3 different hypotheses with 3 different well-conducted
experiments. For example, in study 2, they conducted manipulation checks to make sure that
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there were indeed boosts in implicit self-esteem for the boost condition group through analysis of
variance. This increases the validity of their evidence as the implicit self-esteem (manipulated
variable) was confirmed to be increased in the boost condition group. By also testing 3 different
hypotheses that are tenets of TMT, the researchers are also leaving less unanswered questions.
The consistency in doing 3 different experiments and finding consistent results that support TMT
amongst all 3 studies, showcases reliability in the experiment and its findings. By using large
sample sizes, common and accessible measurement tools (IAT, Rosenborg self-esteem scale,
questionnaires) the study is also very replicable. “Larger sample sizes allow researchers to better
determine the average values of their data and avoid errors from testing a small number of
possibly atypical samples.” (Zamboni 2018). Having larger sample sizes also mean a smaller
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margin of error and helps avoid misleading statistics such as outliers. This also means that their
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results are also strongly convincing because of reliable evidence and negating errors or outliers.
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Finally, another strong aspect of this study is the theoretical framework of it. TMT was
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introduced and defined in the introduction. The study explained well how self-esteem plays an
anxiety-buffering role in TMT. For example, they provided a background to the theory about
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how high self-esteem makes a person valued to society and this is what potentially combats the
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psychological terrors of death or pain. The researchers also explain both forms of self-esteem
(implicit and explicit) and examine the link between them and mortality salience in their study. A
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minimal weakness of this study is the limitations that the participants were merely asked to either
write about their death or answer questions about it. This may not put some people into feeling
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the true psychological terrors of death or anxiety. Some people are not bothered to talk about
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dark topics such as this, and thus may see no effect on their psyche. Obviously, participants lives
were never going to be put in danger for an experiment, but this is still a limitation to be
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accounted for.
Klein et al. (2019) conducted research to try and replicate the important finding
supporting TMT, which is that mortality salience increased worldview defense compared to a
control condition. The first article discussed in this essay conducted experiments that found
evidence to support this finding. However, Klein et al. (2019) could not manage to replicate the
same results. Despite data from 2,200 participants and direct communication with Pyszczynski et
al. to help replicate their findings, there was little observed evidence through their experiments.
The effect, if at all, was very small. This questions the validity of the original research findings
and the robustness of the theoretical explanation that self-esteem acts as an anxiety buffer if the
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data is not replicable or reliable. Klein et al. (2019) conducted an experiment where participants
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would evaluate pro-U.S and anti-U.S essays similar to that of Schmeichel et al. (2009) except the
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anti-U.S essays were manipulated to be more forceful and extreme so that they would conflict
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with the participants’ worldview. In their results they state, “we find little support for this key
finding (that MS increased worldview defense) of TMT” (Klein et al. 2019). In their analysis,
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they critique the original prior work and state that their evidence provides a challenge for TMT
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to address. They question the replicability of the original work, which is an important criterion
used to judge the quality of empirical evidence. This analysis is a strength of this article because
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it challenges the data that is the foundation for TMT, with the use of their own findings from a
substantial sample size. This also means that the methods used in this article were also a strength
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because of the use of a robust sample size, communication with the original researchers of TMT,
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and manipulation checks. For example, they performed American identity checks to make sure
that the people evaluating the pro-U.S and anti-U.S essays held an American identity. They also
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performed quality control on all lab sites. Another strength is their discussion, as they discuss
why their results were not consistent with prior work, giving reasons why their findings did not
provide evidence to support TMT. For example, the timing of their experiments was given as a
reason, as it was during the election of Donald trump. This could have affected people’s
(primarily students’) worldviews and reduced the effect of mortality salience. They also
importantly stated that this does not however overturn or invalidate prior work from the original
researchers, rather questioning the robustness of the theoretical explanation of TMT. A weakness
of this article is the lack of different experiments. The researchers only conducted the evaluation
of essay experiments and did not try different experiments to test the effect of mortality salience
or self-esteem. A different approach could have given them more answers or data to help achieve
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their goal of replicating findings to support TMT.
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Overall, both articles were equally convincing to me. They both provided great
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theoretical background, methods, analysis, discussion and results. They gave a good framework
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of what TMT states about self-esteem, had credible and valid evidence, and gave a good analysis
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of how their results support or refutes TMT. Schmeichel et al. 2009 conducted replicable
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experiments that accurately targeted self-esteem’s role in TMT which produced irrefutable
evidence supporting the belief that self-esteem acts as an anxiety buffer. The article was strongly
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convincing because it conducted 3 different studies that all provided direct supporting evidence
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towards TMT. The Klein et al. (2019) provided interesting findings that refuted TMT and their
analysis of how their results does not directly support TMT was also convincing. They only
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conducted one experiment (which was supposed to closely mirror a previously done experiment),
however, they did use a large sample size of 2,200 participants with manipulation checks, quality
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control, assistance from original authors and still was not able to find any evidence to support
TMT. This suggests to me that TMT does have questions surrounding it that it needs to address
before I fully believe this theory.
REFERENCES
 Klein, R. A., Cook, C. L., Ebersole, C. R., Vitiello, C. A., Nosek, B. A., Chartier, C. R.,
Ratliff, K. A. (2019, December 11). Many Labs 4: Failure to Replicate Mortality Salience
Effect With and Without Original Author Involvement. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/vef2c
 Schmeichel, B. J., Gailliot, M. T., Filardo, E., McGregor, I., Gitter, S., & Baumeister, R.
F. (2009). Terror management theory and self-esteem revisited: The roles of implicit and
explicit self-esteem in mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social
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Psychology, 96(5), 1077-1087.
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doi:http://dx.doi.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1037/a0015091
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 rs e
Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1986). A terror management theory of
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social behavior: The psychological functions of self-esteem. Advances in experimental social
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psychology, 24, 93-159

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 Zamboni, Jon. "The Advantages of a Large Sample Size" sciencing.com,

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https://sciencing.com/advantages-large-sample-size-7210190.html. 11 August 2020

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lack of self-esteem. In contemporary psychology, self-esteem can generally be defined as an

this essay, it’s role in anxiety buffering will be focused on.

before I fully believe this theory.

Effect With and Without Original Author Involvement. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/vef2c

explicit self-esteem in mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social

psychology, 24, 93-159

 Zamboni, Jon. "The Advantages of a Large Sample Size" sciencing.com,

https://sciencing.com/advantages-large-sample-size-7210190.html. 11 August 2020

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