Terror Management and Biculturalism

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-245
Author(s):  
Isabelle Goncalves Portelinha ◽  
Jean-François Verlhiac ◽  
Thierry Meyer ◽  
Paul Hutchison
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Cultural Identities ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Bicultural Identity ◽  
Immigrant Generation ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Religious Attitudes ◽  
Integrated Or

Terror management theory posits that cultural worldviews provide protection against death-related anxiety. To the extent that worldviews often encompass competing beliefs, the present research investigated the effect of the salience of an incompatibility between worldview elements. French nationals of second- or third-immigrant generation (N = 193) were exposed to compatible or incompatible aspects of their cultural identities and then induced to contemplate their own death or a neutral topic. Participants reminded of their mortality renounced their ethnic identity more in the cultural incompatibility condition, and this effect was confined to those who initially presented an integrated (or bicultural) identity. Mortality salience led to monoculturalism striving when bicultural participants considered incompatible aspects of both their cultures, hence verifying the importance of upholding a strong and unwavering cultural worldview to cope with death awareness. The role of death-thoughts accessibility and religious attitudes following participants’ efforts to shore up their cultural worldview is discussed.

Collective in exile: Utilizing terror management theory to understand women’s wailing performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tova Gamliel
Keyword(s):  
Death Anxiety ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Community Context ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Adaptive Value ◽  
Traditional Performance

Although women’s wailing at death rites in various cultures typically amplifies mortality salience, this ritual phenomenon is absent in the research literature on terror management theory (TMT). This study explored Yemenite-Jewish wailing in Israel as an example of how a traditional performance manages death anxiety in a community context. Observations of wailing events and interviews with Yemenite-Jewish wailers and mourners in Israel were analyzed to understand respondents’ perceptions of the experience of wailing as well as the anxiety-oriented psychotherapeutic expertise involved. The findings are discussed to propose an alternative outlook on the intersubjective adaptive value of death anxiety. After describing TMT’s view on the role of culture in coping with death anxiety, I consider the extent to which Yemenite-Jewish wailing is consistent with the premises of TMT.

Considering the roles of affect and culture in the enactment and enjoyment of cruelty

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spee Kosloff ◽  
Jeff Greenberg ◽  
Sheldon Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Cultural Framework

Research on aggression and terror management theory suggests shortcomings in Nell's analysis of cruelty. Hostile aggression and exposure to aggressive cues are not inherently reinforcing, though they may be enjoyed if construed within a meaningful cultural framework. Terror management research suggests that human cruelty stems from the desire to defend one's cultural worldview and to participate in a heroic triumph over evil.

scholarly journals Mindfulness of Death as a Tool for Mortality Salience Induction with Reference to Terror Management Theory

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 353
Author(s):  
Hyun Gong Moon
Keyword(s):  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Mindfulness Of Death

In this article, I argue that “mindfulness of death” (maraṇasati) can be a tool to induce mortality salience and can have a positive psychological impact. The mindfulness of death is described in detail in the early Buddhist texts Aṅguttara Nikāya and Visuddhimagga. The texts stress that death should be consciously connected with temporality and mindfulness. Here, I look at the mindfulness of death in relation to the mortality salience of terror management theory. “Mortality salience” is a term proposed in terror management theory that means “the state of conscious activation of the thoughts of death”. In addition, after conscious activation of the thought of death, I examine the psychological changes, such as the increase of pro-social attitudes which emphasizes ethics and morality, and the emphasis on the intrinsic value of life due to the operation of a cultural worldview and self-esteem. In this paper, I conclude that mindfulness of death can be an effective tool to induce mortality salience.

To the Victors Go the Existential Spoils: The Mental-Health Benefits of Cultural Worldview Defense for People WHO Successfully Meet Cultural Standards and Valued Goals

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 276-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Hubley ◽  
Joseph Hayes ◽  
Mary Harvey ◽  
Santina Musto
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Worldview Defense ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Mental Health Benefits ◽  
Cultural Standards

Introduction: Research in support of terror management theory suggests that mortality concerns will activate symbolic defenses associated with cultural worldviews, and when these defenses are activated, mental health will benefit. However, no study to date has examined this process in full. We filled this gap, while testing the moderating effect of feeling successful vis-à-vis cultural value-standards. Method: In two studies, we hypothesized that participants who feel successful at meeting cultural standards would engage cultural worldview defense (WVD) following mortality salience (MS), and as a consequence of their defensiveness, would experience greater mental health. Results: In Study 1, MS increased pro-American WVD only among relatively wealthy participants, which in turn reduced death-thought accessibility. In Study 2, MS increased pro-American WVD only among participants primed with felt success (vs. failure), which in turn reduced anxiety and depression. Conclusions: Culture can relieve death-related distress and promote mental health to the extent that it provides feelings of success.

Mortality Salience and Symbols of Cultural Worldview Affect the Desirability of a Stressful Job: The Ironic Consequences of Terror Management

2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 717-723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittney Wirth-Petrik ◽  
R. Kim Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Dental Pain ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Job Description ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Public Health Campaigns

In a study of terror management theory, participants first responded to prompts asking them to imagine their own death or dental pain and later rated the desirability of a generic job described explicitly as extremely stressful. The job description included either an American or foreign company logo. As predicted by terror management theory, the participants shown an American logo ironically desired the stressful job more, having been prompted with reminders of death than with reminders of dental pain. This study is the first to examine terror management theory's prediction of the influence of symbols of cultural worldview on health-related decisions. The authors discuss possible implications of the findings for making unintentionally stress-inducing decisions and for public health campaigns.

Existential Meaning and Terror Management

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheldon Solomon ◽  
Jeff Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Psychological Disorders ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Symbolic Immortality ◽  
Religious Extremism ◽  
Human Awareness

Terror management theory (TMT) posits that the uniquely human awareness of death engenders potentially debilitating existential terror that is “managed” by subscribing to cultural worldviews providing a sense that life has meaning as well as opportunities to obtain self-esteem, in pursuit of psychological equanimity in the present and literal or symbolic immortality in the future. In empirical support of TMT, research has demonstrated that: self-esteem serves to buffer anxiety in general, and about death in particular; reminders of death increase defense of the cultural worldview and efforts to bolster self-esteem; threats to the cultural worldview or self-esteem increase the accessibility of implicit death thoughts; conscious and non-conscious thoughts of death instigate qualitatively different defensive processes; death reminders increase hostility toward people with different beliefs, affection for charismatic leaders, and support for political and religious extremism; and death reminders magnify symptoms of psychological disorders.

scholarly journals Are we truly special and unique? A replication of Goldenberg et al. (2001)

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 191114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Rodríguez-Ferreiro ◽  
Itxaso Barberia ◽  
Jordi González-Guerra ◽  
Miguel A. Vadillo
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Aversive Situation

According to the mortality salience hypothesis of terror management theory, reminders of our future death increase the necessity to validate our cultural worldview and to enhance our self-esteem. In Experiment 2 of the study ‘I am not an animal: Mortality salience, disgust, and the denial of human creatureliness’, Goldenberg et al. (Goldenberg et al. 2001 J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 130 , 427–435. ( doi:10.1037/0096-3445.130.3.427 )) observed that participants primed with questions about their death provided more positive evaluations to an essay describing humans as distinct from animals than control participants presented with questions regarding another aversive situation. In a replication of this experiment conducted with 128 volunteers, we did not observe evidence for a mortality salience effect.

scholarly journals Terror Management Theory and the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 002216782095948
Author(s):  
Tom Pyszczynski ◽  
McKenzie Lockett ◽  
Jeff Greenberg ◽  
Sheldon Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Focal Attention ◽  
The Many ◽  
A Minor ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Threat To Life

Terror management theory is focused on the role that awareness of death plays in diverse aspects of life. Here, we discuss the theory’s implications for understanding the widely varying ways in which people have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that regardless of whether one consciously believes that the virus is a major threat to life or only a minor inconvenience, fear of death plays an important role in driving one’s attitudes and behavior related to the virus. We focus on the terror management theory distinction between proximal defenses, which are activated when thoughts of death are in current focal attention and are logically related to the threat at hand, and distal defenses, which are activated when thoughts of death are on the fringes of one’s consciousness and entail the pursuit of meaning, personal value, and close relationships. We use this framework to discuss the many ways in which COVID-19 undermines psychological equanimity, the diverse ways people have responded to this threat, and the role of ineffective terror management in psychological distress and disorder that may emerge in response to the virus.

Role of Social Detachment in Coping With Death Anxiety

2017 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saurabh Maheshwari ◽  
Tuheena Mukherjee
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Death Anxiety ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Adaptive Strategy ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Coping With Death

The present research examines the strength of terror management theory in an indigenous Indian context of religious fair called Magh Mela. It explores how elderly Hindu people deal with death anxiety through practicing Kalpvas in Magh Mela. The research explores the role of social detachment and self-esteem in coping with terror of death. Study 1, a field experiment on 150 Kalpvasis (practitioners of Kalpvas) confirms the significant role of social detachment as an adaptive strategy for coping with death terror. The role of self-esteem did not emerge in the study. Study 2, another field experiment on 62 Kalpvasis confirms results of study 1. Significant role of years of Kalpvas on fear of death shows importance of the religious practices in managing terror related to death. The relation of terror management theory and death anxiety thus follows a different explanation for more indigenous contexts.

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