Terror Management Theory in Practice

Terror Management Theory in Practice
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Terror Management Theory in Practice
Human thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors are partially shaped by the uncomfortable feeling and knowledge that life is finite. The underlying desire for symbolic or literal immortality is responsible for the mortality salience. Distinct forms of mortality salience are usually associated with specific cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions. For example, one of the symbolic human immortalities is having children since it indicates people's awareness of their death, which is the function of a person's mortality salience. As such, individuals' awareness of death makes them appropriately respond since they know that death is inevitable. The paper analyzes the terrorist attack in Manhattan, New York, and New Jersey on September 17, 2016 using the terror management theory (TMT).
Tom Pyszczynski, Sheldon Solomon, and Jeff Greenberg introduced TMT in 1986 based on Ernest Becker's ideas. They argued that TMT has its foundation in the evolutionary theory that depicts how humans are biologically inclined toward continued survival. Becker was a cultural anthropologist who believed that individuals have a unique quality of self-consciousness and can think abstractly, resulting in the existential anxiety and fear that are absent in other animals. Humans are similar to other creatures in that they have the instinctual drive for self-preservation. However, one thing that makes people unique is that they know that their lives are finite (Conrad, 2009). Becker made it clear that although humans experience death anxiety and know that their lives have an end, they try to avoid mortal dangers to facilitate their continued survival. People avoid the potentially paralyzing death anxiety through a psychological mechanism that enables them to manage the fear of dying. Humans alleviate death anxiety by seeing themselves as a critical part of shared human experiences, which give their lives significance and meaning. The ultimate goal of individuals' existence is not prolonging their lives but transcending death to achieve symbolic or literal immortality (Conrad, 2009). Symbolic immortality means leaving a legacy or lasting influence on society, while literal immortality is the promise of life after death through spirituality or religion.
TMT portrays that death anxiety drives individuals to adopt various worldviews that safeguard their sustainability, self-esteem, and worthiness to enable them to believe that they play significant roles in the meaningful world. Whenever a person watches news headlines, numerous occurrences, such as terrorist attacks and other life-threatening situations, remind individuals that death is inevitable. TMT explicates that human awareness of their mortality can lead to unsettling attitudes and behaviors, such as aggression, intergroup conflict, and prejudicial attitudes (Vail & Juhl, 2015). Nevertheless, the awareness of death does not only cause socially and personally harmful consequences. In some cases, it leads to uplifting and growth-oriented helpful implications. For instance, death-related motivation might foster physical health, c...