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Terror Management Theory
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In social psychology, terror management theory (TMT) proposes a
basic psychological conflict that results from having a desire to live
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but realizing that death is inevitable. This conflict produces terror, and
is believed to be unique to human beings. Moreover, the solution to
the conflict is also generally unique to humans: culture. According to
TMT, cultures are symbolic systems that act to provide life with
meaning and value. Cultural values therefore serve to manage the
terror of death by providing life with meaning. The simplest examples
of cultural values that manage the terror of death are those that
purport to offer literal immortality. However, TMT also argues that
other cultural values – including those that are seemingly unrelated to
death offer symbolic immortality. For example, value of national
identity, posterity, cultural perspectives on sex, and human superiority
over animals have all been linked to death concerns in some manner.
In many cases these values are thought to offer symbolic immortality
by providing the sense that one is part of something greater that will
ultimately outlive the individual
Because cultural values determine that which is meaningful, they are
also the basis for self-esteem. TMT describes self-esteem as being the
personal, subjective measure of how well an individual is living up to
their cultural values. Like cultural values, self-esteem acts to protect
one against the terror of death. However, it functions to provide one's
personal life with meaning, while cultural values provide meaning to
life in general.
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TMT is derived from anthropologist Ernest Becker's 1973 Pulitzer
Prize-winning work of nonfiction The Denial of Death, in which
Becker argues most human action is taken to ignore or avoid the
inevitability of death. The terror of absolute annihilation creates such
a profound albeit subconscious – anxiety in people that they spend
their lives attempting to make sense of it. On large scales, societies
build symbols: laws, religious meaning systems, cultures, and belief
systems to explain the significance of life, define what makes certain
characteristics, skills, and talents extraordinary, reward others whom
they find exemplify certain attributes, and punish or kill others who
do not adhere to their cultural worldview. On an individual level, self-
esteem provides a buffer against death related anxiety.