The Terror Management Theory: what it is and how it explains the fear of death

The human being can experience fears of different elements, and one of the most recurrent is that of death.

There are different theories to try to explain the psychological mechanisms behind this reaction. One of the newest is terror management theory. We are going to delve into this model in order to better understand its explanation of this phenomenon.

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What is Terror Management Theory?

The terror management theory is a model created to try to respond to the psychological discomfort that thinking about the end of life causes in many people.

The foundation of this theory is the conflictive relationship that exists between two parties. On the one hand, the natural instinct for conservation that humans and other animals have.

On the other, the conscious perception that we are mortal and therefore at some point life will end. Not only that, but we generally can't know when it's going to happen, adding to that discomfort. Therefore, two conditions about death are combined: that it is inevitable and that the moment when it will arrive cannot be predicted.

According to the theory of terror management, this situation generates in many subjects an intense fear, which has to be managed in some way. One of the ways to do this is simply mental avoidance, which would translate into occupying the mind with other matters that are more pleasing to the person.

But it exists another very widespread escape route among a large part of the population, which are cultural constructions, frequently based on religious beliefs, which anticipate an immortal life after earthly life. It is a measure that alleviates the anxiety caused by the fear of dying, since it is hoped that, somehow, this is not the end of life.

However, the theory of terror management explains that religion is only one of the mechanisms that people can use to reduce the panic of the prospect of dying somewhere moment. There are other cultural constructs whose effect on a psychological level goes in the same direction as the idea of ​​a life after death..

These elements would be related to the idea of ​​transcending in some way, not as an immortal being, but being part of something bigger, be it a family, a nation, an organization or simply the species human. It would be, therefore, a symbolic immortality, based on the fact of being a participant in some act or idea that can be remembered historically.

The origin of this psychological theory

As important as knowing what the theory of terror management consists of, is knowing its origin. This proposal, which falls within the social and evolutionary areas of psychology, is the product of a work by the authors Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon and Tom Pyszczynski. These psychologists originally brought the idea to the fore in the book The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life, published in 2015.

However, it is necessary to bear in mind that the idea around which the theory of terror management revolves is not new, far from it. One of the most recent works that this model would be drinking is that of The Denial of Death, by the American anthropologist, Ernest Becker.

Becker affirms that, in reality, most of the behaviors that any person carries out throughout their life have as their ultimate goal, well the try to postpone a death that, in reality, is inevitable, or escape to avoid having said thought, which generates anxiety and fear, in the head.

It is precisely that fear of dying, as the theory of terror management later collects, which prompts human beings to try to give meaning, not just to death, but to death. lifetime. This anxiety causes, for example, the appearance of these religious ideas, but also laws, symbols and other cultural elements, all aimed at trying to reduce panic to the idea of ​​non-existence after the death.

All these concepts work at a collective level, but we must not forget another of the fundamental elements, which both for Becker and for the The theory of terror management works, in this case, at the individual level, to appease the fear of dying, and it is none other than the self-esteem of each person.

In that sense, a good self-esteem would help to dispel the feeling of anxiety that death can cause us. Thus, someone with high self-esteem will probably have more resources to deal with the idea of ​​fear of dying than a person with low self-esteem. For Becker, in fact, self-esteem is synonymous with heroism.

In short, for the author Ernest Becker, death, and more specifically the fear of it, is the motor that moves the behaviors of the human being, being therefore the main motivation of him to Act.

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Terror Management Theory and Evolution

Another interesting question that has been analyzed in the theory of terror management is the relationship that exists between the fear of death and the evolutionary development of our species. We might wonder if this anxiety about mortality is somehow adaptive. The truth is that fear of any potentially aversive stimulus is, in fact, a form of adaptation.

And is that, avoiding the elements that can harm us in one way or another, is a way to increase the chances of survival. But the fear of death does not exactly fit this concept, for it is clear that no matter how much we fear death, ultimately we can never avoid it.

Therefore, according to the theory of terror management, it would not seem that this fear was a form of adaptation but rather an effect produced by reaching a level of rationality in which we are aware of the inevitability of the end of the lifetime. In that sense, the increase itself at a rational level would be the adaptive element, and the fear of death a consequence of it.

Faced with this new fear, which is not present in less evolved species, the human being has created all that series of mechanisms and cultural constructs, which we have already seen, in order to try to appease it. Therefore, we could say that both the fear of death and the elements created to fight it have the same origin, which would be that level of reasoning unique to our species.

The simple act of burying the dead could have a pragmatic origin, due to the fact of avoiding diseases or attracting scavengers.. But there is evidence that both our species and that of the extinct Neanderthals, saw in these rites a form to prepare the deceased for an extraterrestrial life, since they placed food and other items next to the remains mortals.

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critics

However, not all authors agree with the approach made by the terror management theory. Some of these critics allege that human behavior adapts to avoid specific situations that can potentially cause death, so the adaptation would be to each of those scenarios in particular, and it would not be a generality in which people unconsciously move away from death.

Another criticism made of this model consists of the generalization that the management theory of terror makes about the fear of death as the greatest fear, or the most general in most beings humans. These authors allege that in different studies, many participants have chosen various situations rather than death as their greatest fear.

As an alternative to this model, some researchers have proposed the idea that death is not really feared, but rather the uncertainty generated by it., which would be causing anxiety in many of the people. In this sense, they allege that uncertainty is normally only tolerated when there is a context that mitigates it, such as a wrapped gift received for a holiday.

However, when this uncertainty has a context that does not invite us to think about how pleasant it is, it will not be something that the person, in general, will tolerate adequately. These are some of the criticisms that the terror management theory has received.

Bibliographic references:

• Becker, E. (1997). The denial of death. Free Press Paperbacks.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. Public self and private self. Springer.
• Greenberg, J., Arndt, J. (2011). Terror management theory. Handbook of theories of social psychology.
• Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T. (2004). The cultural animal: Twenty years of terror management theory and research. Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology. Guilford Press.
• Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T. (2015). The worm at the core: On the role of death in life. Random House.