Terror Management Theory: What It Is And How It Explains The Fear Of Death

Human beings 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 for this phenomenon.

What is Terror Management Theory?

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 of conservation that both 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 usually can’t know when it’s going to happen, which adds to that discomfort. Therefore, two conditions about death are combined: that it is inevitable and that the moment in which it will arrive cannot be predicted.

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

but it exists another very widespread escape route among a large part of the population, which are cultural constructions, often based on religious beliefs, who anticipate an immortal life after earthly life. It is a measure that relieves the anxiety caused by the fear of dying, since there is the hope that, somehow, this will not be the end of life.

However, terror management theory explains to us that religion is only one of the mechanisms that people can use to reduce the panic that comes with the prospect of dying at some point. There are other cultural constructs whose psychological effect 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 as part of something greater, whether it be a family, a nation, an organization or simply the human species. It would, therefore, be 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 terror management theory consists of, it is knowing its origin. This proposal, which falls within the social and evolutionary areas of psychology, is the product of work by authors Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon and Tom Pyszczynski Originally, these psychologists highlighted the idea in the book titled The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life, published in 2015.

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

Becker affirms that, in reality, the majority of the behaviors that any person performs throughout their life have as their ultimate goal, either trying to postpone a death that, in reality, is inevitable, or evading oneself so as not to have said thought, which generates anxiety and fear, in the head.

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

All of these concepts work at a collective level, but we must not forget another of the fundamental elements, which for both Becker and the theory of terror management works, in this case, at the individual level, to appease the fear of dying, and not It is other than each person’s own self-esteem.

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

In short, for the author Ernest Becker, death, and more specifically the fear of it, is the engine that drives the behavior of human beings, being therefore their main motivation to act.

Terror management theory and evolution

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

And avoiding 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 into this concept, since it is evident that, no matter how much we fear death, we will ultimately never be able to avoid it.

Therefore, as terror management theory explains to us, 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 life. In that sense, the increase itself at a rational level would be the adaptive element, and the fear of death would be a consequence of it

Faced with this new fear, which is not present in less evolved species, human beings have created a whole 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 against 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 the attraction of scavenging animals But there is evidence that both our species and that of the extinct Neanderthals saw in these rites a way to prepare the deceased for an extraterrestrial life, since they placed food and other elements next to the mortal remains.

critics

However, not all authors agree with the approach made by 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 these particular scenarios and it would not be a generality in which people move away from death unconsciously.

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

Some researchers have proposed as an alternative to this model, the idea that death is not actually feared, but rather the uncertainty generated by it, which would be causing anxiety in many people. In that sense, they argue 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 its pleasantness, it will not be something that the person, in general, will tolerate adequately. These are some of the criticisms that terror management theory has received.