Could understanding Terror Management Theory deter human aggression?

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In another Middle East study conducted three months prior to the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the Northern West Bank, Gilad Hirschberger, PhD, and Tsachi Ein-Dor, PhD, of Bar-Han University in Rabat Gan, Israel, examined whether reminders of death would lead conservative Israelis to support violent resistance against the disengagement plan. The researchers hypothesized that support for violent resistance would be particularly strong among participants that were in denial and unable to come to terms with the Israeli withdrawal.

"The current research represents a unique attempt to prospectively understand the reactions of people who were about to witness the collapse of their worldview," wrote the authors. "From a terror management perspective, worldviews are "standardized systems of death denial" (Becker, 1975, p. 154), and when worldviews come under threat, their proponents may feel that the road to eternal life has been obstructed. In this case, denial of the threat may be an effective way to shield oneself from existential terror. However, when denial ultimately fails, violence may be a preferred mode of coping because it constitutes a desperate attempt to salvage the disintegrating worldview."

Could understanding TMT deter human aggression?

Dr. Solomon suggested that individuals cling to worldviews because it gives them a sense of security and purpose. "Our position is that we're a unique form of life that builds constructs within our cultures that must be maintained and shared with others in our group. The constructs we build serve to deny death and give us comfort with our role in society. When alternative concepts of reality come along, they undermine our own. When there's panic rumbling beneath the surface, people take that anxiety and dump on someone else."

Social scientists like those who ascribe to TMT will continue to gather evidence that explains the causes of human aggression. At the same time TMT studies are undertaken by an ever expanding group of researchers, public and foreign policy leaders are being sought who will encourage education and understanding so as to mitigate the tendency toward aggression, rather than exploit it.

Recommended Reading:

Becker E, (1973) The Denial of Death. New York: The Free Press.

Cohen F, Ogilvie D, Solomon S, et al. American Roulette: The Effect of Reminders of Death on Support for George W. Bush in the 2004 Presidential Election, Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2005.

Hirschberger G, Ein-Dor G, Defenders of a Lost Cause: Terror Management
and Violent Resistance to the Disengagement Plan, PSPB, Vol. 32 No. 6, June 2006 761-769.

Pyszczynski T, Abdollahi A, Solomon S, et al, Mortality Salience, Martyrdom and Military Might: the Great Satan Versus the Axis of Evil, Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2006 Apr;32(4):525-37.

Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Greenberg, J. (2002). In the wake of 9/11: The psychology of terror. American Psychological Association.

Willer R, The Effects of Government-Issued Terror Warnings on Presidential Approval Ratings, Current Research in Social Psychology (Vol 10, No. 1) 2004.

This article was first published in Neuropsychiatry Reviews, November 2006

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Kathlyn Stone is a Minnesota-based writer covering science and medicine, health care and related policies.-She publishes www.fleshandstone.net, a health and science news site.

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.