Terror management theory and self-esteem revisited: the roles of implicit and explicit self-esteem in mortality salience effects.
@article{Schmeichel2009TerrorMT, title={Terror management theory and self-esteem revisited: the roles of implicit and explicit self-esteem in mortality salience effects.}, author={Brandon J. Schmeichel and Matthew Thomas Gailliot and E. Filardo and Ian Mcgregor and Seth A. Gitter and Roy F. Baumeister}, journal={Journal of personality and social psychology}, year={2009}, volume={96 5}, pages={ 1077-87 } }
Three studies tested the roles of implicit and/or explicit self-esteem in reactions to mortality salience. In Study 1, writing about death versus a control topic increased worldview defense among participants low in implicit self-esteem but not among those high in implicit self-esteem. In Study 2, a manipulation to boost implicit self-esteem reduced the effect of mortality salience on worldview defense. In Study 3, mortality salience increased the endorsement of positive personality…
163 Citations
The great escape: The role of self-esteem and self-related cognition in terror management.
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Terror Management Theory: The Influence of Terrorism Salience on Anxiety and the Buffering of Cultural Worldview and Self-esteem
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- 2014
Terror management theory has previously explored the buffering of self-esteem and United States cultural worldview upon anxiety and mortality salience. However, the combination of the United Kingdom…
The Effects of Trait Self-Esteem and Death Cognitions on Worldview Defense and Search for Meaning
- PsychologyDeath studies
- 2014
Two studies raised the question as to whether those with low trait self-esteem engage in efforts to find meaning in response to mortality salience, and showed that MS increased the search for meaning for low, but not high, traitSelf-esteem individuals.
Failure Causes Fear: The Effect of Self-Esteem Threat on Death-Anxiety
- PsychologyThe Journal of social psychology
- 2012
According to terror management theory (TMT), self-esteem protects people from anxiety associated with the knowledge of certain mortality, but no studies have experimentally examined the effect of threatened self- esteem on death-anxiety.
Two Decades of Terror Management Theory: A Meta-Analysis of Mortality Salience Research
- PsychologyPersonality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc
- 2010
A meta-analysis was conducted on empirical trials investigating the mortality salience (MS) hypothesis of terror management theory, finding moderate effects on a range of worldview- and self-esteem-related dependent variables (DVs).
Does self-esteem inflation mitigate mortality salience effects on suicide attitudes?
- PsychologySuicide & life-threatening behavior
- 2021
Findings provide some promising potential for the self-esteem enhancement intervention to attenuate defensive reactions to suicide.
Terror Management and Personality: Variations in the Psychological Defense Against the Awareness of Mortality
- Psychology
- 2010
Drawing on terror management theory (TMT), we discuss the psychological motivations that shape personality at two levels: the characteristically human personality common to us all and the individual…
Mortality Salience and Cultural Cringe
- Psychology
- 2014
Terror Management Theory predicts that mortality salience (MS) instigates cultural worldview defenses, especially among individuals with lower self-esteem. That MS intensifies positive evaluations of…
When death is not a problem: Regulating implicit negative affect under mortality salience.
- PsychologyScandinavian journal of psychology
- 2015
It is assumed that this implicit affective reaction towards death depends on people's ability to self-regulate negative affect as assessed by the personality dimension of action versus state orientation, and action-oriented participants judged artificial words to express less negative affect under mortality salience compared to control conditions.
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