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Terror Management Theory
The Existential Force: The Dark Side and the Light Side?
Does the fear of death have a "Light Side"?
Posted May 4, 2018
It's Star Wars Day! As we remember our favorite characters and scenes from across the galaxy, engaged in their epic battles of life and death, let's also take the opportunity to make a blurry connection to the epic battle of life and death happening within ourselves, right here in our own galaxy, every day!
That is—no matter how diligently we might try to avoid it, the inevitability of death hangs over us all. In film and television shows, in music lyrics, in news stories and political conversations (healthcare, abortion, school shootings, war/terrorism, and so on), or even a casual walk past the churchyard in town, everyday life is replete with reminders that our lives will undoubtedly end.
So, let’s have a look at this existential "Force." And, yes, let’s have a look at the “Dark Side” of it for a moment. But then let’s channel our inner Jedi and bring balance to the Force with a look at 3 ways that death has a “Light Side." We'll find out: Can death can be a force for good?
The Force: An existential motivation
Let’s start off by having a quick look at The Force—at our basic existential predicament and the motivations it stirs deep within us.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… as far back as the Upper Paleolithic era, our ancient ancestors began to truly understand that we’re mortal creatures. Most animals understand that they can die, of course; a human and a tauntaun will both run from a chasing wampa to save their skins. But humans started to show signs that they understood the concept in the abstract, even when they weren’t in immediate survival mode; and they started burying their friends with grave-goods, developing religions, and actively contributing to sociocultural legacies.
Record scratch, flash forward a few dozen millennia, and today we find humans participating in some of the most sophisticated cultural systems on the planet.
Philosophers, psychologists, and cultural anthropologists—from Soren Kiergekaard to Otto Rank to Ernest Becker—started to put these puzzle pieces together. One of the products of those efforts, and a leading contemporary view on the topic, is the dramatically-named “terror management theory” (TMT), which proposes that the awareness of death is a critical motivating force in human behavior.
The basic idea is this: Because the abstract awareness of mortality doesn’t involve a direct physical threat (e.g., a wampa on the hunt), and thus can’t be resolved through reasonable physical response (e.g., slicing off the wampa's arm with your lightsaber and beating a hasty retreat), it led to a unique psychological adaptation. So “The Force” in this metaphor is the basic human motivation to manage the awareness of our impermanence by perceiving ourselves as qualifying for at least some form of permanence.
To do so, TMT suggests that humans create and participate in cultural worldviews: sophisticated systems of belief (religious, ethnic, political, scientific, etc) that offer meaning and order, give social standards and values, and offer a significant sense of permanence in the world. Within those sociocultural systems, self-esteem then signals whether or not a galactic citizen has made meaningful, valued contributions that would achieve that death-transcending permanence through legacies (raising a family, contributions through art/fashion, sports, business, government, science, and so on) and/or religious means (e.g., heaven, afterlife, force ghost).
The Dark Side
For the first few decades of study, researchers focused on the more dramatic and eye-catching consequences of this basic existential motivation—examining the degree to which people will harm themselves or others to protect the integrity of their death-denying cultural structures and accrue self-esteem.
This is where the research began to reveal the power of the Dark Side of this existential Force…
Researchers noted that because cultural belief systems are socially constructed, confidence in those concepts is dependent on consensual social validation. When other people share one’s beliefs, that consensus helps affirm those beliefs as valid and worthwhile; but when others reject one’s worldview and/or hold an alternative or competing set of beliefs, they raise the possibility that one’s own way of life might either be wrong or irrelevant as a path on the psychological quest to immortality. As a result, researchers hypothesized that death awareness might motivate people to engage in various potentially harmful behaviors (like force-choking people) to maintain the perceived legitimacy of their death-denying cultural beliefs.
Indeed, studies found that death awareness can cause people to express positive attitudes and support for people that share one’s beliefs, yet harsh negative and derogatory attitudes about people and information that threaten the legitimacy of their worldviews. But whereas derogating others and trivializing their beliefs might serve this existential Force, it doesn’t guarantee that those social threats to one’s worldview will be effectively eliminated…
However, there remains a figurative—and potentially literal—“nuclear option" (or "Death Star option", if you're a Grand Moff): simply annihilating the people and ideas that challenge one’s beliefs. And, sure enough, lab studies found that death reminders caused people to behave aggressively against people with opposing political views, and support war and terrorism against enemy nations. One study even found that threats to one’s beliefs can increase death-related thought, and that death-related thoughts can be reduced again by hearing news that the people with the competing beliefs had been killed. Yep, you read that correctly—killed; this is the level of Dark Side psychology going on here.
So, while understanding the existential Force can help us understand why people participate in cultural systems and seek self-esteem, the Dark Side of that Force can help us understand why people often have such a difficult time getting along. Indeed, from ancient to contemporary culture clashes, people around the world have engaged in street fights, terrorism, military incursions, and even full-scale genocides to emphasize the legitimacy and primacy of their beliefs—and this area of psychology research can help us understand why.
The Light Side
But if we look around, the world clearly isn’t all doom and gloom. In fact, as Steven Pinker tells us in his latest TED talk, the world is a healthier and more peaceful place than ever before. So we might ask, where does the existential Force fit in here? While some would argue the Empire hasn't been as bad as we think, I'll point instead to a growing body of research which has been quietly bringing balance to our understanding of this existential Force, revealing the power of the Light Side…
The logic is this: The existential Force motivates people to seek a sense of permanence by living up to their cultural worldviews. So, if our belief systems value physically healthy and morally “good” behaviors, then death awareness should motivate us to seek that sense of permanence by doing some lasting good. Makes sense, right? Let's have a look at 3 ways that death can be a force for good...
1. The Light Side of the existential Force can buoy our physical health.
Research found that death reminders boosted exercise intentions among people who based their self-esteem on exercise (but not those who didn’t base their self-worth on exercise). And in another study, when smoking was portrayed as “uncool,” death reminders boosted intentions to quit among those who smoked to maintain a favorable social image. Another study found that when college women were primed with the message that “bronze is beautiful,” death reminders increased tanning intentions—increasing risk for skin cancer; but when primed with “pale is pretty,” death reminders reduced tanning intentions. And still other research found that death reminders increased intentions to perform breast cancer self-exams when women were exposed to information that linked cancer screenings and self-examinations to self-empowerment.
2. The Light Side of the existential Force also extends to how we take care of our planet.
With the rising prominence of “green” environmental campaigns, many people are deriving a part of their identity from, and basing their self-esteem on, being an environmentally conscientious person. And research suggests that adhering to such environmental contingencies of self-worth can help manage death concerns. Similarly, studies have found that when pro-environmental social norms were made salient, death awareness increased sustainable behaviors—such as more sustainable behavior in a forest management game, and opting for reusable rather than disposable coffee cups. These findings suggest that when people value environmentalism, mortality awareness may trigger efforts to live up to those values and take better care of the planet.
3. The Light Side of the existential Force affects how we treat each other.
For example, studies found that when people value tolerance and egalitarianism, death awareness motivates people to behave in less derogatory, less punitive, and less prejudicial ways, and demonstrate more positive inter-racial attitudes. And additional research has found that empathy and pacifism can guide the existential Force toward non-violence and the forgiveness of others.
The Light Side of the existential Force can even make people more helpful in their daily lives. For instance, one field experiment demonstrated that when participants were walking on a sidewalk, and overheard a phone conversation that reminded them of the value of helping, a subtle death-reminder made them 40% more likely to stop and help someone who had tripped and spilled the contents of their backpack. This finding was also replicated in two additional field experiments, with outcomes like feeding the homeless, donating to ill children, and assisting the disabled.
Death can be good for life
So, yes, the existential Force can sometimes drift toward the Dark Side and motivate people to defend their belief systems in harsh and hawkish ways. But this existential Force isn’t inevitably negative or socially toxic—it can bend toward the Light Side as well, and move people to live up to positive standards and values: healthy exercise and cancer prevention; environmental concern and sustainability; and tolerance, non-violence, and day-to-day helpfulness; and so much more that we didn't discuss here. So, yes, death awareness can move people along more positive trajectories and, in this weird way, can be a good force in life.
May the Fourth be with you!
References
Portions of this post were based on the following article:
