Does the Awareness of Mortality Shape People’s Openness to Violence and Conflict? An Examination of Terror Management Theory
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Terror management theory (TMT) proposes that evoking death‐related thoughts (mortality salience; MS) in individuals or groups can lead to stronger worldview defence and greater support for extremist violence. In three experiments, we tested whether an MS manipulation, and associated moderators, increased support for extremist violence. In Australian university students, Study 1 found no statistically significant main or moderated effects for MS on measures of extremist violence. However, participants exposed to the MS manipulation reported increases in conservative religiosity (belief in divine power). In Study 2, the MS manipulation had no significant effect on support for extremist violence for Australian university students primed with an antiviolent extremism norm. And in young Australian Jewish people (Study 3), the MS manipulation did not increase support for violence against migrants. However, there was an increase in support for policies that act to fight against violent extremism in Iraq and Syria in those exposed to the MS manipulation. Across three studies, we find little support for the hypothesis that MS results in increased support for violent extremism. Larger more methodological sound studies are needed to address inconsistencies in the evidence surrounding TMT and the MS hypothesis, at least in regards to violence and extremism.
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These null findings add to a growing list of recent TMT studies that failed to replicate basic MS effects in reasonable, or even ideal, conditions.
“These null findings add to a growing list of recent TMT studies that failed to replicate basic MS effects in reasonable, or even ideal, conditions [47–50].”
From Not so terrifying after all? A set of failed replications of the mortality salience effects of Terror Management Theory (2023) · cites this paper as [48]
There have long been failures to replicate some of the basic effects seen in the TMT literature.
“There have also long been failures to replicate some of the basic effects seen in TMT literature [e.g., Ochsman, personal communication, cited in 27], even with meticulous methods, faithful experimental conditions, and enviable sample sizes [31, 32, 47–50].”
From Not so terrifying after all? A set of failed replications of the mortality salience effects of Terror Management Theory (2023) · cites this paper as [48]
Other failures to replicate also included young and/or undergraduate samples.
“However, other failures to replicate also included young and/or undergraduate samples [47–50].”
From Not so terrifying after all? A set of failed replications of the mortality salience effects of Terror Management Theory (2023) · cites this paper as [48]
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- Authors
- Vergani, M., O'Brien, K. S., Lentini, P., & Barton, G.
- Affiliations
- Deakin University (AU)
- Monash University
- Monash University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Vergani, Matteo
- Venue
- Political Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-03-12
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 111-124
- ISSN
- 0162-895X (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9221
- OpenAlex
- W2794022509
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 3.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Locations
- Political Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- terror management theory, mortality salience, death-related thoughts, violent extremism, religiosity, violence against migrants
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