He Dies, He Scores: Evidence That Reminders of Death Motivate Improved Performance in Basketball
Open accessAbstract
This research applied insights from terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) to the world of sport. According to TMT, self-esteem buffers against the potential for death anxiety. Because sport allows people to attain self-esteem, reminders of death may improve performance in sport. In Study 1, a mortality salience induction led to improved performance in a “one-on-one” basketball game. In Study 2, a subtle death prime led to higher scores on a basketball shooting task, which was associated with increased task-related self-esteem. These results may promote our understanding of sport and provide a novel potential way to improve athletic performance.
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Terror management theory views effective participation in close relationships and interpersonal relatedness as protecting against mortality awareness by maintaining a sense of value within the seemingly everlasting fabric of society.
“To begin with relatedness, TMT views effective participation in close relationships and interpersonal relatedness (as mentioned above) as protecting against mortality awareness by maintaining a sense of value within the seemingly everlasting fabric of society (see [36]).”
From An Appreciative View of the Brighter Side of Terror Management Processes (2015) · cites this paper as [36]
The TMT discussion (p. 3, indexed under Abstract) says that feeling valued within a meaningful, lasting cultural worldview can buffer anxiety about mortality. It does not identify effective participation in close relationships or interpersonal relatedness as the means of protection claimed here. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMortality salience enhances basketball performance.
“Other work has similarly shown that MS enhances basketball performance [36] and improves performance on academic tasks (e.g., reading comprehension) [37,38].”
From An Appreciative View of the Brighter Side of Terror Management Processes (2015) · cites this paper as [36]
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- Authors
- Zestcott, C. A., Lifshin, U., Helm, P., & Greenberg, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Arizona (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
- Publisher
- Human Kinetics
- Published
- 2016-10
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 470-480
- ISSN
- 0895-2779 (ISSN-L)
- 1543-2904
- OpenAlex
- W2531549388
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 4.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UA Campus Repository (The University of Arizona) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports
- Keywords
- mortality salience, terror management theory, fear of death, self-esteem, basketball performance, shooting accuracy
- MeSH terms
- Anxiety, Attitude to Death, Basketball, Humans, Male, Motivation, Psychological Theory, Self Concept, Athletic Performance, Young Adult
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