Toward a Biological Understanding of Mortality Salience (And Other Threat Compensation Processes)

Tritt, Shona M.; Inzlicht, Michael; Harmon-Jones, Eddie

doi:10.1521/soco.2012.30.6.715

Cited by 60Death Anxiety and Social ExclusionDeath, Funerary Practices, and MourningAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Toward a Biological Understanding of Mortality Salience (And Other Threat Compensation Processes)

Tritt, Shona M., Inzlicht, Michael, Harmon-Jones, Eddie·2012·Social Cognition

DOI 10.1521/soco.2012.30.6.715

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Abstract

Terror management theorists have proposed explanations of why death anxiety has a special status beyond other anxieties and furthermore argue that awareness of death elicits a defense mechanism that is qualitatively different from other sorts of threat-defense mechanisms. Our review suggests that the biological mechanisms through which thoughts of mortality motivate defensive behavior are not unique. Rather, we propose that an evolutionarily primitive, biologically based anxiety system underlies mortality salience (MS) effects. Death anxiety may well be a mainspring of human activity, yet we suggest that a fundamental set of biological responses to uncertainty—and the processes associated with them—lie at the root of MS defenses. Our proposed motivational account of mortality salience provides a biologically informed, mechanistic elucidation of threat-compensation processes that may be applied to a wide range of social psychological phenomena.

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From Extension of the Transdiagnostic Model to Focus on Intolerance of Uncertainty: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Treatment (2014) · cites this paper as Tritt, Inzlicht, & Harmon-Jones, 2012

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Authors: Tritt, S. M., Inzlicht, M., & Harmon-Jones, E.
Affiliations: University of Toronto Scarborough (CA)
ORCID: Tritt, Shona M.
Inzlicht, Michael
Venue: Social Cognition
Publisher: Guilford Publications
Published: 2012-12
Volume: 30
Issue: 6
Pages: 715-733
ISSN: 0278-016X (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1521/soco.2012.30.6.715
OpenAlex: W1963583411
Cited by: 60
References: 114
Citations by year: 2025: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
FWCI: 8.69
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Social Cognition (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Keywords: mortality salience, fear of death, terror management theory, uncertainty, evolutionary psychology, defensive behavior

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Toward a Biological Understanding of Mortality Salience (And Other Threat Compensation Processes)

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