A terror management analysis of the psychological functions of religion

Personality and Social Psychology Review

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 84-94

  Vail, Kenneth E ^a   Rothschild, Zachary K ^b   Weise, Dave R ^c   Solomon, Sheldon ^d   Pyszczynski, Tom ^e   Greenberg, Jeff ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA   (United States)

^d SKIDMORE COLLEGE   (United States)

^e UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO   (United States)

Author keywords

Death; Faith; God; Meaning; Mortality; Religion; Sacred; Spiritual; Supernatural; Terror management

Indexed keywords

EID: 75849137112     PISSN: 10888683     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1088868309351165     Document Type: Article

References (93)

1. Allport, G.W. (1950). The individual and his religion. New York: Macmillan.
2. Altemeyer, B. (2003). Why do religious fundamentalists tend to be prejudiced? International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 13, 17-28.
3. Altemeyer, B., & Hunsberger, B. (1992). Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, quest, and prejudice. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2, 113-133.
4. Arndt, J., Cook, A., Goldenberg, J.L., & Cox, C.R. (2007). Cancer and the threat of death: The cognitive dynamics of death thought suppression and its impact on behavioral health intentions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 12-29.
5. Batson, C.D., Eidelman, S.H., Higley, S.L., & Russell, S.A. (2001). And who is my neighbor? II: Quest religion as a source of universal compassion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40, 39-50.
6. Batson, C.D., Schoenrade, P., & Ventis, L.W. (1993). Religion and the individual: A social psychological perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.
7. Batson, C.D., & Stocks, E.L. (2004). Religion: Its core psychological function. In J. Greenberg, S. L. Koole, & T. Pyszczynski (Eds.), Handbook of experimental existential psychology (pp. 141-155). New York: Guilford.
8. Becker, E. (1962). The birth and death of meaning. New York: Free Press.
9. Becker, E. (1973). The denial of death. New York: Free Press.
10. Bering, J.M. (2006). The cognitive psychology of belief in the supernatural. In P. MacNamara (Ed.), Where God and science meet: How brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religion (Vol. 1): Evolution, genes, and the religious brain. Psychology, religion, and spirituality (pp. 138-148). Westport, CT: Praeger.
11. Bloom, P. (2005). Is god an accident? Atlantic Monthly, 296, 105-112.
12. Boyer, P. (2001). Religion explained: The evolutionary origins of religious thought. New York: Basic Books.
13. Broida, J., Tingley, L., Kimball, R., & Miele, J. (1993). Personality differences between pro- and anti-vivisectionists. Society and Animals, 1, 129-144.
14. Brown, N.O. (1959). Life against death: The psychoanalytical meaning of history. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
15. Burke, E. (2001). Reflections on the revolution in France. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. (Original work published 1790).
16. Burkert, W. (1996). Creation of the sacred: Tracks of biology in early religions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
17. Bushman, B.J., Ridge, R.D., Das, E., Key, C.W., & Busath, G.L. (2007). When god sanctions killing: Effect of scriptural violence on aggression. Psychological Science, 18, 204-207.
18. Castano, E. (2004). In case of death, cling to the ingroup. European Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 375-384.
19. Cohen, F., Sullivan, D., Solomon, S., Ogilvie, D.M., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2009). Finding everland: Flight fantasies and the desire to transcend mortality. Unpublished manuscript.
20. Cox, C.R., Goldenberg, J.L., Pyszczynski, T., & Weise, D. (2007). Disgust, creatureliness and the accessibility of death-related thoughts. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 494-507.
21. Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. New York: Oxford University Press.
22. Dawkins, R. (2006). The god delusion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
23. Dechesne, M., Pyszczynski, T., Arndt, J., Ransom, S., Sheldon, K.M., van Knippenberg, A.,et al.(2003). Literal and symbolic immortality: The effect of evidence of literal immortality on self-esteem striving in response to mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 722-737.
24. DeLeeuw, J.L., Galen, L.W., Aebersold, C., & Stanton, V. (2007). Support for animal rights as a function of belief in evolution, religious fundamentalism, and religious domination. Society and Animals, 15, 353-363.
25. Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: Norton.
26. Durkheim, E. (1995). The elementary forms of religious life. New York: Free Press. (Original work published 1912).
27. Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1956). Nuer religion. New York: Oxford University Press.
28. Fischer, P., Greitmeyer, T., Kastenmuller, A., Jonas, E., & Frey, D. (2006). Coping with terrorism: The impact of increased salience of terrorism on mood and self-efficacy of intrinsically religious and nonreligious people. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 365-377.
29. Florian, V., & Kravetz, S. (1983). Fear of personal death: Attribution, structure, and relations to religious belief. Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 44, 600-607.
30. Florian, V., & Mikulincer, M. (1998). Symbolic immortality and the management of the terror of death. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 725-734.
31. Freud, S. (1927). The future of an illusion. New York: Norton.
32. Friedman, M., & Rholes, W.S. (2007). Successfully challenging fundamentalists beliefs results in increased death awareness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 794-801.
33. Friedman, M., & Rholes, W.S. (2008). Religious fundamentalism and terror management. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 18, 36-52.
34. Fromm, E. (1950). Psychoanalysis and religion. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
35. Fromm, E. (1955). The dogma of Christ and other essays on religion, psychology and culture. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett.
36. Gailliot, M.T., Sillman, T.F., Schmeichel, B.J., Maner, J.K., & Plant, E.A. (2008). Mortality salience increases adherence to salient norms and values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 993-1003.
37. Gandhi, M.K. (1948). Gandhi's autobiography: The story of my experiments with truth (M. Desai, Trans.). Washington DC: Public Affairs Press.
38. Ginges, J., Hansen, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2009). Religion and support for suicide attacks. Psychological Science, 20, 224-230.
39. Goldenberg, J.L., & Hart, J. (2009). Distancing from the body as a reaction to death reminders among spiritual people. Unpublished manuscript.
40. Goldenberg, J.L., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Kluck, B., & Cornwell, R. (2001). I am not an animal: Mortality salience, disgust, and the denial of human creatureliness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 427-435.
41. Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. In R. F. Baumeister (Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 189-212). New York: Springer-Verlag.
42. Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Rosenblatt, A., Veeder, M., Kirkland, S.,et al.(1990). Evidence for terror management II: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the cultural worldview. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 308-318.
43. Greenberg, J., Simon, L., Porteus, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1995). Evidence of a terror management function of cultural icons: The effects of mortality salience on the inappropriate use of cherished cultural symbols. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 1221-1228.
44. Greenberg, J., Simon, L., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Chatel, D. (1992). Terror management and tolerance: Does mortality salience always intensify negative reactions to others who threaten one's worldview? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 212-220.
45. Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Arndt, J. (2008). A basic but uniquely human motivation: Terror management. In J. Y. Shah & W. L. Gardner (Eds.), Handbook of motivation science (pp. 114-134). New York: Guilford.
46. Greenberg, J., Sullivan, D., Kosloff, S., & Solomon, S. (2006). Souls do not live by cognitive inclinations alone, but by the desire to exist beyond death as well. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29, 474-475.
47. Harding, S.R., Flannelly, K.J., Weaver, A.J., & Costa, K.G. (2005). The influence of religion on death anxiety and death acceptance. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 8, 253-261.
48. Harmon-Jones, E., Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & McGregor, H. (1997). Terror management theory and self-esteem: Evidence that increase self-esteem reduces mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 24-36.
49. Harris, S. (2004). The end of faith: Religion, terror and the future of reason. New York: Norton.
50. Hayes, J., Schimel, J., & Williams, T.J. (2008). Evidence for the death thought accessibility hypothesis II: Threatening self-esteem increases the accessibility of death thoughts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 600-613.
51. Henderson-King, D., Henderson-King, E., Bolea, B., Koches, K., & Kauffman, A. (2004). Seeking understanding or sending bombs: Beliefs as predictors of responses to terrorism. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 10, 67-84.
52. Hirschberger, G., & Ein-dor, T. (2006). Defenders of a lost cause: Terror management and violent resistance to the disengagement plan. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 761-769.
53. Hitchens, C. (2007). God is not great: How religion poisons everything. New York: Twelve.
54. James, W. (1902). The varieties of religious experience. New York: Penguin.
55. Jonas, E., & Fischer, P. (2006). Terror management and religion- Evidence that intrinsic religiousness mitigates worldview defense following mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 553-567.
56. Jonas, E., Fritsche, I., & Greenberg, J. (2005). Currencies as cultural symbols-An existential psychological perspective on reactions of Germans toward the euro. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26, 129-146.
57. Jonas, E., Schimel, J., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2002). The Scrooge effect: Evidence that mortality salience increases prosocial attitudes and behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1342-1353.
58. Kirkpatrick, L.A. (2004). Attachment, evolution, and the psychology of religion. Portland, OR: Guilford.
59. Kirkpatrick, L.A., & Navarrete, C.D. (2006). Reports of my death anxiety have been greatly exaggerated: A critique of terror management theory from an evolutionary perspective. Psychological Inquiry, 17, 288-298.
60. Laythe, B., Finkel, D., & Kirkpatrick, L.A. (2001). Predicting prejudice from religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism: A multiple-regression approach. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40, 1-10.
61. Marx, K. (1843). Critique of Hegel's philosophy of right. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
62. McGregor, I. (2006). Offensive defensiveness: Toward an integrative neuroscience of compensatory zeal after mortality salience, personal uncertainty, and other poignant self-threats. Psychological Inquiry, 17, 299-308.
63. Mikulincer, M., Florian, V., & Hirschberger, G. (2003). The existential function of close relationships: Introducing death into the science of love. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 20-40.
64. Mithen, S. (1996). Evolution of social behaviour patterns in primates and man. New York: Oxford University Press.
65. Motyl, M., Pyszczynski, T., Cox, C., Siedel, A., Maxfield, M., & Weise, D.R. (2009). We are family: The effects of mortality salience and priming a sense of common humanity on inter-group prejudice. Manuscript submitted for publication.
66. Nelson, L.L., & Milburn, T.W. (1999). Relationships between problem-solving competencies and militaristic attitudes: Implications for peace education. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 5, 149-168.
67. Nietzsche, F. (1974). The gay science. New York: Vintage. (Original work published 1887).
68. Norenzayan, A., & Hansen, I.G. (2006). Belief in supernatural agents in the face of death. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 174-187.
69. Osarchuk, M., & Tatz, S.J. (1973). Effect of induced fear of death on belief in afterlife. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 256-260.
70. Pargament, K.I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. New York: Guilford.
71. Pew Research Center. (2002). Among wealthy nations U.S. stands alone in its embrace of religion. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=167.
72. Pichon, I., Boccato, G., & Saroglou, V. (2007). Nonconscious influences of religion on prosociality: A priming study. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 1032-1045.
73. Proulx, T., & Heine, S.J. (2006). Death and black diamonds: Meaning, mortality, and the meaning maintenance model. Psychological Inquiry, 17, 309-318.
74. Pyszczynski, T., Abdollahi, A., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Cohen, F., & Weise, D. (2006). Mortality salience, martyrdom, and military might: The great Satan versus the axis of evil. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 525-537.
75. Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Maxfield, M. (2006). On the unique psychological import of the human awareness of mortality: Theme and variations. Psychological Inquiry, 17, 328-356.
76. Pyszczynski, T., Motyl, M.S., Vail, K.E., III, Hirschberger, G., Rothschild, Z.K., & Arndt, J. (2009). The sunny side of global warming: Mortality salience and the impact of superordinate threats on attitudes toward war and peace. Manuscript submitted for publication.
77. Rank, O. (1950). Will therapy and truth and reality. New York: Knopf. (Original work published 1936).
78. Rothschild, Z., Abdollahi, A., & Pyszczynski, T. (2009). Does peace have a prayer? Effects of mortality salience, religious fundamentalism, and compassionate values on hostility toward the outgroup in the United States and Iran. Manuscript submitted for publication.
79. Routledge, C., & Arndt, J. (2008). Self-sacrifice as self-defense: Mortality salience increases efforts to affirm a symbolic immortal self at the expense of the physical self. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 531-541.
80. Schimel, J., Hayes, J., Williams, T.J., & Jahrig, J. (2007). Is death really the worm at the core? Converging evidence that worldview threat increases death-thought accessibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 789-803.
81. Schoenrade, P.A. (1989). When I die...: Belief in afterlife as a response to mortality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15, 91-100.
82. Shariff, A.F., & Norenzayan, A. (2007). God is watching you: Priming God concepts increases prosocial behavior in an anonymous economic game. Psychological Science, 18, 803-809.
83. Sloan-Wilson, D. (2002). Darwin's cathedral: Evolution, religion, and the nature of society. London: University of Chicago Press.
84. Smith, T.B., McCullough, M.E., & Poll, J. (2003). Religiousness and depression: Evidence for a main effect and the moderating influence of stressful life events. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 614-636.
85. Spilka, B., Stout, L., Minton, B., & Sizemore, D. (1977). Death and personal faith: A psychometric investigation. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 16, 169-178.
86. Templer, D.I. (1970). Death anxiety in religiously very involved persons. Psychological Reports, 31, 361-362.
87. Tillich, P. (1952). The courage to be. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
88. Toft, M. (2007). Getting religion? International Security, 31, 97-131.
89. Vail, K.E., III, Motyl, M.S., & Arndt, J. (2009). The rage of the religious right: The mediating role of right-wing authoritarianism in the political and social attitudes of religious fundamentalism. Unpublished manuscript, University of Missouri-Columbia.
90. Vess, M., & Arndt, J. (2009). One with nature: The impact of mortality salience and religious fundamentalism on feeling connected to the natural world. Unpublished manuscript. University of Missouri-Columbia.
91. Vess, M., Routledge, C.D., Landau, M.J., & Arndt, J. (in press). The dynamics of death and meaning: The effects of death-relevant cognitions and personal need for structure on perceptions of meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
92. Watson, P. (2005). Ideas: A history of thought and invention from fire to Freud. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
93. Wright, R. (2009). The evolution of God. New York: Little, Brown. Yalom, I.D. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.