Terror Management Theory and Research: How the Desire for Death Transcendence Drives Our Strivings for Meaning and Significance

Science tells us that humans are merely animals that evolved to survive long enough to reproduce and care for offspring before dying. Yet, people want to view life as something more and accomplish something more: to have lives that are meaningful and significant. According to terror management theory, these desires spring from the human awareness of our own vulnerability and mortality. This awareness creates a unique ever-present potential for experiencing terror. To manage this potential, cultural worldviews have been constructed to imbue life with meaning and with possibilities for individuals to attain enduring significance (self-esteem). Humans function relatively securely as long as they sustain faith in such a worldview and their value within it because it provides them with the sense that they are not just transient animals fated only to obliteration; rather they will in some way transcend their own death. The theory has been supported by over 500 studies, clarifying how we humans manage this potential terror. We briefly summarize the roots and core of the theory and evidence, and branches of research pertinent to politics, religion, love, family, health, and neuroscience. We conclude by considering how death relates to other threats, and positive forms of terror management.