Kenneth E. Vail

A Terror Management Analysis of the Psychological Functions of Religion

From a terror management theory (TMT) perspective, religion serves to manage the potential terror engendered by the uniquely human awareness of death by affording a sense of psychological security and hope of immortality. Although secular beliefs can also serve a terror management function, religious beliefs are particularly well suited to mitigate death anxiety because they are all encompassing, rely on concepts that are not easily disconfirmed, and promise literal immortality. Research is reviewed demonstrating that mortality salience produces increased belief in afterlife, supernatural agency, human ascension from nature, and spiritual distinctions between mind and body. The social costs and benefits of religious beliefs are considered and compared to those of secular worldviews. The terror management functions of, and benefits and costs associated with, different types of religious orientation, such as intrinsic religiosity, quest, and religious fundamentalism, are then examined. Finally, the TMT analysis is compared to other accounts of religion.

When Death is Good for Life: Considering the Positive Trajectories of Terror Management

Research derived from terror management theory (TMT) has shown that people’s efforts to manage the awareness of death often have deleterious consequences for the individual and society. The present article takes a closer look at the conceptual foundations of TMT and considers some of the more beneficial trajectories of the terror management process. The awareness of mortality can motivate people to enhance their physical health and prioritize growth-oriented goals; live up to positive standards and beliefs; build supportive relationships and encourage the development of peaceful, charitable communities; and foster open-minded and growth-oriented behaviors. The article also tentatively explores the potential enriching impact of direct encounters with death. Overall, the present analysis suggests that although death awareness can, at times, generate negative outcomes, it can also function to move people along more positive trajectories and contribute to the good life.

Exploring the Existential Function of Religion and Supernatural Agent Beliefs Among Christians, Muslims, Atheists, and Agnostics

Building on research suggesting one primary function of religion is the management of death awareness, the present research explored how supernatural beliefs are influenced by the awareness of death, for whom, and how individuals’ extant beliefs determine which god(s), if any, are eligible to fulfill that function. In Study 1, death reminders had no effect among Atheists, but enhanced Christians’ religiosity, belief in a higher power, and belief in God/Jesus and enhanced denial of Allah and Buddha. Similarly, death reminders increased Muslims’ religiosity and belief in a higher power, and led to greater belief in Allah and denial of God/Jesus and Buddha (Study 2). Finally, in Study 3, death reminders motivated Agnostics to increase their religiosity, belief in a higher power, and their faith in God/Jesus, Buddha, and Allah. The studies tested three potential theoretical explanations and were consistent with terror management theory’s worldview defense hypothesis. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Nostalgia fosters self-continuity : Uncovering the mechanism (social connectedness) and consequence (eudaimonic well-being)

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for ones past, is an emotion that arises from self-relevant and social memories. Nostalgia functions, in part, to foster self-continuity, that is, a sense of connection between ones past and ones present. This article examined, in 6 experiments, how nostalgia fosters self-continuity and the implications of that process for well-being. Nostalgia fosters self-continuity by augmenting social connectedness, that is, a sense of belongingness and acceptance (Experiments 1-4). Nostalgia-induced self-continuity, in turn, confers eudaimonic well-being, operationalized as subjective vitality (i.e., a feeling of aliveness and energy; Experiments 5-6). The findings clarify and expand the benefits of nostalgia for both the self-system and psychological adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record

Support for Diplomacy: Peacemaking and Militarism as a Unidimensional Correlate of Social, Environmental, and Political Attitudes

The Support for Diplomacy Scale (SDS) was developed to establish the unidimensional nature of peacemaking and militaristic attitudes. Across 5 studies, all 12 SDS items loaded onto a single factor, with peaceful diplomacy at one pole and militarism at the other. The SDS was associated with authoritarianism (Studies 1-4) and dogmatism (Study 4), as well as measures of religious fundamentalism, immigration attitudes, universalism, and environmentalism (Study 2). In Study 3, the SDS mediated the relation between just peacemaking and measures of (a) voting intentions prior to the 2008 Presidential election, (b) militarism, and (c) resistance to moral disengagement from war. The SDS also predicted voting behavior in the 2008 Presidential election (Study 4) and mediated the relation between political orientation and foreign policy attitudes toward Iran (Study 5).

The interactive effect of mortality reminders and tobacco craving on smoking topography.

OBJECTIVE Although fatal consequences of smoking are often highlighted in health communications, the question of how awareness of death affects actual smoking behavior has yet to be addressed. Two experiments informed by the terror management health model were conducted to examine this issue. Previous research suggests that the effects of mortality reminders on health-related decisions are often moderated by relevant individual difference or situational variables. Thus, a moderated effect was hypothesized here, and cigarette cravings were tentatively explored in this regard. METHODS In both studies, relatively light smokers completed a brief questionnaire about cigarette cravings, were reminded of their mortality or a control topic, and then smoked five puffs from a cigarette while the topography (i.e., volume, duration, and velocity) of their inhalations was recorded. RESULTS Significant craving × death reminder interactions emerged in both experiments. After reminders of mortality, stronger cravings predicted greater smoking intensity. Further, reminders of mortality increased smoking intensity for those with stronger cravings in both studies, and there was also some indication that mortality reminders decreased smoking intensity for those with weaker cravings. CONCLUSIONS Although there are limitations in the present researchs utilization of light smokers as opposed to heavy smokers, these findings indicate a nuanced effect of mortality reminders on smoking intensity and suggest that careful consideration needs to be given to when and how reminders of death are used in communications about smoking. The discussion also highlights the benefits of social psychologically informed theory for understanding health and smoking behavior.

Hails From the Crypt A Terror Management Health Model Investigation of the Effectiveness of Health-Oriented Versus Celebrity-Oriented Endorsements

Interfacing the terror management health model with the meaning transfer model, we offer novel hypotheses concerning the effectiveness of celebrity and medical endorsements for consumer products and health behavior decisions. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that, compared with control topic primes, death thoughts in focal attention increased the effectiveness of health-oriented (doctor) endorsers but not culture-oriented (celebrity) endorsers, whereas death thoughts outside of focal attention increased the effectiveness of culture-oriented endorsers but not health-oriented endorsers. Studies 3 and 4 then focus more specifically on the valence and specificity of culture-oriented endorsements, revealing that death thoughts outside focal attention increase the effectiveness of culture-oriented endorsers only on the behaviors specifically endorsed and only when the endorser is characterized as possessing cultural value. Discussion focuses on everyday management of existential concerns and implications for persuasive communications in the health domain.

The Effect of Visualizing Healthy Eaters and Mortality Reminders on Nutritious Grocery Purchases: An Integrative Terror Management and Prototype Willingness Analysis

OBJECTIVE To use insights from an integration of the terror management health model and the prototype willingness model to inform and improve nutrition-related behavior using an ecologically valid outcome. METHOD Prior to shopping, grocery shoppers were exposed to a reminder of mortality (or pain) and then visualized a healthy (vs. neutral) prototype. Receipts were collected postshopping and food items purchased were coded using a nutrition database. RESULTS Compared with those in the control conditions, participants who received the mortality reminder and who were led to visualize a healthy eater prototype purchased more nutritious foods. CONCLUSION The integration of the terror management health model and the prototype willingness model has the potential for both basic and applied advances and offers a generative ground for future research.

Guest editors' foreword: On the importance of integrating terror management and psychology of religion

Since its original formulation 30 years ago, Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) has developed into a dominant and generative research program in social psychology, spawning well over 500 studies and garnering over 1000 hits on the American Psychological Association PsycINFO database. Like many successful theories, TMT has evolved over time, and grown in complexity. However, the core of the theory may be succinctly stated: TMT posits that much of human thought and action is an attempt to mitigate humanity’s anxiety about mortality. In support of this position, hundreds of experimental studies have found that the activation of deathrelated thoughts has wide-ranging and surprising effects. For example, when reminded of their deaths, people attempt to enhance their self-esteem, express a desire for more offspring, become more punitive of cultural norm violators, become more nationalistic, become more racially prejudiced, and become more likely to support politically conservative leaders (see Burke, Martens, & Faucher, 2010 for meta-analysis). TMT theorists argue that the search for symbolic immortality and the expression of heightened worldview defense represent personal attempts by people to align themselves with something that will survive beyond their own death: a reputation, a family, a cultural group, a nation, or even an abstract ideal to be upheld by others for generations. Some research has also found proximal defense mechanisms by which individuals attempt to deny the reality or inevitability of their mortality, for example by underestimating their mortality risk (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, & Solomon, 1999). Notably, relatively little of the empirical research in Terror Management Theory has looked into its relevance to religion (e.g., Heflick & Goldenberg, 2012; Vail, Arndt, & Abdollahi, 2012; van den Bos et al., 2012; Vess, Arndt, & Cox, 2012). This gap is surprising because religious beliefs offer both personal and symbolic immortality. On the face of it, religion appears to be the paradigmatic means by which to manage our terror of death in which we can belong to something larger than ourselves that will live on past any individual believer, but also due to the promise of an immortal afterlife. Such a position was held by American cultural anthropologist Ernst Becker, commonly regarded as the philosophical source of modern TMT (Becker, 1973; Jong, 2014). Recently, TMT theorists have also claimed that “religious worldviews provide a uniquely powerful form of existential security. Indeed, there may be no antidote to the human fear of death quite like religion” (Vail et al., 2010, p. 65). This special edition of Religion, Brain, and Behavior (RBB) reviews the state-of-the-art in TMT research on religion. We strongly believe that there can and should be important and fruitful interaction between the multidisciplinary readers of RBB and social scientists interested in the psychological role of existential concerns. Given the recent cognitive turn in the scientific study of religion, TMT can contribute by making salient the motivational and affective aspects of religion. Conversely, TMT stands to benefit from submitting itself to critical engagement by RBB readers, whose expertise in religion as a content area is much needed in social psychology. Only through collaboration between the fields of the scientific study of religion and the traditional social sciences that are studying TMT can TMT grow, ultimately leading to a greater understanding of religion’s role in the denial of death.

The impact of mortality awareness on meaning in life among Christians and atheists

ABSTRACT Research derived from terror management theory suggests that reliance on a terror-managing set of beliefs when reminded of death can influence one’s perception of meaning in life. The present research builds on prior work suggesting that religious concepts help to manage the awareness of death, and expands on that work to explore the challenges of religious and atheistic terror management. It was hypothesized that religious participants would be able to sustain perceived meaning in life when reminded of death, but that atheists would be vulnerable to a reduction in meaning when reminded of death. To test that idea, Christians and atheists were first reminded of either mortality or a control topic, and then asked to rate how strongly they felt life was meaningful. Results indicated that ratings of meaning in life were lower in the mortality salience condition, relative to the control condition, among the atheists but not among the Christians. Implications regarding religious and non-religious terror management strategies are discussed.