Mortality awareness drives conflict between competing worldviews

Evidence

According to terror management theory, the combination of a basic biological inclination toward self-preservation with sophisticated cognitive capacities renders us humans aware of our perpetual vulnerabilities and inevitable mortality, which gives rise to potentially paralyzing terror. Cultural worldviews and self-esteem help manage this terror by convincing us that we are special beings with souls and identities that will persist, literally and/or symbolically, long past our own physical death. We are thus pervasively preoccupied with maintaining confidence in our cultural scheme of things and satisfying the standards of value associated with it. But preserving faith in our cultural worldviews and self-esteem becomes challenging when we encounter others with different beliefs. Sinister complications almost inevitably ensue. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 476 (#expands, via linked claim)

Terror Management Theory takes a different perspective, focusing on less tangible resources and outcomes (Greenberg et al., 1997). The theory proposes that awareness of death causes people to experience the terror of their own meaninglessness. To counteract this terror, it is argued, people create cultural worldviews that give meaning and significance to their lives. These worldviews provide the possibility of symbolic or actual immortality to those who meet the group’s standards of value. Because of their often absolute nature, however, they are not impervious to threat and competition from other group’s worldviews. Group conflict and competition arise, then, because those with different worldviews are seen as suggesting that our worldview is incorrect, threatening the very basic premises on which the meaning and significance of our lives are based. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1488 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Bicultural individuals shift worldviews contextually under death threat — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory: Implications…, 82; Mortality salience can instigate real aggression against critics of one’s worldview. — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory: Implications…, 43; Fear of death drives conflict between competing worldviews (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Fear of death drives conflict between competing worldviews #expands (0.95)
• Awareness of mortality drives people to defend cultural worldviews that give life meaning. #expands (0.92) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1488
• Death-awareness drives humans to cling to cultural worldviews and self-esteem #expands (0.92) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 476
• Mortality threats drive group identification through perceived loss of control, not symbolic immortality. #complicates (0.74) — Immo Fritsche, Agency Through the We, 41