Self-esteem buffers people against death-related anxiety.

Evidence

TMT proposes that self-esteem protects individuals from the anxiety that arises as they become awareness of their own demise, and thus functions as a buffer against mortality reminders (Greenberg et al., 1992, 1993; Harmon-Jones et al., 1997). — Enny Das, Brad J. Bushman, Marieke D. Bezemer, Peter Kerkhof, Ivar E. Vermeulen, How Terrorism News Reports Increase…, 113

Categorization

• DEFINE: A concise statement of self-esteem’s anxiety-buffering role in terror management theory.

Related

• Worldview and self-esteem defense is bidirectional with death-thought accessibility. (similarity 0.83)
• Self-esteem functions as protection against the terror of death (similarity 0.82)
• Self-esteem is embodied, not just mental, and blunts death-anxiety (similarity 0.81)
• High self-esteem and optimism enable constructive responses to death threats. (similarity 0.80)
• Mortality awareness collides with survival instincts to produce existential terror (similarity 0.80)
• Boosting self-esteem reduces measurable physiological anxiety responses (similarity 0.79)
• Mortality reminders increase perceived in-group entitativity, buffering death anxiety. (similarity 0.78)