- Title
- Fear of self-annihilation and existential uncertainty as predictors of worldview defense: comparing terror management and uncertainty theories
- Creator
- Rubin, Mark
- Relation
- Journal of Social Psychology Vol. 158, Issue 3, p. 298-308
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2017.1341375
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Terror management theory (TMT) proposes that thoughts of death trigger a concern about self-annihilation that motivates the defense of cultural worldviews. In contrast, uncertainty theorists propose that thoughts of death trigger feelings of uncertainty that motivate worldview defense. University students (N = 414) completed measures of the chronic fear of self-annihilation and existential uncertainty as well as the need for closure. They then evaluated either a meaning threat stimulus or a control stimulus. Consistent with TMT, participants with a high fear of self-annihilation and a high need for closure showed the greatest dislike of the meaning threat stimulus, even after controlling for their existential uncertainty. Contrary to the uncertainty perspective, fear of existential uncertainty showed no significant effects.
- Subject
- meaning threat; need for closure; terror management theory; uncertainty
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1384882
- Identifier
- uon:32132
- Identifier
- ISSN:0022-4545
- Rights
- This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor and Francis the Journal of Social Psychology on 31/08/2017, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224545.2017.1341375.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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