Terror management theory and selfesteem: Evidence that increased self-esteem reduces mortality salience effects

On the basis of the terror management theory proposition that self-esteem provides protection against concerns about mortality, it was hypothesized that self-esteem would reduce the worldview defense produced by mortality salience (MS). The results of Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed this hypothesis by showing that individuals with high self-esteem ( anipulated in Experiment 1;dispositional in Experiment 2)did not respond to MS with increased worldview defense, whereas individuals with moderate self-esteem did. The results of Experiment 3 suggested that the effects of the first 2 experiments may have occurred because high self-esteem facilitates the suppression f death con-structs following MS. The questions of why individuals need self-esteem and how they cope with their awareness of death are challenging ones that have fascinated and puzzled philosophers and social theo-rists (e.g., Plato, Kierkegaard, Norman Brown, William James) for centuries. Terror management theory, based primarily on th