Terror management theory posits that human awareness of the inevitability of death exerts a
profound influence on diverse aspects of human thought, emotion, motivation, and behavior.
People manage the potential for anxiety that results from this awareness by maintaining:(1)
faith in the absolute validity of their cultural worldviews and (2) self-esteem by living up to the
standards of value that are part of their worldviews. In this chapter, we take stock of the past
30 years of research and conceptual development inspired by this theory. After a brief�…