Failure causes fear: the effect of self-esteem threat on death-anxiety.
According to terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, 1986), self-esteem protects people from anxiety associated with the knowledge of certain mortality. A number of studies provide evidence consistent with this assertion, but no studies have experimentally examined the effect of threatened self-esteem on death-anxiety. In the current study, self-esteem was manipulated and death-anxiety measured. A self-esteem threat increased death-anxiety relative to a self-esteem boost and non-self threat control condition.
North Dakota State University, Department of Psychology, Fargo, ND 58108-6050, USA. Clay.Routledge@ndsu.edu
Clay
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Routledge
D000124:Achievement; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D012649:Self Concept; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires