Death & What Follows

Terror Management Theory

mainstream Contemporary 1986 (Greenberg, Pyszczynski & Solomon), building on Ernest Becker's "The Denial of Death," 1973

A well-tested psychological theory (not itself a claim about what actually happens after death) proposing that awareness of our own mortality is a uniquely human source of existential anxiety, and that cultural worldviews, religious beliefs, self-esteem, and a great deal of ordinary human behavior function partly to manage that anxiety.

Proponents

Ernest Becker, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, Sheldon Solomon

Evidence For

Hundreds of published experiments have found that briefly reminding people of their own mortality ("mortality salience") reliably and measurably shifts their behavior toward defending their cultural worldview and in-group, exactly as the theory predicts.

Evidence Against

The theory explains why death-related beliefs would be psychologically appealing regardless of whether they are true, which critics note means it can't by itself settle any of the actual metaphysical questions this domain is about — only why humans are motivated to have opinions on them.

Real Sources

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