Category: Resources

Terror Management Theory criticism

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A list of academic criticism of Terror Management Theory (TMT), and also efforts to replicate original studies

(ordered chronologically by date first published)

1997. David M. Buss – ‘Human Social Motivation in Evolutionary Perspective: Grounding Terror Management Theory’, Psychological Enquiry, January 1997. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/246399872_Human_Social_Motivation_in_Evolutionary_Perspective_Grounding_Terror_Management_Theory.

2002. Mark R. Leary and Lisa S. Schreindorfer – ‘Unresolved Issues With Terror Management Theory’, EBSCO Publishing, 2002. http://plaza.ufl.edu/phallman/terror%20management%20theory/7390252.pdf.

2005. Carlos David Navarrete and Daniel M.T. Fessler – ‘Normative Bias and Adaptive Challenges: A Relational Approach to Coalitional Psychology and a Critique of Terror Management Theory’, Evolutionary Psychology, 2005. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/147470490500300121.

2006. Lee A. Kirkpatrick & Carlos David Navarrette – ‘Reports of My Death Anxiety Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: A Critique of Terror Management Theory from an Evolutionary Perspective’, Psychological Enquiry, 2006. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10478400701366969.

2008. Wissink et al. – ‘Replication of “Terror management and adults’ attachment to their parents: The safe haven remains” by CR Cox, J Arndt, T Pyszczynski, J Greenberg, A Abdollahi, S Solomon’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2008. https://osf.io/5tbxf/.

2011. Zachary P. Hohman, Michael A. Hogg – ‘Fear and uncertainty in the face of death: The role of life after death in group identification’, European Journal of Social Psychology, June 2011. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.818.

2014. Lambert et al. – ‘Toward a greater understanding of the emotional dynamics of the mortality salience manipulation: revisiting the “affect-free” claim of terror management research’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, May 2014. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24749817/.

2019. Bjørn Sætrevik & Hallgeir Sjåstad – ‘Mortality salience effects fail to replicate in traditional and novel measures’, May 2019. https://psyarxiv.com/dkg53.

2019. Javier Rodríguez-Ferreiro et al. – ‘Are we truly special and unique? A replication of Goldenberg et al. (2001)’, Royal Society Open Science, November 2019. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.191114.

2019. Klein et al. – ‘Many Labs 4: Failure to Replicate Mortality Salience Effect With and Without Original Author Involvement’, December 2019. https://psyarxiv.com/vef2c.

BONUS

And just for completeness really, here are a couple of the early foundational TMT studies:

1986. Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, and Sheldon Solomon – ‘The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: a terror management theory’, Springer Series in Social Psychology, January 1986. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313613028_The_causes_and_consequences_of_a_need_for_self-esteem_a_terror_management_theory.

1994. Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, Sheldon Solomon, Linda Simon, and Michael Breus – ‘Role of Consciousness and Accessibility of Death-Related Thoughts in Mortality Salience Effects’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, November 1994. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/15232849_Role_of_Consciousness_and_Accessibility_of_Death-Related_Thoughts_in_Mortality_Salience_Effects.

If I’ve missed any obvious academic criticism up to 2022, or any obvious foundational TMT studies, please let me know, and I will make sure to add them.

Reblog: ‘Why We’re So Defensive and How to Stop’ — Leon’s Existential Cafe

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‘We make significant mistakes when we’re protecting ourselves. Defensiveness, self-aggrandizement, bragging, deflecting, perfectionism; whatever you want to label it, we sometimes suck at maintaining our relationships. When stuck in fight or flight, the innate system that helps us avert or challenge danger, we cultivate responses that might benefit us in the short-term but, once crystalized, […]‘

Why We’re So Defensive and How to Stop — Leon’s Existential Cafe

Resource: How not to talk to former Christians

Dave Underwood2 Comments

One of the things I have been frustrated by, as a recovering former Fundamentalist Christian, has been the way still-practising Christian friends & family speak to me about what I believe now. Fundamentalist Christians seem to believe they can still “speak into my life” with a “Word from God” the same way they would when I was a believer. It’s arrogant and disrespectful and very unpleasant.

It’s made me realise how insufferable I must have been when I was preaching or “evangelising” to non-Christians when I was a Christian 😕

The resource below from Chrissy Stroop is the best thing I have seen that describes this experience of how practising Fundamentalist Christian friends & family speak to me about my agnosticism. It articulates and explains things in a way that has been helpful to my mental health. I recommend it to all ex-Christians 👍

This graphic is reproduced here for non-commercial purposes. Chrissy’s website is cstroop.com.

How not to talk to former Christians. Progressive Christian Allyship Depends on Respect for Moral Autonomy. By Chrissy Stroop.
Source: https://twitter.com/C_Stroop/status/1491788107443671045/photo/1

Resource: Religious beliefs to unlearn

Dave Underwood2 Comments

For many ex-Christians like myself, deprogramming from toxic religious indoctrination takes time. I recently came across this graphic from the team at Happy Whole Way. I think it speaks to a number of the things former fundamentalist believers have to unlearn.

This graphic is republished here with their permission. You can find out more about who they are & what they do on their website: www.happywholeway.com.

Religious beliefs to unlearn from www.happywholeway.com
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca0QHDkvIRh/