Terror management research indicates that people reminded of mortality strongly affirm values and standards consistent with their cultural worldview and distance themselves from values and standards inconsistent with it. However, limited research has addressed how individuals holding beliefs inconsistent with the dominant worldview cope with death-related anxiety. The present article aims to determine which worldview subcultural groups rely on when reminded of mortality: mainstream or subcultural? Juvenile delinquents living in residential reformatories in Poland were invited to participate in a terror management study examining the anxiety-buffering strategies of individuals belonging to a group largely outside mainstream culture. Following reminders of mortality, juvenile delinquents increased support for values consistent with the mainstream cultural worldview and decreased support for values consistent with the subcultural worldview, as compared to control conditions. The present results suggest that when faced with existential threat, the subcultural worldview does not provide an adequate anxiety buffer, leading members of this subcultural group to display increased identification with mainstream cultural values. Additionally, participants’ state anxiety following death reminders was mediated by mainstream cultural worldview defense.
This paper analyzes people’s responses to the experience of the strongest existential terror – the fear of death. The first section describes the Terror Management Theory (TMT) and its proposed ways of reducing fear: by boosting one’s self-esteem and by activating a collective system of meanings. However, much of the data discussed further in the paper shows that facts related to the experience of mortality salience are better explained and predicted by the assumption that the regulatory mechanism relies on seeking social approval and on mood regulation. This has been reflected by such surprising behavior as increased interest in one’s appearance, conspicuous consumption, or seeking power in response to confronting the idea of death. However, further studies are needed to resolve existing controversies.
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