Terror Management Theory: The Influence of Terrorism Salience on Anxiety and the Buffering of Cultural Worldview and Self-esteem

Terror management theory has previously explored the buffering of self-esteem and United States cultural worldview upon anxiety and mortality salience. However, the combination of the United Kingdom cultural worldview and terrorism salience, as a construct of mortality salience, has not been examined. The aim of this study was to establish whether the reminder of terrorism (i.e., terrorism salience) could replace the reminder of mortality (i.e., mortality salience) as an experimental reminder of our own deaths. Results revealed that terrorism salience did not produce more anxiety than the other two primed conditions. Self-esteem did not buffer significantly against the anxiety produced by terrorism and mortality conditions. Participants with high self-esteem in the terrorism salience condition were more likely to show an increased worldview defence compared to those with moderate or low self-esteem. This research provides insight into the area of terror management, looking at the influence of terrorism salience and mortality salience. The results showed that, unlike previous studies, a mortality salience manipulation established through a terrorism reminder did not effectively produce anxiety. Despite considerable support for the mortality salience hypothesis, findings show that high self-esteem does not buffer against anxiety or increase worldview defence.