If theyre conscious, people combat them through proximal defenses by eliminating the threat from their conscious awareness.
Cultural worldviews and self-esteem are key concepts of TMT.
Through cultural worldviews, people can achieve literal or symbolic immortality.
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TMT suggests that individuals gravitate towards and defend their cultural worldviews more strongly when confronted with thoughts of mortality.
Self-esteem plays a significant role in TMT too.
In so doing, they provide the sense that they are a valuable participant in a meaningful universe.
These have led to two important hypotheses in TMT.
Another study found that worldview threats increase accessibility of death thoughts.
People will turn to religion to alleviate existential anxiety and find solace in the idea of an afterlife.
Implications of Terror Management Theory across Different Fields
Different fields can use TMT in different ways.
For example, the most obvious may be the field of therapy and counseling.
Tzall continues, this can help therapists understand existential anxiety and develop strategies to address it.
The theory can similarly be used in marketing and advertising, but the emphasis is different.
TMT can inform advertising strategies that tap into consumers desires for symbolic immortality, Tzall says.
And researchers still use it to describe various events.
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