Could understanding Terror Management Theory deter human aggression?
By Kathlyn Stone (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s) self.name = ‘mainwindow’; opednews.com For OpEdNews: Kathlyn Stone – Writer Anatomy of Human Destructiveness For the past 25 years three experiential social scientists have collaborated on the study of human aggression from a biological perspective as well as a cultural one. Their Terror Management Theory is based on the work of the cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker — who theorized that humans’ awareness and denial of death is the guiding force in human behavior — and their own research which provides evidence to the theory that humans’ innate fear of death is the basis for aggression. Their theory has been supported in more than 300 published studies in more than 14 countries, including numerous studies in Iran and Israel. Terror Management Theory TMT suggests that humans’ awareness of the inevitability and finality of death may lead to existential terror. Humans control their fear of death by adopting a cultural worldview
