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Terror management theory

Tom Pyszczynski en.wikipedia.org

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“the mind would rather be right and die than be wrong and live” from Practicing Radical Honesty

hermit the cat

x.com

The basic motivation for human behavior is our biological need to control our basic anxiety, to deny the terror of death. Human beings are naturally anxious because we are ultimately helpless and abandoned in a world where we are fated to die. “This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner... See more

Ernest Becker • The Denial of Death

People who score high in neuroticism have more emotional ups and downs over the course of the day. They can fall into a particular kind of emotional spiral: They are quick to see threats and negative emotions; they interpret ambiguous events more negatively; they are therefore exposed to more negative experiences; this exposure causes them to

David Brooks • How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

If people can't think clearly about anything that has become part of their identity, then all other things being equal, the best plan is to let as few things into your identity as possible.

Matter

Or reverence for self-sacrifice. The feeling that the most noble thing someone can do is sacrifice their life in service of Us as a whole or in order to save another group member. And deep contempt for anyone who looks out for themselves in battle or behaves selfishly within the tribe.

Tim Urban • A Game of Giants — Wait but Why

The evidence of priming studies suggests that reminding people of their mortality increases the appeal of authoritarian ideas, which may become reassuring in the context of the terror of death.

Daniel Kahneman • Thinking, Fast and Slow

Yet the contents of our hidden depths seem to remain perpetually elusive. Freudian psychoanalysts can speculate about our hidden fears and desires; psychologists and neuroscientists can attempt to draw subtle and highly indirect conclusions from actions, heart-rate, skin conductance, pupil dilation and the rate of blood flow in the brain. But no

Nick Chater • Mind Is Flat: The Remarkable Shallowness of the Improvising Brain

The Denial of Death

Ernest Becker

amazon.com