Dying to Live: Terrorism, War, and Defending One's Way of Life

INTERDISCIPLINARY ANALYSES OF TERRORISM AND POLITICAL AGGRESSION, pp. 49-70, D. Antonius, A. D. Brown, T. K. Walters, J. M. Ramirez, S. J. Sinclair, eds., Cambridge, 2010

22 Pages Posted: 20 Feb 2011

See all articles by Kenneth Vail

Kenneth Vail

University of Missouri at Columbia

Matt Motyl

University of Illinois at Chicago; University of Illinois at Chicago

Abdolhossein Abdollahi

University of Limerick

Tom Pyszczynski

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Date Written: February 18, 2011

Abstract

The present chapter reviews research concerning the existential motivations for terrorism and militarism based on Terror Management Theory (TMT). Whereas terrorism and militarism entail methods of extreme violence, TMT entails a set of psychological processes that help protect the self from the aversive awareness of mortality. TMT proposes that humans develop and maintain cultural worldviews and hold strong ties to their social groups because these constructs help individuals psychologically transcend death by providing a link to something larger and longer lasting than the self. Thus, in some cases, this existential fear may intensify identification with radical causes (e.g., ethnic, nationalist, or religious) in an attempt to achieve such a sense of symbolic immortality. Further, challenges to the efficacy of one's worldview or the esteem of one's social group undermine these death-denying qualities, resulting in a sense of humiliation or perceived injustice that may be attenuated by violent attempts at regaining agency, esteem, and dignity. This chapter describes both laboratory research and real-world examples of TMT processes that factor into increases in risk-taking, support for both religious and secular terrorist activity and militarism, and willingness to selfsacrifice to protect one's way of life.

Keywords: terror management, extremism, violence, war, terrorism, peace, ideology, threat, group conflict, politics

Suggested Citation

Vail, Kenneth and Motyl, Matt and Abdollahi, Abdolhossein and Pyszczynski, Tom, Dying to Live: Terrorism, War, and Defending One's Way of Life (February 18, 2011). INTERDISCIPLINARY ANALYSES OF TERRORISM AND POLITICAL AGGRESSION, pp. 49-70, D. Antonius, A. D. Brown, T. K. Walters, J. M. Ramirez, S. J. Sinclair, eds., Cambridge, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1763549

Kenneth Vail

University of Missouri at Columbia ( email )

MO
United States

Matt Motyl (Contact Author)

University of Illinois at Chicago ( email )

1007 W. Harrison St. (m/c 285)
Psychology Department
Chicago, IL 60607
United States

HOME PAGE: http://motyl.people.uic.edu

University of Illinois at Chicago ( email )

1102 Behavioral Science Building (BSB)
Chicago, IL 60607-7137
United States

HOME PAGE: http://motyl.people.uic.edu

Abdolhossein Abdollahi

University of Limerick ( email )

Castletroy, Co
Limerick
Ireland

Tom Pyszczynski

University of Colorado at Colorado Springs ( email )

1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway
Colorado Springs, CO 80918-7150
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
358
Abstract Views
3,167
Rank
178,240
PlumX Metrics