Too tough to die: September 11, mortality salience, and intergenerational behavior

As a resident of lower Manhattan, the author reflects on her own experience of September 11 and discusses how terror management theory (TMT) can help explain behavior following the attacks. TMT predicts and research confirms that mortality salience increases the need for people to feel that they are a part of enduring social entities (such as church or nation). By identifying themselves with larger social groups that are not subject to the mortal fate of the individual human being, people can symbolically evade death, thus enabling them to buffer the anxiety arising from mortality awareness. Connecting oneself to future generations serves a similar function because it allows people to feel as though they can "live on" beyond their own deaths.

Duke Scholars

Author Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni Fuqua School of Business