Reports of my death anxiety have been greatly exaggerated: A critique of terror management theory from an evolutionary perspective

被引：45
作者：
Kirkpatrick, Lee A. [1 ]
Navarrete, Carlos David [2 ]
机构：
[1] Coll William & Mary, Dept Psychol, Williamsburg, VA 23187 USA
[2] Harvard Univ, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
来源：
PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY | 2006年 / 17卷 / 04期
关键词：
D O I：
10.1080/10478400701366969
中图分类号：
B84 [心理学];
学科分类号：
04 ; 0402 ;
摘要：
Although terror management theory's proponents claim that it is an evolutionary theory of human behavior, its major tenets are implausible when examined carefully from a modern evolutionary perspective. We explain why it is unlikely that natural selection would have designed a " survival instinct" or innate " fear of death," nor an anxiety- reduction system in general, or worldview-defense system in particular, to ameliorate such fears. We argue that results of mortality-salience experiments are better explained as by-products of a psychological system of coalitional computation that evolved for a variety of functions, including defense against other humans, that is activated by certain kinds of death-related thoughts.
引用
收藏
页码：288 / 298
页数：11
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