Mortality management and climate action - A review and reference for using Terror Management Theory methods in interdisciplinary environmental research

Summary

A review of what reminders of death do to climate communication. Terror Management Theory, from social psychology, holds that people fend off awareness of mortality by defending their worldview and self-esteem. So “efforts to convey information can trigger undesirable behaviors”. Reviewing 44 studies, the authors back a theory that “recognizes us as the fallible, defensive, existential terror-managing creatures we are”.

Rationale

Interventions, we wrote, are “met by different people who will experience it differently”. One death-laden message can draw care from environmentalists, defensiveness from others. Their remedy is better messaging; ours looks beyond messages.