Though industrialized society protects us from thinking about our mortality, being reminded of our death can have an impact on our feelings and behaviors towards others.
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Inspired by the work of Ernest Becker on death denial, Solomon, Greenberg, and Polinski developed terror management theory.Terror management theory posits that when reminded of death, we react aggressively toward those that are different, but positively toward those that are similar. There are two constructs in this theory. First, individuals need to sustain faith in a meaningful worldview. Second, individuals need to feel as though they are valued, protected members or objects of significance within this worldview. We can function securely if we have both of these constructs. However, if these are threatened, we will feel anxiety and the need to defend these constructs.
These researchers came up with the mortality salience hypothesis based on terror management theory. This hypothesis states if culture serves a death-denying function, then reminding people they are going to die will result in an increased need for the death-denying aspects of their reality, which will impact reactions to those who are similar or different from them.
Support was found for this hypothesis through various studies. For example, research of judges in Arizona found that much larger bonds were given when judges were reminded of their own death. Another study found that Christian students judged non-Christian individuals more harshly than Christian individuals when they were reminded of their own death.
Though attitudes toward others seem to change when confronted with our own death, these researchers wanted to determine whether behavior may change as well. One study found that students who were reminded of their death had greater difficulty and took longer completing a task that required using a cultural symbol in a destructive or inappropriate way.
Death reminders play an influential role in our psyche and may lead us to react aggressively or violently toward others. In a study exploring this intent, it was found that subjects were willing to administer larger amounts of hot sauce to a person with different political views from them when given death reminders. These studies raise larger questions about the impact the perception of differences in others may have on threatening our worldview, thus leading to changes in our behavior toward others.