Examining Belief in a Just World, Religious Worldviews, and Self-Esteem Within the Framework of Terror Management Theory: Mortality Salient and Nonmortality Salient Organizations

Abstract

To sustain their lives has always been the main motivation of all the creatures, especially human beings. Just as there is always beginning of life, there is also an end of it for all living species. Human being is the only species that is aware of their mortality. According to terror management theory (TMT), this awareness causes some sort of anxiety. Human being, by their nature, do not want to be worried and want to cope with the anxiety in different ways. This study aims to test belief in a just world, religious worldviews, and self-esteem within the framework of TMT hypotheses in both mortality salient ( n =  104) and nonmortality salient ( n =  102) organizations. In each organization, half of the participants were reminded about death (experimental condition) and the other half about toothache (control condition). The required data for this study were collected by utilizing Life Satisfaction Scale, The Multidimensional Mortality Awareness Measure, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, Belief in a Just World Scale, Self-Esteem Scale, Religious Worldviews Scale, and personal information form. Results indicated that there are no significant differences for self-esteem and religious worldviews between mortality salient and nonmortality salient samples, whereas there are significant mean differences for personal/general belief in a just world. The findings of this study are discussed within the framework of TMT literature.