Using Terror Management Theories to Demonstrate How Enhancing Awareness Can Serve as a Means to Conflict Resolution
Terror Management Theory Paper
Allon Khakshouri
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April, 2012
Using Terror Management Theories to demonstrate how enhancing Awareness can serve as a means to Conflict Resolution
“Fear and Pain should be treated as signals not to close our eyes but to open them wider”
It is a known fact that psychological factors play a key role in conflicts. While solutions seem so obvious, warring parties so often seem unable to end the cycle of violence, especially when the conflict is perceived as an existential threat. Drawing on existential and anthropological theories ( Becker, 1969), it can be argued that in order to overcome the fear of death, parties fall back to their ideological conflict supporting beliefs and general world views, which they will defend vigorously. It is such rigid structures of their belief systems that make conflict resolution so difficult, and which are triggered whenever the threat of death seems to linger within the minds of warring parties. The Terror Management Theory is based on the idea that in order to overcome fear of death, people need to validate their cultural world views and enhance their self esteem by living according to known and proclaimed righteous values. Thereby, the sudden awareness of death triggers conditioned and static defense mechanisms that makes conflict resolution so difficult. It is my argument here that cultural world views and a higher sense of self esteem could in fact promote peaceful resolutions, provided they would encourage proactive and responsive thinking, rather than instinctive reactions. This is why it is so important for us to foster a culture of greater awareness amongst future generations, so they will be able to tackle conflicts and challenges consciously, rather than as a result of conditioned coping mechanisms.
Terror Management Theory
Terror management theory argues that the tension between animalistic desire to live forever and the
Allon Khakshouri
-------------------------------------------------
April, 2012
Using Terror Management Theories to demonstrate how enhancing Awareness can serve as a means to Conflict Resolution
“Fear and Pain should be treated as signals not to close our eyes but to open them wider”
It is a known fact that psychological factors play a key role in conflicts. While solutions seem so obvious, warring parties so often seem unable to end the cycle of violence, especially when the conflict is perceived as an existential threat. Drawing on existential and anthropological theories ( Becker, 1969), it can be argued that in order to overcome the fear of death, parties fall back to their ideological conflict supporting beliefs and general world views, which they will defend vigorously. It is such rigid structures of their belief systems that make conflict resolution so difficult, and which are triggered whenever the threat of death seems to linger within the minds of warring parties. The Terror Management Theory is based on the idea that in order to overcome fear of death, people need to validate their cultural world views and enhance their self esteem by living according to known and proclaimed righteous values. Thereby, the sudden awareness of death triggers conditioned and static defense mechanisms that makes conflict resolution so difficult. It is my argument here that cultural world views and a higher sense of self esteem could in fact promote peaceful resolutions, provided they would encourage proactive and responsive thinking, rather than instinctive reactions. This is why it is so important for us to foster a culture of greater awareness amongst future generations, so they will be able to tackle conflicts and challenges consciously, rather than as a result of conditioned coping mechanisms.
Terror Management Theory
Terror management theory argues that the tension between animalistic desire to live forever and the