Communicating Science in Times of Crisis. Группа авторов
reproduce and adapt to challenges from the physical environment, these same abilities have also forced us to realize the inexorability of our physical death (Menzies & Menzies, 2020). As Yalom (2008) notes, we have come to realize our lives “forever shadowed by the knowledge that we will grow, blossom, and inevitably, diminish and die” (p. 1).
Moreover, the realization of the inevitability of certain death conflicts with our biological striving for immortality, generating the overwhelming potential for debilitating existential dread (Greenberg et al., 1986). Fear of death is so biologically instinctive that even clinical professionals who are often exposed to death-related issues within an intellectually cushioned environment—and thus should be somewhat immunized from the terror of death—are nonetheless wholly vulnerable to the paralyzing existential anxiety thoughts death can so powerfully engender (Arndt et al., 2009).
To manage this existential angst, TMT posits that people instinctively engage in two distinct defense mechanisms: proximal defenses, to deal with the conscious awareness of death, and distal defenses, for when thoughts of death retreat from focal awareness, yet remain primed to quicken existential anxiety (Pyszczynski et al., 1999). Proximal defenses are active, conscious, and galvanized when death thoughts are brought into focal attention, as when, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic is being discussed on TV. During such times, efforts are made to contain or push thoughts of death into the distant future. More specifically, proximal defenses work to manage conscious death thought awareness (DTA) by disengaging from the contemplation of one’s mortality so as to remove such thoughts from current concerns (Goldenberg et al., 2000). Furthermore, for this purpose, a variety of communication behaviors are used to achieve the goal of restoring psychological equanimity. For instance, denying one’s susceptibility (“I’m too young to suffer a heart attack”), suppressing death thoughts (e.g., by selectively attending to more optimistic outlooks), or taking specific steps to prevent death (e.g., avoiding contamination, and disinfecting all the surfaces in one’s house) (Menzies & Menzies, 2020; Pyszczynski et al., 1999).
In contrast, distal defenses are nonconscious and experientially activated when thoughts of death are outside of conscious focal awareness. During distal defenses, people respond to the existential dread generated by DTA by seeking consensus and investing in cultural worldviews (CWVs), self-esteem, and/or close personal relationships that provide meaning in life while serving to buffer the anxiety (Ferraro et al., 2005; Friese & Hofmann, 2008). In this regard, communication plays central roles in all three aspects by helping to define and emphasize group identification, providing social validation, biasing information processing, promoting self-worth, and seeking and developing relational attachments (Miller & Massey, 2020).
Anxiety Buffering Mechanisms
Cultural Worldview. In the face of apprehension and existential unease, CWVs offer normative resources, interpretations, and guidelines helping individuals navigate the chaotic social world. Adherence to a CWV imbues life with meaning, promotes group coordination, and provides identity security through shared norms and values (Hallowell, 1956). Becker (1973) asserted that one’s CWV is “more than merely an outlook on life: it is an immortality formula” (p. 255). In following Becker, TMT defines CWVs as standards for self-esteem that offer individuals avenues for achieving a sense of significance by providing: (i) a view of reality that endows life with purpose, meaning, and importance; (ii) criteria upon which valued human behavior is based and assessed; and (iii) the prospect of immortality, both literal, in some form of afterlife, and metaphorical, in symbolic extensions of the self through creative constructions that persist and survive within culture after one’s own physical death.
For those who have faith in and meet the criteria set by their CWV, the shared and strengthened belief systems provide a sense of death-transcendence so long as adherents can preserve and perpetuate them from one generation to the next (Pyszczynski et al., 2015; Schimel et al., 2019). Literal immortality refers to the belief that individuals will still exist after death. It typically takes the form of transcending humans’ physical limitations, reflecting the religious aspects of worldviews. However, there is another literal sense in which individuals may experience a form of genomic immortality by sending their genetic material into the future and beyond their own lifetimes. In both cases, whether symbolic or literal, individuals are provided with the means for contributing and extending their quintessence into the future, be it through their works or their progeny, so that traces and reminders of their existence provide something greater than the self, capable of an existence beyond death (Pyszczynski et al., 2015).
Self-esteem. In conjunction with one’s CWV, a second, related anxiety buffering mechanism is provided by one’s sense of self-esteem, which TMT defines as being derived from a personal evaluation of the extent to which one fulfills expectations prescribed by the CWV to which one subscribes. The link between CWV and self-esteem becomes instilled during childhood, when at an early age we see ourselves as wholly dependent on our parents for nurturance and security, and it is only later that we develop our own sense of agency along with an ego that allows us to consider the past and the future (Erikson, 1959). It is our growing self-awareness and realization of future uncertainties that groom our unique capacity for DTA, and fear of our own helplessness in the face of both real and imagined threats. Our resulting human proneness to existential anxiety is only ameliorated once we begin to develop a sense of autonomy and eventually a sense of confidence in our self-determination and self-efficacy, which, along with our successful interdependence and social interaction, serves as the basis for our development of self-esteem and self-worth.
Moreover, both parental nurturing and disapproval during the socialization process function to transform the child from an impulsive hedonist to a self-regulated individual in search of self-esteem. As Rothschild et al. (2019) explain, “Disapproval does not just make the child feel as if they have done something wrong, but is actually anxiety provoking in an existential sense. So ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ becomes internalized and conditioned to be the equivalent of ‘safety’ versus ‘threat’” (p. 181). Thus, self-esteem development during childhood is critical for the transition from pleasing one’s parents to living up to the dictates of one’s CWV and enjoying the security and meaning it provides. As Rothchild et al. put it, “there is a shift over childhood from deriving safety and security from the love of the parents to deriving it from the love and protection of more powerful entities such as deities, authority figures, the nation, and culturally valued ideas and causes” (2019, p. 181).
As TMT posits, self-esteem serves to buffer existential anxiety in response to DTA by allowing individuals to see themselves as valuable members of their culture, thus worthy and capable of being remembered and esteemed by others beyond their death (Greenberg, 2012). Moreover, relative to finding consensus in and/or adhering to one’s CWV, TMT studies have provided empirical validation for how bolstering self-esteem tends to afford an even more effective buffer against existential anxiety when thoughts of death are aroused. When mortality is made salient in response to the coronavirus pandemic, those high in self-esteem are more likely to rely on their sense of self-worth to manage the resulting existential dread, whereas those low in self-esteem are more likely to find comfort in the equanimity provided by their CWV. Unfortunately, this may take the form of hostility toward dissimilar others, outgroup derogation, and intolerance for those who do not share their own CWV (Das et al., 2009).
Close Personal Relationships. A number of TMT studies have shown how, under certain circumstances, close personal relationships may be even more effective in buffering existential anxiety than both self-esteem and CWV bolstering (Florian et al., 2002). From the perspective of attachment theory (Bowlby, 1973), securely attached individuals are at an advantage in developing a sense of self-worth and viewing the world as a safe, meaningful, and caring place. Given how close personal relationships can provide much of the consensual validation needed for assuring individuals that they matter to others, they may serve as an especially vital foundation for developing one’s anxiety-buffering capacities, and this utility should be especially valuable when facing daily reminders of the mortal threat posed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
On the other hand, insecurely attached individuals who may be anxious, apprehensive, hesitant, or avoidant in forming and maintaining close emotional