Abstract:The current paper presents the results from two studies designed to test the hypothesis, derived from Terror Management Theory, that reminders of death would increase the need to perceive telos or purpose behind occurrences in the social world. In Study 1, mortality salience increased university students' perception that the events described in vignettes happened for a reason or purpose but only when the consequences were life altering and negative. In Study 2, mortality salience decreased university students' perception that life-altering occurrences that affected other people were due to luck or chance. The results of these studies are interpreted as evidence that the need to believe that everything happens for a reason is motivated by a desire to manage existential anxiety.
Keywords:Terror Management Theory, mortality salience, teleological beliefs, attributions.A Terror Management Analysis of Perceived Purpose: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Attributions for Occurrences "I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."
Marilyn MonroeThe idea that everything happens for a reason is a popular sentiment open to multiple interpretations. In one sense it could be taken to mean that the universe is not random or chaotic but rather governed by causal laws that can be discerned through observation. This premise is the central underpinning of the empirical epistemology that forms the basis for scientific investigation. However, it could also be taken to mean something like divine providence, such that the universe is governed by a beneficent force that adheres to humans principles of justice. The authors of the present paper argue that maintaining a belief that the world is not only orderly and predictable but also beneficent and fair is essential to human psychological equanimity. We further argue that the human motive to perceive purpose in the social world serves a terror management function by mitigating existential anxiety.
MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLDHuman beings are meaning-creating creatures that develop causal models of the relation between self and the *Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Psychological Science Lander University, 320 Stanley Ave, Greenwood, SC 29649, USA; Tel: (864) 388-8740; Fax: (864) 388-8732; E-mail: jbassett@lander.edu external world and impose those models on experience in order to interpret the world in an orderly and stable way [1][2][3]. The ability to create meaningful mental representations of the constant stream of sensory information is essential for the sense of control and predictability required to pursue goal-directed behavior.Perhaps the most eloquent proponent of the human need for meaning was Viktor Fankl, who in his experience as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, observed that th...