ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the terror management health model (TMHM) and the research it has inspired. It presentsstock of what the study of how people manage their awareness of mortality has taught us about health decisions and what the study of health decisions has taught us about how people manage their awareness of mortality. The chapter then considers emerging issues and directions that can further inform the intersection between death and health. The dual defense model of Terror management theory (TMT), which distinguishes how people manage conscious and nonconscious reminders of mortality, provides the foundation for the TMHM. From the perspective of the TMHM, by engaging in behaviors that make one healthier, death cognitions can temporarily be cast aside because individuals perceive they have reduced the risk associated with the threatening health situation. On the flip side, when individuals derive self-worth from health-benefiting behaviors, distal responses to death reminders stand to benefit health.
