magazine issue 5 2012 / Issue 15

Death and deities: A social cognitive perspective

• written by Jonathan Jong & Jamin Halberstadt
• edited by Namkje Koudenburg

Such research suggests that religious functionalism in general, and the question of how non-religious individuals respond to death anxiety in particular, must take into account that people may hold beliefs of which they are not fully aware, or which are otherwise not consciously accessible on demand. Indeed, in our own work we have found that such beliefs respond differently to increased mortality salience than do beliefs that are consciously accessible (Jong, Halberstadt, & Bluemke, 2012). For example, after thinking about their own death, non-religious participants reported greater religious disbelief, according to a self-report questionnaire designed specifically to measure conscious belief in supernatural religious agents and events. However, when beliefs were measured indirectly (“implicitly”), by measuring the speed with which they affirmed or denied the existence of religious entities, participants from the same population were more religious under increased mortality salience conditions: death-anxious skeptics were no more likely to state that God exists, but they were slower to deny it. The results were conceptually replicated using a version of the “Implicit Association Test” (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998), which assesses the cognitive strength of association between religious and existential concepts. These studies suggest that mortality salience leads both to conscious bolstering of one’s worldview (even if that worldview is anti-religious) and simultaneous bolstering of an unconscious belief in God.

Conclusions

The pervasiveness and persistence of religious belief is doubtless the product of complex and converging factors, many of which have yet to be identified. As social psychological research has shown, fear of death is likely an important part of the story of the gods, but its role may need to be understood in light of emerging insights into dual processing. At a conscious level, fear of death may lead to worldview defense, such that religious and non-religious individuals bolster their belief and disbelief respectively. However, at an unconscious level, fear of death may increase religious belief (or at least decrease religious skepticism), regardless of individuals’ conscious religious commitments. If so, religion may be a very powerful buffer of existential anxiety, allowing non-religious individuals to simultaneously pursue symbolic and literal immortality in the face of death.

Reference

Aday, R. H. (1984-1985). Belief in afterlife and death anxiety: correlates and comparisons, Omega, 15, 67-75.

Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 432-443.

Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54, 462-479.