Mortality salience, religiosity, and indefinite life extension: evidence of a reciprocal relationship between afterlife beliefs and support for forestalling death

Attitudes Towards Science

“…In addition, recent empirical work has focused on the notion of indefinite life extension, a concept that non-religious participants support more when reminded of their own mortality (Lifshin et al, 2017; see also Rutjens, van Harreveld, van der Pligt, van Elk, & Pyszczynski, 2016). The notion that science can harbor a non-religious promise of literal immortality (see also Dechesne et al, 2003) particularly pertains to hopes for scientific and technological progress, a topic to which we turn next.…”

“…Evidence for the existential functions of science, including belief in scientific-technological progress, however, is less clear-cut. Although some research has found that existential threat (e.g., mortality reminders) increases faith in science and support of scientific technologies (Lifshin et al, 2017), other research has found no evidence for an existential function of belief in science and scientific progress Rutjens & Van Elk, in preparation) 5 . In Section 2, we detailed how ideology in particular religious and political conservatism and perceived conspiracies and agendas negatively impact on acceptance of science and science attitudes.…”

Does a Science-Oriented Worldview Entail Unbelief?

“…Much of the relevant research has focused on belief in science and other science-related views (Rutjens et al 2016; Harreveld, and van der Pligt 2013). Several studies seem to support the belief replacement hypothesis, since trust in science can provide existential meaning and mitigate death anxiety, as God belief does for theists (Farias et al 2013;Lifshin et al 2018;Norenzayan and Hansen 2006). 1…”

“…1 Farias et al (2013) found that reminders of mortality bolstered belief in science in academic respondents, but they were unable to explore the possible effect of God belief and/or religiosity, due to an overall secular sample. However, in a study by Lifshin et al (2018), reminders of mortality decreased afterlife belief and increased support for indefinite life extension (ILE) mainly for psychology students who scored low on religiosity. Religious participants, instead, found ILE less appealing.…”

Guest editors' foreword: On the importance of integrating terror management and psychology of religion

“…Specifically, Jong et al suggest that death anxiety holds a curvilinear relationship with religious belief in which belief increases with death anxiety among non-believers and anxiety decreases as belief increases among believers. This is followed by three articles on the interaction among mortality salience (MS), religiosity, and other attitudes, including apocalyptic beliefs (Routledge, Abeyta, & Roylance, 2017), support for indefinite life extension (Lifshin, Greenberg, Soenke, Darrell, & Pyszczynski, 2017), and the perception of meaning in life (Vail & Soenke, 2017). Routledge et al found that MS increases apocalyptic beliefs among religious fundamentalists, but decreases such beliefs among non-fundamentalists.…”