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

Autor:	Tom Pyszczynski, Jeff Greenberg, Melissa Soenke, Alex Darrell, Uri Lifshin
Rok vydání:	2017
Předmět:	05 social sciences 050109 social psychology Experimental and Cognitive Psychology 050105 experimental psychology Religiosity Life extension Life sustaining treatment Mortality salience 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Afterlife Psychology Medical science Social psychology Reciprocal
Zdroj:	Religion, Brain & Behavior. 8:31-43
ISSN:	2153-5981 2153-599X
DOI:	10.1080/2153599x.2016.1238841
Popis:	Strides are being made in medicine toward the possibility of indefinite life extension (ILE). Research shows that people cope with the prospect of mortality with various ways to feel transcendent of death, including investing in religion and afterlife beliefs. But how would these investments be affected by the possibility of ILE through medical science? The current research provides an initial effort to answer this question by testing whether, after mortality has been made salient, portraying indefinite life extension as plausible might reduce investment in afterlife beliefs. Results showed that for participants low in religiosity, mortality salience, or an essay supporting the plausibility of ILE, decreased belief in the afterlife and increased support for ILE. Furthermore, among participants low in religiosity, the increase in support for ILE was mediated by decreased afterlife belief. These findings provide the first evidence of the psychological impact of the prospect of indefinite life extension.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::fe27193dbd9c97bd8caa82dcef8d4fff https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599x.2016.1238841 Zobrazit plný text záznamu