Perhaps no belief is as disturbing as eternal torture and torment in a pit of fire. Yet, as many as 75% of Americans believe in Hell. Could this be because, unconsciously, we would rather dance with the devil than die?
I often am thrown back by people's non-chalant endorsement of Hell. Most people rush to the aid of someone being physically harmed or abused. But yet, many Christians would just sort of shrug their shoulders at finding out that this "unsaved" person has died and was an atheist (and in their mind, was going to Hell). The implication is that people seem very ok with endorsing eternal torture, but not Earthly torture.
At any rate, I have always been sort of fascinated with the idea of Hell. So, some colleagues and I designed several studies to get at the psychology of Hell. In three of these studies, we sought to see if Hell comforted people, implicitly, when reminded of death.
Past research has found that when death is primed, people have more negative attitudes toward the elderly and self-enhance (i.e. view themselves more favorably). The idea is that people respond to death by clinging to things that give them self-esteem, coherance and meaning or enable them to ignore death.
Past research has also found that when participants first read an essay arguing that near death experiences prove the existence of a next life, they do not show subsequent psychological defenses when reminded of death. In other words, the idea is that priming an afterlife reduces their fear of death.
We conducted 3 studies in which half the participants were reminded of death, and half were reminded of other negative topics (e.g., intense pain, failure). For each study, before the death (or control) prime, participants first read either an essay arguing that near death experiences are proof of life after death or a control essay. The one afterlife affirming essay argued that the afterlife was purely positive (bliss and relaxation, loved ones), and the other that it was wholly negative (screaming voices, pain, no loved ones).
Across three studies, people showed the typical response to death salience when they first read about a control topic (including a riveting essay on online course registration!). But, these effects (ageism, self-enhancement) disappeared when they first read the afterlife affirming essay that depicted a positive afterlife.
With these results, we had replicated past research, but what about the "hellish" afterlife affirming essay? Did it buffer people psychologically like the "heavenly" one did? Across 3 studies, the answer was "no." The Hell primed participants self-enhanced and were more negative towards the elderly when death was primed.
Interestingly, in a follow up study, the positive afterlife affirming essay also failed to reduce ageism when death was primed, IF loved ones were not included in the description. This was despite the other facets of the positive afterlife affirming essay (peace, calm, bliss) remaining.
It appears then, that implicitly at least, dancing with the devil does not protect people from death's vulcan grip.
