Belief in afterlife as a moderator of fear of death?

Abstract

Investigating the notion that belief in afrerlife (BA)

Religion and mental health: Towards a cognitive‐behavioural framework

“…They highlight that some religious concepts (such as sinning and hell) may well induce stress. If the predominant reason underlying religious belief is to ameliorate a fear of death, it would be expected that religious individuals should show a lower death anxiety; however, studies evaluating whether religious faith is associated with a lower death anxiety have produced con¯icting results (see Ochsmann, 1984;Spilka, Hood, & Gorsuch, 1985). Perhaps most problematic in the context of this paper, the hypothesis that`religion is a defence' does not predict the speci®c differential associations observed between aspects of religion and well-being.…”

Religiousness, future time perspective, and death anxiety among adults

“…Specifically, individuals who believe that their bodily life is not the end of their existence may be significantly less worried about the cessation of their bodily life. This is generally what has been found in numerous studies (e.g., Harding et al, 2005;Ochsmann, 1984;Templer & Ruff, 1975;Thorson, 1991). Indirectly TMT may also explain the age difference in death anxiety discussed above.…”

“…Thus, the experimentally-induced death anxiety may not provide much insight into trend in developing death anxiety. Thus, it is quite possible that increases in religious belief with age precede declines death anxiety, with specific beliefs like belief in an afterlife, which research already suggests is related to lower death anxiety (e.g., Harding et al, 2005;Ochsmann, 1984;Templer & Ruff, 1975;Thorson, 1991), possibly making death anxiety less relevant.…”

“…In studies of college students, Templer and Dotson (1970), Berman and Hays (1973), and Alvarado et al (1995) did not find a significant relation between death anxiety and belief in afterlife. However, it appears that their findings were atypical, as Templer and Ruff (1975) found that stronger belief in life after death was associated with lower death anxiety in more religiously involved college students, Ochsmann (1984) found that those with lower scores on a scale of belief in afterlife showed a greater concern with death among college students in non-theology majors, Thorson (1991) found significant positive correlations between uncertainty about life after death and death anxiety for females (r = .51) and males (r = .42), Harding et al (2005) found that death anxiety was negatively correlated with belief in afterlife (r = -.25) among parishioners of the Episcopal Church (22 to 84 years of age), Lundh and Radon (1997) found a negative association between death anxiety and religious beliefs among Swedish college students, and the above-mentioned Roshdieh et al (1999) and Rasmussen and Johnson (1994) studies found similar results.…”

Death awareness and body–self dualism: A why and how of afterlife belief

“…Both Norenzayan and Hansen (2006) and Vail, Arndt, and Abdollahi (2012) found similar results regarding belief in supernatural agents. Others, however, have not found any relationship between death salience and afterlife belief (e.g., Ochsmann, 1984). But what can account for this inconsistency?…”