Challenges of Religious Scepticism: Do those who reject the afterlife fear a visit from the dead?

Abstract

Previous research suggests that some individuals hold intuitive or implicit religious beliefs despite explicit statements to the contrary. An experimental study tested whether those who do not endorse afterlife beliefs behave, physiologically (on electrodermal response and heart rate variability measures), like believers when subjected to a plausibly supernatural experience (a visit from a ghost). New Zealand participants (N = 100) were recruited for a study on the “physiology of mindfulness,” half of whom were told that someone had recently died in the experiment room (a fact not mentioned in the control condition). In both control and experimental conditions, the light in the experimental room was remotely switched off half way through the task. Results showed that generally, physiological arousal (an indicator of stress) increased when the light was extinguished, to a greater extent in the ghost condition than the control condition. It was also found that afterlife belief did not moderate participants immediate response to the event. Results also show that those who were told about the ghost reported higher post-study afterlife belief, as well as higher self-reported fear, although the latter was greater for afterlife believers. These findings reveal a discrepancy between people’s stated beliefs about the afterlife and their implicit reactions.