Literal vs. Symbolic Immortality: Exploring the Relative Strengths of Religious Paths to Death-Transcendence

Abstract

According to terror management theory, religious worldviews provide protection from mortality concerns by providing feelings of literal immortality ( conscious life after death) and symbolic immortality (the essence of one's self or identity living after death). Although research has shown that both feelings of literal and symbolic immortality provide protection from mortality concerns, no studies have sufficiently compared the relative strength of these forms of immortality. To investigate their relative strengths as death anxiety buffers, three studies made mortality (MS) or a control topic salient and then made salient aspects of religion that provide symbolic or literal immortality ( or social affiliation-Study 3). Subsequently, religious worldview defense (Study 1) and search for meaning (Studies 2-3) were measured. In Study 1, results revealed that compared to the salience of literal immortality (and neutral condition), the salience of symbolic immortality increased religious worldview defense after MS. Studies 2 and 3 revealed that compared to the salience of literal immortality (Study 2) or the social aspects of religion (Study 3), the salience of symbolic immortality mitigated MS-engendered search for meaning. Taken together, these studies suggest that feelings of symbolic immortality generally provide a better defense against mortality concerns.