8 Scientific Theories About Death

4. Thinking About Death Can Make You A Bigot

The data collected from literally hundreds of studies, suggests that, whilst we're actually less scared of death that you might imagine, thinking about it has some strange effects on our behaviour and beliefs.

In various studies, when participants are primed to think about death, it can have an effect on their religious views, it can make them more politically conservative, more nationalistic, less likely to support watchdog press, make them more racially biased, more homophobic and even more likely to judge a prostitute harshly.

This all more or less loosely falls into a category of psychology known as Terror Management Theory, which suggests that our awareness of death, and knowledge of its inevitability, tends to result in us expressing our fear for it through unexpected channels. These are often related to ideas of symbolic immortality such as national identity, family heritage, community values, and a rejection of the outsider.