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Belief in an Afterlife as Symbolic Sanction Author(s): John G. Richardson and Georgie A. Weatherby Source: Review of Religious Research, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Dec., 1983), pp. 162-169 Published by: Religious Research Association, Inc. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3511493 Accessed: 02-05-2019 08:06 UTC

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BELIEF IN AN AFTERLIFE AS SYMBOLIC SANCTION

John G. Richardson Georgie A. Weatherby

Western Washington University

Review of Religious Research, Vol. 25, No. 2 (December 1983).

This paper examines the correlates of belief in an afterlife. Afterlife is theoreti- cally proposed as representing a symbolic sanction and relevant to the perception of negative consequences accompanying the violation of traditional marital and family behaviors. Data taken from the NORC General Social Survey for 1978 are tested utilizing discriminant function analysis. The discriminant analysis of attitu- dinal variables is compared to earlier research which found religious affiliation and church attendance to be the main predictors of belief in heaven and the afterlife. This study finds a prohibitive attitude toward premarital sexuality, abor- tion, and toward divorce laws to be significant predictors. Their meaning in relation to religious affiliation and church attendance is discussed.

In his now classic Protestant, Catholic and Jew, Herberg (1955) noted the irony in American religious life when he suggested that increasing secularization may not necessarily mean a corresponding decline in religiosity. In his empirical study of the religious factor, Lenski (1963:59) succinctly defined this irony: "Americans are be- coming more religious while at the same time becoming more secular. Transcendental faith is gradually being transformed into cultural faith." Lenski's empirical study tended

to affirm Herberg's observation by demonstrating that church attendance, while one index of religiosity, may increasingly decline as a determinant of "doctrinal orthodoxy." More recently, Bellah (1975) has theoretically interpreted such evidence of "inconsis- tency" as reflecting the broader, historical tension between "biblical religion" and "utilitarian individualism." Nonetheless, examples of inconsistencies of behavior and belief illustrate well the relative strength of a religious interpretation resting on "con- science" or a utilitarian interpretation resting on the maximization of personal "in- terest."

Recently, Hertel (1980) explored one such example of inconsistency of belief in a discriminant analysis of stance toward heaven and the afterlife. The strongest predictor was found to be Protestant and Catholic affiliation. In testing a number of social- demographic variables, none was found to be significant.

It is likely that the strong discrimination produced was derived from the strong association between religious affiliation and belief in both heaven and afterlife. Thus, the percent of cases correctly predicted was 96 percent for both, 80 percent for heaven only, and then drops to 46 percent for belief in an afterlife only, and a low of 29 percent

for belief in neither. Evidently the combination of heaven and afterlife represents a predictable social category for it is bounded by the fact that such believers nearly always

hold a religious affiliation. This study reports on a similar empirical analysis of the correlates of belief in an

afterlife based on a national probability sample (NORC, 1978). The study focuses only on avowed belief in an afterlife, and is not able to separate out the possible confounding influence of belief in a heaven. This study departs from, yet attempts to extend Hertel's

approach by the test of specific attitudinal variables which are considered theoretically relevant to belief in an afterlife. The relevance of these variables is formulated from a

theoretical interpretation of the afterlife as a symbolic sanction.

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THE AFTERLIFE AS SYMBOLIC SANCTION

Beyond the prima facie importance of religious affiliation as a correlate of belief in an

afterlife, it is useful to consider the relevance of variables which tap elements of the "cultural faith" noted by Lenski. We may take as the starting point the reminder by Weber (1964: 1) that the symbolic consequences of religion are directed to this world. Although the social psychology of a world religion may encompass largely mystical elements and may be oriented to "other-worldly" events, the practical consequences of this orientation hold for behavior conducted within this world. As others have noted

(Ross, 1915:130-131; Goode, 1951:50; Skinner, 1953:352-355), the sociological sig- nificance of supernatural beliefs lies in their power as symbolic sanctions. Belief in an afterlife may be seen as a private, intimidating belief which when held collectively sustains a minimum level of social control. The element of uncertainty about one's salvation which historically linked moral conduct to acquisitive economic behavior (Weber, 1958) may be extended to belief in the afterlife where one's membership is seen

as enhanced through proper conduct in this life. As a form of punishment through superempirical expectations, belief in the afterlife may sanction behavior with consider-

able economy. Where features of belief in the afterlife more often catalogue negative than positive consequences, they function to diffuse among believers "the vague feeling that somehow the course of things is against him who breaks the social interdict" (Ross, 1915:129). It is the substance of the social interdict which explains the belief, not the belief which explains the social interdict.

A critical question remains: What is the form of the social interdict? As Ross implies, the social interdict is akin to a Durkheimian common conscience which exerts social

control by linking individual conduct to perceived inclusion in the organization of collective beliefs. In this manner, belief in the afterlife is an internalization, a "repre- sentation" of the common conscience. Yet, as Durkheim argued (1964:167), the "common conscience consists less and less of strong, determined sentiments," for its evolution rests on the progressive effacement of local arrangements and traditional behaviors.To the extent that the common conscience is antecedent to a belief in the

afterlife, we propose that it is an individual's location relative to the direction and impact of major social trends which will shape the meaning of that belief as a symbolic sanction. Groups which find themselves opposed to the major direction of social trends will perceive such trends as secular disturbances of a kind which alter the link between this-worldly conduct and another-worldly destiny. Opposition to these trends will represent both a symbolic and instrumental means whereby one preserves access to an afterlife.

To the extent that belief in an afterlife is linked to the anticipation of negative consequences befalling a violation of the social interdict, we may specifically hypothe- size that belief would be associated with a commitment of traditional socially acceptable behaviors. One's commitment to an ethic of social purity and to circumspect conduct in this world would hold practical consequences for one's visualization of an afterlife. Attitudinal positions on matters pertaining to traditional marital and family behaviors may be theoretically most relevant on two grounds. First, such behaviors are most widely institutionalized and culturally reinforced. They are buttressed, in effect, by learned social scripts which are preceded by a prolonged and directed socialization (Laws and Schwartz, 1977). Second, as behavioral scripts, they will be accompanied by learned beliefs as to the consequences of their violation. Anticipated sanctions from violations of marital or family behaviors represent the social interdict.

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The relevance of a traditional stance toward marital and family behaviors entails two dimensions from which measures are identified. The first is the more proximate arena of

marital and family behaviors; the second is the broader role behaviors which are grounded in traditional marital and family relations. Thus, norms of social purity which

prescribe circumspect behaviors before and during marriage can be seen as determi- nants of extrafamily roles. A married woman's occupational participation represents major secular trends of recent decades (Oppenheimer, 1977). Similarly, convergences of an approving stance toward premarital sexuality is an apparent national secular trend (Mahoney, 1978). Traditional sanctions relating to marriage and family roles are linked to broader, societal changes and become, in effect, competitive to these changes. The social interdict as a traditional common conscience is implicated in secular changes which are perceived as consequential for traditional marital and family behaviors.

The objective of the empirical analysis which follows is to identify the relative effect of variables as predictors of belief in an afterlife. The analysis separates two sets of variables: one consisting of those tested by Hertel, and the other consisting of specific attitudinal measures designed to tap perceived negative sanctions.

DATA AND METHOD

Sample

The data are taken from the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey for 1978. The General Social Surveys (GSS) are national probability samples of English speaking persons age 18 and above who are in noninstitutional settings in the United States. For the 1-978 survey, the total sample interviewed comprised 1,532 respondents.

Measures

Dependent Variable. Belief in an afterlife was measured by a simple dichotomy, indexed as (1) belief in life after death, and (2) no belief. The total responses to the item are skewed, where 70 percent of the respondents answered yes and 21 percent no. Nine percent were undecided or supplied no answers.

Independent Variables. The utilization of the GSS makes possible a comparison to the results from Hertel's study where Gallup Poll data were analyzed. Care was taken to include as accurately as possible the same variables included by Hertel in his analysis. These variables are: religious affiliation, church attendance, occupational presitge, educational level, size of hometown, age, sex, race, income and region.

In comparison to the model variables reported by Hertel, five attitudinal variables are tested which relate to the conceptualization of an afterlife as a symbolic sanction. Those variables which relate to proximate marital and family behaviors are four: Attitude Toward Premarital Sexuality, indexed (1-4): "always wrong," to "not wrong at all"; Attitude Toward Divorce Laws, indexed (1-3): "should be more strict" to "about right"; Attitude Toward Pornography Laws, index (1-3): "should be laws against whatever the age" to "there should be no laws against it"; Attitude on Abortion, asking respondents whether or not they thought it should be possible for a pregnant woman to obtain a legal abortion if she is married and does not want any more children, indexed as (1) "no," (2) "yes." This item elicits the most discretionary stance, free of economic or health constraints which are predominantly seen as legitimate grounds for abortion. For

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each of these variables, a restrictive stance is taken as signifying a circumspect orientation toward traditional marital and family matters and is specifically hypothe- sized to be linked to belief in life after death.

The final variable measures more distant behaviors. This measures respondent's attitudes toward women's work roles. This item asks "Do you approve or disapprove of a married woman earning money in business or industry if she has a husband capable of supporting her?" Responses to this were indexed as (1) "approve," (2) "disapprove." The item conceptually deals with a stance on the independence of married women and thus measures the willingness to accept a change in or a violation of traditional marital roles.

Method

The methodological objective here is to identify the predictors of belief in an afterlife.

The dependent variable is represented by two nominal categories. The appropriate method under these circumstances is discriminant function analysis. This multivariate technique was employed by Hertel as well and thus provides for a sound comparison. As a form of multiple regression, discriminant analysis identifies the linear composite of variables which best discriminates two or more criterion groups. The merit of discrimi- nant analysis is its ability to identify those variables which make a statistically signifi- cant contribution to the discrimination or separation of the two or more nominal categories. Moreover, the method reveals the relative contribution of variables within the composite of discriminant function. When only two criterion groups are analyzed, the standardized discriminant coefficient may be interpreted in the same way as are beta coefficients in normal regression.2

The analysis measures the effects of those variables given in the Hertel study and the attitudinal variables identified above. Stepwise analyses are performed which identify those variables which make a statistically significant change in Rao's V, a generalized distance measure (Huberty, 1975:562) which gives a conservative test for the ability of a variable to maximally separate the two groups. A .05 level of significance is set. Those variables which do not meet the minimal F value for inclusion are not included in the

analysis.

RESULTS

The results of the discriminant analysis of the two variable sets are given in Table 1.

In the analysis of the Hertel set consisting of fourteen variables, eight are significant. Protestant affiliation is the strongest predictor, followed by church attendance. The strength of Protestant affiliation in this analysis is similar to that found by Hertel. The

divergence from the Hertel results lies in the significance of race, occupational prestige and the northeastern and north central regions. In this analysis, white respondents express belief in an afterlife significantly more than do black respondents. A cross- tabulation analysis reveals that 78 percent of whites in contrast to only 63.5 percent of black respondents believe in an afterlife. Additionally, it is noteworthy here that occupational prestige is significant and is positively associated with belief in an af- terlife. A cross-tabulation analysis of occupational prestige finds that 83 percent of high

prestige levels compared to 73 percent of low prestige levels expressed a belief in an afterlife. Although Hertel found no effect for occupation in the discriminant analysis, it

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Table 1

STANDARDIZED DISCRIMINANT FUNCTION COEFFICIENTS

FOR BELIEF IN AN AFTERLIFE

Variable Coefficient Variable Coefficient

Affiliation Protestant .66a Premarital Sex .75a

Catholic .54_a holiew .2a Divorce Laws .41a Other .32a Abortion *32a Attendance -.58a Women Working -- Occupation -.25a Pornography - Education .14

Size of Hometown -- Age -- Sex

(1--male; 2=female) ,09 Income - Race

(l=white; 2=nonwhite) .35a Region South -- North Central .12 Northeast .24a

RC .369 R .210 X2 129.660 X2 39.950 P < .001 < .001

Group Sizes: Yes = 670 No = 221

aSignificant change in Rao's V (P<.05).

is worth noting that his cross-tabulations report a demonstrable tendency for the professional, business and executive levels to believe in the afterlife "only,"' in contrast to the unskilled and skilled levels who express a stronger belief in heaven "only" (Hertel, 1980:179). It is evident that heaven and an afterlife are separate referents for members of different occupational levels.

In the analysis of the second variable set consisting of the attitudinal measures, three

of the five are significant: premarital sex, divorce laws, and abortion. In the analysis, attitude toward married women working and toward pornography fail to enter the analysis. It is a prohibitive stance toward premarital sexuality which emerges as the strongest predictor. A restrictive stance on divorce laws and on abortion is linked to belief in an afterlife in the predicted direction, and is significant.

Although both analyses produce significant discriminant functions, the comparison of

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the two shows a greater predictive strength of the first set, with the strength primarily in

religious affiliation and church attendance. This largely conforms to the findings reported by Hertel. However, the strength of the three attitudinal variables, as demon-

strated in the second analysis, suggests that they may have independent effects when included in an analysis containing the first variable set. To test this, all significant variables from both sets were entered simultaneously in a stepwise discriminant analy- sis.

The results of this analysis did not alter the pattern found in the first variable set: the attitudinal variables failed to enter the analysis and religious affiliation and church attendance remained the significant predictors. As a consequence of this, a final analysis

was performed which tested the possibility that the attitudinal variables and the varia- bles of religious affiliation and church attendance may be measuring common portions of the variance of the dependent variable. This is suggested by the results of zero order relations between the significant attitude variables and church attendance. The coeffi- cients for premarital sexuality, abortion, and divorce laws are r = -43, -.31, and -. 13 respectively. Clearly, a greater attendance at church is significantly related to a prohibi-

tive stance on premarital sexuality and moderately related to a prohibitive stance on divorce laws and abortion.

To test this possibility, the significant variables of the first set were removed one at a

time and the attitudinal variables were then included in the analysis. A stepwise procedure was performed as a means to test whether one or more of the attitudinal variables would enter into the analysis and reach significance after one of the variables in the prior set was removed.

This analysis revealed important results not evident by the simultaneous inclusion of all variables.When church attendance is removed, all three attitudinal variables enter

the analysis and premarital sex is significant (P less than .001) as well as divorce laws (P less than .05). Moreover, the canonical correlation is only slightly reduced, reaching Rc = .35. For the remaining variables, only the removal of race permitted the inclusion of divorce laws and abortion, with divorce laws alone reaching significance (P less than .05).

The results of this final analysis reveal that church attendance, and a strict stance on

premarital sexuality and on divorce laws, contain similar information about belief in an afterlife. Moreover, it is this behavioral variable and not simply religious affiliation which suppresses the effects of attitude toward premarital sexuality and divorce laws. In addition, the results reveal that a strict stance on divorce laws is systemically related to race. The inclusion of divorce laws in an equation containing race will not reveal its significance. The finding points to the historical importance of different marital and divorce patterns between white and nonwhite families, and their relation to religious affiliation. At minimum, the finding is consistent with research which emphasizes the stronger link between marital stability and religious affiliation for whites, whereas for blacks the causes and consequences of marital instability are "virtually unrelated to religious participation" (Glenn and Gotard, 1977:450).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The results of this analysis find that belief in an afterlife is a consequence of both a doctrinal affiliation and of behavioral attendance at church. These findings concur

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essentially with those of Hertel. In addition, this analysis finds occupational prestige to be a significant predictor and to be positively related to belief in life after death. This contrasts with the inverse relation for education. While a higher education decreases the probability of belief in an afterlife, a higher occupational level increases this probability.

The significance of this measure, independent as it is of prohibitive stances toward traditional marital and family relations, may tap those who are more favorably situated relative to major secular trends and for whom belief in an afterlife represents a positive

affirmation of this-worldly success.3. They are those for whom the "broad cultural shift" responsible for some decline in church attendance and in adherence to traditional behaviors "was in the direction of greater individualism, personal freedom, tolerance of diversity and distance from many traditional institutions" (Hoge and Roozen, 1979:328; see also Wuthnow, 1976). Furthermore, a test of the association between occupational prestige and church attendance finds the two to be statistically indepen- dent, a point which enhances the independent effect of occupational prestige.

This analysis has attempted to further specify the interpretation of a belief in an afterlife by proposing that such a belief holds important secular consequences for some believers. These consequences are symbolic sanctions and are perceived as relevant to proximate marital and family behaviors. The desire to maintain traditional marital and family relations is tied to a belief that their preservation derives from circumspect behaviors which are deemed socially virtuous and legitimate. A prohibitive stance toward premarital sexuality preserves and legitimates marital and family relations. In addition, belief in the strictness of divorce laws is a belief directed to the preservation of

these relations. To loosen divorce laws is to loosen the sanctions which comprise the social interdict. The finding that these attitudinal measures enter the analysis when church attendance is removed clarifies, in part, the effect of attendance. While no interaction effect is evident, this analysis suggests that what influence church attendance

has on belief in an afterlife is tied to its conserving effect on prohibitive positions on premarital sexuality, abortion and divorce.

Finally, the interpretation of the relationship between church attendance and attitude toward premarital sexuality is potentially enhanced by a consideration of the signifi- cance found for race in this analysis. Belief in an afterlife is more significantly related to

white than to black respondents. When religiosity and premarital sexuality are consid- ered in light of the role of white and black churches, the effects of church attendance, race and premarital sexuality become sociologically understood. One function of the white Protestant denominations or Catholic churches has been, at least historically, to maintain morality and to control sexual comportment. The function of the black church

has historically differed from this. In addition to its closer involvement with economic

circumstances of local communities (see Light, 1972:127-151), the black church has been a base of and sometimes catalyst for political action (Nelsen et al., 1975). Where the sect may exact symbolic sanctions similar to those exercised by white churches (Light, 1972:134), black church attendance can reinforce action directed to inner- worldly, rather than other-worldly matters.

NOTES

'In contrast to Hertel, this analysis utilizes occupational prestige scores, believing it to be a more adequate measure of socioeconomic level. The measurement of religious affiliation and region conform to the dummy variable analysis employed by Hertel, where "no" affiliation is left out of the analysis, and "West" is omitted also.

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Interpretation of standardized discriminant coefficients permits a comparison of the relative discriminating power of each term in the discriminant function. Thus, a value of .6 indicates twice the discriminating power as a value of .3

'At the zero order level, there is a weak significant relation between occupational prestige and the attitudinal variables, where higher prestige is associated with a more liberal stance. However, in the multiple regression analysis, the exclusion of the occupation variable does not permit the inclusion of the attitudinal variables. This suggests that occupational prestige is a partial determi- nant of one's acceptance of these secular trends, and will therefore have a differential effect on one's perception of life after death. For higher levels the perception is more personal, for lower levels it is implicated in prohibitive stances toward the social trends which are seen as weakening traditional arrangements and behaviors.

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