What Makes Us Believe in Life After Death?

Have you ever wondered why some people believe in life after death and others don't? Researchers asked this question using data from over 200,000 adults across 22 countries. They looked back at people's childhood experiences to see what might predict afterlife belief later in life.

A belief in the afterlife is linked not just to religion, but to early trauma and a mother's love.

The standout finding? Attending religious services around age 12 was the strongest predictor. People who went to services at least once a week as kids were 39% more likely to believe in life after death as adults, compared to those who never attended. But religion wasn't the whole story.

The study also found that people who experienced childhood abuse were more likely to believe in an afterlife. The same was true for people who felt like outsiders in their own families growing up. Having a good relationship with your mother also tended to go along with stronger afterlife belief. And women, on average, were more likely to believe than men. Some of these patterns varied by country.

For example, women reported higher belief in 10 countries but lower belief in 3. The effect of childhood religious attendance was especially strong in less religious countries like Sweden and Japan, where going to services as a child really stood out. The study can't prove that these childhood experiences cause afterlife belief — it only shows that they tend to occur together. But it does suggest that what happens to us as children, both good and bad, may stay with us in surprising ways.