Scaring the Bejesus into People: The Role of Religious Belief in Managing Implicit and Explicit Anxiety

Humans are anxious creatures. For a species at the top of the food chain, we have delicate sensibilities, with over 500 documented phobias (including aulophobia, the fear of fl utes). We may have cornered the market on deadly force, yet we easily become anxious when left out of a ball tossing game (see Zadro, Godwin & Gonsalkorale, this volume), and downright terrifi ed at the prospect of singing in public. Consequently, much of our behavioral, cognitive and emotional efforts go into avoiding and, in some heroic cases, overcoming anxieties.