David DeSteno

I haven't seen any data that link it to success in particular, though.

Yeah, there is.

And I'm glad you brought that up.

Let me just clarify what I'm saying.

It's not that belief doesn't matter at all.

In terms of people's overall health outcomes, it doesn't seem to matter that much.

But there are a few places it matters.

One is around anxiety, around death.

It matters a lot.

So if you look at how anxious are you about dying, it's kind of an upside-down you.

That is, on one side of the you are people who have a deep faith that there is a pleasant, joyous afterlife.

And then on the other end of the you, a little bit lower than that first group, are the ardent atheists who are like,

Yeah, I'm going to end up in the ground as worm food, but that's it.

I can't do anything about it, so fine.

The people who have the worst time of it all and the greatest anxiety around death are the people who aren't sure.

Because they're thinking, well, I'm not sure what's going to happen.

But if there is something, maybe I'm not doing what I need to be in that good place.

And so they have a lot of anxiety there.

So belief matters around death.

Belief also matters in the sense of helping people deal with certain types of problems.