Abstract

The present study examined the variations in personality variables according to different types for the Korean view of the afterlife, including 'extinction type', 'the other world-oriented transmigration type', 'heaven/hell type' and 'obscurity type'. The results may be summarized as follows: (1) 'the other world-oriented transmigration type' and 'heaven/hell type' showed significantly stronger belief in a just world than 'extinction type', (2) 'extinction type' and 'obscurity type' showed more external attribution for accidents than 'heaven/hell type', (3) there was no difference in unrealistic optimism levels, (4) depending upon the types for the view of the afterlife, not only preferred self-enhancing biases but also positive illusions which related to life satisfaction were different, (5) 'extinction type' showed stronger risk-taking tendency than 'heaven/hell type'. These results were explained in terms of features that belong to each afterlife view. Finally, we discussed the limitation of this study and the directions for future study.