SOCIETY OF BELIEF: ASIAN AND EUROPEAN NOTION OF GHOST

Ghosts are one of many "unknowns" that many people are afraid of. Ghost is a difficult topic to discuss because it has existed from the beginning of time to the present day, occurs in all four corners of the globe, and people have told many different kinds of ghost stories. In addition to being a symbol of a being to be feared, the ghost has significant cultural values, including a religious and belief component, the subject of storytelling, metaphors, and the significance of the afterlife. People from all over the world recognize and discuss ghosts of all sizes and shapes all the time. Despite being generally hazy, ghosts typically elicit an emotional response of fear. We hope that it will reveal the connection between Asian (Indonesian) and European (Danish) fears regarding a discussion of ghosts as well as the differences in views, beliefs, and levels of cognition between the two groups. Examining the record in all of its hazy and ambiguous aspects seems ideal given the ambiguity of ghosts.

Many people fear the “unknown”, one of them is ghosts (Carleton, 2016). Ghost is a vague topic to discuss, it exists from the dawn of time to the modern era, it happens in all four corners of the world, with all of the different kinds of stories that people had (Hutchison, 1974; Philip, 2007; Baker & Bader, 2014). Since the beginning of recorded history in human society, different kinds of ghosts have appeared and influenced society to varying degrees. Most modern scholars tend to view ghost sighting records as the result of various combinations of imaginative and cognitive functions of the human mind (Poo, 2022). Ghost is not just symbolized as a feared being, but it also has significant cultural values, such as religious and beliefs aspect, object of storytelling, metaphors and the meaning of the afterlife (Tableau, 2016). The concept of ghosts, despite its multiple shades, can be explored as the opposite side of humanity, as a social construct of imagination or culture that complements the living world (Poo, 2022). Such imaginary things, therefore, which have the characteristics of culture, could not have a constant and unchanging composition (Berger, 1967; Poo, 2022). However, even if ghosts are merely a product of human imagination and hallucinations, imagination itself is a true cultural entity that has influenced human society.

People in many different cultures, including Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Africa, tell stories about ghosts of all shapes and sizes and acknowledge their existence. (Jacobi, 2003). When referring to the soul of a deceased person, the terms "spirit" and "ghost" are used interchangeably (Freed and Freed, 1990; Formoso, 2001; Comaroff, 2007; Yang, Huang, Janes, Lin & Lu, 2008). A soul that appears to be distinct from the body is also considered to be a spirit. A ghost, on the other hand, occurs when a living person is visited by the spirit of a deceased person (Oxford dictionary, 1988). However, the term "ghost" is utilized in a variety of cultures, and ghost is one of the categories used to describe the souls of the deceased. Therefore, rather than "spirit," the term "ghost" is utilized in this study. This is because the general term is well-known to the majority of people.

All of the vagueness of ghosts usually results in one thing, which is an emotional reaction of fear (Carleton, 2016). Fear is considered an integral part of the brain's defense mechanisms designed to protect animals and humans from predators and other ecological threats. Fear that happens in humans is shifting towards something more than just ecological threats, it is also moving towards sociological and emotional danger (Adolphs, 2013). The most common difference of fear is anxiety. Anxiety is usually conceptualized as an adaptive but transient (temporary) state triggered by exposure to threatening stimuli, whereas anxiety is a more tonic state associated with anticipation and preparedness (Adolphs, 2013). This distinction is similar to the difference between moods and emotions.

If that is the case, I think we need to clarify some questions. What is a ghost? Does it have different meanings in Asian and in European hemisphere? What makes people fear ghosts? Does it have a deeper connection to the cognitive aspect of our mind? Why do some people fear it, some aren't?

This writing will hopefully tell us the relationship and the difference of views, beliefs, and levels of cognition between Asian (Indonesian) and European (Danish) fears towards a discourse about ghosts. Even though the debate regarding if ghosts are real or not is still ongoing whether it was real or not, people are somewhat still feeling a certain emotion (i.e confusion, fear, distress, paranoia, etc) whenever experience directly or indirectly about ghosts (Hall, 1897; McLean, 2008; Pappas, 2019; Newman, 2021). This research will hopefully determine the society’s tendency or thoughts about ghostly phenomena and the level of psychological fear that lead to Asia as a holistic society and European as an analytical society (Kahan et al., 2006). Ultimately, whether ghosts are real or imaginary beings, there is a need to assess the impact of ghosts on human society and culture. The uncertainty of ghosts seems an ideal reason to examine the record in all its vague and ambiguous aspects.

All of that concept of ghost definitely depends on cultural cognition of a certain place. Cultural cognition refers to an individual's propensity to shape certain beliefs regarding social risk that mirror and strengthen an attachment to a certain vision of ideally what the society wants (Kahan et al., 2006). This commentary describes the characteristics of cultural cognition as a concept of cultural notion, together with the quantification of culture-filled worldviews (Kahan et al., 2006). Emphasis is placed on the social and psychological instruments that link individual perception of threats to culture beliefs and the pragmatic goal of being able to handle broad risk perceptions with confidence in order to promote science-based public policies that are suitable for people with different views (Kahan et al., 2006).

According to Kahan (2013), cultural cognition has three characteristics: One of them is how cultural cognition measures cultural worldviews. Second, cultural cognition pays attention to the social and psychological mechanisms that explain how culture shapes individual beliefs about risk. The third is the practical goal of cultural cognition, which is to promote public perception of risk and the collective management of policy impact that mitigate them. The cultural cognition hypothesis states that individuals are motivated by a variety of psychological processes that presumably form beliefs about risky activities and respond to cultural appraisals of those activities (Kahan et al., 2006). For example, individuals with relatively individualistic values tend to focus on trade and industry and do not believe such activities pose serious environmental risks. In contrast, individuals committed to relatively egalitarian and communist values tended to develop a moral distrust of trade and industry as sources of inequality and symbols of excessive selfishness and will immediately take environmental risks into account (Kahan et al., 2006).

Therefore, it is related to how the ghost is perceived in society. Every person which is conducted in one society has their own way to anticipate the idea of ghosts. Not only that it has some type of risk, forms a “new reality”, but also creates a new value in a society. There is a two-way interaction between ideas and society (Geertz, 1973; Poo. 2022). When humans conceive, inherit, or invent concepts of ghosts, those concepts can also haunt the living world in a variety of ways, frightening, comforting, transforming, and even entertaining. It affects history in general and religion in particular.

Furedi (1997) says that different cultures have different ways of expressing fear. Societies associate fear with a particular threat, such as the fear of dying, hunger, or even ghosts. It's vital to remember that in this formulation, the threat was specified as the source of these worries. Additionally, fear might vary depending on culture and history. Today, we routinely portray the very act of being afraid as a danger. The dynamics of fear nowadays are free-floating, and it can affix itself to a wide range of situations. A culture that constantly expects the worst-case scenario and displays reluctance and concern about uncertainty promotes the free-floating dynamic of fear. This fear-based culture leads people to view other people as potential threats to their safety. As a result, every experience that can happen has been turned into a danger that needs to be controlled.

To understand ghosts more, we could point to the unavoidable fate of death, the great equalizer, one of the enduring puzzles and sources of anxiety of human existence, if we wanted to trace the origin of the popularity of ghosts. The English term "spirit" is limited in its application when compared to the terms used in various religious traditions to describe the human condition after death. The spirit or soul of a deceased person is typically referred to as a "ghost" by modern English speakers. However, in other cultures, multiple ways of human post mortem existence can exist, and so there are multiple terms to refer to these beings. It is worth considering whether it is appropriate to represent the various forms of postmortem existence encountered in other cultures.

Ghosts can be divided into two categories. The first involves a disembodied spirit that is transparent or has the lifelike appearance of its former self, while the second is a very emaciated person with a pure white face and no eyes or lips (Jacobi, 2003). It is the spirit of the body. In this study, ghosts are considered as disembodied and restless souls of the dead, who are incorporeal and intangible because they have no physical form, and cannot physically touch a living person (Jacobi, 2003). To add to that, a ghost in this sense is usually an abstract being (astral being) that has characteristics of shadowy, blurry, transparent (see-through), supernatural, intangible, can shapeshift, soul or spectrum, and usually frightening in nature with a horror-induced element (Irwin, 1993; Hulick, 2019). This topic is born from how the European notion about ghosts (i.e horror movies and stories) has different characteristics from the Asian notion of ghosts (Bubandt, 2012). Ghosts usually pose a threat to humans, not just because of how alien they are, but how they could possibly harm humans mentally or physically.

The concept of the ghost can be understood as a cultural or social construct that complements the world of the living and represents the other side of humanity, despite its many different interpretations. However, due to the fact that it is a cultural product and possesses cultural characteristics, such an imaginary cannot maintain a stable composition (Poo, 2022). Even though we don't know where the idea of ghosts came from in prehistory, once it did, there had to be a set of assumptions about what a ghost looked like, who it was, how it related to humans, and other things that people could relate to and interact with. That is, the imaginary gained a real status in people's minds and became a tangible cultural entity by creating a recognizable image. Because it would be cognitively difficult to conceive of an "existence" without having at least some of the characteristics that the human mind would recognize and associate with an "animated being," it would therefore not be surprising if ghosts were imagined to have possessed certain characteristics similar to those of living people. However, this would not necessarily mean that they were human. As a result, this imagined existence would require a particular form, weight, or color. It could likewise have physical and verbal capacities, articulations of sentiments, feelings, and, surprisingly, the ownership of an ethical sense. In addition, supernatural power was frequently present.

If we talk about the aftereffect of ghosts from a psychological standpoint, one of them, which many people have experienced, is emotional anxiety. Emotional anxiety has a close relation to fear, which occurs as a result of a perceived threat that is impossible to control or avoid by any human (?hman, 2000). An individual's fear not only depends on its nature, but is also formed by social relationships and culture to understand when and how much fear is felt, that is what sociological research indicates (Gill & Burow, 2017).

Fear in psychological perspective could be categorized into three group (Huntington, 2022):

• Fear in the body: Your conscious experience of something that frightens you may consist of both physical symptoms and anxious thoughts. However, psychologists and other scientists view fear as the body's response to threat to protect itself from any type of incoming danger or threat (Johnson, 2016). In order to prepare the body for an effective response, the threat-detection portion of the brain goes into alert mode and releases hormones (LeDoux, 2003). This alert response is accompanied by many changes in the body.
• Fear in the mind: Psychologists also look at how frequently, strongly, and persistently people think about threatening events (Rachman et al., 1987). To give you an example, most people who are about to have surgery worry about what might happen. A person may require the assistance of a professional to manage their fear if they have difficulty relating their fears to their everyday activities.
• Fear in the behavior: We attempt to adapt when confronted with a threat. All of our responses to fear are intended to safeguard us (Adolphs, 2013). The majority of animals, including humans, engage in some form of "fighting," also known as avoiding danger, or "freezing," also known as fleeing threats, in response to terrifying circumstances (intentionally shut down) (Bracha et al., 2004).

Phasmophobia is another name for the fear of ghosts, and many experts say it can be hard to diagnose. Many people are excited to tell ghost stories or watch movies about ghosts and other supernatural beings. Most people are able to control this fear, and some even like the emotions it causes; However, not everyone is able to. Some experts believe that ghost phobia may be a sign of a more serious mental illness because it may represent a form of magical thinking (Bennet, 2022; Fritscher, 2021). Supernatural reasoning includes the conviction that one's considerations, wants, or thoughts can impact what's going on in the actual world. Any belief based on irrational correlations between events could be included in a broad definition of magical thinking. Because the existence of the paranormal has not been scientifically demonstrated, some experts believe that believing in the paranormal may amount to magical thinking (Bennet, 2022; Carroll, 2014). According to this theory, phasmophobia is a severe form of fear of ghosts that may indicate a condition that is more serious than simple phobias (Carhart-Harris, 2013; Sternberg et al., 2007). Psychosis, schizotypal personality disorder, and other serious mental illnesses are linked to magical thinking (García-Montes et al., 2014). There are a variety of symptoms that can indicate phobia, some of which include: anxiety, panic attacks, trouble sleeping, a strong fear of being alone, and a fear of ghosts (Fritscher, 2021). Physical indications that phasmophobic individuals frequently exhibit sweating, chills, nausea, shivering, an elevated heart rate, and an elevated breathing rhythm (Fritscher, 2021).

Now, we need to differentiate culturan view between Asians and Europeans. Asians generally have a cognitive characteristic that is represented as 'holistic' or 'dialectical', whereas Europeans generally have an 'analytical' cognitive style, and it is backed up by many cross-cultural cognitive psychologists (Nichols, 2021). Several proposals emphasize the contrast between individualistic and collectivist self-concepts, generally as a result of socio-psychological scales (Nisbett et al., 2001, as cited in Nichols, 2021).

Religious philosophies can help explain the differences between Asian and European cultures (Reisinger, 2003). Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism, on the other hand, hold that the soul reincarnates, leaving the body after death and entering a new form through cycles of rebirth (Davies, 2010, Harvey, 2009). In contrast, Christianity promises that the body will undergo transformation to prepare it for heaven or hell. It's possible that the soul will continue to wander the earth as a ghost here; Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and other religions serve as the foundation for these beliefs. claiming that dead people's souls can live on after they die (Freed and Freed, 1990; Kaneko, 1990; Cano and Mysyk, 2004). More importantly, socially shared beliefs about ghosts override individual beliefs.

The European self is made up of fixed characteristics and can change little from one setting or context to another. However, for East Asians, the self is literally dependent on the context because of the person's close connection to others (Nisbett & Masuda, 2003). The range of attentional and perceptual tasks for which East Asians and Europeans differ extends beyond cognition. Europeans seem to focus more on prominent objects while Asians appear to focus more on the field (Nisbett & Masuda, 2003). The distinctions in consideration, discernment and perception that we have shown are driven by contrasts in friendly construction and social practices that speed Asians to focus on the climate and permit Europeans the advantage of going to a central article and their objectives as for it (Nisbett & Masuda, 2003). Asians seem to build environments with a lot of elements because they pay close attention to a lot of details and focus on a lot of the field. Europeans seem to prefer environments with fewer elements and a narrower focus on a smaller number of elements.

In Asia, the term ghost has a negative connotation in common conception, that ghost is inherently evil or up to no good, that it usually creates chaos, anxiety, fear, and could potentially harm people (Wang, 2021). Ghosts in many parts of Asia are still taken seriously especially in religious rituals, one of them is exorcism that is performed by priests to drive away evil ghosts. Ghosts in Asia usually don't have a clear reason to haunt or hurt a person, in many cases of ghost stories, it will haunt everyone that catches their attention regardless of the relationship between them (Wang, 2021). It might be different in Europe, ghosts in Europe are not necessarily or inherently evil and try to hurt people all the time, it can be benevolent or borderline a non-sided being. Most ghost stories in Europe have an underlying reason behind their encounters, such as family relationships or someone disturbing the ghost (Baker & Bader, 2014). The European notion of ghosts is that superstitions aren't prominent and belief is not as important as in Asia. The reason why Europeans also don't believe in ghosts is because they will try to find the logical explanation behind it. Most Europeans will try to find the reason something is considered haunted, i.e creaking noises, steps, or even sighting of a ghost in an abandoned house (Baker & Bader, 2014). The way these differences work together makes them worse: people create different environments as a result of the environment's influence on perception and perceptual preferences (Nisbett & Masuda, 2003).

From the literature findings, it is feasible to reason that confidence in ghosts is more present in Asian (Thai, Indonesia and Chinese) societies compared to Western (American, Danish and English) societies on account of social contrasts. The Asian consider supernatural powers to be a challenge and unintelligent action, and they believe that there are ghosts all over the world. whereas Protestant scientific rationalism, secularization, and demythologizing have significantly weakened these beliefs in Western culture, theology (Cohen, 1990; Inglis and Holmes, 2003; Sj?din, 1995).

According to the National Science Foundation (2000), women are more likely than men to believe in ghosts in terms of demographic profiles. However, Freed and Freed (1990) discovered that children and adults of all ages, regardless of gender, have a belief in ghosts. In addition, culturally ingrained beliefs in ghosts are not eliminated by education (Burnard et al., 2006, Aarnio and Lindeman, 2007). As a result, the researchers hypothesized that respondents of various ages, genders, and educational backgrounds did not differ significantly in their belief in ghosts.

In conclusion, ghosts are one of the many "unknowns" that make people fear towards them, also it seem that ghosts become a question without an answer. Ghosts are a difficult topic to discuss because their concept have existed from the beginning to the present day, they exist in all four corners of the world, and people have told stories of different types of ghosts. In addition, it has significant cultural value in every continent. This includes religious and devotional elements, storytelling themes, metaphors, and afterlife meanings. People all over the world recognize and discuss ghosts of all sizes and shapes, all the time. Ghosts are generally vague, but usually evoke an emotional response of fear. It is hoped that this interesting phenomena demonstrate an out-of-this-world reaction that the relationship of fear associated with discussions about ghosts in Asia (Indonesia) and Europe (Denmark), as well as differences in views, beliefs and levels of awareness between the two groups. Given the ambiguity of ghosts, do you think it will forever remain ghostly?

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