Does Buying a New Soul Make the Old One Worth Less?

Robert Johnson’s recording career may have only lasted seven months, but today he’s recognized as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as “perhaps the first ever rock star,” and he’s considered a member of the 27 Club, a list of high-achieving cultural icons who didn’t make it to 28 years of age.

For the better part of his short life, Johnson was unknown and unrecognized – until he emerged in his early twenties as one of the world’s best guitarists. How did a musician go from being an unrecognized talent to world-class in such a short time? Some think that he sold his soul to the devil.

As far as deals with the devil go, Johnson’s is one of the better ones known in pop culture. In The Devil and Daniel Webster, a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét, a man sells his soul to the devil for a mere 10 years of “prosperity” – a far cry from a century’s worth of world fame.

The few sellers who’ve listed their soul on eBay have gotten even less for their “used” item. In 2002, 26-year-old Gareth Malham from Newcastle, England successfully passed on his soul to a man from Oklahoma, for just under $20 (minus post and packaging). By 2008, this window of opportunity had closed; an arts institute graduate from England found out that eBay no longer allows listings for non-physical items. Souls, ghosts, curses, and goodwill must be sold elsewhere, but perhaps an even better question than where to sell one’s soul is: for how much?

The souls of the free market

In the movie Indecent Proposal, a billionaire offers a million dollars to a young married couple for one night with the woman. Does that price sound about right?

The free-market idea on pricing is to follow what people are willing to pay for an item, and whether there’s supply at that price point. When it comes to sacred values, however, it’s more difficult to apply rationality when setting a price.

Different people consider different values sacred, but there are larger topics that we all tend to agree on. Religious people will hold their religious beliefs in high regard, freedom is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and pretty much all societies have a prohibition against murder. Our values guide many of life’s most important decisions. Some people do not use products tested on animals; others will only work for environmentally responsible companies; and yet others won’t marry anyone outside of their religion.

When it comes to setting a price for an item, people tend to go with one of two types of decision-making strategies. Decisions can either be utilitarian in nature – where the costs and benefits are analyzed – or they can be left to deontic processing, where morality is emphasized. In the latter case, something can be considered either right or wrong, and price becomes irrelevant when that something is considered “wrong.”

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a team of researchers at Emory University in Georgia found proof that these two processes are completely separate. During the study, Gregory S. Berns, Emily Bell, and the rest of their team asked people to sell their personal values. The researchers then saw that when people refused to set a price on certain “items” (e.g., “their soul”), the fMRI images showed increased activity in a very different part of their brain than when they were asked to set a price on something they considered non-sacred.

What is it about the “soul” that makes it so hard for us to part with it?

God connection

Neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky has explored various aspects of human behavior and society, including the evolution of religious beliefs. Regarding the evolutionary psychology behind these types of beliefs, Sapolsky suggests that the concept of a punishing god might have emerged as a way to enforce social cohesion and cooperation within early human societies. In his book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, he discusses how the fear of punishment from a higher power could have served as a mechanism to promote prosocial behavior.

The fear of divine punishment can evoke guilt or anxiety in those contemplating committing an immoral action. These emotional responses then act as internal deterrents, discouraging individuals from engaging in behaviors that could lead to negative consequences, both in this life and in an “afterlife.” Plus, the human brain is wired to perceive agency and intentionality, even in phenomena that have no ability for either. Our cognitive bias could have contributed to the development of religious belief in supernatural beings, including punishing gods, as explanations for natural events or moral codes.

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People are only free to make a “deal with the devil” if they no longer fear the consequences. When the private values desired by the devil aren’t considered sacred, we can use a more utilitarian approach when making the decision to part with them.

“As a neuroscientist and psychologist, I have no use for the soul,” writes George Paxinos of the nonprofit research institute Neuroscience Research Australia. “The brain is the organ with a map of our body, the outside world and our experience. Damage to the brain, as in accidents, dementias or congenital malformations, produces a commensurate damage to personality.” Neuroscientists can tell us that the brain is where we think, love, and hate; it’s also where we store our memories or make decisions. As Professor of Philosophy David Kyle Johnson puts it, “There is nothing left for the soul to do.”

So selling a soul only works for people who don’t believe that it has any (sacred) value, making them free to use their utilitarian processing to set the price. But if a non-believer’s cost-benefit analysis says that the soul is worth zero dollars, and the believer can only use their right-or-wrong brain, then exactly who is ever going to purchase a soul?