Let's discuss — Conscious and subconscious effects of believing in an afterlife...

Something that I've always found intriguing about religious people (notably Christians; simply because I'm American and most religious people I'm surrounded by are Christian) is what effect believing in an afterlife has on their choices and behavior throughout life.

We've all joked, or heard jokes, about things like reckless endangerment being the loophole for getting into heaven ASAP without suicide, and of course, most religious people (suicide bombers and cults aside) obviously aren't hoping to get killed, no matter how convinced they are that there's an afterlife.

But we do know that a lot of religious people, American christians especially, do genuinely believe they're going to heaven and being reunited with everyone they love after death. (except for the people they don't like, who are clearly going to hell to be tortured for eternity)

Is it possible for this to not have an affect on someone's behavior? At least subconsciously?

Not just in day to day behavior, but life altering decisions as well.

Is someone who believes they have one single lifetime, before fading out of existence, and no reason to suspect otherwise, really going to behave and make decisions in the same way a person who believes they'll exist for all of eternity?

I'd really like to hear some thoughts on this.