Remembering Robert Trivers Robert Trivers, who died on March 12, 2026, was arguably the most important evolutionary theorist since Darwin.

"'Genius' is one of the most overused words in the language, with 'asshole' not far behind, and I have known few people who truly deserved either label. Robert deserved both."

Coming soonish!

Just published open access at Field Methods! Uncertainty and ethnographic methods! @djsmith90.bsky.social @bgpurzycki.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.....

Using Science’s Tools to Understand Religion’s Impact on Cooperation YouTube video by Templeton Religion Trust

RCC’s @bgpurzycki.bsky.social makes a cameo on @templetonrelig.bsky.social’s SCORE project vid! youtu.be/73kb1mddsZY?...

"Modeling Uncertainty around Free-list Cultural Salience Scores" by @rcc-au.bsky.social's @djsmith90.bsky.social and @bgpurzycki.bsky.social OnlineFirst up now at Field Methods journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... #AnthroTools #quantethnography

Position: Full-Time Data Scientist, Developing Belief Network Position: Full-Time Data Scientist, Developing Belief Network Description: We are looking for a full-time data scientist to join the Developing Belief Network, a global team of psychologists studying...

If you're a data scientist interested in a full-time or part-time role working with developmental psychologists on cross-cultural data from parents and children, check out this position with the Developing Belief Network. Application review begins October 15, 2025. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

RCC's Lauritz Holm Petersen successfully defended his dissertation, *The Ebb and Flow of Apocalypse: A Systems Theory Approach to Religious Endtime Narratives*! Tillykke Lauritz!

Congratulations to RCC’s Jesper Sørensen on successfully defending his higher doctoral dissertation today! Skål!

RCC representing at IAHR 2025 in Krakow! @djsmith90.bsky.social @bgpurzycki.bsky.social

Does concern regarding climate change impact subsequent mental health? A longitudinal analysis using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) | Royal Society Open Science Climate change is having a substantial—and increasingly severe—impact on our planet, affecting people’s health, security and livelihoods. As a consequence, the concept of ‘climate anxiety’ has recentl...

Double whammy just out with RCC's @djsmith90.bsky.social Longitudinal projects and causal inference!

Religion and trauma: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Climate change concern and mental health: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Latest articles from Religion, Brain & Behavior Browse the latest articles and research from Religion, Brain & Behavior

Book symposium for Jesper Sørensen’s *Why Cultures Persist* posted online at Religion, Brain and Behavior. With commentaries from, among others, RCC’s Anders Klostergaard Petersen and @bgpurzycki.bsky.social.

www.tandfonline.com/action/showA...

RCC’s @bgpurzycki.bsky.social talking about gods on @artefr.bsky.social’s show Stimmt es, dass…?

www.arte.tv/de/videos/12...

Helen De Cruz (1978-2025) - Daily Nous Helen De Cruz, professor of philosophy at Saint Louis University, has died. Professor De Cruz specialized in philosophy of religion and cognitive science. They were the author of Wonderstruck: How Won...

Philosopher Helen De Cruz has died.

Morality and the Gods Cambridge Core - Applied Psychology - Morality and the Gods

Free online for the next two weeks: @bgpurzycki.bsky.social‘s *Morality and the Gods*. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

New from RCC's @djsmith90.bsky.social et al.!

Job announcement 🚨: paid fieldwork opportunity with Sanguatsiniq research project! Details in thread ⬇️ Please share!

Postdoctoral researcher in social cognition | Masaryk University

Post-doc opportunities in religious cognition don't come up too often these days, but here's a good one in the Czech Republic with @martinlangcz.bsky.social www.muni.cz/en/about-us/...

AnthroTools 2.0 is live! Nine new functions that propagate, plot, and summarize uncertainty around item and cultural salience values. @djsmith90.bsky.social @bgpurzycki.bsky.social @rcc-au.bsky.social

Another offering from RCC's @djsmith90.bsky.social!

Warm preprint from RCC's @djsmith90.bsky.social and @bgpurzycki.bsky.social! Embracing uncertainty in quantitative ethnography!

No clear co-causal evidence of religion and mental health! Hot off the digital press from RCC's @djsmith90.bsky.social!

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Having a monk in the family and all-cause mortality: a seven-year prospective cohort study | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core Having a monk in the family and all-cause mortality: a seven-year prospective cohort study - Volume 7

Having a monk in the family is associated with lower mortality in older Tibetans: a seven-year prospective cohort study Liqiong Zhou @erhaoworld.bsky.social et al |Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Where do moralizing religions come from? Useless cognitive by-products?Cultural group selection for complex societies?

Our Psych Review paper argues: neither. Let’s rethink their cognitive & evolutionary origins🧵
w/ @manvir.bsky.social @nbaumard @jbaptistandre.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1037/rev0...

Apply for a fellowship to join us for 2 years at Oxford Brookes Uni!

Deadline is 18 March.

(<7 years of active full time postdoctoral experience at the time of application)

Postdoctoral researcher in social cognition | Masaryk University

Postdoc position available in our team!

We are testing a computational model explaining the decision-making process during in normative/moral situations while incorporating the formative role of culture in this process.

www.muni.cz/en/about-us/...

#socialpsyc
#PsychSciSky
#cogpsyc

Interested in examining culture, cultural models, and what people think, know, and believe? New book from RCC’s @bgpurzycki.bsky.social coming soon as part of Sage’s “Little Green Book” series!

collegepublishing.sagepub.com/products/eth...

From the desk of RCC's @bgpurzycki.bsky.social: "Does cultural variance lie more between or within groups? The AnthroTools R package now includes a cultural FST calculator for two or more groups."

anthrotools.wordpress.com

On Methodological Agnosticism and Neurotheology: A Reply to David B. Yaden | Request PDF Request PDF | On Nov 5, 2024, Jana Nenadalová and others published On Methodological Agnosticism and Neurotheology: A Reply to David B. Yaden | Find, read and cite all the research you need on Researc...

Jana Nenadalová and RCC's Armin Geertz engage in a spirited debate about the "neuroscience of religion" out now in the Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Pre-print *Morality and the Gods* from RCC's @bgpurzycki.bsky.social

www.academia.edu/126919815/Mo...

In-browser app for coding qualitative data. Something to check out.