In their new book, McCauley and Graham focus on the age-old question about the relationship between psychopathologies and religion, exploring the similarities and differences between religious experiences and mental disorders such are schizophrenia, hallucinations, epilepsy, autism, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. JCSR invited scientists from involved fields to facilitate a critical discussion within the cognitive and evolutionary sciences of religion.
In his commentary, Jakub Cigán turns to the problems of a psychiatric approach, which understands religious experience as a mental or neurological disorder while often ignoring the cultural background of such experiences as well as the incompleteness of historical record necessary for diagnosis.
Valerie van Mulukom and Martin Lang discuss how cultural priors and capacity for imagination crucially modify religious experience.
You can find the commentaries and a reply here: https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JCSR/issue/view/1828
In a new study published in Human Nature, LEVYNA was part of a team lead by A.K. Willard, studying how witchcraft beliefs affect social norms and behaviors. Specifically, researchers investigated whether witchcraft is regarded to be motivated by envy and how this notion influences community interactions. The findings show that, while witchcraft accusations were common, they were mostly directed at persons suspected of acting out of envy.
In an ethnographic survey-based study published in the journal Religions, D. Xygalatas and P. Maňo looked at variation in motivations for ritual practice and how it relates to the socioeconomic status of respondents. The findings indicate that whereas people of lower socioeconomic standing address more immediate concerns related to material security and safety in their ritual practices, people at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum tend to focus on the fulfillment of spiritual, social, or cultural needs.
