Would you like to help us develop customized economic-game scenarios and behavioral experiments that would tap into inter-group conflict and that would assess the role of religious beliefs and behaviors in defining and shifting in-group/out-group boundaries?
If your answer to the aforementioned is positive, you should definitely consider the possibility of applying for the two-year post-doctoral position at LEVYNA. The deadline for applications is February 29, 2020. More information can be found on the website of the official call: http://bit.ly/levyna-postdoc. Or you can just contact us for more info.
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.
