Every year, European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association (EHBEA) is awarding a grant to support student research. Our Ph.D. student Radim Chvaja is one of its recipients this year.
The funding will allow Radim to study religious costly signalling in the cultural context of Maha Shivaratri pilgrimage in Mauritius, testing experimentally whether pilgrimage costs make the pilgrims more trustworthy as perceived by their peers.
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.
