In recent years, much ado has been made about mindfulness meditation. Researchers and psychologists have found strong, persistent connections between meditation and enhanced executive cognitive functions – that is, high-level brain processes, like attention switching, planning, and impulse control, that…
Research Associate Catherine Caldwell-Harris, Founding Director Patrick McNamara and Co-Authors The 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society Boston Massachusetts, 2011 Abstract: The cognitive science of religion is a new field which explains religious belief as emerging from normal…
Research Associate Catherine Caldwell-Harris and Co-Authors Mental Health, Religion & Culture October 12, 2010 Abstract: Atheists are America’s least trusted group, and stereotypes about them abound: Atheists are non-conformist, sceptical, cynical, and joyless, rarely experiencing awe. Atheists (N = 42) were recruited from…
For those of us who view some features or aspects of religion (such as ritual or religious experience) as adaptive, their sui generis character presents few obstacles to the scientific study of religion. The evolutionary history of these aspects of…
This bibliography contains important resources from a wide variety of disciplines that have something to offer to the scientific study of the left-right ideological spectrum in politics, religion, and morality. It is not complete but it is extremely useful nonetheless.…