CMAC research projects produce a host of impactful results. Some of them are presented on this page.
In a recent post, we shared some basic background to the scientific study of religion, which has been one major focus of CMAC’s work. If you want more introductory information on this area of research, check out what our collaborator…
In recent months, the Center for Mind and Culture (CMAC) has become part of a broader organization, Just Horizons Alliance. What is this new organization and how does CMAC fit into it? Just Horizons Alliance is a strategic change engine.…
We recently interviewed CMAC Postdoctoral Fellow Rachel Bacon and Research Assistant Abigail Wester about the LISDA project. In Part 1 of the three-part interview, Rachel describes the history of the project and how it came to be hosted at CMAC. …
Lukasz Kiszkiel, Piotr Paweł Laskowski, David Voas, Rachel J. Bacon, Wesley J. Wildman, Ivan Puga-Gonzalez, F. LeRon Shults & Konrad Talmont-Kaminski Religion, Brain & Behavior Abstract: This article presents the Dataset of Integrated Measures of Religion (DIM-R), explains how it was…
The core goal of MRC is to build a theoretically integrated, data-validated, assumption-relative demographic forecasting system based on a big-theory understanding of (non)religious identity and change. To achieve this goal, our team has collected vast amounts of data in three countries: the…
It has been long assumed that the attainment of higher education is a direct road towards declining religiosity. Past research suggests that higher education exposes students to new worldviews beyond the scope of the religion they grew up in, challenging the importance…
The declining public face of religion At one point, religion served as an integral part of society for people worldwide, but now there are many accounts of decreasing religiosity. The process of secularization and the decline of religion in the…
Wesley J. Wildman, David Rohr, Steven J. Sandage, Nicholas C. Donato Archive for the Psychology of Religion Abstract: The Dimensions of Spirituality Inventory (DSI) is a 50-item quantitative assessment of spirituality. Whereas “spirituality” has seemed to some to be too…
Declining traditional religious practice and beliefs have been observed in Norwegian survey data since the mid-twentieth century. We introduce a unique autobiographic database consisting of 1270 digitized entries written by Norwegian pensioners in 1964 and 1981 and assess its potential to study religion in the daily lives of Norwegians.
Ample evidence connects dreams with spiritual and religious experiences, yet dreams remain understudied as a source of supernatural agent concepts. Stories about life-changing dreams appear frequently in religious literature and oral tradition. Many people throughout history claim to have encountered supernatural agents in dreams,…
To many, the idea of an invisible person who watches over you and rewards or punishes you according to your behavior sounds like a fairy tale. Sure, many American children believe in Santa Claus, but they eventually outgrow those beliefs. Why…
Around the world and throughout history, people have expressed belief in the existence of powerful, invisible entities who — much like us — have intentions, needs, and goals. Whether gods, demons, ghosts, or ancestor spirits, these “supernatural agents” cannot be…
Modeling Religious Change combines demography, the scientific study of religion, and computational models to create simulations of religious change in the USA, Norway, and India. Our research tackles the challenge of creating more accurate projections of religious change in populations by taking account of multiple dimensions of religiosity.…
Designing cutting-edge technology to understand human cognition We’ve all experienced it. A terrifying monster is chasing you. You try to run but your legs won’t work. It’s as if you’re trudging through a thick swamp. You can’t escape. Fear and…
CMAC is conducting a study on frequent nightmares in people over 65 years old as part of Dr. Patrick McNamara’s project Neurocomputational Modeling of Nightmare Disorder. We are gathering information about the properties of nightmare imagery in individuals over the…
Trigger warning: suicide, suicidal means, and death. Please proceed with caution. If you or someone you know is in crisis, dial 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. In the US, suicide is among the top 10 leading causes of death,…
Digital ethics is the application of ethics to digital systems and networks. The discipline of ethics has two main components: A descriptive dimension in which we use ethics to understand the ethical relationships that can be studied and observed. This aspect…
Modeling Religious Change (MRC) is a multi-million-dollar project dedicated to advancing our understanding of religious and nonreligious identity and change by developing a tool for scholars and policy makers to explore demographic analysis and forecasting. Although MRC began in 2020, we have…
Ivan Puga-Gonzalez, Rachel J. Bacon, David Voas, F. LeRon Shults, George Hodulik, Wesley J. Wildman Abstract: Social scientists generally take United Nations (UN) population projections as the baseline when considering the potential impact of any changes that could affect fertility, mortality or migration, and the…
Wesley J. Wildman Bulletin for the Study of Religion Abstract: Academic conferences are among the most energizing gatherings of scholars and scholarship. When the North American Association for the Study of Religion pivoted to an online format for their 2020…