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…
Generative AI has been at the forefront of discussions about the future of almost every field recently. It has the potential to drastically transform how we work and how we think. In many ways, the transformation has already begun. Tools…
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…
In addition to conducting research, we need to communicate it. Project-specific communication, in the form of blog posts, newsletters, and social media can advance understanding, inform future donors, and enact change. By sharing CMAC’s research methods, project goals, and specific…
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,…
Edited by Yair Lior and Justin Lane Overview The past two decades have seen a growing interest in evolutionary and scientific approaches to religion. The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems…
Chapter in On the Subject of Religion – Charting the Fault Lines of a Field of Study F. LeRon Shults and Wesley J. Wildman This chapter provides an “international perspective” on the field from a scholar who was trained in…
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…
Over the past two years, medical doctors and public health officials have been at the center of a national dialogue addressing the physical, communal, and political effects of COVID-19. One dimension of that dialogue concerns the hard fact that pandemic…
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…
Education is a concept that has been considered the great equalizer because the access and skills that it provides promotes improved career opportunities and can catapult an individual into the professional middle class. However, access to the great equalizer is…
Corporate wage inequity, or the unequal access to opportunity for women in corporate environments, presents a prevalent issue. Research shows that a person’s network and referrals have an impact on pay. According to researchers Herbert Dawid and Simon Gemkow, “an…
CMAC facilitates conversations about the mind-culture nexus and connects a network of experts to the organizations that need them. In the last 5 years, our researchers have published academic papers, books, blog posts, and podcast episodes on a variety of…
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…
The first wave of Covid-19 vaccines Over the past year, we have witnessed a mass mobilization in vaccination of historic proportion. Lines wrapped around blocks to secure an early shot, sports stadiums opened to accommodate clinics, a frenzy to scavenge…
Andreas Tolk, Justin E. Lane, F. LeRon Shults, Wesley J. Wildman WSC ’21: Proceedings of the Winter Simulation Conference Abstract: Today’s challenges must be addressed as socio-technical systems, including insights from the social sciences and humanities to adequately represent the…