Nick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 26, 2024

I'm grateful to present new results at some #religion #conferences this week.

In "Analytic #Atheism & Analytic #Apostasy Across Cultures" (https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qrz9g). In studies of more than 70k people from around the world, we
(a) replicated "analytic atheism" across cultures
(b) found signs of a new result: "analytic apostasy"
(c) failed to detect "analytic conversion" or reliable correlations between reflection and *spirituality*

Now I'll post about other talks and posters I can visit 👇

OSF

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 26, 2024

First, what are these #religion #conferences I'm presenting at?

1. #Atheism Explained? (June 26-28): https://www.explainingatheism.org/atheism-explained-capstone-conference

2. 9th Biennial Meeting of the Intl. Assoc. of the #Cognitive (and Evolutionary) #Science of Religion (June 28-30): https://iacesr.com/conferences

I can't make the third #conference:

3. Cognitive Representations in Religion (July 1-3): https://www.explainingatheism.org/atheism-explained-capstone-conference

#cognitiveScience #sociology #psychology #neuroscience #decisionScience #economics #politicalScience #thread

Events: Atheism Explained capstone conference — Explaining Atheism

In addition to our core research, the Explaining Atheism programme is providing £1.17M for other researchers to examine the causal origins of atheism. Awards are being made across three grant initiatives.

Explaining Atheism
Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.

In the opening plenary session of #Atheism Explained?, three authors meet commenters.

The #book: Beyond Doubt
The #Secularization of #Society (https://amzn.to/3zcRR5y)

Phil Zuckerman compared the book's claims to prior claims about #religion.

Ryan Cragun sketched their multi-facted model of secularization.

Isabella Kasselstand showed us how some of the #data aligns with the model.

Hugh Turpin and Lois Lee gave rousing commentary!

#economics #childhood #modernization #privatization #history

Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society (Secular Studies, 7): Kasselstrand, Isabella, Zuckerman, Phil, Cragun, Ryan T.: 9781479814282: Amazon.com: Books

Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society (Secular Studies, 7) [Kasselstrand, Isabella, Zuckerman, Phil, Cragun, Ryan T.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society (Secular Studies, 7)

Jun 26, 2024 at 2:26pmWeb
Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 26, 2024

After I presented the abovementioned results in the Atheism & Analytical Thinking session,

Tatsunori (Nori) Ishii presented "Analytic #atheism in #Japan: Examining the association between analytic thinking and #religious belief"

Among thousands of people from Japan (in two studies), Nori repeatedly found small analytic atheism correlations.

Follow Nori on #ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tatsunori-Ishii

#religion #cognitiveScience #decisionScience #psychology #experimentalPsychology #xPhi #culture

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 26, 2024

Omid Ghasemi remotely presented "Reflective thinking predicts disbelief in God across 19 countries" (https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/wny9p)

Two kinds of analyses found
1. analytic #atheism correlations
2. intuitive #theism correlations
3. no evidence of a reflection test priming/order effect on bleief in #god/gods (I failed to find such effects on 10 other outcomes: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/y8sdm)

Omid is also worth following on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Omid-Ghasemi-5

#religion #culture #psychology #decisionScience

OSF

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

I started Day 2 of #Atheism Explained? in another #Secularization session.

First, highlights of interviews about non-#religiosity in #Estonia from Atko Remmel (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Atko-Remmel)

Then Piotr Paweł Laskowski shared that in an expanded DIM-R dataset (https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2024.2305447) there were — among other things — intermediate relationships between analytic thinking and (lower) odds of #religion in a large sample of people from #Poland — more on this tomorrow, I'm told.

#replication #xPhi #psych

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

Is the #psychology of #religion different in more #atheist cultures like the Nordic countries?

Valerie van Mulukom (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Valerie-Van-Mulukom-2) & Anne Lundahl Mauritsen (https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/anlm%40cas.au.dk) report that they found (among other things)

1. analytic thinking predicted less religiosity

2. intuitive thinking predicted religiosity (above and beyond a bunch of other factors)

#cogSci #decisionScienc #atheism #agnosticism #theism #epistemology #xPhi #socialScience #sociology

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

What's the deal with #atheist #socialMedia #influencers?

Interviews indicated #atheism influencers care more about (a) creating #community for atheists who may not find community elsewhere (e.g., in predominantly religious countries or societies) and — for white guys — (b) argue against #religion/#theism.

But they reliably reported that their online content isn't a #money maker.

Where you can follow the researchers:

Dr. Di Di: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VoPxSkAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

Dr. Esther Chan: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fC_c4D8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

Di Di

Santa Clara University - Cited by 195 - Gender - Religion - Immigration - Sociology of Science and Religion - Tech

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

Remember Use.Net?

(It was one of the earliest online discussion forrums from pre 2000.)

Tim Kinnear has been using computational and quantitative methods to analyze early online #atheism communities (e.g., alt.atheism).

Super cool research program!

I didn't find a place to follow Tim, but Tim's contact info is in another #conference program if you want to reach out: https://basr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/basr-2021-conference-programme-7.pdf

#computerScience #internet #cognitiveScience #NLP #linguistics #networkAnalysis #bigData #xPhi #useNet

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

Dr. Aiyana Willard (Explaining #Atheism Co-PI explainingatheism.org/people/core-team) presented quantitative "interim findings" for their 2nd #British survey.

1. The best explanation of #nonTheism: not being raised #religious

2. The next best explanation? #Reflection test performance?

#DataAnalysis notes:
- #bayesian logistic #regression with regularizing priors
- results similar for both binary (#atheist/#agnostic v. #theist) and ordinal (1-7) outcome, even when controlling for #demographics

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

Dr. Jonathan Latham also mentioned some views of #causation and #explanation from #philosophyOfScience (which differed from my understanding of the history and contemporary scholarship and which seemed irrelevant given their correlational design).

Dr. Lois Lee shared quotes from and hypotheses about 180 interviews.

For the more #quantitativeSocialScience stuff, follow
- Dr. Willard: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aiyana-Willard
- @connairrussell

Looking forward to what they find in their data from other countries!

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

Have you heard of #HinduAtheism?

Feryl Badiani shared quotes from interviews in her talk, #Atheism in Hindus.

Some themes:
- "#Caste played a unique role in mitigating theism"
- There may have also been an "intersection between #education and caste"

You can follow Feryl on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Feryl-Badiani-2

This @wikipedia article was also educational (for me): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_atheism

#hinduism #religion #ethnography #philosophy #culture #politics #class #economics #socialScience

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

What about #atheism in regions of #Africa?

Dr. Kevin Muriithi Ndereba shared descriptive #stats and quotes from ≅20 people — mostly #religious, but not all #Christian.

What stood out to me:
- #animism has multiple facets (e.g., as #religion vs. as #philosophy)
- at least one person reported no #religious belief despite #belief in a "supreme being"
- some respondents described #charismatic #religiosity as excessive/negative

You can follow Kevin on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kevin-Ndereba

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

Did you know #NewAtheism is being ressurected in #India?

I'm not talking about the #FourHorsemen or their white, middle class disciples (but there is a connection!)

- "old #atheism" associated with #rationalism and #communism in a region of South India (#Kerala)
- there, new atheism was introduced in part by dissemination of Western #newAtheists (now spread in #esSENSEglobal's Summer camps and other church-like activities)
- India's new atheism seems linked to #caste and #neoliberal #politics

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 28, 2024

What #demographics predict disbelief in #God (in the U.S.)?

Dr. Katie Corcoran found these predictors of #atheism in the National Study of #Youth and #Religion (NSYR) and the Faith at Work survey (N > 30,000):

- not having religious parents
- exposure to diverse populations
- being a sexually minoritized person
- #race
- #politics

You can follow Dr. Corcoran on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Katie-Corcoran/research

More about Corcoran and colleagues' research via @ConversationUS: https://theconversation.com/the-number-of-religious-nones-has-soared-but-not-the-number-of-atheists-and-as-social-scientists-we-wanted-to-know-why-228852

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 28, 2024

We know financial security predicts less #religiosity in the aggregate, but is this causal?

Martin Lang reported an experiment on U.S. and Polish people indicating that it is.

You can follow Martin on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin-Lang-6

#economics #finance #religion #atheism #psychology #stats #causation #games

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 28, 2024

This conference is chock full of replications and extensions of #analyticAtheism (i.e., that more reflective thinkers tend to be less religious).

But is that correlation causal? Here's some #evidence that it is!

Paweł Łowicki et al. have been collecting #data from people in #Poland at multiple time points.

Cross-lagged analysis indicated that reflective thinking could be causing disbelief in #God!

You can follow Paweł on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pawel-Lowicki

#religion #decisionScience #xPhi

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 28, 2024

#Atheism and #parenting — discuss!

Dr. Anna Strhan (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=fL68noIAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate&inst=2438481962696796233) & Dr. Lois Lee (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nw-eyMoAAAAJ&hl=en&inst=2438481962696796233&oi=ao) shared rousing quotes from both #children and their #parents in #England who thought aloud about parenting, religion (e.g., #God, #Jesus, etc.) and #myth (e.g., #Santa, #toothFairy).

Themes:

#autonomy: kids and parents were against indoctrination

#humanism: kids and parents contrasted #science/#logic and #religion

#myth: they still appealed to non-religious kids, parents

Anna Strhan

University of York - Cited by 852 - Religion - Ethics - Cities - Childhood - Education

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 28, 2024

How do older people think about #religion and #atheism?

Joanna Malone shared quotes from (British?) #seniors about (dis)belief in #God, their upbringing, and their life #philosophy.

Patterns:
- #socialization: disbelief was often described as learned (like religious *belief*)
- #humanism: elders often contrasted #religion with #science, #logic, and free thinking

Follow Joanna on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joanna-Malone

#ethnography #sociology #anthropology #edu #age #agnosticism #socialScience

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 28, 2024

What about religious change in #Mauritius?

Nachita Rosun got qualitative and quantitative data about religious belief, religious practice, and #timeManagement (with a novel #calendar app?)

#dataAnalysis is in early stages (help welcome), but #preregistration etc. are #openAccess: https://osf.io/rfjkp/?view_only= (presumably data will be eventually)

The team's also on ResearchGate:
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nachita-Rosun-2
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew-Gervais
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aiyana-Willard

#religion #webDev #psychology #computerSci

Religious Change in Mauritius

Hosted on the Open Science Framework

OSF
Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 28, 2024

As #AtheismExplained ends, let's review common findings:

Predictors of religious belief and/or practice:
- Having religious parents
- Bring in a religious #community
- Social #conservatism, right-leaning #politics
- Unreflective thinking

Predictors (and causes?) of #atheism, #apostasy:
- Reflective thinking
- Financial security
- Exposure to #diversity of people, ideas

Thx to Claire Berlyn and Allen [Surname?] for organizing!

The website: https://www.explainingatheism.org

#religion #psychology #xPhi

Explaining Atheism

The Explaining Atheism programme will test both popular and academic theories of why some individuals are atheists and why some countries have higher percentages of atheists than others. It aims to advance both our academic and public understanding of the causal origins and possible futures of belie

Explaining Atheism
Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 29, 2024

On to my second #Oxford conference:

The 8th Biennial Meeting of the International Association for the Cognitive (and Evolutionary) #Science of #religion (#IACESR, formerly #IACSR)

iacesr.com/conferences

#Spirituality seems like one of the themes of this year's meeting.

Note: my presentation (top post) began with what I presented in 2018.

(Feels appropriate that my route to the venue takes me down Divinity Road)

#psychology #neuroscience #anthropology #philosophy #sociology #socialScience

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 29, 2024

Many think #science isn't #religious, but may it be #spiritual?

Jesse L. Preston et al. developed a #Spirituality of Science (SoS) scale in 3 studies (https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231191356).

And experimentally showing students inspirational quotes from science figures like Carl Sagan (vs. non-science figures?) made people see "the typical scientist" as more competent, moral, trustworthy, and *spiritual*.

Follow Dr. Preston for alerts of their forthcoming results: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jesse-Preston

#xPhi #psychology

Show threadDavid C. Norris 🇺🇦 🗽Jun 27, 2024

@ByrdNick Apropos quote that ended last night's reading in Whitehead's 'Adventures of Ideas':

"It is customary to under-value theology in a secular history of philosophical thought. This is a mistake, since for a period of about thirteen hundred years the ablest thinkers were mostly theologians."
[Ch VIII 'Cosmologies' §VI]

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Jun 27, 2024

Sounds like Whitehead agreed with our caveats about exceptionally reflective theists/believers in our (free) preprint (at the top of this thread), @schultem

:)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380836371_Analytic_Atheism_Analytic_Apostasy_Across_Cultures

Show threadNick Byrd, Ph.D.Apr 25, 2025

👆 This paper about analytic #atheism across countries is now published in Psych Bull Review: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-025-02691-9

Hat tip to the team!

Reflective thinking predicts disbelief in God across 19 countries - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

In the present study, we tested three hypotheses about relationships between reflective thinking, intuitive thinking (both measured using the Cognitive Reflection Test; CRT), and belief in God or gods (BiG) in university students across 19 culturally and geographically diverse countries (n = 7,771). In support of our first hypothesis, we found a negative relationship between reflective thinking and BiG; and in support of our second hypothesis, we found a positive relationship between intuitive thinking and BiG. Contrary to our third hypothesis, we found no evidence that measuring CRT prior to measuring BiG decreased BiG. Given that this is the first large cross-cultural test of these hypotheses to have a preregistered analysis plan, the first to hold education constant across countries, and the first to use both Bayesian and frequentist methods, these results considerably bolster the evidence in support of the first two hypotheses and against the third hypothesis.

SpringerLink