All Outputs (19)

Shared Flashbulb Memories Lead to Identity Fusion: Recalling the Defeat in the Brexit Referendum Produces Strong Psychological Bonds Among Remain Supporters (2022)
Journal Article

Identity fusion—a visceral feeling of oneness with a group—is thought to result from the sharing of emotional, often dysphoric, experiences. In this pre-registered longitudinal study, we address the impact of flashbulb memories of learning about the... Read More about Shared Flashbulb Memories Lead to Identity Fusion: Recalling the Defeat in the Brexit Referendum Produces Strong Psychological Bonds Among Remain Supporters.

Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play (2022)
Journal Article

Imaginative pretend play is often thought of as the domain of young children, yet adults regularly engage in elaborated, fantastical, social-mediated pretend play. We describe imaginative play in adults via the term "pretensive shared reality;" Share... Read More about Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play.

Shared Flashbulb Memories Lead to Identity Fusion: Recalling the Defeat in the Brexit Referendum Produces Strong Psychological Bonds Among Remain Supporters (2021)
Journal Article

Identity fusion—a visceral feeling of oneness with a group—is thought to result from the sharing of emotional, often dysphoric, experiences. In this pre-registered longitudinal study, we address the impact of flashbulb memories of learning about the... Read More about Shared Flashbulb Memories Lead to Identity Fusion: Recalling the Defeat in the Brexit Referendum Produces Strong Psychological Bonds Among Remain Supporters.

Cultural Components of Sex Differences in Color Preference (2021)
Journal Article

Preferences for pink and blue were tested in children aged 4-11 years in three small-scale societies: Shipibo villages in the Peruvian Amazon, kastom villages in the highlands of Tanna Island, Vanuatu, and BaYaka foragers in the northern Republic of... Read More about Cultural Components of Sex Differences in Color Preference.

Ritual Morphospace Revisited: The form, function, and factor structure of ritual practice (2020)
Journal Article

Human rituals exhibit bewildering diversity, from the Mauritian Kavadi to Catholic communion. Is this diversity infinitely plastic or are there some general dimensions along which ritual features vary? We analysed two cross-cultural datasets, one dr... Read More about Ritual Morphospace Revisited: The form, function, and factor structure of ritual practice.

Ritual morphospace revisited: the form, function and factor structure of ritual practice. (2020)
Journal Article

Human rituals exhibit bewildering diversity, from the Mauritian Kavadi to Catholic communion. Is this diversity infinitely plastic or are there some general dimensions along which ritual features vary? We analyse two cross-cultural datasets: one draw... Read More about Ritual morphospace revisited: the form, function and factor structure of ritual practice..

Homo neanderthalensis and the evolutionary origins of ritual in Homo sapiens. (2020)
Journal Article

There is a large, if disparate, body of archaeological literature discussing specific instantiations of symbolic material culture and the possibility of ritual practices in Neanderthal populations. Despite this attention, however, no single synthesis... Read More about Homo neanderthalensis and the evolutionary origins of ritual in Homo sapiens..

Homo neanderthalensis and the evolutionary origins of ritual in Homo sapiens (2020)
Journal Article

There is a large, if disparate, body of archaeological literature discussing specific instantiations of symbolic material culture and the possibility of ritual practices in Neanderthal populations. Despite this attention, however, no single synthesis... Read More about Homo neanderthalensis and the evolutionary origins of ritual in Homo sapiens.

The child's pantheon: Children's hierarchical belief structure in real and non-real figures. (2020)
Journal Article

To what extent do children believe in real, unreal, natural and supernatural figures relative to each other, and to what extent are features of culture responsible for belief? Are some figures, like Santa Claus or an alien, perceived as more real tha... Read More about The child's pantheon: Children's hierarchical belief structure in real and non-real figures..

Exploring the Pathways Between Transformative Group Experiences and Identity Fusion. (2020)
Journal Article

A growing body of evidence suggests that two distinct forms of group alignment are possible: identification and fusion (the former asserts that group and personal identity are distinct, while the latter asserts group and personal identities are funct... Read More about Exploring the Pathways Between Transformative Group Experiences and Identity Fusion..

Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: a pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory (2020)
Journal Article

The US Presidential Inauguration is a symbolic event which arouses significant emotional responses among diverse groups, and is of considerable significance to Americans’ personal and social identities. We argue that the inauguration qualifies as an... Read More about Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: a pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory.

Examining memory for ritualized gesture in complex causal sequences (2018)
Journal Article

An experimental examination of object-directed ritualized action in children across two cultures. (2018)
Journal Article

Ritualized actions are common in daily life, and prevalent across cultures. Adults have been shown, under experimental conditions, to treat objects subjected to ritualized action as special and different relative to objects subjected to non-ritualize... Read More about An experimental examination of object-directed ritualized action in children across two cultures..

The influence of goal demotion on children's reproduction of ritual behavior (2018)
Journal Article

A ritual by any other name (2018)
Journal Article

We question the privileged role of trance within the framework presented. The features that Singh suggests make it unique are not well demarcated from those of rituals more generally, and we challenge the depth of explanation presented for the mechan... Read More about A ritual by any other name.

Are Yawns really Contagious? A Critique and Quantification of Yawn Contagion (2017)
Journal Article

Many diverse species yawn, suggesting ancient evolutionary roots. While yawning is widespread, the observation of contagious yawning is most often limited to apes and other mammals with sophisticated social cognition. This has led to speculation on t... Read More about Are Yawns really Contagious? A Critique and Quantification of Yawn Contagion.

Preschool children's learning proclivities: When the ritual stance trumps the instrumental stance (2016)
Journal Article

Previous research has demonstrated an efficiency bias in social learning whereby young children preferentially imitate the functional actions of a successful individual over an unsuccessful group member. Our aim in the current research was to examine... Read More about Preschool children's learning proclivities: When the ritual stance trumps the instrumental stance.

Adopting the ritual stance: The role of opacity and context in ritual and everyday actions (2015)
Journal Article

Rituals are a pervasive and ubiquitous aspect of human culture, but when we naïvely observe an opaque set of ritual actions, how do we come to understand its significance? To investigate this, across two experiments we manipulated the degree to which... Read More about Adopting the ritual stance: The role of opacity and context in ritual and everyday actions.

The perpetuation of ritualistic actions as revealed by young children's transmission of normative behavior (2015)
Journal Article