By comparing how wild and doctrinal religious traditions differently influence social behaviours, trust networks, and cooperation, we aim to understand whether these ancient forms of spirituality originally evolved because they provided tangible social benefits, or whether they emerged as incidental by-products of human cognitive capacities. Our findings will provide insights into how these enduring psychological elements of wild religion can potentially be utilized to promote social integration, cooperation, and cohesion in modern, culturally diverse societies.

Our research on misfortune, cohesion and resilience explores the personal and social consequences of managing misfortune across cultures and contexts. These include natural disasters such as the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake, responses to personal loss across diverse traditions in Los Angeles, and social bonding associated with funeral in 2022 for Queen Elizabeth II in London.

Scholars of religion have long observed that in most organized religions, including “world religions”, there exist alongside the officially sanctioned tradition a set of “wild traditions” or “folk practices” that enjoy popularity among lay adherents, e.g., in the form of shamanism, cults of local deities, divination, and the propitiation of ancestors. 

Ronald Fischer: The Dynamic Relations between Religious Traditions
Field Site: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Research Team: Ronald Fischer, Claire White, Pascal Boyer, Dimitris Xygalatas, Everton Maraldi, Larissa Hartle, Giovanna Bortolini, Luiza Tavares, Pedro Rangel, Gustavo Granjeiro, Maria Vitoria Lima, Mirta S. Misailidis

People the world over seek help when misfortune strikes. In these moments of trial, people often seek out help from religious healers or spiritual experts, often outside the context of large institutional religions that have dominated much of the contemporary world. This persistence of non-doctrinal practices that emphasize first-hand experience, personalized ritual and may involve alterations of the state of consciousness are intriguing, especially when considered in light of the success of organized religious institutions. To understand some of the mechanisms and motivations for individuals to seek out non-doctrinal practices and practitioners, we focus on Brazil as an important field site.  Brazil is one of the most spiritually and religiously diverse cultures in Latin America that defy easy classification. Even though nominally a majority Christian society, some estimates suggest that about half of the population has visited or sought help from religious healers that work at the intersection between Afro-Brazilian and various indigenous belief systems, individuals often frequent more than one religious center and may even change religious affiliation repeatedly throughout their lives. This fluidity makes Brazil an ideal study site for exploring the impact and dynamics of religious practices within and outside organized religious contexts. Of particular interest are mediumistic and spirit-possession practices, the prevalence of relevant mediumistic experiences in the wider population and the dynamics of seeking out and performing such practices.

Melanie Nyhof: Understanding of and coping with the misfortune of death in Tana Toraja, Indonesia Field site: Tana Toraja, Indonesia

Research Team: Melanie Nyhof, Claire White, Hannah Lunkenheimer, Piter Randan, Izak Lattu, Rena Latifah, Sevgi Demiroglu

Death is universal but culture shapes how individuals view and cope with the misfortune of death. Tana Toraja, in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, is known for elaborate funerals and traditions regarding death, including reburial rituals. Additionally, the discourse surrounding death involves speaking of the deceased as sick, suggesting a view of death as a gradual process. How do people in a death-centric culture, such as Tana Toraja, Indonesia, view the misfortune of death? How do explanations of death (natural/biological, supernatural, or both) relate to how individuals cope with death? What role do death rituals play in coping with death? Our research examines these questions using mixed-methods studies with participants in Tana Toraja.

Manvir Singh: Explaining and contending with misfortune on Siberut Island, Indonesia
Field site: Siberut, Mentawai Islands, Indonesia

Research Team: Manvir Singh, Dimas Romadhon

For the Mentawai of Siberut Island, Indonesia, supernatural practice and belief overwhelmingly center on misfortune. Sorcery and supernatural agents are invoked toexplain misfortune; sikerei, or shamans, work mostly to resolve misfortune; and a bevy of taboos and magical traditions are relied on to avoid misfortune. Our project investigates such practices and beliefs through two broad themes: (1) characterizing the form of such supernatural explanations, including how they ascribe blame and whether they encode ecological knowledge, and (2) investigating how such practices and beliefs evolve through interactions with alternative traditions, particularly those offered by doctrinal religions and biomedicine. Ultimately, our project seeks to illuminate the social and cognitive foundations of informal religious traditions and trace how such traditions adapt under institutional and epistemological change.

Dimitris Xygalatas: Ritual Cognition and Cultural Adaptation
Field site: Mauritius

Research Team: Dimitris Xygalatas, Sevgi Demiroglu, and Peter Mano

This research strand brings together cognitive and cultural approaches to examine how rituals are perceived, enacted, and repurposed in light of both internal psychological processes and external social conditions.

In one study, we investigate how ritual contexts activate a distinct interpretive mode known as the “ritual stance”, which alters perceptions of effort and reward. Findings suggest that actions performed in ritual settings are subject to cognitive heuristics that render them less difficult and more valuable than identical actions in utilitarian contexts, highlighting the role of ritual in shaping decision-making. 

In a second study, we explore how individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds articulate diverse motivations for ritual engagement. While lower-status individuals emphasize existential and material concerns, higher-status participants tend to frame rituals as opportunities for self-actualization and social affirmation. Together, these studies suggest that ritual practices are both cognitively distinct and culturally flexible, shaped by evolved psychological biases and socioecological pressures alike. This integrative framework advances our understanding of ritual as a dynamic interface between mind, culture, and social structure.