ABSTRACT Researchers who seek to understand the mechanisms that give rise to presence experiences are faced with a phenomenon that spans a wide variety of contexts, takes many forms, and is studied in various disciplines. In the absence of a conceptual typology that distinguishes different types of experiences in which physically absent persons or entities seem to be present, researchers have difficulty specifying the extent to which the mechanisms they propose apply to different presence experiences, both within and outside their subfield. Moreover, in seeking to explain presence experiences, researchers across disciplines typically fail to distinguish between detecting a presence and identifying it. We propose a typology of detection processes with three dimensions: mode of detection (direct or indirect), nature of the initial stimulus (unknown or known), and source of the initial stimulus (external or not external). We suggest that people identify presences based on agent characteristics and/or agent context. Based on this typology, we suggest that claims of direct detection involve a variety of mechanisms, while indirect detection typically involves making attributions to relatively ordinary events. Attributional theories, updated based on the proposed typology, can provide a framework for explaining how presences are identified (regardless of how they are detected).

ABSTRACT Religion and spirituality (R/S) often have a protective effect on mental health, although there are instances where they can be detrimental. Much research has concentrated on measurable behaviors, while largely ignoring the deeper R/S constructs that drive these behaviors. Additionally, the diversity of R/S beliefs and practices held by patients and their health care providers has raised clinical concerns about discrimination, which can hinder the integration of research findings into clinical treatments. To address these issues, it is crucial to find improved ways to assess the core elements of R/S constructs that transcend specific traditions with implications for therapeutic interventions. This study aims to fill the existing gap by exploring how faith maturity affects mental health in a sample of psychiatric patients referred to a tertiary care center for outpatient treatment. Data collected from 150 participants was analyzed. Higher faith maturity predicted higher wellbeing, lower depression, and reduced suicidality. The nature of these relationships were expressed differently in men and women. These findings suggest that faith maturity needs to be considered in the clinical context of religious individuals, to guide the development of tailored interventions to promote mental health and wellbeing.

ABSTRACT Given ongoing debates about the nature and consequences of religious belief, effective procedures for experimentally controlling such beliefs are highly desirable. To date, however, there are few robust, replicable methods. Here, we show that the “choice blindness” paradigm can be leveraged to directly manipulate religious beliefs and attitudes in a way that avoids demand characteristics. Across three studies, a substantial portion of our participants were prepared to endorse and justify reversals of their originally indicated beliefs about questions such as the existence of life after death and whether religion is a force for good in the world. Moreover, our experimental manipulation had a large effect (d > 1) on subsequently measured religious attitudes, which moved in the manipulated direction. Religious participants were no less likely than their atheistic counterparts to detect manipulations of their attitudes. Our work introduces a powerful paradigm for the experimental control of religious beliefs, a paradigm that holds great promise for illuminating contentious topics in the psychology and cognitive science of religion.

ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of research in the Cognitive Science of Religion over more than three decades and considers where the field might be headed in the future. The perspective we bring draws on the experiences of some of the field's founders (Barrett, Boyer, Lawson, McCauley, and Whitehouse) and on insights from the author of the field's first single-authored introductory textbook (White).

ABSTRACT Nearly a quarter of the world's population undergoes a major lifestyle transformation during the month-long Ramadan fast, making this large-scale self-restraint exercise a unique natural laboratory for exploring behavioral and psychological questions. This study tests the hypothesis that self-control improves with practice, predicting enhanced inhibitory control after a month of restraining basic needs. Ramadan participants (RPs; N = 173) and Controls (N = 222) completed tests of inhibitory control before, during and after Ramadan, assessing response times and accuracy alongside measures of trait self-control and beliefs about willpower. Over time, both the speed and accuracy of inhibitory responses improved, with RPs showing greater gains than Controls. Improvements in inhibition accuracy were significantly moderated by trait self-control, emerging only among RPs with higher perceived self-control. Insofar as this trait reflects an individual's value for self-control and aspiration for improvement, this finding highlights the role of motivation in practice effects. While the durability of these effects remains uncertain, the results suggest that inhibitory control can improve through practice when paired with supportive self-perceptions. This research also underscores how collective abstinence practices promoted by religious and cultural systems might guide individual efforts to foster self-control, advancing research on underrepresented practices and beliefs in psychological science.