@jlabouff.bsky.social
I'm a social psychologist who studies religion and tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. I'm a professor at the University of Maine in the Honors College and Psychology Department.
🚨New Paper Klaxon 🚨
Belief in Belief: Even Atheists in Secular Countries Show Intuitive Preferences Favoring Religious Belief.
Now out at PNAS
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Here's a quick 🧵 on what we did and found!👇
1/ 11
🧪
#atheism
#religion
#culture
#evolution
Columbia University’s immediate submission & betrayal of the core mission of higher education reflects cowardice and capitulation to a government that appears intent on destroying US higher education.
Full statement from AAUP President Todd Wolfson:
www.aaup.org/news/cowardi...
Maine said it wouldn't break state law to follow President Donald Trump's order barring transgender girls from playing girls' sports. Then came a barrage of investigations and threats.
11.03.2025 18:57 — 👍 13 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 2Thanks for sharing this! As a psychologist who studies religion, I'm super interested and backed it!
03.03.2025 17:46 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Researchers who study religion: which specialty journals do you publish in or cite? Here's a publicly editable/shareable list of (so far) 32 journals covering the disciplinary water front: what's missing? docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
27.02.2025 02:33 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
The ARDA is the world's largest online religion data archive, with a lot of really great resources that bring that data to life for those who are interested in their communities, states, our nation, and the world.
Subscribing to our newsletter (2 emails a month) will keep you up to date!
Gorgeous day in Rocky Mountain National Park!
22.02.2025 17:59 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Meow Wolf Denver was pretty great
20.02.2025 03:34 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0What a horrible idea. I really hope this doesn't pass.
20.02.2025 01:31 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
This is a long but clarifying read by political scientists who have studied the rise and fall of democracies around the world:
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
as a medievalist, as a church historian, let me say that within the long history of Christianity, I cannot emphasize enough how actually normal this is.
this is Constantine, Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, Louis IX, even Henry VIII!
this is still Christianity, as empire-hungry as it is.
Thanks for sharing! Very interested in this topic - psychologist of religion teaching a TTRPG & identity class this coming fall - would welcome any other related stuff!
10.02.2025 22:35 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Trump's planning to sign an executive order to combat anti-Christian bias. In a recent article in @psychscience.bsky.social, my colleagues (led by @marahalkire.bsky.social) & I show that such political appeals can serve as potent racial dog whistles.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
We've been redesigning our Honors curriculum at UMaine. Next Fall I get to teach my new Honors 101 - Tabletop Roleplaying Games, Culture, and Identity. Check out the course trailer -
youtu.be/jWw-D04AADw