We are looking forward to everyone coming to Brno in July! Your timely registrations will help us prepare properly!
And see the beautiful illustrations by Eva!
The Cultural Evolution Society is delighted to announce that Feryl Badiani (She/Her), LEVYNA, Masaryk University, is the recipient of the 2026 CES Richerson Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research.
Please join us in congratulating Feryl on this well-deserved recognition!
Why do rituals persist?
They are often treated either as attempts to influence uncertain outcomes or as practices that regulate group life. But these functions are usually blended together.
In our new paper, we argue that reinforcement learning helps explain this blending.
The core idea is that some aspects of ritual may be reinforced through repeated affective or social rewards. Other aspects depend on model-based expectations: culturally transmitted ideas about what rituals do, why they matter, and what kinds of outcomes they might bring about.
Do supernatural punishment beliefs promote cooperation beyond parochial boundaries? And is this effect stronger in "moralistic" religious traditions (eg Christianity, Hinduism)?
Working with some of best & brightest in our field, that's what our new prereg aims to answer: github.com/bgpurzycki/G...