Happy Fall! BABLab enjoyed one of the first cool days of the season with a rooftop lunch — blue skies and a lovely breeze! A great start to the semester with our new BABLab team members, Megan Edwards and Jenna McClear, and a visit from collaborator Ward Davis (Wheaton College).
We’re happy to announce a new publication from the lab on the embodiment of prayer postures in three world religions!
Van Cappellen, P., Edwards, M.E., Kamble, S.V., Yildiz, M., Ladd, K.L. (2024). Kneel, stand, prostrate: The psychology of prayer postures in three world religions. PLoS ONE, 19(8): e0306924. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306924
Background:
Most people practice a religion, often multiple times daily. Among the most visible aspects of these practices are body postures, which according to embodiment theories, likely shape the psychological experience of religion.
Objective:
In a preregistered study, we test this idea among Christians, Muslims, and Hindus in the United States, Turkey, and India (N = 2,458).
Method:
In a repeated-measures experimental design, participants imagined praying in various typical postures, then reported their affective experiences, perceived relationship with deity, and prayer content for each posture.
Results & Conclusion:
Compared to downward and constrictive postures, expansive and upward postures led to more positive emotions, dominance, and praise-focused prayers, yet fewer introspective or intercessory prayers. Interestingly, these effects varied based on religious context (e.g., many Hindus found upward and expansive postures offensive, causing no positive affect). We further explored whether these effects varied based on posture familiarity, religiosity, interoceptive sensibility, and personality traits. This research provides unique data on embodied processes shaping affect and cognition in religious practices.
With Fall soon approaching, we’d like to welcome two new members to the BABLab team! Our ranks are joined by two post-doctoral fellows, Megan Edwards and Kunalan Manokara. Together, we’re excited to continue the lab’s work on empathy, as well as begin new projects on hope and virtual worship!
This Summer, we mentored two rising sophomores from the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)! Over the eight week program, Rachel and Jasmine worked on the BABLab’s latest study on compassion — from literature review, survey creation, to data cleaning and results presentation. In culmination of their time in the lab, both RAs created and presented individual posters at the Duke Summer Research Showcase last Friday.
Congratulations to Jasmine (left) and Rachel (right) on their first research poster presentation!
Congratulations to Dr. Van Cappellen for being awarded with grant funding from the Templeton World Charity! Dr. Van Cappellen serves as Principal Investigator on this grant ($499,489) titled “Worship 2.0: Testing the benefits and challenges of virtual
worship participation for flourishing”, a three-year project beginning in September 2024 to August 2027.
This project seeks to examine the flourishing-related benefits and challenges of worship modes in evangelical Protestant Christians and Black Protestant Christians churches, for whom virtual worship is practiced more frequently. Flourishing will be assessed at both the personal and spiritual levels: through psychological well-being and subjective happiness, and felt presence of God and spiritual well-being.
Through qualitative, quantitative, and experimental data, we address three research questions:
This project will address existing gaps in the research regarding the causal effect of virtual worship on flourishing, the factors that influence these effects, and how the social and emotional experience of worship potentially explain them. By actively partnering and collaborating with practitioners, we hope to ground the research in real-world experience in order to yield and disseminate findings that are both scientifically robust and practically relevant.
Dr. Van Cappellen is still recruiting both undergraduate and graduate students for the 2024-2025 Bass Connections Hope Project Team! See the WHAT IS HOPE page for more information, and email Dr. Van Cappellen (patty.vancappellen@duke.edu) if you are interested in this opportunity!
Congratulations to one of our senior RAs, Cai, who completed her thesis defense! Cai will be graduating with Distinction in Psychology in May 2024.
Happy (almost) end of term! As we finish up the Spring semester, we’d like to highlight some of the great work by our RAs. Rohan and Abby had the opportunity to present their analyses and results based on the lab’s work on empathy and compassion — more details below!
Rohan worked together with Meredith, a senior RA, to create a presentation for a study on empathy and the effect of a prayer framework. Rohan was also able to lead the presentation at a March lab meeting, where we discussed the results and the lab’s work!
Abby created a poster presentation looking at the cognitive effort of compassion among religious people, and the effect of a prayer framework. She presented at an April lab meeting and at the 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium!
On April 8th, 2024, our wonderful BABLab Members tabled at the BC Plaza as part of our IBRC (Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research Center) advertising and outreach efforts!
A big thank you to Rohan, Meredith, and Abby for recruiting out on the plaza! Not only was the recruitment a success, the team was also able to witness the 2024 solar eclipse together 🙂 Wishing everyone the best as we wrap up the Spring semester!
The landscape of research has been profoundly transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, propelling a mass transition to online research methodologies. However, the advent of sophisticated AI technologies capable of mimicking human responses has introduced new complexities, potentially undermining the authenticity of data collected through online surveys.
How can researchers best address this phenomenon in a growing digital age? What of the value of in-person research? Read Dr. Van Cappellen’s article, published by the Duke Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) here: The Case for In-Person Research in the Age of AI.
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