Research

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My research takes place in the overlap between the cognitive science of imagination and belief, and its effects on social bonding and psychological wellbeing, using the methodology from experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and social psychology.

My main research questions examine:

(i) the cognitive and evolutionary science of belief (religious, secular, and conspiracy beliefs) using dual-inheritance theories[1], combining cognitive antecedents[2-4] and other individual differences[5] and social contexts[6-8] as predictive factors;

(ii) how extraordinary experiences invoke social bonding, such as awe-inspiring or psychedelic experiences[9,10] and religious rituals and secular equivalents[11-15], but also negative experiences[16,17];

(iii) how imagination requires cognitive flexibility[18-22], and the evolutionary trajectory of this ability[23,24] with links to religion[25,26] and art[27,28].

A link throughout this research is psychological wellbeing, e.g., examining how beliefs support mental health[7,13,14,29] and how social bonding predicts health behaviours[9,16,30,31].

To learn about the separate research projects, please select from the dropdown menu above.

Research profiles

References

  1. van Mulukom, V. (2022). Engagement in COVID-19 protective behaviours: A complex interaction of trust and information in twelve countries. PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/chy4b
  2. Farias, M., van Mulukom, V., Kahane, G., Kreplin, U., Joyce, A., Soares, P., . . . Savulescu, J. (2017). Supernatural belief is not modulated by intuitive thinking style or cognitive inhibition. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 15100. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14090-9
  3. van Mulukom, V., Baimel, A., Maraldi, E., Coleman, T. J. I., & Farias, M. (under review). Examining the relationship between metacognitive trust in thinking styles and supernatural beliefs. doi:10.31234/osf.io/nsp2h
  4. van Mulukom, V. (2017). Remembering religious rituals: autobiographical memories of high-arousal religious rituals considered from a narrative processing perspective. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 7(3), 191-205. doi:10.1080/2153599X.2016.1232304
  5. van Mulukom, V., Pummerer, L., Alper, S., Bai, M. H., Čavojová, V., Farias, J. E. M., . . . Žeželj, I. (2022). Antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: a systematic review. Social Science & Medicine, 301, 114912. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114912
  6. van Mulukom, V., & Lang, M. (2021). Religious experiences are interpreted through priors from cultural frameworks supported by imaginative capacity rather than special cognition. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 7(1), 39-53. doi:10.1558/jcsr.19803
  7. Coleman, T. J. I., Messick, K., & van Mulukom, V. (2022). Atheism: A New Evolutionary Perspective on Non-Belief. In Y. Lior & J. E. Lane (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion: Routledge.
  8. Mauritsen, A. L., & van Mulukom, V. (forthcoming). Never mind the Gods: Explaining Unbelief and Non-religion. In B. G. Purzycki & T. Bendixen (Eds.), The Minds of Gods: A Cross-Disciplinary Survey Bloomsbury.
  9. van Mulukom, V., Patterson, R., & van Elk, M. (2020). Broadening Your Mind to Include Others: The relationship between serotonergic psychedelic experiences and maladaptive narcissism. Psychopharmacology, 237, 2725–2737. doi:10.1007/s00213-020-05568-y
  10. Newson, M., Khurana, R., Cazorla, F., & van Mulukom, V. (2021). ‘I get high with a little help from my friends’ – How raves can invoke identity fusion and lasting co-operation via transformative experiences. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 719596. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.719596
  11. Charles, S. J., van Mulukom, V., Farias, M., Brown, J. E., Delmonte, R., Maraldi, E., . . . Dunbar, R. (2020). Religious rituals increase social bonding and pain threshold. PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/my4hs
  12. Charles, S. J., Farias, M., van Mulukom, V., Saraswati, A., Dein, S., Watts, F., & Dunbar, R. (2020). Blocking mu-opioid receptors inhibits social bonding in rituals. Biology Letters, 16(10), 20200485. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2020.0485
  13. Charles, S. J., van Mulukom, V., Brown, J., Watts, F., Dunbar, R. I. M., & Farias, M. (2020). United on Sunday: The effects of secular rituals on social bonding and affect. PLOS One, 16(1), e0242546. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0242546
  14. Brown, J. E., van Mulukom, V., Charles, S. J., & Farias, M. (2021). Do you need religion to enjoy the benefits of Church services? Social bonding, morality and quality of life among religious and secular congregations. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. doi:10.1037/rel0000447
  15. Charles, S. J., van Mulukom, V., Saraswati, A., Watts, F., Dunbar, R. I. M., & Farias, M. (manuscript). Bending and Bonding: A randomized controlled trial on the socio-psychobiological effects of spiritual versus secular yoga practice.
  16. van Mulukom, V., Muzzulini, B., Rutjens, B. T., Van Lissa, C. J., & Farias, M. (2021). The Psychological Impact of Threat and Lockdowns During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exacerbating Factors and Mitigating Actions. Translational Behavioral Medicine 11(7), 1318–1329. doi:10.1093/tbm/ibab072
  17. Tasuji, T., Reese, E., van Mulukom, V., & Whitehouse, H. (2020). Band of mothers: Childbirth as a female bonding experience. PLOS One, 15(10), e0240175. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0240175
  18. van Mulukom, V. (2013). Imagining a Brave New Future: The Effects of Novelty and Plausibility on Episodic Simulation. (Doctoral Thesis). The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
  19. van Mulukom, V., Schacter, D. L., Corballis, M. C., & Addis, D. R. (2013). Re-imagining the future: repetition decreases hippocampal involvement in future simulation. PLOS One, 8(7), e69596. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069596
  20. van Mulukom, V., Schacter, D. L., Corballis, M. C., & Addis, D. R. (2016). The degree of disparateness of event details modulates future simulation construction, plausibility, and recall. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(2), 234-242. doi:10.1080/17470218.2015.1051559
  21. Roberts, R., Wiebels, K., Sumner, R., van Mulukom, V., Grady, C., Schacter, D., & Addis, D. (2017). An fMRI investigation of the relationship between future imagination and cognitive flexibility. Neuropsychologia, 95, 156-172. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.11.019
  22. Wiebels, K., Addis, D. R., Moreau, D., van Mulukom, V., Onderdijk, K. E., & Roberts, R. P. (2020). Relational processing demands and the role of spatial context in the construction of episodic simulations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46(8), 1424-1441. doi:10.1037/xlm0000831
  23. van Mulukom, V. (2020). The evolution of imagination and fiction through generativity and narrative. In J. Carroll, M. Clasen, & E. Jonsson (Eds.), Evolutionary Perspectives on Imaginative Culture (pp. 53-70). Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-46190-4_3
  24. van Mulukom, V., & Clasen, M. (2021). The evolutionary functions of imagination and fiction and how they may contribute to psychological wellbeing during a pandemic. PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/wj4zg
  25. van Mulukom, V. (2019). The cognitive science of imagination and religion. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 5(1), 5-20. doi:10.1558/jcsr.39503
  26. van Mulukom, V., & Geertz, A. (2021). The importance of imagination and subjective knowledge: The evolution of art and religion as symbolic representations of feelings, experiences, and beliefs. PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/7y6w8
  27. van Mulukom, V. (2021). The evolution of music as artistic cultural innovation expressing intuitive thought symbolically. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44, e019. doi:10.1017/S0140525X20001260
  28. van Mulukom, V., & de Wet, M. (2022). The Importance of Narrative and Intuitive Thought in Navigating our Realities. Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, 5(2), 61-64. doi:10.26613/esic.5.2.244
  29. van Mulukom, V., Turpin, H., Haimila, R., Purzycki, B. G., Bendixen, T., Kundtová Klocová, E., . . . Farias, M. (2022). What do non-religious non-believers believe in? Secular worldviews around the world. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. doi:10.31234/osf.io/gtcem
  30. Newson, M., van Mulukom, V., & Johns, S. E. (2022). Future orientation is associated with less lockdown rule breaking, even during large illegal gatherings. Futures, 135, 102883. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2021.102883
  31. Tuncgenc, B., van Mulukom, V., & Newson, M. (under review). Social bonding boosts health behaviour and psychological wellbeing. PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/r7pd2