Kathryn A. Johnson

Overlooking Evolution: A Systematic Analysis of Cancer Relapse and Therapeutic Resistance Research

Cancer therapy selects for cancer cells resistant to treatment, a process that is fundamentally evolutionary. To what extent, however, is the evolutionary perspective employed in research on therapeutic resistance and relapse? We analyzed 6,228 papers on therapeutic resistance and/or relapse in cancers and found that the use of evolution terms in abstracts has remained at about 1% since the 1980s. However, detailed coding of 22 recent papers revealed a higher proportion of papers using evolutionary methods or evolutionary theory, although this number is still less than 10%. Despite the fact that relapse and therapeutic resistance is essentially an evolutionary process, it appears that this framework has not permeated research. This represents an unrealized opportunity for advances in research on therapeutic resistance.

Matzah, Meat, Milk, and Mana: Psychological Influences on Religio-Cultural Food Practices

Religio-cultural groups endorse an astounding diversity of beliefs and rituals regarding food. The authors theorize that such practices in part originate and persist because they (a) mark in-group membership through the consumption of unique foods and the establishment of common food rituals, (b) signal status through fasting or ingesting certain foods or large quantities of food, and (c) help individuals avoid disease by promoting or prohibiting specific foods that were historically available. Moreover, the authors theorize that these sociofunctional motives are grounded in essentialist beliefs about the discreteness of biological kinds and/or beliefs about unseen spiritual essences, transmitted through food or food preparation. They consider how psychological explanations of religio-cultural food prescriptions and prohibitions may or may not map onto religious explanations. The authors also offer testable hypotheses about where and why certain food practices may originate and persist, and they hope that this analysis is the kind that provides insight into factors that may have shaped a wider range of religio-cultural beliefs and practices.

Humility attenuates negative attitudes and behaviors toward religious out-group members

Humility is marked by the regulation of selfish impulses for the sake of others, including holding a modest view of one’s beliefs (and their relative strengths and weaknesses). In three studies, we evaluated the extent to which humility attenuates negative attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors toward religious out-group members. In Study 1 (N = 159), humility regarding religious beliefs was associated with positive attitudes toward religiously different individuals. In Study 2 (N = 149), relational and intellectual humility were associated with less aggressive behavioral intentions in a hypothetical situation in which their cherished beliefs were criticized. In Study 3 (N = 62), participants implicitly primed with humility administered significantly less hot sauce (a behavioral measure of aggression) to a religious out-group member who criticized their cherished views relative to participants in the neutral prime condition. We highlight the importance of humility in promoting positive attitudes and behaviors toward religious out-group members.

Value-Expressive Volunteer Motivation and Volunteering by Older Adults: Relationships With Religiosity and Spirituality

OBJECTIVES This study investigates the interplay among religiosity, spirituality, value-expressive volunteer motivation, and volunteering. We examined religiosity and spirituality as predictors of value-expressive volunteer motivation and volunteering and whether religiosity moderated the relations between (a) spirituality and value-expressive volunteer motivation and (b) value-expressive volunteer motivation and volunteering. METHOD After applying multiple imputation procedures to data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study among participants 64-67 years old who survived beyond 2004 (N = 8,148), we carried out regression analyses to predict value-expressive volunteer motivation and volunteering from religiosity and spirituality controlling for demographic variables, physical, emotional, and cognitive health, health risk behaviors, and personality traits. RESULTS Both religiosity and spirituality were significant (p < .001) positive predictors of value-expressive volunteer motivation. Value-expressive volunteer motivation and religiosity were significant (p < .001) positive predictors, whereas spirituality was a significant (p < .001) negative predictor, of volunteering. Religiosity amplified the relation between value-expressive volunteer motivation and volunteering (p < .05) but did not moderate the relation between spirituality and value-expressive volunteer motivation (p > .45). DISCUSSION Religiosity may provide the way, and value-expressive volunteer motivation the will, to volunteer. The implications of our findings for the forecasted shortage of older volunteers are discussed.

Delayed Memory for Visual-Haptic Exploration of Familiar Objects

Long-term memory of haptic, visual, and cross-modality information was investigated. In Experiment 1, subjects briefly explored 40 commonplace objects visually or haptically and then received a recognition test with categorically similar foils in the same or the alternative modality both immediately and after 1 week. Recognition was best for visual input and test, with haptic memory still apparent after a week’s delay. Recognition was poorest in the cross-modality conditions, with performance on the haptic—visual and visual—haptic cross-modal conditions being nearly identical. Visual and haptic information decayed at similar rates across a week delay. In Experiment 2, subjects simultaneously viewed and handled the same objects, and transfer was tested in a successive cue-modality paradigm. Performance with the visual modality again exceeded that with the haptic modality. Furthermore, initial errors on the haptic test were often corrected when followed by the visual presentation, both immediately and after 1 week. However, visual test errors were corrected by haptic cuing on the immediate test only. These results are discussed in terms of shared information between the haptic and visual modalities, and the ease of transfer between these modalities immediately and after a substantial delay.

Who Helps the Samaritan? The Influence of Religious vs. Secular Primes on Spontaneous Helping of Members of Religious Outgroups

There is a debate as to whether religion increases prosociality. Darley and Batson’s (1973) classic Good Samaritan study provided evidence against religious prosociality because priming religion among Christian seminary students did not increase the likelihood of helping an ailing confederate. Conceptually replicating this study, we primed undergraduate Christians with benevolent verses attributed to the Bible, benevolent verses attributed to u.s. statesmen, or benevolent-irrelevant quotations. Participants were given the opportunity to pick up envelopes dropped by a confederate, who was or was not wearing a hijab. In the non-hijab condition, the rate of helping did not vary across conditions. However, in the hijab wearing condition, the odds of helping were significantly lower in the control group. These results suggest that reminders of benevolence may play a role in mitigating some instances of discrimination, but that religion may be just one source of influence that can foster prosociality toward outgroups.

Intellectual humility and religious tolerance

Abstract The present study explored the relationship between (a) intellectual humility toward religious beliefs and values and (b) religious tolerance. Pastors who identified as Christian (N = 196) completed measures of conservatism, religious commitment, intellectual humility toward religious beliefs and values, and religious tolerance. Intellectual humility was a positive predictor of religious tolerance, even when controlling for conservatism and religious commitment. An interaction was found between exposure to religious diversity and intellectual humility, such that exposure to religious diversity was positively related to religious tolerance only for participants who reported high levels of intellectual humility. We conclude by discussing limitations, areas for future research, and implications for interfaith dialog and engagement.

Fundamental social motives and the varieties of religious experience

Evolutionary theorists have explained universals in religion, but no integrative theory exists to explain why multiple aspects of religion vary within and between individuals and groups. We propose how four dimensions of religions – beliefs about nonhuman agents, religious rituals, community structures, and moral concerns and values – may change in response to the fundamental social goals of self-protection, disease avoidance, coalition formation, status seeking, mating and mate retention, and kin care. We review empirical research and provide testable hypotheses, and finally discuss implications of this theoretical framework for the study of evolution and religion.

U.S. Citizens’ Representations of God and Support for Sustainability Policies

This study proposes that certain religious and spiritual beliefs—specifically, representations of God—play an indirect but influential role in cognitive processing of (1) sustainability behaviors, (2) the importance of proenvironmental policies, and (3) their willingness to vote for proenvironmental policies. Across three studies, this research investigates the role of three representations of God: (1) God as an authoritarian personified being, (2) God as a benevolent personified being, and (3) God as a mystical cosmic force. The results of Study 1 suggest that attitude toward nature mediates the relationship between these representations of God and three sustainability behaviors. Similarly, the results of Study 2 suggest that attitude toward nature mediates the relationship between these representations of God and the importance of proenvironmental policies. In addition, the authors find self-transcendence to be an antecedent of belief in a mystical representation of God. Study 3 includes awe as an antecedent of self-transcendence and generally replicates the findings from Study 2 regarding the role of the representations of God in peoples cognitive processing of their willingness to vote for proenvironmental policies.

It's Not "All in Your Head": Understanding Religion From an Embodied Cognition Perspective.

Theorists and researchers in the psychology of religion have often focused on the mind as the locus of religion. In this article, we suggest an embodied cognition perspective as a new dimension in studies of religion as a complement to previous research and theorizing. In contrast to the Cartesian view of the mind operating distinctly from the body, an embodied cognition framework posits religion as being grounded in an integrated and dynamic sensorimotor complex (which includes the brain). We review relevant but disparate literature in cognitive and social psychology to demonstrate that embodied cognition shapes the way that people represent the divine and other spiritual beings, guides people’s moral intuitions, and facilitates bonding within religious groups. Moreover, commitments to a religious worldview are sometimes manifested in the body. We suggest several promising future directions in the study of religion from an embodied cognition perspective.