Dr Aiyana Willard
Reader in Psychology

Research area(s)

Cognitive foundations, cultural evolution, and societal consequences of:

• Religion
• Witchcraft and the evil eye
• Karma and other supernatural forces
• Spirituality outside of religion
• Atheism

Cultural evolutionary processes of:

• Norms and normative behaviour (including morality)
• Ritual behaviours and credible displays
• Causal reasoning
• Beleif system formation

Research Interests

The primary focus of my research is the cultural evolution of religion, sprituality, and other supernatural beliefs. This includes looking at why humans as a species are prone to religion, spiritual, and superstitious beliefs, and how culture has shaped these beliefs over time. I am particularly interested in the social and economic impacts of these beliefs. Much of my past work has focused on how the belief in gods who care about human morality and punish moral violations have aided in building larger, more parochially cooperative societies, (i.e. cooperating with other group members), and supports cooperation among anonymous strangers within the same faith. I have additionally done work on the cooperative impacts of karma beliefs, witchcraft, and evil-eye beliefs. My current project primarily focus on religious changes and decine and the cultural evolution of contemporary spiritual beleifs. I am additionaly starting work on the formation of new beleif systems as a more general process.

I conduct much of my work in the field. I have worked in Fiji, Mauritius, and the Czech Republic and am currently doing feild work in Somerset in the UK.