Atheism and other forms of non-belief in God(s) are widespread and growing, raising public debates about the personal and social impacts of non-belief and fundamental questions for the scientific study of religion. If, for example, beliefs in God(s) are largely the products of evolved human psychology, then how do we explain the growth of atheism?
While some research has explored the causal origins of atheism, there has been no systematic, multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural attempt to establish the relative importance of hypothesized causal factors.
Our team’s recent Understanding Unbelief (UU) programme (2017-2020) has produced rich descriptive data that distinguishes the fractionated elements underlying the construct ‘atheism’ and shows how they vary across cultures, providing a more stable foundation for causal analysis.
The Explaining Atheism project is a novel continuation of the UU programme, taking up its innovative interdisciplinary methodology but shifting its aim from description to explanation.
Using the successful UU model, Explaining Atheism will combine an interdisciplinary and cross-national core research project with a three-part sub-granting programme, and ensure collaboration and coherence through programme-wide workshops and conferences. Core research will identify the most promising explanations of atheism and combine quantitative and qualitative methods to test their relative importance in Brazil, China, Denmark, Japan, UK and US.
Three sub-granting competitions will complement this work, two focused on research (with one specifically for early career researchers) and one focused on public engagement and understanding. The Explaining Atheism programme will be a landmark project for the scientific study of religion and nonreligion, further establish the study of atheism and nonreligion in the academy, and greatly improve public understanding of the causal histories and possible futures of both belief and non-belief.
Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project
Dr Aiyana Willard - Dr Aiyana Willard is a Reader in the Centre for Culture and Evolution and the Department Psychology. Her research focuses on the evolutionary origins of religion and supernatural beliefs, examining how cognitive and cultural mechanisms shape belief systems from localized supernatural and spiritual practices to complex institutional religions. Dr Willard has made significant contributions to understanding how supernatural beliefs function within societies, particularly their role in enforcing cooperative norms. Her work spans topics including pagan spirituality, witchcraft beliefs, karma, religious prosociality, and the psychology of atheism. Dr Willard has been involved in several large international collaborative project during her career, including the Evolution of Religion and Morality project, and Explaining Atheism.
Dr Willard is currently working on the cultural evolution of contemoporary spiritual beliefs in the west, the the formation of new belief systems more generally. She is the REF 2029 lead for Psychology.
Academic career:
Reader in Psychology, Brunel University of London, 2024-present
Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Brunel University London, 2021-2024
Lecturer in Psychology, Brunel University London, 2018-2021
Postdoctoral researcher, Oxford, 2017-2018
Postdoctoral researcher, University of Texas at Austin, 2015-2017
PhD in Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2015
Related Research Group(s)
Culture and Evolution - Evolution and culture are the two most fundamental and powerful influences on human behaviour, and their effects are what we study at the Centre for Culture and Evolution.
Partnering with confidence
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Project last modified 09/05/2023