The development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior: Protocol for Wave 1 data collection with children and parents by the Developing Belief Network

Weisman, Kara; Ghossainy, Maliki E.; Williams, Allison J.; Payir, Ayse; Lesage, Kirsten A.; Reyes-Jaquez, Bolivar; Amin, Tamer G.; Anggoro, Florencia K.; Burdett, Emily R. R.; Chen, Eva E.; Coetzee, Lezanie; Coley, John D.; Dahl, Audun; Dautel, Jocelyn B.; Davis, Helen Elizabeth; Davis, Elizabeth L.; Diesendruck, Gil; Evans, Denise; Feeney, Aidan; Gurven, Michael; Jee, Benjamin D.; Kramer, Hannah J.; Kushnir, Tamar; Kyriakopoulou, Natassa; McAuliffe, Katherine; McLaughlin, Abigail; Nichols, Shaun; Nicolopoulou, Ageliki; Rockers, Peter C.; Shneidman, Laura; Skopeliti, Irini; Srinivasan, Mahesh; Tarullo, Amanda R.; Taylor, Laura K.; Yu, Yue; Yucel, Meltem; Zhao, Xin; Corriveau, Kathleen H.; Richert, Rebekah A.; Developing Belief Network, Developing Belief Network

Abstract

The Developing Belief Network is a consortium of researchers studying human development in diverse social-cultural settings, with a focus on the interplay between general cognitive development and culturally specific processes of socialization and cultural transmission in early and middle childhood. The current manuscript describes the study protocol for the network’s first wave of data collection, which aims to explore the development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior. This work is guided by three key research questions: (1) How do children represent and reason about religious and supernatural agents? (2) How do children represent and reason about religion as an aspect of social identity? (3) How are religious and supernatural beliefs transmitted within and between generations? The protocol is designed to address these questions via a set of nine tasks for children between the ages of 4 and 10 years, a comprehensive survey completed by their parents/caregivers, and a task designed to elicit conversations between children and caregivers. This study is being conducted in 39 distinct cultural-religious groups (to date), spanning 17 countries and 13 languages. In this manuscript, we provide detailed descriptions of all elements of this study protocol, give a brief overview of the ways in which this protocol has been adapted for use in diverse religious communities, and present the final, English-language study materials for 6 of the 39 cultural-religious groups who are currently being recruited for this study: Protestant Americans, Catholic Americans, American members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, and religiously unaffiliated Americans.

Citation

Weisman, K., Ghossainy, M. E., Williams, A. J., Payir, A., Lesage, K. A., Reyes-Jaquez, B., Amin, T. G., Anggoro, F. K., Burdett, E. R. R., Chen, E. E., Coetzee, L., Coley, J. D., Dahl, A., Dautel, J. B., Davis, H. E., Davis, E. L., Diesendruck, G., Evans, D., Feeney, A., Gurven, M., … Developing Belief Network, . D. B. N. (2024). The development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior: Protocol for Wave 1 data collection with children and parents by the Developing Belief Network. PLoS ONE, 19(3), Article e0292755. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/wkjgs

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 28, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Mar 8, 2024
• Publication Date: Mar 8, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 15, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 15, 2023
• Journal: PLoS ONE
• Electronic ISSN: 1932-6203
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: e0292755
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/wkjgs
• Keywords: Cognitive development; cognitive science of religion; cultural psychology; developing belief network; developmental psychology; religious cognition; social development
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/27372746
• Publisher URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0292755
• Additional Information: Authors on behalf of the Developing Belief Network.