Culture of Schooling

Education

Cognitive Science

The project aims to study the changes that take place when individuals, communities, and societies become exposed to formal education, both secular and religious. It asks: How do scientific and religious beliefs, values, and behaviors held by individuals and groups change as a function of formal education? In what ways do they change? And why do they change? 

Grand claims have been made about the impact of formal education on individual and population-level outcomes, such as building economies, supporting democracy, reducing disparities, improving public health, and influencing population size. Research on this topic tends to focus on the projected demographic and economic impact of education, as well as the relative contribution of genetics and environment on individual achievement. Much less is known about how quality and quantity of education impacts the kind of beliefs, values, and actions individuals and groups adopt. 

Over the course of human history, most formal education has been directly associated with religious institutions, and remains this way in much of the world. Thus, students across diverse human populations are being introduced to more than just literacy, numeracy, and scientific knowledge. They are also being introduced to a great variety of religious beliefs, values, and practices. We seek to understand the impact of the amount, kind, and content of formal schooling on psychological outcomes: the reasoning, beliefs, values, and behavior of individuals and groups. We predict that the psychological shifts that result from the content and structure of formal education will have a profound effect on both scientific and religious cognition and behavior. 

The only way to measure these processes and impacts is by studying populations that vary in exposure to formal education. Thus, this project involves research with populations that vary in access and experience with schooling. At each field site, we are measuring and tracking the impact of the content and kind of formal education (secular and religious) on the psychological outcomes of individuals and groups. 

The objective of this project is to build an international and interdisciplinary network of social scientists to study the impact of formal education (religious and secular) on the development and diversity of scientific and religious cognition and behavior. We seek to systematically document the impact of both secular and religious formal education on individual and population-level outcomes.

1. What is the impact of formal education on the kinds of reasoning people use, the beliefs and values they adopt and the kind of behaviors they engage in?

2. How are scientific and religious beliefs, values, and behaviors acquired and transmitted?

3. What is the impact of formal education on scientific and religious belief formation and revision across the lifespan?

4. What are the predictors of individual differences in how people think about science and religion?

5. How and why does participating in formal education (secular and religious) impact social, demographic, economic, and political outcomes at the population-level?

Our approach is to integrate theory and methodology across social scientific disciplines to examine the impact of formal education on individual development and population level outcomes across diverse cultural contexts. We are drawing on insights from a variety of disciplines — including cultural psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive anthropology, and education — and facilitate cross-fertilization within and across these disciplines, to develop interdisciplinary theoretical models at the intersection of cognition, culture, and development.

Professor Cristine Legare is the PI on this project, and the larger project infrastructure includes team members at the Center for Applied Cognitive Science, an advisory board, and an international network of subaward teams with respective field sites.

Project launch page →

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Related Publications

Advisory Board

Cristine Legare, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Science, The University of Texas at Austin

H. Clark Barrett, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

Justin Barrett, Founder & President, Blueprint 1543

Cristina Moya, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis

Mark Nielsen, Professor, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Australia

Benjamin Purzycki, Associate Professor, Department of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University

Bruce Rawlings, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Durham University

Rebecca Sear, Professor, Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Mary Shenk, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University

Andrew Shtulman, Professor & Department Chair, Department of Psychology, Occidental College

Jonathan Stieglitz, Associate Professor, Toulouse 1 Capitole University; Scientific Director, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulhouse

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Collaborators

• Indonesia

  • Florencia Anggoro, College of the Holy Cross

  • Benjamin Jee, Worcester State University

• Malaysia

  • Frankie Fong, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

  • Mark Nielson, The University of Queensland

  • Noratthiah Nordin, The University of Queensland / Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia

• Tanzania

  • Coren Apicella, University of Pennsylvania

  • Duncan Stibbard-Hawkes, Durham University

• Namibia

  • Poonam Dhaka, University of Namibia

  • Annelisa Murangi, University of Namibia

• USA

  • Kimberly Rios, Ohio University

• United Arab Emirates

  • Mark Aveyard, American University of Sharjah

• China

  • Houchao Lyu, Southwest University in Chongqing

• Peru

  • Bruce Manheim, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  • Susan Gelman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

    Guillermo Salas Carreño, Pontifica Universidad Catolica del Peru

• Ecuador

  • Ciara Wirth, Universidad San Francisco de Quito

• Ghana

  • Vivian Dzokoto, Virginia Commonwealth University

  • Adote Anum, University of Ghana

• Mexico

  • Patricio Cruz and Celis Peniche, University of California, Davis

  • Linda Abarbanell, San Diego State University

• Denmark

  • Benjamin Purzycki, Aarhus University

  • Adam Baimel, Oxford Brookes University

  • Uffe Schjoedt, Aarhus University

• Israel

  • Ariel Knafo-Noam, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• South Korea

  • Joonghwan Jeon, Kyung Hee University

• India

  • Project Concern International - India

• Vanuatu

  • Joan Niras

• Brazil

  • Luiz Guilherme Dacar da Silva Scorzafave, University of São Paulo

  • Daniel Domingues dos Santos, University of São Paulo

  • David Andres Casilimas Diaz, University of São Paulo

• Australia

  • Frankie Fong, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

  • Mark Nielsen, The University of Queensland

Funding

The project is funded by the Templeton Religious Trust and the Issachar Fund.

Field Sites

• Austin, Texas, USA
• Tanna, Vanuatu
• Keningau, Malaysia
• Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
• Saltpond, Ghana
• Uttar Pradesh, India
• Chongqing, China
• Chinimpi, Ecuador
• Iwia, Ecuador
• Kurintza, Ecuador
• Accra, Ghana
• Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese (AAK) district, Ghana
• Jakarta, Indonesia
• Bali, Indonesia
• Athens, Ohio, USA
• Sharjah, UAE
• Jerusalem, Israel
• San Salvador, Cusco, Peru
• Hadza, Lake Eyasi region, Tanzania
• Tenejapa, Chiapas, Mexico
• Los Altos, Chiapas, Mexico
• Windhoek, Namibia
• Seoul, South Korea
• São Paulo, Brazil
• Brisbane, Australia

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