I am a PhD student in the School of Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, in New Zealand.  I began this 3-year program in February 2019, with an emphasis in cultural psychology. I am also a member of Rita McNamara's Mind in Context Lab (https://mindsincontextlab.wordpress.com/).

My research interests generally concern:

(a) how religious beliefs and practices are transmitted (or not) across generations, and what makes this process more or less effective
(b) how or why people become more "religious" or less "religious" over the human lifespan in different cultures
(c) how the cultural and cognitive factors involved in such changes can be statistically modeled

Broadly speaking, my research interests pertain to psychology and sociology of religion and atheism, as well as moral psychology in general.  More specifically, I’m interested in:

• structural and individual-difference factors involved in religious change
• the existential security thesis (Norris and Inglehart)
• the cognitive science of religion
• moral judgment and decision-making

I also organize the Atheist Research Collaborative (www.atheistresearch.org), which seeks to advance research within the sociology and psychology of atheism and nonreligion.

My ongoing research projects can be found here:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joseph_Langston/projects

Supervisors: Rita McNamara (primary), Ron Fischer

Location

Wellington, New Zealand

Disciplines

• Psychology

Affiliation

Victoria University of Wellington