Doctoral Dissertation Research: Disentangling causes and consequences of religious conversion

博士论文研究：理清宗教皈依的原因和后果

• 批准号: 2214224
• 负责人: Cristina Moya
• 金额: $ 2.36万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2214224&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Disentangling; causes

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Why do people adopt a novel set of religious beliefs and practices, especially if it is a minority one and doing so is potentially costly? This doctoral dissertation research project explores the conditions that make it more likely for someone to convert to a new religion and measures the consequences of conversions for cooperation across religious and ethnic boundaries. Results can help us understand the underlying drivers of recent large-scale shifts in religious affiliation, and their potential consequences for inter-group cooperation and market integration. Additionally, this project will provide research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, offer methods training to underprivileged academic communities, and disseminate results to both English and Spanish-speaking audiences. By using mixed methods in an ethnographic context experiencing high rates of conversion from Catholicism to various forms of Protestantism, this study can help adjudicate between the relative contributions of material motivations, assortment along shared values, and social learning heuristics in driving conversion decisions. This will include conducting retrospective semi-structured interviews, vignette experiments, economic games, and analysis of longitudinal census data. Economic approaches to conversion highlight the economic outcomes that often follow shifts in religious affiliation, suggesting that material motivations drive conversions. However, conversions are not always followed by improved economic outcomes, and even when they are, they may not be driven by material concerns. This project could shed light on the mechanisms involved in conversion processes by introducing a cultural evolutionary approach which focuses on the transmission pathways through which these ideas spread, and their interaction with human motivations and cultural norms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项全部或部分根据2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。为什么人们要接受一套新的宗教信仰和习俗，特别是如果它是少数人的，这样做可能会付出代价？这个博士论文研究项目探讨了使人们更有可能皈依新宗教的条件，并衡量了跨宗教和种族界限合作的皈依后果。研究结果可以帮助我们了解最近宗教信仰大规模转变的潜在驱动因素，以及它们对群体间合作和市场整合的潜在影响。此外，该项目将为研究生和本科生提供研究机会，为贫困学术界提供方法培训，并向讲英语和西班牙语的受众传播成果。通过使用混合的方法，在民族志背景下经历了从天主教到各种形式的新教的转换率很高，这项研究可以帮助判断之间的相对贡献的物质动机，分类沿着共享的价值观，和社会学习的知识在驱动转换的决定。这将包括进行回顾性半结构化访谈，小插曲实验，经济游戏，以及纵向人口普查数据的分析。皈依的经济方法突出了经济结果，往往遵循宗教归属的变化，这表明物质动机驱动转换。然而，转产并不总是带来更好的经济成果，即使是这样，也可能不是由物质关切驱动的。这个项目可以通过引入一种文化进化的方法来阐明转换过程中所涉及的机制，这种方法侧重于这些思想传播的传播途径，以及它们与人类动机和文化规范的相互作用。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。