Joseph Bulbulia

Biographic Data

ID121741
NAMEJoseph Bulbulia
GIVEN NAMESJoseph
FAMILY NAMEBulbulia
SIGNATUREBULBULIA J
AFFILIATIONSClassics and Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS30
TOTAL CITATIONS115
AUTHOR COUNT30
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2004
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX7

  • Causal Effect of Psychopathy on Partner Well‐Being

    Open AccessAaron Hissey, Hedwig Eisenbarth et al.ARTICLEJournal of Personality2025

    OBJECTIVE: Psychopathy is associated with harmful behaviors in romantic relationships, but its causal effect on partner well-being remains elusive. Across two studies, we apply robust observational methods for causal inference with national-scale dyadic data to examine how psychopathic personality and its facets affect partner well-being over time. METHOD: In Study 1 (three waves; N = 1012), we examined how increasing global psychopathy and its f…

  • Coevolution of religious and political authority in Austronesian societies

    Open AccessOliver Sheehan, Joseph Watts et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2022References: 36

    Authority, an institutionalized form of social power, is one of the defining features of the large-scale societies that evolved during the Holocene. Religious and political authority have deep histories in human societies and are clearly interdependent, but the nature of their relationship and its evolution over time is contested. We purpose-built an ethnographic dataset of 97 Austronesian societies and used phylogenetic methods to address two lo…

  • Religion and the Development of Character

    Open AccessSamantha Stronge, Joseph Bulbulia et al.ARTICLESocial Psychological and…2021

    Previous longitudinal research indicates that although religion may affect how personality traits are expressed, religion does not affect people's underlying personalities. However, such research has drawn from small North American samples and relatively short time intervals that do not include data from individuals prior to conversion. Here, we use a representative national sample of New Zealand adults over 9 years (2009–2017, N = 31,604) and pi…

  • Reflections on the scientific study of religion after the first decade of Religion, Brain & Behavior

    David Rohr, Wesley J Wildman et al.ARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2020

    A decade ago, Religion, Brain & Behavior (RBB) was still a dream in the minds of its founding editors, neuroscientist Patrick McNamara, anthropologist Richard Sosis, and philosopher of religion Wes

  • New Zealand Pet Owners' Demographic Characteristics, Personality, and Health and Wellbeing

    Gertrude Fraser, Yanshu Huang et al.ARTICLEAnthrozoös2020Cited by: 7References: 63

    Although the relationship between pet ownership and health and wellbeing has received considerable attention in popular media, research on the topic shows inconsistent findings. We addressed the methodological weaknesses of previous studies by using data from a national probability survey (the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study; n = 13,347). We describe the demographic characteristics and personality of pet owners in New Zealand, examine whet…

  • Alloparenting and religious fertility

    Open AccessJohn H Shaver, C G Sibley et al.ARTICLEEvolution and Human Behavior2019

  • Only children in the 21st century

    Open AccessSamantha Stronge, John H Shaver et al.ARTICLEJournal of Research in Personality2019Cited by: 1References: 9

  • “God Is Watching You” … and might be influencing your brain, too

    Wesley J Wildman, Uffe Schjoedt et al.ARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2018

    This issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior (RBB) features a book symposium on Dominic Johnson’s God Is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human. Eight commentators engage Johnson’s book and t

  • Christianity spread faster in small, politically structured societies

    Open AccessJoseph Watts, Oliver Sheehan et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2018Cited by: 4References: 41

  • Author Correction

    Open AccessWill M Gervais, Dimitris Xygalatas et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2018

  • The Diversity and Prevalence of Sexual Orientation Self-Labels in a New Zealand National Sample

    Open AccessLara M Greaves, 孝司 酒井 et al.ARTICLEArchives of Sexual Behavior2017Cited by: 13References: 38

    In this study, we asked participants to "describe their sexual orientation" in an open-ended measure of self-generated sexual orientation. The question was included as part of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N = 18,261) 2013/2014 wave, a national probability survey conducted shortly after the first legal same-sex marriages in New Zealand. We present a two-level classification scheme to address questions about the prevalence of, and de…

  • Bias and tracking accuracy in voting projections using the New Zealand attitudes and values study

    Open AccessC G Sibley, Andrew Robertson et al.ARTICLEPolitical Science2017Cited by: 7References: 1

    We introduce a method for assessing the overall level of bias and relative tracking accuracy in time series analysis of polling data on voter intentions by comparing two data sets: the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS; N = 13,936) and the One News Colmar Brunton election polls (N = 10,210). The NZAVS is a national probability longitudinal postal panel survey started in 2009. It was set up to track stability and change in values, with…

  • Global evidence of extreme intuitive moral prejudice against atheists

    Open AccessWill M Gervais, Dimitris Xygalatas et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2017Cited by: 19References: 26

  • Anthropology

    Open AccessJoseph Bulbulia, Joseph A BulbuliaARTICLENature Human Behaviour2017References: 10

  • Ritual human sacrifice promoted and sustained the evolution of stratified societies

    Open AccessJoseph Watts, Oliver Sheehan et al.ARTICLENature2016

  • The ecology of religious beliefs

    Open AccessCarlos A Botero, BETH GARDNER et al.ARTICLEProceedings of the National…2014

    Significance Here we show that the spatial prevalence of human societies that believe in moralizing high gods can be predicted with a high level of accuracy (91%) from historical, social, and ecological data. Using high-resolution datasets, we systematically estimate the relative effects of resource abundance, ecological risk, cultural diffusion, shared ancestry, and political complexity on the global distribution of beliefs in moralizing high go…

  • Thin and Thinner

    Joseph Bulbulia, Joseph A Bulbulia et al.ARTICLENumen2014References: 16

    Some say that researchers who study humans are locked in to frameworks of epistemic assumptions from which there can be no escape. We explain, on the contrary, how researchers who disagree may nevertheless reconcile their differences. Freedom from the epistemic dungeon is made possible by practices that convert beliefs into testable hypotheses, which are then tested. Such practices are the engines of scientific progress. To clarify misunderstandi…

  • Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation Predict Different Moral Signatures

    Open AccessPetar Milojev, Douglas Osborne et al.ARTICLESocial Justice Research2014Cited by: 7References: 25

  • Let’s Dance Together

    Open AccessPaul Reddish, Ronald Fischer et al.ARTICLEPLoS ONE2013

    Previous research has shown that the matching of rhythmic behaviour between individuals (synchrony) increases cooperation. Such synchrony is most noticeable in music, dance and collective rituals. As well as the matching of behaviour, such collective performances typically involve shared intentionality: performers actively collaborate to produce joint actions. Over three experiments we examined the importance of shared intentionality in promoting…

  • Extreme Rituals Promote Prosociality

    Open AccessDimitris Xygalatas, Panagiotis Mitkidis et al.ARTICLEPsychological Science2013

    Extreme rituals entail excessive costs without apparent benefits, which raises an evolutionary cost problem (Irons, 2001). It is argued that such intense rituals enhance social cohesion and promote cooperative behaviors (Atran & Henrich, 2010; Durkheim, 1912). However, direct evidence for the relation between ritual intensity and prosociality is lacking. Using economic measures of generosity and contextually relevant indicators of group identity …

  • How Do Rituals Affect Cooperation

    Open AccessRonald Fischer, Rohan Callander et al.ARTICLEHuman Nature2013Cited by: 21References: 22

  • The evolution of religion

    Joseph Bulbulia, Joseph A BulbuliaCHAPTEROxford handbook of evolutionary…2012

    This article reviews recent theoretical and experimental work in the cognitive and evolutionary psychology of religion, and motivates an adaptationist stance. By ‘religious cognition’ and ‘religiosity’, the article means belief and practice relative to supernatural beings and powers — call them ‘gods’. It suggests that religiosity — god commitment and the behaviour it prompts and that motivate it — bears the hallmark of adaptive design. Adaptive …

  • Faith after an Earthquake

    Open AccessC G Sibley, Joseph Bulbulia et al.ARTICLEPLoS ONE2012

    On 22 February 2011, Christchurch New Zealand (population 367,700) experienced a devastating earthquake, causing extensive damage and killing one hundred and eighty-five people. The earthquake and aftershocks occurred between the 2009 and 2011 waves of a longitudinal probability sample conducted in New Zealand, enabling us to examine how a natural disaster of this magnitude affected deeply held commitments and global ratings of personal health, d…

  • Religious Studies as a Life Science

    Joseph Bulbulia, Joseph A Bulbulia et al.ARTICLENumen2012Cited by: 3References: 120

    Religious studies assumes that religions are naturally occurring phenomena, yet what has scholarship uncovered about this fascinating dimension of the human condition? The manifold reports that classical scholars of religion have gathered extend knowledge, but such knowledge differs from that of scientific scholarship. Classical religious studies scholarship is expansive, but it is not cumulative and progressive. Bucking the expansionist trend, h…

  • Synchronized arousal between performers and related spectators in a fire-walking ritual

    Open AccessIvana Konvalinka, Dimitris Xygalatas et al.ARTICLEProceedings of the National…2011

    Collective rituals are present in all known societies, but their function is a matter of long-standing debates. Field observations suggest that they may enhance social cohesion and that their effects are not limited to those actively performing but affect the audience as well. Here we show physiological effects of synchronized arousal in a Spanish fire-walking ritual, between active participants and related spectators, but not participants and ot…