Miguel Farias
Biographic Data
| ID | 250047 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Miguel Farias |
| GIVEN NAMES | Miguel |
| FAMILY NAME | Farias |
| SIGNATURE | FARIAS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Coventry University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5925-795X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 95 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Understanding the Morality of Unbelievers: Secular Beliefs about Right and Wrong in Ten Countries
Many people around the world believe that to be moral, one must believe in God. However, individuals who do not believe in God also hold distinct ethical beliefs. Similar to theists, non-theists in different cultures may share overarching narratives about morality and what it is founded upon—a possibility that remains understudied. In the present research, we utilised open-ended survey data to explore what non-theists from ten countries (N = 996)…
El gesto como figura intermedial en los márgenes de la escucha: La música de Chaya Czernowin
This article examines the concept of gesture in the music of Chaya Czernowin from a structural, perceptual, and transmedial perspective. Drawing on key works such as Sahaf, Anea Crystal, HIDDEN, and Heart Chamber, it argues that gesture in Czernowin’s work not only structures sonic discourse but also operates as a critical figure traversing the body, space, notation, and perception. Rather than serving merely as an expressive device, gesture func…
Integración de la alfabetización medioambiental en la formación de profesores de inglés chilenos
En el contexto de las actuales presiones antropogénicas sobre el medio ambiente y las políticas gubernamentales para abordar el cambio climático en el currículo escolar chileno, este ensayo explora posibles referentes conceptuales y hace una propuesta metodológica para la incorporación de la alfabetización ambiental en la formación de profesores de inglés. Los resultados incluyen un marco que comprende cuatro dimensiones: la ecocrítica, la alfabe…
Diagnosing Prolonged Grief Disorder: Cultural Challenges to the DSM-5-TR Criteria
Examining the relationship between metacognitive trust in thinking styles and supernatural beliefs
Conflicting findings have emerged from research on the relationship between thinking styles and supernatural beliefs. In two studies, we examined this relationship through meta‐cognitive trust and developed a new: (1) experimental manipulation, a short scientific article describing the benefits of thinking styles: (2) trust in thinking styles measure, the Ambiguous Decisions task; and (3) supernatural belief measure, the Belief in Psychic Ability…
Exploring Discursive Positionings and Negotiations of Gender Diversity in English Language Teaching Through the Lens of Critical Pedagogy
This study explores EFL students’ perceptions of gender diversity by analyzing their interactions about Chile’s same-sex marriage law in 2022. The study focused on fostering linguistic and critical skills through classroom discussions. A safe space for open conversations allowed students to express diverse views on gender diversity. While opinions varied, students’ discussions were navigated respectfully and indicated that the pedagogical approac…
Interpersonal and individual effects of an app-based Christian and Islamic heart meditation intervention in healthy adults: Protocol of a stratified randomised controlled trial
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06136676. Registered on 18 November 2023. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06136676
Beyond psychological individualism: Rethinking clinical intuition in a post-Covid age
Psychological science has often insisted on an individualistic perspective. Such atomised understanding of the self has moved deeply in psychology, not only in its theoretical and experimental arms, but also into clinical practice. Here an example of how to deconstruct such myth at the micro-level is given: within the therapist’s office space. Thereunto, we describe the case of Renata, 28 years old, musician and singer. The case report followed C…
Bending and bonding: A randomized controlled trial on the socio-psychobiological effects of spiritual versus secular yoga practice on social bonding
Do you need religion to enjoy the benefits of Church services? Social bonding, morality and quality of life among religious and secular congregations
Participation in religion has frequently been associated with high levels of wellbeing. Few studies, however, have directly compared the effect of participating in a religious versus a secular congregation. The creation of the Sunday Assembly, in effect a secular “church,” has created the opportunity to make direct comparisons between religious and nonreligious congregations. We hypothesize that a coherent moral narrative and specific moral value…
What do nonreligious nonbelievers believe in? Secular worldviews around the world
The global increase in nonreligious individuals begs for a better understanding of what nonreligious beliefs and worldviews actually entail. Rather than assuming an absence of belief or imposing a predetermined set of beliefs, this research uses an open-ended approach to investigate which secular beliefs and worldviews nonreligious nontheistic individuals in 10 countries around the world might endorse. Approximately, one thousand participants wer…
Invisible humans and their gods
In her new book, Tanya Luhrmann (2020) offers a theory of religion of universal scope: effort is required to contact and sustain the presence of an invisible other, which is why people regularly pray and engage in rituals. Focusing one’s attention, through thoughts and behaviours, on the invisible kindles — like a small fire — the presence of the supernatural. The concept of kindling, like most of the other ideas and mechanisms cited to support h…
A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being
The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N=10,535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-…
Past Life Meditation Decreases Existential Death Anxiety and Increases Meaning in Life among Individuals Who Believe in the Paranormal
Despite their growing popularity, little is known about the psychological effects of participating in past-life meditation groups in contemporary western contexts. We conducted a study to re-create some of the conditions observed in the field by facilitating a group of adults interested in exploring past life meditation. Before the session, participants completed a survey about their afterlife beliefs and associated experiences. Participants also…
The Nontheistic Sacred: The Psychological Functions of Metal Music and Artifacts
The psychological functions of the nontheistic sacred in a secular context (metal music culture) were examined for their consistency with previous studies of the sacred in religious contexts using two studies. The first experiment examined music as a form of nontheistic sacred through a comparison of death metal fans (n=89) listening to death metal or hard rock. The second experiment examined how some metal cultural artefacts were perceived as sa…
Social Support, Help-Seeking Behaviors, and Positive/Negative Affect Among Individuals Reporting Mediumship Experiences
Exploring the relationship between church worship, social bonding and moral values
Religion is often understood to play a positive role in shaping moral attitudes among believers. We assessed the relationship between church members’ levels of felt connectedness to their respective congregations and perceived similarity in personal and congregational moral values, and whether there was a relationship between these and the amount of time spent in synchronous movement or singing during worship. The similarity between personal and …
The Oxford Handbook of Meditation
This is the most comprehensive volume to date on the science and history of meditation. Written in an accessible language by world-leading experts, it describes the various meditation practices employed to modify the self, such as concentration, recitation, breathing, and visualisation, and its effects on the mind and body. It includes debates and controversies on its varied results and aims – including liberation from the cycle of death and rebi…
Oxford Handbook of Meditation
Assessing Implicit Spirituality in a non-Weird Population: Development and Validation of an Implicit Measure of New Age and Paranormal Beliefs
There is a growing interest in the study of the cognitive processes underpinning New Age and Paranormal beliefs (NAPBs). However, there is a scarcity of research on this topic using non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) populations. The main purpose of this study was to develop an implicit association test (IAT) of NAPBs using a non-WEIRD sample (from a general Brazilian population). In addition, the study also explor…
Atheists on the Santiago Way: Examining Motivations to Go On Pilgrimage
In the past 30 years, the camino to Santiago de Compostela has been recreated as an eclectic pilgrimage, open to both religious and atheist travelers. Following previous work on motivational orientations and religion, we conducted a study examining atheist versus religious pilgrims' motivations to walk the Santiago way. We assessed pilgrims (N = 360) at various parts of the northern Spanish camino using a questionnaire that measured motivations t…
Reading with Eyes Wide Open: Reflections on the Impact of Multimodal Texts on Second Language Reading
In the context of what has been called a new socio-semiotic landscape in communications, this article explores how the reading of multimodal texts demands a change in literacy practices and reflects on the impact of these changes on second language reading. We review the literature that has attempted to incorporate multimodal texts in the discussion of second language reading and evaluate it in light of the practices second language readers engag…
Efl Students' Metaphorical Conceptualizations of Language Learning
Traditional approaches to metaphor have focused primarily on its ubiquity in language and thought. Recently, a growing interest in the pervasiveness of metaphor in modes other than purely linguistic ones has been explored. In this paper particular attention is paid to non-verbal forms of metaphorical depiction. We have examined a small corpus of EFL students' drawings and narratives in order to both tap into their mental representations of what '…
‘Utilitarian’ judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas do not reflect impartial concern for the greater good
A growing body of research has focused on so-called 'utilitarian' judgments in moral dilemmas in which participants have to choose whether to sacrifice one person in order to save the lives of a greater number. However, the relation between such 'utilitarian' judgments and genuine utilitarian impartial concern for the greater good remains unclear. Across four studies, we investigated the relationship between 'utilitarian' judgment in such sacrifi…
The Cambridge companion to miracles, by Graham H. Twelftree
Academics tend to avoid the use of terms like “miracles”; there can be something embarrassing about such notions, which often come across as a kind of mental archaeological debris, things of the pa
Scientific faith: Belief in science increases in the face of stress and existential anxiety
Growing evidence indicates that religious belief helps individuals to cope with stress and anxiety. But is this effect specific to supernatural beliefs, or is it a more general function of belief - including belief in science? We developed a measure of belief in science and conducted two experiments in which we manipulated stress and existential anxiety. In Experiment 1, we assessed rowers about to compete (high-stress condition) and rowers at a …
Rise of Pilgrims on the Camino to Santiago: Sign of Change or Religious Revival
There is a renewed interest amongst scholars in the practice of pilgrimage. Over the past two decades, pilgrim numbers have risen significantly, whilst forms of "implicit" or "alternative" spirituality have gained visibility and now coexist with organised religions, sometimes sharing the same ritualistic space. There is probably no better place to look at the coexistence of old and new forms of ritual expression than in the Camino to Santiago. To…
Atheists on the Santiago Way: Examining Motivations to Go On Pilgrimage
In the past 30 years, the camino to Santiago de Compostela has been recreated as an eclectic pilgrimage, open to both religious and atheist travelers. Following previous work on motivational orientations and religion, we conducted a study examining atheist versus religious pilgrims' motivations to walk the Santiago way. We assessed pilgrims (N = 360) at various parts of the northern Spanish camino using a questionnaire that measured motivations t…
Holistic Individualism in the Age of Aquarius: Measuring Individualism/Collectivism in New Age, Catholic, and Atheist/Agnostic Groups
The New Age has been reported to be an exemplary religion of modernity, that emphasizes the importance of autonomy and self-development. Attempts to establish whether New Age ideas and practices were oriented toward self-transcendence or if, instead, they reinforced secular individualistic values and behaviors have become a central point of debate among researchers. In order to bring some new light to this debate we compared New Age with Roman Ca…
Unusual but sound minds: Mental health indicators in spiritual individuals
Previous research has linked certain types of modern spirituality, including New Age and Pagan, with either benign schizotypy or insecure attachment. While the first view emphasizes a positive aspect of spiritual believers' mental health (benign schizotypy), the second view emphasizes a negative aspect, namely the unhealthy emotional compensation associated with an insecure attachment style. This study addresses these two conflicting views by com…
The Nontheistic Sacred: The Psychological Functions of Metal Music and Artifacts
The psychological functions of the nontheistic sacred in a secular context (metal music culture) were examined for their consistency with previous studies of the sacred in religious contexts using two studies. The first experiment examined music as a form of nontheistic sacred through a comparison of death metal fans (n=89) listening to death metal or hard rock. The second experiment examined how some metal cultural artefacts were perceived as sa…
The Anthropology of Magic
Empowerment in the New Age: A Motivational Study of Auto-biographical Life Stories
This article contributes to the ongoing debate about the motivational goals of New Age practices and beliefs by looking at descriptions of auto-biographical life events. Narratives from New Age, Catholic, and non-religious participants (N = 163) were analysed according to agency and communion types of motivations. New Age respondents were found to have a higher frequency for agency and a lower frequency for communion themes than the other groups,…
Empowerment in the New Age: A Motivational Study of Auto-biographical Life Stories
This article contributes to the ongoing debate about the motivational goals of New Age practices and beliefs by looking at descriptions of auto-biographical life events. Narratives from New Age, Catholic, and non-religious participants (N = 163) were analysed according to agency and communion types of motivations. New Age respondents were found to have a higher frequency for agency and a lower frequency for communion themes than the other groups,…
A Season in Mecca: Narrative of a Pilgrimage
Holistic Individualism in the Age of Aquarius: Measuring Individualism/Collectivism in New Age, Catholic, and Atheist/Agnostic Groups
The New Age has been reported to be an exemplary religion of modernity, that emphasizes the importance of autonomy and self-development. Attempts to establish whether New Age ideas and practices were oriented toward self-transcendence or if, instead, they reinforced secular individualistic values and behaviors have become a central point of debate among researchers. In order to bring some new light to this debate we compared New Age with Roman Ca…
Etnofaulismos, coprolalia, representaciones y estrategias discriminatorias: El caso del discurso chileno antiperuano
En este artículo se da cuenta de las dimensiones explícitas e implícitas del discurso racista chileno antiperuano. Por una parte, abordamos el estudio de las expresiones peyorativas (etnofaulismos) y coprolálicas para referirse a grupos de inmigrantes encontradas en periódicos chilenos de 1879 y en sitos de Internet. Por otra parte, el discurso racista antiperuano implícito lo analizamos críticamente por medio de las representaciones y estrategia…
The functional nature of conspiracy beliefs: Examining the underpinnings of belief in the Da Vinci Code conspiracy
Special Issue: New Trends in the Cognitive Science of Religion
Special Issue: New Trends in the Cognitive Science of Religion." International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 23(1), p. 1
The Anthropology of Magic
Scientific faith: Belief in science increases in the face of stress and existential anxiety
Growing evidence indicates that religious belief helps individuals to cope with stress and anxiety. But is this effect specific to supernatural beliefs, or is it a more general function of belief - including belief in science? We developed a measure of belief in science and conducted two experiments in which we manipulated stress and existential anxiety. In Experiment 1, we assessed rowers about to compete (high-stress condition) and rowers at a …
Unusual but sound minds: Mental health indicators in spiritual individuals
Previous research has linked certain types of modern spirituality, including New Age and Pagan, with either benign schizotypy or insecure attachment. While the first view emphasizes a positive aspect of spiritual believers' mental health (benign schizotypy), the second view emphasizes a negative aspect, namely the unhealthy emotional compensation associated with an insecure attachment style. This study addresses these two conflicting views by com…
The Cambridge companion to miracles, by Graham H. Twelftree
Academics tend to avoid the use of terms like “miracles”; there can be something embarrassing about such notions, which often come across as a kind of mental archaeological debris, things of the pa
El movimiento estudiantil chileno del 2011 en intervenciones discursivas del Presidente Piñera
Este artículo muestra evidencia lingüístico-discursiva del intento del Presidente Piñera por acallar las influencias sociales del movimiento estudiantil chileno del año 2011. Desde una mirada crítica se da cuenta del comportamiento discursivo de este hablante en el marco del primer conflicto social que enfrentó el nuevo gobierno de derecha en Chile. El valor teórico-metodológico de este estudio radica en la mirada triangular a las intervenciones …
Rise of Pilgrims on the Camino to Santiago: Sign of Change or Religious Revival
There is a renewed interest amongst scholars in the practice of pilgrimage. Over the past two decades, pilgrim numbers have risen significantly, whilst forms of "implicit" or "alternative" spirituality have gained visibility and now coexist with organised religions, sometimes sharing the same ritualistic space. There is probably no better place to look at the coexistence of old and new forms of ritual expression than in the Camino to Santiago. To…
‘Utilitarian’ judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas do not reflect impartial concern for the greater good
A growing body of research has focused on so-called 'utilitarian' judgments in moral dilemmas in which participants have to choose whether to sacrifice one person in order to save the lives of a greater number. However, the relation between such 'utilitarian' judgments and genuine utilitarian impartial concern for the greater good remains unclear. Across four studies, we investigated the relationship between 'utilitarian' judgment in such sacrifi…
Efl Students' Metaphorical Conceptualizations of Language Learning
Traditional approaches to metaphor have focused primarily on its ubiquity in language and thought. Recently, a growing interest in the pervasiveness of metaphor in modes other than purely linguistic ones has been explored. In this paper particular attention is paid to non-verbal forms of metaphorical depiction. We have examined a small corpus of EFL students' drawings and narratives in order to both tap into their mental representations of what '…
Reading with Eyes Wide Open: Reflections on the Impact of Multimodal Texts on Second Language Reading
In the context of what has been called a new socio-semiotic landscape in communications, this article explores how the reading of multimodal texts demands a change in literacy practices and reflects on the impact of these changes on second language reading. We review the literature that has attempted to incorporate multimodal texts in the discussion of second language reading and evaluate it in light of the practices second language readers engag…
Assessing Implicit Spirituality in a non-Weird Population: Development and Validation of an Implicit Measure of New Age and Paranormal Beliefs
There is a growing interest in the study of the cognitive processes underpinning New Age and Paranormal beliefs (NAPBs). However, there is a scarcity of research on this topic using non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) populations. The main purpose of this study was to develop an implicit association test (IAT) of NAPBs using a non-WEIRD sample (from a general Brazilian population). In addition, the study also explor…
Atheists on the Santiago Way: Examining Motivations to Go On Pilgrimage
In the past 30 years, the camino to Santiago de Compostela has been recreated as an eclectic pilgrimage, open to both religious and atheist travelers. Following previous work on motivational orientations and religion, we conducted a study examining atheist versus religious pilgrims' motivations to walk the Santiago way. We assessed pilgrims (N = 360) at various parts of the northern Spanish camino using a questionnaire that measured motivations t…
The Oxford Handbook of Meditation
This is the most comprehensive volume to date on the science and history of meditation. Written in an accessible language by world-leading experts, it describes the various meditation practices employed to modify the self, such as concentration, recitation, breathing, and visualisation, and its effects on the mind and body. It includes debates and controversies on its varied results and aims – including liberation from the cycle of death and rebi…
Oxford Handbook of Meditation
Exploring the relationship between church worship, social bonding and moral values
Religion is often understood to play a positive role in shaping moral attitudes among believers. We assessed the relationship between church members’ levels of felt connectedness to their respective congregations and perceived similarity in personal and congregational moral values, and whether there was a relationship between these and the amount of time spent in synchronous movement or singing during worship. The similarity between personal and …
Bending and bonding: A randomized controlled trial on the socio-psychobiological effects of spiritual versus secular yoga practice on social bonding
Do you need religion to enjoy the benefits of Church services? Social bonding, morality and quality of life among religious and secular congregations
Participation in religion has frequently been associated with high levels of wellbeing. Few studies, however, have directly compared the effect of participating in a religious versus a secular congregation. The creation of the Sunday Assembly, in effect a secular “church,” has created the opportunity to make direct comparisons between religious and nonreligious congregations. We hypothesize that a coherent moral narrative and specific moral value…
What do nonreligious nonbelievers believe in? Secular worldviews around the world
The global increase in nonreligious individuals begs for a better understanding of what nonreligious beliefs and worldviews actually entail. Rather than assuming an absence of belief or imposing a predetermined set of beliefs, this research uses an open-ended approach to investigate which secular beliefs and worldviews nonreligious nontheistic individuals in 10 countries around the world might endorse. Approximately, one thousand participants wer…
Invisible humans and their gods
In her new book, Tanya Luhrmann (2020) offers a theory of religion of universal scope: effort is required to contact and sustain the presence of an invisible other, which is why people regularly pray and engage in rituals. Focusing one’s attention, through thoughts and behaviours, on the invisible kindles — like a small fire — the presence of the supernatural. The concept of kindling, like most of the other ideas and mechanisms cited to support h…
A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being
The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N=10,535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-…
Psychology (24 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (14 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Art (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Psychotherapist (7 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (7 works)