F Rigoli
Biographic Data
| ID | 7114 |
|---|---|
| NAME | F Rigoli |
| GIVEN NAMES | F |
| FAMILY NAME | Rigoli |
| SIGNATURE | RIGOLI F |
| AFFILIATIONS | City, University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2233-934X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A Causal Map Framework to Explain Support for Strong Leaders in Politics
The article introduces a computational theory explaining why some people support strong leaders in politics, arguing that this support sometimes arises because people view a strong leader as means to address social problems. The theory proposes that people develop a causal map concerning the consequences of the rise of a strong leader. This predicts that support for strong leaders grows when a person believes that a strong leader fosters unity wi…
Cultural Incentive Learning: How Culture Shapes Acquisition of Values
Although research on human values is abundant, it has so far neglected a crucial question: what are the psychological mechanisms whereby culture shapes people's values? To address this, the manuscript introduces a framework examining how culture shapes the acquisition of values, a process referred to as cultural incentive learning . The proposal is that cultural incentive learning mediates the influence exerted by the structure of society upon pe…
Ingroup conspiratorial beliefs: Re-thinking racial/ethnic minority group conspiracy in the UK and US
Research has consistently identified the tendency of minority ethnic groups to more strongly endorse universal conspiracy theories (where the general public is targeted) as well as ingroup conspiratorial beliefs (where one’s ethnic group is specifically targeted), but the relationship between these two types of conspiratorial beliefs remains largely unexplored. Across two studies, we assessed the relationship between these beliefs and race/ethnic…
Discussing the Gods as Latent Causes: Challenges, Clarifications, and Integrations
Modernization and Ideological Polarization on a Global Scale
Research has shown that modernization has changed people’s values. Yet, it remains unknown whether modernization has also changed ideological polarization, namely, the variability of values within the population. The paper investigates this question by analysing data from the World Value Survey about multiple countries sampled over multiple waves (339 wave-countries). Once modernization was operationalised as per capita gross domestic product, th…
Ideology shapes evaluation of history within the general population
The way history is interpreted varies across ideologies as articulated by political thinkers and by leading politicians. Is history also assessed differently by laypeople reporting different ideological orientations? To address this, the article describes a study from six countries where, in addition to reporting their ideology on a left–right spectrum, participants evaluated the recent past, the present, and the near future. The data show that, …
The Gods as Latent Causes: A Statistical Inference Theory of Religion
The statistical brain hypothesis posits that the brain constructs probabilistic models of the environment. Here we examine whether this perspective can provide any insight on religion. We propose that religious ideas represent an attempt to explain away residuals, that is, to explain discrepancies between observations and predictions. The framework postulates probabilistic generative models where gods are described by latent variables whose possi…
The Status Importance Scale: Development and validation of a self‐report questionnaire for measuring how much people care about status
Although substantial research indicates that considerations about status can lead to anxiety and other negative outcomes, a valid measure of the importance individuals attribute to status is lacking. This paper introduces the Status Importance Scale (SIS), a mono‐factorial 10‐item self‐report questionnaire that quantifies how important a person deems status to be. Five studies validate the scale showing that it has excellent internal reliability …
The Computations Underlying Religious Conversion: A Bayesian Decision Model
Inspired by recent Bayesian interpretations about the psychology underlying religion, the paper introduces a theory proposing that religious conversion is shaped by three factors: (i) novel relevant information, experienced in perceptual or in social form (e.g., following interaction with missionaries); (ii) changes in the utility (e.g., expressed in an opportunity to raise in social rank) associated with accepting a new religious creed; and (iii…
Political Extremism and a Generalized Propensity to Discriminate Among Values
Research exploring the psychological differences between people supporting extreme versus moderate ideologies is growing. However, this research has rarely examined the domain of values. Here, we explore this domain by assessing the possibility that political extremists discriminate more among values compared to moderates, namely, that extremists exhibit strong commitment toward some values at the expense of other values, whereas moderates would …
Belief Formation in the Social Context: A Bayesian Decision Account
A recent computational model argues that people’s beliefs arise from two basic sources: a motivation to be accurate plus other forms of motivation such as pursuing economic interests. Yet, this previous proposal has focused exclusively on the individual level of analysis, neglecting the question of how social contexts shape belief formation. The present paper addresses this by examining how group dynamics underpin the formation of beliefs. The ar…
A General Attitude towards Shopping and Its Link with Basic Human Values in the UK
Prior literature about shopping has focused mostly on specific aspects such as on attitudes towards specific products or shopping practices. A General Shopping Attitude (GSA), capturing how much an individual is attracted by shopping in general, has rarely been explored. In an online questionnaire study conducted in the UK, here we developed and validated a self-report scale to assess GSA. Moreover, adopting Schwartz’s theory of basic human value…
A computational perspective on faith: Religious reasoning and Bayesian decision
Religious reasoning (the processes through which religious beliefs are formed) has been investigated by two different approaches. First, explanation theories portray religious reasoning as arising for explaining salient aspects of reality. Second, motivation theories interpret religious reasoning as driven by other motives, for example fostering community bonding. Both approaches have provided fundamental insight, yet whether they can be reconcil…
Political motivation: A referent evaluation mathematical model
Mathematical modelling is popular in cognitive psychology because it enables clear and formal descriptions of the processes at play; yet, this approach has rarely been applied to political psychology. Here we adopt mathematical modelling to develop a theory of political motivation, which is a central concept in political psychology. The theory assumes that, in certain contexts, individuals entertain a set of representations of society, for exampl…
Masters of suspicion: A Bayesian decision model of motivated political reasoning
Motivated reasoning occurs when judgements subserve motives that go beyond accuracy seeking. Substantial evidence indicates that motivated political reasoning is ubiquitous. This is hard to reconcile with computational theories (following Marr's terminology, theories describing the fundamental principles underlying a cognitive process) like Bayesian inference, because these rely on accuracy maximization. Hence, motivated political reasoning is of…
The psychology of ultimate values: A computational perspective
Ultimate values can be defined as abstract rules or goals transcending specific contexts and defining the utmost purposes of existence. Although the literature about human values is vast, several fundamental questions about ultimate values remain open. What are the processes responsible for the formation of ultimate values? What is the impact of inbuilt affective processes and of learning, respectively? Regarding learning, what is the role of soc…
Ideology shapes evaluation of history within the general population
The way history is interpreted varies across ideologies as articulated by political thinkers and by leading politicians. Is history also assessed differently by laypeople reporting different ideological orientations? To address this, the article describes a study from six countries where, in addition to reporting their ideology on a left–right spectrum, participants evaluated the recent past, the present, and the near future. The data show that, …
Masters of suspicion: A Bayesian decision model of motivated political reasoning
Motivated reasoning occurs when judgements subserve motives that go beyond accuracy seeking. Substantial evidence indicates that motivated political reasoning is ubiquitous. This is hard to reconcile with computational theories (following Marr's terminology, theories describing the fundamental principles underlying a cognitive process) like Bayesian inference, because these rely on accuracy maximization. Hence, motivated political reasoning is of…
The Computations Underlying Religious Conversion: A Bayesian Decision Model
Inspired by recent Bayesian interpretations about the psychology underlying religion, the paper introduces a theory proposing that religious conversion is shaped by three factors: (i) novel relevant information, experienced in perceptual or in social form (e.g., following interaction with missionaries); (ii) changes in the utility (e.g., expressed in an opportunity to raise in social rank) associated with accepting a new religious creed; and (iii…
Political Extremism and a Generalized Propensity to Discriminate Among Values
Research exploring the psychological differences between people supporting extreme versus moderate ideologies is growing. However, this research has rarely examined the domain of values. Here, we explore this domain by assessing the possibility that political extremists discriminate more among values compared to moderates, namely, that extremists exhibit strong commitment toward some values at the expense of other values, whereas moderates would …
Political motivation: A referent evaluation mathematical model
Mathematical modelling is popular in cognitive psychology because it enables clear and formal descriptions of the processes at play; yet, this approach has rarely been applied to political psychology. Here we adopt mathematical modelling to develop a theory of political motivation, which is a central concept in political psychology. The theory assumes that, in certain contexts, individuals entertain a set of representations of society, for exampl…
The psychology of ultimate values: A computational perspective
Ultimate values can be defined as abstract rules or goals transcending specific contexts and defining the utmost purposes of existence. Although the literature about human values is vast, several fundamental questions about ultimate values remain open. What are the processes responsible for the formation of ultimate values? What is the impact of inbuilt affective processes and of learning, respectively? Regarding learning, what is the role of soc…
A General Attitude towards Shopping and Its Link with Basic Human Values in the UK
Prior literature about shopping has focused mostly on specific aspects such as on attitudes towards specific products or shopping practices. A General Shopping Attitude (GSA), capturing how much an individual is attracted by shopping in general, has rarely been explored. In an online questionnaire study conducted in the UK, here we developed and validated a self-report scale to assess GSA. Moreover, adopting Schwartz’s theory of basic human value…
A computational perspective on faith: Religious reasoning and Bayesian decision
Religious reasoning (the processes through which religious beliefs are formed) has been investigated by two different approaches. First, explanation theories portray religious reasoning as arising for explaining salient aspects of reality. Second, motivation theories interpret religious reasoning as driven by other motives, for example fostering community bonding. Both approaches have provided fundamental insight, yet whether they can be reconcil…
Political motivation: A referent evaluation mathematical model
Mathematical modelling is popular in cognitive psychology because it enables clear and formal descriptions of the processes at play; yet, this approach has rarely been applied to political psychology. Here we adopt mathematical modelling to develop a theory of political motivation, which is a central concept in political psychology. The theory assumes that, in certain contexts, individuals entertain a set of representations of society, for exampl…
Masters of suspicion: A Bayesian decision model of motivated political reasoning
Motivated reasoning occurs when judgements subserve motives that go beyond accuracy seeking. Substantial evidence indicates that motivated political reasoning is ubiquitous. This is hard to reconcile with computational theories (following Marr's terminology, theories describing the fundamental principles underlying a cognitive process) like Bayesian inference, because these rely on accuracy maximization. Hence, motivated political reasoning is of…
The psychology of ultimate values: A computational perspective
Ultimate values can be defined as abstract rules or goals transcending specific contexts and defining the utmost purposes of existence. Although the literature about human values is vast, several fundamental questions about ultimate values remain open. What are the processes responsible for the formation of ultimate values? What is the impact of inbuilt affective processes and of learning, respectively? Regarding learning, what is the role of soc…
Belief Formation in the Social Context: A Bayesian Decision Account
A recent computational model argues that people’s beliefs arise from two basic sources: a motivation to be accurate plus other forms of motivation such as pursuing economic interests. Yet, this previous proposal has focused exclusively on the individual level of analysis, neglecting the question of how social contexts shape belief formation. The present paper addresses this by examining how group dynamics underpin the formation of beliefs. The ar…
The Computations Underlying Religious Conversion: A Bayesian Decision Model
Inspired by recent Bayesian interpretations about the psychology underlying religion, the paper introduces a theory proposing that religious conversion is shaped by three factors: (i) novel relevant information, experienced in perceptual or in social form (e.g., following interaction with missionaries); (ii) changes in the utility (e.g., expressed in an opportunity to raise in social rank) associated with accepting a new religious creed; and (iii…
Political Extremism and a Generalized Propensity to Discriminate Among Values
Research exploring the psychological differences between people supporting extreme versus moderate ideologies is growing. However, this research has rarely examined the domain of values. Here, we explore this domain by assessing the possibility that political extremists discriminate more among values compared to moderates, namely, that extremists exhibit strong commitment toward some values at the expense of other values, whereas moderates would …
The Gods as Latent Causes: A Statistical Inference Theory of Religion
The statistical brain hypothesis posits that the brain constructs probabilistic models of the environment. Here we examine whether this perspective can provide any insight on religion. We propose that religious ideas represent an attempt to explain away residuals, that is, to explain discrepancies between observations and predictions. The framework postulates probabilistic generative models where gods are described by latent variables whose possi…
The Status Importance Scale: Development and validation of a self‐report questionnaire for measuring how much people care about status
Although substantial research indicates that considerations about status can lead to anxiety and other negative outcomes, a valid measure of the importance individuals attribute to status is lacking. This paper introduces the Status Importance Scale (SIS), a mono‐factorial 10‐item self‐report questionnaire that quantifies how important a person deems status to be. Five studies validate the scale showing that it has excellent internal reliability …
Cultural Incentive Learning: How Culture Shapes Acquisition of Values
Although research on human values is abundant, it has so far neglected a crucial question: what are the psychological mechanisms whereby culture shapes people's values? To address this, the manuscript introduces a framework examining how culture shapes the acquisition of values, a process referred to as cultural incentive learning . The proposal is that cultural incentive learning mediates the influence exerted by the structure of society upon pe…
Ingroup conspiratorial beliefs: Re-thinking racial/ethnic minority group conspiracy in the UK and US
Research has consistently identified the tendency of minority ethnic groups to more strongly endorse universal conspiracy theories (where the general public is targeted) as well as ingroup conspiratorial beliefs (where one’s ethnic group is specifically targeted), but the relationship between these two types of conspiratorial beliefs remains largely unexplored. Across two studies, we assessed the relationship between these beliefs and race/ethnic…
Discussing the Gods as Latent Causes: Challenges, Clarifications, and Integrations
Modernization and Ideological Polarization on a Global Scale
Research has shown that modernization has changed people’s values. Yet, it remains unknown whether modernization has also changed ideological polarization, namely, the variability of values within the population. The paper investigates this question by analysing data from the World Value Survey about multiple countries sampled over multiple waves (339 wave-countries). Once modernization was operationalised as per capita gross domestic product, th…
Ideology shapes evaluation of history within the general population
The way history is interpreted varies across ideologies as articulated by political thinkers and by leading politicians. Is history also assessed differently by laypeople reporting different ideological orientations? To address this, the article describes a study from six countries where, in addition to reporting their ideology on a left–right spectrum, participants evaluated the recent past, the present, and the near future. The data show that, …
A Causal Map Framework to Explain Support for Strong Leaders in Politics
The article introduces a computational theory explaining why some people support strong leaders in politics, arguing that this support sometimes arises because people view a strong leader as means to address social problems. The theory proposes that people develop a causal map concerning the consequences of the rise of a strong leader. This predicts that support for strong leaders grows when a person believes that a strong leader fosters unity wi…
Psychology (13 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Artificial Intelligence (6 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (6 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (5 works)