Joseph A Bulbulia

Biographic Data

ID793174
NAMEJoseph A Bulbulia
GIVEN NAMESJoseph A
FAMILY NAMEBulbulia
SIGNATUREBULBULIA J A
AFFILIATIONSVictoria University of Wellington
ORCID0000-0002-5861-2056
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS101
TOTAL CITATIONS266
AUTHOR COUNT101
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2004
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX9

  • Life loses some meaning after leaving religion

    Daryl R Van Tongeren, Don E Davis et al.ARTICLEPsychology of Religion and…2026

  • Causal estimates of multidimensional well-being under hypothetical forgiveness shift scenarios: Longitudinal evidence from a national panel in New Zealand

    Open AccessRichard G Cowden, Eric N Fung et al.ARTICLESSM - Mental Health2026

    Forgiveness has been identified as a potential public health resource, but how might average well-being change if forgiveness were higher across the population? In this three-wave longitudinal study (Wave 1: 2018/2019 [T0], Wave 2: 2019/2020 [T1], Wave 3: 2020/2021 [T2]) with a nationally representative sample of New Zealanders ( N = 47928), we explore this question by investigating the potential causal effects of two hypothetical forgiveness shi…

  • Target Trial Emulation Shows That Supported Causal Effects of Religious Attendance on Well-Being Are Selective

    Open AccessJoseph A Bulbulia, Don E Davis et al.ARTICLEEvolutionary Human Sciences2026

    Religious service attendance is associated with better well-being, but observational associations do not establish causation. We analyse six annual waves of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N = 46, 377) to estimate causal effects of monthly attendance on 24 well-being indicators using target trial emulation. Deterministic 'make everyone attend' contrasts fail positivity: only 2-3% of non-attenders initiate attendance per year. We there…

  • Causal Effect of Psychopathy on Partner Well‐Being: A National Longitudinal Study

    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…

  • Three evolutionary radiations shaped the evolution of global religious diversity

    Open AccessAnastasia Ejova, Oliver Sheehan et al.ARTICLEEvolutionary Human Sciences2025

    Religious diversity has had profound consequences in human history, but the dynamics of how it evolves remain unclear. One unresolved question is the extent to which religious denominations accumulate gradually or are generated in rapid bursts associated with specific historical events. Anecdotal evidence tends to favour the second view, but quantitative evidence on a global scale is lacking. Phylogenetic methods that treat religious denomination…

  • The Even Shorter Almost Perfect Scale: Psychometric Evaluation and Cross-National Implications for Psychological Outcomes

    Kenneth G Rice, Qianyi Wang et al.ARTICLEJournal of Personality Assessment2024

    Short empirically-supported scales or individual items are preferred in comprehensive surveys, brief screeners, and experience sampling studies. To that end, we examined the Short Almost Perfect Scale (SAPS) to evaluate empirical support for the interchangeability of items to measure perfectionistic strivings (Standards) and perfectionistic concerns (Discrepancy). Based on a large and diverse sample (N = 1,103) and tests of tau-equivalence (equal…

  • A half-Irish exit

    Joseph A BulbuliaARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2024

  • The causal effects of religious service attendance on prosocial behaviours in New Zealand: A national longitudinal study

    Open AccessJoseph A Bulbulia, Don E Davis et al.ARTICLEArchive for the Psychology of…2024

    We investigate the causal effects of religious service attendance on prosocial behaviours using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of 33,198 New Zealanders collected between 2018 and 2021. Our study innovates in three ways: (1) we use longitudinal rather than cross-sectional data; (2) we incorporate measures of help received alongside self-reported giving; and (3) our statistical models are designed to address causal questi…

  • Methods in causal inference. Part 1: Causal diagrams and confounding

    Open AccessJoseph A BulbuliaARTICLEEvolutionary Human Sciences2024Cited by: 3References: 74

    Causal inference requires contrasting counterfactual states under specified interventions. Obtaining these contrasts from data depends on explicit assumptions and careful, multi-step workflows. Causal diagrams are crucial for clarifying the identifiability of counterfactual contrasts from data. Here, I explain how to use causal directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) to determine if and how causal effects can be identified from non-experimental observatio…

  • Methods in causal inference. Part 3: Measurement error and external validity threats

    Open AccessJoseph A BulbuliaARTICLEEvolutionary Human Sciences2024Cited by: 4References: 54

    The human sciences should seek generalisations wherever possible. For ethical and scientific reasons, it is desirable to sample more broadly than ‘Western, educated, industrialised, rich, and democratic’ (WEIRD) societies. However, restricting the target population is sometimes necessary; for example, young children should not be recruited for studies on elderly care. Under which conditions is unrestricted sampling desirable or undesirable? Here,…

  • Methods in causal inference. Part 2: Interaction, mediation, and time-varying treatments

    Open AccessJoseph A BulbuliaARTICLEEvolutionary Human Sciences2024Cited by: 4References: 59

    The analysis of ‘moderation’, ‘interaction’, ‘mediation’ and ‘longitudinal growth’ is widespread in the human sciences, yet subject to confusion. To clarify these concepts, it is essential to state causal estimands, which requires the specification of counterfactual contrasts for a target population on an appropriate scale. Once causal estimands are defined, we must consider their identification. I employ causal directed acyclic graphs and single…

  • Methods in causal inference. Part 4: Confounding in experiments

    Open AccessJoseph A BulbuliaARTICLEEvolutionary Human Sciences2024Cited by: 1References: 22

    Confounding bias arises when a treatment and outcome share a common cause. In randomised controlled experiments (trials), treatment assignment is random, ostensibly eliminating confounding bias. Here, we use causal directed acyclic graphs to unveil eight structural sources of bias that nevertheless persist in these trials. This analysis highlights the crucial role of causal inference methods in the design and analysis of experiments, ensuring the…

  • Understanding the Relationship between Science and Religion Using Bayes’ Theorem

    Open AccessJoseph A BulbuliaARTICLEStudies in Christian Ethics2023

    This article examines the benefits of incorporating religious reflection into the psychology of religion and vice versa. By applying Bayes’ theorem, we discover that scientists and theologians can collaborate without sharing prior beliefs. Instead, rationality requires updating our beliefs before data collection in response to the degree of surprise generated by the data. Moreover, although people who start with different beliefs may become more …

  • Introducing our new editors

    Irene Cristofori, Suzanne Hoogeveen et al.ARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2023

    International audience

  • A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

    Open AccessSuzanne Hoogeveen, Alexandra Sarafoglou et al.ARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2023

    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-…

  • A workflow for causal inference in cross-cultural psychology

    Joseph A BulbuliaARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2023

  • Hate Begets Warmth? The Impact of an Anti-Muslim Terrorist Attack on Public Attitudes toward Muslims

    Open AccessSadi Shanaah, Kumar Yogeeswaran et al.ARTICLETerrorism and Political Violence2023Cited by: 2

    This article examines the impact of the 15th March 2019 far-right terrorist attack against Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand on public opinion toward Muslims. It also examines whether the impact of the attack varies for individuals across the political spectrum. We make use of data from the 2019 New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N = 47,951) to compare the attitudes of New Zealanders before and after the attack. Using a range of statistic…

  • Collective narratives catalyse cooperation

    Open AccessChaitanya S Gokhale, Joseph A Bulbulia et al.ARTICLEHumanities and Social Sciences…2022

    Humans invest in fantastic stories—mythologies. Recent evolutionary theories suggest that cultural selection may favour moralising stories that motivate prosocial behaviours. A key challenge is to explain the emergence of mythologies that lack explicit moral exemplars or directives. Here, we resolve this puzzle with an evolutionary model in which arbitrary mythologies transform a collection of egoistic individuals into a cooperative. We show how …

  • Introducing a special issue on phase two of the Evolution of Religion and Morality project

    R Sosis, Joseph A Bulbulia et al.ARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2022

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  • Kiwi Diwali: A longitudinal investigation of perceived social connection following a civic religious ritual

    Sofia D Piven, Ronald Fischer et al.ARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2022

    Religious rituals are ubiquitous. Recent research indicates they can powerfully affect social connection, increasing collective sentiments and behaviors. However, the extent to which these effects depend on religious commitment remains unclear. Here, we use longitudinal data to investigate this question in a natural ritual setting by comparing the responses of religiously committed Hindus and non-Hindus immediately after a public Diwali celebrati…

  • A changing of the guard

    R Sosis, Wesley J Wildman et al.ARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2022

  • 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…

  • The Einstein effect provides global evidence for scientific source credibility effects and the influence of religiosity

    Open AccessSuzanne Hoogeveen, Julia M Haaf et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2022Cited by: 6References: 112

    People tend to evaluate information from reliable sources more favourably, but it is unclear exactly how perceivers’ worldviews interact with this source credibility effect. In a large and diverse cross-cultural sample (N = 10,195 from 24 countries), we presented participants with obscure, meaningless statements attributed to either a spiritual guru or a scientist. We found a robust global source credibility effect for scientific authorities, whi…

  • Religion and the Development of Character: Personality Changes Before and After Religious Conversion and Deconversion

    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…

  • Causal inference in regression: Advice to authors

    Joseph A Bulbulia, Uffe Schjoedt et al.ARTICLEReligion Brain & Behavior2021

    TEST 02 - Elsevier's Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Search and access research from the science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities fields