RLMgB601 Behavioral Measurements in the Study of Religion

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2024
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Mgr. et Mgr. Radek Kundt, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Jana Nenadalová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. et Mgr. Radek Kundt, Ph.D.
Department for the Study of Religions – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Kristýna Čižmářová
Supplier department: Department for the Study of Religions – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
each even Wednesday 14:00–15:40 K33
Prerequisites (in Czech)
TYP_STUDIA(MND)
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 6/30, only registered: 1/30, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/30
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 6 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
Does religion influence human behaviour? Does religiosity affect cheating, resource sharing, risk-taking, or adherence to and enforcement of group norms? How can we find out whether or not it does? This course will introduce basic behavioral science methods and focus on their application to the study of religion. Students will first be introduced to the basic assumptions of the behavioral sciences to understand why and under what conditions it is beneficial to step beyond the subjective accounts of informants or hypothetical scenarios of imagined behavior (e.g., impression management, identity-affirmation, memory failure, socially desirable reporting, etc.) when measuring behavior. After being introduced to a wide range of different behavioral measures, students will develop a deeper understanding of several basic types of economic games (dictator, RAG, common-pool resource game, trust game). The usage of economic games will be illustrated through research on Hindu, Christian and Jewish communities, contrasted with the Czech non-religious population. During the seminars, students will develop their own behavioral measures and modify the parameters of standardized measures to test the applicability of these measures in pilot studies. Special attention will be paid to the transferability of methods from the laboratory setting to the field and the adaptation of methods to the specific cultural context. In the critical evaluation of behavioural measurements, emphasis will be placed on verifying whether the measured concepts correspond to people's behaviour in the real world (e.g. trust in institutions, blood donation, compliance with traffic rules).
Learning outcomes
The course graduate will gain:
  • an overview of the basic tools of behavioural sciences and the conditions of their use in religious studies
  • the ability to critically evaluate the relationship between concept measurement, the concept, and the relationship of the concept to human behavior in the real world
  • sensitivity to the need to adapt the form of the tool to cultural contexts
    • Syllabus
    • Introductory lesson
    • Why to measure behaviour 1
    • Why to measure behaviour 2
    • How to measure behaviour 1 - Behavioural observation
    • How to Measure Behaviour 2 - Natural Experiment
    • How to Measure Behaviour 3 - Modifying the Real Environment
    • How to measure behaviour 4 - Laboratory and field experimental manipulations
    • Economic Games 1 - Resource Sharing
    • Economic Games 2 - Resource Sharing
    • Economic Games 3 - Norm Compliance
    • Economic Games 4 - Norm Compliance
    • Economic Games 5 - Trust
    • Economic Games 6 - Trust
    Literature
      recommended literature
    • Dimitris Xygalatas (2019). “How Do Religious Environments Affect Our Behavior?” In D. Jason Slone & William W. McCorkle Jr. (Eds). The Cognitive Science of Religion: A Methodological Introduction to Key Empirical Studies, 113-122.
    • Dimitris Xygalatas (2019). “Do Rituals Promote Social Cohesion?” In D. Jason Slone & William W. McCorkle Jr. (Eds). The Cognitive Science of Religion: A Methodological Introduction to Key Empirical Studies, 163-172.
    • John H. Shaver, Martin Lang, Jan Krátký, Eva Kundtová Klocová, Radek Kundt & Dimitris Xygalatas (2018). The Boundaries of Trust: Cross-Religious and Cross-Ethnic Field Experiments in Mauritius. Evolutionary Psychology, 1-15. doi:10.1177/1474704918817644
    • Richard Sosis (2019). “Do Religions Promote Cooperation? Testing Signaling Theories of Religion” In D. Jason Slone & William W. McCorkle Jr. (Eds). The Cognitive Science of Religion: A Methodological Introduction to Key Empirical Studies, 155-162.
    • Martin Lang, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Radek Kundt, Aaron Nichols, Lenka Krajčíková & Dimitris Xygalatas. (2016). Music As a Sacred Cue? Effects of Religious Music on Moral Behavior. Frontiers in Psychology 7(814), 1-13. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00814.
    • John H. Shaver, Thomas A.J. White, Patrick Vakaoti, & Martin Lang. (2021). A comparison of self-report, systematic observation and third-party judgments of church attendance in a rural Fijian Village. PLoS ONE, 16(10), e0257160.
    Teaching methods
    Lectures; seminars; home exercises; seminary papers
    The course combines classical lectures and practical seminars, for which you have to work on a homework assignment in the week preceding the full-time class. At the end of the course the student completes a final assignment.
    Assessment methods
    Terms and conditions of course completion
    To successfully complete the course, you need to score a minimum of 60% in two independently assessed parts: the semester maximum (up to 90 points) and the colloquium (up to 40 points). In total, you need to score at least 78 points (54 for the semester and 24 for the colloquium) out of a total maximum of 130 points. For a clear overview of the scoring, see the table below.

    Home activities and preparation for seminar parts
    Each class (except the introductory class) is preceded by a week in which you will do the homework activity defined below. The homework activity will result in the submission of an assignment, which you will upload to the appropriate submission room no later than the end of the Monday (23:59) preceding the class. There are a total of six homework activities, and you may earn up to 10 points for each, which will be added to the semester maximum. You will not receive any points for any assignment not turned in, so you will have to make up points elsewhere (for example, by attending lectures more often and being active in the seminar sections). The completed assignment is then used as a basis for discussion or activities in the seminar parts of the full-time course.

    Seminar parts and participation in lectures
    Attendance and activity points are earned for participation in the lecture and seminar portions of attendance classes. There are a total of six classes (excluding the introductory class, which is not scored), and you can earn up to 5 points for each class, which add up to the total semester maximum. So you don't necessarily have to attend all of them, but be careful not to drop the minimum total amount of points required to complete the semester (see table below). The scoring for attendance is then as follows: 0b = no attendance, 2b = attendance at both parts of the face-to-face class (if you attend only the lecture part or only the seminar part, you get 1b), 3b = minor activity, 4b = major activity, 5b = excellent activity.

    Final task and colloquium
    The final assignment is scored as a whole but consists of three parts: a written part (annotation), a presentation and an oral presentation with a defense. The annotation describes (a) the theoretical context of the research from which you derive a new (b) research question and summarizes (c) the research methods that must address (d) the measurement of behavior in some way. The submission of the final assignment and its presentation with defense during the colloquium is an independently assessed part. You must score at least 24 (i.e. 60%) out of a total of 40 points to successfully complete the course.
    Language of instruction
    Czech
    Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
    Study Materials
    The course is taught once in two years.
    Information on course enrolment limitations: Zápis mimo religionistiku je podmíněn souhlasem vyučujících.
    Teacher's information
    The course is administered in ELF (an e-learning environment for the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University).
    • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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