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Dr Rohan Kapitany's Outputs (19)

Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play (2022)
Journal Article
Kapitany, R., Hampejs, T., & Goldstein, T. R. (2022). Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.774085

Imaginative pretend play is often thought of as the domain of young children, yet adults regularly engage in elaborated, fantastical, social-mediated pretend play. We describe imaginative play in adults via the term “pretensive shared reality;” Share... Read More about Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play.

Ritual morphospace revisited: the form, function and factor structure of ritual practice (2020)
Journal Article
Kapitány, R., Kavanagh, C., & Whitehouse, H. (2020). Ritual morphospace revisited: the form, function and factor structure of ritual practice. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375(1805), Article 20190436. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0436

Human rituals exhibit bewildering diversity, from the Mauritian Kavadi to Catholic communion. Is this diversity infinitely plastic or are there some general dimensions along which ritual features vary? We analyse two cross-cultural datasets: one draw... Read More about Ritual morphospace revisited: the form, function and factor structure of ritual practice.

The child’s pantheon: Children’s hierarchical belief structure in real and non-real figures (2020)
Journal Article
Kapitány, R., Nelson, N., Burdett, E. R. R., & Goldstein, T. R. (2020). The child’s pantheon: Children’s hierarchical belief structure in real and non-real figures. PLoS ONE, 15(6), Article e0234142. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234142

To what extent do children believe in real, unreal, natural and supernatural figures relative to each other, and to what extent are features of culture responsible for belief? Are some figures, like Santa Claus or an alien, perceived as more real tha... Read More about The child’s pantheon: Children’s hierarchical belief structure in real and non-real figures.

Examining memory for ritualized gesture in complex causal sequences (2018)
Journal Article
Kapitány, R., Kavanagh, C., Whitehouse, H., & Nielsen, M. (2018). Examining memory for ritualized gesture in complex causal sequences. Cognition, 181, 46-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.08.005

Humans have created and maintained an exponentially large and sophisticated behavioral corpus over evolutionary time. In no small part this was achieved due to our tendency to imitate behaviours rather than to emulate outcomes. This tendency, however... Read More about Examining memory for ritualized gesture in complex causal sequences.

Evolved Open-Endedness in Cultural Evolution: A New Dimension in Open-Ended Evolution Research (2024)
Journal Article
Borg, J. M., Buskell, A., Kapitany, R., Powers, S. T., Reindl, E., & Tennie, C. (2024). Evolved Open-Endedness in Cultural Evolution: A New Dimension in Open-Ended Evolution Research. Artificial Life, 30(3), 417-438. https://doi.org/10.1162/artl_a_00406



The goal of Artificial Life research, as articulated by Chris Langton, is “to contribute to theoretical biology by locating life-as-we-know-it within the larger picture of life-as-it-could-be.” The study and pursuit of open-ended evolution in art... Read More about Evolved Open-Endedness in Cultural Evolution: A New Dimension in Open-Ended Evolution Research.

Shared flashbulb memories lead to identity fusion: Recalling the defeat in the Brexit referendum produces strong psychological bonds among remain supporters. (2022)
Journal Article
Muzzulini, B., van Mulukom, V., Kapitány, R., & Whitehouse, H. (2022). Shared flashbulb memories lead to identity fusion: Recalling the defeat in the Brexit referendum produces strong psychological bonds among remain supporters. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 11(3), 374-383. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0101873

Identity fusion—a visceral feeling of oneness with a group—is thought to result from the sharing of emotional, often dysphoric, experiences. In this pre-registered longitudinal study, we address the impact of flashbulb memories of learning about the... Read More about Shared flashbulb memories lead to identity fusion: Recalling the defeat in the Brexit referendum produces strong psychological bonds among remain supporters..

Promoting the Benefits and Clarifying Misconceptions about Preregistration, Preprints, and Open Science for the Cognitive Science of Religion (2021)
Journal Article
Kavanagh, C., & Kapitany, R. (2021). Promoting the Benefits and Clarifying Misconceptions about Preregistration, Preprints, and Open Science for the Cognitive Science of Religion. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 6(1-2), https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.38713

Adopting newly proposed “open science” reforms to improve transparency and increase rigor is hard and can make us, as researchers, feel vulnerable. Nonetheless, these reforms are vital to improving the overall quality and confidence of our collective... Read More about Promoting the Benefits and Clarifying Misconceptions about Preregistration, Preprints, and Open Science for the Cognitive Science of Religion.

Cultural Components of Sex Differences in Color Preference (2021)
Journal Article
Davis, J. T. M., Robertson, E., Lew-Levy, S., Neldner, K., Kapitany, R., Nielsen, M., & Hines, M. (2021). Cultural Components of Sex Differences in Color Preference. Child Development, 92(4), 1574-1589. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13528

Preferences for pink and blue were tested in children aged 4–11 years in three small-scale societies: Shipibo villages in the Peruvian Amazon, kastom villages in the highlands of Tanna Island, Vanuatu, and BaYaka foragers in the northern Republic of... Read More about Cultural Components of Sex Differences in Color Preference.

Exploring the Pathways Between Transformative Group Experiences and Identity Fusion (2020)
Journal Article
Kavanagh, C. M., Kapitány, R., Putra, I. E., & Whitehouse, H. (2020). Exploring the Pathways Between Transformative Group Experiences and Identity Fusion. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01172

A growing body of evidence suggests that two distinct forms of group alignment are possible: identification and fusion (the former asserts that group and personal identity are distinct, while the latter asserts group and personal identities are funct... Read More about Exploring the Pathways Between Transformative Group Experiences and Identity Fusion.

Ritualized Objects: How We Perceive and Respond to Causally Opaque and Goal Demoted Action (2019)
Journal Article
Kapitány, R., & Nielsen, M. (2019). Ritualized Objects: How We Perceive and Respond to Causally Opaque and Goal Demoted Action. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 19(1-2), 170-194. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685373-12340053

Rituals are able to transform ordinary objects into extraordinary objects. And while rituals typically do not cause physical changes, they may imbue objects with a particular specialness - a simple gold band may become a wedding ring, while an ordina... Read More about Ritualized Objects: How We Perceive and Respond to Causally Opaque and Goal Demoted Action.

Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: a pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory (2019)
Journal Article
Kapitány, R., Kavanagh, C., Buhrmester, M. D., Newson, M., & Whitehouse, H. (2020). Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: a pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory. Self and Identity, 19(3), 293-323. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2019.1578686

The US Presidential Inauguration is a symbolic event which arouses significant emotional responses among diverse groups, and is of considerable significance to Americans’ personal and social identities. We argue that the inauguration qualifies as an... Read More about Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: a pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory.

An experimental examination of object-directed ritualized action in children across two cultures (2018)
Journal Article
Kapitány, R., Davis, J. T., Legare, C., & Nielsen, M. (2018). An experimental examination of object-directed ritualized action in children across two cultures. PLoS ONE, 13(11), Article e0206884. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206884

Ritualized actions are common in daily life, and prevalent across cultures. Adults have been shown, under experimental conditions, to treat objects subjected to ritualized action as special and different relative to objects subjected to non-ritualize... Read More about An experimental examination of object-directed ritualized action in children across two cultures.

The influence of goal demotion on children's reproduction of ritual behavior (2018)
Journal Article
Nielsen, M., Tomaselli, K., & Kapitány, R. (2018). The influence of goal demotion on children's reproduction of ritual behavior. Evolution and Human Behavior, 39(3), 343-348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.02.006

Rituals are a ubiquitous feature of human behavior, yet we know little about the cognitive mechanisms that enable children to recognize them and respond accordingly. In this study, 3 to 6 year old children living in Bushman communities in South Afric... Read More about The influence of goal demotion on children's reproduction of ritual behavior.

Are Yawns really Contagious? A Critique and Quantification of Yawn Contagion (2017)
Journal Article
Kapitány, R., & Nielsen, M. (2017). Are Yawns really Contagious? A Critique and Quantification of Yawn Contagion. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 3(2), 134-155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-017-0059-y

Many diverse species yawn, suggesting ancient evolutionary roots. While yawning is widespread, the observation of contagious yawning is most often limited to apes and other mammals with sophisticated social cognition. This has led to speculation on t... Read More about Are Yawns really Contagious? A Critique and Quantification of Yawn Contagion.

The ritual stance and the precaution system: the role of goal-demotion and opacity in ritual and everyday actions (2016)
Journal Article
Kapitány, R., & Nielsen, M. (2017). The ritual stance and the precaution system: the role of goal-demotion and opacity in ritual and everyday actions. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 7(1), 27-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599x.2016.1141792

Rituals tend to be both causally opaque and goal demoted, yet these two qualities are rarely dissociated in the literature. Here we manipulate both factors and demonstrate their unique influence on ritual cognition. In a 2 × 3 (action type x goal inf... Read More about The ritual stance and the precaution system: the role of goal-demotion and opacity in ritual and everyday actions.