Jonathan Lanman

Source: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/jonathan-lanman/ Parent: https://www.qub.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/anthropology-sociology-ba/

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Jonathan Lanman

Professor

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4691-5922

Emailj.lanman@qub.ac.uk
Room 02.005 - 27 University Square

United Kingdom

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

I am open to PhD applications in the fields of:\ - Cognitive Anthropology of Religion and Ritual\ - Cognitive Anthropology of Atheism

2007Research output 2007: 2Research output 2008: 4Research output 2011: 1Projects 2012: 2Research output 2012: 2Research output 2013: 2Projects 2014: 1Research output 2014: 1Research output 2015: 1Projects 2016: 1Research output 2016: 4Projects 2017: 2Research output 2017: 5Research output 2018: 1Research output 2019: 5Research output 2020: 1Projects 2021: 1Research output 2021: 2Research output 2022: 4Research output 2023: 1Research output 2025: 8Research output 2026: 12026

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Research Statement

Assistant Director, Institute of Cognition and Culture

DPhil, MSc (Oxford), MA (Missouri), BA (Southeast Missouri State)

Professor Lanman joined the School in 2012, after working as a Departmental Lecturer (2009-2011) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2011-2012) in Anthropology at the University of Oxford and a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology at The University of British Columbia.

Research Interests

Professor Lanman's research addresses two main areas in the scientific study of religion. Across both areas, he aims to integrate theories and methodologies from the social, cognitive, and evolutionary sciences with ethnographic and historical research. While his geographic area of interest is international, his work has focused on the North Atlantic world and, more recently, Japan.

1) Atheism & Secularization

His work on atheism and secularization aims to provide an account of why some individuals become theists and others become non-theists, why some nations have much higher proportions of non-theists than others, and why some non-theists engage in anti-religious social action. This research engages literature on cognitive biases, existential security, hypocrisy, threat detection, coalitionary psychology, and moral psychology and focuses on the United States, United Kingdom, China, and Japan.

In collaboration with Lois Lee (UCL), Stephen Bullivant (St. Mary's), and Miguel Farias (Coventry), he served as a PI on a John Templeton Funded grant entitled "Understanding Unbelief" (£2.3m, 2017-2020), a large, international, and interdisciplinary programme of research on unbelief around the world. understanding-unbelief.net

He is currently Programme Lead on the follow up programme Explaining Atheism, which aims to put to the test dozens of popular and academic theories about why some individuals are atheists and why some countries have higher percentages of atheists than others. https://www.explainingatheism.org/

2) Religious Identity, Ritual, and Self-Sacrifice

Professor Lanman's collaborative work on religious identity, ritual, and self-sacrifice aims to provide an account of the nature and catalysts of religious cohesion and the relative contributions of belief, ritual, values, and identity in explaining individual willingness to die for a religious group. This research engages literature on belief, ritual, memory, identity fusion, psychological kinship, sacred values, and martyrdom and is international with a focus on the United States and Europe.

In collaboration with Harvey Whitehouse (Oxford), William Swann (Texas), Michael Buhrmester (Oxford/Texas), and others, he has contributed to this research as part of a £3.2m project funded by the ESRC entitled Ritual, Community, and Conflict (2011-2017).

For further detail of Professor Lanman's research, see his interview in the New Science of Religion series.

https://youtu.be/4XnCnK7kdf8

Other

Websites

https://qub.academia.edu/JonathanLanman

https://www.explainingatheism.org/

https://research.kent.ac.uk/understandingunbelief/

Other Online Media

Non-religion and Secularity Research Network (NSRN) blog post. "A Cognitive Perspective Helps Make the Scientific Study of Atheism Possible."
British Humanist Association & Centre for Inquiry:"Atheism: The View from Cognitive Science." Lecture given at Conway Hall in 2014.https://youtu.be/YSZCnNjqkEY
The Religious Studies Project:'Practice What You Preach: CREDs & CRUDs' http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/practice-what-you-preach-creds-and-cruds/
The Religious Studies Project:‘Atheism Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Atheistic Thought." http://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/lanman/

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Dive into the research topics where Jonathan Lanman is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

2 Similar Profiles
Groups Psychology
Religious Belief Psychology
Belief Social Sciences
Religiosity Psychology
Cognitive Science Psychology
Religions Social Sciences
UK Social Sciences
China Social Sciences

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or Select a country/territory from the list\

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Projects

Lanman, J. (PI)

01/11/2021 → 23/10/2024

Project: Research - ### R8418HAP: Understanding Unbelief

Lanman, J. (PI)

25/05/2017 → 30/09/2019

Project: Research - ### R1733HAP: Jonatham Lanam Teaching BO

Lanman, J. (PI)

06/03/2017 → 31/05/2017

Project: Research - ### R8408HAP: Scientific Study of Non-Religious Belief

Lanman, J. (PI)

15/12/2016 → 31/12/2016

Project: Research - ### R8343HIS: The Emergence of Prosocial Religions

Lanman, J. (PI)

31/07/2014 → 30/09/2015

Project: Research

View all 7 projects

Research output

13 Article
10 Chapter
9 Comment/debate
2 Featured article
7 More
2 Other contribution
1 Other report
1 Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
1 Other chapter contribution
1 Chapter (peer-reviewed)
1 Book/Film/Article review
1 Letter
Anthropological perspectives on attributing beliefs cross-culturally

Lanman, J., 11 Feb 2026, (Accepted) The Oxford handbook of the cognitive science of belief. Van Leeuwen, N. & Lombrozo, T. (eds.). Oxford University Press

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

Anthropologists
Cognitive Science
Cultural Diversity
Social Anthropology
Cultural Background
Atheism and agnosticism in twenty-first-century China

Hornbeck, R. G., Lanman, J. A., Baimel , A. & Lee, L., 03 Oct 2025, (Accepted) In: Sociology of Religion.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

21C
Agnosticism
China
21st century
Engage-ment
Belief in belief: even atheists in secular countries show intuitive preferences favoring religious belief

Gervais, W. M., McKay, R. T., Brown-Iannuzzi, J. L., Ross, R. M., Pennycook, G., Jong, J. & Lanman, J. A., 01 Apr 2025, In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 122, 13, e2404720122.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Open Access

File

Religious Belief
Religiosity
Individual Differences

6 Citations (Scopus)

87 Downloads (Pure) - ### Beliefs: Defined

Lanman, J. A., 28 May 2025, Encyclopedia of religious psychology and behavior. Shackelford, T. K. (ed.). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, p. 1-4 4 p.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter - ### Credibility Enhancing Displays (CREDs) theory

Lanman, J. A., 28 May 2025, Encyclopedia of religious psychology and behavior. Shackelford, T. K. (ed.). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, p. 1-3 3 p.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary

View all 45 research outputs