Norm psychology and the lifecourse causes of non-belief: A comparative study with Hindus, Muslims and Christians in Mauritius
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr. Nachita Rosun
Department of Life Sciences
Brunel University London
Start and end dates: 1 September 2022 – 30 June 2024
Award: £141,340
Historically, no socio-cultural trait has been more central to human ultra-sociality than religion. As scalable communities of normative belief and practice, religions organize human social relationships, group identities and moral expectations. However, religious participation is declining globally and non-belief is on the rise. Understanding the causes of this shift is vitally important for understanding the psychological and social bases of religious belief as well as the future of human societies.
Our contribution to the Explaining Atheism project will investigate the causes of non-belief through a comparative study of believers, non-believers and atheists from three religious groups in Mauritius, a multi-ethnic, religiously pluralistic island nation. In the past quarter-century — a single generation — Mauritius has undergone rapid economic and demographic transitions paralleling processes implicated in religious decline elsewhere. In Mauritius, religious participation remains normative but there are indications of atheisation in some demographics, particularly in younger adults who have grown up in a changing world. This context affords a detailed study of the lived experiences that predict non-belief, both at the level of the individual lifecourse and across religious groups.
We will carry out two studies — a large-scale survey and a set of retrospective life history calendar interviews — to assess how different social, material and educational experiences predict non-belief in the context of normative religiosity, and how moderators, such as particular forms of ritual, might protect against religious decline. Our survey will sample broadly from three disparate religious groups — Hindus, Muslims and Christians — targeting people varying in their adherence to within-group religious norms, as well as atheists raised in these different traditions. We will analyse broad patterns of changing beliefs within and between these groups as predicted by relevant social, material and educational factors. Our lifecourse interviews will then use a well-validated methodology, life history calendars, to gather both quantitative and qualitative data on the lived experiences of individuals in these groups, and we will use these experiences to predict their beliefs and practices as adults.
Motivated by theories of human norm psychology, we will analyse the timing of these experiences over development, with particular attention to middle childhood and adolescence as a ‘sensitive period’ of norm acquisition. Key data will concern the quality of certain social relationships — with grandparents, with teachers secular and religious, and with gods themselves — as potential moderators of religious norm adherence. By further comparing the predictors of non-belief across these disparate religious groups that otherwise share a local ecology, we can assess how the normative practices and precepts of these communities might buffer them against losing believers in the midst of broader cultural change. In this we will expand the focus of research on non-belief beyond Western societies to include Global South nations and diverse religions, with implications for understanding non-belief well beyond Mauritius.
