Why do many societies moralize apparently harmless pleasures, such as lust, gluttony,
alcohol, drugs, and even music and dance? Why do they erect temperance, asceticism …

Causal inference lies at the core of many scientific endeavours. Yet, answering causal
questions is challenging, especially when studying culture as a causal force. Against this …

This account of puritanical morality is useful and innovative, but makes two errors. First, it
mischaracterizes the purity foundation as being unrelated to cooperation. Second, it makes …

Commentators raise fundamental questions about the notion of purity (sect. R1), the
architecture of moral cognition (sect. R2), the functional relationship between morality and …

Puritanism may evolve into a technological variant based on norms of delegation of actions
and perceptions to artificial intelligence. Instead of training self-control, people may be …

Why do people moralize harmless behaviors? Although people rely on cooperative
principles in making their moral judgments, I argue that self-interest likely plays a role even …

In our research on lay prototypes of immorality, we found that Chinese consider immoral
behaviors to be more about showing coarse character, rather than being violent and harmful …

In an editorial we published two years ago (Sosis et al., 2022), we announced that Religion,
Brain & Behavior (RBB) would begin a transition process in which our long-time editors …

Because suppression of sex has been and is at the core of puritanical morals, a proper
account thereof would need to explain why suppression of sex has been largely directed …

Our recent review demonstrates that “purity” is a messy construct with at least 9 popular
scientific understandings. Cultural beliefs about self-control help unify some of these …