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Can an Atheist Be in Awe of the Universe?
Scientific American Mind: A partial answer may be found in a 2013 study by psychologists Piercarlo Valdesolo of Claremont McKenna College and Jesse Graham of the University of Southern California, published in the journal Psychological
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Theology, Taboos, and Creative Thinking
During the 1976 presidential campaign, then-candidate Jimmy Carter famously told Playboy magazine: “I’ve looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” Carter’s unguarded remarks were published in the November
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A Happy Life May Not Be a Meaningful Life
Scientific American: Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl once wrote, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” For most people, feeling happy and finding life meaningful are
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Do the Poor Have More Meaningful Lives?
The New Yorker: Jonathan Safran Foer, in the first chapter of “Eating Animals,” recounts a conversation he once had with his grandmother, in which she described the combination of fear and hunger that haunted her
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Books to Check Out: February 2014
To submit a new book, email apsobserver@psychologicascience.org. Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict by Ara Norenzayan; Princeton University Press, August 25, 2013.  
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Religious Infusion Predicts Intergroup Conflict Around the World
For many people, religion is deeply ingrained in their day-to-day existence. It supports their faith and spirituality, and it provides friendship and a sense of community. But religion can also contribute to conflict, as in
