Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut
 

Publications

Journal Articles and Book Chapters:

Forthcoming Purzycki, Benjamin, Jordan Kiper, John Shaver, Daniel Finkel, and Richard Sosis Religion. In Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, eds. R.A. Scott and S.M. Kosslyn, Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Forthcoming Sosis, Richard and Jordan Kiper Religion is more than belief: What evolutionary theories of religion tell us about religious commitment. In Challenges to Religion and Morality: Disagreements and Evolution, eds. M. Bergmann and P. Kain. New York: Oxford University Press.
Forthcoming Shariff, Azim, Benjamin Purzycki, and Richard Sosis Religions as Cultural Solutions to Social Living, in New Directions in the Psychology of Culture, ed. A.B. Cohen.
Forthcoming Purzycki, Benjamin, Omar Haque, and Richard Sosis Extending Evolutionary Accounts of Religion beyond the Mind: Religions as Adaptive Systems in The Evolution of Religion: Critical Perspectives and New Directions.
Forthcoming Sosis, Richard and Jordan Kiper Sacred versus Secular Values: Cognitive and Evolutionary Sciences of Religion and Religious Freedom, in Homo Religiosus: Reflections on Humankind’s Persistent Religiosity
2013 Alcorta, Candace S. and Richard Sosis Ritual, Religion, and Violence: an Evolutionary Perspective. Handbook of Religion and Violence, eds. M. Juergensmeyer, M. Kitts, M. Jerryson, pp. 571-596. New York: Oxford University Press.
2012 Sosis, Richard, Erika J. Phillips, Candace S. Alcorta Sacrifice and Sacred Values: Evolutionary Perspectives on Religious Terrorism. Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War, eds. T. Shackelford & V. Weeks-Schackelford, pp. 233-253. New York: Oxford University Press.
2012 Purzycki, Benjamin, Daniel Finkel, John Shaver, Nathan Wales, Adam B. Cohen, and Richard Sosis What does God Know? Supernatural Agents’ Perceived Access to Socially Strategic and Nonstrategic Information. Cognitive Science 36:846-869.
2012 Blumstein, DT, S. Atran, S. Field, M.E. Hochberg, D.P.P. Johnson, R. Sagarin, R. Sosis, and B. Thayer The Peacock’s Tail: Lessons from Evolution for Effective Signaling in International Politics. Cliodynamics 3:191–214.
2011 Bulbulia, Joseph and Richard Sosis Signaling Theory and the Evolution of Religions. Religion, 41:3, 363-388
2011 Sosis, Richard and Joseph Bulbulia The Behavioral Ecology of Religion: The Benefits and Costs of One Evolutionary Approach. Religion 41:3, 341-362
2011 Wildman, Wesley J. and Richard Sosis Stability of Groups with Costly Beliefs and Practices. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. 14 (3) 6.
2011 Purzycki, Benjamin and Richard Sosis Our Gods: Variation in Supernatural Minds, in Essential Building Blocks of Human Nature, eds. Ulrich Frey, C. Stormer, K.P. Willfuhr, pp. 77- 93, New York: Springer.
2011 Sosis, Richard Why Sacred Lands are not Indivisible: The Cognitive Foundations of Sacralizing Land. Journal of Terrorism Research 2:17-44.
2011 Sosis, Richard and W. Penn Handwerker Psalms and Coping with Uncertainty: Israeli Women’s Responses to the 2006 Lebanon War. American Anthropologist 113:40-55.
2010 Bulled, Nicola and Richard Sosis Examining the influence of life expectancy on reproductive timing, total fertility, and educational attainment. Human Nature 21:269-289.
2010 Saragin, R., C. Alcorta, S. Atran, D. Blumstein, G. Dietl, M. Hochberg, D. Johnson, S. Levin, E.Medin, J. Medin, E. Prescott, R. Sosis, T. Taylor, J. Tooby, G. Vermeij Decentralize, Adapt and Cooperate. Nature 465: 292-293.
2010 Alcorta, Candace and Richard Sosis Signals and Rituals of Humans and Animals, in Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare, ed. Marc Bekoff, pp. 519-523, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishers.
2010 Finkel, Daniel, Paul Swartwout, and Richard Sosis The Socio-Religious Brain: A Developmental Model, Eds. R. Dunbar, C. Gamble, J. Gowlett. Proceedings of the British Academy 158: 287-312.
2010 Purzycki, Benjamin and Richard Sosis Religious Concepts as Necessary Components of the Adaptive Religious System, in Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Philosophy: Evolution and Religion, ed. Ulrich Frey, pp. 37-59, Marburg, Germany: Tectum Verlag.
2009 Sosis, Richard The Adaptationist-Byproduct Debate on the Evolution of Religion: Five Misunderstandings of the Adaptationist Program. Journal of Cognition and Culture 9: 315-332.
2009 Purzycki, Benjamin and Richard Sosis The Religious System as Adaptive: Cognitive Flexibility, Public Displays, and Acceptance, in The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior, eds. Eckart Voland and Wulf Schiefenhovel, pp. 243-256, New York: Springer-Verlag Publishers.
2009 Sosis, Richard and Ulrich Schnabel The Adjusted Belief: What makes a religion successful? in The Pope in the Crossfire: Extrapolate back to Pius or the Council? (in German), ed. Til Galrev, pp. 165-167, Berlin: LIT Verlag.
2009 Sosis, Richard Why are Synagogue Services so Long? An Evolutionary Examination of Jewish Ritual Signals, in Judaism in Biological Perspective: Biblical Lore and Judaic Practices, ed. Rick Goldberg, pp. 199-233, Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
2008 Sosis, Richard and Joseph Bulbulia Religion in Eden, In: The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques, eds. J. Bulbulia, R. Sosis, E. Harris, C. Genet, R. Genet, K. Wyman, pp. 15-19, Santa Margarita, CA: Collins Foundation Press.
2008 Sosis, Richard Pigeons, Foxholes, and the Book of Psalms: Evolved Superstitious Responses to Cope with Stress and Uncertainty. In: The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques, eds. J. Bulbulia, R. Sosis, E. Harris, C. Genet, R. Genet, K. Wyman, pp. 103-9, Santa Margarita, CA: Collins Foundation Press.
2008 Sosis, Richard and Candace Alcorta Militants and Martyrs: Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion and Terrorism , In Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World, eds. R. Sagarin and T. Taylor, pp. 105-24, Berkeley: University of California Press.
2007 Sosis, Richard Psalms for Safety: Magico-Religious Responses to Threats of Terror. Current Anthropology 48:903-911.
2007 Alcorta, Candace and Richard Sosis Rituals of Humans and Animals, In: Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships, vol. 2, ed. Marc Bekoff, pp. 599-605, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishers.
2007 Sosis, Richard, Howard Kress, and James Boster Scars for War: Evaluating Alternative Signaling Explanations for Cross-Cultural Variance in Ritual Costs. Evolution and Human Behavior 28:234-247.
2007 Ruffle, Bradley and Richard Sosis Does it Pay to Pray? Costly Ritual and Cooperation. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy 7:1-35 (Article 18).
2006 Sosis, Richard Religious Behaviors, Badges, and Bans: Signaling Theory and the Evolution of Religion. In: Where God and Science Meet: How Brain and Evolutionary Studies Alter Our Understanding of Religion, Volume 1: Evolution, Genes, and the Religious Brain, ed. Patrick McNamara, pp. 61-86, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
2006 Ruffle, Bradley and Richard Sosis Cooperation and the In-Group-Out-Group Bias: A Field Test on Israeli Kibbutz Members and City Residents. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 60:147-163.
2005 Sosis, Richard Ifaluk Atoll: An Ethnographic Account, in eHRAF World Cultures, ed. Carol Ember. New Haven, CT: HRAF.
2005 Alcorta, Candace and Richard Sosis Ritual, Emotion, and Sacred Symbols: The Evolution of Religion as an Adaptive Complex Human Nature 16:323-359.
2005 Sosis, Richard Does Religion Promote Trust? The Role of Signaling, Reputation, and Punishment. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 1:1-30 (Article 7).
2004 Sosis, Richard and Bradley Ruffle Ideology, Religion, and the Evolution of Cooperation: Field Tests on Israeli Kibbutzim Research in Economic Anthropology 23:89-117.
2004 Sosis, Richard The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual American Scientist 92:166-172.
2003 Sosis, Richard and Candace Alcorta Signaling, Solidarity, and the Sacred: The Evolution of Religious Behavior Evolutionary Anthropology 12:264-274
2003 Sosis, Richard. and Bradley Ruffle Religious Ritual and Cooperation: Testing for a Relationship on Israeli Religious and Secular Kibbutzim Current Anthropology 44:713-722
2003 Sosis, Richard Why aren't we all Hutterites? Costly signaling theoy and religious behavior Human Nature 14:91-127.
2003 Sosis, Richard and Eric Bressler Cooperation and commune longevity: A test of the costly signaling theory of religion. Cross-Cultural Research 37:211-239
2002 Sosis, Richard Patch Choice Decisions on Ifaluk Atoll American Anthropologist 104:583-598.
2001 Sosis, Richard Sharing, consumption, and patch choice on Ifaluk Atoll Human Nature 12:221-245.
2000 Sosis, Richard Costly signaling and torch fishing on Ifaluk Atoll Evolution and Human Behavior 21:223-244.
2000 Sosis, Richard Religion and intra-group cooperation: preliminary results of a comparative analysis of utopian communities Cross-Cultural Research 34:70-87.
2000 Sosis, Richard The emergence and stability of cooperative fishing on Ifaluk Atoll In: Human Behavior and Adaptation: an Anthropological Perspective, eds. L. Cronk, N. Chagnon, and B. Irons, pp. 437-472, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
1998 Sosis, Richard, Sharon Feldstein, and Kim Hill Bargaining theory and cooperative fishing participation on Ifaluk Atoll Human Nature 9:163-203.

Edited Volumes:

2008            Bulbulia, J., R. Sosis, C. Genet, R. Genet, E. Harris, K. Wyman, eds. The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques. Santa Margarita, CA: Collins Foundation Press.
2005 Sosis, Richard and Candace Alcorta, eds. Special issue of Human Nature on Evolution of Religion

Commentaries:

Forthcoming Sosis, Richard, Wesley Wildman, and Patrick McNamara On the Naturalness of Religion. Religion, Brain & Behavior 3.
2013 Purzycki, Benjamin G., and Richard Sosis Comment for Cooperation in Context: Public goods games and post-Soviet collectives in Kamchatka, Russia. Current Anthropology 54:166-7.
2013 Johnson, D., C. Deane-Drummond, A. Fuentes, L. Cronk, H. Lenfesty, J. Schloss, R. Sosis Darwin Day: Evolving Perspectives on God. Evolution: This View of Life.
2013 Cronk, L., C. Cunningham, C. Deane-Drummond, J.O. Henriksen, D. Johnson, E. Rogers, J. Schloss, R. Song, R. Sosis, A. Visala Religion in Evolutionary Perspective: Adaptive Faith. The Christian Century February 20: 34-39.
2013 Wildman, Wesley, Richard Sosis, and Patrick McNamara Bio-cultural approaches to social forms. Religion, Brain & Behavior 3: 1-2.
2012 Sosis, Richard The Evolution of Religion. Textbox in Lion Handbook on Science and Christianity, edited by R.J. Berry.
2012 Sosis, Richard, Wesley Wildman, and Patrick McNamara A New Format: The Book Symposium. Religion, Brain & Behavior 2: 181.
2012 Wildman, Wesley, Richard Sosis, and Patrick McNamara The Politics of Field Names. Religion, Brain & Behavior 2:101-104.
2012 Wildman, Wesley, Richard Sosis, and Patrick McNamara The Scientific Study of Atheism. Religion, Brain & Behavior 2:1-3.
2012 Swartwout, Paul, Benjamin G. Purzycki, and Richard Sosis Form and function in religious signaling under pathogen stress. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35: 32-33.
2011 Wildman, Wesley, Richard Sosis, and Patrick McNamara Reductionism in the Scientific Study of Religion. Religion, Brain & Behavior 1:3 169-172.
2011 McNamara, Patrick, Richard Sosis, and Wesley J. Wildman The Scientific Study of Religion and the Humanities. Religion, Brain & Behavior 1:2, 101-102
2011 McNamara, Patrick, Richard Sosis, and Wesley J. Wildman Announcing a New Journal: Religion, Brain & Behavior. Religion, Brain & Behavior 1:1-4.
2009 Bulbulia, Joseph and Richard Sosis Ideology as Affordance. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32:515-516.
2009 Sosis, Richard and John Shaver Comment for Attachment and Cooperation in Religious Groups: An Example of a Mechanism for Cultural Group Selection. Current Anthropology 50:775-776.
2008 Sosis, Richard and Paul Swartwout Demonstrating Group Selection: A Comment on Landa's "The Bioeconomics of Homogeneous Middleman Groups as Adaptive Units." Journal of Bioeconomics 10:297-301.
2008 Alcorta, Candace, Richard Sosis, and Daniel Finkel Ritual Harmony: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Music. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 31:576-577.
2006 Alcorta, Candace and Richard Sosis Why Ritual Works: A Rejection of the By-Product Hypothesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29:613-614.
2005 Sosis, Richard Methods do Matter: Variation in Experimental Methodologies and Results. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28:834-835.
2004 Sosis, Richard and Candace Alcorta Is Religion Adaptive? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27:749-750.
2004 Sosis, Richard Insights from Ifaluk: Food Sharing Among Cooperative Fishers Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27:568-569.
2004 Sosis, Richard and Bradley Ruffle On Ritual and Cooperation Current Anthropology 45:529-531.
2002 Sosis, Richard Comment for Rousseau's whale hunt? Coordination among big-game hunters. Current Anthropology: 43:553-554.
1997 Sosis, Richard and Kim Hill Comment for Delayed reciprocity and tolerated theft: the behavioral ecology of food-sharing strategies Current Anthropology 38:73-74.
1997 Sosis, Richard and Kim Hill Comment for Consumption and production: sharing and the social construction of use-value Current Anthropology 38:42-43.

Book Reviews:

2008 Purzycki, Benjamin, Paul Swartwout, and Richard Sosis Searching for Darwin: Metaphor, Collusion, and Natural Selection: Review of 'The Supernatural and Natural Selection' by Lyle Steadman and Craig Palmer. Evolutionary Psychology 6: 628-636.
2007 Sosis, Richard Breaking the Wrong Spell: Review of "Breaking the Spell" by Daniel Dennett. Free Inquiry 27:59-60.
2004 Sosis, Richard Preaching Morality and Metaphysics: Review of The Evolution of Morality and Religion by Donald M. Broom Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19:566-567.
2003 Sosis, Richard Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society by David Sloan Wilson Evolution and Human Behavior 24:137-143.
2000 Sosis, Richard Review of Ever Since Adam and Eve: the Evolution of Human Sexuality by Malcolm Potts and Roger Short Evolution and Human Behavior 21:291-294.