Why is America a religious outlier, an anomaly to the powerful secularization trend that has trans-

formed the club of wealthy democracies? Norenzayan will discuss the explanatory power of several theories of this anomaly: exaggerated reporting, founder effects, reli-gious immigrants, free religious markets, and inequality and existential insecurity. In the last part, he asks: What are the current and future trends of American religious fervor in the coming decades?

Why So Devout? Faith, Inequality, and the Future of Religious Fervor in America

Ara Norenzayan, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Human Evolution, Cognition, and Culture at University of British Columbia

November 10, 3:30–5:00Jesse Wrench Auditorium, S107

Memorial Union, University Ave. & Hitt St.Free and open to the public

For more information, please visit events.psych.missouri.edu/lecture-series/

Ara Norenzayan is a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, and a co-director of UBC’s Centre for Human Evo-lution, Cognition, and Culture. He received his PhD in social psychology from the Uni-versity of Michigan. His research explores the psychology of religious thought and be-havior, religious diversity, cooperation and conflict, and issues of cultural variability and universality in human behavior. He has pub-lished scientific articles in journals such as Nature, Psychological Science, and Behavioral and Brain Sciences. He is the author of Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Coopera-tion and Conflict (Princeton). He grew up in Beirut and lives in Vancouver with his wife and two children.

Presented by the Department of Psychological Sciences in conjunction with the College of Arts and Science

Sponsored by generous donations from the Grimshaw Distinguished Lecture Series; Melvin H. and Kathleen Marx Fund for Experimental Psychology; The Fred McKinney Psychology Lectureship; Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative; College of Human Environmental Sciences; College of Education; Department of Communication Science and Disorders;

Department of Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology; Department of Management; Department of Philosophy; Department of Political Science; Department of Religious Studies; Department of Sociology; Department of Women’s and Gender Studies; Department of Human Development and Family Studies; Department of Neurology; Master of Public Health Program; School of Law; School of Medicine; School of Health Professions; School of Social Work; School of Nursing; Thompson Center for Autism and

Neurodevelopmental Disorders; and the Life Sciences and Society Program