Publications

Cohen, E., Davis, A., Taylor, J. (2022). Interdependence, bonding and support are associated with improved mental well-being following an outdoor team challenge. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-being, 1-24 https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12351

Cohen, E. van Leeuwen, E.J.C., Barbosa, A., Haun, D.B.M. (2021). Does accent trump skin color in guiding children's social preferences? Evidence from Brazil's natural lab. Cognitive Development, 60, 101111, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101111

Davis, A.J. MacCarron, P., Cohen, E. (2021). Social reward and support effects on exercise experience and performance: evidence from parkrun. PLoS ONE, 19(9): e0256546, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256546

Davis, A. J., Crittenden, B. Cohen, E. (2021). Effects of social support on performance outputs and perceived difficulty during physical exercise. Physiology & Behavior, 113490 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2021.113490 

Davis, A. J., Hettinga, F., Beedie, C. (2019). You don't need to administer a placebo to elicit a placebo effect: Social factors trigger neurobiological pathways to enhance sports performance. European Journal of Sports Science, 20(3), 302-312, https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2019.163521  

Taylor, J. & Davis, A.J. (2018). Social Cohesion. In The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, H. Callan (Ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2297

Jefferies, M., Tuncgenc, B., Cohen, E. (2018) The role of physical activity and touch in children’s social bonding. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6827z8x9 [open access]

Beedie, C., Benedetti, F., Barbiani, D., Camerone, E., Cohen, E., Coleman, D., Davis, A., Elsworth-Edelsten, C., Flowers, E., Foad, A.,  Harvey, S., Hettinga, F., Hurst, P.,  Lane, A.,  Lindheimer, J., Raglin, J., Roelands, B.,  Schiphof-Godart, L.  & Szabo, A. (2018) Consensus statement on placebo effects in sports and exercise: The need for conceptual clarity, methodological rigour, and the elucidation of neurobiological mechanisms. European Journal of Sport Science, DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2018.1496144

Beedie C, Whyte G, Lane AM, Cohen E, Raglin J, Hurst P, Coleman D, Foad A. (2018). "Caution, this treatment is a placebo. It might work, but it might not": Why emerging mechanistic evidence for placebo effects does not legitimize complementary and alternative medicines in sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine 52(13):817-818 DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2017-097747 

Davis, A., & Cohen, E. (2018). The effects of social support on strenuous physical exercise. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, 4(2), 171–187. http://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-017-0086-8 [open access]

Tarr, B., Slater, M., & Cohen, E. (2018). Synchrony and social connection in immersive Virtual Reality. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 3693. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21765-4 [open access]

van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Cohen, E., Collier-Baker, E., Rapold, C. J., Schäfer, M., Schütte, S., & Haun, D. B. M. (2018). The development of human social learning across seven societies. Nature Communications, 9(1), 2076. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04468-2 [open access]

Cohen, E. (2017). Group exercise and social bonding,  In N. Enfield & P. Kockelman (Eds.), Distributed Agency. Oxford University Press

Tuncgenc, B. & Cohen, E. (2016). Interpersonal movement synchrony facilitates pro-social behavior in children’s peer-play. Developmental Science, 21(1), e12505 https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12505 [open access]

Tunçgenç, B. & Cohen, E. (2016). Synchrony forges bonds across group divides. Frontiers in Psychology, 7 (782), 1-11 (pdf)

Lyngs, U., Cohen, E., Hattori, W., Newson, M., Levin, D.T. (2016) Hearing in colour: How expectations distort perception of skin tone. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 42 (12), 2068-2076

Tarr, B., Launay, J., Cohen, E., Dunbar, R. (2015).  Synchrony and exertion during dance independently raise pain thresholds and encourage social bonding. Biology Letters, 11, 20150767 (pdf)

Davis, A., Taylor, J. & Cohen, E. (2015). Social bonds and exercise: Evidence for a reciprocal relationship. PloS One, 10 (8), e0136705 (pdf)

Tuncgenc, B., Cohen, E., & Fawcett, C. (2015). Rock with me: The role of action synchrony in infants’ social and non-social choices. Child Development, 86 (3), 976-984 (pdf)

Cohen, E., Mundry, R., & Kirschner, S. (2014) “Religion, synchrony, and cooperation.” Religion, Brain & Behavior, 4 (1),20-30. (pdf)

Cohen, E. & Haun, D. (2013) The development of tag-based cooperation via a socially acquired trait. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 230-235. (pdf)

Whitehouse, H. & Cohen, E. (2012) Seeking a rapprochement between Anthropology and the Cognitive Sciences: a problem-driven approach. Topics in Cognitive Science, 4, 404-412. (pdf)

Cohen, E. (2012). The evolution of tag-based cooperation in humans: the case for accent. Current Anthropology, 53(5),588-616. (pdf)

Cohen, E., Ejsmond-Frey, R., Knight, N. & Dunbar, R. (2010) Rowers’ high: Elevated endorphin release under conditions of active behavioural synchrony. Biology Letters, 6 (1), 106-108 (pdf)

Cohen, E. (2010) Anthropology of knowledge. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 16, s193-s202. (pdf)

Cohen, E. (2009) How useful is it to invoke evolutionary explanations for morality? (debate with Prof. Helen Haste). People & Science, March 2009, pp. 10-11 (pdf)

Cultural Transmission and Religion

Books

Cohen. E. (2007) The mind possessed: The cognition of spirit possession in an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition. New York: Oxford University Press

Papers

Barrett, H.C., Bolyanatz, A., Broesch, T., Cohen, E., Froerer, P., Kanovsky, M., Schug, M.G., Laurence, S. (2021). Intuitive dualism and afterlife beliefs: a cross-cultural study. Cognitive Science, 45(6), e12992.  https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12992

Purzycki, B.G., Ross, C.T., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q.D., Cohen, E., McNamara, R.A., et al. (2018). Material security, life history, and moralistic religions: A cross-cultural examination. PLoS ONE, 13(3), e0193856. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193856 [open access]

Purzycki, B. G., Pisor, A. C., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Cohen, E., Henrich, J., et al. (2018). The cognitive and cultural foundations of moral behavior. Evolution and Human Behavior, 1–12. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.04.004

Purzycki, B. G., Henrich, J., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q. D., Baimel, A., Cohen, E., McNamara, R.A., Willard, A.K., Xygalatas, D. & Norenzayan, A. (2017). The evolution of religion and morality: a synthesis of ethnographic and experimental evidence from eight societies. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 1-32.

Purzycki, B.G., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q. D.,  Cohen, E.,  McNamara, R.A.,   Willard, A.K.,  Xygalatas, D.,  Norenzayan, A.,  & Henrich, J.  (2016). Moralistic gods, supernatural punishment and the expansion of human sociality. Nature, 530, 327-330

Cohen, E. (2013) Who owns culture now? In Theory and method in the study of religion: twenty-five years on, ed. A.W. Hughes, 129-133. Brill: Leiden.

Bulbulia, J., Geertz, A. W., Atkinson, Q.D., Cohen, E., Evans, N., Francois, P., Gintis, H., Gray, R, Henrich, J.,  Jordon, F.,  Norenzayan, A., Richerson, P. J.,  Slingerland, E.G., Turchin, P.,  Whitehouse, H., Widlok, T., Wilson, D.S. (2013) The Cultural Evolution of Religion. In Cultural Evolution, eds. P. Richerson & M. Christiansen. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Cohen, E. & Barrett, J. (2011) ‘Folk anthropology’: The cognitive anthropology of the person. In In search of self: Interdisciplinary perspectives on personhood, ed. J. Wentzel van Huysteen & Erik Wiebe. Pp 104-122 Eerdmans Publishing: Grand Rapids, MA

Cohen, E., Burdett, E., Knight, N. & Barrett, J. (2011) Cross-cultural similarities and differences in person-body reasoning: Experimental evidence from the UK and Brazilian Amazon. Cognitive Science, 35(7), 1282-1304 (pdf)

Cohen, E. (2011) “Out with ‘Religion’: A novel framing of the religion debate”. In Religion and Rights: The Oxford Amnesty Lectures, ed. W. Williams. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Cohen, E. (2011) Broadening the critical perspective on supernatural punishment theories. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 1(1), 70-72

Cohen, E. (2010) “Around a Book” journal feature; invited response to three critical commentaries on The Mind Possessed. Religion and Society, 1(1), 164-176 (pdf)

McCauley, R. & Cohen, E. (2010) Cognitive science and the naturalness of religion. Philosophy Compass, 5, 779-792. (pdf)

Cohen, E., Lanman, J., McCauley, R. N.  & Whitehouse, H. (2008) “Common criticisms of Cognitive Science of Religion – Answered”, Bulletin for the Study of Religion, Vol 37 (4), 112-115. (pdf)

Cohen, E. (2008) What is spirit possession? Defining, comparing, and explaining two possession forms. Ethnos, 73 (1), 101-126. (pdf)

Cohen, E. & Barrett, J. (2008) When minds migrate: Conceptualizing spirit possession. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 8, 23-48. (pdf)

Cohen, E. & Barrett, J. (2008) Conceptualizing spirit possession: Ethnographic and experimental evidence. Ethos, 36 (2), 245-266 (pdf)