Welcome to our Research Project
Across the world, religious people have more children than their secular counterparts. In modern environments, the number of children in a family is inversely related to child success. Yet children born to religious parents often flourish. Why?
We are an international team investigating how religion impacts family size, child health and child success. Our research involves interviewing 8,500 participants about family, religion, support and health from across Bangladesh, India, Malawi, the Gambia, and the United States. This research is part of the ‘John Templeton Foundation’, ‘Templeton World Charity Foundation’, and ‘Templeton Religion Trust’ funded project “The Evolutionary Dynamics of Religion, Family Size, and Child Success. Find more details about how the project is pre-registered on our Open Science Framework page.
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The Project
Core Team
Collaborators
News
Religion in The Gambia scaffolds broad allomaternal support, but not from fathers or their relatives
Religion in The Gambia scaffolds broad allomaternal support, but not from fathers or their relativesJohn H. Shaver, Laure Spake, Radim ChvajaCompared to our closest primate relatives, humans have...
The rise of love marriages? How market integration is changing how people marry in Matlab, Bangladesh
The rise of love marriages? How market integration is changing how people marry in Matlab, BangladeshBy Susie Schaffnit & Mary ShenkHollywood films portray marriage as a celebration of love...
The Evolution of the Evolutionary Demography of Religion Project
The Evolution of the Evolutionary Demography of Religion ProjectBy John ShaverWhen I was a graduate student at UConn, my advisor, Rich Sosis, invited Eric Kaufmann to campus to give a talk about his...
Funding & Collaborations
The project is a collaboration between anthropologists and demographers from five universities: Baylor University, University of Otago, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, and University of Connecticut. The project is funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the Templeton Religion Trust, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
The Evolutionary Dynamics of Religion, Family Size, and Child Success
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Open Science Framework
