CV
(updated 12.11)
Curriculum Vitae
Jesse Bering
Literary Representation by Peter Tallack
The Science Factory
Scheideweg 34C
20253 Hamburg
GERMANY
+44 (0)207 193 7296 info@sciencefactory.co.uk
Education
2002 – Ph.D. in Social Developmental Psychology, Florida Atlantic University. Dissertation director Professor David F. Bjorklund. (dbjorklu@fau.edu)
1999 – M.S. in Experimental Psychology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Thesis director Professor Daniel J. Povinelli. (djp3463@louisiana.edu)
1997 – B.A. (cum laude) in Anthropology with a minor in Psychology, Florida Atlantic University.
Professional Experience
(2011) Scholar in Residence, Wells College, Aurora, NY.
(2006 – 2011) Reader in History and Anthropology and Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen’s University Belfast.
(2009 –) Columnist/Writer (Slate, Scientific American Mind)
(2006 – 2011) School Management Board Member, Director of Research, School of History and Anthropology, Queen’s University, Belfast.
(2002 – 2006) – Assistant Professor of Experimental Psychology, University of Arkansas.
Grants and Awards
Scientist of the Year Award 2010, The National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP), American Association for the Advancement of Science
June 2008-June 2010 Templeton Foundation project “The Adaptive Logic of Religious Belief and Behaviour.” Co-PI (with Dominic Johnson and Richard Sosis). Proposal. Co-investigators: Robert Trivers, Terry Burnham. Total $869,38
Sep 2007-Sep 2010. European Commission EXREL project “Explaining Religion.” Co-PI (with Harvey Whitehouse). Project co-investigators: David Bjorklund, Paul Bloom, Ernst Fehr, Dan Sperber, Armin Geertz, Boicho Kokinov, Pascal Boyer, Fernand Gobet, Istvan Czachesz, Josef Perner, Robin Dunbar. Total £1,996,153
Professional Activities
Ad Hoc Reviewer: Cognition, Child Development; Science; Review of General Psychology; School Psychology Quarterly; Journal of Experimental Child Psychology; Evolution & Cognition; Developmental Review; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology; JPSP: ASC; Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness; Human Nature; Journal of Cognition & Culture; Evolutionary Psychology; Cognition; Developmental Science; Behavioral & Brain Sciences; Lawrence Erlbaum; Journal of Ritual Studies; Consciousness and Cognition; Animal Cognition; Personality and Individual Differences; Current Anthropology; Journal of Personality; JPSP: PPID; Religion; Current Directions in Psychological Science; National Science Foundation; Journal of Mind & Society.
Scholar in Residence, Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.
External Examiner, University College Dublin, Cognitive Science MA programme
Medical Science Monitor International Reviewers Panel (IRP)
Grant review referee: Evolution & Behaviour programme, the Netherlands Research Council, The John F. Templeton Foundation.
Editorial Board: Evolutionary Psychology; Religion, Brain & Behavior; Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience
Human Subjects Review Committee: Department of Psychology, University of Arkansas
Chair, Human Subjects Review: ICC, Research Ethics Committee, School of History and Anthropology, Queen’s University Belfast
MA Programme Convener and Planner, Cognition and Culture Queen’s University, Belfast.
Fellow, Dartmouth College & Medical School, Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience, Hanover, NH.
Invited Participant, Science Foo Camp, 2011. Mountainview, CA (Googleplex).
Junior Fellow. Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition. Altenberg, Austria.
International Research Fellow, Institute for Cognition and Culture, Queen’s University, Belfast.
Teaching Assistant, Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University.
Graduate Assistant, Department of Psychology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Graduate Researcher, Cognitive Evolution Group, New Iberia Research Center, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Teaching
Introductory Psychology (undergraduate, University of Louisiana at Lafayette) Cognition (undergraduate, Florida Atlantic University; Wells College) Infancy and Human Development (undergraduate, University of Arkansas) Research Methods in Psychology (undergraduate, University of Arkansas) Honors Seminar in Evolutionary Psychology (undergraduate, University of Arkansas) Seminar in the Cognitive Science of Religion (graduate, University of Arkansas) Cognitive Science Weekly Readings Seminar (graduate, Queen’s University, Belfast)
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Bering, J. (2011). The belief instinct: The psychology of souls, destiny and the meaning of life. New York: W.W. Norton. (current foreign rights: UK & Commonwealth, Nicolas Brealey; Germany, Piper; The Netherlands, Nieuw Amsterdam; Spain, Paidós; Italy, Rizzoli; Brazil, Zahar; Taiwan, Apocalypse; Japan, Kagaku-Dojin; Korea, Purun Communication). (TED Talks 2010 “Books of the Year”: American Library Association’s “25 Best Books of 2011”)
Bering, J. (to be released, July, 2012). Why is the penis shaped like that? And other reflections on being human. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Bering, J. (2013). Perv: The surprising science of sexual deviance. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. (in progress)
Journal Articles
Piazza, J. R., & Bering, J. M. (2011). “Princess Alice is watching you”: Children’s belief in an invisible person inhibits cheating. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 109, 311-320.
Piazza, J. R. & Bering, J. M. (2010). The coevolution of secrecy and stigmatization. Human Nature, 21, 290-308.
Bering, J. (2010). Atheism is only skin deep: Geertz and Markússon rely mistakenly on sociodemographic data as meaningful indicators of underlying cognition. Religion, 40, 166-168.
Bering, J. (2010). The nonexistent purpose of people: Have our minds evolved to see human beings as types of artifacts? The Psychologist, 23, 290-293.
Ingram, G. P. D., & Bering, J. M. (2010). Children’s tattling: The reporting of everyday norm violations in preschool settings. Child Development, 81, 945-957.
Piazza, J. R., & Bering, J. M. (2009). Evolutionary cyber-psychology: Applying an evolutionary framework to Internet behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 1258-1269.
Bering, J. (2009). Invited commentary on C. Popp Weingarten and J. S. Chisholm, Attachment and cooperation in religious groups. Current Anthropology, 50, 772.
Piazza, J. R. & Bering, J. M. (2008). The effects of perceived anonymity on altruistic punishment. Evolutionary Psychology, 6, 487-501.
Piazza, J. R., & Bering, J. M. (2008). Concerns about reputation via gossip promote generous allocations in an economic game. Evolution & Human Behavior, 29,172-178.
Bering, J. M. (2008). Why hell is other people: Distinctively human psychological suffering. Review of General Psychology, 12, 1-8.
Bering, J. M. (2006). The folk psychology of souls. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 29, 453-498. Johnson, D. D. P. & Bering, J. M. (2006). Hand of God, mind of man: Punishment and cognition in the evolution of cooperation. Evolutionary Psychology, 4, 219-233.
Bering, J. M. & Parker, B. D. (2006). Children’s attributions of intentions to an invisible agent. Developmental Psychology, 42, 253-262.
Bering, J. M. & Shackelford, T. K. (2005, December). Evolutionary psychology and false confession. American Psychologist, 60(9), 1037-1038.
Bering, J. M., McLeod, K. A., & Shackelford, T. K. (2005). Reasoning about dead agents reveals possible adaptive trends. Human Nature, 16, 360-381.
Bering, J. M., Hernández-Blasi, C., Bjorklund, D. F. (2005). The development of ‘afterlife’ beliefs in secularly and religiously schooled children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23, 587-607.
Bering, J. M., & Johnson, D. D. P. (2005). “O Lord … you perceive my thoughts from afar”: Recursiveness and the evolution of supernatural agency. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 5, 118-142.
Bering, J. M., & Shackelford, T. K. (2004). Supernatural agents may have provided adaptive social information: Comment on Atran and Norenzayan. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27, 732-733.
Bering, J. M., & Shackelford, T. K. (2004). The causal role of consciousness: A conceptual addendum to human evolutionary psychology. Review of General Psychology, 8, 227-248.
Bering, J. M. (2004). A critical review of the ‘enculturation hypothesis’: The effects of human rearing on great ape social cognition. Animal Cognition, 7, 201-212.
Bering, J. M. (2004). Natural selection is non-denominational: Why evolutionary models of religion should be more concerned with behavior than concepts. Evolution and Cognition, 10, 126-137.
Bering, J. M., & Bjorklund, D.F. (2004). The natural emergence of reasoning about the afterlife as a developmental regularity. Developmental Psychology, 40, 217-233.
Hernández-Blasi, C., Bering, J. M., & Bjorklund, D. F. (2003). Evolutionary developmental psychology: Viewing human ontogeny through the eyes of evolutionary theory (Psicología Evolucionista del Desarrollo: Contemplando la ontogénesis humana desde los ojos del evolucionismo). Infancia y Aprendizaje, 26, 267-285.
Bering, J. M. (2003). Religious concepts are probably epiphenomena: A reply to Pyysiäinen, Boyer, and Barrett. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 3, 244-254.
Bering, J. M. (2003). Towards a cognitive theory of existential meaning. New Ideas in Psychology, 21, 101-120.
Bjorklund, D. F., & Bering, J. M. (2003). A note on the development of deferred imitation in enculturated juvenile chimpanzees. Developmental Review, 23, 389-412.
Bering, J. M. (2002). Intuitive conceptions of dead agents’ minds: The natural foundations of afterlife beliefs as phenomenological boundary. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 2, 263-308.
Povinelli, D. J., & Bering, J. M. (2002). The mentality of apes revisited. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 115-119.
Bering, J. M. (2002). ‘Ratcheting’ up the scalae naturae? Review of The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition by M. Tomasello. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 1, 353-358.
Bjorklund, D. F., Yunger, J. L., Bering, J. M., & Ragan, P. (2002). The generalization of deferred imitation in enculturated chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Animal Cognition, 5, 49-58.
Bering, J. M. (2002). The existential theory of mind. Review of General Psychology, 6, 3-24.
Bering, J. M. (2001). Are chimpanzees ‘mere’ existentialists? A phylogenetic approach to religious origins. Evolution and Cognition, 7, 126-133.
Bering, J. M. (2001). Theistic percepts in other species: Can chimpanzees represent the minds of non- natural agents? Journal of Cognition and Culture, 1, 107-137.
Bering, J. M. (2001). God is not in the mirror: A reply to Gallup and Maser. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 1, 207-211.
Bjorklund, D. F., & Bering, J. M. (2000). The evolved child: Applying evolutionary developmental psychology to modern schooling. Learning and Individual Differences, 12, 347-373.
Bering, J. M., Bjorklund, D. F., & Ragan, P. (2000). Deferred imitation of object-related actions in human- reared, juvenile great apes. Developmental Psychobiology, 36, 218-232.
Bjorklund, D. F., Bering, J. M., & Ragan, P. (2000). A two-year longitudinal study of deferred imitation of object manipulation in an enculturated juvenile chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). Developmental Psychobiology, 37, 229-237.
Povinelli, D. J., Bering, J., & Giambrone, S. (2000). Toward a science of other minds: Escaping the argument by analogy. Cognitive Science, 24, 509-41.
Book Chapters
Holbrook-Hahn, J., Holbrook, C., & Bering, J. M. (2010). Snakes, spiders, strangers: How the evolved fear of strangers may misdirect efforts to protect children from harm. In J. Lampinen and K. Sexton-Radek (Eds.), Protecting children from violence: Evidence based interventions (pp. 263-287). New York: Psychology Press.
Johnson, D. D. P., & Bering, J. M. (2009). Hand of God, mind of man: Punishment and cognition in the evolution of cooperation. In J. Schloss and M. Murray (Eds.), The believing primate: Scientific, philosophical, and theological reflections on the origin of religion (pp. 26-43). New York: Oxford University Press.
Ingram, G. P. D., Piazza, J., & Bering, J. M. (2009). The adaptive problem of absent third-party punishment. In H. Høgh-Olesen, L. Hansen and P. Bertelsen (Eds.), Human characteristics: Evolutionary perspectives on human mind and kind (pp. 205-229). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Bering, J. M. (2008). How Sartre inadvertently presaged a proper evolutionary science of religion. In J. Bulbulia, R. Sosis, C. Genet, R. Genet, E. Harris, & K. Wyman (Eds.), The evolution of religion: Studies, theories, and critiques. Santa Margarita, CA: The Collins Foundations Press.
Bering, J. M., & Bjorklund, D. F. (2007). The serpent’s gift: Evolutionary psychology and consciousness. In P. D. Zelazo, M. Moscovitch and E. Thompson (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of consciousness, pp. 597-630. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Bering, J. M. (2006). The cognitive psychology of supernatural belief [As reprinted from American Scientist]. In P. McNamara (Ed.). Where God and science meet: How brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religion (pp. 123-134). Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood.
Bering, J. M. (2005). The evolutionary history of an illusion: Religious causal beliefs in children and adults. In B. Ellis & D. Bjorklund (Eds.), Origins of the social mind: Evolutionary psychology and child development (pp. 411-437). New York: Guilford Press.
Bering, J. M., & Povinelli, D. J. (2003). Comparing cognitive development. In D. Maestripieri (Ed.), Primate psychology: Bridging the gap between the mind and behavior of human and nonhuman primates (pp. 205-233). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bjorklund, D. F. & Bering, J. M. (2003). Big brains, slow development, and social complexity: The developmental and evolutionary origins of social cognition. In M. Brüne (Ed.), The social brain – evolutionary aspects of development and pathology (pp. 113-151). Wiley.
Povinelli, D. J., Bering, J., & Giambrone, S. (2003). Chimpanzee ‘pointing’: Another error of the argument by analogy? In S. Kita (Ed.), Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet (pp. 35-68). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bjorklund, D. F., & Bering, J. M. (2002). Milestones in development. In N. J. Salkind & L. Margolis (Eds.) Child development, Vol. 1, in Macmillan Psychology Reference Series (pp. 272-275). Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan.
Media
Regular contributor to Slate (since 2010), Scientific American Mind
Occasional contributor to The Guardian, The New Republic, New Statesman, Bloggingheads.tv
Scientific American’s “Bering in Mind” (featured blog since 2009)
Interview or coverage in Time, The Daily Beast, Playboy, HBO, NPR “All Things Considered,” Savage Love, The Economist, The New York Times, New Scientist, The National Post, Sydney Morning Herald, The Scientist, New Humanist, etc.
Bering, J. (2012). Introduction to Violet Blue’s The smart girl’s guide to the g-spot. San Francisco: Cleis Press.
Bering, J. (2010). The third gender: Transsexuals are illuminating the biology and psychology of sex— and revealing just how diverse the human species really is. Scientific American Mind.
Bering, J. (2010). Secrets of the phallus: Why is the penis shaped like that? In R. K. Bussel (Ed.), Best Sex Writing 2010 (pp. 15-23). San Francisco: Cleis Press.
Bering, J. (2011). In J. Brockman (Ed.), Is the Internet changing the way you think?: The Net’s impact on our minds and future (pp. 162-163). New York: Harper Perennial.
Bering, J. (2010). God needn’t actually exist to have evolved. In J. Brockman (Ed.), This will change everything: Ideas that will shape the future (pp. 295-297).
Bering, J. M. (2009). Wiggle room. In J. Brockman (Ed.), What have you changed your mind about: Today’s leading minds rethink everything (pp. 26-28). US: Harper Collins.
Bering, J. M. (2008). The end? Why do so many of us think our minds continue on after we die? Scientific American Mind.
Bering, J. M. (2007). Science will never silence God. In J. Brockman (Ed.), What is your dangerous idea? Today’s leading thinkers on the unthinkable (pp. 169-179). US: Harper Collins.
Bering, J. M. (2006). The cognitive psychology of belief in the supernatural. American Scientist, 94, 142-149.
Bering, J. M. (2006). Untitled. In J. Brockman (Ed.), What we believe but cannot prove: Today’s leading thinkers on science in the age of certainty (pp. 32-35). US: Harper Collins. UK: Simon & Schuster.
Presentations, Keynotes and Invited Colloquia
Bering, J. M. (April, 2012). University of South Dakota. Invited talk.
Bering, J. M. (February, 2012). Darwin Day Keynote. Kol Haverim: The Finger Lakes Community for Humanistic Judaism in Ithaca.
Bering, J. M. (October, 2011). Cornell University.
Bering, J. M. (June, 2011). St. Thomas Summer Seminar in Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology. University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.
Bering, J. M. (May, 2011). Yale University. Hosted by the Yale Secular Student Alliance.
Bering, J. M. (September, 2010). Explaining Religion Conference. University of Bristol Philosophy Department and the Cognitive Development Centre.
Bering, J. M. (July, 2010). 17th International Summer School in Cognitive Science. Department of Cognitive Science and Psychology. New Bulgaria University. Sofia, Bulgaria.
Bering, J. M. (May, 2010). KVIT 2010 Symposium. Linköping, Sweden, Linköping University.
Bering, J. M. & Emmons, N. (March, 2010). Children’s reasoning about their own past psychological functioning prior to conception, during prenatal development and after birth. Department of Philosophy, University of Glasgow.
Bering, J. M. (February, 2010). Deeper than beliefs: Cognitive science and religious intuitions. Towards a Unified Science of Religion Conference. Religious Studies, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand.
Bering, J. M. (February, 2010). Deeper than beliefs: Cognitive science and religious intuitions. Towards a Unified Science of Religion Conference. Department of Philosophy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Bering, J. M. & Heywood, B. T. (January, 2010). Do atheists reason implicitly in theistic terms? Evidence of teleo-functional biases in the autobiographical narratives of nonbelievers. Annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Las Vegas, NV.
Bering, J. M. (August, 2009). Deeper than beliefs: Cognitive science and religious intuitions. Minary Conference on the interface between brain and the social world. Dartmouth College, NH.
Bering, J. M. & Heywood, B. T. (July, 2009). Implicit theism in self-reported atheists. Annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Bering, J. (June, 2009). Deeper than beliefs: Cognitive science and religious intuitions. Department of Philosophy, Central European University, Budapest.
Bering, J. M. (March, 2009). Beliefs and Reasons Workshop. Trinity College, Cambridge. (invited talk) Bering, J. M. (January, 2009). How to know if you’re dead. Faculty of Theology, Aarhus University.
Bering, J. M., & Heywood, B. T. (November, 2008). Evidence of implicit atheism in the autobiographical narratives of self-reported atheists. Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge.
Bering, J. M. (November, 2008). 4th Annual Battle of Ideas Festival. London.
Bering, J. M. (October, 2008). Empirical approaches to the cognitive science of religion. School of Politics, International Policy and Philosophy, Queen’s University, Belfast.
Bering, J. M., Hodge, M., & Piazza, J. (July, 2008). Do self-reports of supernatural beliefs accurately predict related behaviours? Paper presented at the XXth Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development. Wurzburg, Germany.
Ingram, G. P. D. & Bering, J. M. (June, 2008). Tattling and the emergence of social norms. Paper presented at the 16th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Utrecht, Netherlands.
Hahn, J. & Bering, J.M. (May, 2008). Stranger danger: An evolutionary account of stranger anxiety. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Pre-conference “Protecting children from violence: Emerging trends and research.” Chicago, IL.
Bering, J. M. (May, 2008). “Eurydice”: A play by Sarah Ruhl. Wilma Professional Theatre Company, Philadelphia: PA. Invited expert panel member on afterlife for audience discussion.
Bering, J. M. (April, 2008). Sensationalising the mundane: How evolutionary theory makes the everyday seem extraordinary. Biology, Evolution, and the Social Science Curriculum. University of Cambridge.
Bering, J. M. (December, 2007). Simulation constraints on subjective death. Paper presented at the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness. Washington, DC.
Cooper, C. J., & Bering, J. M. (November, 2007). The cognitive foundations of reincarnation beliefs. Paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Meeting. Tampa, FL.
Bering, J. M. (October, 2007). On the importance of addressing our own biases toward religion for the sake of good evolutionary theory. Paper presented at the “Religion and Violence Symposium.” Saint Louis, MO.
Bering, J. M. (October, 2007). The cognitive psychology of belief in the supernatural. Department of Psychology, Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, University of Bristol.
Bering, J. M. (September, 2007). The cognitive psychology of belief in the supernatural. Paper presented at the Transcultural Universals III: Biological Evolution of Religiosity. Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK). Delmenhorst, Germany.
Ingram, G. P. D., Piazza, J., & Bering, J. M. (August, 2007). The adaptive problem of absent third-party punishment. Paper presented at “Human Mind, Human Kind: Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Characteristics.” Aarhus University, Denmark.
Piazza, J. M., Ingram, G. P. D., & Bering, J. M. (August, 2007). Two empirical approaches to the study of absent third-party punishment. Poster presented at “Human Mind, Human Kind: Interdisciplinary conference on human characteristics.” Aarhus University, Denmark.
Bering, J. M. (April, 2007). “Religion and self-control” meeting. University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL.
Bering, J. M. (April, 2007). A report to the academy on the scientific status of the chimpanzee ‘Enculturation Hypothesis’. Paper presented at the “From the Brain to Human Culture: Intersections between the Humanities and Neuroscience” conference. Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
Bering, J. M. (March, 2007). What children can tell us about the afterlife and the meaning of life. Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL.
Bering, J. M. (March, 2007). “Religious conceptions of the afterlife from a cultural evolutionary perspective and a general field of evolutionary religious studies” meeting. University of Miami, FL.
Bering, J. M. (January, 2007). Is God an ‘Adaptive Illusion’ or ‘Maladaptive Delusion’? Evolution of Religion Conference. Oahu, HA.
Bering, J. M. (June, 2006). Untitled. The Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Washington University, Saint Louis, MO.
Bering, J. M. (January, 2006). The folk psychology of souls. Evolution and Human Adaptation Program and the Culture and Cognition Program, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI.
Bering, J. M. (October, 2005). ‘Signs’: Seeing symbolic meaning in natural events. Department of Psychology. Queens University, Belfast.
Bering, J. M. (October, 2005). Death as an empirical backdoor to the representation of mental causality. Paper presented at the CNRS web-based conference for the “Société de l’Information,” Causal cognition in human and non-human animals. The Institute for Cognitive Sciences, Lyon, France. (online symposium: www.interdisciplines.org).
Bering, J. M. (October, 2005). The folk psychology of souls. Evolutionary biology and religion. Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research. The University of Manchester. London, UK.
Bering, J. M. (September, 2005). The folk psychology of souls. British Association for the Advancement of Science, Festival of Science, Dublin, Ireland.
Hernández-Blasi, C., Bering, J. M., Alwood, N. G., & Blaylock, T. (August, 2005). Children’s beliefs about psychological functioning before and after birth. ESDP XIIth European Conference on Developmental Psychology, La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands.
Bering, J.M. (January, 2005). The Princess Alice experiments: Children’s susceptibility to supernatural agent concepts. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Bering, J.M. (January, 2005). The Princess Alice experiments: Children’s susceptibility to supernatural agent concepts. Boston University, Cambridge, MA.
Bering, J. M., McLeod, K., & Shackelford, T. K. (June, 2005). On the possibility of adapted responses to dead agents’ “minds.” Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference, Austin, TX (symposium organizer Current Evolutionary Approaches to the Study of Religion).
Bering, J. M. (April, 2005). Social learning in children and chimpanzees. Discussant, the 2005 Society for Research in Child Development Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
Bering, J. M., & Hernández-Blasi, C. (April, 2005). Precursory afterlife beliefs in Spanish and American Schoolchildren. Paper presented at the 2005 Society for Research in Child Development Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
Bering, J. M., & McLeod, K. (October, 2004). Social dynamics in death, as in life. Paper presented at the 2004 Society of Experimental Social Psychology Conference, Fort Worth, TX. (symposium) Bering, J. M. (July, 2004). Starting with the Basics: Evidence of Meaning-Making in a Developmental Laboratory. Paper presented at the 3rd Biannual International Conference on Personal Meaning, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Cormier, C. A., Shin, H., Cael, L., Rosenberg, J., Bering, J. M., Hernandez-Blasi, C., Bjorklund, D. F. (April, 2004). Developmental Regularities in Reasoning About the Psychology of Sleep. Paper presented at Conference on Human Development, Washington, DC.
Bering, J. M. (November, 2003). The Princess Alice experiments: Children’s susceptibility to supernatural agent concepts. Invited colloquium, the University of Findlay, Findlay, OH.
Bering, J. M., & Baumann, B. D. (October, 2003). Children’s causal reasoning about symbolic random events: Evidence from the moral domain. Paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Conference, Norfolk, VA.
Bering, J. M. (October, 2003). Supernatural agents may have provided adaptive social information. Paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Conference, Norfolk, VA.
Bering, J. M. (August, 2003). On reading symbolic random events. Children’s causal reasoning about unexpected occurrences. Paper presented at the Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity Conference, Atlanta, GA.
Bering, J. M. (August, 2003). On reading symbolic random events. Children’s causal reasoning about unexpected occurrences. Paper presented at the New England Institute 2003 Conference on Religion, Cognitive Science, and Evolutionary Psychology. Portland, ME.
Bering, J. M., & Alwood, N. (April, 2003). Simulating ‘random events’ in the laboratory: A new empirical paradigm with implications for religious reasoning. Paper presented at the Mid-Atlantic Region for the American Academy of Religion meeting, Chicago, IL.
Bering, J.M., Hernández-Blasi, C., & Bjorklund, D.F. (April, 2003). The role of metarepresentational- simulationist models in the development of death reasoning. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL.
Bering, J.M. (December, 2002). Intentionality as an integrative dynamic at the level of the gene. Invited colloquium, Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition, Altenberg, Austria.
Bering, J., Hernández-Blasi, C., Bjorklund, D.F. (August, 2002). Children’s beliefs about psychological continuity after death. Poster presented at the meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, Ottawa, Canada.
Bering, J. M. (March, 2002). The phylogeny of religious thinking (Or God through the eyes of a chimpanzee). Paper presented at the Cognition and Religion conference. Ann Arbor, MI.
Bering, J. M., & Bjorklund, D. F. (March, 2002). The immortal mind: How human cognitive systems breed ghosts. Paper presented at the Cognition and Religion conference, Ann Arbor, MI.
Bjorklund, D. F., & Bering, J. M. (March, 2002). The development of deferred imitation in enculturated chimpanzees and orangutans. Paper presented at Conference on Human Development, Charlotte, NC.
Bering, J.M. (February, 2002). The natural foundations of afterlife beliefs. University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, CO.
Bering, J. M., Yunger, J. L., & Bjorklund, D. F. (October, 2001). Simulation constraints and biological bases of afterlife beliefs. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Columbus, OH.
Bjorklund, D. F., Bering, J. M., Yunger, J. L., & Ragan, P. (October, 2001). Deferred imitation in juvenile human-reared great apes: Can it provide some clues to human cognitive evolution? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Virginia Beach, VA.
Bering, J. M., Yunger, J. L., & Bjorklund, D. F. (June, 2001). Conceptual constraints on death representation: The biology of afterlife beliefs. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, London, UK.
Bjorklund, D. F., Bering, J. M., Hernandez Blasi, C., & Yunger, J. L. (June, 2001). Principles of evolutionary developmental psychology. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, London, UK.
Yunger, J. L., Bjorklund, D. F., Bering, J. M., & Nesci, J. (June, 2001). Generalization of deferred imitation in enculturated chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, London, UK.
Bjorklund, D. F., & Bering, J. M. (April, 2001). Principles of evolutionary developmental psychology. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
Bjorklund, D. F., Bering, J. M. & Ragan, P. (October, 1999). A two-year longitudinal study of deferred imitation of object manipulation in an enculturated juvenile chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Chapel Hill, NC.
Bering, J. M., Bjorklund D. F., & Ragan, P. (June, 1998). Deferred imitation of object-related actions in young, enculturated great apes. Paper presented at the 21st meeting of the American Society of Primatologists, Georgetown, TX.
Bering, J., Bjorklund, D. F., Ragan, P., & Dahms, B. (March, 1998). Deferred imitation of object-related actions in enculturated, juvenile great apes. Paper presented at Conference on Human Development, Mobile, AL.
PhD Students Supervised to Completion (Primary Supervisor)
Gordon Ingram, 2009, “Young Children’s Reporting of Peers’ Behavior” (Dr. Ingram is presently Departmental Lecturer within the School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford.) External Examiner: Prof. David F. Bjorklund, Florida Atlantic University
Claire White, 2009, “Reasoning About Personal Identity: The Case of Reincarnation Beliefs” (Dr. White is presently Research Coordinator for the ‘Explaining Religion’ Project at the University of Oxford and former Research Assistant for the Psychology and Religion Research Group at the University of Cambridge.) External Examiner: Dr. Rita Astuti, London School of Economics
Jared Piazza, 2009, “The Evolutionary Psychology of Information Management: Gossip, Secrecy, and Shame in Evolutionary Perspective” (Dr. Piazza is presently a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Kent, Department of Psychology.) External Examiner: Professor Mark van Vugt, University of Amsterdam
Jennifer Hahn, 2009, “New Evidence for Lactation Aggression in Humans” External Examiner: Professor Anne Campbell, University of Durham
Bethany Heywood, 2010, “Teleo-functional Reasoning About Significant Life Events in Atheistic, Theistic and Autistic Populations.” External Examiner: Marjaana Lindeman, University of Helsinki
