Jonathan Jong

I completed my undergraduate and doctoral degrees at the University of Otago, New Zealand, spending most of my time with experimental psychologists. Sometimes, the philosophers let me into their part of the world, and from them I learned mostly philosophy of science. After working on the psychological determinants of facial preferences, humour appreciation, and religious belief at Otago, I took up a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, Oxford. While running the Cognition and Culture Lab here, I am also the Deputy Director of the Belief, Brain, and Behaviour group at Coventry University, where I have just started as a Research Fellow. My work has now expanded into a variety of topics, including the psychology of religion more broadly, the effects of death anxiety, factors underlying human mate choice, and the connexion between social cohesion and self-defining memories.