This comparative study examines the transmission of religion in families in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Finland and Canada. The authors rely on the widely shared argument that religious change can primarily be understood as an intergenerational process. Based on a mixed-methods design, the book investigates the question of how, when exactly and under what conditions the following generations become less religious than the previous ones. From the perspective of familial and historical generati...

Named a best book of the year by The Guardian and The TelegraphWhy do some people become radicalized?How do ideologies shape the human brain?And how can we unchain our minds from toxic dogmas?In The Ideological Brain, Leor Zmigrod reveals the deep connections between political beliefs and the biology of the brain. Drawing on her cutting-edge research, she exposes the...

Sociology Study Guide: Society, Culture, Socialization, Groups , Deviance and Norms, Sexuality, Organizational Behavior, Inequality, Institutions and Mass media, Famous SociologistsFEATURES:-Clear and concise explanations. -Search for words or phrases. -Add Bookmarks -Text annotation and mark-up -Access the guide anytime, anywhere - at home, on the train, in the subway. -Use your down time to prepare for an exam. -Always have the guide available for a quick reference. TABLE OF CONTENTS:The...

How did human societies scale up from small, tight-knit groups of hunter-gatherers to the large, anonymous, cooperative societies of today--even though anonymity is the enemy of cooperation? How did organized religions with "Big Gods"--the great monotheistic and polytheistic faiths--spread to colonize most minds in the world? In Big Gods, Ara Norenzayan makes the surprising and provocative argument that these fundamental puzzles about the origins of civilization are one and the sa...

Why is religion still important? Can we be fully modern and fully religious?In this new edition, Davie follows up her discussion of the meaning of religion in modern society and considers how best to research and understand this relationship. Exploring the rapid movements within the sociology of religion today, this revised and updated book:• Describes the origins of the sociology of religion• Demystifies secularization as a process and a theory• Relates rel...

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman offers a general audience access to over six decades of insight and expertise from a Nobel Laureate in an accessible and interesting way. Kahneman’s work focuses largely on the problem of how we think, and warns of the dangers of trusting to intuition – which springs from “fast” but broad and emotional thinking – rather than engaging in the slower, harder, but surer thinking that stems from logical, deliberate decision-making. Written in ...

This open access volume features a data-rich portrait of what young adults think about the world. It collects the views of students in higher education from various cultural regions, religious traditions, linguistic groups, and political systems. This will help readers better understand a generation that will soon rise to power and influence.The analysis focuses on 12 countries. These include Canada, China, Finland, Ghana, India, Israel, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sweden, T...

Demonstrates definitively that the secularization thesis is correct, and religion is losing its grip on societies worldwideIn the decades since its introduction, secularization theory has been subjected to doubt and criticism from a number of leading scholars, who have variously claimed that it is wrong, flawed, or incomplete. In Beyond Doubt, Isabella Kasselstrand, Phil Zuckerman, and Ryan T. Cragun mount a strong defense for the theory, providing compelling evide...

Since the 1960s, the West has moved ever-leftwards. 'Equality' and ‘feelings' are central to the New Religion that rejects all traditional values. Yet beneath the institutionally dominant ‘Left' stews a growing and restless ‘Right’. How has this fractured situation come about? What will the future hold?In The Past is a Future Country, the authors trace it back to the Industrial Revolution. Darwinian selection massively weakened, meaning that, for the first time in history, the selfish, sic...

With his 1954 book The Nature of Prejudice, American psychologist Gordon Allport displays the crucial skill of reasoning, producing and organizing an argument that was persuasive enough to have a major impact not only in universities, but also on government policy.The question that Allport tackled was an old one: why are people so disposed to prejudice against those from other groups? Earlier psychologists had suggested a number of reasons, especially in the case of racial...

Since its original articulation in the early 1970s, the 'spiral of silence' theory has become one of the most studied theories of communication and public opinion. It has been tested in varied sociopolitical contexts, with different issues and across communication systems around the world. Attracting the interest of scholars from communication, political science, sociology, public opinion and psychology, it has become both the subject of tempestuous academic debate as well as a mainstay in...

The number of nonreligious people has increased dramatically over the past several decades, yet scholarship on the nonreligious is severely lacking. In response to this critical gap in knowledge, The Nonreligious provides a comprehensive summation and analysis of existing social scientific research on secular people and societies. The authors present a thorough overview of existing knowledge while also drawing upon ongoing research and suggesting ways to improve our understanding ...