Dr Valerie van Mulukom

Courses:

• Psychology (MSc, PGDip, PGCert)
• Psychology (BSc (Hons))

Modules taught:

• PSYC5022: Psychological Research Methods and Statistics 2 (module leader)
• PSYC6021: The Self and Autobiographical Memory (co-teacher)
• PSYC6023: Specialised Research Skills in Psychology (co-teacher)
• PSYC6026: Psychology of Religion, Nonreligion, and Spirituality (module leader)
• PSYC7006: Intelligence, Personality and Individual Differences (module leader)

My research focuses on how people construct meaning, connection, and reality, and spans four interconnected strands.

One strand concerns belief and worldviews. Here I ask (i) how trust shapes belief formation and its transmission between people; (ii) when and why beliefs become ideologies, tend towards delusions, or are individual convictions, and what cognitive and cultural factors predict this; and (iii) how we should understand contemporary worldviews, including nonreligious ones, and how people approach life’s big questions.

A second strand examines social bonding. This work focuses on (i) how power dynamics shape group identity and intergroup processes, and whether these effects carry across distinct social contexts; (ii) whether political group dynamics can be explained through relatively stable individual orientations toward universalism versus parochialism, and whether these are affected by perceived existential insecurity; and (iii) how shared experiences forge interpersonal bonds, and how those bonds influence wellbeing and what people believe.

A third strand focuses on imagination and its everyday functions and evolutionary origins. I examine (i) what the evolutionary functions of imagination and fiction are, and how these contribute to wellbeing; (ii) how episodic future thinking supports hope and wellbeing; and (iii) how people become absorbed in imaginary and fictional worlds, and which factors predict this. 

A fourth strand concerns extraordinary experiences, including awe, collective, psychedelic, and mystical experiences. Here I ask (i) how we should understand experiential, non-reflective consciousness as it arises in self-transcendent states; (ii) how awe should be conceptualised and operationalised, both in English-speaking populations and cross-linguistically and cross-culturally; and (iii) how these experiences contribute to social bonding and meaning-making.

Current research projects

• Awe-some spirituality (funded by the John Templeton Foundation): Examining awe as a
  psychological construct, and as a pathway to spiritual yearning in nonreligious individuals
• Worldly views worldwide (funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme): Examining
  nonreligious worldviews globally

Grants

1. ‘Exploring the Grey Zone: A Biopsychosocial Approach to Religious Delusions and Conspiracy Beliefs.’ UKRI, 2026-2028. PI: Professor Joseph Webster, University of Cambridge. Role: co-I (£1.2 million).
2. ‘Awe-some spirituality: A theological and psychological cross-disciplinary exploration of awe as an approach to spiritual yearning of the nonreligious’. John Templeton Foundation, Spiritual Yearning Research Initiative, 2024-2026. Role: PI (£224,915).
3. ‘Worldly views worldwide: Examining secular worldviews in the Global North and South and the development of a new scale’. British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants, 2023-2024. Role: PI (£9,870.39).

Centres and institutes

• Centre for Psychological Research (CfPR)

Groups

• Applied Social Psychology

Editorial service

• Editor of the Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion (Equinox)
• Editor of the Advances in the Cognitive Science of Religion book series (Equinox)

Memberships of professional bodies

• British Psychological Society
• International Association for the Cognitive and Evolutionary Sciences of Religion (IACESR)
• International Association for the Psychology of Religion (IAPR)

Press and media

• Frequent writer for the Conversation, on intuition, imagination, and nonreligion, among other topics.

For more information, you can visit my website.