Theiss Bendixen

Scientific publications

Areas of research include quantitative methods & causal inference, conspiracy theories & science communication, meta-science, evolution & intelligence, moral psychology, health & spirituality, behavioral psychology & religion.

Quantitative methods & Causal inference

Bendixen, T. & Purzycki, B. G. (2026). The Data Analyst's Guide to Cause and Effect: An Applied Introduction to Causal Inference. Sage. Companion E-book.

Bendixen, T. (2023). Causal inference in the social, health, and business sciences: A very brief practical primer using R and Stan. Working Paper. www.github.com/tbendixen/causal-inference-wp

Bendixen, T. (2023). 100,000 regressions do not make for causal inference. Science Advances, eLetter.

Bendixen, T. & Purzycki, B. G. (2023). Cognitive and cultural models in psychological science: A tutorial on modeling free-list data as a dependent variable in Bayesian regression. Psychological Methods. doi.org/10.1037/met0000553 [pre-print]

Purzycki, B. G. & Bendixen, T. (2023). Material insecurity and religiosity: A causal analysis. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 6, e4. doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.29

Purzycki, B. G., Bendixen, T, & Lightner, A. D. (2022). Coding, causality, and statistical craft: The emergence and evolutionary drivers of moralistic supernatural punishment remain unresolved. Religion, Brain & Behavior. doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2065349 [pre-print]

Conspiracy theories & Science communication

Petersen, L. H., Bendixen, T., Lightner, A.D., Reintoft, H., & van Mulukom, V. (in prep.). Conspiracy ideation and well-being during a pandemic and across cultures. www.osf.io/fz8xw/

Hoogeveen, S., Altay, S., Bendixen, T., Berniūnas, R., Bulbulia, J., Cheshin, A., ..., van Elk, M. (in review). Does she still love and feel hungry? Afterlife continuity beliefs and religion across 24 countries. [pre-print]

Bendixen, T. & Purzycki, B. G. (2022). Cultural evolutionary psychology of belief. In: Musolino, J., Sommer, J., & Hemmer, P. (Eds.). The Cognitive Science of Belief. Cambridge University Press. [pre-print]

Hoogeveen, S., Haaf, J. M., Bulbulia, J. A., Ross, R. M., McKay, R., Altay, S., Bendixen, T., ..., van Elk, M. (2022). The Einstein effect: Global evidence for scientific source credibility effects and the influence of religiosity. Nature Human Behavior. doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01273-8 [pre-print]

Bendixen, T. (2020). How cultural evolution can inform the science of science communication — and vice versa. Nature: Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 7:135. www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00634-4

Bendixen, T. (2020). Cultural evolution in science communication. Colloquium at Center for Science Studies, Aarhus University.

Bendixen, T. (2019). Sense or non-sense? A critical discussion of a recent evolutionary-cognitive approach to ”folk-economic beliefs”. Evolution, Mind and Behaviour 17(1), 29-47. doi.org/10.1556/2050.2019.00011

Meta-science

Bendixen, T. (accepted). Estimating the analytic robustness of social and behavioural sciences. Center for Open Science: The Multi100 Project Team. www.github.com/tbendixen/multi100-YMESM [PDF]

Hardwicke, T.E., Szűcs, D., Malički, M., Bendixen, T., Salholz-Hillel, M., & Ioannidis, J.P.A. (2022). Statistical guidance for authors at influential academic journals: A cross-disciplinary assessment. The American Statistician. doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2022.2143897 [pre-print]

Hardwicke, T. E., Thibault, R., Kosie, J., Tzavella, L., Bendixen, T., Handcock, S., Köneke, V., & Ioannidis, J.P.A. (2022). Post-publication critique at top-ranked journals across scientific disciplines: a cross-sectional assessment of policies and practice. Royal Society Open Science, 9:220139. doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220139
[pre-print]
Media coverage in Science and Times Higher Education

Hoogeveen, S., Bendixen, T., Mauritsen, A. L., Schjoedt, U., Purzycki, B. G., [...], Sarafoglou, A., van Elk., M., & Wagenmakers, E.J. (2022). A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being. Religion, Brain & Behavior. doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2070255 [pre-print]

Bendixen, T., Mauritsen, A. L., Schjoedt, U., & Purzycki, B. G. (2021). Does Religiosity predict Well-Being across 24 Countries? The Many Analysts Religion Project (MARP): Stage 1 (pre-registration on simulated data) and Stage 2 (analyses and results). [pre-print]

Hardwicke, T. E., Wallach, J.D., Kidwell, M., Bendixen, T., Crüwell, S., & Ioannidis, J.P.A. (2020). An empirical assessment of transparency and reproducibility-related research practices in the social sciences (2014-2017). Royal Society Open Science, 7:190806. doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190806

Evolution & Intelligence

Basava, K., Bendixen, T. Sørensen, A. L, George, N. L., Vanhersecke, Z., Omotosho, J., Mather, J., & Muthukrishna, M. (in review). Coleoid cephalopods demonstrate asocial path to the evolution of big brains. [pre-print]

Basava, K., Bendixen, T. Sørensen, A. L, George, N. L., Vanhersecke, Z., Omotosho, J., Mather, J., & Muthukrishna, M. (in review). A phylogeny of extant coleoid cephalopods with brain data. [pre-print]

Sørensen, A. L. (presenter), Basava, K., Vanhersecke, Z., George, N. L., Omotosho, J., Bendixen, T., Mather, J., & Muthukrishna, M. (2022). Does behavioral repertoire predict brain size in coleoid cephalopods? A test of the Cultural Brain Hypothesis. CIAC2022.

Bendixen, T., Mather, J., & Muthukrishna, M. (2021). The evolution of big brains: Toward a unifying theory. Inference: International Review of Science. doi.org/10.37282/991819.21.22

Bendixen, T., Sørensen, A. L., Omotosho, J., Basava, K., George, N. L., Vanhersecke, Z., Mather, J. & Muthukrishna, M. (2021). Cephalopod Brain Evolution and Intelligence Project: Preliminary data checks and analyses. www.github.com/tbendixen/ALIEN [temporarily private]

Mather, J. (presenter), Bendixen, T., Uchiyama, R., & Muthukrishna, M. (2020). The evolution of intelligence in cephalopods. CephRes2020.

Moral psychology, Health & Spirituality

Purzycki, B. G., & Bendixen, T. (2024). Moral and religious systems. In: Robbins, P., & Malle, B. (Eds.). Cambridge Handbook of Moral Psychology. Cambridge University Press.

Mauritsen, A. L., & Bendixen, T. (2022). Are spiritual needs ubiquitous? Conceptual, statistical, and sampling biases in a recent study on spirituality and health in Denmark. [pre-print]

Mauritsen, A. L., Bendixen, T., & Reintoft, H. (2023). Does a pandemic increase religiosity? A Bayesian multilevel longitudinal analysis with poststratification. [pre-print]

van Mulukom, V., Turpin, H., Haimila, R., Purzycki, B. G., Bendixen, T., Kundtová Klocová, E., Řezníček, D., Coleman III, T., Maraldi, E., Sevinç, K., Schjoedt, U., Rutjens, B., & Farias, M. (2022). What do non-religious non-believers believe in? Secular worldviews around the world. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. doi.org/10.1037/rel0000480 [pre-print]

Behavioral psychology & Religion

Bendixen, T., Lightner, A. D., Willard, A. K., Kundtová Klocová, E., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., Handley, C., Henrich, J., Lesorogol, C., Mathew, S., McNamara, R. A., Moya, C., Norenzayan, A., Placek, C., Soler, M., Vardy, T., Weigel, J., Xygalatas, D. Lang, M., & Purzycki, B. G. (2023). Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 5, e18. [doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.15]

Bendixen, T., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q., Cohen, E., Henrich, J., McNamara, R. A., Norenzayan, A., Willard, A. K., Xygalatas, D., & Purzycki, B. G. (2023). Appealing to the minds of gods: Religious beliefs and appeals correspond to features of local social ecologies. Religion, Brain & Behavior. [pre-print]

Bendixen, T., & Purzycki, B. G. (2023). Cultural evolution of gods’ minds: Response to commentators. Religion, Brain & Behavior.

Bendixen, T., Lightner, A. D. & Purzycki, B. G. (accepted). Cultural evolution of religion and cooperation. In: Tehrani, J., Kendal, J., & Kendal, R. (Eds.). Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution. Oxford University Press. [pre-print]

Lightner, A. D., Bendixen, T., & Purzycki, B. G. (2023). Moralistic supernatural punishment is probably not associated with social complexity. Evolution & Human Behavior. doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.10.006 [pre-print]

Purzycki, B. G. & Bendixen, T. (2023). The Minds of Gods: New Horizons in the Naturalistic Study of Religion. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Purzycki, B. G. & Bendixen, T. (2023). Studying the minds of gods in the 21^st century In: Purzycki, B. G. & Bendixen, T. (Eds.). The Minds of Gods: New Horizons in the Naturalistic Study of Religion. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Bendixen, T. & Purzycki, B. G. (2023). Accounting for cross-cultural variation in gods' minds. In: Purzycki, B. G. & Bendixen, T. (Eds.). The Minds of Gods: New Horizons in the Naturalistic Study of Religion. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. [pre-print]

Purzycki, B. G., Bendixen, T., Lightner, A. D. & Sosis, R. (2022). Gods, games, and the socioecological landscape. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 3, 100057. doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2022.100057 [pre-print]

Purzycki, B. G. & Bendixen, T. (2022). Some vision impairments in the cognitive science of religion. Book symposium on: “Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion” by Claire White. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 7(2), 167–177.

Bendixen, T. & Purzycki, B. G. (2021). Peering into the minds of gods: What cross-cultural variation in gods’ concerns can tell us about the evolution of religion. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 5(2), 142–165. doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.40951

Bendixen, T. & Purzycki, B. G. (2020). Competing forces account for the stability and evolution of religious beliefs. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion. doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2020.1844969

Purzycki, B. G. & Bendixen, T. (2020). Examining values, virtues, and tradition in the Tyva Republic with free-list and demographic data. The New Research of Tuva, 11(4), 6-18.

Bendixen, T. & Geertz, A. W. (2020). Det Religiøse Menneskedyr. In: Høgh-Olesen, H. & Dalsgaard, T. (Eds.). Evolution og Adfærdspsykologi. Plurafutura Publishing.

Peer reviewer

Occassional peer reviewer at leading scientific journals and outlets, including:
Nature: Scientific Reports | Behavior Research Methods | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Religion, Brain, & Behavior | The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion | Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion | Nature: Humanities & Social Sciences Communications | Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution | Current Anthropology | Center for Open Science | Journal of Experimental Social Psychology