Publications

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White, C. J. M., Lauder, A. C. H.*, Aryaie, M.* (Accepted). Karma rewards me and punishes you: Self-other divergences in karma beliefs. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Preprint available at https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/nbke6_v1

Vishkin, A., Kim, M. Y., Solak, N., Szymaniak, K., White, C. J. M., & Kitayama, S. (2025). Cultural Variation in the Motivational Correlates of Gratitude. Emotion, 25(1), 114–125. doi: 10.1037/emo0001425

White, C. J. M., & Willard, A. K. (2025). How karma harms and helps generosity towards those in need. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. doi: 10.1177/01461672251313829

Hofer, M. K., Lai, A.,* White, C. J. M., & Schaller, M. (2024). Does caring breed contempt?: Examining the hypothesis that activation of a “parental” mindset causes harsher moral judgments. Collabra: Psychology, 10(1): 118835. doi: 10.1525/collabra.118835

Mosley, A. J.,* White, C. J. M., & Solomon, L. H. (2024). Children’s Moral Evaluations of and Behaviors toward People Who are Curious about Religion and Science. Child Development, 95 (4), e224-e235. doi: 10.1111/cdev.14088

Salvador, C. E., White, C. J. M., & Ai, T. (2024). Who is your biggest critic? Cultural variation in moral judgements of the self and others. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 5(5), 535-552. doi: 10.1177/00220221241255673

Schimmelpfennig, R.,* Spicer, R.,* White, C. J. M., Gervais, W., Norenzayan, A., Heine, S., Henrich, S., & Muthukrishna, M. (2024). The Moderating Role of Culture in the Generalizability of Psychological Phenomena. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 7 (1), 1 – 6. doi:10.1177/25152459231225163

Schimmelpfennig, R.,* Spicer, R.,* White, C. J. M., Gervais, W., Norenzayan, A., Heine, S., Henrich, S., & Muthukrishna, M. (2024). Methodological Concerns Underlying a Lack of Evidence for Cultural Heterogeneity in the Replication of Psychological Effects. Communications Psychology, 2, 93. doi: 10.1038/s44271-024-00135-z

White, C. J. M., & Billet, M. I.* (2024). The roles of anthropomorphism, spirituality, and gratitude in pro-environmental attitudes. Religion, Brain, & Behavior. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2024.2363759

White, C. J. M., Dean, C. M.,* Laurin, K. (2024). Do reminders of God increase willingness to take risks? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 110, 104539. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104539

White, C. J. M., Johnson, K. A., Mirbozorgi, B.,* & Farias Martelli, G.* (2024). Varieties of Gratitude: Identifying Patterns of Emotional Responses to Positive Experiences Attributed to God, Karma, and Human Benefactors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition, 127(3), 497-517. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000398

White, C. J. M., Johnson, K. A., & Mirbozorgi, B.* (2024). Unique cognitive and emotional profiles of interpersonal gratitude and spiritual gratitude. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 19(1). doi: 10.1080/17439760.2023.2239781

White, C. J. M., Mosley, A. J.,* & Solomon, L. H. (2024). Adults Show Positive Moral Evaluations of Curiosity about Religion. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 15 (6), 670-681. doi: 10.1177/19485506231195915

White, C.J.M., & Willard, A. K. (2024). Victim blaming and belief in karma. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 27 (4), 1011 – 1024. doi: 10.1111/ajsp.12654

Pasek, M. H., Kelly, J. M., Shackleford, C., White, C.J.M., Vishkin, A., Smith, J., Norenzayan, A., Shariff, A., & Ginges, J. (2023). Thinking about God encourages prosociality towards religious outgroups: A cross-cultural investigation. Psychological Science, 34(6). doi: u.ca/10.1177/09567976231158576

Hoogeveen, S., Sarafoglou, A., … White, C. J. M., …van Elk, M., Wagenmakers, E. (In press). Many-Analysts Approach to the Relation Between Religiosity and Well-being. Religion, Brain, & Behavior. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2022.2070255

White, C. J. M., Schaller, M., Abraham, E., Rottman, J. (In press). Navigating between punishment, avoidance, and instruction: The form and function of responses to moral violations varies across adult and child transgressors. Cognition, 223, 105048. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105048 PDF

White, C. J. M., & Norenzayan, A. (2022). Karma and God: Convergent and divergent mental representations of supernatural norm enforcement. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 14(1), 70–85. doi: 10.1037/rel0000436 PDF

White, C. J. M., Muthukrishna, M., & Norenzayan., A. (2021). Cultural similarity among co-religionists within and between countries. PNAS, 118 (37): e2109650118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2109650118 PDF

Baimel, A., White, C. J. M., Sarkissian, H. & Norenzayan, A. (2021). How is analytical thinking related to religious belief? A test of three theoretical models. Religion, Brain, and Behavior, 11 (3): 239-260. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2021.1878259 PDF

White, C. J. M., Willard, A.K., Baimel, A., & Norenzayan, A. (2021). Cognitive pathways to belief in karma and belief in God. Cognitive Science, 45(1): e12935. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12935 PDF

White, C. J. M., Baimel, A., & Norenzayan, A. (2021). How cultural learning and cognitive biases shape religious beliefs. Current Opinion in Psychology, 40, 34-39. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.07.033 PDF

White, C. J. M., Schaller, M., & Norenzayan, A. (2020). How strongly do moral character inferences predict forecasts of the future? Testing the moderating roles of transgressor age, implicit personality theories, and belief in karma. PLoS ONE, 15(12): e0244144. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244144

White, C. J. M., Kelly, J. M., Shariff, A. F., & Norenzayan, A. (2019). Supernatural norm enforcement: Thinking about karma and God reduces selfishness among believers. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 84, 103797. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2019.03.008 PDF

White, C. J. M., & Norenzayan, A. (2019). Belief in karma: How cultural evolution, cognition, and motivations shape belief in supernatural justice. In J. M. Olson (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 60, pp. 1–63). doi: 10.1016/bs.aesp.2019.03.001 PDF

White, C. J. M., Norenzayan, A., & Schaller, M. (2019). The content and correlates of belief in Karma across cultures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45, 1184-1201. doi: 10.1177/0146167218808502 PDF

White, C. J. M., & Schaller, M. (2018). Are children perceived to be morally exceptional? Different sets of psychological variables predict adults’ moral judgments about adults and about young children. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 1147 – 1162. doi: 10.1177/0146167218760800 PDF

Hofer, M. K., Buckels, E. E., White, C. J. M., Beall, A. T., and Schaller, M. (2018). Individual differences in activation of the parental care motivational system: An empirical distinction between protection and nurturance. Social Psychological and Personality Science. doi: 10.1177/1948550617728994 PDF

White, C., Baimel, A., & Norenzayan, A. (2017). What are the causes and consequences of belief in karma?. Religion, Brain, and Behavior, 7(4), 339 – 342. doi: 10.1080/2153599X.2016.1249921 PDF

Under Review

White, C. J. M., & Muthukrishna, M. (2025). More educated people are more WEIRD: Higher education predicts global cultural similarity to WEIRD countries. Manuscript under review. Preprint available at https://psyarxiv.com/8wr5d

White, C. J. M., & Ramos, A.* (2024). God, are you there? Coping and emotion regulation among religious, never-religious, and previously-religious people experiencing a spiritual crisis. Manuscript Under Review.

White, C. J. M. & Van de Vondervoort, J. W. (2025). Third-party punishment, vigilante justice, or karma? Understanding the dynamics of interpersonal and cosmic justice. Revise & Resubmit.

Zhou, K.W., Baimel, A., & White, C.J.M. (2024). Outsourcing punishment to karma: Thinking about karma reduces punishment for transgressors. Manuscript under review. Preprint available at https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/w5x23

Manuscripts in preparation

Billet, M.I., White, C.J.M., & Norenzayan, A. (2023). End of World Beliefs Predict Environmental Policy Support. Manuscript in preparation.

Mercier, B., White, C. J. M., & Inbar, Y. (2023). Bad victims: Moral transgressions against immoral victims are judged less harshly. Manuscript in preparation. Preprint available at https://psyarxiv.com/bm7hp/