RESEARCH BASE
Search 3,721 documents across 34 fields — every claim tier-rated by evidence
3,633 are the core, quality-scored corpus (34 lettered sections — see How We Work); the remaining 88 are cross-corpus synthesis documents (68 InterDocs, 12 Connections, 8 Theories) also indexed here.
19 results for "belief"
INTERDOC_23 — Placebo, Nocebo, and the Biology of Belief
[KEY FINDING] The placebo effect is not "fake medicine" — it involves genuine, measurable physiological changes mediated by endogenous neurotransmitter systems. Fabrizio Benedetti (University of Turin) has demonstrated:
ZE_1_16 — Epistemic Ethics: The Morality of Belief, Knowledge, and Intellectual Virtue
Epistemic ethics — the study of the moral dimensions of belief, knowledge-seeking, and intellectual conduct — addresses a fundamental question: do we have moral obligations regarding what we believe and how we form our b
K_5_04 — Neuroscience of Belief
Belief — the mental state of holding something to be true — is a cornerstone of conscious experience, shaping perception, memory, emotion, decision-making, and behavior. The neuroscience of belief has revealed that belie
ZC_1_18 — Conspiracy Theory Epidemiology and Belief Systems
Conspiracy theories — explanatory frameworks attributing events to the secret deliberations of powerful, malevolent actors — are not marginal curiosities but a pervasive feature of human cognition with measurable epidemi
G_4_04 — Cognitive Science of Religion and the Anthropology of Belief
The Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) is an interdisciplinary field that explains religious belief and practice as natural products of evolved cognitive mechanisms rather than supernatural revelation or cultural invent
T_4_01 — Psychology of Belief & Conspiracy Thinking
The psychology of conspiracy thinking examines why individuals adopt beliefs in secret plots by powerful actors to achieve malevolent goals — beliefs that often resist disconfirmation and form interconnected "monological
T_5_04 — Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
The psychology of religion investigates why humans believe in supernatural agents, how religious practices affect cognition and well-being, and what psychological functions religion serves. The field was inaugurated by W
K_4_02 — Stigmata, Faith Healing, and Psychosomatic Phenomena
The human body can do things under the influence of belief that should not be physically possible according to conventional medical models. The placebo effect — a "sugar pill" producing measurable physiological changes —
ZC_1_05 — Psychology of Religion & Spiritual Experience
The psychology of religion — the empirical study of religious and spiritual experience, belief, and behavior — was inaugurated by William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), which established that relig
ZC_1_17 — Conspiracy Theory Epidemiology: Why People Believe and How Conspiracism Spreads
Conspiracy theories — explanatory frameworks that attribute significant events to the secret machinations of powerful, malevolent groups — are not a modern pathology but a recurring feature of human cognitive and social
O_1_19 — Naga Fireballs
The Naga fireballs (bung fai phaya nak, บั้งไฟพญานาค, literally "Naga sky rockets") are glowing orbs reported to rise from the Mekong River in the Nong Khai Province of northeastern Thailand (and the opposite Laotian ban
T_1_06 — Cognitive Development — Piaget, Vygotsky, Theory of Mind
Cognitive development — how human minds grow in their capacity to think, reason, solve problems, and understand the world — has been dominated by two foundational theories: Jean Piaget's constructivist stage theory (1936
T_3_18 — Anomalistic Psychology
Anomalistic psychology is the scientific study of extraordinary human experiences — including apparent telepathy, precognition, ghost sightings, alien abduction reports, near-death experiences, and other phenomena tradit
P_1_20 — Epistemology & Theory of Knowledge
Epistemology — the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, sources, structure, and limits of knowledge — is one of the oldest and most persistent areas of philosophical inquiry. The central question "What can we
N_3_17 — Chaos Magick & Postmodern Occultism
Chaos magick is a postmodern occult movement that emerged in late-1970s England, radically departing from the rigid ceremonial traditions of groups like the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley's Thelema. Founded primarily b
INTERDOC_22 — Near-Death Experience, Afterlife Belief, and Cross-Cultural Evidence
[KEY FINDING] The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study — a four-year prospective study across 15 hospitals in the UK, US, and Austria, led by Sam Parnia (published 2014, Resuscitation) — found that 39% of 140 car
T_4_13 — Political Psychology: Ideology, Moral Foundations, and the Psychology of Political Belief
Political psychology — the scientific study of the psychological bases of political behavior, beliefs, and ideologies — investigates why people hold the political views they do, how they process political information, an
V_4_25 — Bayesian Inference: Probability as Rational Belief Updating
Bayesian inference — the mathematical framework for updating beliefs in light of evidence using Bayes' theorem — has become one of the most powerful and contested ideas in modern science. Named after Reverend Thomas Baye
B_4_17 — Psychic Vampires and Energy Parasites: Cross-Cultural Concepts of Vital Force Draining
The concept of psychic vampirism — entities or persons who drain vital energy, life force, or emotional well-being from others — appears across cultures and historical periods, bridging folklore, occultism, psychology, a
BROWSE BY SECTION — 3,721 documents across 34 fields