Mgr. Radim Chvaja, Ph.D.

Radim Chvaja is a researcher and a member of the PRIGO University College of the European Research University. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Masaryk University and is currently a postdoc at the University of Otago (New Zealand), where he is studying the relationship between religion, reproduction and demography as part of an international project. His work, however, is mainly concerned with the question of fostering intra-group cooperation and trust and the role that religious beliefs and rituals play in this, which places his research at the intersection of behavioural economics, social psychology, anthropology and evolutionary biology. He primarily uses experiments in the laboratory and in the field, complemented by observational and longitudinal study methods, to answer his research questions. He has conducted his field research on the island of Mauritius and in northern Spain, for example, and as a PhD student at Masaryk University in Brno he has been involved in teaching and several internal research and education projects. During his studies he also received an internal student grant from Masaryk University in Brno and a student grant from the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association. He has published in reputed journals in the top quartile.

Qualification.

PhD

Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Study of Religions, 2023

Master's Degree

Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Philosophy, 2018

Bachelor’s Degree

Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Philosophy, 2016

Experience.

2022–present, University of Otago, Postdoc Fellow  

2021–present, ERUNI, Researcher 

Publications (last 5 years, selected).

LANG, M., CHVAJA, R. Mechanisms of secularization: Testing between the Rationalization and Existential Insecurity theories. Collabra: Psychology, 2024, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.126508.

CHVAJA, R. Costly Signaling as an Integral Part of the Systemic Approach to Religion: Critical Assessment from within the Field. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 2024. E-ISSN 2049-7563. https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.23765.

CHVAJA, R. The Impact of Ritual Participation on Perceived Moral Objectivity: A Longitudinal Investigationof the U.S. Adolescents. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2024. E-ISSN 1468-5906. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12920.

LANG, M., CHVAJA, R., PURZYCKI, B. G. The role of costly commitment signals in assorting cooperators during intergroup conflict. Evolution and Human Behavior, 2024, 45(2), 131–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.01.003.

CHVAJA, R., MURÍN, M., VOROBYEV, D. The effect of Covid-19 emergence on religiosity: Evidence from Singapore. Social Science Research, 2024, Vol. 118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2024.102979.

Hobbies.

Family, Books, Skateboarding, Mountains