Kara Weisman

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Kara Weisman

[email: kgweisman at gmail] [cv: pdf] [Google Scholar: profile]

I study folk theories and their role in shaping people’s behaviors, relationships, and experiences. I am particularly interested in the ways in which conceptual representations do and do not vary across development, across cultural settings, and across individuals.

I am currently the postdoctoral project director for the Developing Belief Network. In Summer 2025, I will begin a new position as a preceptor of quantitative psychology in the Psychology Department at Harvard University.

Publications

Click here to view my full CV. Most of my papers are available on my Google Scholar profile. Analysis code for many studies is available on Github. Materials and preregistrations for many projects are available via OSF. Please email me with questions, comments, and ideas.

Journal Articles

  1. Weisman, K., & Luhrmann, T.M. (accepted). Switching between models of mind: New insights into how human minds give rise to experiences of spiritual presence and alternative realities. Topics in Cognitive Science.

  2. Schille-Hudson, E.B., Weisman, K., & Luhrmann, T.M. (in press). Prayer and perceptual (and other) experiences. Cognitive Science.

  3. Weisman, K.*, Ghossainy, M.E.*, Williams, A.J., Payir, A., Lesage, K.A., Reyes-Jaquez, B., Amin, T.G., Anggoro, F.K., Burdett, E.R.R., Chen, E.E., Coetzee, L., Coley, J.D., Dahl, A., Dautel, J.B., Davis, H.E., Davis, E.L., Diesendruck, G., Evans, D., Feeney, A., Gurven, M., Jee, B.D., Kramer, H.J., Kushnir, T., Kyriakopoulou, N., McAuliffe, K., McLaughlin, A., Nichols, S., Nicolopoulou, A., Rockers, P.C., Shneidman, L., Skopeliti, I., Srinivasan, M., Tarullo, A.R., Taylor, L.K., Yu, Y., Yucel, M., Zhao, X., Corriveau, K.H., & Richert, R.A., on behalf of the Developing Belief Network (2024). The development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior: Protocol for Wave 1 data collection with children and parents by the Developing Belief Network. PLOS ONE, 19(3): e0292755. [*joint first authors] [link]

  4. Powell, D., Weisman, K., & Markman, E.M. (2023). Modeling and leveraging intuitive theories to improve vaccine attitudes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(5), 1379-1395. [link] [github repo, including fully reproducible manuscript and supplemental materials]

  5. Luhrmann, T.M., & Weisman, K. (2022). Porosity is the heart of religion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 31(3), 247-253. [link]

  6. Richert, R.A., Weisman, K., Lesage, K.A., Ghossainy, M.E., Reyes-Jaquez, B., & Corriveau, K.H. (2022). Belief, culture, & development: Insights from studying the development of religious beliefs and behaviors. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 62, 127-158. [link] [preprint]

  7. Weisman, K., Legare, C.H., Smith, R.E., Dzokoto, V.A., Aulino, F., Ng, E., Dulin, J.D., Ross-Zehnder, N., Brahinsky, J.D., & Luhrmann, T.M. (2021). Similarities and differences in concepts of mental life among adults and children in five cultures. Nature Human Behaviour, 5, 1358–1368. [github repo] [link] [open-access link] [PDF] [Supplemental Info] [News & Views piece by Bertram Malle]

  8. Van Leeuwen, N., Weisman, K., & Luhrmann, T.M. (2021). To believe is not to think: A cross-cultural finding. Open Mind: Discoveries in Cognitive Science, 5, 91–99. [github repo] [link]

  9. Luhrmann, T.M.*, Weisman, K.*, Aulino, F., Brahinsky, J.D., Dulin, J.C., Dzokoto, V.A., Legare, C.H., Lifshitz, M., Ng., E., Ross-Zehnder, N., & Smith, R.E. (2021). Sensing the presence of gods and spirits across cultures and faiths. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(5), e2016649118. [*joint first authors] [github repo] [link] [pdf] [Supplemental Info] [Discussion on “Many Minds” podcast]

  10. Luhrmann, T.M.*, Weisman, K.*, Aulino, F., Brahinsky, J.D., Dulin, J.C., Dzokoto, V.A., Legare, C.H., Lifshitz, M., Ng, E., Ross-Zehnder, N., Smith, R.E. (2021). Reply to Terhune and Jamieson: The nature of absorption. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(32), e2109120118. [*joint first authors] [link]

  11. Erickson-Davis, C., Bailenson, J., Corwin, A., Kurina, L., Weisman, K., & Luhrmann, T.M. (2021). The sense of presence: Lessons from virtual reality. Religion, Brain, & Behavior, 11(3), 335-351. [link] [pdf]

  12. Weisman, K.*, & Luhrmann, T.M.* (2020). What anthropologists can learn from psychologists, and the other way around. Mind and Spirit: A comparative theory about representation of mind and the experience of spirit; a special issue of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 26(S1). [*joint first authors] [link] [pdf]

  13. Roberts, S.O., Weisman, K., Lane, J.D., Williams, A., Camp, N.P., Wang, M., Robison, M., Sanchez, K., & Griffiths, C. (2020). God as a White man: A psychological barrier to conceptualizing Black people and women as leadership worthy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(6), 1290-1315. [link] [pdf]

  14. Weisman, K., Dweck, C.S., & Markman, E.M. (2017). Rethinking people’s conceptions of mental life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(43), 11374-11379. [link] [pdf]

  15. Weisman, K., & Markman, E.M. (2017). Theory-based explanation as intervention. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 24(5), 1555-1562. [link] [pdf]

  16. Kim, S., Kalish, C.W., Weisman, K., Johnson, M.V., & Shutts, K. (2016). Young children choose to inform previously knowledgeable others. Journal of Cognition and Development, 17(2), 320-340. [link] [pdf]

  17. Weisman, K., Johnson, M.V., & Shutts, K. (2015). Young children’s automatic encoding of social categories. Developmental Science, 18(6), 1036-1043. [link] [pdf] [FAQs]

  18. Olson, K.R., Shutts, K., Kinzler, K.D., & Weisman, K.G. (2012). Children associate racial groups with wealth: Evidence from South Africa. Child Development, 83(6), 1884-1899. [link] [pdf]

Dissertation

Weisman (2019). The development of conceptual representations of mental life. [link] [pdf] [4000 word précis]

Sketches of my defense by Natalia Vélez @natvelali:

Natvelali sketch part 1 Natvelali sketch part 2

White Papers and Preprints

  1. Weisman, K., Ghossainy, M.E., Lesage, K. A., Reyes-Jaquez, B., Williams, A.J., Payir, A., Corriveau, K.H., & Richert, R.A. (2023). Developing Belief Network Authorship Guidelines. [OSF Preprint]

  2. Weisman, K. (2021). Machines with minds: Beliefs about the mental lives of robots and implications for human social reasoning. [OSF Preprint]

  3. Weisman, K., King, L.S., & Humphreys, K.L. (2021). Perceptions of the development of mental life. [Github repo with full reproducible manuscript]

  4. Salo, V.C., Letterie, M.C., Weisman, K., King, L.S., & Humphreys, K.L. (2021). Parents’ perceptions of young children’s minds are associated with their interest in and behavior toward their own. [OSF Preprint]

  5. Weisman, K. (2018). Toward a representative and rigorous science of the mind: Notes from a young psychologist on the Mind & Spirit Project. [Github Preprint]

Refereed Conference Papers

  1. Schille-Hudson, E.B., Weisman, K., & Luhrmann, T.M. (2024). Rates of spiritual presence events. In Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [link to paper]

  2. Weisman, K. (2022). Extraordinary entities: Insights into folk ontology from studies of lay people’s beliefs about robots. In Proceedings of the 44th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. [link to paper]

  3. Weisman, K., Dweck, C.S., & Markman, E.M. (2021). Emotions as the product of body and mind: The hierarchical structure of folk concepts of mental life among US adults and children. Poster presented at CogSci 2021 (virtual meeting) and included in the Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [link to paper] [poster]

  4. Van Leeuwen, N., Weisman, K., & Luhrmann, T.M. (2020). “Think” and “believe” across cultures: A shared folk distinction between two cognitive attitudes in the US, Ghana, Thailand, China, and Vanuatu. Talk presented at CogSci 2020 (virtual meeting) and included in the Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [link]

  5. Weisman, K., Dweck, C.S., & Markman, E.M. (2018). Folk philosophy of mind: Changes in conceptual structure between 4-9y of age. Talk presented at CogSci 2018 (Madison, WI) and included in the Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [link]

  6. Powell, D., Weisman, K., & Markman, E.M. (2018). Articulating lay theories through graphical models: A study of beliefs surrounding vaccination decisions. Talk presented at CogSci 2018 (Madison, WI) and included in the Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [link]

  7. Weisman, K., Dweck, C.S., & Markman, E.M. (2017). Children’s intuitions about the structure of mental life. Talk presented at CogSci 2017 (London, UK) and included in the Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [link]

  8. Weisman, K., Dweck, C.S., & Markman, E.M. (2016). Varieties of experience: A new look at folk philosophy of mind. Talk presented at CogSci 2016 (Philadelphia, PA) and included in the Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [link]

  9. Weisman, K., Markman, E.M., & Dweck, C.S. (2015). Reasoning about sentience and animacy: Children’s and adults’ inferences about the properties of unseen entities. Talk presented at CogSci 2015 (Pasadena, CA) and included in the Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society. [link]

Other (Recent) Posters & Presentations

  1. Weisman, K. (2024, March). What can we learn about folk theories from children’s concepts of supernatural beings? Talk presented as part of the “Building a Global Research Collaborative: Experiences and Findings from the Developing Belief Network”” pre-conference workshop, prior to the Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Pasadena, CA.

  2. Weisman, K., Amin, T.G., Anggoro, F.K., Ghossainy, M.E., Jee, B.D., Srinivasan, M., & Richert, R.A. (2024, March). Does God have to follow the rules? Folk sociology in concepts of religious agents across cultural-religious settings. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Pasadena, CA.

  3. Weisman, K., Lesage, K.A., Richert, R.A., & Corriveau, K. (organizers; 2022, April). Theory-theory turns thirty-something: Reflections and new directions. Preconference workshop, to be conducted prior to the Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Developmental Society, Madison, WI.

  4. Weisman, K., (2021, July). Intuitive theories of emotion: Insights from developmental and cultural comparisons. Talk presented as part of the “Interdisciplinary Advances in Affective Cognition” pre-conference workshop, prior to the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, virtual meeting.

  5. Weisman, K., Legare, C.H., & Luhrmann, T.M. (2020, July). The development of conceptual representations of mental life in five cultural contexts. Talk presented as part of the “Cognition, Collectives, and Human Culture” pre-conference workshop, prior to the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, virtual meeting. [video]