Researcher at the Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion

Department: Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion  – Faculty of Arts
Deadline: 15 May 2026
Start date: 1 July 2026
Job type: full-time
Job field: Science and research

Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University announces an open competition for the position

RESEARCHER

Department: Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion, Department for the Study of Religions, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University
Position Type: non-academic position in research
EU Researcher Profile: R1/R2
Work time: full-time, 40 hours per week
Type of employment contract: employment contract for 1 year (with a possibility of extension to 2,5 years)
Number of open positions: 1
Expected start: July 1, 2026 or negotiable
Deadline for applications: May 15, 2026 

WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR

We are seeking postdoctoral candidates with background in social psychology, cognitive science, or social neuroscience to join a highly interdisciplinary project on the computational model of decision-making. The Computing Religious Devotion project (CREDO; see https://www.levyna.cz/en/about-us/research/credo-project ) is a five-year project (2024-2028) funded by the Czech Science Foundation and is based at Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic).

The CREDO project develops a computational model of moral decision-making in which religious belief, consolidated through practice and institutional enforcement, forms strong cognitive priors that bias evidence accumulation and action selection during normative decisions. The empirical backbone of the project is a large-scale cross-cultural study spanning 20 societies and two religious traditions per site designed to establish how the beliefs, practices, and orthodoxy of distinct religious traditions translate into measurable differences in cognitive computations (to be launched in 2026). Specifically, the project aims to determine how religious priors shape the strength of ingroup cooperation and outgroup harm biases, and how exposure to interreligious conflict modulates the updating of those priors from incoming experiential evidence. The goal is a theoretically grounded, empirically validated model of how religious traditions shape the mind.

The successful candidate will lead experimental testing of the predictions from the computational model of religious decision-making in cooperation with the Principal Investigator, Dr. Martin Lang and another postdoctoral researcher with skills in cognitive science of religion and cultural evolution. The main responsibility of the successful candidate will be to work with large-scale behavioural datasets from 20 field sites, coordinating data quality and model fitting across a highly diverse sample, analyse the data and report them in a scientific paper. The successful candidate will also work in a fully equipped lab (EEG, fNIRS, BIOPAC) where they can design and test their own studies on the topic of normative decision-making. The candidate will be given significant responsibility and autonomy while also benefiting from the mentorship of the PI, playing a crucial role in forming the CREDO project as well as future research areas for the whole lab.

MAIN JOB CONTENT

Framework

• Collaborating with the project team (PI, 2 postdocs, 2 Phd students) to design and execute laboratory studies and especially a cross cultural study investigating computations underlying moral decision-making.
• Fitting computational models (e.g., drift-diffusion, reinforcement learning) to empirical data.
• Statistical analysis.
• Writing research articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals.
• Presenting findings at conferences and research seminars.

WE REQUEST

Professional education, qualifications and experience

• Ph.D. (or near completion) in psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, or a related field.
• At least one first-author publication (pre-prints are eligible).

Language skills

• knowledge of English language at B2 level (condition)

Requirements related to job content 

• Competence in designing and executing behavioural/neuroscientific experiments.
• Competence in formal modelling of cognitive processes.
• Fluent in statistical code in either R, Python, or Matlab.

The advantage is

• Previous work on social cognition, decision-making, moral psychology and related topics.
• Experience with EEG, fNIRS or fMRI.
• Experience with open science practices (pre-registration, registered report, open code).

WE OFFER

Working environment

• employment in a prestigious institution awarded by the HR Excellence in Research
• the opportunity to work in an international, interdisciplinary team of experts with a fully equipped laboratory
• friendly and inspiring working environment
• convenient location of the faculty in the city centre
• a friendly approach to work-life balance
• leading high-profile publications

Employee benefits

6 weeks of paid vacation per year, flexible working hours with the possibility to work partly from home for better work life balance, meal allowance in the salary or for meals in canteens, pension insurance contribution or nursery school/ playgroup allowance, selected vaccinations free of charge, favourable mobile tariffs Vodafone, Multisport card, sports lessons organized by the Faculty of Sports Studies, the nursery school Elánek for children of employees near the faculty.

Training and development

Opportunities for training and personal development, e.g., language and other courses provided by MU, use of MU libraries, use of placements and mobilities abroad, participation in conferences, etc.

HOW TO APPLY

Please send your application via the electronic application link by 15. 5. 2026 (please use the link in the Electronic Application section below) and please attach all required documents.

The following documents are required as a part of your application:

• cover letter 
• structured CV with an overview of previous experience 
• copies of proof of education
• overview of scientific and publishing activities
  • One representative published work (pre-prints are eligible).
  • Recommendation letter from previous supervisor/mentor.

Once your application has been successfully submitted, you will receive an automatic confirmation of acceptance to your e-mail address. After the e-application deadline, you will receive information about the next steps. If you are unsure, please contact the FF MU Personnel Office: Mgr. Eva Brázdová Urbanová, e-mail: eva.urbanova@phil.muni.cz

SELECTION PROCESS

Selection criteria:

• submitting all required documents in the e-application
• compliance of the candidate's profile with the requirements for the job as stated above

Suitable candidates will be invited to a personal interview, which may also take the form of a videoconference.

Selection procedures rules at the Faculty of Arts of MU  can be found on our careers page here .

Thank you for your interest and we look forward to hearing from you!

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY, THE FACULTY AND THE DEPARTMENT

Masaryk University  is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, with 10 faculties and a number of other specialized units, more than 6,000 employees and 32,000 students. We are a university with a wide range of research areas in the humanities and natural sciences and a strong international position. Our mission is to provide education and research of the highest quality.

The Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University  is one of the four founding faculties of Masaryk University and since its foundation in 1919 it has been not only an important centre of humanities and social science education, science, research, and development, but also an institution that actively participates in shaping the cultural life of the city and the region.

Traditionally, it has been profiled as a research-oriented faculty generating approximately one fifth of MU's research volume. The faculty has more than 600 employees and by the student population of over 6,000 is the largest faculty at the university.

Since 2021, the faculty has been the proud holder of the HR Excellence in Research Award  from the European Commission. You can find out more information about the faculty on the website https://www.phil.muni.cz/en/  or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FacultyofArtsMasarykUniversity

For information on HR work set according to European standards, visit the HR Award faculty website:

https://www.phil.muni.cz/en/about-us/hrs4r-hr-award/ .

Department

The Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion (LEVYNA ) is an interdisciplinary, collaborative team of experimentalists tackling the evolution and functioning of human cognitive mechanisms facilitating religious cognition, behaviour, and institutions. We value open science, collegiality, and cooperation.

Martin Lang is the director of LEVYNA and the PI of the CREDO project. His work lies at the intersection between the humanities and the cognitive and behavioural sciences, combining laboratory experiments with field studies to investigate how the human mind creates cultural niches and functions in them. He recently received a Vice-Rector at Masaryk University award for mentoring and excellent dissertation.

Website: http:// https://www.levyna.cz/en

Contact person at the workplace for any questions applicants may have about the position: 

First name and surname: doc. Mgr. Martin Lang, Ph.D.
E-mail: martinlang@mail.muni.cz