Carmen Callizo, awarded by the John Templeton Foundation for her methodology of research on religion and psychology.

Carmen Callizo, postdoctoral researcher at the group Infinity: family, love and sexuality of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra, has been recognized by the John Templeton Foundation for her innovative methodology at research. The recognition seeks to promote open science within the field of psychology and religion. The award-winning study is degree scroll Do We Think Abstractly Inside Cathedrals?The Role of Religiosity and Space Size on Construal Level. The Roleof Religiosity and Space Size on Construal Level). Also participating in this research were Pablo Solana (University of Granada), Ann Taves (University of California Santa Barbara), Wesley Wildman (Boston University) and Julio Santiago (University of Granada).

What factors might help explain the sense of transcendence people feel in cathedrals? "Thinking abstractly, in the most relevant purpose of things, could be one core topic, and doing so abstractly could be related to the fact that cathedrals are religious places and immense spaces," explains the researcher. The John Templeton Foundation has awarded this research led by Callizo, who seeks to answer this question from psychology and religion through the "open science" format.(open science). This methodology focuses all the importance of the research on the study and not on the results. In this sense, the Templeton Foundation has valued the methodology used by Callizo's team, where the quality of the study is more important than the final result and the relationship with the initial hypothesis.

The study is part of Register Reportan innovative format for scientific publications that emphasizes the importance of the research question and the quality of the methodology through peer review in the scientific journal to which it is sent for publication prior to the collection of data. This avoids common problems in the research, such as using small samples that are not representative, reporting only results that are convenient, or ignoring negative results. In addition, this format allows unexpected findings that may arise during the study to be included.