Fireside Relaxation & Social Synergy Study
Fireside Relaxation Study
Since 2010, we have been investigating cognitive mechanisms associated with relaxation response and prosociality that may underlie proclivity for religious experience and derive from over 800,000 years of human manipulation of fire. Hearth and campfires are multi-sensory phenomena that have played an important role in human evolution, including possible effects on cognition. Our project tests the role of the elements of fire on blood pressure, and skin conductance through use of simulated fire and potentially analogous media conditions. This project utilizes a biopsychocultural model, and all HBERGers participate as experimenters as part of their neuroanthropology training.
Study 1, conducted 2010-11, compared pre-posttest blood pressure of viewing a 5-minute video of fire without sound condition to a 5-minute blank computer screen. Study 2, conducted 2011-12, added a fire with sound condition. Study 3, conducted 2012-13, extended the time increments to 15 minutes and changed the control to an upside down static picture of a fire. Results of these studies were published in 2014 in Evolutionary Psychology.
Study 4, currently underway, includes a sound-only condition and a media condition. Preliminary results were presented at the 2015 NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society conference.
Study 1, conducted 2010-11, compared pre-posttest blood pressure of viewing a 5-minute video of fire without sound condition to a 5-minute blank computer screen. Study 2, conducted 2011-12, added a fire with sound condition. Study 3, conducted 2012-13, extended the time increments to 15 minutes and changed the control to an upside down static picture of a fire. Results of these studies were published in 2014 in Evolutionary Psychology.
Study 4, currently underway, includes a sound-only condition and a media condition. Preliminary results were presented at the 2015 NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society conference.
Social Synergy of Fireside Relaxation Study
Also currently underway, our new fire study run by April Boatwright integrates the work of Polly Wiessner, who found that conversation styles of !Kung Bushmen around fires change from day to night. We are investigating conversation, activities, facial expressions, and relaxation of contemporary Americans around day and nighttime fires.
Publications
2014 CD Lynn. Hearth and Campfire Influences on Arterial Blood Pressure: Defraying the Costs of the Social Brain through Fireside Relaxation. Evolutionary Psychology.12(5):983-1003, epjournal.net/3397
Presentations
2011 B Starliper, C Buzney, CD Lynn. Trance by Fire: Is Television Addiction a By-product of Fireside Relaxation? Presented at Society for Psychological Anthropology Biennial Meetings. Santa Monica, CA, March 31-April 3.
2011 CD Lynn. “Transcendental Medication”: Tests of a Functionalist Model of the Dissociation/ Absorption Spectrum via Speaking in Tongues and Fireside Relaxation. Presented at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, November 15-20.
2011 CD Lynn. “Transcendental Medication”: Tests of a Functionalist Model of the Dissociation/ Absorption Spectrum via Speaking in Tongues and Fireside Relaxation. Presented at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, November 15-20.
2012 M Roberts, CD Lynn. Fireside Relaxation and the Effects of Flickering Light and Sudden Sound Phenomena. Presented at Southern Anthropological Society 47th Annual Meeting. Birmingham, AL, March 15—17.
2012 CD Lynn. Compromising on Compromise: Engaging Undergraduates through Neuroanthropological Research. Invited presentation at 112th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. San Francisco, CA, November 14-18.
2012 CD Lynn. Compromising on Compromise: Engaging Undergraduates through Neuroanthropological Research. Invited presentation at 112th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. San Francisco, CA, November 14-18.
2013 M Steel, L Moore, C Lynn. Trance by Fire: the Stimulation of a Relaxation Response by Focusing on Flickering Light and Novel Sound Phenomena. Presented at the Society for Anthropological Sciences Annual Meeting, Mobile, AL, February 20-23.
2013 CD Lynn. The Psychophysiology of Fireside Relaxation. Presented at 2013 Human Biology Association Annual Meeting. Knoxville, TN, April 10-11.
2013 M Steel, L Moore, C Lynn. Trance by Fire: the Stimulation of a Relaxation Response by Focusing on Flickering Light and Novel Sound Phenomena. Presented at the University of Alabama Evolutionary Studies Darwin Day Research Colloquium. Tuscaloosa, AL, February 12.
2013 M Steel and CD Lynn. Fireside Meditations: The Induction of a Relaxation Response by Focused Attention on a Flickering Light and Novel Sound Phenomenon. Presented at the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, IL, November 20-24.
2013 CD Lynn. The Psychophysiology of Fireside Relaxation. Presented at 2013 Human Biology Association Annual Meeting. Knoxville, TN, April 10-11.
2013 M Steel, L Moore, C Lynn. Trance by Fire: the Stimulation of a Relaxation Response by Focusing on Flickering Light and Novel Sound Phenomena. Presented at the University of Alabama Evolutionary Studies Darwin Day Research Colloquium. Tuscaloosa, AL, February 12.
2013 M Steel and CD Lynn. Fireside Meditations: The Induction of a Relaxation Response by Focused Attention on a Flickering Light and Novel Sound Phenomenon. Presented at the 112th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, IL, November 20-24.
2014 LV Pratt and C Lynn. Human Evolution at the Hearth: The Influence of Fire on Relaxation and Psychophysiology. Presented at the 8th Annual Conference of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society, New Paltz, NY, April 10-13.
2015 M Carr, A Daugherty, C Lynn. A Burning Question: Fireside Relaxation. Presented 9th Annual Conference of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society, Boston, MA, April 24-26.
2016 E Duncan, B Hall, C Lynn. Multi-Sensory Campfire Experiences Influence Lower Blood Pressure. Presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Human Biology Association, Atlanta, GA, April 13-14.
