Patty Van Cappellen

Patty Van Cappellen is an Associate Research Professor in the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University and an Assistant Research Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. She holds a Ph.D. from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). Her research focuses on the affective and motivational aspects of religious/spiritual practices, gratitude, meditation, health behavior, and intergroup relations. She directs the Belief, Affect, and Behavior Lab and the Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research Center (IBRC).

Key research areas include the psychology of religious practices (e.g., prayer postures, worship embodiment), the role of positive emotions in health behaviors, and the intersection of religion with prejudice and prosociality. Recent grants include studies on virtual worship participation, the science of empathy, and the psychology of hope, funded by Templeton World Charity Foundation and others.

She teaches courses such as the Science of Happiness (ETHICS 217S/PSY 216S) and applied sociology research seminars. Awards include the Margaret Gorman Early Career Award (2019) and IAPR Early Career Award (2017). Notable publications explore gratitude toward God, embodied religious practices, and the relationship between afterlife beliefs and prejudice.

Her work bridges affective science with religious studies, emphasizing empirical investigations into how embodied practices and spiritual beliefs shape psychological experiences and social behaviors.