Dr Shoko Watanabe joined the University of Birmingham in July 2023 as a post-doctoral research fellow on the "New Perspectives on Social Psychology and Religious Cognition for Theology: Training and Developing Science-Engaged Theologians" project funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Dr Watanabe received her PhD. in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Prior to specializing in social psychology, Dr Watanabe earned her B.A. in theological-historical studies from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. Before embarking on an academic career, Dr Watanabe worked in education, business-management, and banking industries.   

More information on Shoko’s educational journey and personal background can be found in an interview piece by the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology.

At the University of Birmingham, Dr Shoko Watanabe conducts empirical research investigating hesitancies that theologians might have about engaging with psychology. In addition, she has two other streams of research.

First, Dr Watanabe’s religious cognition research examines theodicy (how people perceive God amidst suffering), teleological reasoning (inferring purpose for natural entities and events), and longitudinal patterns of stability or change in religious doubt and engagement.

Second, Dr Watanabe’s moral/social perception research addresses when and why uninvolved third parties perceive moral transgressors as deserving of forgiveness and conditions under which hypocrites are punished. She explores these topics in laboratory and online experiments using social cognitive and behavioural approaches, and through secondary data analyses using structural equation modelling.

Dr Watanabe’s works have been published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Social Psychological and Personality Science, Social Psychology, Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, and more.