Extreme Rituals Promote Prosociality

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Authors

XYGALATAS Dimitrios MITKIDIS Panagiotis FISCHER Ronald REDDISH Paul SKEWES Joshua GEERTZ Armin W. ROEPSTORFF Andreas BULBULIA Joseph

Year of publication 2013
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Psychological Science
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612472910
Field Philosophy and religion
Keywords ritual; extreme rituals; prosociality; prosocial effect; group identity; ritual intensity
Description Extreme rituals entail excessive costs without apparent benefits, which raises an evolutionary cost problem (Irons, 2001). It is argued that such intense rituals enhance social cohesion and promote cooperative behaviors (Atran & Henrich, 2010; Durkheim, 1912). However, direct evidence for the relation between ritual intensity and prosociality is lacking. Using economic measures of generosity and contextually relevant indicators of group identity in a real-world setting, we evaluated pro- social effects from naturally occurring rituals that varied in severity.
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