Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T22:08:41.366Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Ritual and Religion as Social Technologies of Cooperation

from Section 3 - How Social Coordination and Cooperation are Achieved

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Christopher Kavanagh ,
Jonathan Jong  and
Harvey Whitehouse
Edited by
Laurence J. Kirmayer ,
Carol M. Worthman ,
Shinobu Kitayama ,
Robert Lemelson  and
Constance A. Cummings
Laurence J. Kirmayer
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Carol M. Worthman
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Shinobu Kitayama
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Robert Lemelson
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Constance A. Cummings
Affiliation:
The Foundation for Psychocultural Research
Get access

Summary

In this chapter, we review recent research from a variety of disciplines to outline the role that collective rituals and religious beliefs play in fostering and maintaining cooperation. We consider ritual and religion as interactive but separate social technologies. First, with rituals we discuss their importance to social learning processes, examine their ability to bond groups through synchrony and shared emotion, and address their role as costly, persuasive signals of commitment. Second, we explore "religion" in the form of beliefs about supernatural agents and look at how such beliefs can contribute to – or hinder – cooperation. We evaluate long-standing claims that religion is a harmful social virus and contrasting recent theories that argue belief in "Big Gods" and "supernatural punishment" are crucial to enabling the cooperation necessary for large-scale societies.

Keywords

ritualreligioncooperationDurkheimcognitive science of religioncultural evolutionreligious belief
Type
Chapter
Information
Culture, Mind, and Brain
Emerging Concepts, Models, and Applications
 , pp. 325 - 362
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, D., & Hogg, M. A. (1988). Comments on the motivational status of self-esteem in social identity and intergroup discrimination. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18(4), 317–34. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420180403Google Scholar
Ahmed, A., & Salas, O. (2013). Religious context and prosociality: An experimental study from Valparaíso, Chile. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 52(3), 627–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12045Google Scholar
Allen, M. R. (1967). Male cults and secret initiations in Melanesia. Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso.Google Scholar
Annis, L. V. (1976). Emergency helping and religious behavior. Psychological Reports, 39(1), 151–8. https://doi.org/10.2466%2Fpr0.1976.39.1.151Google Scholar
Arnal, W., & McCutcheon, R. T. (2012). The sacred is the profane: The political nature of “religion.” Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199757114.001.0001Google Scholar
Aronson, E. (1968). Dissonance theory: Progress and problems. In Abelson, R., Aronson, E., McGuire, W., Newcomb, T., Rosenberg, M., & Tannebaum, P. (Eds.), The cognitive consistency theories: A source book (pp. 5–27). Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Aronson, E. (1999). The power of self-persuasion. American Psychologist, 54(11), 875–84. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0088188Google Scholar
Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59(2), 177–81. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0047195Google Scholar
Atkinson, Q. D., & Whitehouse, H. (2011). The cultural morphospace of ritual form: Examining modes of religiosity cross-culturally. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32(1), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.09.002Google Scholar
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3), 575–82. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045925Google Scholar
Bastian, B., Jetten, J., & Ferris, L. J. (2014). Pain as social glue: Shared pain increases cooperation. Psychological Science, 25(11), 2079–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614545886Google Scholar
Baumard, N., Hyafil, A., Morris, I., & Boyer, P. (2014). Increased affluence explains the emergence of ascetic wisdoms and moralizing religions. Current Biology, 25(1), 10–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.10.063Google Scholar
Bell, C. (1997). Ritual: Perspectives and dimensions. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellah, R. N. (2011). Religion in human evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age. Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Bem, D. J. (1972). Self-perception theory. In Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 6, pp. 1–62). Academic Press.Google Scholar
Berling, J. A. (1987). Orthopraxy. In Eliade, M. (Ed.), The encyclopedia of religion (Vol. 11, pp. 129–32). Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bloom, P. (2012). Religion, morality, evolution. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 179–99. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100334Google Scholar
Boyer, P. (2001). Religion explained: The evolutionary origins of religious thought. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Boyer, P. (2011, February 2). Why would (otherwise intelligent) scholars believe in “religion”? [Blog post]. https://cognitionandculture.net/blog/pascals-blog/why-would-otherwise-intelligent-scholars-believe-inGoogle Scholar
Boyer, P., & Liénard, P. (2006). Why ritualized behavior? Precaution systems and action parsing in developmental, pathological and cultural rituals. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29(6), 595–613. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X06009332Google Scholar
Bressan, P., & Kramer, P. (2015). Human kin detection. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 6(3), 299–311. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1347Google Scholar
Brewer, M. B., & Gardner, W. (1996). Who is this “we”? Levels of collective identity and self representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(1), 83–93. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.71.1.83Google Scholar
Brooks, A. C. (2006). Who really cares: The surprising truth about compassionate conservatism—America’s charity divide—who gives, who doesn’t, and why it matters. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Brown, J. L., Sheffield, D., Leary, M. R., & Robinson, M. E. (2003). Social support and experimental pain. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65(2), 276–83. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.PSY.0000030388.62434.46Google Scholar
Bulbulia, J., Geertz, A. W., Atkinson, Q. D., Cohen, E., Evans, N., François, P., Gintis, H., Gray, R. D., Henrich, J., Jordon, F. M., Norenzayan, A., Richerson, P. J., Slingerland, E., Turchin, P., Whitehouse, H., Widlok, T., & Wilson, D. S. (2013). The cultural evolution of religion. In Richerson, P. J. & Christiansen, M. H. (Eds.), Cultural evolution: Science, technology, language, and religion (pp. 381–404). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262019750.003.0020Google Scholar
Bulbulia, J. A., & Sosis, R. (2011). Signalling theory and the evolution of religious cooperation. Religion, 41(3), 363–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2011.604508CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bushman, B. J., Ridge, R. D., Das, E., Key, C. W., & Busath, G. L. (2007). When God sanctions killing: Effect of scriptural violence on aggression. Psychological Science, 18(3), 204–7. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01873.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carpenter, M., Uebel, J., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Being mimicked increases prosocial behavior in 18-month-old infants. Child Development, 84(5), 1511–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12083Google Scholar
Chartrand, T. L., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception–behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(6), 893–910. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.6.893Google Scholar
Cimino, A. (2011). The evolution of hazing: Motivational mechanisms and the abuse of newcomers. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 11(3–4), 241–67. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853711X591242Google Scholar
Cimino, A. (2013). Predictors of hazing motivation in a representative sample of the United States. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(6), 446–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.08.007Google Scholar
Cirelli, L. K., Einarson, K. M., & Trainor, L. J. (2014a). Interpersonal synchrony increases prosocial behavior in infants. Developmental Science, 17(6), 1003–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12193Google Scholar
Cirelli, L. K., Wan, S. J., & Trainor, L. J. (2014b). Fourteen-month-old infants use interpersonal synchrony as a cue to direct helpfulness. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1658), 20130400. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0400Google Scholar
Cirelli, L. K., Wan, S. J., & Trainor, L. J. (2016). Social effects of movement synchrony: Increased infant helpfulness only transfers to affiliates of synchronously moving partners. Infancy, 21(6), 807–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12140Google Scholar
Clark, R. D. III, & Maass, A. (1988). The role of social categorization and perceived source credibility in minority influence. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18(5), 381–94. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420180502Google Scholar
Clegg, J. M., & Legare, C. H. (2015). Instrumental and conventional interpretations of behavior are associated with distinct outcomes in early childhood. Child Development, 87(2), 527–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12472.Google Scholar
Clegg, J. M., & Legare, C. H. (2016). A cross-cultural comparison of children’s imitative flexibility. Developmental Psychology, 52(9), 1435–44. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000131Google Scholar
Coan, J. A., Schaefer, H. S., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17(12), 1032–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01832.xGoogle Scholar
Cogan, R., & Spinnato, J. A. (1986). Pain and discomfort thresholds in late pregnancy. Pain, 27(1), 63–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3959(86)90223-XCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, J., & Fazio, R. H. (1984). A new look at dissonance theory. In Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 17, pp. 229–66). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60121-5Google Scholar
Cooper, J., & Hogg, M. A. (2007). Feeling the anguish of others: A theory of vicarious dissonance. In Zanna, M. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 39, 359–403). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)39007-7Google Scholar
Corriveau, K. H., DiYanni, C. J., Clegg, J. M., Min, G., Chin, J., & Nasrini, J. (2017). Cultural differences in the imitation and transmission of inefficient actions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 161, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.03.002Google Scholar
Darley, J. M., & Batson, C. D. (1973). “ From Jerusalem to Jericho”: A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27(1), 100–8. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034449Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (2004). A devil’s chaplain: Reflections on hope, lies, science, and love. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (2007). The God delusion. Black Swan.Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (2017). Science in the soul: Selected writings of a passionate rationalist. (Somerscales, G., Ed.). Penguin Random House.Google Scholar
DeBono, K. G., & Harnish, R. J. (1988). Source expertise, source attractiveness, and the processing of persuasive information: A functional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(4), 541–6. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.55.4.541Google Scholar
DeBruine, L. M. (2005). Trustworthy but not lust-worthy: Context-specific effects of facial resemblance. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272(1566), 919–22. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.3003Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (2006). Breaking the spell: Religion as a natural phenomenon. Viking.Google Scholar
Durkheim, É. (1912/1965). The elementary forms of the religious life (Swain, J.W., Trans.). Free Press. (Original work published 1912)Google Scholar
Fehr, E., & Schmidt, K. M. (1999). A theory of fairness, competition, and cooperation. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(3), 817–68. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399556151Google Scholar
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Fischer, R., Xygalatas, D., Mitkidis, P., Reddish, P., Tok, P., Konvalinka, I., & Bulbulia, J. A. (2014). The fire-walker’s high: Affect and physiological responses in an extreme collective ritual. PLoS ONE, 9(2), e88355. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088355Google Scholar
Fischer-Lokou, J., Martin, A., Guéguen, N., & Lamy, L. (2011). Mimicry and propagation of prosocial behavior in a natural setting. Psychological Reports, 108(2), 599–605. https://doi.org/10.2466/07.17.21.PR0.108.2.599-605Google Scholar
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.Google Scholar
Flynn, E., & Smith, K. (2012) Investigating the mechanisms of cultural acquisition: How pervasive is overimitation in adults? Social Psychology, 43(4), 185–95. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freud, S. (1961). Obsessive actions and religious practices. In Strachey, J. (Ed.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 9, pp. 167–75). Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Galen, L. W. (2012). Does religious belief promote prosociality? A critical examination. Psychological Bulletin, 138(5), 876–906. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028251Google Scholar
Gerard, H. B., & Mathewson, G. C. (1966). The effects of severity of initiation on liking for a group: A replication. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2(3), 278–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(66)90084-9Google Scholar
Ginges, J., Hansen, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2009). Religion and support for suicide attacks. Psychological Science, 20(2), 224–30. https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1467-9280.2009.02270.xGoogle Scholar
Gomes, C. M., & McCullough, M. E. (2015). The effects of implicit religious primes on dictator game allocations: A preregistered replication experiment. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144(6), e94–e104. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000027Google Scholar
Gómez, Á., Brooks, M. L., Buhrmester, M. D., Vázquez, A., Jetten, J., & Swann, W. B. Jr. (2011). On the nature of identity fusion: Insights into the construct and a new measure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(5), 918–33. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022642Google Scholar
Graham, J., & Haidt, J. (2010). Beyond beliefs: Religions bind individuals into moral communities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 140–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309353415CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graham, J., Haidt, J., Koleva, S., Motyl, M., Iyer, R., Wojcik, S. P., & Ditto, P. H. (2013). Moral foundations theory: The pragmatic validity of moral pluralism. In Devine, P. & Plant, A. (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 47, pp. 55–130). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00002-4Google Scholar
Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1029–46. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015141Google Scholar
Grossman, P. J., & Parrett, M. B. (2011). Religion and prosocial behaviour: A field test. Applied Economics Letters, 18(6), 523–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851003761798Google Scholar
Guthrie, S. E. (1993). Faces in the clouds: A new theory of religion. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, S. (2006). The end of faith: Religion, terror, and the future of reason. Free Press.Google Scholar
Hautaluoma, J. E., & Spungin, H. (1974). Effects of initiation severity and interest on group attitudes. Journal of Social Psychology, 93(2), 245–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1974.9923159Google Scholar
Henrich, J. (2009). The evolution of costly displays, cooperation and religion: Credibility enhancing displays and their implications for cultural evolution. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30(4), 244–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.03.005Google Scholar
Henrich, J., Ensminger, J., McElreath, R., Barr, A., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Gurven, M., Gwako, E., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., Tracer, D., & Ziker, J. (2010). Markets, religion, community size, and the evolution of fairness and punishment. Science, 327(5972), 1480–4. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1182238Google Scholar
Herrmann, P. A., Legare, C. H., Harris, P. L., & Whitehouse, H. (2013). Stick to the script: The effect of witnessing multiple actors on children’s imitation. Cognition, 129(3), 536–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.08.010Google Scholar
Hitchens, C. (2008). God is not great: How religion poisons everything. McClelland & Stewart.Google Scholar
Hoehl, S., Keupp, S., Schleihauf, H., McGuigan, N., Buttelmann, D., & Whiten, A. (2019). ‘Over-imitation’: A review and appraisal of a decade of research. Developmental Review, 51, 90–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2018.12.002Google Scholar
Hofmann, W., Wisneski, D. C., Brandt, M. J., & Skitka, L. J. (2014). Morality in everyday life. Science, 345(6202), 1340–3. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1251560Google Scholar
Hogg, M. A. (2006). Social identity theory. In Burke, P. J. (Ed.), Contemporary social psychological theories (pp. 111–36). Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Hoppitt, W., & Laland, K. N. (2013). Social learning: An introduction to mechanisms, methods, and models. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Horner, V., & Whiten, A. (2005). Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens). Animal Cognition, 8(3), 164–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-004-0239-6Google Scholar
Hornsey, M. J. (2008). Social identity theory and self-categorization theory: A historical review. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(1), 204–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00066.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hove, M. J., & Risen, J. L. (2009). It’s all in the timing: Interpersonal synchrony increases affiliation. Social Cognition, 27(6), 949–60. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2009.27.6.949Google Scholar
Hovland, C. I., & Weiss, W. (1951). The influence of source credibility on communication effectiveness. Public Opinion Quarterly, 15(4), 635–50. https://doi.org/10.1086/266350Google Scholar
Humphrey, C., & Laidlaw, J. (1994). The archetypal actions of ritual: A theory of ritual illustrated by the Jain rite of worship. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Iacoboni, M. (2009). Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 653–70. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163604Google Scholar
Iannaccone, L. R. (1994). Why strict churches are strong. American Journal of Sociology, 99(5), 1180–211. https://doi.org/10.1086/230409Google Scholar
Irons, W. (2001). Religion as a hard-to-fake sign of commitment. In Nesse, R. M. (Ed.), Vol. 3 in the Russell SAGE Foundation series on trust. Evolution and the capacity for commitment (pp. 292–309). Russell SAGE Foundation.Google Scholar
Jegindø, E.-M. E., Vase, L., Jegindø, J., & Geertz, A. W. (2013). Pain and sacrifice: Experience and modulation of pain in a religious piercing ritual. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 23(3), 171–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2012.759065Google Scholar
Johnson, D. (2015). God is watching you: How the fear of God makes us human. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, K. A., Hook, J. N., Davis, D. E., Van Tongeren, D. R., Sandage, S. J., & Crabtree, S. A. (2016). Moral foundation priorities reflect U. S. Christians’ individual differences in religiosity. Personality and Individual Differences, 100, 56–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.12.037Google Scholar
Johnson, M. K., Rowatt, W. C., & LaBouff, J. (2010). Priming Christian religious concepts increases racial prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(2), 119–26. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1948550609357246Google Scholar
Johnson, M. K., Rowatt, W. C., & LaBouff, J. P. (2012). Religiosity and prejudice revisited: In-group favoritism, out-group derogation, or both? Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 4(2), 154–68. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025107Google Scholar
Jones, S. S. (2009). The development of imitation in infancy. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1528), 2325–35. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0045Google Scholar
Jones, J. M., & Jetten, J. (2011). Recovering from strain and enduring pain: Multiple group memberships promote resilience in the face of physical challenges. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2(3), 239–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550610386806Google Scholar
Jong, J. (2015). On (not) defining (non)religion. Science, Religion & Culture, 2(3), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.17582/journal.src/2015/2.3.15.24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jong, J. (2017). “Belief in spiritual beings”: E. B. Tylor’s (primitive) cognitive theory of religion. In Tremlett, P.-F., Harvey, G., & Sutherland, L. T. (Eds.), Edward Burnett Tylor, religion and culture (pp. 47–61). Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
Jong, J., & Halberstadt, J. (2016). Death anxiety and religious belief: An existential psychology of religion. Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Jong, J., Whitehouse, H., Kavanagh, C. M., & Lane, J. (2015). Shared negative experiences lead to identity fusion via personal reflection. PLoS ONE, 10(12), e0145611. https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0145611Google Scholar
Kapitány, R., Kavanagh, C., Buhrmester, M. D., Newson, M., & Whitehouse, H. (2019). Ritual, identity fusion, and the inauguration of president Trump: A pseudo-experiment of ritual modes theory. Self and Identity. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2019.1578686Google Scholar
Kavanagh, C. (2016a). Individual pain & social gain: The personal and social consequences of collective dysphoric rituals [doctoral dissertation]. University of Oxford. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e2e0f4de-ccf1-4962-87fe-4d7fa48faf75Google Scholar
Kavanagh, C. (2016b, September 15) Religion without belief. Aeon. https://aeon.co/essays/can-religion-be-based-on-ritual-practice-without-beliefGoogle Scholar
Kavanagh, C. M., & Jong, J. (2020). Is Japan religious? Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qyt95Google Scholar
Kavanagh, C. M., Jong, J., McKay, R., & Whitehouse, H. (2018). Positive experiences of high arousal martial arts rituals are linked to identity fusion and costly pro-group actions. European Journal of Social Psychology, 49(3), 461–81. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2514Google Scholar
Kay, A. C., Gaucher, D., McGregor, I., & Nash, K. (2010). Religious belief as compensatory control. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(1), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309353750Google Scholar
Keating, C. F., Pomerantz, J., Pommer, S. D., Ritt, S. J. H., Miller, L. M., & McCormick, J. (2005). Going to college and unpacking hazing: A functional approach to decrypting initiation practices among undergraduates. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 9(2), 104–26. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2699.9.2.104Google Scholar
Kenward, B., Karlsson, M., & Persson, J. (2010). Over-imitation is better explained by norm learning than by distorted causal learning. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 278(1709), 1239–46. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.1399Google Scholar
Kirschner, S., & Tomasello, M. (2010). Joint music making promotes prosocial behavior in 4-year-old children. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(5), 354–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.04.004Google Scholar
Kitayama, S., & Tompson, S. (2015). A biosocial model of affective decision making: Implications for dissonance, motivation, and culture. In Olson, J. M. & Zanna, M. P. (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 52, pp. 71–137). Academic Press.Google Scholar
Konvalinka, I., Xygalatas, D., Bulbulia, J., Schjødt, U., Jegindø, E.-M., Wallot, S., Van Orden, G., & Roepstorff, A. (2011). Synchronized arousal between performers and related spectators in a fire-walking ritual. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(20), 8514–19. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1016955108Google Scholar
Krupp, D. B., DeBruine, L. M., Jones, B. C., & Lalumière, M. L. (2012). Kin recognition: Evidence that humans can perceive both positive and negative relatedness. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 25(8), 1472–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2012.02553.xGoogle Scholar
LaBouff, J. P., Humphreys, M., & Shen, M. J. (2017). Religiosity and group-binding moral concerns. Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 39(3), 263–82. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1163/15736121-12341343?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.2; https://doi.org/10.1163/15736121-12341343Google Scholar
Lakens, D. (2010). Movement synchrony and perceived entitativity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(5), 701–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.03.015Google Scholar
Lakens, D., & Stel, M. (2011). If they move in sync, they must feel in sync: Movement synchrony leads to attributions of rapport and entitativity. Social Cognition, 29(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2011.29.1.1Google Scholar
LaBouff, J. P., Rowatt, W. C., Johnson, M. K., & Finkle, C. (2012). Differences in attitudes toward outgroups in religious and nonreligious contexts in a multinational sample: A situational context priming study. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 22(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2012.634778Google Scholar
Lanman, J. A., & Buhrmester, M. D. (2017). Religious actions speak louder than words: Exposure to credibility-enhancing displays predicts theism. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 7(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2015.1117011Google Scholar
Legare, C. H., Wen, N. J., Herrmann, P. A., & Whitehouse, H. (2015). Imitative flexibility and the development of cultural learning. Cognition, 142, 351–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.05.020Google Scholar
Lidderdale, J. M., & Walsh, J. J. (1998). The effects of social support on cardiovascular reactivity and perinatal outcome. Psychology & Health, 13(6), 1061–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870449808407450Google Scholar
Liénard, P., & Boyer, P. (2006). Whence collective rituals? A cultural selection model of ritualized behavior. American Anthropologist, 108(4), 814–27. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2006.108.4.814Google Scholar
Lodewijkx, H. F. M., & Syroit, J. E. M. M. (1997). Severity of initiation revisited: Does severity of initiation increase attractiveness in real groups? European Journal of Social Psychology, 27(3), 275–300. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199705)27:3<275::AID-EJSP822>3.0.CO;2-SGoogle Scholar
López-Martínez, A. E., Esteve-Zarazaga, R., & Ramírez-Maestre, C. (2008). Perceived social support and coping responses are independent variables explaining pain adjustment among chronic pain patients. Journal of Pain, 9(4), 373–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2007.12.002Google Scholar
Lyons, D. E., Damrosch, D. H., Lin, J. K., Macris, D. M., & Keil, F. C. (2011). The scope and limits of overimitation in the transmission of artefact culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1567), 1158–67. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0335Google Scholar
Lyons, D. E., Young, A. G., & Keil, F. C. (2007). The hidden structure of overimitation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(50), 19751–6. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0704452104Google Scholar
Master, S. L., Eisenberger, N. I., Taylor, S. E., Naliboff, B. D., Shirinyan, D., & Lieberman, M. D. (2009). A picture’s worth: Partner photographs reduce experimentally induced pain. Psychological Science, 20(11), 1316–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02444.xGoogle Scholar
McCutcheon, R. T. (1997). Manufacturing religion: The discourse on sui generis religion and the politics of nostalgia. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McGuigan, N. (2012). The role of transmission biases in the cultural diffusion of irrelevant actions. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 126(2), 150–60. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025525Google Scholar
McGuigan, N., Makinson, J., & Whiten, A. (2011). From over-imitation to super-copying: Adults imitate causally irrelevant aspects of tool use with higher fidelity than young children. British Journal of Psychology, 102(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712610X493115Google Scholar
McKay, R., Efferson, C., Whitehouse, H., & Fehr, E. (2011). Wrath of God: Religious primes and punishment. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 278(1713), 1858–63. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.2125Google Scholar
McKay, R., & Whitehouse, H. (2015). Religion and morality. Psychological Bulletin, 141(2), 447–73. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038455Google Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N. (2007). “Like me”: A foundation for social cognition. Developmental Science, 10(1), 126–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00574.xGoogle Scholar
Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and assessment. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Mitkidis, P., Ayal, S., Shalvi, S., Heimann, K., Levy, G., Kyselo, M., Wallot, S., Ariely, D., & Roepstorff, A. (2017). The effects of extreme rituals on moral behavior: The performers-observers gap hypothesis. Journal of Economic Psychology, 59, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2016.12.007Google Scholar
Miyatake, S., & Higuchi, M. (2017). Does religious priming increase the prosocial behaviour of a Japanese sample in an anonymous economic game? Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 20(1), 54–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12164Google Scholar
Mogan, R., Fischer, R., & Bulbulia, J. A. (2017). To be in synchrony or not? A meta-analysis of synchrony’s effects on behavior, perception, cognition and affect. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 72, 13–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.03.009Google Scholar
Nielsen, M., & Blank, C. (2011). Imitation in young children: When who gets copied is more important than what gets copied. Developmental Psychology, 47(4), 1050–3. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023866Google Scholar
Nielsen, M., Mushin, I., Tomaselli, K., & Whiten, A. (2014). Where culture takes hold:”Overimitation” and its flexible deployment in Western, Aboriginal, and Bushmen children. Child Development, 85(6), 2169–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12265Google Scholar
Nielsen, M., & Tomaselli, K. (2010) Overimitation in Kalahari Bushman children and the origins of human cultural cognition. Psychological Science, 21(5), 729–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610368808Google Scholar
Norenzayan, A. (2013). Big gods: How religion transformed cooperation and conflict. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Norenzayan, A., Shariff, A. F., Gervais, W. M., Willard, A. K., McNamara, R. A., Slingerland, E., & Henrich, J. (2016). The cultural evolution of prosocial religions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39, e1. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X14001356Google Scholar
Norton, A. R. (2005). Ritual, blood, and Shiite identity: Ashura in Nabatiyya, Lebanon. TDR/The Drama Review, 49(4), 140–55. https://doi.org/10.1162/105420405774762880Google Scholar
Norton, M. I., & Gino, F. (2014). Rituals alleviate grieving for loved ones, lovers, and lotteries. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(1), 266–72. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031772Google Scholar
Nosek, B. A., Alter, G., Banks, G. C., Borsboom, D., Bowman, S. D., Breckler, S. J., Buck, S., Chambers, C. D., Chin, G., Christensen, G., Contestabile, M., Dafoe, A., Eich, E., Freese, J., Glennerster, R., Goroff, D., Green, D. P., Hesse, B., Humphreys, M., Ishiyama, J., … Yarkoni, T. (2015). Promoting an open research culture. Science, 348(6242), 1422–5. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aab2374Google Scholar
Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251), aac4716. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac4716Google Scholar
Over, H., & Carpenter, M. (2009). Priming third-party ostracism increases affiliative imitation in children. Developmental Science, 12(3), F1–F8. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00820.xGoogle Scholar
Páez, D., Rimé, B., Basabe, N., Wlodarczyk, A., & Zumeta, L. (2015). Psychosocial effects of perceived emotional synchrony in collective gatherings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(5), 711–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000014Google Scholar
Park, C. L. (2005). Religion as a meaning-making framework in coping with life stress. Journal of Social Issues, 61(4), 707–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00428.xGoogle Scholar
Park, C. L. (2011). Meaning and growth within positive psychology: Toward a more complete understanding. In Sheldon, K. M., Kashdan, T. B., & Steger, M. F. (Eds.), Designing positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward (pp. 324–34). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195373585.003.0021Google Scholar
Patzer, G. L. (1983). Source credibility as a function of communicator physical attractiveness. Journal of Business Research, 11(2), 229–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(83)90030-9Google Scholar
Piazza, J., Bering, J. M., & Ingram, G. (2011). “Princess Alice is watching you”: Children’s belief in an invisible person inhibits cheating. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 109(3), 311–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.02.003Google Scholar
Platow, M. J., Voudouris, N. J., Coulson, M., Gilford, N., Jamieson, R., Najdovski, L., Papaleo, H., Pollard, C., & Terry, L. (2007). In-group reassurance in a pain setting produces lower levels of physiological arousal: Direct support for a self-categorization analysis of social influence. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37(4), 649–60. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.381Google Scholar
Pornpitakpan, C. (2004). The persuasiveness of source credibility: A critical review of five decades’ evidence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34(2), 243–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02547.xGoogle Scholar
Purzycki, B. G. (2013). The minds of gods: A comparative study of supernatural agency. Cognition, 129(1), 163–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.06.010Google Scholar
Purzycki, B. G., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q. D., Cohen, E., McNamara, R. A., Willard, A. K., Xygalatas, D., Norenzayan, A., & Henrich, J. (2016). Moralistic gods, supernatural punishment and the expansion of human sociality. Nature, 530(7590), 327–30. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16980Google Scholar
Purzycki, B. G., Henrich, J., Apicella, C., Atkinson, Q. D., Baimel, A., Cohen, E., McNamara, R. A., Willard, A. K., Xygalatas, D., & Norenzayan, A. (2017). The evolution of religion and morality: A synthesis of ethnographic and experimental evidence from eight societies. Religion, Brain and Behavior, 8(2), 101–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2016.1267027Google Scholar
Purzycki, B. G., & Sosis, R. (2011). Our gods: Variation in supernatural minds. In Frey, U. J., Störmer, C., & Willführ, K. P. (Eds.), Essential building blocks of human nature (pp. 77–93). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13968-0_5Google Scholar
Putnam, R. D., & Campbell, D. E. (2012). American grace: How religion divides and unites us. Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Pyysiäinen, I. (2003). Buddhism, religion and the concept of “God.” Numen International Review for the History of Religions, 50(2), 147–71. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852703321506141Google Scholar
Pyysiäinen, I. (2009). Supernatural agents: Why we believe in souls, gods, and Buddhas. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195380026.001.0001Google Scholar
Rabinowitch, T. C., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2015). Synchronous rhythmic interaction enhances children’s perceived similarity and closeness towards each other. PLoS ONE, 10(4), e0120878 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120878Google Scholar
Randolph-Seng, B., & Nielsen, M. E. (2007). Honesty: One effect of primed religious representations. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 17(4), 303–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508610701572812Google Scholar
Rappaport, R. A. (1999). Ritual and religion in the making of humanity. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reader, I., & Tanabe, G. J. Jr. (1998). Practically religious: Worldly benefits and the common religion of Japan. University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
Reddish, P., Bulbulia, J. A., & Fischer, R. (2014). Does synchrony promote generalized prosociality? Religion, Brain and Behavior, 4(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599x.2013.764545Google Scholar
Reddish, P., Fischer, R., & Bulbulia, J. A. (2013). Let’s dance together: Synchrony, shared intentionality and cooperation. PLoS ONE, 8(8), e71182. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071182Google Scholar
Reddish, P., Tong, E. M. W., Jong, J., Lanman, J. A., & Whitehouse, H. (2016). Collective synchrony increases prosociality towards non-performers and outgroup members. British Journal of Social Psychology, 55(4), 722–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12165Google Scholar
Rennung, M., & Göritz, A. S. (2016). Prosocial consequences of interpersonal synchrony: A meta-analysis. Zeitschrift für Psychologie/Journal of Psychology, 224, 168–89. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000252Google Scholar
Ross, L., & Nisbett, R. (1991). McGraw-Hill series in social psychology. The person and the situation. McGraw-Hill Book Company.Google Scholar
Rossano, M. J. (2012). The essential role of ritual in the transmission and reinforcement of social norms. Psychological Bulletin, 138(3), 529–49. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027038Google Scholar
Ruffle, B., & Sosis, R. (2010). Do religious contexts elicit more trust and altruism? An experiment on Facebook. Discussion Paper No. 10–02, Department of Economics: Ben-Gurion University, (860), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1566123Google Scholar
Saroglou, V. (2006). Religion’s role in prosocial behavior: Myth or reality? Psychology of Religion Newsletter: American Psychological Association Division 36, 31(2), 1–8. https://cdn.uclouvain.be/public/Exports reddot/psyreli/documents/Newsletter.pdfGoogle Scholar
Saroglou, V., Corneille, O., & Van Cappellen, P. (2009). “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”: Religious priming activates submissive thoughts and behaviors. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 19(3), 143–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508610902880063Google Scholar
Scheepers, P., Gijsberts, M., & Hello, E. (2002). Religiosity and prejudice against ethnic minorities in Europe: Cross-national tests on a controversial relationship. Review of Religious Research, 43(3), 242–65. https://doi.org/10.2307/3512331Google Scholar
Schleihauf, H., Graetz, S., Pauen, S., & Hoehl, S. (2018). Contrasting social and cognitive accounts on overimitation: The role of causal transparency and prior experiences. Child Development, 89(3), 1039–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12780Google Scholar
Shariff, A. F., & Norenzayan, A. (2007). God is watching you: Priming God concepts increases prosocial behavior in an anonymous economic game. Psychological Science, 18(9), 803–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01983.xGoogle Scholar
Shariff, A. F., Willard, A. K., Andersen, T., & Norenzayan, A. (2015). Religious priming: A meta-analysis with a focus on prosociality. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 20(1), 27–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868314568811Google Scholar
Siegman, A. W. (1962). Personality and socio-cultural variables associated with religious behavior. Archiv für Religionspsychologie/Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 7(1), 96–104. www.jstor.org/stable/23919300Google Scholar
Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology: Undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological Science, 22(11), 1359–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611417632Google Scholar
Simons, H. W., Berkowitz, N. N., & Moyer, R. J. (1970). Similarity, credibility, and attitude change: A review and a theory. Psychological Bulletin, 73(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0028429Google Scholar
Smith, R. E., Wheeler, G., & Diener, E. (1975). Faith without works: Jesus people, resistance to temptation, and altruism. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 5(4), 320–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1975.tb00684.xGoogle Scholar
Sosis, R. (2003). Why aren’t we all Hutterites? Costly signaling theory and religious behavior. Human Nature, 14(2), 91–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-003-1000-6Google Scholar
Sosis, R., & Alcorta, C. S. (2003). Signalling, solidarity, and the sacred: The evolution of religious behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology, 12(6), 264–74. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.10120Google Scholar
Sosis, R., & Bressler, E. R. (2003). Cooperation and commune longevity: A test of the costly signaling theory of religion. Cross-Cultural Research, 37(2), 211–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397103037002003Google Scholar
Stel, M., & Vonk, R. (2010). Mimicry in social interaction: Benefits for mimickers, mimickees, and their interaction. British Journal of Psychology, 101(2), 311–23. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712609X465424Google Scholar
Strathern, A. (1970). Male initiation in New Guinea highlands societies. Ethnology, 9(4), 373–9. https://doi.org/10.2307/3773043Google Scholar
Strenski, I. (2006). Thinking about religion: An historical introduction to theories of religion. Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Sutherland, L. (2012). Tylor and Neo-Tylorian approaches to the study of religion: Re-evaluating an important lineage in the theorisation of religion. Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal, 3(3), 47–57.Google Scholar
Swann, W. B. Jr., Buhrmester, M. D., Gómez, A., Jetten, J., Bastian, B., Vázquez, A., Ariyanto, A., Besta, T., Christ, O., Cui, L., Finchilescu, G., González, R., Goto, N., Hornsey, M., Sharma, S., Susianto, H., & Zhang, A. (2014). What makes a group worth dying for? Identity fusion fosters perception of familial ties, promoting self-sacrifice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(6), 912–26. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036089Google Scholar
Swann, W. B. Jr., Gómez, Á., Huici, C., Morales, J. F., & Hixon, J. G. (2010). Identity fusion and self-sacrifice: Arousal as a catalyst of pro-group fighting, dying, and helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(5), 824–41. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020014Google Scholar
Swann, W. B. Jr., Gómez, Á., Seyle, D. C., Morales, J. F., & Huici, C. (2009). Identity fusion: The interplay of personal and social identities in extreme group behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 995–1011. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013668Google Scholar
Swann, W. B. Jr., Jetten, J., Gómez, Á., Whitehouse, H., Bastian, B., Gómez, A., & Bastian, B. (2012). When group membership gets personal: A theory of identity fusion. Psychological Review, 119(3), 441–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028589Google Scholar
Szerszynski, B. (2002). Ecological rites: Ritual action in environmental protest events. Theory, Culture & Society, 19(3), 51–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/026327602401081521Google Scholar
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1985). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In Worchel, S. & Austin, W. G. (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 7–24). Nelson-Hall.Google Scholar
Taniguchi, Y., & Sanefuji, W. (2017). The boundaries of overimitation in preschool children: Effects of target and tool use on imitation of irrelevant actions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 159, 83–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.01.014Google Scholar
Tunçgenç, B., & Cohen, E. (2016). Interpersonal movement synchrony facilitates pro-social behavior in children’s peer-play. Developmental Science, 21(1), e12505. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12505Google Scholar
Tunçgenç, B., Cohen, E., & Fawcett, C. (2015). Rock with me: The role of movement synchrony in infants’ social and nonsocial choices. Child Development, 86(3), 976–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12354Google Scholar
Turchin, P., Brennan, R., Currie, T. E., Feeney, K. C., François, P., Hoyer, D., Manning, J. G., Marciniak, A., Mullins, D., Palmisano, A., Peregrine, P., Turner, E. A. L., & Whitehouse, H. (2015). Seshat: The global history databank. Cliodynamics, 6, 77–107.Google Scholar
Turchin, P., Whitehouse, H., François, P., Hoyer, D., Nugent, S., Larson, J., Covey, A., Altaweel, M., Peregrine, P., Carballo, D., Feinman, G., Wallace, V., Bol, P., Korotayev, A., Kradin, N., Anderson, E., Savage, P., Cioni, E., Levine, J., … Brandl, E. (2019, November 20). Explaining the rise of moralizing religions: A test of competing hypotheses using the Seshat Databank. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/2v59jGoogle Scholar
Turner, V. (1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Turner, V. (1985). Betwixt and between: The liminal period in rites de passage. In Lehmann, A. C. & Myers, J. E. (Eds.), Magic, witchcraft, and religion: An anthropological study of the supernatural (pp. 46–55). Mayfield Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Tylor, E. B. (1871). Primitive culture: Researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, language, art, and custom. John Murray.Google Scholar
Valdesolo, P., & DeSteno, D. (2011). Synchrony and the social tuning of compassion. Emotion, 11(2), 262–66. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021302Google Scholar
van Baaren, R. B., Holland, R. W., Kawakami, K., & van Knippenberg, A. (2004). Mimicry and prosocial behavior. Psychological Science, 15(1), 71–4. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01501012.xGoogle Scholar
Van Elk, M., Matzke, D., Gronau, Q. F., Guan, M., Vandekerckhove, J., & Wagenmakers, E.-J. (2015). Meta-analyses are no substitute for registered replications: A skeptical perspective on religious priming. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1365. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01365Google Scholar
Van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage (Vizedom, M. B. & Caffee, G. L., Trans.). University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1909)Google Scholar
Van Raalte, J. L., Cornelius, A. E., Linder, D. E., & Brewer, B. W. (2007). The relationship between hazing and team cohesion. Journal of Sport Behavior, 30(4), 491–507.Google Scholar
Van Tongeren, D. R., Raad, J. M., McIntosh, D. N., & Pae, J. (2013). The existential function of intrinsic religiousness: Moderation of effects of priming religion on intercultural tolerance and afterlife anxiety. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 52(3), 508–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12053Google Scholar
Verkaaik, O. (2010). The cachet dilemma: Ritual and agency in new Dutch nationalism. American Ethnologist, 37(1), 69–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01242.xGoogle Scholar
Walster, E., Aronson, E., & Abrahams, D. (1966). On increasing the persuasiveness of a low prestige communicator. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2(4), 325–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(66)90026-6Google Scholar
Watson-Jones, R. E., Legare, C. H., Whitehouse, H., & Clegg, J. M. (2014). Task-specific effects of ostracism on imitative fidelity in early childhood. Evolution and Human Behavior, 35(3), 204–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.01.004Google Scholar
Watson-Jones, R. E., Whitehouse, H., & Legare, C. H. (2016). In-group ostracism increases high-fidelity imitation in early childhood. Psychological Science, 27(1), 34–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615607205CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watts, J. A., Greenhill, S. J., Atkinson, Q. D., Currie, T. E., Bulbulia, J. A., & Gray, R. D. (2015). Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1804), 20142556. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2556Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1930). The Protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism. George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
West, S. A., Gardner, A., Shuker, D. M., Reynolds, T., Burton-Chellow, M., Sykes, E. M., Guinnee, M. A., & Griffin, A. S. (2006). Cooperation and the scale of competition in humans. Current Biology, 16(11), 1103–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2006.03.069Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (1995). Inside the cult: Religious innovation and transmission in Papua New Guinea. Oxford studies in social and cultural anthropology. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2000). Arguments and icons: Divergent modes of religiosity. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2002). Religious reflexivity and transmissive frequency. Social Anthropology, 10(1), 91–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2002.tb00048.xGoogle Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2004). Modes of religiosity: A cognitive theory of religious transmission. AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2011). The coexistence problem in psychology, anthropology, and evolutionary theory: Commentary on Evans & Lane, Harris, Legare & Visala, and Subbotsky. Human Development, 54(3), 191–9. https://doi.org/10.1159/000329149Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2012). Ritual, cognition, and evolution. In Sun, R. (Ed.), Grounding the social sciences in the cognitive sciences (pp. 265–84). MIT Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2013). Religion, cohesion and hostility. In Clarke, S., Powell, R., & Savulescu, J. (Eds.), Religion, intolerance and conflict: A scientific and conceptual investigation (pp. 36–47). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199640911.003.0002Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H., François, P., Savage, P. E., Currie, T. E., Feeney, K. C., Cioni, E., Purcell, R., Ross, R. M., Larson, J., Baines, J., ter Haar, B., Covey, A., & Turchin, P. (2019). Complex societies precede moralizing gods throughout world history. Nature, 568, 226–229.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H., Jong, J., Buhrmester, M. D., Gómez, Á., Bastian, B., Kavanagh, C. M., Newson, M., Matthews, M., Lanman, J. A., McKay, R., & Gavrilets, S. (2017). The evolution of extreme cooperation via shared dysphoric experiences. Scientific Reports, 7, 44292. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep44292Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H., & Laidlaw, J. (Eds.). (2004). Ritual and memory: Towards a comparative anthropology of religion. AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H., & Laidlaw, J. (Eds.). (2007). Religion, anthropology and cognitive science. Carolina Academic Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H., & Lanman, J. A. (2014). The ties that bind us: Ritual, fusion, and identification. Current Anthropology, 55(6), 674–95. https://doi.org/10.1086/678698Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H., & McCauley, R. N. (Eds.). (2005). Mind and religion: Psychological and cognitive foundations of religiosity. AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H., McQuinn, B., Buhrmester, M. D., & Swann, W. B. Jr. (2014). Brothers in arms: Libyan revolutionaries bond like family. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(50), 17783–5. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1416284111Google Scholar
Whiten, A., McGuigan, N., Marshall-Pescini, S., & Hopper, L. M. (2009). Emulation, imitation, over-imitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 3641(1528), 2417–28. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0069Google Scholar
Whiten, A., Allan, G., Devlin, S., Kseib, N., Raw, N., & McGuigan, N. (2016). Social learning in the real-world: ‘Over-imitation’ occurs in both children and adults unaware of participation in an experiment and independently of social interaction. PLoS ONE, 11(7), e0159920. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159920Google Scholar
Whitley, R. (2012). “Thank you God”: Religion and recovery from dual diagnosis among low-income African Americans. Transcultural Psychiatry, 49(1), 87–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461511425099Google Scholar
Wiech, K., Farias, M., Kahane, G., Shackel, N., Tiede, W., & Tracey, I. (2008). An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system. Pain, 139(2), 467–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2008.07.030Google Scholar
Willard, A. K., & Cingl, L. (2017). Testing theories of secularization and religious belief in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38(5), 604–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.01.002Google Scholar
Willard, A. K., Henrich, J., & Norenzayan, A. (2016). Memory and belief in the transmission of counterintuitive content. Human Nature, 27(3), 221–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-016-9259-6Google Scholar
Williams, K. D., & Jarvis, B. (2006). Cyberball: A program for use in research on interpersonal ostracism and acceptance. Behavior Research Methods, 38(1), 174–80. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192765Google Scholar
Wilson, D. S. (2010). Darwin’s cathedral: Evolution, religion, and the nature of society. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wiltermuth, S. S., & Heath, C. (2009). Synchrony and cooperation. Psychological Science, 20(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02253.xGoogle Scholar
Wood, L. A., Harrison, R. A., Lucas, A. J., McGuigan, N., Burdett, E. R. R., & Whiten, A. (2016). “Model age-based” and “copy when uncertain” biases in children’s social learning of a novel task. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 150, 272–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2016.06.005Google Scholar
Xygalatas, D., Klocová, E. K., Cigán, J., Kundt, R., Maňo, P., Kotherová, S., Mitkidis, P., Wallot, S., & Kanovsky, M. (2016). Location, location, location: Effects of cross-religious primes on prosocial behavior. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 26(4), 304–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2015.1097287Google Scholar
Xygalatas, D., Mitkidis, P., Fischer, R., Reddish, P., Skewes, J., Geertz, A. W., Roepstorff, A., & Bulbulia, J. (2013). Extreme rituals promote prosociality. Psychological Science, 24(8), 1602–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612472910Google Scholar
Young, F. W. (1965). Initiation ceremonies: A cross-cultural study of status dramatization. Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Younger, J., Aron, A., Parke, S., Chatterjee, N., & Mackey, S. (2010). Viewing pictures of a romantic partner reduces experimental pain: Involvement of neural reward systems. PLoS ONE, 5(10), e13309. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013309Google Scholar
Zahavi, A., & Zahavi, A. (1997). The handicap principle: A missing piece of Darwin’s puzzle. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×