Longitudinal Palestinian-adolescent data measure ritual frequency and threat perception across three waves.

Evidence

On the basis of census maps of the West Bank and Gaza provided by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, residential areas were sampled proportionally to achieve a representative sample of adolescents in the general population. … To measure participation in religious rituals we computed the average frequency of prayer and of mosque attendance (both ranging from 1 “never” to 5 “daily”, intercorrelation r = .51, t(570) = 14.155, p < .001) across the first three waves of data collection. On average, participants engaged in religious activities from several times a month to several times a week, M = 3.57, SD = 1.11. To measure perception of threat we computed the average response over the first three years of data collection to the item “Palestinians must always be fearful of danger to their security and safety” (ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly agree”). Overall, participants agreed that Palestinians must always be fearful of danger, M = 3.60, SD = .95. — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 46

Categorization

• DEFINE: Identifies religiosity operationalized as prayer + mosque attendance and threat as one Likert security item — the reader needs the exact definitions to evaluate interpretation.
• QUESTION: The threat measure is a single generically-worded item (‘must always be fearful’), not exposure to concrete conflict events — worth probing whether high baseline fear (~3.6/5) washes out variance.
• XREF: connects to: Religious behavior depends on situational context, observable action, and intergroup competition — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 19

Broader Connections

• Religious behavior depends on situational context, observable action, and intergroup competition #expands (0.75) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 19