Material incentives backfire on sacred values while symbolic recognition softens opposition.

Evidence

The researchers reported a backfire effect: when material incentives were offered in return for compromise over sacred values, opposition to compromise actually hardened. However, when the adversary made symbolic gestures such as offering an apology, opposition to compromise softened. People, often those in dominant groups who are asked to do the apologizing, often ask, what is the point of offering a public apology? What difference would it make when what’s done is done? The answer is, it makes a significant difference in the realm of the sacred. It turns out that recognition of the other’s suffering, or appreciating their core values, even if we on this side do not share them, transforms the dynamic of conflict. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 547

The researchers reported a backfire effect: when material incentives were offered in return for compromise over sacred values, opposition to compromise actually hardened. However, when the adversary made symbolic gestures such as offering an apology, opposition to compromise softened. People, often those in dominant groups who are asked to do the apologizing, often ask, what is the point of offering a public apology? What difference would it make when what’s done is done? The answer is, it makes a significant difference in the realm of the sacred. It turns out that recognition of the other’s suffering, or appreciating their core values, even if we on this side do not share them, transforms the dynamic of conflict. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 547

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A paradigm-shifting empirical result: the counterintuitive asymmetry between material bribes (which harden opposition) and symbolic reciprocity (which softens it) is dense with implications for everything from diplomacy to interpersonal conflict — the sort of finding a reader returns to again and again.
• XREF: Strongly relevant to the reader’s analytical frame: the Japanese authorities use the fumi-e as a coercive material/behavioral test, which by this logic would harden rather than soften — whereas recognition-based symbolic gestures might be the path that actually transforms. — connects to: Some religious prohibitions against social media have backfired as publicity. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 592; Economically marginal commons persist by carrying symbolic and memorial weight. — Emil Sandström and Ann-Kristin Ekman and Karl-Johan Lindholm, Commoning in the periphery – The role…, 93; Sanctions targeting deviants can backfire by worsening the conduct of natural compliers. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 978 (+18 more)
• SEED: An essay angle: ‘why apologies work when payoffs fail’ — the psychology of symbolic versus material conflict resolution.
• QUESTION: Does this imply the Inquisition’s material incentives and torture would perversely harden Japanese Christians rather than convert them?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 547