Participation in religious ritual and perceived group threat jointly make people sacralize preferences.

Evidence

Thus far, we know little about the process of a value becoming sacred or why one person may be more likely than another to hold a sacred value. We present evidence that participation in religious ritual and perceived threat to the group lead people to be more likely to consider preferences as protected or sacred values. Specifically, three studies carried out with Americans and Palestinians show: (a) that the more people participate in religious ritual the more likely they are to report a preference to be a sacred value (Studies 1–3); (b) that people claim more sacred values when they are reminded of religious ritual (Study 2); and (c) that the effect of religious ritual on the likelihood of holding a sacred value is amplified by the perception of high threat to the in-group (Study 3). — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 3

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Direct empirical support for the ‘iron band forming under fear’ mechanism in the reader’s on-sacrifice inquiry — threat plus ritual participation generates the sacred/inalienable character that makes reasoning about trade-offs fail.
• CANDY: A crisp three-study result compressible to a single sentence: ritual attendance plus threat predicts sacralization, tested across both Americans and Palestinians.
• XREF: connects to: Ritual participation plus perceived threat converts disputed preferences into sacred values. — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 58; External threat drives groups to ritualize preferences into sacred values — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 14; Participation in religious ritual creates sacred values, especially under group threat. — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 16 (+4 more)

Related

• Participation in religious ritual creates sacred values, especially under group threat. (similarity 0.96)
• Perceived out-group threat amplifies ritual-driven sacralization of values. (similarity 0.94)
• Ritual participation plus perceived threat converts disputed preferences into sacred values. (similarity 0.93)
• External threat drives groups to ritualize preferences into sacred values (similarity 0.93)
• Sacred values can form quickly through ritual and perceived group threat. (similarity 0.92)
• Religious ritual participation increases sacred values even on non-religious topics. (similarity 0.91)
• Participation in religious ritual, not broader psychological traits, predicts sacred values. (similarity 0.91)
• Merely reminding people of religious ritual raises how many sacred values they claim. (similarity 0.89)
• Merely reminding Muslims of their religiosity increases how many values they call sacred (similarity 0.86)
• Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran — Religion, group threat and sacred values (similarity 0.85)
• Sacralized values resist material incentives and cause offer-driven concessions to backfire (similarity 0.81)
• Sacred values bind group identity and give groups advantage through non-rational commitment. (similarity 0.80)
• Religiosity predicts sacred values independent of demographics and politics. (similarity 0.80)
• Religion bundles separable traits whose conflict roles must be disaggregated (similarity 0.80)
• Sacred-value commitment produces costly sacrifice that lets weak groups beat stronger foes. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Ritual participation plus perceived threat converts disputed preferences into sacred values. #corroborates (1.00) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 58
• Participation in religious ritual creates sacred values, especially under group threat. #corroborates (0.95) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 16
• Perceived out-group threat amplifies ritual-driven sacralization of values. #corroborates (0.95) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 45
• Sacred values can form quickly through ritual and perceived group threat. #corroborates (0.90) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 8
• External threat drives groups to ritualize preferences into sacred values #corroborates (0.80) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 14
• Religious behavior depends on situational context, observable action, and intergroup competition #expands (0.75) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 19