Participation in religious ritual creates sacred values, especially under group threat.

Evidence

In this paper, we report three empirical studies that tested specific hypotheses drawn form these broad theoretical assertions regarding the interactive roles of religious ritual and group threat in the creation and spread of sacred values within a community. Specifically, we predicted: (1) that the more an individual took part in religious ritual, the more likely he or she would be to report a preference to be a sacred value, even in cases where these preferences had no obvious religious content (Study 1 and Study 3); (2) that priming reminders of religious ritual would cause people to claim more sacred values (Study 2); and (4) that the effect of participation in religious ritual on the likelihood of holding sacred values will be accentuated under conditions of high perceived threat to the in-group (Study 3). — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 16

Categorization

• XREF: This is the exact empirical test of the ‘iron band forming under fear’ threat-to-sacralization mechanism the reader is researching across authors Sheikh, Ginges, Coman & Atran. — connects to: Participation in religious ritual and perceived group threat jointly make people sacralize preferences. — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 3; Merely reminding people of religious ritual raises how many sacred values they claim. — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 30; Merely reminding Muslims of their religiosity increases how many values they call sacred — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 37 (+7 more)
• QUESTION: Testable: does the ritual-threat interactionhold up across cultures, or is it a WEIRD-psychology artifact?

Related

• Participation in religious ritual and perceived group threat jointly make people sacralize preferences. (similarity 0.96)
• Perceived out-group threat amplifies ritual-driven sacralization of values. (similarity 0.95)
• Ritual participation plus perceived threat converts disputed preferences into sacred values. (similarity 0.95)
• Religious ritual participation increases sacred values even on non-religious topics. (similarity 0.94)
• Participation in religious ritual, not broader psychological traits, predicts sacred values. (similarity 0.93)
• Sacred values can form quickly through ritual and perceived group threat. (similarity 0.92)
• Merely reminding people of religious ritual raises how many sacred values they claim. (similarity 0.92)
• External threat drives groups to ritualize preferences into sacred values (similarity 0.92)
• Merely reminding Muslims of their religiosity increases how many values they call sacred (similarity 0.89)
• Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran — Religion, group threat and sacred values (similarity 0.85)
• Sacred values bind group identity and give groups advantage through non-rational commitment. (similarity 0.82)
• Groups may posture sacred claims that are not deeply held identity commitments (similarity 0.81)
• 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)
• Sacralized values resist material incentives and cause offer-driven concessions to backfire (similarity 0.79)

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
• 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
• Religious ritual converts secular values into sacred ones that harden conflict #expands (0.90)
• Participation in religious ritual, not broader psychological traits, predicts sacred values. #expands (0.85) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 26
• Religious ritual participation increases sacred values even on non-religious topics. #expands (0.80) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 29