Reducing sacred values to material ones worsens conflict

Evidence

Because the model organism in psychology, economics, and cognitive science is WEIRD, there is a mountain of scientific research on instrumental values. But we know embarrassingly little about sacred values—how they emerge, operate, and influence actions. However, ignoring sacred values, or treating them as if they are a more expensive or extravagant version of material values, as is often done by policymakers and negotiators in the West, not only does not help resolve conflict, it exacerbates it. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 548

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core argument about Father Rodrigues’ un-trampleable sacred values vs. the Japanese authorities’ instrumental calculus — the analytical bridge this book is being read for.
• DEFINE: Defines sacred values as held with absolute conviction and inviolable, in contrast to instrumentally weighted WEIRD material values.
• SEED: Article angle: negotiators who price sacred commitments into cost-benefit frameworks actively inflame the very conflicts they aim to settle — the fumi-e as literal imagery.

Related

• Ignoring sacred values in negotiation actively worsens conflicts (similarity 0.93)
• Material incentives harden sacred-value conflicts while symbolic gestures soften them (similarity 0.87)
• Material offers to resolve sacred-value conflicts backfire and increase violence, while symbolic concessions work. (similarity 0.85)
• Sacred values resist material incentives and are best countered only by rival sacred values. (similarity 0.83)
• Religion bundles separable traits whose conflict roles must be disaggregated (similarity 0.83)
• Sacred values are inviolable in conviction yet flexible in application (similarity 0.83)
• Sacred values resist material trade-offs and respond to symbolic meaning (similarity 0.82)
• Sacred values resist tradeoffs because communities set them apart as nonfungible moral imperatives. (similarity 0.82)
• Sacralized values resist material incentives and cause offer-driven concessions to backfire (similarity 0.82)
• Offering material incentives for sacred-value compromises backfires and increases hostility (similarity 0.82)
• Defending sacred values defies material cost-benefit prediction across decision contexts. (similarity 0.81)
• Sacred values and resource scarcity create an irreconcilable tension in social life. (similarity 0.81)
• Material incentives for relinquishing sacred values backfire and harden resistance (similarity 0.80)
• Sacred values are inviolable in conviction yet flexible in application due to interpretive ambiguity (similarity 0.80)
• Sacralization transforms mundane disputes into prolonged, nonnegotiable existential conflicts. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Sacred values’ interpretive ambiguity allows peace-oriented reframing #qualifies (0.85)
• Religion can override political rights and material gains when believers hold it inviolable #corroborates (0.85)
• Misunderstanding sacred values caused Western policy failures on extremism #contradicts (0.75)