Ritual participation plus perceived threat converts disputed preferences into sacred values.

Evidence

The results provide support for the prediction that, under perceived threat in the context of group conflict, people who participate in religious ritual are more likely to hold issues that are under dispute as sacred values. This finding is correlative in nature and does not imply causation. However, it is consistent with our hypothesis that in intergroup conflict, group preferences may get transformed into sacred values via religious ritual, leading to situation where the core issues of the conflict become non-negotiable. — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 58

Categorization

• QUESTION: Core design question brewing: this is correlational only, so where is the causal test of threat creating sacredness separately from religiosity?
• XREF: Directly continues the line from Ginges et al. 2007 on sacred values and ‘devoted actors’; also connects to Atran’s work on the backfire of rational/moral correction against sacred-value beliefs. — 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 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; Sacred values can form quickly through ritual and perceived group threat. — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 8 (+13 more)

Related

• Participation in religious ritual creates sacred values, especially under group threat. (similarity 0.95)
• Perceived out-group threat amplifies ritual-driven sacralization of values. (similarity 0.93)
• Participation in religious ritual and perceived group threat jointly make people sacralize preferences. (similarity 0.93)
• Religious ritual participation increases sacred values even on non-religious topics. (similarity 0.93)
• External threat drives groups to ritualize preferences into sacred values (similarity 0.92)
• Participation in religious ritual, not broader psychological traits, predicts sacred values. (similarity 0.91)
• Sacred values can form quickly through ritual and perceived group threat. (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 0.87)
• Sacralized values resist material incentives and cause offer-driven concessions to backfire (similarity 0.85)
• Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran — Religion, group threat and sacred values (similarity 0.85)
• Religion bundles separable traits whose conflict roles must be disaggregated (similarity 0.83)
• Sacred values resist material incentives and are best countered only by rival sacred values. (similarity 0.83)
• Sacred values bind group identity and give groups advantage through non-rational commitment. (similarity 0.82)
• Sacred-value commitment produces costly sacrifice that lets weak groups beat stronger foes. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Religious ritual converts secular values into sacred ones that harden conflict #corroborates (0.92)
• Reducing sacred values to material ones worsens conflict #corroborates (0.78)
• Moral intuitions bind strangers into sacred communities that outcompete rivals #corroborates (0.78) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 465
• Material incentives backfire on sacred values while symbolic recognition softens opposition. #corroborates (0.75) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 547
• Offering material incentives for sacred-value compromises backfires and increases hostility #corroborates (0.72) — Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges, Sacred Values and Cultural Conflict, 67