Ritual synchrony alone generates trust and reduces freeriding among participants

Evidence

Do synchronous activities encourage prosocial behavior toward group members? They do. Scott Wiltermuth and Chip Heath had participants play what is called a common resource pool game. In this game, participants could freeride, or they could contribute to the group by suppressing their self-interest. Before playing this group economic game, participants were randomly assigned to one experimental condition or several control conditions. In the experimental condition, they sang and moved in synchrony with other group members. In the various control conditions, they sang and moved at their own pace as individuals, or listened to music without singing or moving. Results showed that, relative to control conditions, synchrony produced greater trust and greater feelings of being on the same team, reduced levels of freeriding, and caused more willingness to cooperate with other group members. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 381

Categorization

• XREF: Directly feeds the reader’s core analytical claim: the fumi-e and congregational ritual work as synchrony/dissent mechanisms that Norenzayan (Big God) and Baumard (partner choice) predict. — connects to: Acting in synchrony with others raises individual pain tolerance and self-control — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 380
• SHARE: The controlled synchrony experiment showing even nonreligious singing in sync raises trust and cuts freeriding is a sharable snippet for anyone working on ritual/cooperation research.