Sacred-value commitment produces costly sacrifice that lets weak groups beat stronger foes.

Evidence

Uncompromising wars, revolution, rights movements, and today’s global terrorism are in part driven by “devoted actors” who adhere to sacred, transcendent values that generate actions dissociated from rationally expected risks and rewards. Studies in real-world conflicts show ways that devoted actors, who are unconditionally committed to sacred causes and whose personal identities are fused within a unique collective identity, willingly make costly sacrifices. This enables low-power groups to endure and often prevail against materially stronger foes. — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor, 1

Categorization

• DEFINE: Crisply defines the ‘devoted actor’ concept central to the reader’s research — unconditional commitment plus identity fusion generating actions dissociated from cost-benefit.
• XREF: connects to: Devoted lower-power groups can beat materially stronger paid foes. — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 10; Moralizing gods and costly rituals coevolved to boost in-group cooperation and out-compete rivals. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 431; Moral commitment to sacred values leverages movements lacking material means against stronger opposition. — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 46 (+12 more)

Related

• Devoted lower-power groups can beat materially stronger paid foes. (similarity 0.88)
• Sacred values resist material incentives and are best countered only by rival sacred values. (similarity 0.88)
• Sacred values resist cost-benefit correction unlike ordinary preferences (similarity 0.86)
• Sacred-values-driven violence is insensitive to cost-benefit scope. (similarity 0.85)
• Sacred values resist tradeoffs because communities set them apart as nonfungible moral imperatives. (similarity 0.85)
• Moral commitment to sacred values leverages movements lacking material means against stronger opposition. (similarity 0.85)
• Sacred values can form quickly through ritual and perceived group threat. (similarity 0.84)
• Sacred values are processed as unconditional rules, not cost-benefit calculations. (similarity 0.83)
• Sacralized values resist material incentives and cause offer-driven concessions to backfire (similarity 0.83)
• Sacred values and identity fusion interact to drive sacrificial self-interest. (similarity 0.82)
• Sacred values bind group identity and give groups advantage through non-rational commitment. (similarity 0.82)
• Ritual participation plus perceived threat converts disputed preferences into sacred values. (similarity 0.82)
• External threat drives groups to ritualize preferences into sacred values (similarity 0.82)
• Moralizing gods and costly rituals coevolved to boost in-group cooperation and out-compete rivals. (similarity 0.81)
• Offering material incentives for sacred-value compromises backfires and increases hostility (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Devoted lower-power groups can beat materially stronger paid foes. #corroborates (0.95) — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor, 10
• Moral commitment to sacred values leverages movements lacking material means against stronger opposition. #corroborates (0.93) — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor, 46
• The oppressed group’s apparent weakness becomes a revolutionary advantage against the enemy #corroborates (0.90) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 14
• External threat drives groups to ritualize preferences into sacred values #expands (0.90) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 14
• Sacred values bind group identity and give groups advantage through non-rational commitment. #expands (0.88) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 264
• Moralizing gods and costly rituals coevolved to boost in-group cooperation and out-compete rivals. #expands (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 431
• Participation in religious ritual and perceived group threat jointly make people sacralize preferences. #expands (0.85) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 3
• Sacred values can form quickly through ritual and perceived group threat. #expands (0.82) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 8
• Group-level selection favors tribes whose members sacrifice for the common good #expands (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 453
• Sacrifice itself can generate the value of its goal #expands (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 242
• Offering material incentives for sacred-value compromises backfires and increases hostility #exemplifies (0.72) — Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges, Sacred Values and Cultural Conflict, 67
• Sacralized values resist material incentives and cause offer-driven concessions to backfire #exemplifies (0.72) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 5
• In bargaining, seeming weakness can convert into strategic strength. #exemplifies (0.70) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 130