Sacred values resist material trade-offs and respond to symbolic meaning

Evidence

Sacred values are immune to trade-offs and seem insensitive to outcome. For example, if I consider my house “sacred” because it has a special place in my family history, or if the house was a national or religious monument, I would not sell it no matter what price I was offered. In fact I would take offense to such an offer and get very angry! Interviews show that would-be suicide bombers and their supporters don’t care much about how many people are killed—what matters more to them is the meaning of the act and the message it sends to one’s community and to one’s enemy. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 545

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the ‘devoted actor model’ and sacred values as distinct from instrumental rational-actor behavior.
• XREF: Directly feeds the reader’s Big God / fumi-e analysis: the trampling forces apostasy precisely because the sacred is immune to material trade-offs but vulnerable to symbolic meaning.