Scott Atran and Jeremy Ginges — Sacred Values and Cultural Conflict

11 published claims from this book.

• Elites can sway people by reframing sacred values as secular tradeoffs.
• Field experiments with 601 settlers tested compromise on land and right of return.
• Groups may posture sacred claims that are not deeply held identity commitments
• Iranians hold the nuclear program sacred for status, not destructive capability
• Material incentives for relinquishing sacred values backfire and harden resistance
• Material offers to resolve sacred-value conflicts backfire and increase violence, while symbolic concessions work.
• Offering material incentives for sacred-value compromises backfires and increases hostility
• Public prayer rituals primarily reinforce group identity rather than mere belief.
• Sacred values engage deontic rule processing, not utilitarian cost-benefit calculation
• Sacred values resist tradeoffs because communities set them apart as nonfungible moral imperatives.
• Symbolic recognition, not material incentives, opens negotiations over sacred values