Autobiographical Memory in a Fire-Walking Ritual

Abstract

Anthropological theories have discussed the efffects of participation in high-arousal rituals in the formation of autobiographical memory; however, precise measurements for such efffects are lacking. In this study, we examined episodic recall among participants in a highly arousing firewalking ritual. To assess arousal, we used heart rate measurements. To assess the dynamics of episodic memories, we obtained reports immediately after the event and two months later. We evaluated memory accuracy from video footage. Immediately after the event, participants' reports revealed limited recall, low confijidence and high accuracy. Two months later we found more inaccurate memories and higher confijidence. Whereas cognitive theories of ritual have predicted flashbulb memories for highly arousing rituals, we found that memories were strongly suppressed immediately after the event and only later evolved confijidence and detail. Physiological measurements revealed a spectacular discrepancy between actual heart rates and self-reported arousal. This dissociation between subjective reports and objective measurements of arousal is consistent with a cognitive resource depletion model. We argue that expressive suppression may provide a link between individual memories and cultural understandings of high-arousal rituals.

The Ties That Bind Us

“…For example, performers of the kavadi ritual in Mauritius scream and shed tears of agony as they are pierced with needles and skewers, but upon being asked, they typically deny having felt any dysphoria. Physiological measurements of painful rituals have shown extreme levels of arousal while the performers themselves might be oblivious to those states (Xygalatas et al 2013a) or even experience the event as pleasant (Fischer et al 2014). Furthermore, the same event can have radically divergent emotional quality for different types of participants based on their ritual role, bringing pleasure to some and suffering to others .…”

Cognitive Science of Religion

“…To deal with this problem, CSR scholars also turn towards naturalistic experiments to provide empirical data while addressing both sides of the cognition and culture continuum. These studies have used a variety of methods such as physiological measurements (Fischer et al 2014;Xygalatas et al 2013b), facial expression analyses (Bulbulia et al 2013), contextual primes , economic games (Sosis and Ruffle 2004), or various combinations thereof.…”

Religious Belief, Evolution of

“…Various teams have performed field experiments among people who use firewalking and/or piercing rituals. The main hypotheses that have been tested concern whether extreme rituals promote prosociality and solidarity (Konvalinka et al, 2011;Xygalatas et al, 2013a;Fischer et al, 2013), whether extreme rituals stimulate episodic memory (Xygalatas et al, 2013b), and whether rhythm and synchrony promote prosociality (Cohen et al, 2010;Reddish et al, 2014). All of these hypotheses are well-known in the science of religion literature and in psychological literature.…”