Participation in Religious Groups as a Function of Group Composition: A Self‐Attention Perspective¹

Abstract

A self-attention approach to the effect of the group on the individualis applied to the phenomenon of participation in religious groups. Previous work indicates that group members become more self-attentive, and thus more concerned with matching to standards of appropriate behavior, as the relative size of their subgroup decreases. This suggests that, in the context of religious groups, members of a congregation will be more self-attentive, and thus more likely to participate in the religious group, when there are fewer congregation members relative to the number of ministers. The results of analysis of ten archival records of participation in religious groups support this perspective. The importance of self-attention processes in religious group settings is discussed.Attending a service in the Gothic cathedral, we have the sensation of being enclosed and steeped in an integral universe, and of losing a prickly sense of self in the community of worshippers.(Yi-Fu Tuan, 1 9 8 2 , '~. 127)Recent work in self-attention theory has examined the effect of the group on the individual (Carver

Without Mercy: The Immediate Impact of Group Size on Lynch Mob Atrocity

“…Festinger et al (1952) argued that sometimes people will become submerged in groups, where individuals are not seen or paid attention to as individuals, and this state of deindividuation leads to the reduction of internal restraints against transgressive behaviors (see also Diener, 1980;Mullen, 1983). Various transgressive behaviors have been interpreted as indicative of this failure to regulate personal behavior, including prosocial behavior and antisocial behavior (Mullen, 1983), reduced organizational productivity (Mullen, Johnson, & Drake, 1987), and reduced participation in religious groups (Mullen, 1984).…”

Self‐Serving Attributions for Performance in Naturalistic Settings: A Meta‐Analytic Review1

“…In comparison, the information processing perspective would expect selfserving bias effects to be unaffected by team size or, possibly, to increase as a direct function of team size. As team size increases, and as the players become less self-attentive (Diener, 1980;Mullen, 1983Mullen, , 1984Wicklund, 1980). they are likely to become less accurate in the processing and report of self-relevant information (cf.…”

Effects of strength and immediacy in group contexts: Reply to Jackson.

“…This perspective predicts that the lone target (or Self) in (b) [Other-Total Ratio = 8/(8 + 1) = .88] would become 1.76 times as self-attentive (and, possibly, 1.76 times as likely to match to standards of behavior) as the lone target in (a) [Other-Total Ratio = 1/(1 + 1) = .50]. This type of approach lacks the benefit of hindsight, and yet seems able to predict a considerable range of social behaviors with precision (Mullen, 1983, 1984, 1985b, 1985c, in press; Mullen, Johnson, & Drake, 1985; Mullen & Peaugh, 1985).…”