Ritualization increases the perceived efficacy of instrumental actions

Xygalatas, Dimitris; Maňo, Peter; Pinto, Gabriela Baranowski

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104823

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…GM from Case 3 summed it up by saying that he will certainly gain something by doing it, even if this 'something' is vague or unknown. Scientific evidence supports the notion that humans intuitively assess ritual efficacy (Legare, Souza 2012;Xygalatas, Maňo, Baranowski-Pinto, 2021) and that these assessments are, to an extent, founded upon the costliness of rituals. In other words, the more effort that goes into participation ("the more you give"), the bigger the expected benefits ("the more you get") (Festinger, Riecken, Schachter, 1956).…”

Section: Discussion -Ritual Choice Efficacy and Costsmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Research shows that people make intuitive judgments about ritual efficacy. Ritual actions are perceived as special compared to ordinary actions (Kapitány, Nielsen, 2015;Nielbo, Sørensen, 2011;Herrmann, Legare, Harris, Whitehouse, 2013), and they appear to have causal effects on the world (Woolley, Rhoads, 2017;Xygalatas, Maňo, Baranowski-Pinto, 2021). These human intuitions are sensitive to certain structural properties of ritual (Legare, Souza, 2012), key among which are the cost and effort associated with their performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ritual Form and Ritual Choice among Mauritian Hindus

Maňo¹,

Xygalatas²

2022

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People's motivations to partake in religious rituals often relate to external socio-cultural forces such as tradition, ancestry, and peer-pressure, or deep personal convictions centered around devotion, gratitude, or spiritual experience, among others. Simultaneously, however, devotees may also have pragmatic motivations for practicing rituals, such as the need for protection, wellbeing, or socializing, or may see those rituals as a means of fulfilling their wishes. Importantly, the deity addressed in the ritual largely defines the scope and area of divine intervention and help. But all else being equal, why do people choose to engage in the specific rituals that they do, especially given that some are much costlier than others? Our fieldwork suggests that perceived ritual efficacy could be a key cognitive factor at play: people seek rituals that they consider appropriate (in terms of their structure and focus) and proportionate (in terms of their costs) to their needs and expectations. This almost contractual logic of ritual performance is best demonstrated by the concept of promise that is quintessential to the biggest religious festivals of three Hindu communities in Mauritius discussed in this paper.

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Section: Discussion -Ritual Choice Efficacy and Costsmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ritual Form and Ritual Choice among Mauritian Hindus

Maňo¹,

Xygalatas²

2022

Self Cite

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“…For instance, the belief that rituals are effective in mitigating the anxiety-provoking threat may further boost the effects of ritualized behavior. Indeed, research shows that repetitive and rigid behaviors are perceived as more effective 41 , 42 and simply telling participants that they are performing an efficient ritual facilitates anxiety decrease even if the movement sequence is identical 43 . Moreover, in our study, we used an impromptu performed repetitive behavior unknown to participants, which is in stark contrast to how rituals are usually performed, that is, as sequences of movements and verbalizations learned through long-term practice, often from a very young age.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of predictable behavioral patterns on anxiety dynamics

Lang

Krátký

Xygalatas

2022

Sci Rep

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People face stressors that are beyond their control and that maladaptively perpetuate anxiety. In these contexts, rituals emerge as a natural coping strategy helping decrease excessive anxiety. However, mechanisms facilitating these purported effects have rarely been studied. We hypothesized that repetitive and rigid ritual sequences help the human cognitive-behavioral system to return to low-entropy states and assuage anxiety. This study reports a pre-registered test of this hypothesis using a Czech student sample (n = 268). Participants were exposed to an anxiety induction and then randomly assigned to perform one of three actions: ritualized, control, and neutral (no-activity). We assessed the effects of this manipulation on cognitive and physiological anxiety, finding that ritualized action positively affected anxiety decrease, but this decrease was only slightly larger than in the other two conditions. Nevertheless, the between-condition differences in the reduction of physiological anxiety were well-estimated in participants more susceptible to anxiety induction.

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“…At a top-down level, the cultural beliefs and expectations surrounding ritual may bring about placebo effects, which can help practitioners cope with stress and have a positive impact on the immune system (Rabin, 1999). Structural properties of ritual, too, such as repetition and rigidity, can trigger intuitive expectations about ritual efficacy (Xygalatas, Maňo, & Baranowski-Pinto, 2021) and help provide a sense of control and reduce anxiety (Lang et al, , 2020. Moreover, participation may boost performers' confidence and perceived fitness.…”

Section: Health and Healingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme Rituals

Xygalatas¹

2023

Preprint

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Ritual behavior is a human universal. We know of no society, past or present, which does not have rituals, so much so that ritual might be seen as one of the defining characteristic of our species. This in itself is a great puzzle, because rituals can entail significant, even massive, expenditures of time and resources with no immediately apparent payoffs. Nowhere is this puzzle more pronounced than in the case of certain “extreme” rituals, which involve activities that are particularly painful, stressful, dangerous, and, in some cases, even life threatening. Social theorists have proposed various answers to the puzzle of extreme rituals by suggesting that these practices serve important functions for individual participants, as well for society at large. In recent years, the cognitive science of religion has explored these functions on the basis of empirical evidence, shinning new light on this age-old puzzle.

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Ritualization increases the perceived efficacy of instrumental actions

Cited by 5 publications

References 21 publications

Ritual Form and Ritual Choice among Mauritian Hindus

Ritual Form and Ritual Choice among Mauritian Hindus

Effects of predictable behavioral patterns on anxiety dynamics

Extreme Rituals

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