![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
Convergent developments across social scientific disciplines provide evidence that ritual is a psychologically prepared, culturally inherited, behavioral trademark of our species. We draw on evidence from the anthropological and evolutionary-science literatures to offer a psychological account of the social functions of ritual for group behavior. Solving the adaptive problems associated with group living requires psychological mechanisms for identifying group members, ensuring their commitment to the group, facilitating cooperation with coalitions, and maintaining group cohesion. The intersection of these lines of inquiry yields new avenues for theory and research on the evolution and ontogeny of social group cognition.
Recommended Reading
|
Boyer, P., Liénard, P. (2006). (See References). A theory of the connection between individualized ritual behavior and collective group rituals. Google Scholar | |
|
Henrich, J. (2009). (See References). An article that provides readers with an in-depth discussion of ritual as Credibility Enhancing Displays (CREDs). Google Scholar | |
|
Legare, C. H., Souza, A. L. (2012). (See References). A cognitive psychological account of reasoning about ritual efficacy. Google Scholar | |
|
Sosis, R., Alcorta, C. (2003). (See References). An overview of the costly-signaling account of religious rituals. Google Scholar | |
|
Whitehouse, H., Lanman, J. A. (2014). (See References). A comprehensive overview of the relationship between rituals and group cohesion. Google Scholar |
References
|
Antal, T., Ohtsuki, H., Wakeley, J., Taylor, P. D., Nowack, M. A. (2009). Evolution of cooperation by phenotypic similarity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 106, 8597–8600. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Bell, C. (1992). Ritual theory, ritual practice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Boyd, R., Richerson, P. J., Henrich, J. (2011). The cultural niche: Why social learning is essential for human adaptation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 108, 10918–10925. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Boyer, P., Liénard, P. (2006). Why ritualized behavior? Precaution systems and action parsing in developmental, pathological and cultural rituals. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 29, 595–650. Google Scholar | Medline | ISI | |
|
Chudek, M., Henrich, J. (2011). Culture-gene coevolution, norm-psychology, and the emergence of human prosociality. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 218–226. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Cohen, E. E., Ejsmond-Frey, R., Knight, N., Dunbar, R. I. M. (2010). Rowers’ high: Behavioural synchrony is correlated with elevated pain thresholds. Biology Letters, 6, 106–108. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Cosmides, L., Tooby, J. (2013). Evolutionary psychology: New perspectives on cognition and motivation. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 201–229. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Dunbar, R. I. M., Shultz, S. (2007). Evolution in the social brain. Science, 317, 1344–1347. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Durkheim, E. (1915). The elementary forms of religious life. London, England: Allen & Unwin. Google Scholar | |
|
Fischer, R., Callander, R., Reddish, P., Bulbulia, J. (2013). How do rituals affect cooperation? Human Nature, 24, 115–125. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetic evolution of social behavior, I and II. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 96, 647–682. Google Scholar | |
|
Hawkes, K. (2014). Primate sociality to human cooperation. Human Nature, 25, 28–48. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Henrich, J. (2009). The evolution of costly displays, cooperation, and religion: Credibility enhancing displays and their implications for cultural evolution. Evolution & Human Behavior, 30, 244–260. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Hill, K. R., Wood, B. M., Baggio, J., Hurtado, A. M., Boyd, R. (2014). Hunter-gatherer inter-band interaction rates: Implications for cumulative culture. PLoS ONE, 9(7), e102806. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102806 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Humphrey, C., Laidlaw, J. (1994). The archetypal actions of ritual: A theory of ritual illustrated by the Jain rite of worship. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Jong, J., Whitehouse, H., Kavanagh, C., Lane, J. (2015). Shared negative experiences lead to identity fusion via personal reflection. PLoS ONE, 10(12): e0145611. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145611. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Kurzban, R., Neuberg, L. (2005). Managing ingroup and outgroup relationships. In Buss, D. (Ed.), Handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 653–675). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar | |
|
Lang, M., Krátký, J., Shaver, J., Jerotijević, D., Xygalatas, D. (2015). Effects of anxiety on spontaneous ritualized behavior. Current Biology, 15, 1892–1897. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Legare, C. H., Nielsen, M. (2015). Imitation and innovation: The dual engines of cultural learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19, 688–699. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Legare, C. H., Souza, A. L. (2012). Evaluating ritual efficacy: Evidence from the supernatural. Cognition, 124, 1–15. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Legare, C.H., Souza, A.L. (2014). Searching for control: Priming randomness increases the evaluation of ritual efficacy. Cognitive Science, 38, 152–161. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Legare, C. H., Watson-Jones, R. E. (2015). The evolution and ontogeny of ritual. In Buss, D. M. (Ed.), The handbook of evolutionary psychology (pp. 829–847). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Legare, C. H., Wen, N. J., Herrmann, P. A., Whitehouse, H. (2015). Imitative flexibility and the development of cultural learning. Cognition, 142, 351–361. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
McElreath, R., Boyd, R., Richerson, P. J. (2003). Shared norms can lead to the evolution of ethnic markers. Current Anthropology, 44, 122–130. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Navarrete, C. D., Fessler, D. M. T. (2005). Normative bias and adaptive challenges: A relational approach to coalitional psychology and critique of Terror Management Theory. Evolutionary Psychology, 3, 297–325. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Nowak, M.A. (2006). Five rules for the evolution of cooperation. Science, 2014, 1560–1563. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Rappaport, R. (1999). Ritual and religion in the making of humanity. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Reader, S. M., Laland, K. N. (2002). Social intelligence, innovation, and enhanced brain size in primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 99, 4436–4441. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Reddish, P., Fischer, R., Bulbulia, J. (2013). Let’s dance together: Synchrony, shared intentionality, and cooperation. PLoS ONE, 8(8), e71182. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071182 Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Rossano, M. J. (2012). The essential role of ritual in the transmission and reinforcement of social norms. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 529–549. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Ruffle, B., Sosis, R. (2003). Religious ritual and cooperation: Testing for a relationship on Israeli religious and secular kibbutzim. Current Anthropology, 44, 713–722. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Shultz, S., Noe, R., McGraw, W. S., Dunbar, R. I. M. (2004). A community-level evaluation of the impact of prey behavioral and ecological characteristics on predator diet composition. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271, 725–732. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Soler, M. (2012). Costly-signaling, ritual and cooperation: Evidence from Candomble, and Afro-Brazilian religion. Evolution & Human Behavior, 33, 346–356. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Sosis, R., Alcorta, C. (2003). Signaling, solidarity, and the sacred: The evolution of religious behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology, 12, 264–274. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Sosis, R., Bressler, E. (2003). Cooperation and commune longevity: A test of the costly signaling theory of religion. Cross-Cultural Research, 37, 211–239. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Tooby, J., Cosmides, L., Price, M. E. (2006). Cognitive adaptations for n-person exchange: The evolutionary roots of organizational behavior. Management and Decision Economics, 27, 103–129. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | |
|
Watson-Jones, R. E., Legare, C. H., Whitehouse, H., Clegg, J. M. (2014). Task-specific effects of ostracism on imitative fidelity in early childhood. Evolution & Human Behavior, 35, 204–210. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Watson-Jones, R. E., Whitehouse, H., Legare, C. H. (2016). In-group ostracism increases high fidelity imitation in early childhood. Psychological Science. 27, 34–42. doi:10.1177/0956797615607205 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Wen, N. J., Herrmann, P. A., Legare, C. H. (2015). Ritual increases children’s affiliation with in-group members. Evolution & Human Behavior, 37, 54–60. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.08.002 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
West, S. A., El Mouden, C., Gardner, A. (2011). Sixteen common misconceptions about the evolution of cooperation in humans. Evolution & Human Behavior, 32, 231–262. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Whitehouse, H., Lanman, J. A. (2014). The ties that bind us. Current Anthropology, 55, 674–695. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Wiltermuth, S. S., Heath, C. (2009). Synchrony and cooperation. Psychological Science, 20, 1–5. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Wobber, V., Herrmann, E., Hare, B., Wrangham, R., Tomasello, M. (2014). Differences in the early cognitive development of children and great apes. Developmental Psychobiology, 56, 547–573. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Xygalatas, D., Mitkidis, P., Fischer, R., Reddish, P., Skewes, J., Geertz, A. W., . . . Bulbulia, J. (2013). Extreme rituals promote prosociality. Psychological Science, 24, 1602–1605. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Xygalatas, D., Roepstorff, A., Bulbulia, J. (2011). Quantifying collective effervescence: Heart-rate dynamics at a fire-walking ritual. Communicative & Integrative Biology, 4, 735–738. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline |
