Religion, group threat and sacred values
Journal Title: Judgment and Decision Making - Year 2012, Vol 7, Issue 2
Abstract
Sacred or protected values have important influences on decision making, particularly in the context of intergroup disputes. Thus far, we know little about the process of a value becoming sacred or why one person may be more likely than another to hold a sacred value. We present evidence that participation in religious ritual and perceived threat to the group lead people to be more likely to consider preferences as protected or sacred values. Specifically, three studies carried out with Americans and Palestinians show: (a) that the more people participate in religious ritual the more likely they are to report a preference to be a sacred value (Studies 1–3); (b) that people claim more sacred values when they are reminded of religious ritual (Study 2); and (c) that the effect of religious ritual on the likelihood of holding a sacred value is amplified by the perception of high threat to the in-group (Study 3). We discuss implications of these findings for understanding intergroup conflicts, and suggest avenues for future research into the emergence and spread of sacred values.
Authors and Affiliations
Hammad Sheikh, Jeremy Ginges, Alin Coman and Scott Atran
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP677878
- DOI -
- Views 141
- Downloads 0
A short form of the Maximization Scale: Factor structure, reliability and validity studies
We conducted an analysis of the 13-item Maximization Scale (Schwartz et al., 2002) with the goal of establishing its factor structure, reliability and validity. We also investigated the psychometric properties of several...
Establishing the relevance of non-compensatory choice algorithms from stated choice surveys – an exploration
In applied sciences large-scale surveys are a popular means to acquire insights in the choices that people make in different contexts. In transportation research, for example, tens of thousands stated their choices betwe...
A simple remedy for overprecision in judgment
Overprecision is the most robust type of overconfidence. We present a new method that significantly reduces this bias and offers insight into its underlying cause. In three experiments, overprecision was significantly re...
Recalled emotions and risk judgments: Field study of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War
The current study is based on a field study of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war that was conducted in two waves, the first two weeks after the end of the war, and the second 18 months later (2008). The purpose of the study wa...
Are good reasoners more incest-friendly? Trait cognitive reflection predicts selective moralization in a sample of American adults
Two studies examined the relationship between individual differences in cognitive reflection (CRT) and the tendency to accord genuinely moral (non-conventional) status to a range of counter-normative acts — that is, to t...