The Comparative Study of Wild and Doctrinal Religion

Strand 1: Ritual and Commitment in Wild Religion

Research Team: Robert Jagiello, Ming Zhao, & Harvey Whitehouse

The Bifocal Stance Theory posits that individuals adopt either a ritual stance, which prioritizes social affiliation and norm adherence, or an instrumental stance, which emphasizes efficiency in achieving goal-directed outcomes. Research conducted by Jagiello and Whitehouse on this part of the project has produced the first experimental evidence that adult individuals experiencing ostracism exhibit significantly higher copying fidelity for magical and ritualistic actions compared to instrumental ones. Our findings challenge existing accounts of cultural learning, which argue that end-goals alone drive cultural transmission. We argue that integrating both affiliative and instrumental perspectives is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the psychological foundations of cultural learning.

Nevertheless, a closely related explanation for ritual participation is that it serves as a costly signal of commitment to the group. To adjudicate between these two potential motivations for participation in rituals, Zhao and colleagues ran a study with in New Zealand with 61 children aged 7 to 9 years (33 girls, 64% Oceanians, 44% from families with higher university degrees). After being shown a ritual performed by ingroup members we assessed participants’ willingness to incur a cost to learn the ritual when led to believe they were being observed or not observed by ingroup members. We found that while children in both conditions were equally likely to learn the ritual, they were more likely to pay a cost to do so when observed by their group. This suggests that although affiliation motivates ritual learning in general, participation in costly rituals is additionally motivated by a desire to signal commitment to the group.

Strand 2: Moral Dimensions of Wild and Doctrinal Religions

Research Team: Lukas Reinhardt and Harvey Whitehouse

How is wild religion manifested in modern societies? And can the elements of our evolved psychology expressed through wild religion be harnessed to promote cooperation and social cohesion? 

To answer these questions, we use both existing large-scale data sets such as the World Value Survey and the World Relationships Survey and new data covering 12,000 participants from 40 cultural groups that capture religious beliefs, social relations and value systems in modern societies. We aim to establish which elements from wild and organized religion complement each other, both on an individual level – for instance when an individual believes in key aspects of the doctrine of an organized religion but also in local supernatural agents such as spirits – and on the societal level. We also analyse whether wild religion can foster relational ties and cooperation on the local level complementing organized religion which often strengthens categorical ties and cooperation with the religious ingroup. In order to answer these questions, we employ econometric methods that allow us to compare adherents of wild religion, adherents of organized religion, and non-religious individuals who are apart from their religious beliefs as similar as possible.

Finally, we also analyse whether the traces wild religion has left in our psychology can be harnessed to foster group cooperation for instance in speeches by political leaders who include appeals to various moral values as well as ritual, instrumental, and quasi-instrumental appeals in their speeches.

Strand 3: The Domestication of Wild Religion

Research Team: Harvey Whitehouse, Alan Covey, and Pieter Francois

This research strand explores how the social consequences of religion change with the rise of empires. Do they become more focused on otherworldly goals? Do they become more universalistic and encompassing? Does their relationship to power structures change, and if so, how?

To answer these questions, we are assembling a sample of ten world regions spanning the Americas, Africa, Oceania, Europe, and various subdivisions of Asia. In each world region we are collecting information on key features of wild and doctrinal religious belief and practice in two polities: one of the major empires to have emerged in or spread to that world region and one of the polities of the states in that world region which was present immediately before the empire arose from it or spread to engulf it.

 Our main focus is on how the social consequences of religion change during imperial transitions. Do they become more focused on otherworldly goals? Do they become more universalistic and encompassing? Does their relationship to power structures change, and if so, how? The results of this research will be published by De Gruyter in a substantial volume covering twenty imperial transitions using data from forty polities in world history.