New research on costly rituals among university fraternities

Have you ever heard about or actually underwent initiation rituals that are obligatory for membership in a college fraternity or sorority? You may be interested in a new study featuring LEVYNA! Famous for their forced drinking, beating, tattooing or other forms of hazing, college initiation rituals are often directly inspired by costly religious rituals. However, do they also positively affect in-group cooperation? We compared decisions in an economic trust game between members of US fraternities and members of university social clubs and classrooms, observing that members of both fraternities and social clubs trusted more to each other compared to classrooms. The lack of difference between fraternities and clubs suggests that costly rituals we often observe in religious ceremonies accrue larger benefits because they also involve deep commitment to the supernatural.

8 Mar 2018

6 Mar

Uncertainty in a sensory deprived environment triggers the feeling of another person’s presence

In a paper published in Religion, Brain & Behavior, J. Nenadalová & D. Řezníček demonstrated that some study participants in a sensory-deprived laboratory environment sensed the presence of another person. This feeling was mostly associated with perceived uncertainty and only somewhat associated with psychological dispositions.
16 Feb

Descriptive norms about gender equality at home were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic

In a cross-national investigation published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, F. M. Saxler with LEVYNA’s E. Kundtová Klocová and other colleagues show that the COVID-19 pandemic affected young people’s normative beliefs about unpaid domestic work; and that this effect is stronger in countries with greater gender inequality.
16 Feb

New paper on the role of costly signals during intergroup conflict

In a series of experimental studies M. Lang with R. Chvaja and B. G. Purzycki demonstrated that costly signals assort more cooperative participants who create ultra-cooperative, successful groups.
8 Jan

New book on the evolution of religion and morality

This volume draws on a unique dataset to answer pressing questions about human religiosity. Building upon the first volume in this series, it presents results from the second phase of the Evolution of Religion and Morality project in a book format. This volume was edited by Martin Lang et al.

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New research on costly rituals among university fraternities

More articles

Uncertainty in a sensory deprived environment triggers the feeling of another person’s presence

Descriptive norms about gender equality at home were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic

New paper on the role of costly signals during intergroup conflict

New book on the evolution of religion and morality