Even though rituals often lack a clear causal link between an action and its goal, they tend to be perceived as causally effective due to their structural similarity to instrumental actions. Are these intuitions dependent on cultural representations of supernatural agents, or are they perceived as effective by themselves?
An experiment in which participants watched video clips of basketball players throwing the ball showed that ritualization—which players spontaneously perform prior to the throw—increases the expectation that it would be successful in the eyes of the observing participants. The results suggest that ritualization can influence the expectations about actions even outside of religious contexts. Moreover, the effect was observed both among participants that do not watch basketball games and participants that are basketball experts, suggesting that the effect of ritualization is judged via an intuitive and automatic heuristic.
You can find the article here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027721002420?dgcid=coauthor
In a new study published in Human Nature, LEVYNA was part of a team lead by A.K. Willard, studying how witchcraft beliefs affect social norms and behaviors. Specifically, researchers investigated whether witchcraft is regarded to be motivated by envy and how this notion influences community interactions. The findings show that, while witchcraft accusations were common, they were mostly directed at persons suspected of acting out of envy.
In an ethnographic survey-based study published in the journal Religions, D. Xygalatas and P. Maňo looked at variation in motivations for ritual practice and how it relates to the socioeconomic status of respondents. The findings indicate that whereas people of lower socioeconomic standing address more immediate concerns related to material security and safety in their ritual practices, people at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum tend to focus on the fulfillment of spiritual, social, or cultural needs.
