Pain and suffering as part of religious life: The Mauritian Thaipusam kavadi
In a pop-science article published in Dingir, E. Kundtová Klocová discusses the various socio-cultural aspects of the Thaipusam Kavadi ritual as practiced in Mauritius.
Experimentally testing the existential insecurity hypothesis
In a new Registered Report published in Collabra, M. Lang and R. Chvaja experimentally tested whether secular individuals would be willing to join religious groups when threatened with cooperative insecurity. The results showed that while this effect was weak in a behavioral test, a self-reported willingness to join was much stronger than anticipated.
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The study tested two theories of secularization: rationalizing worldviews and decreasing existential insecurity. Researchers used an economic game (modified Nash demand game) with 811 secular participants from the USA and Poland. Participants were randomly placed in secure or insecure environments and chose between joining normative groups with or without religious framing. Results supported the existential insecurity theory, showing participants were more likely to join religious normative groups in the insecure environment, although this effect was imprecisely estimated in the behavioral test. In the discussion, the authors interpret the results in light of conversion theories and discuss discrepancies between stated and actual behavior. |
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https://online.ucpress.edu/collabra/article/10/1/126508/204054/Mechanisms-of-Secularization-Testing-Between-the |
