Despite moral norms’ cross-cultural and temporal variation, we often perceive them as independent of time, culture, and subjects. Radim, Jan, Martin, and Radek examined what role religious rituals play in this process of norm objectivization.
The authors elaborate on anthropologist Roy Rappaport, who argued that the performative element of rituals “materializes” these norms. The paper argues that this materiality manifests as norm objectivity in our psychology. The results reported in the new paper provide initial correlational evidence that the more frequently people attend rituals, the more objectively they perceive moral norms, and this effect is associated with rituals' performative aspects. You can find the paper here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/IY8QRSMK8GP2MFMNFAV7/full?target=10.1080/10508619.2022.2121454
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.
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.
