The Social Functions of Group Rituals
Abstract
Convergent developments across social scientific disciplines provide evidence that ritual is a psychologically prepared, culturally inherited, behavioral trademark of our species. We draw on evidence from the anthropological and evolutionary-science literatures to offer a psychological account of the social functions of ritual for group behavior. Solving the adaptive problems associated with group living requires psychological mechanisms for identifying group members, ensuring their commitment to the group, facilitating cooperation with coalitions, and maintaining group cohesion. The intersection of these lines of inquiry yields new avenues for theory and research on the evolution and ontogeny of social group cognition.
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Rituals serve many psychological functions.
“Despite rituals' lack of clear instrumental purpose, it is now well known that rituals serve many psychological functions (e.g., Boyer & Liénard, 2006;Watson-Jones & Legare, 2016).”
From The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework (2018) · cites this paper as Watson-Jones & Legare, 2016
Cites
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“For example, the longevity of religious communes is related to the amount of costly rituals in which group members are required to engage (Sosis & Bressler, 2003).”
BackgroundLet’s Dance Together: Synchrony, Shared Intentionality and Cooperation
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The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework
Hobson, N. M., Schroeder, J., Risen, J. L., Xygalatas, D., & Inzlicht, M. (2018) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868317734944 · Cited by 354 · see citing works
How language shapes the cultural inheritance of categories
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Cumulative cultural learning: Development and diversity
Legare, C. H. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1620743114 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
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Pelletier, P. (2018) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/jasp.12526 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
- Authors
- Watson-Jones, R. E., & Legare, C. H.
- Affiliations
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Corresponding author
- Legare, Cristine H.
- ORCID
- Legare, Cristine H.
- Venue
- Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-02
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 42-46
- ISSN
- 0963-7214 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8721
- OpenAlex
- W2326787168
- Cited by
- 248
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 35.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Directions in Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/I005455/1)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- ritual, collective ritual, social function of ritual, group cognition, group cohesion, group identification, group commitment, cooperation, coalitions, ritual evolution, cultural evolution
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