The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework

Traditionally, ritual has been studied from broad sociocultural perspectives, with little consideration of the psychological processes at play. Recently, however, psychologists have begun turning their attention to the study of ritual, uncovering the causal mechanisms driving this universal aspect o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality and social psychology review Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 260 - 284
Main Authors: Hobson, Nicholas M., Schroeder, Juliana, Risen, Jane L., Xygalatas, Dimitris, Inzlicht, Michael
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2018
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:
Behavioral economics
Ceremonial Behavior
Cognition
Cognitive science
Culture
Emotions
Function
Goals
Humans
Psychological theories
Psychological Theory
Psychology
Rituals
Self-Control
Social Behavior
Social psychology
Sociocultural factors
self-regulation
emotion
group processes
social cognition
culture/ethnicity
ritual
ISSN:1088-8683, 1532-7957, 1532-7957
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Traditionally, ritual has been studied from broad sociocultural perspectives, with little consideration of the psychological processes at play. Recently, however, psychologists have begun turning their attention to the study of ritual, uncovering the causal mechanisms driving this universal aspect of human behavior. With growing interest in the psychology of ritual, this article provides an organizing framework to understand recent empirical work from social psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, behavioral economics, and neuroscience. Our framework focuses on three primary regulatory functions of rituals: regulation of (a) emotions, (b) performance goal states, and (c) social connection. We examine the possible mechanisms underlying each function by considering the bottom-up processes that emerge from the physical features of rituals and top-down processes that emerge from the psychological meaning of rituals. Our framework, by appreciating the value of psychological theory, generates novel predictions and enriches our understanding of ritual and human behavior more broadly.
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ISSN:1088-8683
1532-7957
1532-7957
DOI:10.1177/1088868317734944