Ritual intuitions: cognitive contributions to judgements of ritual efficacy
Lawson and McCauley (1990) have argued that non-cultured regularities in how actions are conceptualized inform and constrain participants' understandings of religious rituals. This theory of ritual competence generates three predictions: 1) People with little or no knowledge of any given ritual...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Brill
2001
|
| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1826272317075881984 |
|---|---|
| author | Barrett, J Lawson, E |
| author_facet | Barrett, J Lawson, E |
| author_sort | Barrett, J |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Lawson and McCauley (1990) have argued that non-cultured regularities in how actions are conceptualized inform and constrain participants' understandings of religious rituals. This theory of ritual competence generates three predictions: 1) People with little or no knowledge of any given ritual system will have intuitions about the potential effectiveness of a ritual given minimal information about the structure of the ritual. 2) The representation of superhuman agency in the action structure will be considered the most important factor contributing to effectiveness. 3) Having an appropriate intentional agent initiate the action will be considered relatively more important than any specific action to be performed. These three predictions were tested in two experiments with 128 North American Protestant college students who rated the probability of various fictitious rituals to be effective in bringing about a specified consequence. Results support Lawson and McCauley's predictions and suggest that expectations regarding ordinary social actions apply to religious rituals. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:10:39Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:51ad97ab-3572-450b-96a2-727aa84df8d7 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:10:39Z |
| publishDate | 2001 |
| publisher | Brill |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:51ad97ab-3572-450b-96a2-727aa84df8d72022-03-26T16:21:02ZRitual intuitions: cognitive contributions to judgements of ritual efficacyJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:51ad97ab-3572-450b-96a2-727aa84df8d7AnthropologyEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetBrill2001Barrett, JLawson, ELawson and McCauley (1990) have argued that non-cultured regularities in how actions are conceptualized inform and constrain participants' understandings of religious rituals. This theory of ritual competence generates three predictions: 1) People with little or no knowledge of any given ritual system will have intuitions about the potential effectiveness of a ritual given minimal information about the structure of the ritual. 2) The representation of superhuman agency in the action structure will be considered the most important factor contributing to effectiveness. 3) Having an appropriate intentional agent initiate the action will be considered relatively more important than any specific action to be performed. These three predictions were tested in two experiments with 128 North American Protestant college students who rated the probability of various fictitious rituals to be effective in bringing about a specified consequence. Results support Lawson and McCauley's predictions and suggest that expectations regarding ordinary social actions apply to religious rituals. |
| spellingShingle | Anthropology Barrett, J Lawson, E Ritual intuitions: cognitive contributions to judgements of ritual efficacy |
| title | Ritual intuitions: cognitive contributions to judgements of ritual efficacy |
| title_full | Ritual intuitions: cognitive contributions to judgements of ritual efficacy |
| title_fullStr | Ritual intuitions: cognitive contributions to judgements of ritual efficacy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ritual intuitions: cognitive contributions to judgements of ritual efficacy |
| title_short | Ritual intuitions: cognitive contributions to judgements of ritual efficacy |
| title_sort | ritual intuitions cognitive contributions to judgements of ritual efficacy |
| topic | Anthropology |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT barrettj ritualintuitionscognitivecontributionstojudgementsofritualefficacy AT lawsone ritualintuitionscognitivecontributionstojudgementsofritualefficacy |