Pragmatic and Idiosyncratic Acts in Human Everyday Routines: The Counterpart of Compulsive Rituals

Abstract

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Cognitive resource depletion in religious interactions

“…While the global functions ascribed to rituals do not necessarily match the real motivations or understandings of their performers, we may use these labels as a framework for analysis, and, within the purported global goal, search for non-functional or causally opaque episodes and acts that constitute these rituals. For this, rituals must be first divided into their structural, temporal, and spatial components (Keren, Boyer, Mort, & Eilam, 2010;Zor, Keren et al, 2009). Once we identify the various acts, locations, and objects that are involved in the context of the ritual, it is possible to assess the necessity of each component of the ritual by its apparent frequency across participants.…”

“…Specifically, the number of ritual performers exhibiting an act may serve as a reliable proxy for the relevance of that act for the ritual (Zor, Hermesh, Szechtman, & Eilam, 2009;Eilam, Zor, Fineberg, & Hermesh, 2012). Applying this methodology to compulsive rituals (Zor et al, 2010;Zor, Fineberg, Eilam, & Hermesh, 2011;Zor, Keren et al, 2009), normal motor tasks (Keren et al, 2010), and sport rituals (Keren, Boyer, Mort, Weiss, & Eilam, unpublished manuscript), we found that acts can be categorized into those performed by most ritual performers, and acts performed by only one or two individuals. The unequivocal result is that rituals comprise numerous idiosyncratic acts.…”

“…The aforementioned analyses of ritual parsing and functionality provide solid ground for the conclusion that rituals constitute a predictable set of acts and episodes, performed with high concentration and attentional focus on accurate performance (Eilam, 2006;Eilam et al, 2006;Eilam et al, 2012;Keren et al, 2010;Keren et al, unpublished manuscript;Zor, Hermesh et al, 2009;Zor, Keren et al, 2009). This is in vivid contrast with the notion presented in the target article (wrongly referring to our studies) that ''By introducing behavioral features that induce causal opaqueness and goal-demotion, ritualized behavior appears to transform ordinary actions with relatively low attentional loads on basic action perception into less predictable behavior.''…”

Religious thought and behavior

“…A crucial, if recent, movement emphasizes identifying the evolutionarily bequeathed cognitive mechanisms (in very fundamental domains) that underlie religious behaviors, rather than focusing on ‘religion’ per se, as viable research objects 22,38–41. For example, a group of researchers have recognized the relevance of studies in threat detection, risk assessment, and precautionary psychology for identifying mechanisms that play a role in ritualization, an area with clear links to everyday and pathological behaviors as well as cultural/religious rituals 34,35,42–50. Researchers have also begun targeting the roles of specific neuropeptides and the specific contexts complicit in regulating trust and cooperation tendencies 51,52.…”

Are Motor Collective Rituals as Rigid as They Seem? A Test Case of a Zulu Wedding Dance

“…Indeed, further analyses led to an alternative notion of Modal Action Pattern (MAP), suggesting that a behavioural pattern includes fijixed and variable components (Barlow, 1977). Indeed, variation and change were found to be inherent in behaviours that, at fijirst glance, seemed to be performed in a rigid manner (Keren et al, 2010). In other words, patterned behaviours that appeared to be executed in inflexible eye-catching form were revealed to also include a varying component (Keren et al, 2010, data not shown).…”