Collective religious rituals, not religious devotion, spur support for suicide
attacks
Published: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 16:43 in Psychology & Sociology
Learn more about: religious devotion religious rituals spur suicide attacks
university of british columbia west bank and gaza
In a new study in Psychological Science,
a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists
Jeremy Ginges and Ian Hansen from the New School for Social Research
along with psychologist Ara Norenzayan from the University of British
Columbia conducted a series of experiments investigating the
relationship between religion and support for acts of parochial
altruism, including suicide attacks. Suicide attacks are an extreme
form of "parochial altruism" - they combine a parochial act (the
attacker killing members from other groups) with altruism (the attacker
sacrificing themselves for the group). While the relationship between
religion and popular support for suicide attacks is a topic of frequent
conjecture, scientific study of the relationship is rare. The
researchers found that the relationship between religion and support
suicide attacks is real but is unrelated to devotion to particular
religious beliefs or religious belief in general. Instead, collective
religious ritual appears to facilitate parochial altruism in general
and support for suicide attacks in particular.
The researchers surveyed Palestinian Muslims about their attitudes
towards religion, including how often they prayed and went to mosque.
The researchers found that devotion to Islam, as measured by prayer
frequency, was unrelated to support for suicide attacks. However,
frequency of mosque attendance did predict support for suicide attacks.
In a separate survey of Palestinian Muslim university students, the
researchers found again that those who attended mosque more than once a
day, were more likely to believe that Islam requires suicide attacks,
compared to students who attended mosque less often.
A similar pattern of results was found in research carried out with
other religious groups. In another experiment, the researchers
conducted phone surveys with Israeli Jews living in the West Bank and
Gaza and asked them either how frequently they attended synagogue or
how often they prayed to God. All participants were then asked if they
supported the perpetrator of a suicide attack against Palestinians.
Analysis of the responses showed that 23% of those asked about
synagogue attendance supported suicide attacks while only 6% of those
queried about prayer frequency supported suicide attacks.
In the last experiment, the psychologists surveyed members of six
religious majorities in six nations (Mexican Catholics, Indonesian
Muslims, Israeli Jews, Russian Orthodox in Russia, British Protestants
and Indian Hindus) to see if the relationship between attending
religious services and support for acts of parochial altruism holds up
across a variety of political and cultural contexts. These results also
showed that support for parochial altruism was related to attendance at
religious services, but unrelated to regular prayer.
This study indicates that religious devotion does not cause support
for suicide attacks or other forms of parochial altruism. However, the
findings suggest that regularly attending religious services may make
individuals more prone to supporting acts of parochial altruism. The
researchers theorize that collective religious rituals and services
create a sense of community among participants and enhance positive
attitudes towards parochially altruistic acts such as suicide attacks.
Although, the researchers note, the greater sense of community,
developed via religious services, may have many positive consequences.
They observe, "Only in particular geopolitical contexts is the
parochial altruism associated with such commitments translated into
something like suicide attacks."
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Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo
Allah yang disembah orang Islam tipikal dan yang digambarkan oleh al-Mushaf itu
dungu, buas, kejam, keji, ganas, zalim lagi biadab hanyalah Allah fiktif.
