PART TWO
1) Ritualized infant-caregiver interactions and the acquisition of emotion-laden social rules
a) Earliest exchanges b/t an infant and its caregiver can be understood as ritualized interactions
i) Rule-governed: demonstrated by the “still-face” paradigm
(a) Also when “turns” are not appropriately taken
ii) Invariantly sequenced (constant)
(a) Follow a certain sequence: initiation, mutual orientation, greeting, play dialogue/protoconversation
2) How are early, ritualized infant-caregiver interactions effective at transmitting social norms?
i) Ritualized actions signal intent—infants base their imitation on intent
(1) Early ritualized infant-caregiver interactions are effective at transmitting social norms for 2
reasons:
(a) Teaching events
(i) Highlight the presence of important social information
(b) Emotional bonding events
(i) Shared movements used to share emotions and mental states
(ii) Caregiver embodies values that the infant emotionally commits to—this emotional
connection suggests that these emotion-laden rules carry moral “weight,” upon which
consciously understood reasons for moral correctness can be built later
(c) Moral significance that makes a behavior normative is first felt through emotional bonding,
and then transmitted ritualistically
(2) Human infants use ostensive cues as a basis for imitation, such as gaze following
(a) Ostensive cues: cues that are directly demonstrative or that “point” to something—eye
contact, attentive gaze, etc.
(b) The infant uses the adult’s attentional focus as an indicator of where his or her own
attention should be—infants as young as 6 months are more likely to follow this gaze if it is
preceded by an ostensive cue (research has shown this)
(3) Imitative behavior of infants is “rational”
(a) Infants imitate intentional acts wherein ostensive cues serve as indicators of intentionality
(b) Example: Lyons, Young, and Keil study (2007)
(i) 3- to 5-year olds would readily imitate ritual-like behaviors tied to a certain task even
after they developed an understanding that these behaviors were not necessarily
required to complete the task, such as stroking a feather on the side of a jar before
removing the lid
(ii) because they are formalized, repetitious, and rule-governed by nature, the actions send
a clear message—they are intentional, and so they are imitated and acquired as
abstract rules that infants/children are then emotionally invested in following
ii) Infants’ imitation reflects the acquisition of abstract, generalized social rules
(1) Imitative learning resulting from ostensively cued social interaction possesses 2 additional
qualities relevant to norm acquisition:
(a) It is generalized to an entire category of circumstances (i.e. one should be respectful of all
elders, not just genetic relatives)
(i) Example: Casler and Kelemen study
1. Found that once an adult had demonstrated that a certain tool was for a particular
purpose, both 2- and 5-year olds expected it to be used only for that purpose, even
if the tool’s properties made it equally effective for a different task
(b) It involves the acquisition of abstract rule, not just implicit motor procedures
(i) Example: Kenward et al. (2011) study
1. Children imitated the act of turning a dial with a stick before opening a box to
retrieve an item
2. Acquired this rule of turning the dial with a stick
a. Understood that it “ought” to be done, even though they did not understand
why
b. Even when experimenters turned the dial with the stick before handing over the
task to the children, they still went through the full action of turning the dial with
the stick before opening the box
i. Implies that it is not mere motor routine, but rather an abstract rule they are
learning
iii) Infants and children invest energy in following and enforcing acquired rules, suggesting emotional
attachment
(i) Infants becoming emotionally bonded to caregivers and the social rules they embody is
critical to effective norm transmission—norms are not cold or detached rules, but rather
they are emotionally charged “oughts”
(ii) An outgrowth of humans’ unique ability to share cognition and emotion
1. Example: proto-conversation, wherein an infant and a caregiver share attention on
some third object, such as a toy
2. Humans are uniquely motivated to establish a common ground with others in this
way—“How do we feel about this? What are we paying attention to?”
(iii) These shared states are changed over time as more sophisticated interactions emerge,
such as social games
1. Children understand cooperative roles like chimpanzees, for instance, never do; they
will protest if a partner fails to fulfill his/her role
2. Building blocks of shared ideas—history, customs, etc.—norms are a part this
(iv) Thus, violations of these “social rules” can prove to be highly distressing to an infant,
and can even be considered a personal rejection
1. Example: “still-face paradigm” and disruption of “turn-taking”
a. Infants as early as 2 months detect changes and will demonstrate fewer smiles,
more looks away, and general confusion
b. The mother’s unresponsiveness, failure to orient, and failure to conform to the
expectation of behavioral exchange distress the infant, even at this young age
(v) Children have a tendency to swiftly acquire and vigorously enforce social rules
1. In studies that have produced these findings, the children were not instructed to
enforce the rules, only taught what they were—still found that children would
readily reinforce a rule
3) From an anthropological standpoint
a) Early ritualized infant-caregiver interactions provide infants with information about how to please their
caregivers and gain acceptance from family/kin—necessary for survival
i) The traits displayed are culturally appropriate
ii) Examples:
(1) Direct eye contact during mother-infant interactions is far rarer among the Sebei of Uganda
than in Western households [“emotional disengagement” is a characteristic of Sebei
relationships]
(2) Mothers in Baganda/Buganda of Uganda require their infants to sit up far more often than
incidents observed in Western and other households [related to a ritual in which all 3-month
olds participate—requires sitting up to ensure legitimacy and affiliation with the clan]
4) Ritualized Behavior to Ritual
a) As children develop, they move from ritualized interactions to a broader dynamic of ritual involved
with family and community—these rituals differ from ritualized behavior in 3 important ways:
i) Rituals augment emotional bonding function through scale magnification and symbol incorporation
(1) Ritualized interactions are intimate exchanges that emotionally bind participants; rituals do the
same, but on a larger scale
(a) May include tens to thousands of people engaged in some group activity [i.e. singing,
dancing]
(i) Group mimesis: individuals synchronize/coordinate actions together in these group
activities, such as the call-and-response duets of mated gibbons that may serve to
strengthen their stability as a bonded pair as well as their territorial defense
(ii) These shared movements create powerful emotional bonding—greater empathy,
affection, and cooperativeness to achieve collective goals
(2) Emotionally compelling ritual promotes a strong sense of group identity
(3) Emotionally compelling ritual promotes a strong sense of group identity
(a) Example: Stressful initiation rites, repetition of military drills, etc.
(i) Create a powerful sense of brotherhood, duty, and even parochial altruism: making a
personally risky/fatal sacrifice in service to one’s ingroup against members of a
perceived outgroup (suicide bombing)
ii) Rituals signal value commitments
(1) As in infant-caregiver interactions, ostensive signals are involved in adult rituals
(a) Ritualized actions point to something about the actor’s state of mind
(b) In this adult context: the state of mind ostensively signaled goes beyond intentionality and
signifies commitment to the norms and values of the participating group
(i) Sometimes the burden of a ritual itself serves as a public signal or cue of the individual’s
commitment, such as the commitment of an Orthodox Jew praying at the Wailing Wall
[hours of ritualized prayer in summer heat dressed in a heavy, dark coat and fur hat]
(ii) Costly signaling theory: for reliable signals to evolve, they must be hard to fake;
otherwise, recipients will ignore them
1. Example: Male frogs communicate their strength and fitness by producing long, loud
croaks; since weakling male frogs cannot produce these metabolically expensive
croaks, they can effectively serve as a reliable signal
2. Example: Sosis and Alcorta (2003) and Sosis and Bressler (2003)
a. Found the religious communes had a greater longevity than secular ones
b. Increased longevity was predicted by the degree of costly ritual obligations
i. Giving up all personal possessions, abstaining from certain foods, frequent
attendance at ritual activities, etc.
ii. The more costly, the longer-lived the commune—consistent with the theory
that rituals serve as reliable signals of commitment
(2) Costly rituals, therefore, signal commitment to beliefs and are therefore thought to deter
individuals who are not as committed as they should be, and who will likely not live up the
standardized norms of the group
iii) Rituals represent and remind children of social values/norms
(1) Representation function:
(a) By isolating specific actions and treating them as “ends” themselves apart from any
instrumental goal, representations are produced
(i) These actions represent an idealized form of how something should be done, and that
form carries meaning [i.e. the raising/lowering of a bugle at a military funeral is done in
a specific, highly disciplined way that symbolizes respect for the deceased]
1. The instrumental needed to be raised/lowered for playing purposes, but the real
reason behind this action is to symbolize that respect
(2) Reminding function:
(a) By idealizing and representing norms, rituals serve to remind people of norms—each time
someone engages in a ritual, those observing are reminded of that culture’s important
values
(b) Two modes in which rituals exist:
(i) Doctrinal: regular church, synagogue, mosque
1. More schematic—cue semantic memory
(ii) Imagistic: weddings, funerals
1. More emotionally arousing and infrequent—cue episodic memory
(c) Evidence has also shown that both implicit and explicit religious reminders can produce
greater conformity to religious norms
(i) Thus, ritual may produce greater conformity to social norms simply by cuing values
repeatedly in memory, whether implicitly or explicitly
(ii) Example: Shariff and Norenzayan (2007)
1. Individuals primed with religious concepts such as “God,” “spirit,” and “sacred” were
found to be significantly more generous in a dictator game
2. Individuals were found to be equally as generous when primed with secular
references to legal and moral judgment, such as “court,” “jury,” and “police”
3. Perhaps reminded that powerful others [i.e. God, police] could be watching their
actions
5) Family Rituals and Routines
a) Family rituals: repetitious, highly valued, symbolic social activities that transmit the family’s enduring
values, attitudes, and goals—the “core of the family culture”
i) Involve greater symbolism and language than infant-caregiver ritualized interactions, but remain
consistent in that they involve formalized, attention-getting, repetitious, rule-based activities
(1) Example: a birthday party involves the formalization of mundane eating activities into an
attention-getting ceremony of placing the cake, singing “Happy Birthday,” blowing out the
candles, and serving the cake (first to the birthday child)
ii) Three types of family rituals: family celebrations, family traditions, and daily rituals
(1) Family celebrations: highly organized activities usually associated with religious/secular holidays
(Thanksgiving) or rites of passage/transition (baptism, graduation)
(2) Family traditions: moderately organized activities that are less culturally specific and more
specific to individual families, such as vacations
(3) Daily rituals: can stem from a routine that has meaning behind it and therefore becomes a
ritual, such as cleaning up after dinner as a way to teach teamwork and sharing responsibilities
iii) Rituals can become routines if they lose their meaning or become too burdensome
b) The socializing function of family rituals/routines
i) Mealtime rituals, for example, reinforce normative social behavior
(1) Example: small-sample study showed that families with preschool children had an average of
14.5 politeness routines during mealtime [using napkins, requiring the word “please”]
ii) Also transmit social values, such as the need for conversational turn-taking and the importance of
attendance
iii) Provide children with an awareness of orderly temporal structure [i.e. “must finish your homework
before you go outside to play”]
c) Correlational data has shown that a greater frequency and commitment to family rituals predict more
socially competent, confident, and successful children
i) Example: in a 5-year longitudinal study, children whose families were more committed to domestic
rituals had higher scores on standardized, academic tests of achievement
(1) In contrast: a lack of daily routines has been found to be a significant predictor of behavioral
problems in children and conduct disorder in adolescents
ii) This evidence would indicate that family rituals play an important role in transmitting normative
values and behavioral expectations
(1) At the very least, these rituals are displayed for children to observe and internalize
6) Adult Community Rituals
a) Going to church, weddings, etc.
b) As with family rituals, these are also associated with increased norm following
c) Although the research is correlational, there is evidence to suggest that there is a positive relationship
between ritual behavior (typically religious) and prosocial norm following (i.e. charity, fidelity, etc.)
i) Example: studies have shown that people who are more frequent church attendees show more
marital commitment; church attendance is also correlated with further adherence to norms of
honesty, charity, and cooperative behavior; participation in religious and close-knit secular groups
is predictive of increased charitable giving; etc.
ii) Part of this increased adherence to social norms may be linked to regular attendance at ritual
activities, which would involve priming, etc.
iii) Studies point to a potential mechanism by which ritual participation may produce greater norm
following, because they are reminded of normative standards
iv) Furthermore, ritual engenders positive emotions toward fellow group members, facilitating
adherence to group norms
7) Summary
a) While language can allow for the analysis of normative content, ritual enacts the values of which norms
are fundamentally composed.
i) Strong human communities are those with the richest ritual lives.
ii) The transmission of social norms through rituals begins as early as infancy, and builds throughout
childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
iii) Rituals provide a mechanism for trust and credibility, so that our human society can function
appropriately.
(1) Therefore, ritual plays an essential role in the transmission and reinforcement of social norms