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#719 Dimitris Xygalatas - Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living

The Dissenter

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The Collective Benefits of Rituals

When people get together to perform rituals, their physiological responses are aligned. And ritual is very good at doing this by aligning our emotional responses and appearances. So if we act more similarly, then we are more similar. We feel closer to each other. We feel bonded. For example, after the performance of a very painful ritual in Mauritius, we saw that people in that community became more generous towards each other. There's a linear relationship between pain and prosociality in that context.

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