Premium
Positive experiences of high arousal martial arts rituals are linked to identity fusion and costly pro‐group actions
Author(s) -
Kavanagh Christopher M.,
Jong Jonathan,
McKay Ryan,
Whitehouse Harvey
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2514
Subject(s) - psychology , martial arts , social psychology , social identity theory , collective identity , identity (music) , arousal , social identity approach , valence (chemistry) , cohesion (chemistry) , social group , aesthetics , philosophy , chemistry , physics , archaeology , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , politics , political science , law , history
A cross‐sectional study was conducted with 605 practitioners of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ( BJJ ) to test the hypothesis that high arousal rituals promote social cohesion, primarily through identity fusion. BJJ promotion rituals are rare, highly emotional ritual events that often feature gruelling belt‐whipping gauntlets. We used the variation in such experiences to examine whether more gruelling rituals were associated with identity fusion and pro‐group behaviour. We found no differences between those who had undergone belt‐whipping and those who had not and no evidence of a correlation between pain and social cohesion. However, across the full sample we found that positive, but not negative, affective experiences of promotional rituals were associated with identity fusion and that this mediated pro‐group action. These findings provide new evidence concerning the social functions of collective rituals and highlight the importance of addressing the potentially diverging subjective experiences of painful rituals.