Abstract
Religious rituals are associated with health benefits, potentially produced via social bonding. It is unknown whether secular rituals similarly increase social bonding. We conducted a field study with individuals who celebrate secular rituals at Sunday Assemblies and compared them with participants attending Christian rituals. We assessed levels of social bonding and affect before and after the rituals. Results showed the increase in social bonding taking place in secular rituals is comparable to religious rituals. We also found that both sets of rituals increased positive affect and decreased negative affect, and that the change in positive affect predicted the change in social bonding observed. Together these results suggest that secular rituals might play a similar role to religious ones in fostering feelings of social connection and boosting positive affect.
Highlights
There is a substantial body of research demonstrating beneficial health and wellbeing effects that stem from the attendance of religious rituals
Whether the social bonding effect reported from religious rituals is seen in secular rituals that mimic the behaviours of religious rituals had not been tested before
United on Sunday: The effects of secular rituals on social bonding and affect possible that the mechanism by which health benefits arise from religious participation are not exclusive to religious rituals
Summary
There is a substantial body of research demonstrating beneficial health and wellbeing effects that stem from the attendance of religious rituals (for an overview, see [1]). VanderWeele [1] notes that many of these positive effects appear to be best maintained when ritual attendance is at least once per month. Much of this literature was conducted in western, democratic nations, and within Christian settings, though there are some notable exceptions to this [12,13,14]. Dunbar [16] has suggested that religious rituals developed as a mechanism to help form and maintain social bonds in groups of humans in effective. Religious rituals that incorporate a multitude of these behaviours should foster bonds efficiently [16]
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