Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T07:48:16.542Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Four things we need to know about extreme self-sacrifice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Harvey Whitehouse*
Affiliation:
School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PE, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www.harveywhitehouse.comhttps://www.icea.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-harvey-whitehouse

Abstract

A comprehensive explanation of extreme self-sacrifice would ideally clarify not only the proximate mechanisms leading to this behaviour, but also its developmental origins, its functions (if any), and its history. The theoretical framework set out in my target article has something to say about all of these dimensions, and many of the criticisms raised in the commentaries can therefore be addressed under those four main headings. In my response, I also discuss a set of proposals for further extending the framework. Finally, I conclude by distilling from the discussion a host of novel questions requiring further investigation.

Type
Author's Response
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, M. W. & Jones, T. L. eds. (2014b) Violence and warfare among hunter–gatherers. Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Atran, S., Sheikh, H. & Gómez, Á. (2014) Devoted actors fight for close comrades and sacred cause. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 111:17702–703.Google Scholar
Buhrmester, M. D. (2013) Understanding the cognitive and affective underpinnings of whistleblowing. University of Texas ScholarWorks. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/2152/21278.Google Scholar
Buhrmester, M. D., Brannon, S. M., Fraser, W. T., Fredman, L. A., Gómez, A., Talaifar, S. & Swann, W. B. Jr., (2015) Identity fusion, extreme pro-group behavior, and the path to defusion. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 9(9): 468–80, doi: 10.1111/spc3.12193.Google Scholar
Buhrmester, M. D., Burnham, D., Johnson, D., Curry, O. S., Macdonald, D. & Whitehouse, H. (2018a) How moments become movements: Shared outrage, group cohesion, and the lion that went viral. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 6. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2018.00054.Google Scholar
Buhrmester, M. D. & Lanman, J. (in preparation) For cause or kin? Identity fusion predicts self-sacrifice for one's religion.Google Scholar
Crimston, D., Bain, P. G., Hornsey, M. J. & Bastian, B. (2016) Moral expansiveness: Examining variability in the extension of the moral world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 111(4):636–53. doi:10.1037/pspp0000086.Google Scholar
Ferreira, C., Gaviria, E., Martínez, M. and Whitehouse, H. (2015) Identity and the developmental origins of fusion: An exploratory approach/La identidad y los orígenes de la fusion en el desarrollo: Un enfoque exploratorio. Revista de Psicología Social/International Journal of Social Psychology 30(3):531–62. doi: 10.1080/02134748.2015.1065088.Google Scholar
Fredman, L. A, Bastian, B. & Swann, W. B. Jr., (2017) God or country? Fusion with Judaism predicts desire for retaliation following Palestinian stabbing Intifada. Social Psychological and Personality Science 8(8):882–87.Google Scholar
Gómez, A., Brooks, M. L., Buhrmester, M. D., Vázquez, A., Jetten, J. & Swann, W. B. Jr., (2011a) On the nature of identity fusion: Insights into the construct and a new measure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100:918–33.Google Scholar
Gómez, A., López-Rodríguez, L., Sheikh, H., Ginges, J., Wilson, L., Waziri, H., Vázquez, A., Davis, R. & Atran, S. (2017) The devoted actor's will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict. Nature Human Behaviour 1(9):673–79. doi: 10.1038/s41562-017-0193-3.Google Scholar
Gómez, A., López-Rodríguez, L., Vázquez, A., Paredes, B. & Martínez, M. (2016a) Morir y matar por un grupo o un valor. Estrategias para evitar, reducir y/o erradicar el comportamiento grupal extremista. Anuario de Psicología Jurídica 6:122–29.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. C., Jong, J., Bilkey, D., Whitehouse, H., Zollmann, S., McNaughton, C, & Halberstadt, J. (2018) Synchrony and physiological arousal increase cohesion and cooperation in large naturalistic groups. Nature: Scientific Reports 127. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18023-4.Google Scholar
Jong, J., Kavanagh, C., Lane, J. & Whitehouse, H. (2015) Shared negative experiences lead to identity fusion via personal reflection. PLoS ONE 10(12):e0145611. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145611.Google Scholar
Kavanagh, C. M., Jong, J., McKay, R. & Whitehouse, H. (2018) Positive experiences of high arousal martial arts rituals are linked to identity fusion and costly progroup actions. European Journal of Social Psychology. Published online May 29, 2018. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2514. Available at: psyarxiv.com/cjvs.Google Scholar
Legare, C. H., Herrmann, P. A., Wen, N. J. & Whitehouse, H. (2015) Imitative flexibility and the development of cultural learning. Cognition 142:351–61. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.05.020.Google Scholar
Newson, M., Bortolini, T., Buhrmester, M., da Silva, S., Acquino, J. & Whitehouse, H. (2018) Brazil's football warriors: Social bonding and inter-group violence. Evolution and Human Behavior. Available online June 21, 2018. doi: 0.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.06.010.Google Scholar
Newson, M., Buhrmester, M. D. & Whitehouse, H. (2016) Explaining lifelong loyalty: The role of identity fusion and self-shaping group events. PLoS ONE 11(8):e0160427. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160427.Google Scholar
Pape, R. (2005) Dying to win: The strategic logic of suicide terrorism. Random House.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (2011) The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined. Viking.Google Scholar
Reddish, P., Jong, J., Lanman, J. A., Tong, E. M. W. & Whitehouse, H. (2016) Collective synchrony increases prosociality towards non-performers and outgroup members. British Journal of Social Psychology 55(4):722738. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12165.Google Scholar
Reddish, P., Jong, J., Tong, E. & Whitehouse, H. (in preparation) Interpersonal synchrony affects performers' sense of agency.Google Scholar
Swann, W. B., Bastian, B., Gómez, A., Jensen, J. & Whitehouse, H. (2012) When group membership gets personal: A theory of identity fusion. Psychological Review 119(3):441–56.Google Scholar
Swann, W. B. Jr., Buhrmester, M. D., Gómez, A., Jetten, J., Bastian, B., Vázquez, A., Ariyanto, A., Besta, T., Christ, O., Cui, L., Finchilescu, G., González, R., Goto, N., Homsey, M., Sharma, S., Susianto, H. & Zhang, A. (2014a) What makes a group worth dying for? Identity fusion fosters perception of familial ties, promoting self-sacrifice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 106(6):912–26.Google Scholar
Tasuji, T., Whitehouse, H., Chan, J., Henderson, D., & Reese, E. (in preparation) The development of identity fusion in adolescence via shared experiences.Google Scholar
Tinbergen, N. (1963) On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 20:410–33.Google Scholar
Turchin, P., Brennan, B., Currie, T. E., Feeney, K. C., François, P., Hoyer, D., Manning, J. G., Marciniak, A., Mullins, D., Palmisano, A., Peregrine, P., Turner, E. A. L. & Whitehouse, H. (2015) Seshat: The global history databank. Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution 6(1):77107.Google Scholar
Turchin, P., Currie, T. E., Whitehouse, H., François, P., Feeney, K., Mullins, D., Hoyer, D., Collins, C., Grohmann, S., Savage, P. E., Mendel-Gleason, G., Turner, E. A. L., Dupeyron, A., Cioni, E., Reddish, J., Levine, J., Jordan, G., Brandl, E., Williams, A., Cesaretti, R., Krueger, M., Cecceralli, A., Figliulo-Rosswurm, J., Tuan, P-J., Peregrine, P., Marciniak, A., Preiser-Kapeller, J., Kradin, N., Korotayev, A., Palmisano, A., Baker, D., Bidmead, J., Bol, P., Christian, D., Cook, C., Covey, A., Feinman, G. M., Júlíusson, Á. D., Kristinsson, A., Miksic, J. N., Mostern, R., PetrieC., A. C., A., Rudiak-Gould, P., ter Haar, B., Wallace, V., Mair, V., Xie, L., Baines, J., Bridges, E., Manning, J., Lockhart, B., Bogaard, A. & Spencer, C. S. (2018) Quantitative historical analysis uncovers a single dimension of complexity that structures global variation in human social organization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 115(2):E144–51.Google Scholar
Vázquez, A., Gómez, A., Ordoñana, J. R., Swann, W. B. Jr. & Whitehouse, H. (2017) Sharing genes fosters identity fusion and altruism. Self and Identity 16(6):684702. doi: 10.1080/15298868.2017.1296887.Google Scholar
Watson-Jones, R., Clegg, J., Legare, C. H. & Whitehouse, H. (2014) Task-specific effects of ostracism on imitation of social convention in early childhood. Evolution and Human Behavior. 35(3):204–10.Google Scholar
Watson-Jones, R. E., Legare, C. H. & Whitehouse, H. (2016) In-group ostracism increases high fidelity imitation in early childhood. Psychological Science 27(1):3442. doi: 10.1177/0956797615607205.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (1992) Memorable religions: Transmission, codification, and change in divergent Melanesian contexts. Man, New Series 27(4):777–97. Reprinted in: Pachis, P. & Wiebe, D., eds. (2014) In the sights of history and the cognitive sciences, pp. 479510. Equinox.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2004) Modes of religiosity: A cognitive theory of religious transmission. Rowman AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2005) Emotion, memory, and religious rituals: An assessment of two theories. In: Mixed Emotions, ed. Milton, K. & Svasek, M.. Berg.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2013) Three wishes for the world (with comment). Cliodynamics: The Journal of Theoretical and Mathematical History 4(2):281323.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2016b) Ritual and social evolution: Understanding social complexity through data. In: Computational history and data-driven humanities, ed. Bozic, B., Mendel-Gleason, G., Debruyne, C., & O'Sullivan, D.. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-46224-0 1.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H., Jong, J., Buhrmester, M. D., Gomez, A., Bastian, B., Kavanagh, C. M., Newson, M., Matthews, M., Lanman, J. A., McKay, R. & Gavrilets, S. (2017) The evolution of extreme cooperation via shared dysphoric experiences. Scientific Reports 7:44292. doi: 10.1038/srep44292.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. & Lanman, J. A. (2014) The ties that bind us: Ritual, fusion, and identification. Current Anthropology 55(6):674–95.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. & Martin, L. H., eds. (2004) Theorizing religions past: Archaeology, history, and cognition. AltaMira Press.Google Scholar