Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/05/knock-three-times.html
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There’s lots of things wrong here. Does knocking three times on the table mean the same thing to me that it means to somebody with OCD? I’m almost certain it doesn’t. Is attending a fundraiser a good measure of self-control? Are all those other people at the fundraiser just white-knuckling it until they can get back to their booze and porn?
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The full text (PDF) is downloadable via the article’s page at HBS.edu.
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While tripping one time, I was really feeling the whole existence = suffering bit, and was suddenly struck with the whole point of religious rituals; something very much akin to the traumatised rocking you see in both people and chimps doing it really tough.
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One should learn to play this song by RAF (sung also by Laura Braningam)
RAF -self control
Learning to play a song is actually in part a self control exercise. I suppose alo that our brain is wired to change modality when is doing standard tasks.
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Somewhat of a catch-22 since I’d need some form of self-discipline to perform a meaningless ritual in the first place.
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Exactly.
I live with OCD and my rituals aren’t “meaningless”, and that’s part of what makes my rituals so intrusive in my daily life. I don’t think this experiment is groundbreaking in showing that rituals help humans feel more in control.
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Or, in a less judgemental framing, religious rituals help to deepen your connection to your community and beliefs.
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How could that be possible?
Approaching the divine is traumatizing - they say Moses’ hair turned white. We construct rituals like fences, for our own safety.
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Not sure if I agree with the ‘ritual leads to self-discipline’ premise. However, I do know that my ritual/mantra/call it what you will is ‘whatever it takes to get through the day’.
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Meaningless rituals liiiiike…performing unreproducable psychology experiments in contrived laboratory conditions? Hey-o!
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I was curious myself about what the actual prompt for participants was. I’ve pasted it below, highlighting in bold what I feel is the relevant context:
On Thursday morning, you receive an e-mail from your good friend A, who just moved to your city. A is going to throw a party this Saturday and has invited you to join the party. You have been planning to attend this party. You know that you will have a lot of fun at the party, and that A will be very disappointed if you cannot come.
However, you suddenly receive another e-mail informing you that your local community is currently preparing for a fundraising event for a local charity helping mentally challenged kids. Because a volunteer suddenly got sick, you are asked whether you would like to step in and help with this fundraising event, which will also take place this Saturday. Because this would require a considerable amount of work, you will not be able to go to A’s party if you agree to help with this fundraising event.
Before I read that prompt, I felt there was reasonable room to argue that attending the party would also be a proscocial decision if the participant themselves were in the shoes of person A. But the way the prompt reads, it sounds implied that the participant is themselves established in their local community, so the prosocial effect of a proportionately small increase in social connectivity from attending the friend’s party is less than that of leveraging what connectivity they already have at the fundraiser event instead.
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If the meaningless ritual worked and actually helped the person maintain their self control then it was not so meaningless.
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This really seems like a value judgement to me. Personally, I’m going to try to find a way to get out of the fundraiser; party or not, whether I have to volunteer or not. The mentally challenged kids can get a check.
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Presumably the particulars of the ritual were meaningless.
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Meaningless ritual:
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I think perhaps it’s you implying judgement; it was an appreciative revelation. Before that, I pretty much figured ‘deepening one’s connection to community and beliefs’ or something thereabouts was all there was to it.
But I noticed it was also about busying oneself; in the state I was in at the time, I was just about ready to convert to the most ritual-intensive faith I could find.
These days I’m a lot more wary of hallucinogens…
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Irritating rituals of others test my self-control.
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