Hindu wedding ritual and moral objectivity in Mauritius
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Human societies exhibit exceptional variation in their group-specific moral norms. Yet the group members tend to perceive their norms as absolute, externally existing, and independent of humanity, time, and space. Higher perceived norm objectivity promotes norm adherence, but how do groups achieve their norms to appear more objective? Various elements of religious systems were studied (e.g., belief in supernatural punishment or ritual performance). Specifically, previous correlational studies with three culturally distinct populations suggest that the more people attend religious rituals, the more they perceive moral norms as objectively existing. However, is this association causal? To increase the ecological validity of our test, we investigated the relationship through a quasi-experimental approach in the context of Hindu wedding rituals in Mauritius. First, we predicted that people would rate moral norms connected to marriage as more objective in the context of the wedding ritual compared to ratings obtained outside of the wedding ritual. Second, addressing causality, we also predicted that people should rate moral norms connected to marriage as more objective after exposure to the wedding ritual compared to ratings obtained before the ritual. We report on the methodology (free-listing, vignettes, surveys) and the main results of our tests. |
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