Bind_Data from Watch me, watch you: ritual participation increases in-group displays and out-group monitoring in children

Collective rituals serve social functions for the groups that perform them, including identifying group members and signalling group commitment. A novel social group paradigm was used in an afterschool programme (<i>N</i> = 60 4–11-year-olds) to test the influence of participating in a ritual task on in-group displays and out-group monitoring over repeated exposures to the group. The results demonstrate that ritual participation increases in-group displays (i.e. time spent displaying materials to in-group members) and out-group monitoring (i.e. time spent looking at out-group members) compared with a control task across three time points. This study provides evidence for the processes by which rituals may influence children's behaviours towards in- and out-group members and discusses implications for understanding the development of ritual cognition and behaviour.

集体仪式为践行仪式的群体发挥社会功能，具体包括识别群体成员与彰显群体承诺。本研究在课后项目中采用全新的社会群体范式，受试样本量为N=60，年龄范围为4至11岁，旨在检验在多次接触该群体的情境下，参与仪式任务对个体内群体（in-group）展示行为与外群体（out-group）监控行为的影响。研究结果显示，相较于对照任务，在三个时间节点中，参与仪式任务可提升内群体展示行为（即向群体内成员展示材料所耗费的时间）与外群体监控行为（即观察群体外成员所耗费的时间）。本研究为仪式影响儿童对待内、外群体成员行为的内在过程提供了实证依据，并探讨了其对理解仪式认知与行为发展的启示意义。