Scientists from the University of Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand, publish a study supporting the theory thatparticipating in painful rituals increases the civic and caring attitude of the individual. Joseph Bulbulia, Ron Fischer and Paul Reddish are the researchers who for the first time have transferred their research to a natural human environment in order to discover why religious rituals still survive in modern societies.
The trio of scientists traveled in person to Mauritius, in the middle of the Indian Ocean to experience the Hindu festival of Thaipusam, which includes religious rituals of different intensity. Both extreme rituals such as Kavadi, in which the offerings dedicated to their god are hung from their pierced bodies, as well as more moderate rites that only involve singing and praying.
Doctors randomly selected a large number of devotees of both rituals and asked them about their identification with the rituals that had just taken place. At the same time, they gave them an amount of money equal to two days’ salary and suggested that they make anonymous donations to the temple. Thus, the scientists determined thatthe levels of beneficence according to the different rites and personal implications. On the one hand, they observed that although those who participated in both rituals were highly charitable, “in the extreme ritual the levels of donation were significantly high, in fact it was almost twice as high,” explains Joseph Bulbulia.
Despite constituting a very specific sample of the population,Scientists say that the results are really important and will help us understand the role that pain plays in other social eventssuch as sports or historical celebrations. Investigators will continue their investigations on the island during 2014.
