Religious Ritual and Cooperation: Testing for a

¶ … Religious Ritual and Cooperation: Testing for a Relationship on Israeli Religious and Secular Kibbutzim," authors Richard Sosis and Bradley J. Ruffle investigate the link between religious ritual and group solidarity among a sample of kibbutzim in Israel. Sosis is a faculty member of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Ruffle, on the other hand, is an economist with the Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel. Ruffle's contacts and familiarity with Israeli kibbutzim were invaluable in facilitating this research.

The theoretical basis of this research was Emile Durkheim's pronouncement that religious rituals functioned to promote group solidarity. Durkheim argued that religious rituals help to maintain social cohesion and to promote social stability within their community. Though this idea is widely-accepted in social science circles, few empirical studies have actually been conducted to test this theory. Furthermore, no empirical studies have been conducted to see how religious rituals and group solidarity translate to greater intergroup cooperation.

Sosis and Ruffle attempt to test this theory by conducting statistical analyses among kibbutzim in Israel. These kibbutzim, small farming communities where people live together and share communal resources, are common in Israel. The two researchers selected a sampling of religious and secular kibbutzim, gathering data between February through May 2000. A week prior to their arrival, the two researchers sent letters of introduction, explaining the nature of their research. The experiment itself was a simple variation of the "common-pool" resource problems that are conducted in other data gathering research experiments.

In this version, Sosis and Ruffle randomly pick two members of the same kibbutz. These members are interviewed separately and remain anonymous to one another. Each subject is then presented with an envelope containing 100 shekels (approximately $25). The individual is then instructed to request money from the envelope, according to his or her needs. The subject is also told that another member of the kibbutz has access to the same envelope.

They are also told that if the two kibbutz members request 100 shekels or less total, they will be allowed to keep the money. However, if the requests total over 100 shekels, both members receive no money. Sosis and Ruffle hypothesized that if religious rituals really breed greater group solidarity, then more subjects from religious kibbutzim will keep the money, instead of the members of the secular kibbutzim. Corollary to this, the researchers also hypothesized that religious females will exhibit higher levels of cooperation, because of their greater participation in community rituals.

Results of the experiment showed that on average, religious males removed far less from the envelopes than religious females, non-religious males and non-religious females. Additionally, religious males and females together requested significantly less money than their non-religious counterparts. The authors thus concluded that the first part of their hypothesis was true, while the second part was wrong. While the study had interesting.