Empirical Evidence for the Devoted Actor Model

• Autores: Hammad Sheikh, Ángel Gómez, Scott Atran
• Localización: Current anthropology: A world journal of the sciences of man, ISSN 0011-3204, Nº. Extra 13, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Reintegrating Anthropology: From Inside Out), págs. 204-209
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 5 Citas
• Resumen

  • This report presents two studies in very different contexts that provide convergent empirical evidence for the �devoted actor� hypothesis: people will become willing to protect nonnegotiable sacred values through costly sacrifice and extreme actions when such values are associated with groups whose individual members fuse into a unique collective identity. We interviewed and tested (on sacred values, identity fusion, and costly sacrifice) 260 Moroccans from two cities and neighborhoods previously associated with militant jihad, and we conducted a follow-up online experiment with 644 Spaniards fairly representative of the country at large (adding an intergroup formidability outcome measure). Moroccans expressed willingness to make costly sacrifices for implementation of strict sharia and were most supportive of militant jihad when they were fused with a kin-like group of friends and considered sharia law as sacred. Similarly, Spaniards who were fused with a kin-like group of friends and considered democracy as sacred were most willing to make costly sacrifices for democracy after being reminded of jihadi terrorism, and they were also more likely to consider their own group more formidable and jihadis as weak.