Beginnings of rituals : the role of prediction in human cooperative behavior
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In 1912, Durkheim defined rituals as "ways of acting that are generated only within assembled groups and are meant to stimulate and sustain or recreate certain mental states in these groups." After 100 years, due to technological advancement, we can better understand what these mental states are and how they are evoked. Moreover, we can investigate how different ritual behaviors affect our evolved brains, possibly inducing feelings of rapport and entitativity. This can be done through measuring tangible mechanisms of human cognition. One of the basic mechanisms, operating on different levels of brain hierarchy, is a prediction of sensory outcomes of motor behavior. However, as suggested by some leading neuroscientists, this principle can be reversed and used for understanding actions of others. On basis of sensory inputs gained by observing behaviors of others, we are constantly creating predictions of their future behaviors (on a kinematic, goal and intention level) and trying to minimize a prediction error. This is crucial not only for understanding actions of others, but also for coordination of movements in joint tasks leading to better performance and more successful cooperation. The main interest of this paper is the role of ritualized behavior in minimizing the prediction error. Are rituals predictable for their participants? Is it possible that rituals induce feelings of better cooperation through minimizing the prediction errors? And if yes, what types of rituals can have these properties? These and other questions will be discussed in the paper focused on the predictive mechanism of human brain. |
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