Why die for a group?

The human propensity to sacrifice one’s life for genetic strangers has puzzled scientists since Darwin. With support from the ESRC and the John Fell Fund, we’re beginning to solve that puzzle.

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Funding Support 

2022–2025: Templeton Religion Trust ($2.5 million). Project Director: Pascal Boyer. Co-Directors: Harvey Whitehouse and Claire White. Title: The Persistence of “Wild” Religious Traditions: How the Handling of Misfortune Influences the Dynamics of Folk Religions.

2016–2023: European Research Council (€2.5 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: RitualModes: Divergent modes of ritual, social cohesion, prosociality, and conflict.

2011 – 2016: Economic and Social Research Council (£3.2 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: Ritual, Community, and Conflict.

2014–2015: John Fell OUP Research Fund (£59,188). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: Identifying the Intra-Group Causes of Inter-Group Conflict: Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework and Research Centre. 

How does social complexity evolve?

Using databases developed in collaboration with social scientists, evolutionary theorists, historians, and archaeologists, we’re testing a raft of hypotheses about the role of ritual in the evolution of increasingly large-scale and complex societies. Through this work, funded by large grants from the ESRC, the European Research Council, JTF, and the Tricoastal Foundation, we’re developing a new way of quantifying patterns in the human past that will provide a storehouse of information for future scientific research.

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Funding Support:

2017–2021: Templeton World Charity Foundation (£1.5 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. The Cognitive and Cultural Foundations of Religion and Morality.

2012–2015: John Fell OUP Research Fund (£68,047). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: Mapping the Moral Domains: The Development of a New Scale for Cross-Cultural Research.

Funding Support

The Oxford Martin School. Principal Investigators: Harvey Whitehouse, Dominic Johnson, David Macdonald. Title: Natural Governance.

2017–2021: Templeton World Charity Foundation (£1.5 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. The Cognitive and Cultural Foundations of Religion and Morality.

2016–2023: European Research Council (€2.5 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: RitualModes: Divergent modes of ritual, social cohesion, prosociality, and conflict.

2011–2017: Economic and Social Research Council (£3.2 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: Ritual, Community, and Conflict.

Why are people so passionate about football?

Many football fans display intense loyalty to club and willingness to sacrifice resources to support their team, home and away come rain or shine. Although this commitment can lead to hooliganism and violence, our research suggests it can also be harnessed in more positive ways, to motivate charitable works or healthier lifestyles. One strand of this research focuses on using commitment to football as a way of binding ex-prisoners to law-abiding values while also motivating receiving communities to help them become good citizens and stay out of trouble. This work is linked to the Twinning Project, nationwide initiative to connect football clubs to their local prisons.

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Funding Support

2016–2023: European Research Council (€2.5 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: RitualModes: Divergent modes of ritual, social cohesion, prosociality, and conflict.

2011–2017: Economic and Social Research Council (£3.2 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: Ritual, Community, and Conflict.

Can we study group bonding in the brain?

Many aspects of the processes of group bonding that we can study using psychological measures in surveys and experiments are also rooted in physiological changes in the brain. Tracking these changes at a granular level, using techniques like Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans and electroencephalograms (EEGs), can help us disambiguate the mechanisms underlying progroup preference and outgroup derogation.

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How can we use social glue to reduce recidivism among ex-offenders?

Our latest research suggests that social glue can motivate ex-offenders and receiving communities to develop relationships based on shared experience to strengthen commitment to prosocial outcomes. These motivations could underpin a model of rehabilitation and reintegration for offending behaviour.

As part of our work in this area, we have teamed up with The Twinning Project which is bringing together professional football clubs and prisons across the UK. The aim is to understand how football can act as a catalyst for change among ex-prisoners.

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FUNDING SUPPORT:

2016–2023: European Research Council (€2.5 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: RitualModes: Divergent modes of ritual, social cohesion, prosociality, and conflict.

How do personal and group identities become fused?

Social psychologists have long realised that identifying with a group can be depersonalising. But a relatively newly discovered form of group alignment, known as ‘identity fusion’, shows that group identities can also be strongly linked to personal ones, motivating exceptionally strong forms of pro-group action and self-sacrifice. Our research has been investigating how this kind of fusion between personal and group identities comes about.

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FUNDING SUPPORT:

2016–2023: European Research Council (€2.5 million). Principal Investigator: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: RitualModes: Divergent modes of ritual, social cohesion, prosociality, and conflict. 

2020 - 2023: Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. PI: Pieter Francois. Director of Research: Harvey Whitehouse. Title: Freedom of Religious Belief Religious Network.