Drumming together

Last updated on: October 30, 2014 at 9:32 pm by Epiphenom

Drumming together 2014-10-30T21:32:42+01:00 Epiphenom

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Humans devote so much time to rhythmic group activities (singing, dancing, marching) that it seems intuitive that there must be something to it. Sure enough, a few studies recently have found that singing together and even marching together can encourage people to feel stronger ties to their co-rhythmacists.

Such activities are often folded into religion, and religion also tends to foster group ties. So maybe religion and rhythm act in synergy? That’s what Emma Cohen, at Oxford University, and colleagues Roger Mundry and Sebastian Kirschner from the Max Planck Institute sought to investigate.

To do this, they went to Brazil. Brazil is big on drumming, and in particular the local Afro-Brazilian religions have strong drumming traditions.

Cohen and colleagues recruited 32 atabaque drummers (all men, as only men do the drumming) into a really nicely designed experiment. Basically, they each did some solo drumming and then two sessions in groups of four.

They were trained in some rhythms, and their efforts were recorded electronically – which allowed their rhythmic accuracy to be assessed. While playing, they were shown the rhythms on a computer monitor – and that allowed the experimenters to tweak the temp as well as dictate the rhythm of each drummer.

Before the drumming, half of them listened to a recorded narration about drumming with either a secular or a religious focus. The idea was to see if this affected how the drummers performed in the tests they took after they had finished drumming.

So, after each session, the drummers were given 10 Brazilian real coins, of which they could anonymously contribute some to a communal pot. The lowest amount contributed would be doubled and given to each of the four drummers. So this is a measure of how much they trust the others.

But the researchers found that drumming, whether synchronised or not, had no effect on contributions.

Likewise, the religious priming had no statistically significant effect – although there was a trend that suggested that religious priming did increase contributions. Quite why this was so is hard to interpret as the drummers actually reported feeling more connected with their fellow drummers after the secular prime!

What’s more, Afro-Brazilian religion doesn’t have the moral component that’s so strong in the monotheisms. Their deities are often not stalwart do-gooders, so even if the drummers felt they were being watched by the spirits, this would not necessarily encourage good behaviour. Hardly any of them were actively involved in these religions anyway.

So what to make of this? On the face of it, it’s a negative result from a really nicely designed study, which would tend to make you think that claims for the effect of synchronised activity on attitudes towards fellow group members are overblown.

And yet I’m left with a nagging suspicion that the study was simply too small. At no point in the manuscript do they provide a statistical power calculation – which is an essential step in working out whether you have enough people in your study to show an effect (if one exists). There were a lot of groups and conditions, so my gut feeling is that you would probably need a lot of drummers to cut through the statistical noise.

Which is a real shame, as otherwise this was one of the most meticulously designed studies on this topic that I have seen!

Emma Cohen, Roger Mundry, & Sebastian Kirschner (2013). Religion, synchrony, and cooperation Religion, Brain & Behavior DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2012.741075

This article by Tom Rees was first published on Epiphenom. It is licensed under Creative Commons.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 13, 2013

Non-religious jews are more likely to tell self-serving 'white lies' than religious jews

Next Post

November 5, 2013 Do even atheists see a purpose behind random life events?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Causes of religion - evolution Causes of religion - psychological Causes of religion - social Demographics Digest Effects of religion - health Effects of religion - psychological Effects of religion - social Notifications Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was thrown into a fiery furnace for refusing to worship an idol?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Joseph Gideon Daniel Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego