{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]],"date-time":"2026-06-24T00:47:47Z","timestamp":1782262067761,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":107,"publisher":"The Royal Society","issue":"2073","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]],"date-time":"2026-06-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782259200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":7,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]],"date-time":"2026-06-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782259200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":7,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100013437","name":"Templeton Religion Trust","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100013437","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>From an evolutionary perspective, large-scale human groups face an adaptive challenge: maintaining cohesion beyond the limits of one-to-one grooming. Cultural practices that recruit evolved bonding systems may help solve this problem by harnessing mu-opioid psychobiological mechanisms. Religious rituals are cultural practices that consistently promote social cohesion, and here we report a pre-registered large-scale field study examining psychobiological mechanisms underlying these rituals. Participants were tested in the United Kingdom and Brazil at 24 ritual sites (N = 265), with measures taken pre- and post-ritual. Results showed that levels of social bonding (5.4% increase, rR = 0.30) and positive affect (13.1% increase, rR = 0.27) were higher after ritual participation. Importantly, increased social bonding was independently predicted by increases in pain threshold (a proxy for mu-opioid activation; \u03b2 = 0.13, R2 = 0.02), positive affect (\u03b2 = 0.25) and connection to a higher power (\u03b2 = 0.15), even after controlling for country, gender, age and religiosity (R2 = 0.15). This multi-site field study provides experimental yet naturalistic evidence that religious rituals recruit an evolved mu-opioid-based affiliation system that may help sustain cohesion in large congregations, supporting the brain-opioid theory of social attachment.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1098\/rspb.2026.1174","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]],"date-time":"2026-06-24T00:10:20Z","timestamp":1782259820000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Religious rituals in the United Kingdom and Brazil are associated with increased social bonding and pain threshold"],"prefix":"10.1098","volume":"293","author":[{"given":"Sarah J.","family":"Charles","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Coventry University, 1","place":["Coventry,, UK"],"department":["Brain, Belief, and Behaviour Lab,"]},{"name":"King's College London, 2","place":["London,, UK"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0549-7365","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Valerie","family":"van Mulukom","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Coventry University, 1","place":["Coventry,, UK"],"department":["Brain, Belief, and Behaviour Lab,"]},{"name":"Oxford Brookes University, 3","place":["Oxford,, UK"],"department":["Centre for Psychological Research,"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9982-9702","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robin","family":"Dunbar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Oxford, 4","place":["Oxford,, UK"],"department":["Department of Experimental Pyschology,"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jennifer E.","family":"Brown","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Coventry University, 1","place":["Coventry,, UK"],"department":["Brain, Belief, and Behaviour Lab,"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Romara","family":"Delmonte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Coventry University, 1","place":["Coventry,, UK"],"department":["Brain, Belief, and Behaviour Lab,"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Everton","family":"Maraldi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IDOR, 5","place":["Rio de Janeiro,, RJ,, Brazil"]},{"name":"IDOR Pioneer Science Initiative, 6","place":["S\u00e3o Paulo,, Brazil"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Leon","family":"Turner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"International Society for Science and Religion, 7","place":["Cambridge,, UK"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fraser","family":"Watts","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"International Society for Science and Religion, 7","place":["Cambridge,, UK"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joseph","family":"Watts","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Canterbury, 8","place":["Christchurch,, Canterbury,, New Zealand"],"department":["School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing,"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Miguel","family":"Farias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Coventry University, 1","place":["Coventry,, UK"],"department":["Brain, Belief, and Behaviour Lab,"]},{"name":"International Society for Science and Religion, 7","place":["Cambridge,, UK"]},{"name":"University of Oxford, 9","place":["Oxford,, UK"],"department":["Department of Continuing Education,"]},{"name":"Instituto Superior Manuel Teixeira Gomes, 10","place":["Portim\u00e3o,, Faro District,, Portugal"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"175","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"2026062320101008300_R1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"985","DOI":"10.1163\/000579511X596624","article-title":"The brain opioid theory of social attachment: a review of the evidence","volume":"148","author":"Machin","year":"2011","journal-title":"Behaviour"},{"key":"2026062320101008300_R2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"242","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuroimage.2016.05.063","article-title":"Social touch modulates endogenous \u03bc-opioid system activity in humans","volume":"138","author":"Nummenmaa","year":"2016","journal-title":"Neuroimage"},{"key":"2026062320101008300_R3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"349","DOI":"10.1080\/2153599X.2016.1249927","article-title":"What\u2019s missing from the scientific study of religion?","volume":"7","author":"Dunbar","year":"2017","journal-title":"Religion. 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