A sacred commitment: How rituals promote group survival

Social identity enactment in a pandemic: Scottish Muslims' experiences of restricted access to communal spaces

The comprehensive analysis of social identity cannot simply focus on individuals' cognitive self-definition. Rather it should also theorize the social conditions that affect individuals' opportunities to act in terms of those self-definitions. We argue that the social distancing interventions associated with Covid-19 provide an opportunity to explore the significance of otherwise taken-for-granted social factors which routinely support and sustain individuals' identity enactments. Using qualitative data gathered with 20 members of the Scottish Muslim community (19 diary entries and 20 post-diary interviews), we explore their experiences of restricted access to community-relevant social spaces (e.g., mosques and prayer rooms). Our analysis shows that while these regulations could result in new opportunities for Muslims' religious identity enactments, they also impeded their abilities to act in terms of their religious identification. Addressing such impediments, we develop our understanding of the contextual factors that shape individuals' abilities to enact identity-defining norms and values.

Alterations in Religious Rituals Due to COVID-19 Could Be Related to Intragroup Negativity: A Case of Changes in Receiving Holy Communion in the Roman Catholic Community in Poland

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected various domains of everyday life, including important religious rituals. In the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, the reception of Holy Communion was substantially altered. The suggestion of the Polish Episcopal Conference and diocesan bishops was to receive Holy Communion on the hand during the pandemic, while receiving on the tongue had been the default form before the pandemic. The present studies investigated whether alterations in the form of receiving Holy Communion during the pandemic resulted in intragroup negativity. A total of 376 Polish Roman Catholics participated in two online studies. The most ambivalent emotions toward their religious community were experienced by the followers who recognized reception of Holy Communion on the hand only. Intergroup bias occurred within the “hand only” and the “mouth only” groups and consisted in out-group favoritism (within the “hand only”) and out-group derogation (“mouth only”) in their perception of religious orientation. Intergroup empathy bias occurred in the “hand only” and “spiritual reception” groups, which reported less empathy toward those of the out-group (“mouth only”) infected with SARS-CoV-2. The highest legitimacy of the Church authority was agreed upon by the supporters of both forms of receiving Holy Communion.