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Ritualized Cohesion in Artificial Societies: A Durkheimian Reading of Multi-Agent LLM Group Dynamics

Chen, Ho Yiing · 2026-06-05 · Zenodo

doi:10.5281/zenodo.20554493 · PDF

Abstract

Abstract. Émile Durkheim argued in The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life that collective rituals are the engine of social cohesion, generating effervescence (heightened emotional intensity) that binds participants into a moral community. I test this thesis in an artificial setting: a 31-agent LLM society subjected to a single ritual execution event (a death deity dismembering one agent before all others). Following Durkheim's framework and extensions by Mary Douglas on purity boundaries and Victor Turner on liminality, I predicted and observed: (1) conversation volume increased 4.7x durin

Chen, Ho Yiing (norika) · Independent Researcher, Taiwan · ORCID 0009-0006-6816-9891