Abstract:  Collective rituals are of great significance to the construction and development of a group. In recent years, foreign psycho-anthropologists have put forward “the theory of modes of religiosity,” which elaborates profoundly on the psychological process of collective ritual to produce group cohesion and prosocial behavior. Psychological research into collective rituals focuses mainly on promotion of cohesion, the influence of synchronic movement on prosocial behavior, and the intergroup conflict caused by collective rituals. Some future study topics should be systematic testing and evaluation, such as the psychological mechanism through which collective ritual influences cohesion, and the collective ritual that arouses pleasure emotion.

Key words: collective ritual, cohesion, prosocial behavior, synchronic movement