The Rituals That Make Us: Part 1
The power of rituals for performance, meaning, and connection
In a 2013 experiment, participants were each provided with a chocolate bar.
Some participants were given no further instruction beyond that they had to eat the chocolate bar. Others, however, were told to follow a specific process (p. 5):
“Without unwrapping the chocolate bar, break it in half. Unwrap half of the bar and eat it. Then, unwrap the other half and eat it.”
The study found that those who participated in this ritual enjoyed the experience of eating the chocolate more than those who had no ritual. These participants also evaluated the chocolate as tastier, and they spent a longer time actually eating it than those without the ritual. Their perceived value of the chocolate was also higher, based on responses when asked how much they’d be prepared to spend on the chocolate.
And it all came down to the ritual.
Shared rituals for greater meaning
Rituals are an important part of the human experience. We may define a ritual as an intentional process that doesn’t usually have a practical function but serves a meaningful, often symbolic purpose, and typically involves repetition. We see rituals emerge at the big life milestones of births, deaths, and marriages, bringing people together to amplify celebrations and share pains. But we also see them embedded in the small, meaningful moments of the day-to-day: Reading the newspaper in comfortable silence with your spouse on a Sunday morning or engaging in synchronised breathing before a yoga sequence. These processes reflect an important vehicle for togetherness: Community, belonging, a sense of shared identity and meaning.
Social rituals bring people together, and we know that sharing experiences with others in general is powerful. In one study, for example, participants tasting chocolate rated it as tastier and more enjoyable when they tasted the chocolate with another person, compared to when someone else was present but doing something else. Even more interesting is that social participation had the same effect on bitter, unpleasant chocolate, which was rated as less flavourful when tasted with another person. So, sharing the experience amplified the experience for both delicious and terrible chocolate: The good was better, and the bad was worse.
Rituals for enhanced performance
Personal rituals have also been found to help calm performance anxiety. This is perhaps unsurprising when we consider how many elite athletes are known for eccentric pre-game processes, from Nadal’s cold shower and very specific water bottle placements before a match, to Serena Williams tying her shoes a certain way and bouncing the ball five times on her first serve. As it turns out, these kinds of pre-performance rituals may actually have some legitimate scientific backing.
As part of one study, participants were each asked to sing Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ in front of an experimenter. (I love scientists.)
Some participants were given a one-minute ritual to complete in the waiting room before getting up to perform: “Please do the following ritual: Draw a picture of how you are feeling right now. Sprinkle salt on your drawing. Count up to five out loud. Crinkle up your paper. Throw your paper in the trash.” Those who weren’t given the ritual were just asked to sit for a minute before being taken to the performance room.
Those who did the ritual sang more accurately and also self-reported lower levels of anxiety.
In a further study, the participants were told they would be singing ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ in front of the group. Understandably, participants’ heart rates increased upon learning this information. However, those who subsequently engaged in the one-minute ritual reduced their heart rate before performing, compared to those who had no ritual.
(Remember this the next time a scientist demands that you sing Journey for them.)
Is self-development filling a void of religion?
It seems an important part of a ritual, though, is the intentional creation of it: Believing that I am conducting a ritual (compared to, say, seeing my behaviours as random nervous actions) can enhance the impact of that ritual on my performance.
In the world of self-development, there is much talk of high-performance habits. We often see claims around how to implement ‘the perfect morning routine’, ‘the best practices for productivity’, or whatever. And don’t get me wrong, some of those claims are mine: Like 99% of the self-development-obsessed world, I agree that the habits and systems we generate typically make the biggest difference to our performance. But I also suspect that many of these commonly espoused habits for success - like journalling, meditative practice, yoga, cold showers, a shut-down routine, and so on - are probably, in practice, infinitely more impactful because we view them with such reverence. That is, it seems likely that it’s not only the act of gratitude journalling that is providing the benefit to our wellbeing. Rather, this benefit appears likely to be enhanced by the ritualisation of the act into an intentional, meaningful process that we engage with focus and commitment. We are slowing ourselves down and becoming present in order to perform this step-by-step process. And, I’d argue, that matters. A lot.
Given the generally accepted view that religion is globally declining, I’d suggest the integration of self-development or wellness-oriented protocols is becoming an important way for newer generations to maintain rituals and the important meaning, sense of identity, and community that come with them. What do you think?
A quote
“It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.”
-Claude Monet
A small, meaningful action: Rituals to perform and rituals to cherish
Some questions to ponder the next time you have a challenging presentation or performance on the horizon:
What pre-performance ritual can I start implementing to get into a zone of focus?
Or, what’s a process I already engage in that I could amplify through ritualisation?
A question to ponder more broadly:
What rituals do I maintain and cherish in my life?
A recommendation
My current read is one from everyone’s favourite neuroscientist, Dean Burnett. Of course, I have a vested interest in all things emotion because my research explores emotional dynamics, but I would be recommending this one regardless. This book, as Burnett explains in the first chapter, was originally going to be called ‘Emotional Intelligence’, seeking to explain all things emotion through a scientific lens. But Burnett soon realised that emotions are far more complex than most of us anticipate: Hence, Emotional Ignorance. Throughout the book, Burnett openly shares his own journey of grief after losing his father to Covid-19, and maintains his signature wit and incredible ability to break down complex ideas in an engaging way. Highly recommend.
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Any views expressed in this newsletter are my own and are not affiliated with any other institution, entity or person. Also, these newsletters contain generalised ideas and none of this material constitutes professional or specific advice of any kind.