Meaningless rituals might be good for you

Veronika Rybanska and others write,

To be accepted into social groups, individuals must internalize and reproduce appropriate group conventions, such as rituals. The copying of such rigid and socially stipulated behavioral sequences places heavy demands on executive function. Given previous research showing that challenging executive functioning improves it, it was hypothesized that engagement in ritualistic behaviors improves children’s executive functioning, in turn improving their ability to delay gratification. A 3-month circle time games intervention with 210 schoolchildren (Mage = 7.78 years, SD = 1.47) in two contrasting cultural environments (Slovakia and Vanuatu) was conducted. The intervention improved children’s executive function and in turn their ability to delay gratification. Moreover, these effects were amplified when the intervention task was imbued with ritual, rather than instrumental, cues.

Pointer from Kevin Lewis. The rationalist would be opposed to meaningless rituals. Perhaps unwisely so.

11 thoughts on “Meaningless rituals might be good for you

  1. I guess to call them meaningless would be an error.

    This idea is new, but I would have thought that “meaningless” rituals would be some kind of signalling mechanism. Apparently it could be that and more.

  2. Rationalists participate in things like solstice rituals around the traditional holiday season – I don’t think they are against rituals per se. Part of being rational is understanding what makes you happy

  3. The headline reveals the ignorance of the editor in regard to evolutionary psychology.
    In no form or fashion is it meaningless. It says we are part of the same group. What is more important in life than belonging?

    • “What is more important in life than belonging?”

      To be an independent thinker who has honestly confronted their own failings and worked to learn about and transmute their own vices into virtues, thus becoming a fully-realized human being who has become consumed by love for all human beings.

      Unless the group one is a member of consists of ALL human beings, one is acting within the mammalian level of the brain. The pack mentality of the human mammals is the source of almost all world strife as it creates artificial divisions between groups as a result of mental constructs such as country, religion, race or sexual orientation.

      We will not manifest peace on Earth until we unite across all such artificial divisions for the benefit and aid of ALL. Once the happiness of everyone becomes our world society’s goal, we shall stop ravaging the Earth and increasing the misery of her peoples.

      Then we shall know true happiness.

      • Divisions aren’t artificial. We pretended they were artificial in order to take the edge off group conflict, but then a generation grew up who forgot that differences being artificial was only a noble lie. They then tried to make differences go away, and this failed because the differences weren’t artificial.

  4. The rationalist is too confident in his powers of reason and too dismissive of the influence of his own emotions on his thought processes. Moreover, ritual that is “good for you” is thereby not meaningless.

  5. What is a meaningless ritual? Is a Haka challenge meaningless? Blessing the food before eating is meaningless? Leaving an empty chair for the Prophet Eliyahu during the seder is meaningless?

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