New research into the ritualised behaviour that follows when people are anxious or stressed has provided fresh insight into the characteristics of these actions, with the possibility of better understanding conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism.
The findings, co-authored by Victoria University of Wellington postdoctoral researcher Dr John Shaver, have been published in the prestigious academic journal Current Biology.
“It is widely believed that participating in rituals help people regain a sense of control during times of uncertainty,” says Dr Shaver. “We aimed to establish if there are common aspects to people’s ritualised behaviour that are not learned or culturally defined, and whether they appear spontaneously.”
The researchers established two groups of test participants, and subjected each member of one group to a high-stress task; namely, the preparation of a speech to be delivered to an art expert about a particular sculpture.
Members of both groups were then asked to clean the sculpture, with their hand-movements monitored using advanced motion-capture technology.
The researchers were looking for signs of ritualised or stereotypical behavioural patterns, such as repetitiveness (recurrent cleaning), rigidity (an emphasis on any aspect of cleaning), and redundancy (the time spent cleaning, along with any unnecessary cleaning actions).
Supplementary data was also collected from the participants on their perceived anxiety levels, as well as the difference in heart-rate between their baseline level and the level during the cleaning task.
“We found that anxiety led to a statistically significant increase in repetitiveness and rigidity, but not redundancy,” says Dr Shaver.
“We also found that repetitiveness and rigidity could be predicted from both heart-rate and the participants’ self-perceived anxiety. However, redundancy could be only mildly attributed to the latter.”
According to Dr Shaver, the findings appear to be in accordance with other research which suggests that an individual experiencing anxiety from a complex, uncontrollable or unpredictable task may enter a high-entropy mental state—a kind of chaos in the mind stemming from uncertainty about the future.
“Put simply, anxiety and stress lead to a decreased feeling of control. To cope with this instability, ritualised behaviour is enacted—repetitive and predictable actions that aim to increase the feeling of environmental certainty.”
Some researchers have also argued that ritualised behaviours overload memory, thereby suppressing intrusive thoughts.
It is believed the research may go some way to help explain more-complex ritualised behaviours, such as those performed by gamblers, athletes, or participants of religious ceremonies.
Dr Shaver conducted the research in collaboration with Martin Lang (University of Connecticut, United States), Jan Krátký (Masaryk University, Czech Republic), Dr Danijela Jerotijević (Comenius University, Czech Republic) and Dr Dimitris Xygalatas (University of Connecticut).