title: Anxiety and ritualization: Can attention discriminate compulsion from routine?
abstract: Despite the wide occurrence of ritual behavior in humans and animals, much of its causal underpinnings, as well as evolutionary functions, remain unknown. A prominent line of research focuses on ritualization as a response to anxiogenic stimuli. By manipulating anxiety levels, and subsequently assessing their motor behavior dynamics, our recent study investigated this causal link in a controlled way. As an extension to our original argument, we here discuss 2 theoretical explanations of rituals-ritualized behavior and automated behavior-and their link to anxiety. We propose that investigating participant's locus of attention can discriminate between these 2 models.
authors.affiliation: LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion, Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University , Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krátký
authors.affiliation: LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion, Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; Department of Anthropology and CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.affiliation: Religion Programme, Department of Theology and Religion, University of Otago , Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Shaver
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava , Bratislava, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Danijela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jerotijević
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology and CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA; Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xygalatas
keywords: anxiety; automated behavior; ritual; ritualized behavior; routine