Rituals Alleviate Grieving for Loved Ones, Lovers, and Lotteries

In 1934 two caves were discovered in the mountains of Palestine which contained the remains of over two dozen ancient human skeletons. Around both sites archaeologists discovered sea shells with holes through them as if they had been strung on a necklace, a series of hearths, animal bones and lumps of red ochre, a type of iron ore which can be used as a dye. The researchers dated the remains between 96,000 and 115,000 years old.

How was this discovery particular relevant to Psychology? The Skhul and Qazfeh caves contained the oldest remains of a ritual burial. Before this humans didn't have the capacity for symbolic thought, and didn't feel the need to bury their dead in a ritualistic manner. The finding tells us about a time when a tremendous leap occurred in the evolution of the human species, when we began to engage in symbolic and ritualistic behaviour. Since then rituals have stayed with us and have been practiced throughout human history. But the question remains: what is the psychological benefit of engaging in these rituals? One recent study hopes to help in providing an answer to this question.

Norton & Gino (2013) had participants taking part in their study in groups of up to fifteen people at a time. The participants were told that they’ll be taking part in a lottery, where one person out of the fifteen will win $200 and be allowed to leave the study early. The rest had to stick around and actually take part in the experiment. One lucky person was chosen at random, given their prize and allowed to leave. The remaining participants were then split into two groups. One group was asked to spend two minutes drawing on a piece of paper about how they felt, while another group was told to engage in a specific and rather arbitrary ritual:

Step 1: Please draw how you currently feel on the piece of paper on your desk for two  minutes.
Step 2: Please sprinkle a pinch of salt on the paper with your drawing.

Step 3: Please tear up the piece of paper.
Step 4: Now please count up to ten in your head five times.

The participants who took part in the ritual later reported higher feelings of control over their situation, as well as lower feelings of grief abut not winning in the lottery. Interestingly, this effect was also found for people who didn't even believe in the effect of rituals.

The authors believed that the mechanism at play was that engaging in rituals gives people a stronger sense of control, which is a psychological need when people find themselves in an upsetting situation over which they have little control.

In a pilot study they asked participants to reflect on times when either a relationship ended or they had lost a loved one. They asked some of their participants to write about the types of rituals they engaged in at the time, and found that people engaged in a wide variety of rituals which helped them cope with the loss:

“I looked for all the pictures we took together during the time we dated. I then destroyed them into small pieces (even the ones I really liked!), and then burnt them in the park where we first kissed.”

“I wrote a letter expressing my feelings and I never mailed it. I destroyed the letter and let me painful feelings go”.

The participants who spent time recalling their personal rituals reported stronger feelings of control at the time of using those rituals.

Negative life events, such as losing a loved one tend to be events with which we have little control. Death of a significant other is rated as one of the most stressful life events we can experience, shortly followed by divorce and marital separation (Holmes & Rahe, 1967).  Apparently taking part in ritualistic behaviour increase a person’s sense of control which helps them cope with their lack of control. So, pouring salt on a piece of paper and ripping it up might not improve your chances of winning  a lottery you've already lost, but it might make you feel a little bit better about it.

References

Shells and ochre in Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh Cave, Israel: indications for modern behavior Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer, Bernard Vandermeersch and Ofer Bar-Yosef Journal of Human Evolution Volume 56, Issue 3, March 2009, Pages 307-314.

Holmes TH, Rahe RH (1967). "The Social Readjustment Rating Scale". J Psychosom Res 11 (2): 213–8.

Norton, M. I., & Gino, F. (2013, February 11). Rituals Alleviate Grieving for Loved Ones, Lovers, and Lotteries. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.