Quirky Rituals May Feel Arbitrary, But They Can Strongly Affect Well-being

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Historically, rituals have acted as a social glue. “We’re especially interested in being like our family, and members of our community, of our region or country,” said Cristine Legare, a professor of psychology who researches rituals at the University of Texas at Austin. “I think of ritual as the behavioral grammar of humans. This is how we coordinate our minds, bodies, beliefs and behaviors with others.”

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Another way to think about it: Rituals aren’t instrumental to accomplishing a task, said Michael Norton, a professor who researches personal rituals at Harvard Business School and author of “The Ritual Effect.” “If you have a cake, the goal is to cut the cake and eat the cake,” he explained. “You don’t need to put candles on the cake, light the candles on fire and blow out the candles to eat the cake.” But blowing out those candles still holds emotional weight.

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Rituals also encourage us to find meaning in the seemingly mundane. They transform ordinary actions into symbolic experiences, Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology at Yale University and host of “The Happiness Lab” podcast, said in an email. “They mark what matters to us. Even small personal rituals can help us reflect on our values and our place in the world.”

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