Enacting Rituals to Improve Self-Control

Abstract

Rituals are predefined sequences of actions characterized by rigidity and repetition. We propose that enacting ritualized actions can enhance subjective feelings of self-discipline, such that rituals can be harnessed to improve behavioral self-control. We test this hypothesis in five experiments and eleven supplemental studies (Ntotal = 3,396). First, we found that pairing a ritual with healthy eating behavior (Experiment 1) or enacting a ritual prior to making a food choice (Experiments 2a-b) increased the likelihood of choosing healthier food in a subsequent decision. The positive effect of rituals on self-control held even when a set of ritualized gestures were not explicitly labeled as a ritual, and in other domains of behavioral self-control (i.e., prosocial decision-making; Experiments 3 and 4). Furthermore, Experiments 2-4 provide evidence for the psychological process underlying the effectiveness of rituals: heightened feelings of self-discipline. Finally, Experiment 4 showed that the absence of a self-control conflict eliminated the effect of rituals on behavior, suggesting that rituals affect behavioral self-control specifically because they alter responses to self-control conflicts. We conclude by briefly describing the results of a number of supplemental experiments examining rituals in other self-control domains. Our body of evidence suggests that rituals can have beneficial consequences for self-control.

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Keywords: rituals, self-regulation, self-control, health, prosociality

JEL Classification: D80, D90, I12, P46, Z19