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Don’t stop believing: Rituals improve performance by decreasing anxiety

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  • Brooks, Alison Wood
  • Schroeder, Juliana
  • Risen, Jane L.
  • Gino, Francesca
  • Galinsky, Adam D.
  • Norton, Michael I.
  • Schweitzer, Maurice E.

Abstract

From public speaking to first dates, people frequently experience performance anxiety. And when experienced immediately before or during performance, anxiety harms performance. Across a series of experiments, we explore the efficacy of a common strategy that people employ to cope with performance-induced anxiety: rituals. We define a ritual as a predefined sequence of symbolic actions often characterized by formality and repetition that lacks direct instrumental purpose. Using different instantiations of rituals and measures of anxiety (both physiological and self-report), we find that enacting rituals improves performance in public and private performance domains by decreasing anxiety. Belief that a specific series of behaviors constitute a ritual is a critical ingredient to reduce anxiety and improve performance: engaging in behaviors described as a “ritual” improved performance more than engaging in the same behaviors described as “random behaviors.”

Suggested Citation

  • Brooks, Alison Wood & Schroeder, Juliana & Risen, Jane L. & Gino, Francesca & Galinsky, Adam D. & Norton, Michael I. & Schweitzer, Maurice E., 2016. "Don’t stop believing: Rituals improve performance by decreasing anxiety," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 71-85.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:137:y:2016:i:c:p:71-85
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.07.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Scott Atran & Joseph Henrich, 2010. "The Evolution of Religion: How Cognitive By-Products, Adaptive Learning Heuristics, Ritual Displays, and Group Competition Generate Deep Commitments to Prosocial Religio," Post-Print ijn_00505193, HAL.
    2. Lerner, Jennifer & Han, Seunghee & Keltner, Dacher, 2007. "Feelings and Consumer Decision Making: Extending the Appraisal-Tendency Framework," Scholarly Articles 37143006, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
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    4. Raghunathan, Rajagopal & Pham, Michel Tuan, 1999. "All Negative Moods Are Not Equal: Motivational Influences of Anxiety and Sadness on Decision Making, , , , ," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 56-77, July.
    5. Brooks, Alison Wood & Schweitzer, Maurice E., 2011. "Can Nervous Nelly negotiate? How anxiety causes negotiators to make low first offers, exit early, and earn less profit," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 43-54, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Niu, Xiaofei & Li, Jianbiao, 2020. "Incentivizing organ donation by swearing an oath: The role of signature and ritual," EconStor Preprints 203243, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, revised 2020.
    2. Kim, Tami & Sezer, Ovul & Schroeder, Juliana & Risen, Jane & Gino, Francesca & Norton, Michael I., 2021. "Work group rituals enhance the meaning of work," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 197-212.
    3. Liang Meng & Haifeng Wang & Pengfei Han, 2020. "Getting a head start: turn-of-the-month submission effect for accepted papers in management journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(3), pages 2577-2595, September.

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