Abstract
This chapter examines under what conditions the purported anxiolytic effects of ritualized behavior would confer adaptive benefits to ritual performers. While the anxiety subsystem is likely adaptive in motivating precautionary action against prospective threats, high anxiety levels might be detrimental for the individual, especially in cases where the anxiety system is hyperactive, and the environment is relatively safe. Thus, decreasing excessive anxiety through ritualized behavior may be beneficial by decreasing the somatic cost of physiological stress and by allowing individuals to take riskier action and potentially garner larger benefits. While this conclusion is rather premature and based on insufficient data availability, the chapter concludes with several predictions and proposed ways to test them, which should help elucidate the relationship between anxiety and ritualized behavior in the future.