28 | New Scientist | 15 January 2022
Views Columnist
I
AM no coffee snob, but I
have started treating the
preparation of my morning
espresso like a religious ritual. It
begins with the counting of the
beans – which must number 60,
no more, no less. Each subsequent
step – from the amount of time
they grind (20 seconds) to the
long inhale I take before my first
sip – is executed as carefully and
mindfully as if I were offering a
libation to a minor deity.
I fully admit that there is no
logical reason to count out exactly
60 beans, one by one, rather than
chucking in a spoonful – but the
precision is exactly the point.
Recent psychological studies show
that the creation of daily rituals
can bring some surprising
benefits to our minds, and the
creation of my favourite brew
provides the perfect time for me
to put that research into practice.
The power of ritual won’t be
a surprise to tennis stars. Rafael
Nadal, for example, chooses to
consume his sports supplements
in a precise order during each
match, while Serena Williams has
to tie her shoes in a particular way
and bounces the ball exactly five
times before each serve.
You might assume that the
appeal is purely superstitious.
If certain behaviours come to be
associated with good performance,
we irrationally assume that they
are necessary for further success.
Much like the placebo effect in
medicine, perhaps the belief in
enhanced performance creates
a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There may be some truth in this.
In 2010, German researchers asked
participants to try their hand at a
bit of golf – specifically putting.
When given the golf ball, half the
participants were told that it had
“turned out to be lucky” for other
players. They holed 35 per cent
more putts than those who hadn’tbeen given the expectation of
better performance.
For a separate experiment,
the researchers asked some
participants to bring in their
own lucky charms, before taking
a memory test. Once again, these
people performed better than
others who did the test without
their favourite trinket. The boost
seemed to be linked to feelings of
“self-efficacy”. The participants
with their lucky charms felt
more capable of dealing with the
challenge, which then improved
their concentration and recall.
Fortunately for the rationalists
among us, the latest researchsuggests that we can all benefit
from rituals without any appeal
to Lady Luck. Instead, it seems that
the simple repetition of precise
behaviours creates a sense of
control in the face of uncertainty.
This reduces our anxiety and
improves our mental focus
when we face a challenge.
Consider one of my all-time
favourite psychological studies,
by Alison Wood Brooks at
Harvard University. She invited
participants into the lab for a spot
of karaoke – the song of choice
was Don’t Stop Believin’^ by US rock
band Journey. Some were first
assigned the following arbitrary
ritual: “Draw a picture of how you
are feeling right now. Sprinkle salt
on your drawing. Count to five out
loud. Crinkle up your paper. Throw
your paper in the trash.” The rest
were told to sit and gather their
thoughts for a minute.
It seems unlikely that any of theparticipants seriously believed
that the ritual held magical
powers. Nonetheless, it
increased the accuracy of
their singing by a whopping
13 percentage points, as measured
by the karaoke machine’s pitch-
matching software.
Besides establishing a sense
of control in stressful moments,
rituals can help boost our feelings
of self-discipline – which helps us
stick to long-term goals. In one
examination of healthy eating, for
example, participants were asked
to sit upright, close their eyes, bow
their head and count to 10.
They were subsequently more
likely to choose a low-calorie
snack rather than a Snickers bar,
compared with people in a control
group who had performed a set
of random movements in any
sequence they liked. They were
also more likely to endorse
statements such as “I felt sharp
and focused when making this
decision”, suggesting that it
had worked by changing their
perceptions of their willpower.
Across all of these studies, the
most successful rituals are precise,
repetitive and follow a rigid order.
Beyond those requirements,
however, you are free to get
creative – simply craft any routine
that feels personally meaningful.
It could be as simple as performing
a fixed set of stretches and
listening to the same playlist
before public speaking – a strategy
that singer Beyoncé uses to
prepare for performances.
My coffee ritual was inspired
by Beethoven. The composer
apparently counted out exactly
60 beans for his brew before
starting work each morning. I
may not have transformed into a
musical genius, or even a karaoke
king, but the sense of focus and
heightened self-discipline remains
long after my cup is dry. ❚“ It seems that the
simple repetition of
precise behaviours
creates a sense of
control in the face
of uncertainty”Make your own luck Secular rituals really can bring greater
success, even for rational thinkers, writes David Robson#BrainBooster
This column appears
monthly. Up next week:
Chanda Prescod-WeinsteinWhat I’m reading
The Galaxy, and the
Ground Within by Becky
Chambers – a brilliant
piece of “hopepunk”
science fiction that
portrays an optimistic
vision of the futureWhat I’m watching
Joan Didion: The center
will not hold (Netflix) –
a wonderfully intimate
examination of the US
writer’s life and career;
The Tourist (BBC One)What I’m working on
I’m just finishing a New
Scientist special report on
the science of happinessDavid’s week
David Robson is a science writer
and author of The Expectation
Effect: How your mindset can
transform your life (Canongate).
You can follow him on Twitter
@d_a_robson