Ritualization reduces anxiety
Martin Lang and Radim Chvaja published a chapter discussing the relationship between ritual and anxiety in The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion.
Kundtová Klocová points out the lack of clarity of the key concept of “cognition” within the field of cognitive science of religion, and also critiques White’s selective emphasis on the “standard” theories that have shaped the field in its beginnings.
Specifically, Kundtová Klocová advocates to include, for example, the theories of predictive coding, cultural evolution, and complex adaptive systems within the debate on what cognitive science of religion currently is, as they have been shaping the field with increasing importance.
You can find the paper here:
Martin Lang and Radim Chvaja published a chapter discussing the relationship between ritual and anxiety in The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion.
Martin Lang, Jan Krátký, and Dimitris Xygalatas published a paper on ritualization and anxiety reduction in Scientific Reports.