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.
The spatial arrangement of classrooms is studied as an important factor influencing interaction and communication among students. To measure interactions in a field experiment in classrooms, Jakub Cigán, Jan Nehyba, and Libor Juhaňák innovatively utilized sociometric badges, which can measure taking turns in interactions and how long speech segments take, or how students intonate.
Results of their interdisciplinary study show that students sitting in rows speak more often than students sitting in a circle; however, the rate of interactions also varied depending on student groups. Their data contradict the traditional research that simplistically suggests that sitting in a circle or semi-circle increases interactions en masse.
You can find the article here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220973.2021.1954865
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.