In their chapter, Martin Lang and Radim Chvaja examine the evolutionary relationship between anxiety and rituals and ask whether the ritual reduction of anxiety might be adaptive?
They argue that in pro-longed uncontrollable circumstances, long-lasting anxiety could be unnecessarily harmful. Ritual anxiety reduction could thus be beneficial in safe environments, even if not mitigating the threat itself.
You can find the chapter here:
In a paper published in Religion, Brain & Behavior, J. Nenadalová & D. Řezníček demonstrated that some study participants in a sensory-deprived laboratory environment sensed the presence of another person. This feeling was mostly associated with perceived uncertainty and only somewhat associated with psychological dispositions.
In a cross-national investigation published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, F. M. Saxler with LEVYNA’s E. Kundtová Klocová and other colleagues show that the COVID-19 pandemic affected young people’s normative beliefs about unpaid domestic work; and that this effect is stronger in countries with greater gender inequality.
