We tend to think of rituals as something associated with religion, culture or major life events. But increasingly, psychologists, anthropologists and consumer researchers are interested in the impact rituals have on our everyday lives – and what they can do for us.

And brands and organisations should pay attention.

One of the most useful frameworks comes from psychologists Nicholas Hobson, Juliana Schroeder, Jane Risen, Dimitris Xygalatas and Michael Inzlicht. Their influential review, The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework, brings together research from psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, behavioural economics and neuroscience.

They identify three broad functions of ritual: regulating emotions, helping us get into the right state to perform, and strengthening social connection.

In other words, rituals can help us feel better, perform better and feel more connected to other people.

That makes them rather interesting for anyone thinking about brands, customer experiences or organisational culture.

So, what actually makes something a ritual?

There isn’t one universally accepted definition of ritual. But Hobson and his colleagues highlight a number of features that distinguish ritual from ordinary behaviour.

In simple terms, a ritual is a structured sequence of actions that carries meaning beyond what the actions themselves achieve. The actions tend to follow a particular order, are connected to a larger meaning or symbolism, and often contain elements that have no obvious practical purpose.

Take birthday candles. There is a sequence: the cake arrives, everyone sings, in Australia someone shouts “Hip! Hip!” and the room responds “Hooray!” – usually three times – before the birthday person blows out the candles. It sits within the larger symbolism of celebrating another year of life. And blowing out candles doesn’t actually do anything useful.

Drinking coffee, on the other hand, isn’t necessarily a ritual.
But if you grind the beans, use the same cup, prepare the coffee in the same way and sit in the same place every morning because this is how you start your day, it begins to take on ritualistic qualities.
The distinction matters. A ritual is not simply something we do repeatedly. It is repetition with structure and meaning.

And ritualised behaviour isn’t uniquely human, either. Researchers have observed ritual-like behaviours in other animals, particularly primates. White-faced capuchin monkeys, for example, have been observed developing idiosyncratic sequences of interaction between particular pairs of animals. These sequences can involve repeated, unusual behaviours with no obvious immediate practical purpose and appear to be socially learned. Researchers suggest they may help animals test the strength of a relationship.

So why are these structured, repetitive and socially meaningful behaviours so widespread?
And what does that tell us about why rituals can be so powerful?

1. Rituals can help regulate our emotions
One reason rituals are so powerful is that they can give us a sense of structure and control, particularly when we are anxious or facing uncertainty.
A classic example comes from anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski’s observations of the Trobriand Islanders. He noted that elaborate rituals were associated with dangerous open-ocean fishing, while fishing in the relatively safe lagoons involved far less ritual. The contrast suggested that ritual becomes particularly important when people face uncertainty and have limited control over the outcome.

More recent psychological research provides some support for the idea that ritual can help manage anxiety.

Part of the explanation may be surprisingly simple: ritual gives our attention something to do. Following a familiar sequence of actions can focus attention away from worrying thoughts and create a sense of order.

But there is also a second layer. Rituals often carry meaning. They can remind us that we are part of something larger than ourselves – a family, a culture, a community, a team or an organisation. That sense of meaning and connection can itself be psychologically reassuring. Hobson and colleagues describe these as the physical and psychological pathways through which rituals can regulate emotion.

This helps explain why rituals often appear at moments when emotions run high: before a competition, at a funeral, during a wedding, before an important performance or when a community is facing uncertainty.

2. Rituals can help us get into the right state to perform

Rituals can also help us prepare for action.

Think about a morning coffee. The caffeine may help us wake up. But the ritual around it can do something else: it marks a transition from night to day, and from sleep to activity.

The same principle appears in high-performance settings. Athletes often have pre-performance routines. Musicians warm up in particular ways.
The individual actions don’t necessarily cause better performance. Rather, the ritual can help create the psychological state in which performance is more likely to happen.

Research reviewed by Hobson and colleagues suggests that ritual can reduce anxiety and direct attention towards the task at hand. Completing a familiar sequence can also provide a small sense of control and competence before the more consequential activity begins.

This may be one reason rituals are particularly common around activities where the outcome matters but cannot be completely controlled.

3. Rituals connect us to other people

Perhaps the most obvious function of ritual is social. Rituals tell people performing them and watching them that they belong to something.
This is particularly interesting for membership organisations.

Clubs often focus heavily on functional benefits: facilities, discounts, newsletters, access, events and competitions.
But some of their most powerful assets may be much less tangible.

The annual presentation night. The post-game BBQ. The way everyone gathers before a match. The club song. The first game of the season. These are not just activities. They can become shared patterns of behaviour and meaning.

And that matters because rituals don’t simply bring people together. They can help create the identity of being a member.

What does this mean for brands?

There is an obvious opportunity for marketers: understand rituals relevant to your product or category and make them part of your brand.

Recent research into coffee provides a nice example. Eleanor Ratcliffe and colleagues studied how people prepare and consume coffee, and compared these rituals with how they are represented in advertising. They found that many of the specific, ordered and sensory elements people described in their own rituals were not consistently represented in coffee advertising.

When they then tested whether depicting these ritual elements changed how people perceived the product, they found that it did. People who saw an advertisement incorporating the ritualistic elements reported a higher willingness to pay for the coffee.

It is a small but fascinating finding. The opportunity isn’t necessarily to invent a ritual for the brand, but to notice the rituals that already exist and represent them more faithfully.

Oreo is perhaps the more obvious example. The Twist, Lick, Dunk sequence has become part of how the product is consumed – and, importantly, part of how the brand is talked about. The ritual has become a piece of brand meaning, a brand asset and a communication platform.

So what can organisations do?

The best starting point is to look for the rituals that already exist.

The Ritual Audit

1. What do people already do repeatedly?
Watch what happens before, during and after an experience with your organisation, service or product. What do people always do? What sequence do they follow? What do they insist on doing in a particular way?

2. What psychological job might the ritual be doing?
Is it helping people manage uncertainty or emotion?
Is it helping them get into the right state to perform?
Is it helping them connect with others or express their membership of a group?

3. How could you strengthen it without ruining it?
Could you make it easier? Give it a name? Celebrate it? Build it into communications? Create a physical or digital cue? Give people a reason to share it?
Sometimes the smallest intervention is enough.

And the opportunity extends well beyond brands. Local councils can create places that support the rituals of community life. Member organisations can protect and strengthen traditions that make membership feel meaningful. And governments can think about how to make civic participation more ritualised. Voting, for example, is one of the few things we do collectively as citizens, yet the experience is largely functional.

Could governments promote more shared rituals around civic participation – moments that make people feel not just that they have completed a task, but that they are part of something bigger?

Hobson, N. M., Schroeder, J., Risen, J. L., Xygalatas, D. & Inzlicht, M. (2018)
The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/88p7357w

Ratcliffe, E., Baxter, W., Aurisicchio, M., Childs, P. & Martin, N. (2024)
The Role of Ritual Communication in Consumption: A Consumer Coffee Experience
https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ijfd_00067_1

Amati, F. & Pestana, F. (2015)
Consumption Rituals: A Strategic Marketing Framework
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329673741_Consumption_rituals_relating_to_food_and_drink_A_review_and_research_agenda

Oreo — Twist, Lick, Dunk
New Oreo Campaign Reimagines Twist, Lick, Dunk as a Shared Cultural Moment
https://www.adobomagazine.com/campaign-spotlight/new-oreo-campaign-reimagines-twist-lick-dunk-as-a-shared-cultural-moment/

Ratcliffe, E. & colleagues (2019)
Consumption Rituals Relating to Food and Drink: A Review and Research Agenda
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666318302496

Perry, S. & Smolla, M. (2020),
Capuchin monkey rituals: an interdisciplinary study of form and function
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/375/1805/20190422/42552/Capuchin-monkey-rituals-an-interdisciplinary-study

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