David DeSteno

Or you can think of them as things that people stumbled into and that have been honed over the centuries to help people live better lives. And I can't answer that question. But what I can tell you is that they help us in many ways meet life's challenges.

Yeah, I mean, in those practices, so when you go, let's use Christmas for the time of the year, as you're saying, part of what those ritual practices do and the giving and the singing together, et cetera, they create feelings of connection. So, for example, one way I got into this is In my lab, we were trying to see how we could make people feel more connected.

Yeah, I mean, in those practices, so when you go, let's use Christmas for the time of the year, as you're saying, part of what those ritual practices do and the giving and the singing together, et cetera, they create feelings of connection. So, for example, one way I got into this is In my lab, we were trying to see how we could make people feel more connected.

Yeah, I mean, in those practices, so when you go, let's use Christmas for the time of the year, as you're saying, part of what those ritual practices do and the giving and the singing together, et cetera, they create feelings of connection. So, for example, one way I got into this is In my lab, we were trying to see how we could make people feel more connected.

And we had them sit across from each other, strangers, and we had them put on earphones. And they had to simply tap their hands on a sensor on the table as they heard beats. And we rigged the beats so that they were either, they would be tapping their hands in synchrony, or they'd be kind of, you know, completely random and out of sync.

And we had them sit across from each other, strangers, and we had them put on earphones. And they had to simply tap their hands on a sensor on the table as they heard beats. And we rigged the beats so that they were either, they would be tapping their hands in synchrony, or they'd be kind of, you know, completely random and out of sync.

And we had them sit across from each other, strangers, and we had them put on earphones. And they had to simply tap their hands on a sensor on the table as they heard beats. And we rigged the beats so that they were either, they would be tapping their hands in synchrony, or they'd be kind of, you know, completely random and out of sync.

And what we found is that simple act of moving in synchrony made people feel not only more connected to one another, these were complete strangers, but they subsequently reported feeling more connection to one another. And then when we created a situation where one of them got stuck doing something god-awful, a really boring task, the other people were more willing to come and help them.

And what we found is that simple act of moving in synchrony made people feel not only more connected to one another, these were complete strangers, but they subsequently reported feeling more connection to one another. And then when we created a situation where one of them got stuck doing something god-awful, a really boring task, the other people were more willing to come and help them.

And what we found is that simple act of moving in synchrony made people feel not only more connected to one another, these were complete strangers, but they subsequently reported feeling more connection to one another. And then when we created a situation where one of them got stuck doing something god-awful, a really boring task, the other people were more willing to come and help them.

And so what you can see is that simple act of doing things together makes people feel more connected, makes them feel more compassionate and have empathy for each other. And work since that time has shown that if you do this in a religious context, it is even more so in terms of feeling bonded and connected.

And so what you can see is that simple act of doing things together makes people feel more connected, makes them feel more compassionate and have empathy for each other. And work since that time has shown that if you do this in a religious context, it is even more so in terms of feeling bonded and connected.

And so what you can see is that simple act of doing things together makes people feel more connected, makes them feel more compassionate and have empathy for each other. And work since that time has shown that if you do this in a religious context, it is even more so in terms of feeling bonded and connected.

And those feelings that we get of gratitude when we pray and thank God, those feelings of gratitude, when we induce them in my lab for any reason, make people more willing to help one another, more generous, more fair, more kind. And so what religions have done is found a way to alter our emotional states, what the brain is perceiving, et cetera, in ways that kind of bring out our better angels.

And those feelings that we get of gratitude when we pray and thank God, those feelings of gratitude, when we induce them in my lab for any reason, make people more willing to help one another, more generous, more fair, more kind. And so what religions have done is found a way to alter our emotional states, what the brain is perceiving, et cetera, in ways that kind of bring out our better angels.

And those feelings that we get of gratitude when we pray and thank God, those feelings of gratitude, when we induce them in my lab for any reason, make people more willing to help one another, more generous, more fair, more kind. And so what religions have done is found a way to alter our emotional states, what the brain is perceiving, et cetera, in ways that kind of bring out our better angels.

That's an open question. You might be able to, but people will create rituals all the time just on their own. Why don't those rituals have the same effect or why doesn't being in a club have the same effect on connection? It's because over millennia, these rituals have been honed to nudge our bodies in certain ways. They're not just put together in ways that are random.

That's an open question. You might be able to, but people will create rituals all the time just on their own. Why don't those rituals have the same effect or why doesn't being in a club have the same effect on connection? It's because over millennia, these rituals have been honed to nudge our bodies in certain ways. They're not just put together in ways that are random.

That's an open question. You might be able to, but people will create rituals all the time just on their own. Why don't those rituals have the same effect or why doesn't being in a club have the same effect on connection? It's because over millennia, these rituals have been honed to nudge our bodies in certain ways. They're not just put together in ways that are random.

Let me give you one great example. One of my favorite examples is things like grieving. When someone dies and we face loss, grief is a very difficult emotion for people to feel, and many people get stuck in it. The trick is to move through it without it becoming too intense or going on too long. One thing that religions do is we all come together to eulogize a person.