Citation

Keren H, Boyer P, Mort J, Eilam D. Behav. Sci. (Basel) 2013; 3(3): 316-329.

Affiliation

Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv 69978, Israel.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/bs3030316

PMID

25379241

PMCID

PMC4217595

Abstract

The association between threat perception and motor execution, mediated by evolved precaution systems, often results in ritual-like behavior, including many idiosyncratic acts that seem irrelevant to the task at hand. This study tested the hypothesis that threat-detection during performance of a risky motor task would result in idiosyncratic activity that is not necessary for task completion. We asked biology students to follow a particular set of instructions in mixing three solutions labeled "bio-hazardous" and then repeat this operation with "non-hazardous" substances (or vice versa). We observed a longer duration of the overall performance, a greater repertoire of acts, longer maximal act duration, and longer mean duration of acts in the "risky" task when it was performed before the "non-risky" task. Some, but not all, of these differences were eliminated when a "non-risky" task preceded the "risky" one. The increased performance of idiosyncratic unnecessary activity is in accordance with the working hypothesis of the present study: ritualized idiosyncratic activities are performed in response to a real or illusionary threat, as a means to alleviate anxiety.

Language: en