Why our brain craves pattern-seeking rituals like Wordle

stuff.co.nz:

In the beginning, Americans created sourdough starters.

As people looked for rituals to cope with the early uncertainties of the pandemic, many bought Peloton bikes, built gardens and watched Tiger King.

And in Brooklyn, a software engineer said: "Let there be Wordle!"

And there was Wordle. Big-time.

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In recent weeks, the online game has become a kind of ritual for its players, who pilgrimage daily to a website to solve a five-letter puzzle.

After completing it, many share their score with their friends, along with the grid of yellow and green squares that show how many tries it took them to solve the puzzle.

While rituals are often thought of in religious contexts such as prayer, a pilgrimage to Mecca, a Jewish Seder, baptism and communion, several scholars said there is no agreed-upon definition for a ritual.

But many say ancient and modern rituals in both religious and secular contexts serve a powerful role in people's lives, especially during uncertain times.

Humans' brains are designed for pattern-seeking in order to help us make sense of the world, said Dimitris Xygalatas, an anthropologist and cognitive scientist at the University of Connecticut in the US.

When humans aren't able to find patterns, we can experience stress, he said. Something like doing Wordle daily can give people a sense of regularity and a sense of control.

Xygalatas's studies have found that people who participate in collective rituals have lower levels of cortisol that correspond