8 March (8M), now known as International Women’s Day, is a day for feminist claims where demonstrations are organized in over 150 countries, with the participation of millions of women all around the world. These demonstrations can be viewed as collective rituals and thus focus attention on the processes that facilitate different psychosocial effects. This work aims to explore the mechanisms (i.e., behavioral and attentional synchrony, perceived emotional synchrony, and positive and transcendent emotions) involved in participation in the demonstrations of 8 March 2020, collective and ritualized feminist actions, and their correlates associated with personal well-being (i.e., affective well-being and beliefs of personal growth) and collective well-being (i.e., social integration variables: situated identity, solidarity and fusion), collective efficacy and collective growth, and behavioral intention to support the fight for women’s rights. To this end, a cross-cultural study was conducted with the participation of 2,854 people (age 18–79; M = 30.55; SD = 11.66) from countries in Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador) and Europe (Spain and Portugal), with a retrospective correlational cross-sectional design and a convenience sample. Participants were divided between demonstration participants (n = 1,271; 94.0% female) and non-demonstrators or followers who monitored participants through the media and social networks (n = 1,583; 75.87% female). Compared with non-demonstrators and with males, female and non-binary gender respondents had greater scores in mechanisms and criterion variables. Further random-effects model meta-analyses revealed that the perceived emotional synchrony was consistently associated with more proximal mechanisms, as well as with criterion variables. Finally, sequential moderation analyses showed that proposed mechanisms successfully mediated the effects of participation on every criterion variable. These results indicate that participation in 8M marches and demonstrations can be analyzed through the literature on collective rituals. As such, collective participation implies positive outcomes both individually and collectively, which are further reinforced through key psychological mechanisms, in line with a Durkheimian approach to collective rituals.

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This paper analyzes the socio-cognitive and emotional processes related to collective action in the context of the 2019 populist social movement in Chile. It proposes an integrative explanation of populism as social movements and collective gatherings along with their relation with creativity and social representations of mass movements. A comprehensive online survey was used (n = 262) that included measures of participation in demonstrations, identification with protesters or the government, agreement with social movement grievances, collective efficacy, perceived emotional synchrony, collective action, self-reported cognitive creativity, and individuals’ proposals for improvement of society and ideas associated with stimuli (e.g., the concepts of majority or minority). Our results revealed that identification with demonstrators, agreement with protesters’ grievances, a high perceived emotional synchrony or collective effervescence, and higher creativity responses were associated with an active participation in the social movement. Higher participation and factors conducive to participation were associated with lexical clusters of responses to stimuli that include words such as rights, justice, injustice, bravery, dignity, or hope, which were conceived of as positive social representations of the populist social movement. These findings are discussed within the neo-Durkheimian framework of collective gatherings and the perspective of populism as a social movement that seeks to renew and expand democracy.

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La actual pandemia de la COVID-19 ha supuesto un marcado incremento de las brechas sociales preexistentes. En esta investigación analizamos las relaciones de diferentes facetas de clase social con el bienestar y afectividad general a lo largo de un total de 8 países de la región cultural iberoamericana. Asimismo, también pusimos a prueba el potencial rol mediador del riesgo percibido relativo a la COVID-19 y la eficacia colectiva percibida. Los resultados obtenidos (a) revelaron que una clase social más baja se relacionó con un menor bienestar y afecto positivo, y un mayor afecto negativo; (b) confirmaron que la clase social subjetiva constituye un mejor predictor del bienestar y afectividad general que la clase social objetiva (i.e., nivel educativo); y (c) mostraron que los efectos de la clase social subjetiva en el bienestar/afectividad general se daban de forma indirecta a través del riesgo percibido y la eficacia colectiva. Estos hallazgos confirman la existencia de diferencias en bienestar y afectividad general en función de la clase social durante la pandemia, al tiempo que permiten avanzar en la comprensión de los mecanismos psicosociales subyacentes.

This study explores the relationship between remembered sociohistorical events and well-being. Its objective is to ascertain the content of historical memory and the way it is associated with this construct. The PHI remembered well-being scale and the CEVI instrument, which asks respondents to describe four relevant historical events during their lifetime, were applied to a convenience sample from the Basque Country (N = 434, range 20-88 years, M = 48.11, SD = 21.47, 59.2% women). Negative and local events predominated. Positive appraisal of historical events was positively associated with personal, hedonic and social well-being, and negative appraisal was positively associated with lower well-being, confirming the greater importance of positive recall in wellbeing. A stronger relationship between the recall of historical events, particularly positive ones, and the hedonic and social facets of well-being was observed than with personal well-being.

Recent studies suggest that identification with all humanity (IWAH), apart from being related to universalistic values, could also be related to self-transcendent emotions (STE). In this scenario, the general objective of this cross-cultural longitudinal study is to examine the relationship between identification with proximate categories (i.e., community and country) and superordinate one (all humanity), and their association with positive self-oriented and STEs during a traumatic global phenomenon such as COVID-19 pandemics. Additionally, we explore variations regarding the patterns of those associations in different cultural contexts (Chile and Spain) and examine whether they change among two different time points (T1–T2). The total sample was composed of 403 participants, of whom 224 were residents in Chile (M = 39.25, SD = 12.56; range 18–71 years; 49.6% women) and 179 were residents in Spain (M = 36.35, SD = 12.12; range 18–68 years; 59.8% women). Data collection was carried out in September (T1) and November (T2) 2020, through online surveys administered via Survey Monkey® platform. Overall, results show, as expected, greater identification with proximate categories rather than superordinate ones, and an association between STEs and IWAH, but also with national and community identification. IWAH, but not STEs decreased significantly (T1–T2) in both countries. Thereafter, these emotional and behavioral responses decline as a symptom of growing fatigue with the pandemic situation, and also reflect a shift from broader to more local concerns. Analysis regarding comparisons between countries indicated higher levels of identification with community and with all humanity in Spain and with country in Chile. The results are discussed in the context of new developments in studies on IWAH.

La Comisión de la Verdad en Colombia se estableció a partir del modelo de justicia transicional. Su función es servir como medida de reconocimiento de los hechos violentos durante el conflicto armado, que han dejado más de nueve millones de víctimas. En este marco, se realizó un estudio descriptivo correlacional (N=1166) con una muestra de 22 departamentos del país para evaluar el conocimiento, la aprobación y la efectividad percibida de los primeros años de la Comisión a partir de aspectos psicosociales: victimización, emociones colectivas, reconciliación, memoria colectiva. El 58% eran víctimas directas. Los resultados indican altos niveles de aprobación y de disposición a participar en las actividades de la Comisión, así como cierto escepticismo sobre su utilidad y una baja confianza en las disculpas oficiales de los grupos en conflicto. También se encuentra un alto índice de emociones positivas relacionadas con la comisión y una baja confianza en las instituciones gubernamentales. Lo encontrado en este estudio, coincide con experiencias previas de comisiones de la verdad en Latinoamérica, y abre el debate sobre las especificidades del contexto colombiano en la búsqueda de paz y las implicaciones del trabajo de la comisión en el proceso de reparación.