Collective Emotions in Celebratory, Competitive, and Conflictual Contexts: Exploring the Dynamic Relations between Group-Based and Collective Pride and Shame

Abstract

Pride and shame are typically viewed as diametrically opposed but dynamically related personal emotions that also occur in group-based and collective forms. Building upon seminal work by Cooley and Scheff to explain the generation and manifestation of these emotions in the imaginations and everyday realities of people’s social-relational individual and group lives, our analysis addresses contemporary developments in social and psychological science (Collins, Mackie & Smith, Reicher & Neville, Skey, Sullivan, von Scheve & Ismer, Wetherell), by highlighting patterns of complex, dynamic relations between occurrences of group-based pride, group-based shame, collective pride and collective shame in prototypical group contexts of celebration, competition and conflict. Our novel analysis includes underexplored group agency and performative details and we argue that mixtures of negative group pride and anger evident in collective hubris or contempt and some forms of aggression directed towards other groups are not necessarily produced by repression of collective shame.

The Effects of the 2016 Copa América Centenario Victory on Social Trust, Self-Transcendent Aspirations and Evaluated Subjective Well-Being: The Role of Identity With the National Team and Collective Pride in Major Sport Events

“…Major sport events – especially final matches – are collective rituals where teams compete against each other to become the champion. Therefore, the results of the teams when they reach the final can largely condition how people experience the collective ritual, that could be experience with a strong disappointment or shame if their teams lose or, conversely, with a strong explosion of pride if they win ( Sullivan and Day, 2019 ; Unanue et al, 2020 ).…”

“…These data reinforce the relevance that attention and shared interest have in these rituals, as Durkheim (1912) has already pointed out. When there is a shared interest in the ritual, people generate a greater identity with the group, which in turn favors collective effervescence ( Collins, 2004 ; Sullivan and Day, 2019 ). Therefore, despite the fact that the collective ritual can also have a secular effect on those spectators who are not fans, this effect is less with respect to the fans, who show greater identification with the group and more strongly experience collective emotions such as pride.…”

“…Within these events, countries are looking forward to succeeding, and flags and other national symbols abound. Participants synchronize their singing in support for their teams, in songs such as their national anthem ( Collins, 2004 ; Sullivan and Day, 2019 ). Additionally, due to their media, political, and social repercussions, these kinds of rituals generate special interest throughout the nation, and their massiveness and international character turn mega-events of this type into global phenomena ( Von Scheve and Ismer, 2013 ; Beyer et al, 2014 ; Unanue et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Third, they produce a national identification effect that transcends much more than what is generated in rituals within small groups. Fourth, and finally, in these major sport events, victory or defeat favor the experience of collective emotions such as pride or shame, which condition their social, cognitive, and behavioral effects at both the collective and individual levels ( Von Scheve and Salmela, 2014 ; Sullivan and Day, 2019 ; Unanue et al, 2020 ; Vargas-Salfate et al, 2020 ).…”

“…As already seen, in this type of event, there is a competitive context between groups, with an exacerbation of symbols and national identity, that can generate an impact on the social effects produced within and outside the groups. These effects can also be closely linked with sports results and with the subsequent experience of emotions such as collective pride, which has been shown to have a particularly relevant role in major-sport rituals of this type ( Sullivan and Day, 2019 ).…”