Psychosocial effects of perceived emotional synchrony in collective gatherings.

Abstract

In a classic theory, Durkheim (1912) predicted that because of the social sharing of emotion they generate, collective gatherings bring participants to a stage of collective effervescence in which they experience a sense of union with others and a feeling of empowerment accompanied by positive affect. This would lead them to leave the collective situation with a renewed sense of confidence in life and in social institutions. A century after Durkheim's predictions of these effects, though, they remained untested as a whole. This article reports 4 studies, 2 correlational, 1 semilongitudinal, and 1 experimental, assessing the positive effects of participation in either positively valenced (folkloric marches) or negatively valenced (protest demonstrations) collective gatherings. Results confirmed that collective gatherings consistently strengthened collective identity, identity fusion, and social integration, as well as enhancing personal and collective self-esteem and efficacy, positive affect, and positive social beliefs among participants. In line with a central tenet of the theory, emotional communion, or perceived emotional synchrony with others mediated these effects. Higher perceived emotional synchrony was associated with stronger emotional reactions, stronger social support, and higher endorsement of social beliefs and values. Participation in symbolic collective gatherings also particularly reinforced identity fusion when perceived emotional synchrony was high. The respective contributions of perceived emotional synchrony and flow, or optimal experience, were also assessed. Whereas perceived emotional synchrony emerged as strongly related to the various social outcomes, flow was observed to be related first to collective efficacy and self-esteem, and thus, to encompass mainly empowerment effects.

The psychology of rituals: An integrative review and process-based framework

“…With this heightened processing, a person's emotional state becomes intensified and then translated as a joint experience shared among those belonging to the same group and participating in the same ritual (Shteynberg, Hirsh, Galinsky, & Knight, 2014;see Shteynberg, 2015). For example, research found that people expressed stronger feelings of fusion with their group after participating in a group walking ritual, and this was mediated by the extent to which they perceived emotional synchrony with other walkers (Páez et al, 2015). Similar research found that people enjoy the holiday seasons more when engaging in holiday rituals with others (vs. alone) because the ritualistic experiences heighten people's attention and shared involvement in the moment (Sezer, Norton, Gino, & Vohs, 2016).…”

“…Longitudinal and experimental designs, however, provide more convincing support for the notion that engaging in collective rituals helps a person affiliate with fellow group members. For example, people who walked together in the Tamborrada ritual in Spain reported more group belonging and social integration after the event than before (Páez et al, 2015). In addition, people donated more money to their temple after participating in a high-ordeal Hindu ritual compared with a low-ordeal ritual, and the level of pain correlated with the amount of donation .…”

“…The sense of shared attention generates perceptions of emotional synchrony in each individual (Páez et al, 2015), which fosters a feeling of oneness and bonding with the other members of the group (Spoor & Kelly, 2004). In other words, the perceived knowledge of shared attentional states causes elaborative processing of a jointly attended sensorimotor stimulus.…”

“…Durkheim (1915) thought that collective rituals create group cohesion because of the shared attentional and emotional experiences, leading to a joint perceptual state termed "collective effervescence" (see also Haidt, Seder, & Kesebir, 2008). Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that collective rituals bring about an alignment of the practitioners' emotional and attentional experiences Hopkins et al, 2015;Konvalinka et al, 2011;Páez et al, 2015;Xygalatas, 2014), and that these experiences lead to increased affiliation Páez et al, 2007;Rimé, 2007Rimé, , 2009Rimé, Paez, Basabe, & Martínez, 2010;Swann, Jetten, Gomez, Whitehouse, & Bastian, 2012).…”

Feeling hurt: advances in the social psychology of pain

“…Sharing pain collectively with others promotes cooperation and prosociality (Bastian, Jetten, & Ferris, 2014;Xygalatas et al, 2013). Collective enjoyment and pleasure also binds groups together -referred to as collective effervescence or communitas (Durkheim, 1912(Durkheim, /1995Páez, Rimé, Basabe, Wlodarczyk, & Zumeta, 2015;E. Turner, 2012;V.…”