Korrika, running in collective effervescence through the Basque Country: A model of collective processes and their positive psychological effects.

The neo-Durkheimnian model suggests that feedback and emotional communion between participants during a collective gathering (i.e., perceived emotional synchrony: PES) is one of the key mechanisms of collective processes. This shared emotional experience gives rise, in turn, to more intense emotions, this being one of the explanatory models of the positive psychological effects of collective participation. Through a quasi-longitudinal design of three measurement-times (N = 273, 65.9% women; age: 18-70, M = 39.43, SD = 11.64), the most massive social mobilization that is celebrated in favor of the Basque language in the Basque Country (Korrika) was analyzed. Repeated measures and sequential mediation analyzes supported the model. The effect of participation on social integration was mediated by the increase in emotions of enjoyment through PES; the effect on social acceptance, social contribution, and social actualization was mediated by increased kama muta through PES; the effect on collective empowerment was mediated by the increase in self-transcendent emotions through PES; and the effect on remembered well-being was partially mediated by PES. Finally, it was also verified for the first time that the effect of participation on social integration, social acceptance and social actualization was maintained through PES (but not through emotions) for at least 6-7 weeks after the event ended. Also, it is concluded that Kama muta is a relevant emotion during collective gatherings.

Emotional processes, collective behavior, and social movements: A meta-analytic review of collective effervescence outcomes during collective gatherings and demonstrations.

In this article, we review the conceptions of Collective Effervescence (CE) -a state of intense shared emotional activation and sense of unison that emerges during instances of collective behavior, like demonstrations, rituals, ceremonies, celebrations, and others- and empirical approaches oriented at measuring it. The first section starts examining Émile Durkheim's classical conception on CE, and then, the integrative one proposed by the sociologist Randall Collins, leading to a multi-faceted experience of synchronization. Then, we analyze the construct as a process emerging in collective encounters when individuals contact with social ideal and values, referring to the classical work of Serge Moscovici as well as those more recent empirical approaches. Third, we consider CE as a set of intense positive emotions linked to processes of group identification, as proposed by authors of the Social Identity Theory tradition. Finally, we describe CE from the perspective of self-transcendence (e.g., emotions, experiences), and propose a unified description of this construct. The second section shows the results of a meta-analytical integration (k = 50, N = 182,738) aimed at analyzing CE's proximal effects or construct validity (i.e., Individual Emotions and Communal Sharing) as well as its association with more distal variables, such as Collective Emotions, Social Integration, Social Values and Beliefs and Empowerment. Results indicate that CE strongly associates with Individual Emotions -in particular, Self-Transcendent Emotions- and Communal Sharing constructs (e.g., Group Identity, Fusion of Identity), providing construct validity. Among the distal effects of CE, it is associated with Collective Positive Emotions, long-term Social Integration (e.g., Ingroup Commitment), Social Values and Beliefs and Empowerment-related variables (e.g., Wellbeing, Collective Efficacy, Collective Self-Esteem). Among the moderation analyses carried out (e.g., study design, CE scale, type of collective gathering), the effects of CE in demonstrations are noticeable, where this variable is a factor that favors other variables that make collective action possible, such as Group Identity (r pooled = 0.52), Collective Efficacy (r pooled = 0.37), Negative and Self-Transcendent Emotions (r pooled = 0.14 and 0.58), and Morality-related beliefs (r pooled = 0.43).

Participation in multicultural awareness-raising community actions: Positive effects on well-being and group efficacy.

OBJECTIVE: This participatory research sought to understand how engagement in awareness-raising multicultural activities strengthens well-being and group efficacy among immigrants and host nationals. We also examined the mediating role of self-transcendent emotions and shared flow. METHOD: We tested our predictions across three studies, each focused on one awareness-raising activity organized by a nongovernmental organization, SOS Racismo-Mugak, working closely with the local community. This investigation was conducted in line with a community-based participatory research framework and thus with participation of community members in the procedure design, recruitment and data collection, as well as the dissemination of research findings. In Study 1, 204 participants responded to a survey before, during, and after participating in a multicultural lunch promoting interaction between immigrant and host national families. In Study 2, 106 participants were surveyed during an open-outdoors multicultural community meal. In Study 3, 93 participants completed an online survey after an antiracist protest. RESULTS: Self-transcendent emotions and shared flow explained the relationship between the quality of participation and well-being (Studies 1 and 2) among immigrants and host nationals. The indirect effect of shared flow was stronger for immigrants (Study 1). The relationship between quality of participation and group efficacy was mediated by self-transcendent emotions (Study 2) and shared flow (Study 3) for both groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our results point out that participation in community awareness-raising activities has several positive outcomes, such as individual and collective empowerment, and elicits shared flow and self-transcendent emotions among immigrants and host nationals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Collective Effervescence, Self-Transcendence, and Gender Differences in Social Well-Being During 8 March Demonstrations.

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.

Perceived Emotional Synchrony in Collective Gatherings: Validation of a Short Scale and Proposition of an Integrative Measure.

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in the relationship between participation in collective gatherings and rituals and different important psychosocial variables and processes, such as social sharing of emotions, group cohesion, identity fusion, prosocial tendencies and behaviors, and well-being (e.g., Rimé, 2009; Xygalatas et al., 2013; Khan et al., 2015; Páez et al., 2015). These studies, coming from different lines of research, have proposed diverse explanatory mechanisms to explain the positive social and psychological effects of collective gatherings. In the present article, we focus on one of these mechanisms, known as collective effervescence, emotional communion, emotional entrainment, or perceived emotional synchrony (PES). First, we briefly discuss current conceptions of the emotional states and experience during collective gatherings and what they bring to the definition of PES. We close this point by proposing an integrative definition of PES. Second, structural validity of the original PES scale is examined. Third, incremental validity of PES is examined in two longitudinal studies, particularly with respect to well-being. Finally, we propose an integrative short form of the PES Scale, which measures antecedents and behavioral effects of collective effervescence.

Experimental Ritual: Humanizing Immigrants or Utilitarian Prejudice in Europe? / Ritual experimental: ¿Humanizando a los inmigrantes o prejuicio utilitario en Europa?

Abstract Immigrants and refugees are constantly depicted in dehumanizing ways or as a function of economic gains for the hosting nation. These descriptions, added to the current socio-political European situation, could be dangerous due to infrahumanization levels among minorities who are target of prejudice. In this study, we attempted to reduce infrahumanization levels towards Maghrebian people through a ritualistic collective activity, manipulating the information participants had to use. Results indicate that participation was different among conditions and infrahumanization levels were reduced. Also, participants who used utilitarian information could humanize when an economic gain was perceived, while also increasing prejudice levels. The results are discussed in terms of collective rituals and the dualistic effect of utilitarian information.

Resumen A menudo los inmigrantes y refugiados son representados a través de formas deshumanizantes o como una ganancia económica para los países receptores. Este hecho, sumado a la situación sociopolítica europea actual, puede aumentar los niveles de infrahumanización que sufren las minorías objeto de prejuicio. En este estudio, se propuso reducir la infrahumanización hacia la población magrebí a través de una actividad ritualizada, manipulando la información que los participantes utilizaban. Los resultados indicaron que la participación fue diferente según las condiciones y que se redujo la infrahumanización. Además, los participantes que utilizaron información utilitarista humanizaban cuando percibían una ganancia económica, mientras que también aumentaban sus niveles de prejuicio. Los resultados se discuten en términos de rituales colectivos y efectos duales de la información utilitarista.

Shared flow and positive collective gatherings / Flujo compartido y reuniones colectivas positivas

Collective gatherings or rituals promote optimal experiences in socially acceptable circumstances. Few studies have empirically examined the experience of flow shared by a group in collective situations. The present research examined the multi-dimensional structure of shared flow experience and its role in explaining positive effects of participation in collective ritualized gatherings on personal wellbeing and social cohesion. In this longitudinal study (N = 550) participants of a local festival celebrated in San Sebastian (Tamborrada) responded to an online questionnaire at three different times. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a structure composed of nine first-order factors and one second-order factor with a 27- item version of the scale. Further, structural equation modeling analyses controlling for the pre-event scores showed indirect effects of participation in Tamborrada through shared flow on happiness, collective efficacy, identity fusion, and social integration. This research concludes that positive collective gatherings stimulate shared flow experiences and thus promote personal wellbeing and social cohesion. We discuss both the implications of these results and the utility of the Shared Flow Scale in positive psychology research

Las reuniones colectivas o rituales promueven experiencias óptimas en circunstancias socialmente aceptables. Pocos estudios han examinado empíricamente la experiencia de flujo compartido por un grupo en situaciones colectivas. El presente estudio examinó la estructura multidimensional de la experiencia de flujo compartido y su papel en la explicación de los efectos positivos de la participación en reuniones colectivas ritualizadas sobre el bienestar personal y la cohesión social. En este estudio longitudinal (N = 550) los y las participantes de un festival local celebrado en San Sebastián (Tamborrada) respondieron a cuestionarios online en tres momentos diferentes. El análisis factorial confirmatorio apoyó una estructura compuesta por nueve factores de primer orden y un factor de segundo orden en una versión de la escala de 27 ítems. Además, los análisis de modelos estructurales controlando las puntuaciones previas al evento mostraron efectos indirectos de la participación en la Tamborrada a través de flujo compartido en el bienestar, en la eficacia colectiva, en la fusión de identidad y en la integración social. Esta investigación concluye que las reuniones colectivas positivas estimulan las experiencias de flujo compartido y por lo tanto, promueven el bienestar personal y la cohesión social. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados y la utilidad de la Escala de Flujo Compartido en la investigación en psicología positiva

Psychosocial effects of perceived emotional synchrony in collective gatherings.

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.

Collective Efficacy in Sports and Physical Activities: Perceived Emotional Synchrony and Shared Flow.

This cross-sectional study analyzes the relationship between collective efficacy and two psychosocial processes involved in collective sport-physical activities. It argues that in-group identification and fusion with the group will affect collective efficacy (CE). A sample of 276 university students answered different scales regarding their participation in collective physical and sport activities. Multiple-mediation analyses showed that shared flow and perceived emotional synchrony mediate the relationship between in-group identification and CE, whereas the relationship between identity fusion and CE was only mediated by perceived emotional synchrony. Results suggest that both psychosocial processes explain the positive effects of in-group identification and identity fusion with the group in collective efficacy. Specifically, the role of perceived emotional synchrony in explaining the positive effects of participation in collective sport-physical activities is underlined. In sum, this study highlights the utility of collective actions and social identities to explain the psychosocial processes related to collective efficacy in physical and sports activities. Finally, practical implications are discussed.