Creating the sacred from the profane: Collective effervescence and everyday activities

Using theory knitting to conceptualize social phenomena in the design and evaluation of dance programs for people living with Parkinson's disease

Dance programs for people living with Parkinson's disease (PwPD) offer participants an opportunity to exercise, engage in artistic self-expression, and form new relationships. While it is understood that the social dimension of dance programs for PwPD contributes to dancer satisfaction and program sustainability, the social mechanisms instrumental to program success are under-examined. Engaging with theory from wider disciplines, or "theory knitting" can help program designers and evaluators examine the mechanisms and contextual factors that make classes socially meaningful with greater detail and specificity. This study identified and examined three theoretical frameworks that program planners and evaluators could use to conceptualize social engagement in dance for PwPD contexts and inform practice. Each theory was assessed for fit using the T-CaST theory comparison and selection tool developed by Birken et al. (2018). As an example, we used anthropologist Victor Turner's (1970; 1977) theory of liminality and communitas to identify five key areas for fostering a sense of social connection in dance for PwPD contexts: (1) selecting a meaningful dance space (2) creating a joyous atmosphere (3) marking entrance into the liminal time and space with rituals (4) embodying liminality and anti-structure and (5) inverting power relations and embracing fluid roles.

Why We Gather: A New Look, Empirically Documented, at Émile Durkheim's Theory of Collective Assemblies and Collective Effervescence

For Durkheim, individuals' survival and well-being rest on cultural resources and social belonging that must be revived periodically in collective assemblies. Durkheim's concern was to clarify how these assemblies achieve this revitalization. An intensive examination of primitive religions led him to identify successive levels of engagement experienced by participants and to develop explanatory principles relevant to all types of collective gatherings. Durkheim's conception is widely referred to nowadays. However, the question of its empirical status remains open. We extracted from his text his main statements and translated them into research questions. We then examined each question in relation to current theories and findings. In particular, we relied on the plethora of recent cognitive and social-psychology studies that document conditions of reduced self-other differentiation. Abundant data support that each successive moment of collective assemblies contributes to blurring this differentiation. Ample support also exists that because shared emotions are increasingly amplified in collective context, they can fuel high-intensity experiences. Moreover, recent studies of self-transcendent emotions can account for the self-transformative effects described by Durkheim at the climax of collective assemblies. In conclusion, this century-old model is remarkably supported by recent results, mostly collected in experimental settings.

From suffering towards communal well-being: experiences of a Dalcroze-inspired workshop for a community in crisis

This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study aims to describe the meaning that members of the Parys community ascribed to their experiences of a Dalcroze-inspired workshop. Stakeholders were a number of local residents of Parys, a scenic town situated on the banks of the Vaal River in South Africa's Free State Province. Local residents were asked to share their water-related experiences at a workshop organized by a North-West University research group. It became clear from their stories that they had experienced severe stressful circumstances. They had suffered stress because of the health risks posed by polluted water and the frequent lapses in the town's water supply system. Dalcroze-inspired activities were used to facilitate this meeting. Data were collected through focus group interviews, open-ended individual interviews, photos, videos, and observations. All these data were consolidated in one heuristic unit in ATLAS.ti, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software program. The codes were organized into categories and themes. Friese's (2014) notice, collect and think (NCT) method for computer-assisted qualitative data analysis was used. From the data analysis, five themes emerged related to the Dalcroze-inspired activities. It included: joyful experiences, which facilitated social interaction that made it possible for personal relationships to be transformed. Virtues arose from this transformation, and participants' experience was that the group engagement supported their well-being. We, therefore, argue that the Dalcroze approach can be used in communities in crisis to facilitate conflict resolution and transform relationships.

Breaking the vicious cycle: The interplay between loneliness, metabolic illness, and mental health

Loneliness, or perceived social isolation, is a leading predictor of all-cause mortality and is increasingly considered a public health epidemic afflicting significant portions of the general population. Chronic loneliness is itself associated with two of the most pressing public health epidemics currently facing the globe: the rise of mental illness and metabolic health disorders. Here, we highlight the epidemiological associations between loneliness and mental and metabolic health disorders and argue that loneliness contributes to the etiology of these conditions by acting as a chronic stressor that leads to neuroendocrine dysregulation and downstream immunometabolic consequences that manifest in disease. Specifically, we describe how loneliness can lead to overactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and ultimately cause mitochondrial dysfunction, which is implicated in mental and metabolic disease. These conditions can, in turn, lead to further social isolation and propel a vicious cycle of chronic illness. Finally, we outline interventions and policy recommendations that can reduce loneliness at both the individual and community levels. Given its role in the etiology of the most prevalent chronic diseases of our time, focusing resources on alleviating loneliness is a vitally important and cost-effective public health strategy.

Reliving the Good Old Days: Nostalgia Increases Psychological Wellbeing Through Collective Effervescence

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one’s past, is associated with, or confers, psychological wellbeing (PWB). We identified a mechanism for this link: collective effervescence, a potent sense of connection to those present in an assembly and a sensation of transcendence (i.e., feeling that an experience is special or sacred). In six studies, involving measurement-of-mediation and experimental-causal-chain designs, nostalgia was associated with, and led to, higher PWB via collective effervescence. In Study 1, nostalgia was related to PWB through collective effervescence at the dispositional level. In Study 2, induced collective effervescence increased PWB. In Studies 3a–3c, induced nostalgia led to greater PWB due to collective effervescence. In Study 4, induced nostalgia increased PWB due to collective effervescence even when controlling for authenticity, an alternate mediator.

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 (rpooled = 0.52), Collective Efficacy (rpooled = 0.37), Negative and Self-Transcendent Emotions (rpooled = 0.14 and 0.58), and Morality-related beliefs (rpooled = 0.43).

Developing and validating the Japanese version of the situational Awe cale (SAS-J)

The experience of awe, an emotional response to vast stimuli overwhelming ones’ current mental structure, has often been measured using a questionnaire method. The purpose of the present study was to develop and validate the Japanese version of the Situational Awe Scale (SAS), which is a useful tool for measuring awe experiences from the perspective of the discriminability between positive- and threat-awe. The present study investigated the factor structure and validity of the Japanese version of the SAS (SAS-J) using awe-inducing video clips, through three online surveys (N = 1034; mean age = 38.74, SD = 10.95, range = 18–75). Results revealed that the SAS-J consisted of the same four factors as the original SAS (i.e., connection, oppression, chills, and diminished self) and had the convergent, criterion, and discriminative validity in measuring both positive- and threat-awe experiences. Additionally, results showed that the SAS-J could distinguish between positive- and threat-awe experiences. These results suggested that the SAS-J could measure both positive- and threat-awe experiences with validity. This study would make a methodological contribution to awe research.

If music be the food of love, play on: Four ways that music may lead to social connection

The hypothesis that music is well suited to facilitate social bonding (Savage et al., target article) is highly consistent with social psychological research on the need to belong. We explore how music is uniquely placed to increase feelings of connections to large collectives by increasing collective effervescence, providing narratives, reminding one of others, and providing social surrogates.

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.

Social Agency as a continuum

Sense of Agency, the phenomenology associated with causing one's own actions and corresponding effects, is a cornerstone of human experience. Social Agency can be defined as the Sense of Agency experienced in any situation in which the effects of our actions are related to a conspecific. This can be implemented as the other's reactions being caused by our action, joint action modulating our Sense of Agency, or the other's mere social presence influencing our Sense of Agency. It is currently an open question how such Social Agency can be conceptualized and how it relates to its nonsocial variant. This is because, compared with nonsocial Sense of Agency, the concept of Social Agency has remained oversimplified and underresearched, with disparate empirical paradigms yielding divergent results. Reviewing the empirical evidence and the commonalities and differences between different instantiations of Social Agency, we propose that Social Agency can be conceptualized as a continuum, in which the degree of cooperation is the key dimension that determines our Sense of Agency, and how it relates to nonsocial Sense of Agency. Taking this perspective, we review how the different factors that typically influence Sense of Agency affect Social Agency, and in the process highlight outstanding empirical questions within the field. Finally, concepts from wider research areas are discussed in relation to the ecological validity of Social Agency paradigms, and we provide recommendations for future methodology.