Collective Emotion: Social and Cognitive Mechanisms

Committee
Guillaume Dezecache (IRD, Université Paris Saclay) - Reviewer
Ivana Konvalinka(Technical University of Denmark) - Reviewer
Brian Parkinson (University of Oxford) - Examiner
Bernard Rimé (Université Catholique de Louvain) - Examiner
Mikko Salmela (University of Copenhagen) - Examiner
Julie Grèzes (Inserm, ENS, PSL) - Co-supervisor
Elisabeth Pacherie (CNRS, ENS, PSL, EHESS) - Co-supervisor

Abstract
Speaking of the emotion of a crowd, a nation or a family is common. However, the idea that emotions can be collective seems contradictory to their standard scientific definition, which posits that an emotion is inextricably linked to the body and the subjective experience of an individual. Research in philosophy, sociology, psychology, and neuroscience has addressed this apparent contradiction by defining a collective emotion as a pattern of emotions that emerges when individuals interact and relate to each other in specific ways. Nonetheless, the current approaches to collective emotion remain insufficiently connected with each other and insufficiently informed by experimental research. This dissertation presents a programmatic framework that bridges theories of collective emotions with empirical research in the social and affective sciences. We outline the key characteristics of collective emotion, their hypothetical cognitive mechanisms, their possible functions, and promising methods for experimental research. Across two experiments, we apply this framework by recruiting dyads of unacquainted individuals, manipulating their emotions and social interactions, and measuring their subjective and physiological responses (cardiac, respiratory, and electrodermal activity, as well as facial electromyography). Altogether, our findings suggest that collective emotions are distinct from other affective phenomena and promote interpersonal bonding and coordination between strangers, even when emotions are not explicitly shared through communication.