For a moment, everyone seemed to be watching the same thing. Classes were suspended. Families gathered around the live broadcast. Social networks flooded with images of spaceships in flight.
The mission was Artemis II, NASA’s first manned lunar mission in more than 50 years. Described as a new character “the golden age of space travel” with millions of people sharing the triumphant moment a unique unifying phenomenon.
What makes Artemis II so powerful goes beyond its rarity and technical importance. convergence of attention, feelingand meaning created the state that psychologists describe collective effervescence.
What is collective effervescence?
It was first identified by a sociologist Emile Durkheim in a religious context, collective arousal describes a state of shared emotional arousal when people participate in the same social experience. More recently, it has also been described as a state of “perceived emotional synchronicity.”
The elements of collective effervescence are described as follows:
- Strong, general positive feelings
- A sense of being involved with something bigger than oneself
- Feeling that a moment is meaningful or even transcendent
Based on these criteria, it’s easy to see why Artemis II inspired collective inspiration. Millions of people watched the flight, flying and splashing with hope and excitement. It was created as a continuation of humanity’s return to deep space. For many communities, it carried additional symbolism, taking Christina Koch, the first woman to orbit the moon, and Victor Glover, the first black astronaut to orbit the moon.
The researchers attempted to capture the phenomenon of collective effervescence through a 16-item perceived emotional synchrony scale.PES-S). Items selected from this scale include:
- “We felt stronger emotions than usual.”
- “We felt a strong sense of commonality.”
- “How we were as a group was more important than who we were as individuals.”
- “We communicated without words.”
Collective affectivity in everyday experience
Interestingly, collective effervescence does not require unique, extraordinary, or violent events like a historic rocket launch to achieve. Studies have shown that it can occur in ordinary minutes.
Some studies have shown that there are certain types of collective foaming surprisingly common. When asked to think about instances of collective uplift, people named everyday experiences as:
- Drinking coffee in a cafe and connecting with people there
- Waiting in line and making small talk with a stranger
- Race with other runners
- Watching a sports event
Or even:
- Seeing a bad driver and another driver will see it too
Three-quarters of people experienced this psychological phenomenon at least once a week, and one-third of people experienced it almost every day. Valuing and understanding this experience was also associated with positive life outcomes, such as a sense of social connectedness, meaning in life, surpriseand life satisfaction.
Thus, collective effervescence is a very common and positive human experience. Understanding and appreciating this phenomenon can enhance the experience of everyday life.
