title: Explaining effervescence: Investigating the relationship between shared social identity and positive experience in crowds.
abstract: We investigated the intensely positive emotional experiences arising from participation in a large-scale collective event. We predicted such experiences arise when those attending a collective event are (1) able to enact their valued collective identity and (2) experience close relations with other participants. In turn, we predicted both of these to be more likely when participants perceived crowd members to share a common collective identity. We investigated these predictions in a survey of pilgrims (N = 416) attending a month-long Hindu pilgrimage festival in north India. We found participants' perceptions of a shared identity amongst crowd members had an indirect effect on their positive experience at the event through (1) increasing participants' sense that they were able to enact their collective identity and (2) increasing the sense of intimacy with other crowd members. We discuss the implications of these data for how crowd emotion should be conceptualised.
authors: a School of Psychology , University of Dundee , Dundee , UK.
authors: Nick
authors: N
authors: Hopkins
authors: b School of Psychology and Neuroscience , University of St. Andrews , St. Andrews , UK.
authors: Stephen D
authors: SD
authors: Reicher
authors: a School of Psychology , University of Dundee , Dundee , UK.|b School of Psychology and Neuroscience , University of St. Andrews , St. Andrews , UK.
authors: Sammyh S
authors: SS
authors: Khan
authors: c Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences , University of Allahabad , Allahabad , India.
authors: Shruti
authors: S
authors: Tewari
authors: c Centre of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences , University of Allahabad , Allahabad , India.
authors: Narayanan
authors: N
authors: Srinivasan
authors: d School of Psychology , Queen's University , Belfast , Northern Ireland , UK.
authors: Clifford
authors: C
authors: Stevenson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008399:Mass Behavior; D012919:Social Behavior; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: Collective self-realisation; Crowds; Effervescence; Positive emotion; Shared identity