Collective Emotions in Rituals: Elicitation, Transmission and a “Matthew-effect”

Abstract

This chapter elaborates a number of foundational affective mechanisms of collective emotions in rituals, and provides insights into the ways in which collective emotions impact the reinforcement of group ties. It discusses existing theories on the relationships between collective emotions, rituals, and certain group parameters, such as cohesion, solidarity, and collective conscience. The chapter highlights a number of shortcomings and problems that are evident in existing theories with respect to the question of how collective emotions are elicited. In referring to select psychological and philosophical theories of emotion, it develops an original approach to tackle this elicitation problem. The chapter also discusses the assumptions existing theories make about the “transmission” of emotions between actors as a crucial ingredient of collective emotions in rituals. In using evidence from social psychological approaches to emotion, it aims at clarifying this transmission problem and developing original insights into the question of how the transmission problem is related to the social functions of collective emotions.

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