How experiencing emotions with others – be that one person or hundreds – can foster greater bonds and stronger connections

What’s the difference between singing along to a song alone in your bedroom and belting it out at the top of your voice with hundreds of others at a concert? For many, it’s the emotional high – a bridge to connection and togetherness – be that between Swifties, football fans or theatregoers.

There’s a term for it, too – collective effervescence, coined more than a century ago by sociologist Émile Durkheim, describes the intense emotional states shared by participants in large social rituals. Today, a new generation of psychologists and researchers are continuing to unlock this understanding of interconnection through collective emotions. Discussing the theme in US science podcast, Hidden Brain, in 2024, Amit Goldenberg, assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, whose research focuses on emotions in social and group contexts, also stressed its importance: ‘We need social connections just like we need water or air.’

Curious endeavour

That said, it’s not always obvious or straightforward as to how to encourage this sense of interconnectedness in everyday life. And what if you find shared emotional experiences challenging? Large social gatherings around cultural, sporting or religious occasions might induce feelings of vulnerability or anxiety about not fitting in or being rejected, or exacerbate a sense of inertia or overwhelm in everyday life. There might also be unconscious beliefs about intense emotions. ‘People can feel overwhelmed by emotions, [thinking] that they’re not in control of them,’ says UK-based Jo Wheatley, co-founder of Emotions Coaching Practitioner Training, which, incorporates the six principles of emotions coaching. ‘[They] feel their emotions are bigger than them rather than thinking of them as being messengers or friends… it’s almost like a tidal wave and they might decide not to have those experiences.’