Move. Acclamation. Dance. Make the wave. How to tap into the collective joy of “we mode”
With a trail of smoldering hot coals before them, the residents of San Pedro Manrique, Spain, strengthen themselves under the encouragement of thousands of spectators. The crowd roars as she walks through the fire, sometimes carrying another person on her back.
Although the marchers and the crowd fulfill very different roles during the annual June ritual, they report similar feelings: an ineffable sense of unity, as if the entire group has become one, said Dimitris Xygalatas, a cognitive anthropologist at the University of Connecticut who witnessed the Spanish ritual years ago as a researcher.
He experienced similar feelings in a stadium as he sang and cheered with 30,000 fans of his hometown soccer team. Both are examples of collective effervescence, said Xygalatas, author of “Rituals: How Seemingly Foolish Acts Make Life Worth Living.”
It’s that feeling that occurs when people engage in a meaningful activity together that elicits positive emotions. For example, when you get goosebumps at a concert, feel the adrenaline rush during group exercise classes or when you get carried away by religious holidays.
Recently, collective hustle has been called “we mode” and it’s something that can be cultivated to improve your life, said Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist at Stanford University.
“When you’re connected through shared positive emotion, expressions often act like this aerosolized joy, where you pick up on each other’s smiles, laughs and physical expressions,” McGonigal said. “It becomes contagious.”
“We mode” has also been called physiological synchronization, and McGonigal calls it “collective joy.” The concept was documented more than a century ago by French sociologist Emile Durkheim, who described cultural ferment after studying Australian Aboriginal societies.
Xygalatas’ research has focused on its measurement in various group activities. To quantify “autonomic responses,” he fitted people with heart monitors and electrodes and extracted thousands of still frames from videos to analyze facial expressions.
He discovered that people’s physiological responses synchronize during exciting events. The heartbeats of sports fans watching a game, for example, become synchronized, while those of fans watching the same game on television do not. Fans of the game also have higher levels of endorphins, which have been linked to the bond, he said.
At their core, collective rituals involve meeting and connecting with people, which is key to psychological well-being, Xygalatas noted.
“If we all dress the same, move the same, and feel the same, we express the same emotions that trigger mechanisms in our brains,” Xygalatas said. “There is a fundamental need for synchronization.”
What types of activities should you look for to enjoy “we mode”? McGonigal, who studied the science of emotion and wrote “The Joy of Movement” about the emotional benefits of exercise, named these criteria:
The activity must be in person. McGonigal noted that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people who tried to recreate positive interactions online found it more difficult than in person.
“If you’re not physically present with people, most of the signals that create the shared state just aren’t there,” she said.
It also helps to make noise and move your body, whether you’re cheering, clapping, moving, dancing, or singing. McGonigal said you’re more likely to feel that kind of collective joy when you’re dancing with people than when you’re sitting in a theater watching a dance performance.
Also try to let go of shame or embarrassment and embrace the activity. Passive observers don’t get the same effect, McGonigal said.
“You have to do the wave at a sporting event,” she said. “If you’re in a group exercise class and your instructor says, ‘Can I have a whoop, whoop?’ You gotta whoop, whoop.
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Albert Stumm writes about wellness, food and travel. Find his work on https://www.albertstumm.com
