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  • March 2024
  • Article
  • Perspectives on Psychological Science

What Makes Groups Emotional

By: Amit Goldenberg
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:14
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Abstract

When people experience emotions in a group, their emotions tend to have stronger intensity and to last longer. Why is that? This question has occupied thinkers throughout history, and with the use of digital media it is even more pressing today. Historically, attention has mainly focused on processes driven by the way emotions are shared between people via emotional interactions. Although interactions are a major driver of group emotionality, I review empirical findings that suggest that understanding group emotionality requires a broader view that integrates two additional processes: how emotions unfold within the social infrastructure in which they are shared and how these processes are affected by people’s cognition about emotions. I propose to summarize the literature using an infrastructure-cognition-interaction framework that contributes to a broader understanding of group emotionality, which should improve our ability to predict group emotionality and to change these emotions when they are undesired.

Keywords

Groups and Teams; Emotions; Cognition and Thinking; Interpersonal Communication

Citation

Goldenberg, Amit. "What Makes Groups Emotional." Perspectives on Psychological Science 19, no. 2 (March 2024): 489–502.
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About The Author

Amit Goldenberg

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

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  • Intuition Robotics: An AI Companion for Older Adults (B) By: Amit Goldenberg, Elie Ofek and Orna Dan
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