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Given the current interest in social participation, this article focuses on existing measures that (1) include the four dimensions of formal social participation – breadth, intensity, duration, and engagement – identified by Bohnert et al. (2010) and (2) can be used in large-scale surveys. In Study 1, a scoping review conducted on three databases (PsychTest, PsychInfo, Sociological abstracts) identified 99 articles that included at least one measure of formal social participation. No measure met our two requirements. We therefore decided to design a new measure, which included an index based on six items to assess the four dimensions of the construct. Using clustering techniques, Study 2 identified social participation profiles based on the responses of 4,160 participants. Five clusters of social participation emerged: (0) absence, (1) passive, (2) low active, (3) medium active and (4) high active. Study 3 replicated these findings with a new sample (n = 3,956), thereby supporting the quality and replicability of the social participation measure by clustering. Coded as an ordinal categorical variable, the score lends itself to statistical analyses commonly performed on large-scale survey data. In this way, the Social Participation Index could meet the need for a standard tool that can be used in a multidisciplinary way.

In this article, we review the conceptions of Collective Effervescence (CE) –a state of intense shared emotional activation and sense of unison that emerges during instances of collective behavior, like demonstrations, rituals, ceremonies, celebrations, and others– and empirical approaches oriented at measuring it. The first section starts examining Émile Durkheim's classical conception on CE, and then, the integrative one proposed by the sociologist Randall Collins, leading to a multi-faceted experience of synchronization. Then, we analyze the construct as a process emerging in collective encounters when individuals contact with social ideal and values, referring to the classical work of Serge Moscovici as well as those more recent empirical approaches. Third, we consider CE as a set of intense positive emotions linked to processes of group identification, as proposed by authors of the Social Identity Theory tradition. Finally, we describe CE from the perspective of self-transcendence (e.g., emotions, experiences), and propose a unified description of this construct. The second section shows the results of a meta-analytical integration (k = 50, N = 182,738) aimed at analyzing CE's proximal effects or construct validity (i.e., Individual Emotions and Communal Sharing) as well as its association with more distal variables, such as Collective Emotions, Social Integration, Social Values and Beliefs and Empowerment. Results indicate that CE strongly associates with Individual Emotions –in particular, Self-Transcendent Emotions– and Communal Sharing constructs (e.g., Group Identity, Fusion of Identity), providing construct validity. Among the distal effects of CE, it is associated with Collective Positive Emotions, long-term Social Integration (e.g., Ingroup Commitment), Social Values and Beliefs and Empowerment-related variables (e.g., Wellbeing, Collective Efficacy, Collective Self-Esteem). Among the moderation analyses carried out (e.g., study design, CE scale, type of collective gathering), the effects of CE in demonstrations are noticeable, where this variable is a factor that favors other variables that make collective action possible, such as Group Identity (rpooled = 0.52), Collective Efficacy (rpooled = 0.37), Negative and Self-Transcendent Emotions (rpooled = 0.14 and 0.58), and Morality-related beliefs (rpooled = 0.43).

Prior studies indicated that actively using social network sites (SNSs) is positively associated with well-being by enhancing social support and feelings of connectedness. Conversely, passively using SNSs is negatively associated with well-being by fostering upward social comparison and envy. However, the majority of these studies has focused on Facebook. The present research examined the relationships between well-being-satisfaction with life, negative affect, positive affect-and using actively or passively various SNSs-Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok-during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, two mediators were tested: social support and upward social comparison. One thousand four persons completed an online survey during the quarantine measures; the analyses employed structural equation modeling. Results showed that passive usage of Facebook is negatively related to well-being through upward social comparison, whereas active usage of Instagram is positively related to satisfaction with life and negative affect through social support. Furthermore, active usage of Twitter was positively related to satisfaction with life through social support; while passive usage was negatively related to upward social comparison, which, in turn, was associated with more negative affect. Finally, TikTok use was not associated with well-being. Results are discussed in line with SNSs' architectures and users' motivations. Future research is required to go beyond methodological and statistical limitations and allow generalization. This study concludes that SNSs must be differentiated to truly understand how they shape human interactions.

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in the relationship between participation in collective gatherings and rituals and different important psychosocial variables and processes, such as social sharing of emotions, group cohesion, identity fusion, prosocial tendencies and behaviors, and well-being (e.g., Rimé, 2009; Xygalatas et al., 2013; Khan et al., 2015; Páez et al., 2015). These studies, coming from different lines of research, have proposed diverse explanatory mechanisms to explain the positive social and psychological effects of collective gatherings. In the present article, we focus on one of these mechanisms, known as collective effervescence, emotional communion, emotional entrainment, or perceived emotional synchrony (PES). First, we briefly discuss current conceptions of the emotional states and experience during collective gatherings and what they bring to the definition of PES. We close this point by proposing an integrative definition of PES. Second, structural validity of the original PES scale is examined. Third, incremental validity of PES is examined in two longitudinal studies, particularly with respect to well-being. Finally, we propose an integrative short form of the PES Scale, which measures antecedents and behavioral effects of collective effervescence.

A field experiment compared the level of personal and collective guilt in survivors (N = 200) and accused perpetrators (N = 184) of the Rwandan genocide before and after participation in Gacaca community courts and in control groups of survivors (N = 195) and prisoners (N = 179) who did not participate in Gacaca. Participation in Gacaca led to a marked reduction in survivors’ personal and collective guilt and to an increase in prisoners' personal guilt. Prisoners’ collective guilt was unaffected by participation but collective guilt was higher for prisoners participating in Gacaca suggesting an effect of the mere anticipation of participation. Survivors who participated in Gacaca had greater doubts about Gacaca, trusted the prisoners' apologies less, were less inclined to forgive, were more revengeful, and opted more for intragroup contact and less for intergroup contact. In sum, participation in Gacaca failed to have direct effects upon dispositions to reconciliation but it produced important indirect effects in this direction by drastically reducing survivors' guilt feelings, which may have enhanced their empowerment.

Psychological sciences have preceded the other disciplines in the study of emotions. Since the late nineteenth century, a marginal but continuous interest for that matter was manifested. The article reviews the various streams of research that contributed to establish a shared culture among scholars involved in international exchanges in this disciplinary field. These currents are three in number. The oldest one is the biological approach. Inspired by evolutional theory, it views emotions as adaptive biological systems resulting from the history of species. The physiological approach to emotion centered on the examination of bodily changes in emotion constituted a second major research stream that progressively evolved toward the current neuropsychological study of emotions. Finally, much later in time, a cognitive perspective later addressed all the mental processes involved, with a particular accent upon the role played by cognitive processes in triggering emotions.

Building upon Durkheim’s (1912) theory of collective rituals and upon practical exemples – the terrorist atacks of March 11 in Madrid and the gacaca rituals in Rwanda – Bernard Rimé, psychologist and researcher at the University of Louvain, Belgium, analises the psychosocial consequences of sharing emotions in interpersonal situations and collective rituals.

El análisis de las experiencias de la Comisión de la Verdad y la Reconciliación en Sudáfrica, los juicios populares o Gacaca en Ruanda y los rituales de los procesos de transición a la democracia concluye que la participación en comisiones y juicios implica un coste emocional para los participantes (aumenta la emocionalidad negativa y los síntomas) y aumenta el clima emocional negativo en la sociedad, pero también aumenta la sensación de control y eficacia de los participantes, disminuye algunas emociones negativas en los sobrevivientes como la vergüenza, y aumenta los estereotipos positivos y una visión más diferenciada del exogrupo. En países de América Latina donde se han desarrollado procesos y comisiones de verdad más eficaces, se constató una mejora del respeto a los derechos humanos.