Collective Effervescence: Why Shared Experiences Are Good for the Soul
Whatever the game, everything is better when shared.
New York is a city of strong opinions and limited patience. That is what made this month so strange. The Knicks championship win brought an unfamiliar feeling to the city. For a few days, it was overflowing with a sense of unity, kindness, and joy.
People in orange nodding at one another on the subway. Cashiers and customers talking like old friends about a fourth quarter they had each watched separately. People (meaning me) who could not have named a single starter a month earlier were suddenly weighing in about the rotation.
We have come together in the past for terrible things like September 11 and the early weeks of the pandemic when we leaned out our windows at seven each night to bang pots for the people in the hospitals. It is much rarer to feel that pull from something happy.
Sociologists call this shared joy collective effervescence. It’s the charge that runs through a group of people all feeling the same thing at the same moment. It is what happens when a crowd stops being a pile of strangers and becomes a single body. It occurs at concerts and parades and houses of worship, in the moment a whole room moves as one.
A conversation about the World Cup on a recent episode of The Daily captured the essence of collective effervescence. The host, Natalie Kitroeff quoted Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, who spent much of his life writing about soccer and the people who love it. “The true fan never says, my team plays today,” Galeano wrote. “They say, we play today.” Kitroeff then mentioned how her own father, a lifelong soccer fan, expressed a similar sentiment. When the fan enters the stadium, her father used to say, the “I” becomes “we.” Being a fan makes us part of something bigger.
Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University studied 7,209 adults across England, aged 16 to 85, and found that attending live sports events improved wellbeing and decreased loneliness. Sports fans also reported a stronger sense that “life is worthwhile.” Sure it’s fun to switch on the TV and yell at the screen from the comfort of your own home, but being there makes it even better.
My friend Fernanda recently invited me to the US Open at Shinnecock Hills. I cannot pretend I arrived wondering what time we, meaning Rory McIlroy and I, were teeing off. But there was a wonderful feeling in the air of shared excitement and enthusiasm. I sat on the terrace with many others all leaning toward the same green, all of us silent for the same swing, all of us exhaling as the ball landed. I walked away grateful to have been there, and wanting to round up a few friends and go play, however badly.
Bottom Line: Whatever the game, the point holds. Everything is better when shared.
The Benefits of Garbage Time
Last week I had the pleasure of stopping by the Today show to share why, contrary to popular belief, wellbeing isn't just an inside job. The science is clear: the quality of our relationships is one of the strongest predictors of our wellbeing, and those relationships are built through small, everyday acts of curiosity, generosity, and connection.
I hadn't heard the term collective effervescence before, but I immediately recognized the feeling. Living with chronic illness, it's easy for life to become smaller and more solitary, which makes those moments of shared joy feel even more meaningful. Whether it's a community event, a family gathering, or simply laughing with friends, they remind us we're part of something larger than ourselves. Thanks for giving language to an experience many of us have felt but never had a name for.
I’m going to reconsider going to a sports event after reading this article. I’ve always been one of those people who preferred to watch at home - controlled environment, I naturally gravitate towards introversion, I can hear everything, the conveniences, etc. But this article talks about what it does to your state and mood to be there - that collective effervescence - and how it can impact your feeling of belonging. Thanks for writing this!