Julie Grezes - CAT - ANR project

CAT - Collective Affects in Theatre

ANR-23-CE28-0003

Collaboration with

Victor Chung, Post-doc
Ondine Simonot, PhD student
Elisabeth Pacherie, DR CNRS, Institut Jean Nicod, ENS, Paris
Kiara Wimbush, Research Assistant
Interns: Louise Chopin, Mathilde Boucherat

Installation technique pour suivre les battements de cœur du public: Victor Chung, Julien Karadayi & Louise Chopin.

Avec l'aide précieuse de Pauline, Lisa, Laura, Lucile, Camille, Cesare, Simon.

Though sharing emotions at theatre is assumed to be a very common experience, there is to date little scientific evidence supporting this assumption. By pooling together expertise from social cognitivists and philosophers, the present project will conduct the first systematic investigation of the emergence of collective emotional dynamics during theatre performances. Our research hypotheses are that (H1) the specific nature of the theatrical emotional experience relies on synchronized patterns of autonomic activity and converging subjective emotional experiences within the audience and between the audience and actors, and that (H2) these shared emotions within the audience and between the audience and actors play a role in our appreciation of the theatrical performance.

We propose two Work Packages, respectively tackling the interpersonal emotional dynamics in theatre audiences (WP1) and the reciprocal actors-audience relations (WP2). In both WPs, we will conduct experimental studies in naturalistic settings, recruiting large groups of participants to attend short plays performed by professional actors, while manipulating the type of theatrical performance and the composition of the audience. Importantly, we will replicate our findings to performances programmed in two national theatres (Le Quai d’Angers, Nanterre-Amandiers).

Publications associated to the project

Chung V, Mennella R, Pacherie E & Grèzes J (2024) Social bonding through shared experiences: the role of emotional intensity. Royal Society Open Science PDF, covered by the Guardian
Chung V, Grèzes J & Pacherie E (2023) Collective Emotion: A Framework for Experimental Research. Emotion Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/17540739231214533. PDF
Simonot-Bérenger O, Chung V, Pelletier J, Grèzes J (under review) Collective effervescence mediates the effect of individual emotion on spectators' enjoyment of theatrical performances. PDF

Related Projects

Victor Chung ' PhD - Collective Emotions

Collaboration with Pr Elisabeth Pacherie (Institut Jean Nicod) & Dr Rocco Mennella (Nanterre & LNC2); with the help of G. Diez (Master student 2021-22).

Emotions are one of the driving forces of human societies. Individuals convey, communicate and co-regulate emotions, which contributes to the formation and maintenance of social relationships. Humans also experience similar emotions together, as evidenced by large- and small-scale communal events such as religious ceremonies, political protests and intimate get-togethers. In such cases, one usually refers to the collective emotion shared by the members of the group. Despite a rich theoretical literature, empirical evidence is lacking regarding the mechanisms involved in collective emotion. The aim of this project is to investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying the emergence of collective emotions in human groups, as well as their consequences for social bonding and collective actions. We hypothesize that collective emotion results from the conjunction of inter-individual physiological synchronization and mutual emotional awareness. We will collect subjective reports of emotions and non-invasive physiological data (i.e. electrodermal and cardiac responses as well as facial muscle activity) within groups of individuals jointly exposed to neutral and emotional films and will evaluate the influence of physiological synchrony on output measures (subjective: self and other emotion evaluation, social bonding, objective: joint action, cooperation).

Publications

Chung V, Mennella R, Pacherie E & Grèzes J (2024) Social bonding through shared experiences: the role of emotional intensity. Royal Society Open Science PDF, see cover by The Guardian Link
Chung V, Grèzes J & Pacherie E (2023) Collective Emotion: A Framework for Experimental Research. Emotion Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/17540739231214533. PDF

Victor Chung presenting preliminary data at ESCAN2021 - access the video here

ESCAN2021_Chungetal.mp4

Ondine Simonot-Bérenger' PhD - Social cognition, emotions and fiction : theatre as an experimental ground for cognitive science

Collaboration with Victor Chung (PhD, LNC2)

The aim of this fundamental research is to explore the functioning of some of the mechanisms of social cognition at work in the space-time of theatrical performances. The main hypothesis is that individual appreciation of a performance depends on collective emotional dynamics experienced by the people involved in the performance. The main objective is to verify this hypothesis by identifying these emotional dynamics. The secondary objective is to determine whether and how (a) the empathy experienced by the spectator towards the characters/actors in the play, and (b) the empathy experienced by the actors towards their characters, contribute to the individual appreciation of a performance and/or to these collective emotional dynamics. Our experimental methodology is based mainly on questionnaires, as well as on objective measurements (audio recordings) carried out under ecological conditions of real theatre performances; complementary measures of behaviour will also be used in perspective-taking tasks.

Simonot-Bérenger O, Chung V, Pelletier J, Grèzes J (2025) Collective effervescence mediates the effect of individual emotion on spectators' enjoyment of theatrical performances. PDF

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