Collective Emotions in Conflict Situations: Societal Implications

TLDR

Emotions are central to societal dynamics, with collective emotions shaping responses to conflict and evolving the social context that sustains emotional climates. The article examines how collective emotional elements create, sustain, and resolve conflicts, establishing a foundation for future research on peace‑building cultures. A conceptual framework linking conflict, context, and collective emotions is presented and then applied to analyze societal implications.

Abstract

It is well established today that emotions are an important part of most societal dynamics. The current article focuses on the role of different collective emotional elements in creating, preserving, and resolving conflicts. The main premise is that collective emotions play a pivotal role in shaping individual and societal responses to conflicting events and in contributing to the evolvement of a social context that maintains the emotional climate and collective emotional orientation that have developed. The first part of the article provides a conceptual framework to discuss the relations between conflict, context, and collective emotions. The second part uses the conceptual framework to discuss the societal implications of the articles presented in this issue. Taken together, the parts create a platform for future research on the role of collective emotions in conflict resolution and the construction of cultures of peace.