A Theory of Resonance

TLDR

The metaphor of resonance describes the fit between a message and an audience’s worldviews, yet scholars have largely ignored the cognitive processes that determine why certain messages appeal to some but not others. The authors aim to show that resonance arises when cultural objects help people solve practical challenges, with cognitive distance, emotional reasoning, and interactional dynamics shaping its likelihood. Using a pragmatist framework, they conceptualize resonance as an emergent process in which cultural objects guide individuals through practical problems, while cognitive distance, emotional reasoning, and interactional circuits influence its development. The study identifies micro, meso, and macro-level processes that shape resonance and outlines pathways through which resonance can crystallize into broader mobilization and social change.

Abstract

The metaphor of resonance often describes the fit between a message and an audience’s worldviews. Yet scholars have largely ignored the cognitive processes audiences use to interpret messages and interactions that determine why certain messages and other cultural objects appeal to some but not others. Drawing on pragmatism, we argue that resonance occurs as cultural objects help people puzzle through practical challenges they face or construct. We discuss how cognitive distance and the process of emotional reasoning shape the likelihood of cultural resonance. We argue resonance is an emergent process structured by interactions between individuals that shape each other’s interpretation of cultural objects, diffuse objects through interactional circuits, and create opportunities for resonance among people facing similarly shaped problems. Our approach thus identifies new processes at micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis that shape resonance and describes the pathways that might allow resonance to crystallize into broader mobilization and social change.