Collective gatherings are often associated with the alignment of psychophysiological states between members of a crowd. While the process of emotional contagion has been studied extensively in dyads as well as at the population level, our understanding of its operation and dynamics as they unfold in real time in real-world group contexts remains limited. Employing a naturalistic design, we investigated emotional contagion in a public religious ritual by examining the relationship between interpersonal distance and autonomic arousal. We found that proximity in space was associated with heightened affective synchrony between participants in the context of the emotionally laden ritual (a Hindu procession) compared with an unstructured walk along the same route performed by the same group. Our findings contribute to the understanding of collective emotions and their underlying psychophysiological mechanisms, emphasizing the role of cultural practices in shaping collective emotional experiences.

Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action University of Connecticut Storrs Connecticut USA

Department of Anthropology University of Connecticut Storrs Connecticut USA

Department of Psychological Sciences University of Connecticut Storrs Connecticut USA

Instituto D'Or de Pesquisa e Ensino Rio de Janeiro Brazil

LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

School of Psychology Victoria University Wellington New Zealand

Slovak Academy of Sciences Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology Bratislava Slovakia

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