Ritual's collective effervescence, awe, and social identity: psychosocial effects of the Pasto carnival.
Frontiers in Psychology January 1, 2025 Camilo Rincón-Unigarro, Silvia Da Costa-Dutra, María-José Cisneros-Rodríguez et al.
Participating in the 2023 Carnaval de Negros y Blancos in southwestern Colombia, a festive event blending African, Andean, and European traditions, was associated with stronger identification with the local community, the nation, and all of humanity. Surveying 163 participants (dancers, players, and other artists), the quality of the collective experience—termed collective effervescence—predicted these identifications, even after accounting for sociodemographic factors and how many days people attended. The emotion of awe specifically mediated the link between collective effervescence and both community identity and parochial altruism, but not national or all-of-humanity identity. The findings suggest that a local multicultural celebration can foster superordinate identities, partly through self-transcendent emotions like awe.