Bridging the gap between emotion and joint action

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Social Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Human life involves frequent joint actions, from play to professional collaboration.
• Current research in emotion and joint action often overlooks the interplay between individual emotions and group dynamics.
• The multi-agent aspect is missing in emotion-based neuroscience, and emotion is underrepresented in socio-motor interaction models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the gap in understanding how individual emotions are affected by and influence joint action.
• To review evidence demonstrating the strong connection between emotion and acting together across scientific disciplines.
• To propose an integrative framework for studying emotion in joint action and suggest future research avenues.

Main Methods:

• Literature review across various scientific branches.
• Identification of the gap between emotion research and joint action studies.
• Synthesis of evidence on the entanglement of emotion and collective action.

Main Results:

• Significant evidence shows a strong entanglement between emotion and joint action.
• A conceptual gap exists in current neuroscience and socio-motor interaction models regarding emotion.
• The review highlights the need for an integrated approach to bridge this gap.

Conclusions:

• Emotion and joint action are deeply intertwined, impacting individual and group experiences.
• Future research should focus on behavioral neuroscience and digital sciences to explore this relationship.
• Addressing this gap is crucial for understanding modern societal challenges involving group dynamics.