Collective emotion regulation

Collective emotional responses represent responses of multiple people to an emotional situation. Such responses are ubiquitous in many contexts, such as conflicts, crises, and celebrations. However, a closer look at processes of collective emotions leads to an observation: Collective emotions often co-occurs with attempts to influence the emotions of the group. We refer to these attempts as collective emotion regulation, where members of groups aim to change collective emotions. In this article, we first define collective emotion and propose a model of collective emotion generation. We then define collective emotion regulation and distinguish it from related concepts such as interpersonal emotion regulation. We propose a process model to describe the unfolding of collective emotion regulation that helps organize a variety of behaviors previously discussed in other literatures. We further show how the concept can help explain collective behavior and design interventions aimed at regulating collective emotions. Finally, we discuss open empirical questions and future directions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).