Collective Shame

ITA: L’articolo analizza, in chiave antropologica e visuale, la circolazione a Sorrento di meme digitali che raffigurano Sant’Antonino in atteggiamenti di dolore e vergogna dopo l’arresto del sindaco nel maggio 2025. A partire dal confronto con l’iconografia del Cristo pensieroso dell’Europa centro-orientale, il saggio interpreta queste immagini virali come forme simboliche di elaborazione collettiva del trauma civico. Il concetto napoletano di scuorno viene proposto come categoria fondamentale per comprendere una vergogna pubblica, relazionale e condivisa, capace di trasformare il meme in una vera e propria icona del lutto morale e della crisi etica urbana.
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ENG: This article offers an anthropological and visual analysis of digital memes circulating in Sorrento that portray Saint Antoninus in gestures of sorrow and shame after the mayor’s arrest in May 2025. Drawing a comparison with the iconography of the Pensive Christ in Central and Eastern Europe, the essay interprets these viral images as symbolic forms through which a community processes civic trauma. The Neapolitan notion of scuorno is presented as a key concept for understanding a public, relational, and collective shame that transforms the meme into an icon of moral grief and urban ethical crisis.
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FRA: Cet article propose une analyse anthropologique et visuelle des mèmes numériques diffusés à Sorrente, représentant saint Antonin dans des postures de douleur et de honte après l’arrestation du maire en mai 2025. En les mettant en relation avec l’iconographie du Christ pensif en Europe centrale et orientale, l’étude interprète ces images virales comme des formes symboliques d’élaboration collective d’un traumatisme civique. La notion napolitaine de scuorno y est mobilisée comme catégorie essentielle pour comprendre une honte publique, relationnelle et partagée, capable de transformer le mème en véritable icône du deuil moral et de la crise éthique urbaine.

Since its inception in 1957, the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has evolved from a three-team experimental tournament into the continent’s premier sporting spectacle. Now featuring 24 nations, the tournament is the ultimate stage for African footballing excellence. Throughout its nearly 70-year history, a recurring pattern has emerged: host nations frequently appear to "punch above their weight," often reaching the final stages or securing the trophy.
Despite the anecdotal belief in the "Host Factor," critics often argue that this advantage is an optical illusion. They suggest that because hosting rights are typically awarded to established footballing "powerhouses" (nations with superior infrastructure and high-ranking squads), these teams win because they are fundamentally better, not because of where the match is played.
This study aims to move beyond observation and utilize statistical inference to settle the debate. By analyzing data from 35 editions of the tournament (1957–2025) using Binomial and Chi-Square tests in PSPP, this research determines if the host nation's win rate is a genuine statistical anomaly or if it falls within the bounds of random distribution.

In this chapter, we identify politically significant discursive, phenomenological and practice features of diverse phenomena manifesting as instances of group-based and collective pride. We introduce and work through limitations and oversights of prominent theories of these phenomena in research, for example, on peak collective emotional experiences (e.g., of national pride), collective self-esteem, collective empowerment, effervescence, and social identity features of collective action and ‘psychological groups’. We then explore a family resemblance of overlapping examples of politically relevant positive group pride, negative hubris and ressentiment-ful contempt in intra- and inter-group struggles and conflicts. Deeply problematic, divisive and ‘darker’ forms of collective pride that vary from hubristic leader–follower interactions to intergroup and international relations are examined (including liminal mixed and vacillating features of group narcissism and triumphalism). Central features and sequelae of group hubris are highlighted via a case study of Brexit as a pyrrhic victory for the UK conservative party.

This thesis explores masculinity from a depth psychological perspective, examining conscious manifestations and shadow elements through mythological amplification and personal reflection. Drawing primarily from Jung, it investigates why masculinity seems persistently redefined

Three studies examined the hypothesis that collective guilt and shame have different consequences for reparation. In 2 longitudinal studies, the ingroup was nonindigenous Chileans (Study 1: N ϭ 124/120, lag ϭ 8 weeks; Study 2: N ϭ 247/137, lag ϭ 6 months), and the outgroup was Chile's largest indigenous group, the Mapuche. In both studies, it was found that collective guilt predicted reparation attitudes longitudinally. Collective shame had only cross-sectional associations with reparation and no direct longitudinal effects. In Study 2, collective shame moderated the longitudinal effects of collective guilt such that the effects of guilt were stronger for low-shame respondents. In Study 3 (N ϭ 193 nonindigenous Chileans), the cross-sectional relationships among guilt, shame, and reparation attitudes were replicated. The relationship between shame and reparation attitudes was mediated by a desire to improve the ingroup's reputation.

This paper explores the church's response to the issue of domestic violence and the ways in which it responds to survivors of domestic violence. The ways in which collective shame over the issue of domestic violence is explored as a contributing factor to failure to respond well the whole matter. "As a new relationship counsellor with a church-based counselling agency in the early 1990s, I was sent for training for dealing with the issue of domestic violence. Many of the agency's clients were church members; some were clergy families. Early on during the training, the trainer made a statement that I found somewhat startling for someone who had had little experience of domestic violence in my own family. He said that when he was working with a couple who had come for counselling, he always assumed that domestic violence was present unless demonstrated otherwise. Internally I railed against this assertion, naively believing that in the "nice" population of Christian clients I would be seeing at the agency, domestic violence would be present very occasionally, but that it was not something I should be routinely expecting."

Brazil's recent experiences in the semifinal of the 2014 World Cup show the potential for collective shame that is potentially, but rarely, realized as representative teams, fans and nations dream of international sporting successand positive international attention from mega-sporting events. Feelings of shock, deep disappointment and anger in Brazil are examined as manifestations of group-based and collective shame after the semifinal defeatfor the host nation's supporters and humiliationof the national team. I explored "bottom up" mechanisms and other means by which collective shamearguably occurred due to high expectations and national narratives built around footballing success. The analysis includes the complex social and relational means by which Brazil's representative team failed to "restore pride" by returning to previous minimal standards in the third-place playoff and the fortunatemanner further humiliation for Brazilians was avoided through the German team's subsequent victory over Argentina in the final. The brief collective emotion analysis is completed with an examination of lessons that might be learned from Germany's long process of transformation from collective shame after the Second World War to the eventual experience of a cosmopolitan national pride through football at the World Cup 2006 tournament and other subsequent international successes.

Brazil's recent experiences in the semifinal of the 2014 World Cup show the potential for collective shame that is potentially, but rarely, realized as representative teams, fans and nations dream of international sporting successand positive international attention from mega-sporting events. Feelings of shock, deep disappointment and anger in Brazil are examined as manifestations of group-based and collective shame after the semifinal defeatfor the host nation's supporters and humiliationof the national team. I explored "bottom up" mechanisms and other means by which collective shamearguably occurred due to high expectations and national narratives built around footballing success. The analysis includes the complex social and relational means by which Brazil's representative team failed to "restore pride" by returning to previous minimal standards in the third-place playoff and the fortunatemanner further humiliation for Brazilians was avoided through the German team's subsequent victory over Argentina in the final. The brief collective emotion analysis is completed with an examination of lessons that might be learned from Germany's long process of transformation from collective shame after the Second World War to the eventual experience of a cosmopolitan national pride through football at the World Cup 2006 tournament and other subsequent international successes.

Understanding Collective Pride and Group Identity is an edited collection offering an interdisciplinary approach to collective pride and its relationship to group identity, bringing together contributions from philosophy, sociology, and psychology. The book is divided into two parts: the first, consisting of Chapters 1–6, is predominantly theoretical; the second part, Chapters 7–14, offers a range of empirical studies. The first two chapters of Part I share a philosophical concern for the nature of collective emotions and collective pride. For example, Gebauer argues, in Chapter 2, that there is something about collective emotions that is important not only for the collective, but also in terms of the individual’s feeling of the self. According to Gebauer, “[o]ur first and most basic self-relation is that of feeling the self” (p. 34). By this he means that we come to ascertain through certain sensations that we exist. Gebauer suggests that certainty that one’s self exists is derived from the presence and actions of others: each member of a group gains certainty of their own self because of the felt certainty of their experience of the group. However, somewhat paradoxically, Gebauer also states that our first feelings of certainty that the world and the self exist are individual feelings, which only become collective emotions when experienced together with other people. Gebauer’s chapter speaks to debates around collectivity and individuality: are groups merely an aggregate of individuals or, as some would suggest, are collectivities more than the sum of their parts (e.g., Elder-Vass, 2012)? It also points to the issue of the extent to which feelings and emotions are shared and whether they start with the individual or group (cf. Ahmed, 2004). There are several chapters that draw on the work of eminent sociologist Emile Durkheim. In Chapter 3, Knottnerus draws on Durkheimian structural ritualization theory to consider the role of reflexive ritual practices (RRPs) in the formation of collective pride. From this perspective, RRPs can have both positive, constructive outcomes for the group and more negative or destructive outcomes for one’s own group and other groups. According to Knottnerus, genuine collective pride is a positive outcome, whereas collective hubris and the demeaning and coercive treatment of others are negative outcomes of RRPs. The final two chapters of Part I also take Durkheim as their inspiration. In Chapter 715327 TAP0010.1177/0959354317715327Theory & PsychologyReview review-article2017

Collective and group-based pride is currently covered across a number of disciplines including nationalism studies, sociology and social psychology, with little communication between fields. This multidisciplinary collection encourages interdisciplinary research and provides a unique insight into the subject, stemming from a psychological perspective. The collection builds upon insights from collective emotion research to consider the relations between collective pride, shame and guilt as well as emotions of anger, empowerment and defiance. Collective pride is examined in contexts that vary from small groups in relatively peaceful competition to protest movements and large groups in divisive conflicts. In the book collective pride is a complex and positive emotional experience evident in the behaviour of groups, that can lead to negative forms of collective hubris in which other groups are devalued or dominated.

In this article, we test if international football matches in Latin America can be understood as nationalistic collective rituals and if participating in them leads to prejudicial attitudes toward immigrants and to legitimize the national social systems. Based on social identity theory and literature on collective rituals, we propose that participating in collective rituals makes cognitively salient social identity over self-identity through collective emotions. Therefore, individuals are more motivated to perceive the social systems as fair and legitimate and to show outgroup derogation. In Study 1 (N = 414), interest in football was associated with national identification a week before an international tournament in Brazil, Chile, and Spain. This association was mediated by fusion of identity with the national ingroup but not by experiencing collective positive emotions. In Study 2 (N = 118), we used an experimental design and showed that nationalism moderated the effect of participating in nationalistic collective rituals on measures related to behavioral intentions. Specifically, these rituals decreased outgroup prejudice among high nationalistic participants. Collective rituals are discussed as a form of collective self-affirmation that may have reduced defensiveness and led nationalistic individuals to behave according to the predominant values within a society.

Some theories suggest that collective emotions, in particular emotional entrainment as the feeling of affective attunement with others during rituals, can increase the identification with a social group. Furthermore, emotional entrainment is supposed to emotionally 'charge' group symbols that are part of ritual practices and influence group-related attitudes and solidarity even beyond the ritual context. This article tests these assumptions in a naturalistic study around the 2010 Football World Cup, which reliably generates emotional entrainment in a ritualized, nation-focused context. Results indicate that emotional entrainment during the tournament is a predictor of changes in national identification and the perceived emotional significance of national symbols after the tournament. Moreover, emotional entrainment partially mediates the relationship between pre-and post-World Cup national identification and the perception of national symbols.

Sentiment addresses emotional and enduring attitudinal features of contempt, but explaining contempt as a mixture of basic emotion system affects does not adequately address the family resemblance structure of the concept. Adding forms of individual, group-based, and widely shared arrogance and contempt is necessary to address complex mixed feelings of proud superiority when " looking down on " and acting harshly towards others.

ABSTRACT: Brazil’s recent experiences in the semi-final of the 2014 World Cup show the potential for collective shame that is potentially, but rarely, realized as representative teams, fans and nations dream of international sporting successand positive international attention from mega-sporting events. Feelings of shock, deep disappointment and anger in Brazil are examined as manifestations of group-based and collective shame after the semi-final defeatfor the host nation’s supporters and humiliationof the national team. I explored “bottom up” mechanisms and other means by which collective shamearguably occurred due to high expectations and national narratives built around footballing success. The analysis includes the complex social and relational means by which Brazil’s representative team failed to “restore pride” by returning to previous minimal standards in the third-place playoff and the fortunatemanner further humiliation for Brazilians was avoided through the German team’s subsequent victory over Argentina in the final. The brief collective emotion analysis is completed with an examination of lessons that might be learned from Germany’s long process of transformation from collective shame after the Second World War to the eventual experience of a cosmopolitan national pride through football at the World Cup 2006 tournament and other subsequent international successes.

Keywords: collective shame; collective pride; group-based emotions; World Cup; mega-sporting events.

This chapter elaborates on various effects of collective emotions on larger social units with a special emphasis on nations and the imagined national community. Based on Durkheim's theoretical framework, we discuss empirical evidence regarding influence of collective emotions on national identification and emotional climate, on the perception of national symbols, and on the rejection and derogation of out-groups.

Some theories suggest that collective emotions, in particular emotional entrainment as the feeling of affective attunement with others during rituals, can increase the identification with a social group. Furthermore, emotional entrainment is supposed to emotionally “charge” group symbols that are part of ritual practices and influence group-related attitudes and solidarity even beyond the ritual context. We have tested these assumptions in a naturalistic study around the men’s football World Cup, which reliably generates emotional entrainment in a ritualized, nation-focused context. Results indicate that emotional entrainment during the tournament is a predictor of changes in national identification and the perceived emotional significance of national symbols after the tournament. Moreover, emotional entrainment partially mediates the relationship between pre- and post-World Cup national identification and the perception of national symbols.

Collective and group-based pride is currently covered across a number of disciplines including nationalism studies, sociology and social psychology, with little communication between fields. This multidisciplinary collection encourages interdisciplinary research and provides a unique insight into the subject, stemming from a psychological perspective. The collection builds upon insights from collective emotion research to consider the relations between collective pride, shame and guilt as well as emotions of anger, empowerment and defiance. Collective pride is examined in contexts that vary from small groups in relatively peaceful competition to protest movements and large groups in divisive conflicts. In the book collective pride is a complex and positive emotional experience evident in the behaviour of groups, that can lead to negative forms of collective hubris in which other groups are devalued or dominated.

Collective pride is of increasing interest to interdisciplinary emotion researchers who no longer subsume it under collective self-esteem, nationalism and patriotism. Proud positive emotional climates, waves of celebratory emotion, and elevated group moods occur in large groups such as organizations, communities and nations in response to success in mega-sport events, positive international attention, praiseworthy group behavior and the successful completion of projects that confirm a collective’s strengths or enhanced status. In this chapter, the first section confronts sources of skepticism about the existence of collective pride as a discrete positive collective emotion and the resulting clarification is used to highlight its background features, precipitating contexts, expressive forms and cultural importance (e.g., relations to belonging, solidarity and collective identity). Aggregative, network and cultural models of collective emotion are examined in the second section through instances of positive group emotion generated in the contexts of mega-sport competitions, social movements and group conflicts. The third section analyses several examples and demonstrates the need for a clear distinction between celebratory emotions and predominantly negative forms of defiant and narcissistic group emotion. Conceptual-discursive and phenomenological grounds are used to explore connections between collective pride and collective shame as well as to argue that collective hubris has unique emotional contours.