Mixed feelings; Simulat ing emotion contagion in groups
Promotors:
Dr. C. Gerritsen
Prof. Dr. K. Hindriks
G Roups and crowds are of ten seen as an accidental or planned congregation of individuals. How ever, in the way these individual people are connected, arranged and interact in groups, unexpected patterns can surface that transcend th e mere sum of individuals. In other words, how we feel and act also d epends on the situation and the others around us [116]. We talk about group chemistry, the will of the crowd or acting in the moment. Why does one crowd respond calmly to an incident, while another breaks in to panic? Why does one group stand up to help a victim of public viol ence, while another stays passive or hinders first responders? This d issertation studies one contributing phenomenon called emotion contag ion. In the presence of others, a strong emotion is often not experie nced alone. Emotions can spread, inducing or altering emotions in oth ers [524]. Emotion contagion occurs via a number of mechanisms and mo dalities, including mimicry (e.g. of facial, vocal and bodily express ions), category activation (e.g. from text and music), and social app raisals (e.g. via evaluations and attention) [165, 423]. This infecti ous quality of emotional expressions is often named as a contributing factor to large crowd incidents [197]. Stampedes and crowd crushes a re tragic examples where fear spreads rapidly hand-in-hand with colle ctive behaviour that is dangerous to its members [321]. Some examples that received large news coverage include that during Halloween in t he streets of Seoul [328], the reoccurring incidents during the Hadj in Mekka [171], and the live-broadcast incident during the Astroworld festival in Houston [497]. Also collective anger is regularly linked to serious crowd incidents with human harm, as well as substantial e conomic damages. While most protests start out peaceful, some turn to collective violence and vandalism. Examples are riots following prot ests against the Covid19 measures in various countries world wide [55 3], against the election results in the United States [472], and agai nst racism in the United Kingdom [470]. But even during events intend ed to be enjoyable and entertaining, negative emotions can flair, lea ding to confrontations among subgroups or with security personnel, su ch as around football matches [327], at festivals [207] or amusement parks [226]. 1 2 1 INTRODUCTION What if the vulnerability for emotion -driven incidents could be screened before public events take place [ 13]? Or predicted in real-time to warn and allow intervention before the situation escalates [85, 576]? What if security professionals and citizens alike could practice how to act in case of emotion-driven e mergencies in the safety of a virtual crowd [593]? To these ends I ai m to progress the development of computer models and applications tha t can simulate how people exchange emotions in crowds. In addition, I aim to further our understanding of emotion contagion in groups. Des pite being linked to the spread of negative crowd behaviour, affectiv e empathy is foremost an important mechanism in healthy human communi cation and groups dynamics [106, 526]. Therefore, thought should also be spent on how its desired effects can be protected in a changing w orld. Our society has digitalised rapidly over the past decades, wher e an increasing share of social interactions takes place online [165] . With social media, video conferencing and in the future social virt ual reality, online groups have become a new front in managing the sa fety and social health of citizens. To this end, I also explore the e xchange of affect in the context of communicating with computer-contr olled as well as human-controlled virtual representations. Toward the se aims, I combine techniques from the fields of affective computing and agent-based modelling.
DESCRIPTION: Promotors: Dr. C. Gerritsen Prof. Dr. K. Hindriks G Roups and crowds are often seen as an accidental or planned congrega tion of individuals. However, in the way these individual people are connected, arranged and interact in groups, unexpected patterns can s urface that transcend the mere sum of individuals. In other words, ho w we feel and act also depends on the situation and the others around us [116]. We talk about group chemistry, the will of the crowd or ac ting in the moment. Why does one crowd respond calmly to an incident, while another breaks into panic? Why does one group stand up to help a victim of public violence, while another stays passive or hinders first responders? This dissertation studies one contributing phenomen on called emotion contagion. In the presence of others, a strong emot ion is often not experienced alone. Emotions can spread, inducing or altering emotions in others [524]. Emotion contagion occurs via a num ber of mechanisms and modalities, including mimicry (e.g. of facial, vocal and bodily expressions), category activation (e.g. from text an d music), and social appraisals (e.g. via evaluations and attention) [165, 423]. This infectious quality of emotional expressions is often named as a contributing factor to large crowd incidents [197]. Stamp edes and crowd crushes are tragic examples where fear spreads rapidly hand-in-hand with collective behaviour that is dangerous to its memb ers [321]. Some examples that received large news coverage include th at during Halloween in the streets of Seoul [328], the reoccurring in cidents during the Hadj in Mekka [171], and the live-broadcast incide nt during the Astroworld festival in Houston [497]. Also collective a nger is regularly linked to serious crowd incidents with human harm, as well as substantial economic damages. While most protests start ou t peaceful, some turn to collective violence and vandalism. Examples are riots following protests against the Covid19 measures in various countries world wide [553], against the election results in the Unite d States [472], and against racism in the United Kingdom [470]. But e ven during events intended to be enjoyable and entertaining, negative emotions can flair, leading to confrontations among subgroups or wit h security personnel, such as around football matches [327], at festi vals [207] or amusement parks [226]. 1 2 1 INTRODUCTION What if the v ulnerability for emotion-driven incidents could be screened before pu blic events take place [13]? Or predicted in real-time to warn and al low intervention before the situation escalates [85, 576]? What if se curity professionals and citizens alike could practice how to act in case of emotion-driven emergencies in the safety of a virtual crowd [ 593]? To these ends I aim to progress the development of computer mod els and applications that can simulate how people exchange emotions i n crowds. In addition, I aim to further our understanding of emotion contagion in groups. Despite being linked to the spread of negative c rowd behaviour, affective empathy is foremost an important mechanism in healthy human communication and groups dynamics [106, 526]. Theref ore, thought should also be spent on how its desired effects can be p rotected in a changing world. Our society has digitalised rapidly ove r the past decades, where an increasing share of social interactions takes place online [165]. With social media, video conferencing and i n the future social virtual reality, online groups have become a new front in managing the safety and social health of citizens. To this e nd, I also explore the exchange of affect in the context of communica ting with computer-controlled as well as human-controlled virtual rep resentations. Toward these aims, I combine techniques from the fields of affective computing and agent-based modelling. Mixed feelings; Si mulating emotion contagion in groups END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR