Why do we do some actions and not others?These difficult-to-solve questions find an answer in emotional energy, at least as far as social interactions are concerned, that is, one of the reasons we relate to others is to get excited. Energy. The more there is, the better.
This proposal, made by sociologist Randall Collins, states that any relationship between people is a ritual of interaction, these rituals generate emotional energy, especially when certain conditions are met, in turn the emotional energy leads us to seek the repetition of the ritual to obtain more energy.
- According to Collins.
- Rituals are mechanisms that focus attention on an emotion.
- In order to create a shared reality.
- This new reality would be temporary.
- But would be used to generate meanings and symbols.
For example, away from the most sophisticated rituals, greeting someone on the street and saying, “Hello, how are you?”, it’s going to be a ritual. This ritual creates a new reality between the two people, even if it only lasts a few seconds, will be enough to generate symbols and, finally, emotional energy.
The emotional energy that arises from this ritual will lead us to continue to greet this person every time we see him, however, if there was no emotional energy, this behavior would cease to occur, so these interaction rituals are related. The execution of a ritual will cause it to repeat, as long as it generates the expected results.
Interaction rituals have four main ingredients or initial conditions
The last two ingredients are the most important. The two reinforce each other. Religious service participants adopt a more respectful and solemn attitude, and those attending a funeral may feel their pain increase.
On a smaller scale, for example, in a conversation, as the interaction becomes increasingly fascinating, the rhythm and emotional tone of the dialogue capture the interlocutors. This state of attention and shared emotion was called by Durkheim a collective consciousness.
As ingredients are successfully combined and reach high levels of coincidence as part of shared attention and excitement, participants will experience:
Therefore, these rituals of interaction with others will motivate many of our actions, from this point of view, interacting with other people is beneficial, especially when the aforementioned conditions are met.
This explains why we are social beings and shows that social networks, although they put us in touch, barely manage to satisfy us, in this sense, face-to-face contact cannot be overcome by any other type of interaction.