Why Election Night was best spent in a crowd

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27563100/

Why Election Night was best spent in a crowd
The urge to share a big moment is evolutionary, experts explain

By Melissa Dahl
Health writer
msnbc.com
updated 5:43 a.m. PT, Thurs., Nov. 6, 2008


In moments of extreme elation, such as the way Barack Obama supporters felt Tuesday night after his historic victory, we get the urge to do things we normally avoid in public: Scream. Dance. Cry. Hug someone — anyone.

But whatever it is we feel the urge to do, chances are, we want to share it with someone else.

“We experience emotions socially,” says Jack Dovidio, a Yale University social psychologist. “Joy by oneself is not the same as joy with other people. It’s the idea of sharing it with others that magnifies it.”

In New York City, thousands of strangers flooded Times Square; in Seattle, they took over Pike Place Market; and in New Orleans, jazz musicians led a spontaneous parade through the city streets. Experts say shared experiences like those can turn strangers into friends, tighten bonds between loved ones and even lay the foundation for healing broken relationships. In short, it creates a common ground where there was none.

“The positive mood in particular makes you expand your boundaries of who’s in your group,” Dovidio says. “So people in positive moods tend to be much more inclusive of what they consider to be in their group.”

It's an evolutionary urge, he explains, because being a solidified member of a group was once essential to human survival.

Twenty-five-year-old Claire Suni spent hours celebrating on the streets of Seattle, her home town, where she made an unexpected friend — a little old man who looked her straight in the eye and gave her a huge hug. “He grabbed my shoulders and kept saying, ‘Obama! Obama!’”

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Instant tension relief
For many, hugging, screaming and dancing with those around them was a way to immediately release the tension that has been building for nearly two years. During the first few hours of watching election returns at a bar in midtown Sacramento, patrons were cordial to each other, but when they learned Obama had won, the hugs and high-fives among strangers began.

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But while joy is often best shared, solitude may be the needed balm for some who feel bitter disappointment. Lynn Krogh, the president of the New York Young Republicans, planned and attended an event for 400 people, mostly members of her organization. When John McCain lost Ohio, Pennsylvania and then the election, some of the young Republicans cried, some hugged – but no one stuck around.