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.

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This article explores the interrelations between gender and fear, based on the hypothesis of sexual fear being produced as a feminised emotion in discourse. Empirical analyses of historically contingent constructions of sexual fears from 1961–2021 in the advice pages of the popular German youth magazine Bravo show how fear has been produced as a central technique governing feminine sexuality, by far surmounting the importance of either feminine love or desire. The results point to historically specific constructions of feminised sexual dangers, developing from premarital pregnancy in the 1960s, emotional suffering because of premature coitus in the 1980s and 1990s, to digitalised sexual practices in the 21st century. Feminised constructions of sexual risks and fears render feminine subjects as passive, vulnerable and in need of protection while simultaneously producing masculine subjects as actively sex seeking and potentially dangerous. The results also indicate that discursive delegitimisation of feminine sexual fear may equally contribute to re-establishing sexual inequality by pressuring girls to be sexually available. I argue, therefore, that it is not sufficient to analyse constructions of gendered subjects as being either fearful or fearless. Instead, the reconstruction of discursive model practices governing subjects to manage sexual fears is key to disentangling the complex nexus of gender and fear. The investigation of historical transformations of sexual fear discourses contributes to tracing both dynamics and continuities in gendered power relations, thereby illustrating the central role of fear in classic sociological research themes of inequality and power relations.

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Zusammenfassung Anhand der Analyse von Interviews mit Sexarbeitenden zeigt dieser Beitrag auf, wie affektiv-emotionale Prozesse in der Interviewsituation mit den Spezifika des Forschungsfeldes, vor allem der Marginalisierung und Stigmatisierung der Sexarbeitenden, zusammenhängen. Im Zentrum der Analyse steht die Rekonstruktion von Ressentiments und anderen Gefühlen sozialer Auf- und Abwertung, die einen elementaren Bestandteil der affektiven Identitätsarbeit im Interview darstellen. Die Sexarbeitenden reklamieren im Interview eine widerständige und positive Identität, indem sie antizipierte oder affektiv gespürte Ressentiments der Interviewerin managen und dabei teilweise selbst Ressentiments produzieren. Unter Bezugnahme auf emotionssoziologische Arbeiten argumentieren wir, dass die Rekonstruktion von emotionalen Dynamiken im Interview notwendiger Teil einer ungleichheitssensiblen interaktionistischen Interviewforschung sein sollte.