The bright side of lockdown

The pandemic spreading around the world is calling on us to suppress our profoundly human and evolutionarily hard-wired impulses

As India goes through a nationwide lockdown, we are reminded of the phrase “collective effervescence”, coined by French sociologist Emile Durkheim 100 years ago to describe the shared emotional connect people experience during religious ceremonies. The same concept even applies to sporting events where spectators simultaneously experience emotions during the course of a game. Interestingly, “much of the thrust of behavioural economics has involved, or at least could be construed as involving, an enhanced understanding of emotions”, says Rick S and Loewenstein G (2008).

Ironically, the response to the Covid-19 pandemic goes against this tenet of collective behaviour. We are now