Subject: Emotional Resilience to Negative Experiences
Take a group and use the Forgas & Fiedler (1996) reading to illustrate the various cognitive, evaluative, and emotional representations that exist within groups. Give an example of a questionable or negative collective/group experience. Explore how fans and/or members of that group were affected by this situation which caused in-group conflict. Examples can be a brand, organization, property, team, public figure – anything so long as you provide an argument as to how it has a supportive community and/or a number of members behind it. For example – a political party divided by healthcare policies. A Board of Directors with different definitions of diversity and how to implement it. A members-only gym with an overly aggressive trainer. What factors are considered when fans or members of the affiliated groups want to respond?
Learning Objective: Interpreting the emotional, mental, and behavioral toll negative group/brand/community experiences has on members. Exploration of the matters involved with building resilience towards negative information.
Please make sure to choose a brand as your example
General Points to Consider:
- Consider what happens when your group does something bad and the response affiliated members have?
- What role (if any) should social media developers have in curtailing negative content? Who gets to decide what is harmful?
- Media literacy and media ethics in technology
- Us vs them
- How do members within the same group regulate each other when one does something that negatively reflects the group as a whole?
