WP 1, WP 2 and WP 3 have been pursued by following three main research strategies: (1) The project has systematically analyzed both theoretical and empirical sources; (2) it corrected methodological shortcomings, identified and supplemented thematic desiderata; (3) it proposed a new conceptual framework integrating available research data, which can be used both for new theoretical research and the design of new empirical paradigms.
ad 1) Regarding theoretical sources, both classical-phenomenological and contemporary analytic work in the philosophy of emotions (Szanto 2017e; Szanto 2018; Szanto & Krueger forthcoming; Szanto & Landweer forthcoming) and social cognition (Jardine & Szanto 2017) have been critically re-evaluated. Regarding empirical material, cognitive neuroscientific work on social cognition and, in particular, empathy biases, social-psychological work on ingroup/outgroup mechanisms (Szanto & Krueger (eds.) forthcoming) and sociological analyses of affective sharing have been discussed (Szanto 2017d; Szanto forthcoming). In terms of theoretical results, here, the project contributed to disambiguating central conceptual equivocations, esp. between the notions empathy, emotional sharing, affective entrainment, mimicry, emotional contagion and sympathy, as well as between vicarious sub-personal reactions and intentional sharing and between shared, collective and extended emotions (Krueger & Szanto 2016; Jardine & Szanto 2017; Szanto 2018; Léon, Szanto, Zahavi forthcoming).
ad 2) On the basis of these conceptual clarifications, the project helps circumvent specific methodological and systematic problems, e.g. associated with both the ‘phenomenal subject’-identity construal of shared emotions and purely cognitivist or normativist accounts within the philosophy of collective emotions, or with reductive social-psychological and sociological accounts (Szanto 2018). Moreover, it introduced some, so far largely neglected, issues and proposed novel ways to address them, e.g. regarding collaborative and collective forms of self-deception (Szanto 2017a), the possibility and role of collective imagination for constructing ingroup/outgroup stereotypes (Szanto 2017c), or the sociological and systematic basis for emotional self-alienation (Szanto 2017b).
ad 3) Relatedly, a central outcome of the project is a multi-dimensional account, which allows distinguishing various levels and dimensions of emotional sharing (extended, shared, collective, etc., and direct and habitualized forms, etc.) (Krueger & Szanto 2016; Szanto 2018; León, Szanto & Zahavi forthcoming). Furthermore, the novel analyses of distinctively collective forms of empathy and empathy-biases (e.g. social identification based, group-directed, and intergroup) (Jardine & Szanto 2017; Szanto & Krueger (eds.) forthcoming) as well as of affectively biased self-deception (Szanto 2017a) and self-alienation (Szanto 2017b) are expected to facilitate the integration of available conceptual and empirical data, and pave the way for new research paradigms.
