Social Mood

Social mood is a shared mental state among humans that arises from social interaction. Social mood predisposes individuals in the group toward emotions, beliefs and actions. It fluctuates constantly in a fractal pattern. It is unconscious, unremembered and endogenously regulated.

Socionomic theory proposes that social mood governs the character of social events.

Social mood waxes and wanes positively and negatively. Periods of positive social mood tend to be associated with a host of social phenomena, such as rising stock prices, re-election of incumbents, peace, increasing deregulation, and the popularity of brighter colors and shorter skirts. Periods of negative social mood also tend to be associated with a host of social phenomena, such as falling stock prices, rejection of incumbents, discord, increasing regulation, and the popularity of darker colors and longer skirts.

Although social mood governs social events, it fluctuates independently of such events. In other words, wherever mood goes, the character of events will follow. But the events themselves have no impact on the direction of social mood; there is no feedback loop. If social mood governs social events, what governs social mood? Answer: The Wave Principle.

Mood determines the general type of events that will emerge, but not the specific events themselves, nor the actions of specific individuals. Here is an example: Socionomic theory predicts that during times of negative social mood, horror movies will be more popular. However, the theory cannot say whether or not a movie studio will green light the feature-length production of a particular horror film. Nor can it say—if the film gets made—that a specific individual will decide to see the movie at the local theater.