Eurovision week. What spectacle does to the nervous system.

I am a biologist who studies development, but this week I want to write about something that I usually study from the outside: the biology of collective excitement. What happens to the nervous system when you watch something enormous with other people.

Eurovision 2024 is in Malmö. Victor wrote last week about what the voting patterns teach children about European geography. I want to write about something different: what the spectacle itself does.

Eurovision is one of the largest shared cultural events on earth. In 2023, 160 million people watched it. Many millions more watched with other people in rooms and bars and community spaces. The experience of watching it is not equivalent to watching any other programme because of this: the knowledge that 160 million other people are watching at the same time changes the nature of the watching.

This is a real biological effect. Synchronised shared experiences — watching the same thing, at the same time, knowing others are watching — activate what researchers call 'neural synchrony'. Brain activity aligns between people who are having shared experiences. This alignment is associated with increased trust, increased cohesion, and increased emotional responsiveness.

Collective experience — shared attention, shared emotional response — is associated with increased trust and cohesion. Eurovision at scale is a collective experience. That is not nothing.

Collective experience — shared attention, shared emotional response — is associated with increased trust and cohesion. Eurovision at scale is a collective experience. That is not nothing.