Energy, Minds, and Muscle: The Frame of Social Cohesion in Bodybuilding

• In Event: 30260 - Joint Roundtables: Section on Social Psychology and Section on Sociology of Emotions
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 4: Social Cohesion

Abstract

Based on participant observations and naturalistic interviews I conducted with male
bodybuilders at two fitness clubs, I contribute to the literature on social cohesion and frame
theory by conceiving of social cohesion as a frame that exists in two modalities: as the positive
energy frame and as the negative energy frame. The positive energy frame characterizes social
cohesion as the collective harmony that occurs when positive energy perceivers adhere to
nonjudgmental, supportive, and celebratory interaction principles. The negative energy frame
conceives of social cohesion as something that exists outside of negative energy perceivers in a
community of haters (i.e. perceived envious others who are perceived as wishing for the downfall
of the negative energy perceiver) that negative energy perceivers do not see themselves being a
part of even though they themselves engage in the same negative behavior they criticize haters
for. This results in a competitive and unfriendly environment where negative energy perceivers
do not trust one another, thus perpetuating the negative energy frame. In addition, I introduce the
mobile energy frame to describe the process whereby energy perceiving bodybuilders “take with
them” the respective energy frame of their fitness club and use it to inform bodybuilding
activities outside of it.

Author

• Pablo Victoria Torres, University of California-Irvine