In the movie "Ghostbusters II," the team discovers a river of pink slime (mood slime) flowing beneath New York City. The slime is a supernatural substance that feeds on negative human emotions, such as anger, fear, and hostility. It's being used by the villain Vigo the Carpathian to return to life.

The slime becomes a central plot device. It reacts emotionally, moving when people argue. It powers paranormal events across the city and ultimately helps animate the Statue of Liberty during the finale. Beneath the comedy, the slime operates as a metaphor. If the cause and consequence of our anger is not supernatural goo, then what about today's world fails to sit comfortably with our evolutionary history, pushing us toward irritation, outrage, and hostility with startling speed?

The slime materializes emotions that would otherwise go unnoticed. That is, the emotions that each individual shares with one another in the form of "connections" or lack thereof, become physical manifestations. They can be seen, felt, weighed, and also, to some extent, measured. Whenever a disagreement between two or more individuals occurs, the product of this disagreement (the slime) begins to churn. It thickens as the number of "connections" or "disagreements" between individuals accumulates. The way in which emotions expand and "evolve" between people in the social environment is comparable to their behavior in a physical way. The domino effect of anger spreads from individual to individual, causing anger to grow exponentially in the social network (Van Bavel & Pereira, 2018).

From a biological standpoint, human beings are extremely sensitive to societal dangers. When a person was ostracized or faced with hostility, there could have been dire repercussions on their........

© Psychology Today