A flight to nowhere and drive-in movies in Walmart parking lots: The urgency and power of ‘social solidarity’

Here’s a sign of the times: an airport is offering passengers who really miss air travel a trip to nowhere.

Taipei’s Songshan airport made the offer earlier this month, receiving about seven thousand applications. Sixty people were chosen for the half-day “trips” that will continue over the next couple of weeks. 

Those selected for the phony flights receive boarding passes and go through the typical security process as if they are traveling internationally. They gather at the gate, then board an Airbus A330 of Taiwan’s largest carrier. However, the plane goes nowhere. After a while, the lucky passengers return to the same gate they left. 

In a similar vein, Walmart is turning 160 of its parking lots into drive-in movie theaters to offer contactless film premieres. Besides movies, the family-friendly nights will feature special appearances from filmmakers and celebrities. 

Customers will order concessions online for curbside pickup or delivery to their vehicles. The movies will begin next month and run until October. 

“Physical distancing and social solidarity” 

These are just two examples of the many ways people are adjusting to the pandemic. From remote officing to online shopping to sports without fans, many are doing their best to make the best of these unprecedented days. 

Here’s another way to respond. 

Dr. Barbara Lee Fredrickson is a psychology professor and head of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab at the University of North Carolina. She and her team surveyed six hundred Americans to ask about their daily activities and correlate them with the degree to which they experienced negative or positive emotions. 

Unsurprisingly, they found that people who spent time passively scrolling social media or interacting with people only through chat or text were most likely to report negative emotions. By contrast, these activities were more likely to be associated with…