Don’t let the loudest person in the room set its temperature. You can stay at your own.

Rooms take their temperature from whoever is most willing to set it, which usually means the loudest person rather than the most reasonable one. Moods spread, so one person’s agitation can run a whole group inside a few minutes. Knowing that is most of the defence, because the spread works best when nobody notices it happening.

When the volume rises, keep your own pace: normal speed, slow answers, no matching of the energy. It feels oddly conspicuous for about a minute, and then people start settling toward you instead. If it does not settle, leaving the room is also a way of declining to supply a crowd.