Experiencing: Elevation

ELEVATION

O U R E M O T I O N A L R E A C T I O N T O M O R A L B E A U T Y

Your eyes stay glued to the TV screen as you watch the track athlete carry an injured runner across the finish line , forfeiting her spot on the podium as a result of her reduced pace . The crowd in the stands erupts into a standing ovation , and an unusually warm glow expands across your chest . What is this feeling , you wonder ?

Elevation—the warm, uplifting emotion prompted by the witnessing of a morally virtuous action and the subsequent desire to emulate such goodness in your own life. We've all experienced this feeling at some point in our lives, yet few of us spark conversations about it, and even fewer of us are aware that there is a name for this strangely heartwarming experience. Jonathan Haidt, an emotion researcher who spent years studying disgust before turning his focus to investigating its antithesis, describes elevation as the positive half of the "third dimension of social cognition, " a continuum that spans between moral purity and pollution (Haidt, 2003). Elevation has been shown to create a warm feeling of connection with humanity by serving as an emotional source of inspiration to also act in morally beautiful ways. In the process of eliciting compassion for others and courage to do good in the world, elevation encourages individuals to expand their sense of self and turn their attention outwards toward serving and lifting up others—a prime illustration of Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Elevation calls us to aspire to champion and mirror the goodness of human nature, or as David Whitford once put it, it is the feeling that stimulates "a tear of celebration, a tear of receptiveness to what is good in the world" (Haidt, 2oo3).

WHEN ANY ACT OF CHARITY OR OF GRATITUDE...IS PRESENTED EITHER TO OUR SIGHT OR IMAGINATION, WE ARE DEEPLY IMPRESSED WITH ITS BEAUTY AND FEEL A STRONG DESIRE IN OURSELVES OF DOING CHARITABLE AND GRATEFUL ACTS ALSO.