The previously unstudied emotion of elevation is described.
Elevation appears to be the opposite of social disgust.
It is triggered by witnessing acts of human moral beauty or virtue. Elevation involves a warm or glowing feeling in the chest, and it makes people want to become morally better themselves. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jonathan Haidt, Department of Psychology, Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4400. If interest is a positive emotion that makes a person more open to possibilities and more likely to stop and savor a good new idea, then it was clever of Fredrickson to write such an interesting article. The functionalist perspective, a powerful tool for understanding the negative emotions, can now be neatly applied to the positive emotions as well.