Seeing how the spirit moves us. University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt is on a quest to establish that elevation — the feeling of awe and inspiration in the presence of righteousness or altruism — deserves recognition as a distinct emotion with its own physiological defining features, joining the established list of anger, sadness, disgust, fear, happiness and surprise. “For a response to qualify as an emotion, researchers will need
to show that it is an immediate reaction to a change in the
environment – not a broader ‘sentiment,’ like love – and that,
while activated, it causes a person to think differently.” [Other candidates for emotion status include amusement, relief and — although the article does not discuss it — boredom, as well as that elusive thing called love.] Boston Globe