Jonathan Haidt University of Virginia

1. Jonathan Haidt University of Virginia The positive moral emotions: Elevation, awe, admiration (and gratitude)Sage Lecture #3Nov. 23, 2008

2. 11/10: What is morality and how does it work? 11/17: The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion 11/24: The positive moral emotions: Elevation, awe, admiration, and gratitude  12/1: Hive psychology, group selection, and leadership 12/8: The dark side: Why moral psychology is the greatest source of evil   12/15: The light side: How to pursue happiness using ancient wisdom and modern psychology ppt files available at www.JonathanHaidt.com, at bottom 6 Lectures on Morality

3. Nativism Nature provides a first draft, which experience then revises… ‘Built-in' does not mean unmalleable; it means organized in advance of experience.“ (Marcus, 2004)

4. The Social Intuitionist Model (Haidt, 2001) 6 A’s Intuition A’s Judgment 2 A’s Reasoning 1 5 4 3 B’s Reasoning B’s Judgment B’s Intuition Four main processes: 1) the intuitive judgment link 2) the post-hoc reasoning link 3) the reasoned persuasion link 4) the social persuasion link Two rare processes: 5) the reasoned judgment link 6) the private reflection link

5. Intuition tilts the table

6. The New Synthesis in Moral Psych 1) Intuitive primacy (but not dictatorship) 2) Moral thinking is for social doing 3) Morality binds and builds 4) Morality is about more than harm and fairness

7. Traditional Morality: Uses every tool in the toolbox to increase MCC

8. Liberals 2 channels, Conservatives 5 Harm Fairness Endorsement Authority Ingroup Purity

9. Jonathan Haidt University of Virginia The positive moral emotions: Elevation, awe, admiration (and gratitude)Sage Lecture #3Nov. 23, 2008

10. An Investment Opportunity….

11. I) Unbalanced Emotions From Ortony, Clore & Collins, 1988

12. I) Unbalanced Emotions (From PsycInfo search of words in title or key concepts, journal articles only, counted on 9/08)

13. I) Unbalanced Emotions (From PsycInfo search of words in title or key concepts, journal articles only, counted on 9/08) --Ratio of neg to pos is 15 to 1 --There is almost NO empirical work on the “other-praising” emotions (beyond recent work on gratitude).

14. 1) No animal models 2) No distinct facial expression 3) Not as discrete as the negative emotions 4) General neglect of positive phenomena (Seligman) 5) Lack of good theoretical approaches to positive emotions, until now: Broaden and Build (Fredrickson) 6) Lack of good theoretical approaches to moral emotions, until now: Divinity & Purity (Shweder, Rozin); Why So Little on the O. P. Emotions?

15. II) The Third Dimension of Social Space? Z=Divinity (elevation-disgust) X=Solidarity (like-dislike) Y=Hierarchy (respect upwards; Paternalist caring downwards)

16. Purity and Pollution: keep our animal/corporeal nature separated from god/divinity In Biblical Judaism: When a woman gives birth to a boy, “she shall continue in the blood of purification three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification be fulfilled.” --Leviticus, 12:4

17. Purity and Pollution: keep our animal/corporeal nature separated from god/divinity In Islam: “O believers, when you stand up to pray wash your faces, and your hands up to the elbows, and wipe your heads, and your feet up to the ankles. If you are defiled, purify yourselves…” --Koran, V:9.

18. Purity/God/Goodness is Up Transmigration of souls: Up or down, based on Karma (right-action in this life) Hindu categorical imperative: “Any action that makes us go Godward is a good action and is our duty; any action that makes us go downward is evil and is not our duty." --Vivekananda, 1890s

19. Purity/God/Goodness is Up The Scala Natura: Greek and then Christian ordering of beings based on perfection, later virtue. God at top, devil/demons at bottom

20. In Victorian America Too "God has made no mistake in giving man a strong sexual nature, but any young man makes a fatal mistake if he allows the sexual to dominate, to degrade, and to destroy that which is highest and noblest in his nature.“ --Sylvanus Stall, 1904, What a young man ought to know.

21. II) The Third Dimension of Social Space? Z=Divinity (elevation-disgust) X=Solidarity (like-dislike) Y=Hierarchy (respect upwards; Paternalist caring downwards)

22. The Third Dimension: Divinity What do we feel when we see people move up, blurring the human/divine boundary? God Angels Saints Human Beings Monsters Animals Demons The Devil Social Disgust is felt when we see people move down, especially when they blur the human/animal boundary.

23. Example, From a Spiritual Autobiography: • There’s another kind of tear. This one’s less about giving love and more about the joy of receiving love, or maybe just detecting love. It’s the kind of tear that flows in response to expressions of courage, or compassion, or kindness by others. • A few weeks after Mother’s Day, we met here in the sanctuary and considered whether to become a Welcoming Congregation. When John stood in support of the resolution, and spoke of how, as far as he knew, he was the first gay man to come out at First Parish, in the early 1970s, I cried for his courage. • Later, when all hands went up and the resolution passed unanimously, I cried for the love expressed by our congregation in that act. That was a tear of celebration, a tear of receptiveness to what is good in the world, a tear that says it’s okay, relax, let down your guard, there are good people in the world, there is good in people, love is real, it’s in our nature. That kind of tear is also like being pricked, only now the love pours in.

24. Tears of Elevation Free hugs New York Subway Hero Team Hoyt The stone wall inside of him has fallen, the hardness in his heart has broken down. The rest of us can, I think, imagine this by recalling our state of feeling in those temporary 'melting moods' into which either the trials of real life, or the theatre, or a novel sometimes throw us. Especially if we weep! For it is then as if our tears broke through an inveterate inner dam, and let all sorts of ancient peccancies and moral stagnancies drain away, leaving us now washed and soft of heart and open to every nobler leading. (James, p. 216-217)

25. III) Elevation: Three main features 1) Elicitors: acts of courage, kindness, loyalty.... or any other act of moral beauty 2) Phenomenology/physiology: calm/relaxed, a warm/open/pleasant feeling in the chest; sometimes getting “choked up”. 3) Motivation: emulation, moral self-improvement, (altruism?)

26. A) Video and Diary Studies (Algoe & Haidt, in press, JPP) 3 groups (N=136), watch one of 3 videos, then fill out “event record” Admiration(Jordan) Elevation(Trevor) Amusement(comedians) Then given packet of event records and further instructions: For 3 weeks, fill out a record each time you see/hear someone: --Do something good or kind for someone else [elevation] --Exceed normal standards of skill or performance [admiration] --Tell a joke [amusement, positive affect control]

27. Results: Physical Feelings *=differs from amusement at p<.05

28. Results: Physical Feelings *=differs from amusement at p<.05 --Elevation causes feelings in the chest (but all pos em’s do) --Admiration linked to chills and energy

29. Results: Changes in Motivations *=differs from amusement at p<.05

30. Results: Changes in Motivations *=differs from amusement at p<.05 --Elevation is linked to moral motivations-Admiration is linked to motivations to copy and work hard

31. B) Cross-Cultural Interviews Method: Structured interviews with small samples in --India --Japan (Yuki Amano) --among Born-again Christians (Carter Chandler) --among Palestinian Americans (Mona Hasan) Results: In all groups, we find linkage among --virtuous acts --feelings in body (chills or chest) --motivation to help others or work for a higher cause

32. Elevation and Suicide Bombing (Mona Hasan) Question: Does suicide bombing cause elevation? Participants: 36 Palestinians and Palestinian Americans recruited from a mosque in Northern Virginia, interviewed 11/01-2/02, during period of heavy suicide bombing in Israel Reem Riyashi, 22 & daughter

33. Elevation and Suicide Bombing (Mona Hasan) Method: Structured interviews about 4 situations: 1) Good deed (“when you saw or heard about someone doing something good, kind, or compassionate for someone else”) 2) Self-sacrifice (“when you saw or heard about someone who risked or lost his life to further his cause”) 3) Rescue (“when you saw or heard about someone who risked or lost his life to help others, or save someone else’s life”) --------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Achievement (“when you accomplished a goal”)

34. * = differs from achievement p<.05

35. Discussion of Suicide Bombings --Half were supportive, half ambivalent. None opposed. --Some mentions of revenge, hate, “negative” moral motives --No mentions of rewards in heaven --What feelings do you have when you hear about a successful suicide attack in Israel? Satisfaction (67%) happiness (61%), admiration (61%), gratitude (56%). Conclusions: --Self-sacrifice in suicide bombers often causes other-praising emotions in other members of the group. --These emotions include motivations to do the same thing--Terrorism is better understood as motivated by moral emotions than by free-floating “evil”

36. C) Physiology of Other-Praising Emotions (Gary Sherman) 1) Warm chest plus calm: --Parasympathetic activity + --Oxytocin? Endorphins? 2) Chills plus energy:--Parasympathetic activity +--Adrenaline? (no cortisol)

37. Lactation Study (Silvers & Haidt, 2008, Emotion) Method: --44 Lactating women come to lab with infant --insert nursing pad, watch neutral baseline video --watch elevation or amusementvideo (IV) --left alone for 5 minutes, behavior videotaped (DV) --nursing pads weighed (DV)

38. % of Mothers Who…. p=.06 * *

39. Thomas Jeffersonwas here

40. When any …act of charity or of gratitude, for instance, 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. On the contrary when we see or read of any atrocious deed, we are disgusted with its deformity and conceive an abhorrence of vice..... And whether the fidelity of Nelson, and generosity of Blandford in Marmontel do not dilate his breast, and elevate his sentiments as much as any similar incident which real history can furnish?..... --Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Robert Skipwith, 1771 Elevation: Discovered in Charlottesville!

41. When any …act of charity or of gratitude, for instance, 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. On the contrary when we see or read of any atrocious deed, we are disgusted with its deformity and conceive an abhorrence of vice..... And whether the fidelity of Nelson, and generosity of Blandford in Marmontel do not dilate his breast, and elevate his sentiments as much as any similar incident which real history can furnish?..... --Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Robert Skipwith, 1771 Elevation: Discovered in Charlottesville! Appraisal Action tendency Physical changes Affective phenom-enology

42. Elevation and Disgust are Opposites

43. Rembrandt: The Good Samaritan

44. Serrano: Piss Christ

45. Elevation opens people to new moral commitments “I can’t believe I just shook the Dalai Lama’s hand!” Jocelyn Diaz, a 21-year old senior, shouted… “I feel changed by this. You get so caught up with your life and then you see these people who are making so much of a difference.” “Attending even a single event can have a consciousness-raising effect,” said Christina Bull, a 19-year-old junior… “It just reminds you that there are people who care so much about causes,” she added. “It makes you want to get involved.”

46. Elevation and Politics Ask not...

47. Problem: No clear property lines Awe Elevation Admiration Inspiration

48. IV) Awe People report feeling awe towards so many things….