Elevation

Elevation is the emotional state caused by seeing someone else do something morally excellent– i.e. seeing someone help someone else.  Four key features of elevation are: the words we use to describe the experience, the physical reaction, the motivation and behaviour changes, and the conditions that lead to elevation.¹ 

Elevation is different from, although related to, other more well-known positive emotions such as admiration, awe, and gratitude.  The most similar is perhaps admiration which is felt when watching an excellent act that isn’t moral, like athletes at the Olympics.²   

Elevation is generally seen as a positive emotion which uplifts people and increases optimism about humanity.² However, elevation can also be experienced negatively: watching an ‘elevating’ film clip can also increase sadness. It is possible it could also be linked to resentment and jealousy as a result of seeing a perfect ‘moral’ actor who makes you feel inferior.³  

Do children feel elevation? Yes, research shows children as young as 2 years old find seeing somebody else help someone equally as rewarding as helping someone themselves– suggesting the feeling of elevation is similar to the feelings of pride and joy following your own helping behaviour.⁴ The experience of elevation found in children includes higher feelings of happiness, warmth, care and sadness.⁵ 

Elevation is expressed by the body, the mind, and how you view things: 

 In the body, elevation can be expressed by: a feeling of ‘warmth’ in the chest, experiencing chills or goosebumps, a relaxation of muscles, and even the development of a lump in the throat or a tear in the eye.² Actively helping someone and seeing someone else being helped (producing elevation) are associated with the same levels of pupil dilation.⁶ Research with 4-year-olds also found elevation might be expressed in the body through raised upper-body posture associated with a positive emotional response.⁷  

In the mind, elevation is associated with emotional states such as feeling ‘moved’, respect and inspiration.²  

When looking at how people view situations, research suggests elevation increases how good others seem, which leads to greater optimism about humanity.² It is one way of increasing helping behaviour in wider communities; it motivates people to be more helpful following social cues that suggest the current situation is worth being helpful in.² 

Does viewing a moral act make you more likely to act morally? Elevation increases motivation to be a better person, so some theories suggest that elevation leads to helping behaviour.² 

Some research shows elevation increases helping behaviour that is similar to what the other person performed. Specifically, elevation increases behaviours like donating to charity, whereas justice-relevant behaviours are related to outrage. Performing one helpful act makes people feel more positive about themselves, meaning people sometimes feel less inclined to continue helping others. This dip in motivation is called moral licensing.  However, elevation could help to reduce the motivation dip by activating helping goals and building on them with more obvious helpful acts.² 

Contrasting with adult evidence, research has found elevation in children does not have a particular effect on increasing helping behaviour compared to other positive emotions like admiration. This might be because children adapt more to emotions, making them more likely to act helpfully as a result of admiration or enjoying the task. On the other hand, adults might respond more specifically to elevation for the motivation to help.⁵ 

 Research has found a potential biological response linked to elevation. Elevation is associated with the release of the love hormone called oxytocin, which is associated with production of excess milk in lactating mothers and is accompanied by higher heart rate and activation of specific nervous system responses.⁸ 

Some factors increase the intensity of elevation, which can increase the effect on helpful behaviour. The intensity of elevation is increased when the person being helped is a ‘good’ person and the giver puts in a lot of effort. People also experience more elevation if they have certain personality traits, like extraversion, agreeableness, spirituality and a strong connection with their community.² 

Some factors increase the intensity of elevation in children, such as how much the person needs or deserves to be helped. A study found children show raised posture when the ‘needier’ child is helped instead of the less ‘needy’ child, and a drop in upper-body posture when the less ‘needy’ child was helped instead of the ‘needier’ (regardless of whether it was them being helped or someone else). This shows a sense of deservingness impacts elevation response in children.⁷ 

Elevation has been explained in terms of an Attitude-Scenario-Emotion model - which focusses on how people control their emotions when interacting with someone else. Elevation might motivate people to partner with the ‘helper’ who seems trustworthy, as working with them seems beneficial.¹ 

One theory suggests that elevation is part of an evolved mechanism where a person’s decision to behave helpfully depends on others being there, and if the environment seems to be one where being helpful benefits them.⁹ 

It is important to consider potential gender differences in elevation. Some research finds girls have higher baseline levels of care and boys have higher baseline levels of upliftment, therefore elevation may be expressed differently in boys and girls.⁵ 

There are difficulties when studying elevation. Many studies need to rely on self-report measures – asking participants what they think and feel – to measure the effects of elevation, which is not always very accurate. Researchers often try to make people feel elevation by having people watch an ‘elevating’ film clip in a lab setting which might not be as moving as seeing a helpful act in real life. It may be worth considering how future studies into elevation could try to overcome these challenges, using real life settings and less opinion-based measures.⁵