Resumen de Experimentally distinguishing elevation from gratitude: : Oh, the morality

Jason T. Siegel, Andrew L. Thomson, Mario A. Navarro

• Elevation has garnered empirical support as the emotional response to witnessing moral beauty. The current studies investigated elevation�s construct validity by experimentally testing whether feelings of elevation are distinct from gratitude, another moral and �other-praising� emotion. Study 1 demonstrated that feelings of elevation are distinct from gratitude, serenity (i.e. a secondary comparison condition), and boredom (i.e. a control condition). Study 2 added a behavioral outcome measure in the form of monetary donations to a moral charity. The third study expanded on Study 2 by randomly assigning participants to an elevation or gratitude mood induction and then randomly assigning them to have the opportunity to donate to either a moral or an amoral charity. Together, these studies support Haidt�s conceptualization of elevation, clarify Algoe and Haidt�s qualitative assessment of the emotional differences between elevation and gratitude, and reveal that elevation results in different behavioral responses than gratitude.