The Power Of Elevation
Elevation is a warm, uplifting feeling that people experience when they see unexpected acts of human goodness, kindness, and compassion. It makes a person want to help others and to become a better person himself or herself. It is triggered by witnessing acts of human moral beauty or virtue. Witnessing good deeds changes the thought–action repertoire, triggering love, admiration, and affection for the altruist and making affiliative behavior more likely.
There are individual benefits to the individual experiencing positive emotions, and elevation may indeed confer such individual benefits. However, elevation is particularly interesting because of its power to spread, thereby potentially improving entire communities.
The Positive Emotion of Elevation. Jonathan Haidt (2000).
Prevention & Treatment, 3, 3, pp. 1-5
Elevation has been defined as the emotional response to moral beauty (Haidt, 2003). Thomas Jefferson believed that great literature can foster a young person’s moral development by triggering powerful and ‘‘elevating’’ sentiments:
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. - Jefferson T (1975) The Portable Thomas Jefferson, pp 349–351.
Despite this being a newer field of research, the study of the emotion of “Elevation” has produced notable empirical evidence demonstrating that it motivates people to emulate role models, do good deeds, and become more interested in relationships.
Tingey et al (2017) demonstrated the power of Elevation to promote posttraumatic growth (PTG) even after a traumatic event as demoralizing as a mass shooting. Researchers found that students, faculty, and staff who displayed compassionate goals toward others after a campus shooting exhibited higher PTG, and that Elevation was predictive of higher PTG and mediated the effects of others’ compassionate goals on PTG.
One of the strongest behavioral findings in the study of the emotion of Elevation found that moral elevation caused lactating women to hug and nurse their infants, suggesting the possible involvement of the hormone oxytocin – “the love hormone”. - Silvers & Haidt J (2008).
Oxytocin has calming, anxiolytic, prosocial, bonding and positive mood effects. Low oxytocin levels are highly correlated with post-partum depression.
Is it possible that the positive effects of Elevation serve as powerful mechanisms for changing negative emotional states and facilitate recovery from mental health disorders?
“The jury may still be out on that question,
but if one act of kindness could motivate others to be kinder too, then I believe
Elevation has the Power to Change the World.”
Elevation Psychology is a mindset – a belief that the mission of guiding each person through their healing journey and transformation into their highest Self is a privilege and a service to our highest Self and the Elevation of the community we build together, one good deed at a time.
When we serve others as our highest Self, we inspire the Elevation of the Self in Others.
Let’s All Pay it Forward.