Elevation

Other

Doctrine and Covenants 9:8: 1

“But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.”

From the Wikipedia entry on Elevation (emotion): 2

Jonathan Haidt is a preeminent researcher in the study of elevation and other positive moral emotions. He defines elevation as an emotion that is caused by witnessing virtuous acts or feats of moral beauty. He asserts that elevation elicits warm, pleasurable sensations in the chest, and it also motivates individuals to act more virtuously themselves. In his explanation of elevation, Haidt describes the three dimensions of social cognition. The horizontal dimension of solidarity refers to the fact that people vary in distance to the self in regards to affection and mutual obligation. For example, across cultures individuals act differently towards their friends than strangers. The second, vertical dimension is that of hierarchy, status, or power. Individuals moderate their social exchanges by the relative status of the people whom they are interacting with. Haidt asserts that individuals can vary along a third dimension, which he calls “elevation versus degradation” or “purity versus pollution.”  This vertical dimension refers to the fact that individuals vary in their state and trait levels of spiritual purity. When individuals feel disgust toward certain behaviors, this emotion informs them that someone else is moving down on the third dimension. Haidt defines elevation as the opposite of disgust, because witnessing others rise on the third dimension causes the viewer to also feel higher on this dimension.

 

Additional Study

The Evolution of Empathy – https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_evolution_of_empathy
What’s “Emotional Reasoning”—And Why Is It Such a Problem? – https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolution-the-self/201706/what-s-emotional-reasoning-and-why-is-it-such-problem
Elevation and the positive psychology of morality – http://people.stern.nyu.edu/jhaidt/articles/haidt.2003.elevation-and-positive-psychology.pub026.html
Is moral elevation an approach-oriented emotion? – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5215139/

References