Item #2: The Emotion of the Aesthetic

In 2005, Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, published a book called The Happiness Hypothesis. It’s a great read. In the book, Haidt refers to the eight primary emotions identified by Robert Plutchik's psycho-evolutionary theory of emotion; they are: Anger, Fear, Sadness, Disgust, Surprise, Anticipation, Acceptance and Joy.

The fascinating thought and the basis for this Item #2: The Emotion of the Aesthetic is that he postulates that we may be able to classify a ninth primary emotion: Elevation.

Emotions, and engaging them, as we know, are tremendously important in the development of creative communications for advertising purposes. So the discovery of a new emotion can be extremely useful, especially if we know how to trigger it.

It appears that Elevation is real, and that it can be triggered via Aesthetics. Here’s why:

Emotions drive decision-making. The experience of positive emotion sets in place scripts in our minds, scripts that initiate behaviours. (Nico Frijda, American Psychologist). In fact it appears that without the triggering of emotion, we lose ability to make decisions (Antonio Damasio, changingminds.org).

Emotional appeal in communications drives persuasive impact. “Emotionally based campaigns are not only more likely to produce very large business effects, but also produce more of them, outperforming rationally based campaigns on every single business measure” (UK IPA Effectiveness Awards).

Elevation might just be the big kahuna of emotions for advertisers. University of Virginia moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who coined the term ‘Elevation’, writes, "Powerful moments of elevation sometimes seem to push a mental 'reset button,' wiping out feelings of cynicism and replacing them with feelings of hope, love, and optimism, and a sense of moral inspiration...." Wow.

And it looks like Elevation can be triggered through Aesthetics. According to philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), aesthetics is the philosophical notion of beauty. He states that beauty is objective and universal, thus certain things are beautiful to everyone; aesthetic judgment refers to the sensory contemplation or appreciation of such. Starts to sound a little like Elevation? Haidt and Keltner more recently observe this in scientific studies whereby experiences of Awe/ Responsiveness to Beauty and Excellence (A/RBE) (a.k.a. Aesthetics!) generate reactions that can be described as this feeling of Elevation. And there’s more who have hinted at this connection: Edmund Burke in a 1757 treatise on aesthetics; Clive Bell in his book Art (1914); and, more loosely, though linked, philosopher G.E. Moore (1903) who considered aesthetic value to be an intuited form of goodness.

If it’s true, what does it mean? Well, it means that the appreciation of aesthetics in and of itself triggers a positive emotional response of elevation. In communications, this means that the mere aesthetic appeal of creative can engage emotionally, powerfully, independently, bringing persuasive strength.

Proof that: Design matters. Beauty engages. And Art persuades.