Lecture
Admiration is a social emotion elicited by the approval of people who demonstrate talent or skill that exceeds conventional standards. Admiration facilitates social learning in groups and motivates self-improvement through role-model learning.
Sara Algoe and Jonathan Haidt place admiration in the category of other-praising emotions, alongside awe, elevation and gratitude. They suggest that admiration is the emotion we feel toward non-moral excellence (that is, when we observe an act of superior skill), whereas elevation is the emotion we feel toward moral excellence (that is, when we witness an unusual outpouring of goodness). Other authors have divided these emotions into admiration for skill and admiration for virtue. Richard Smith categorizes admiration as an outward-oriented assimilative emotion that prompts an individual to strive to be like those they admire. He contrasts admiration with envy (another outward-oriented comparative emotion), suggesting that envy makes us feel upset by other people's abilities, whereas admiration lifts the mood and motivates.
Admiration is both a pull toward the person being admired and a restraint on oneself, because at too close a distance one can no longer see the person one admires.
a still from the film The Peasant Lady
In admiration the eyes are wide open (a flash of the eyes) and the gaze is unbroken: it is as if the eyes want to devour, to take in as much as possible.
The ability and habit of admiring is a sign of mental health. A person who admires has a lively face. Attractive women know how wonderfully their faces light up when their eyes flash with admiration. At the same time, it is good exercise for the face and supports intellectual alertness.
Learning skills is so important for evolution that we gained the ability to feel positive about the actions of talented and skilled people, in order to heed them and repeat their actions. Learning skills was so important for our evolution that we came to view talented or skilled people favorably, so as to approach them and copy their actions. Admiration is an emotion that promotes learning in social groups.
Admiration helps win over the person you are talking to.
Starting from the view that admiration is a function of learning and self-improvement, some authors have proposed that admiration arises only when we believe that improvement is possible for us. However, one empirical study suggested the opposite: that admiration is passive contemplation of another's superiority, whereas envy is the driving motive that is triggered when the object of admiration seems attainable.
Admiration has also been studied in an intergroup context by Susan Fiske and her colleagues. They suggest that admiration is an emotion we feel toward those social groups that we perceive as competent (or high-status) and warm (friendly and cooperative) (for example, in studies with students in the US, an example of a group perceived as competent and warm is the English ). Admiration is associated with the intention to unite with, cooperate with and help members of admired groups.
Using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), it has been shown that admiration may be associated with higher-level cognitive processes involved in motivation (for example, planning and goal achievement), but also with reduced activation of the mechanisms, showing that admiration is a physically arousing emotion.
According to some data, admiration is also associated with a desire for contact and closeness with the object of admiration.
Like any other emotion, the emotion of admiration can be mastered. To do this, you first need to take it apart and see the details it consists of. Then learn to produce each detail separately. Finally, put everything back together and master the emotion as a whole.
The emotion of admiration has a facial pattern of its own. The face of an admiring person relaxes and at the same time opens up, and the local tension of individual muscles goes away. A smile appears on the lips, and the mouth may be slightly open. The eyes open a little wider than usual, creating the effect of a flash of the eyes.
This facial pattern largely corresponds to the pattern of the emotion of surprise, but unlike surprise, it adds a certain measure of joy and sacred awe.
During admiration, breathing becomes deeper, and there is an impulse in the chest to move closer to the object of admiration. Movements slow down and become smooth and gentle. This manner of walking resembles the movements of a video camera operator who, while moving, tries not to shake the camera.
The emotion of admiration gives rise to a desire to look at another person without looking away, to see their image at every moment. And for this a certain distance is needed, otherwise the image begins to blur and fall apart into separate small details.
As a result of wanting, on the one hand, to approach the person and get closer, and on the other, to keep their image in one's field of vision, an inner struggle arises, a certain inner tension, a longing in which one wants to be closer but cannot, because the image will vanish. And this trembling tension in the face of the beautiful is in many ways the basis of the emotion of admiration.
One of the components of admiration is joy. But unlike pure joy, which pours out freely onto another, admiration carefully preserves the image.
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