Abstract
Moral beauty, the perception of profound virtue in others, has long been theorized to evokemoral elevation, yet its emotional profile relative to other positive experiences remainsunderexamined. In a randomized writing study, 296 U.S. adults reflected on either (a) a morallybeautiful person or act, (b) an awe-inspiring natural place, or (c) an amusing person, and thenreported moral elevation and a range of discrete emotions. Moral beauty elicited significantlygreater elevation than amusement, and this effect remained robust after controlling for baselineaffect. Nature awe did not differ from amusement in elevation but selectively elicited greaterawe, whereas amusement selectively elicited amusement and higher-arousal positive affect.Moral beauty did not significantly increase a gratitude-and-love composite relative toamusement, although the observed pattern was consistent with a warmer, more affiliative profile.These findings suggest that moral beauty is not reducible to generic positive affect ornature-based awe. Instead, encounters with virtue appear to preferentially elicit moral elevation,helping distinguish the emotional consequences of moral excellence from those of perceptualvastness and playful positivity. The findings contribute to research on positive emotions, moralelevation, and the psychological significance of witnessing virtue.