Facing the sublime: Physiological correlates of the relationship between fear and the sublime.

Abstract

The sublime is an enduring concept in Western aesthetic discourse, and is often portrayed such as in Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful of 1759 as a delightful horror, a kind of enjoyment based on negative emotions. In the current paper, the relationship between sublimity and fear was explored using behavioral and physiological measures. In two studies, photographs of nature were selected, rated on sublimity, beauty, fear, happiness, and arousal, before being assessed against facial muscle movement (fEMG) and skin conductance (SCR). In line with philosophical theories, ratings of sublimity showed positive associations with subjective fear ratings (Study 1 & Study 2). At the same time looking at facial EMG data (Study 2) sublimity was associated with a decrease of corrugator supercilli (frowning) reactions, indicating reduced emotional negativity. However, sublimity did not change activation levels of the zygomaticus major (smiling/positive emotional valence), nor did it influence movements of the medial frontalis (inner brow raise/fear). Increased ratings of fear increased corrugator supercilii and medial frontalis activity levels, and decreased zygomaticus major activity, replicating past findings. SCR activation was not predicted by any variable. The discrepancy between behavioral and physiological results likely result from a combination of false appraisal and distancing mechanisms, and thus encourages the reconsideration of generalizations made over the sublime in its relation with fear.

Quantifying the if, the when, and the what of the sublime: A survey and latent class analysis of incidence, emotions, and distinct varieties of personal sublime experiences.

“…The finding of two distinct sublime classes in itself supports previous empirical studies (e.g., Gordon et al, 2016;Hur et al, 2018) showing the possibility to evoke both a threat/fearbased and positivity-based sublimity. This raises the question of how these might qualitatively differ in other aspects as well as what kinds of interactions were being had by past writers to push fear and negative emotions to the forefront, and why this was not often reported by our participants.…”

“…This finding tends to go against various 18 th century thinkers (Burke, 1759(Burke, /1958Kant, 1790Kant, /1986; see also Lyotard, 1994). However, the positive association between sublimity and beauty replicates recent empirical works (Ishizu & Zeki, 2014;Hur et al, 2018), as well as psychological theories that view sublimity ultimately as a kind of beauty (e.g. Konečni, 2011).…”

“…The researchers did suggest the possibility of evoking the two varieties, however with participants tending to better recall a positive variety. Such an emotion-based division of sublimity was also suggested by Hur et al (2018), where stimuli of 'high-fear' and 'low-fear' sublimity were consistently reported in their rating data (see also Pelowski et al, 2017, who attempted to theoretically connect multiple emotional terms used in past studies to their likely location within a processing model of aesthetic experience, and who suggested several potential locations for the sublime; Table 1).…”

“…The claim of sublimity opposing beauty, however, is rarely supported in the psychological literature, which conceptually (e.g. Konečni, 2011) and empirically (Ishizu & Zeki, 2014;Hur et al, 2018) relates these.…”

“…Beyond a basic emotional pattern in the sublime, one point of contention involves the presence and role of negative emotions, notably fear, terror, or some sense of danger (see Hur, Gerger, Leder, & McManus, 2018;Ishizu & Zeki, 2014). These were specifically argued for by several authors (Addison, 1773(Addison, /1718Burke, 1759Burke, /1958Schopenhaurer, 1819Schopenhaurer, /1995 and were either suggested as a primary response, present throughout an encounter and perhaps mixed with pleasure or some other cognitive/affective component, or as an initial response which is then overcome or replaced by pleasure/security (e.g., Dessoir, see Emery, 1973; Table 1).…”