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.

Abstract

Sublime encounters provide a compelling example of the peaks of our shared emotional and cognitive experiences. For centuries, these have been a target for philosophy and, more recently, for psychology, with its renewed focus on profound or aesthetic events. The sublime has been theoretically connected to multiple contexts, from interactions with overpowering nature, to beauty, music, even interpersonal engagements, and to multiple emotions-danger, awe, pleasure, fear-often with diametrically opposing arguments for what constitutes these events. However, despite this prolonged discussion, there is still a scarcity of actual systematic research. It is neither known if sublime encounters are actually common, nor how they are described by individuals, or if reports match theoretical arguments-are there one or more, or no, distinct sublime types? We address these questions by matching historical discussions to 402 participants' (Western adults') reports of whether they have ever experienced the sublime and, if so, how these are described in terms of cognitive/emotional and contextual factors. Roughly half reported having had at least one sublime experience, with accounts involving a range of contexts essentially covering the full spectrum of past theoretical arguments. At the same time, when we considered the cognitive/affective descriptions, using network science and latent class analysis of reported feelings, 90.8% fit one model, with involved communities (or interrelated clusters) of positive emotions, discrepancy, self-awareness, transformation/insight, and, notably, not including negative emotions/fear. We conclude with a discussion of how this might be used as a basis for considering sublime theory and shaping future research.

Nature versus art as elicitors of the sublime: A virtual reality study

“…The nature-based format resulted in significantly higher fear and positive affect compared to the art-based format. This could be explained in relation to the nature of the Burkean sublime as a mixed emotional feeling tinged with fear or sense of danger [ 13 , 15 , 29 ]. Results suggested that this last element was prevalent in the nature-based format, in line with Burkean theorization of the sublime [ 2 ] and with the empirical findings of Hur and coll [ 13 ].…”

“…We compared the effects of a nature-based and an art-based format in terms of their relative impact on the subjective state of the sublime. Drawing on philosophical and psychological work on the sublime [ 2 , 16 , 29 ], we may expect nature-based elicitors to appear more threatening or to hold, at least, a blended or mixed emotional profile, as suggested mainly by Burke’s account [ 2 ]. Although an early study of the link between sublime and fear in artworks showed that fear predicted a feeling of the sublime [ 30 ], this has since been questioned by Hur and colleagues [ 16 ], who conclude that whether fear is a component of the sublime merits further study.…”

Awe and the Experience of the Sublime: A Complex Relationship

“…Taken together these findings show that there is not a clear-cut association between ES and either positive or negative emotions, and that probably, following Pelowski et al (2019)'s suggestion, a positive and a negative variant of ES might exist. This would weaken the idea that the sublime is the dark side of awe, and more generally it puts pressure on option C (as well as on a specific reading of option D, as it will be made clear shortly).…”

“…Moreover, although in line with philosophical treatment of ES they expected to find activation in brain areas classically associated with the experience of fear and threat such as the amygdala and the insula, their results did not show any such activity. Pelowski et al (2019) investigated the cognitive-affective profile of ES in a large sample. They reported that the vast majority of reports (90.8%) could be classified under one category associated with positive emotions (e.g., pleasure).…”

Factor Structure of the “Top Ten” Positive Emotions of Barbara Fredrickson

“…As seen in the stimuli of Chirico et al (2017) as well as in other awe-focused studies, researchers incorporate quite "high intensity" stimuli to elicit this emotion, such as "vastness" or "being moved" (Pelowski et al, 2019). With the same argument in the background, Shiota et al (2007) suggested to elicit awe with stimuli such as music, art, or nature (in this case, massive natural experiences), due to its focus on cognitive functions.…”