Matt Kelly

Jonathan Haidt

Professor to receive Templeton award

U.Va. assistant professor of psychology Jonathan Haidt is seeking to define an emotion that his profession hasn’t recognized before — elevation, the feeling triggered by witnessing acts of human moral beauty or virtue. His work made him the unanimous choice to win the American Psychological Association’s second annual John Templeton Positive Psychology Prize, a $100,000 award that Haidt will receive May 29 in Philadelphia. His research looks at how experiencing elevation motivates people to do their own charitable or pro-social work.

The award, psychology’s largest monetary prize, is “intended to encourage first-rate mid-career scientists to devote their best efforts to positive psychology topics, such as optimism, moral identity, self-control, goal-focused living, thrift, courage and future-mindedness,” according to the APA.