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Great Expectations—Narratives and the Elicitation of Aesthetic Chills
Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
- 1 Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- 2 Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
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Abstract
We clarify the relation between the perception of narratives and aesthetic emotions by relating them to mechanisms of knowledge-acquisition. Stories elicit emotions by diverging from expectations one may formulate on the basis of their properties. The greater the divergence, the stronger the emotion. Models of emotions, expectations, and knowledge-acquisition are briefly presented. We relate them to research pertaining to narrative structures and provide a mathematical description for aesthetic emotions. We conclude by underlining the fundamental role played by aesthetic emotions in the workings of the human mind.
KeywordsEmotionsAesthetic ChillsExpectationsKnowledgeNarrativesMeaning
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