situation?â and âWhen you were feeling happy, to what extent did you feel that you needed to exert yourself to deal with this situation?â Using advanced data analysis, he was able to locate the subjectsâ emotions along certain dimensions, including pleasantness and the amount of effort they required from the person experiencing them. Figure 2.2 shows how surprise ranked, compared to other emotions.
F IGURE 2.2. Emotions as they vary by pleasantness and effort involved in their experience. Adapted from Craig Smith and Phoebe Ellsworth, âPatterns of Cognitive Appraisal in Emotion,â Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 48 (1985): 813â838. Published by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.
As it turns out, surprise holds a special place, near the top of the diagram. Since the axes measure pleasantness and effort required for their experience, this means that surprise is one of the most positive and natural emotions we experience.
Surprise leads to pleasure in lots of contexts, not just humor. German psychologist and art theorist Rudolf Arnheim presented perhaps the most graceful example of pleasant surprises when he analyzed, of all things, a violin sonata by the Baroque composer Jean-Marie Leclair. Leclair, who wrote nearly a hundred major works in the mid-eighteenth century, was well known for creating sophisticated, cerebral violin concertos. In one of his last works, thereâs a point near the middle where he suddenly includes a note that is harshly out of key. At first it sounds dissonant, and the listener wonders if perhaps there has been a mistake. But the same note occurs again, and then another surprising note, and soon we realize that the composer has switched keys in the middle of the performance. An examination of the music in written form reveals that the change is entirely intentionalâa note written as B flat is identified as A sharp later in the same measure, conveying Leclairâs message that it serves different purposes for the old and new keys. In just a few notes the listener is compelled to discard previously held assumptions about the piece and to listen to it in an entirely new way. And the experience is richer for it.
Arnheim explains that such sudden shifts occur in architecture too. Take, for example, the Hôtel Matignon, the Paris mansion designed in 1725 by architect Jean Courtonne that now serves as the home of the French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault. At the time it was built, tradition dictated that buildings be built symmetrically about an axis connecting the front and rear entrances. But this was impossible for the Hôtel Matignon given the surrounding streets, so the architect did the only thing he couldâhe shifted this axis inside the building itself. Visitors entering either entrance see everything laid out in the expected, symmetrical fashion. But further on, thereâs a point where everything suddenly shifts and theyâre off-center relative to the entrance they used, and are now centered about the opposite one. Some call it cheating,others call it brilliance, but everyone appreciates that this shift is what makes the building so pleasurable to live inâincluding its current resident.
These phenomena have an equivalent in the realm of humor, and itâs called paraprosdokia. Paraprosdokia is speech that involves a sudden and surprising shift in reference, usually for comedic effect. Take, for example, the following quote by Stephen Colbert: âIf I am reading this graph correctly, Iâd be very surprised.â Colbert was looking at polling data for the 2008 presidential electionsâdata that under even the best of circumstances would be difficult to interpret. At first it sounds like heâs preparing an insightful and cutting remark. Instead, we realize heâs basking in the ignorance we all feel when trying to interpret such numbers. The joke required no setup or
F IGURE 2.2. Emotions as they vary by pleasantness and effort involved in their experience. Adapted from Craig Smith and Phoebe Ellsworth, âPatterns of Cognitive Appraisal in Emotion,â Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 48 (1985): 813â838. Published by the American Psychological Association. Adapted with permission.
As it turns out, surprise holds a special place, near the top of the diagram. Since the axes measure pleasantness and effort required for their experience, this means that surprise is one of the most positive and natural emotions we experience.
Surprise leads to pleasure in lots of contexts, not just humor. German psychologist and art theorist Rudolf Arnheim presented perhaps the most graceful example of pleasant surprises when he analyzed, of all things, a violin sonata by the Baroque composer Jean-Marie Leclair. Leclair, who wrote nearly a hundred major works in the mid-eighteenth century, was well known for creating sophisticated, cerebral violin concertos. In one of his last works, thereâs a point near the middle where he suddenly includes a note that is harshly out of key. At first it sounds dissonant, and the listener wonders if perhaps there has been a mistake. But the same note occurs again, and then another surprising note, and soon we realize that the composer has switched keys in the middle of the performance. An examination of the music in written form reveals that the change is entirely intentionalâa note written as B flat is identified as A sharp later in the same measure, conveying Leclairâs message that it serves different purposes for the old and new keys. In just a few notes the listener is compelled to discard previously held assumptions about the piece and to listen to it in an entirely new way. And the experience is richer for it.
Arnheim explains that such sudden shifts occur in architecture too. Take, for example, the Hôtel Matignon, the Paris mansion designed in 1725 by architect Jean Courtonne that now serves as the home of the French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault. At the time it was built, tradition dictated that buildings be built symmetrically about an axis connecting the front and rear entrances. But this was impossible for the Hôtel Matignon given the surrounding streets, so the architect did the only thing he couldâhe shifted this axis inside the building itself. Visitors entering either entrance see everything laid out in the expected, symmetrical fashion. But further on, thereâs a point where everything suddenly shifts and theyâre off-center relative to the entrance they used, and are now centered about the opposite one. Some call it cheating,others call it brilliance, but everyone appreciates that this shift is what makes the building so pleasurable to live inâincluding its current resident.
These phenomena have an equivalent in the realm of humor, and itâs called paraprosdokia. Paraprosdokia is speech that involves a sudden and surprising shift in reference, usually for comedic effect. Take, for example, the following quote by Stephen Colbert: âIf I am reading this graph correctly, Iâd be very surprised.â Colbert was looking at polling data for the 2008 presidential electionsâdata that under even the best of circumstances would be difficult to interpret. At first it sounds like heâs preparing an insightful and cutting remark. Instead, we realize heâs basking in the ignorance we all feel when trying to interpret such numbers. The joke required no setup or
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