Estimated reading time: 10–12 minutes

What You Will Learn

• What transcendence means within the VIA Character Strengths framework.
• What appreciation of beauty and excellence includes beyond physical beauty.
• How awe differs from appreciation of beauty and excellence.
• What moral elevation can teach us about witnessing goodness in other people.
• What current research actually suggests about awe and well-being.
• Practical ways to notice beauty, excellence, and meaning more deliberately.
• How to appreciate excellence without turning admiration into self-comparison.

What Is Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence?

VIA describes appreciation of beauty and excellence as the tendency to recognize, emotionally experience, and value beauty, skill, talent, or moral goodness. The strength is often discussed through three broad forms. Physical or aesthetic beauty includes experiences in nature, art, music, design, architecture, movement, sound, or other sensory and abstract forms. Excellence or skill involves recognizing mastery, craftsmanship, expertise, or outstanding performance. Moral beauty involves being moved by qualities such as kindness, courage, generosity, loyalty, or integrity in another person. VIA groups this strength under Transcendence, alongside gratitude, hope, humor, and spirituality.

These categories help explain why the strength is broader than simply enjoying beautiful scenery. Someone may feel deeply moved by watching a surgeon work with precision, hearing a gifted musician interpret a familiar piece, observing a teacher patiently reach a struggling student, or seeing a stranger protect someone being treated unfairly. In each case, the person notices something that feels worthy of admiration. Appreciation becomes a character strength when this responsiveness is a meaningful pattern rather than an isolated reaction.

Understanding Transcendence in Positive Psychology

In the original VIA classification developed by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, transcendence refers to qualities that connect people with experiences perceived as larger than the immediate self. The five strengths grouped beneath this virtue are appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, and spirituality. These qualities are different from one another, but they share an orientation toward significance beyond immediate problems and personal concerns. Gratitude turns attention toward what has been received, hope toward meaningful possibilities, humor toward playfulness and perspective, and spirituality toward questions of purpose, sacredness, or connection.

Transcendence should not be confused with escaping ordinary life. In fact, some of its most accessible expressions involve paying closer attention to ordinary experience. A carefully prepared meal, an unexpectedly beautiful pattern of light, a person quietly doing difficult work with skill, or someone choosing integrity when dishonesty would have been easier can all interrupt the automatic pace of the day. The value lies not in declaring every moment profound, but in recognizing that our attention can become so dominated by problems and productivity that we fail to notice experiences capable of moving, inspiring, or orienting us.

Awe Is Related, but It Is Not the Same Thing

Appreciation of beauty and excellence is a character strength, whereas awe is an emotional experience. Classic psychological accounts describe awe as arising when we encounter something perceived as vast, powerful, complex, or beyond our existing mental framework. Vastness does not have to mean physical size. A scientific idea, a work of art, a moral act, a piece of music, or an experience of nature can all evoke awe when they exceed our ordinary way of understanding the world.

In a randomized study, older adults were asked to take weekly fifteen-minute walks for eight weeks, with one group encouraged to seek experiences of awe. That group reported more awe and greater increases in certain positive social emotions than participants taking ordinary walks. However, anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction measured before and after the program did not change from baseline in either group. The study supports a specific emotional benefit in this setting, rather than a general treatment claim or evidence that the VIA strength itself increased.

Moral Beauty and the Emotion of Elevation

Another emotional experience closely connected with appreciation of excellence is moral elevation, the uplifting or moving response people can experience when witnessing unusual goodness, generosity, courage, or virtue in others. A person might experience it after seeing someone defend a stranger, make an unexpected sacrifice, or behave with integrity when doing so carries a cost. Research suggests that elevation can increase motivation toward certain prosocial behaviors, although the effect depends on context, individual differences, and the kind of behavior being observed. In experiments by Simone Schnall and colleagues, participants who watched an uplifting example of human goodness subsequently showed more helping behavior than comparison participants. This suggests that witnessing generosity can sometimes influence action, though a short laboratory result does not establish a lasting change in character. In daily life, you can use the feeling as an invitation to identify what moved you. Perhaps it was someone's courage in defending another person, or the care they took when no recognition was expected. Appreciation can lead to a small response of your own without requiring you to imitate the person's whole life.

Beauty Is More Personal and Cultural Than It First Appears

What people consider beautiful is not completely universal. Culture, familiarity, education, memory, values, and personal history all shape aesthetic response. Architecture celebrated in one tradition may feel unfamiliar in another, and a musical form that profoundly moves one listener may leave another relatively untouched. Appreciation of beauty therefore does not require agreement about which objects deserve admiration. It involves sensitivity to experiences that you encounter as aesthetically or emotionally significant while remaining open to the fact that others may experience beauty differently.

A major international study published in 2026 examined experiences of beauty in more than 131,000 people across 22 countries. It found substantial cross-cultural variation in how often people reported regularly experiencing things they considered beautiful. The study is important partly because research on beauty has historically been much smaller and disproportionately concentrated in Western populations. Its results reinforce the idea that experiences of beauty are widespread but embedded in social and cultural contexts rather than functioning identically everywhere. It examined reported experiences of beauty, not whether a higher VIA appreciation score caused greater well-being.

Practicing Everyday Appreciation Without Forcing Awe

You do not need to manufacture extraordinary experiences in order to cultivate appreciation of beauty and excellence. Begin with deliberate attention. During a walk, notice one thing you would ordinarily pass without examining: the structure of a tree, changing light, a building detail, or the way people move through a public space. When listening to music, give one piece your full attention rather than using it as background noise. When someone demonstrates skill, notice what specifically makes the performance impressive. The goal is not to convince yourself that something is beautiful. It is to create enough attention to discover whether there is anything worth appreciating.

A simple reflection practice can deepen this process. At the end of a day, record one example of beauty, one example of excellence, or one act of moral goodness you noticed. Describe what you observed and why it affected you rather than simply creating a list. This keeps the exercise from becoming mechanical. Over time, you may begin noticing which forms of appreciation matter most to you, whether nature, craftsmanship, music, moral courage, scientific ideas, design, or interpersonal moments.

Keep the practice accessible to your circumstances. A window, a familiar recording, a carefully repaired object, or an act of patience can provide something worth noticing. You need neither an impressive destination nor specialist knowledge to respond. If nothing feels moving today, you can simply record what you observed without forcing an emotion.

Appreciation Can Deepen Relationships

One of the easiest ways to make appreciation relational is to say what you notice. Rather than giving broad praise such as “You’re amazing,” name the excellence itself: “I noticed how patiently you explained that when everyone else was rushing,” or “The amount of care you put into that work really shows.” Specific recognition tells another person what mattered and often makes appreciation feel more credible. Moral beauty can be especially powerful here because people do not always realize that their ordinary behavior represents something admirable to others. A colleague may consider staying late to help someone simply part of the job, while another person sees generosity. A parent may think of defending a child as obvious, while the child remembers courage. Naming those qualities can strengthen appreciation without exaggerating them. It also prevents character-strength language from becoming empty praise, because the strength is connected to something the person actually did.

Appreciating Excellence Without Turning It Into Comparison

Excellence can inspire, but it can also trigger comparison. Watching someone perform at an extraordinary level may produce admiration in one moment and inadequacy in the next. This does not mean appreciation has gone wrong. Social comparison is a normal part of evaluating ourselves and learning from other people. The challenge is deciding what meaning to give the comparison.

Instead of asking “Why am I not that good?”, ask “What exactly am I admiring?” Perhaps it is discipline, precision, creativity, courage, or dedication. Once the admired quality is identified, you can decide whether it has relevance to your own life. The goal is not to copy the person or convert admiration into another performance demand. Excellence can expand your sense of what is possible without becoming evidence that your current abilities are inadequate.

Learning a little about a craft can also make appreciation more specific. After watching someone repair a damaged object, ask what made the task difficult and which decisions mattered. You may begin to notice patience, preparation, or careful adjustments that were invisible in the finished result. This can shift attention from an impressive outcome toward the work and judgment behind it. You can enjoy the achievement, learn one useful detail, and still decide that your own interests lie elsewhere.

Transcendence During Difficult Times

During a difficult period, appreciation can offer a brief point of contact with something valued. A song might hold your attention, a friend's care might feel moving, or a familiar landscape might provide a moment of steadiness. The experience can be small and still matter to you. Its value does not depend on making a broader claim that beauty produces resilience or removes distress.

Still, beauty should not be prescribed as a solution to suffering. Someone grieving, ill, financially insecure, or dealing with a serious mental health condition does not need to “find the beauty” in what happened. Appreciating music, nature, human goodness, or moments of care can coexist with pain without turning the pain itself into something positive. Transcendence is most useful when it adds another dimension to experience, not when it is used to invalidate distress.

Underuse, Overuse, and Optimal Use

Underuse may appear when you habitually dismiss beauty as irrelevant or overlook effort and skill because you are focused only on faults. Yet a period of low energy, grief, or restricted access to enjoyable experiences should not be treated as weak character. Overuse can take the form of chasing impressive experiences, judging ordinary life against an ideal, or admiring someone's talent so much that you overlook harmful behavior. Excellence in one area does not establish integrity in every area.

Optimal use allows admiration to remain attentive and proportionate. You can value a musician's skill without needing to become a musician, or enjoy a beautiful object without buying it. Judgment helps you assess what you admire, humility allows you to learn, and kindness can turn recognition into encouragement. These combinations are practical ways to reflect on the strength rather than fixed formulas. The aim is to notice more clearly while keeping room for responsibility, ordinary pleasures, and your own limits.

A Moment Worth Noticing

Choose one ordinary moment today and give it a little more attention than usual. Notice a pattern, an act of skill, or a choice that shows care for someone else, and name what you value in it. You may feel wonder, admiration, warmth, curiosity, or very little emotion. The exercise does not fail because the response is quiet. Appreciation of beauty and excellence can make room for what is worth noticing alongside the tasks, problems, and responsibilities that also deserve your attention.

References

• Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17(2), 297–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930302297
• Lomas, T., Padgett, R. N., Pawelski, J. O., et al. (2026). The prevalence and predictors of experiences of beauty in 22 countries: An international assessment of aesthetic appreciation in the Global Flourishing Study. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 21, 469–504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-025-10532-z
• Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford University Press.
• Schnall, S., Roper, J., & Fessler, D. M. T. (2010). Elevation leads to altruistic behavior. Psychological Science, 21(3), 315–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797609359882
• Sturm, V. E., Datta, S., Roy, A. R. K., et al. (2022). Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults. Emotion, 22(5), 1044–1058. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000876
• VIA Institute on Character. (n.d.). Appreciation of beauty and excellence. https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths/appreciation-of-beauty-and-excellence