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Admiration

Admiration is a positive other-praising emotion characterized by feelings of respect, inspiration, and approbation elicited by the perception of non-moral excellence, such as extraordinary skill, talent, or achievement in others.^[1] It involves physical sensations like chills and energization, distinguishing it from more common positive affects like joy or amusement.^[1] Empirical research identifies admiration's primary triggers as observations of outstanding performance exceeding typical standards, often in domains like athletics, artistry, or innovation, rather than moral virtues which evoke elevation.^[1] While some conceptual frameworks include moral dimensions under admiration, experimental studies differentiate it from elevation by focusing on competence-based appraisals that prioritize emulation over prosociality toward strangers.^[1]^[2] This distinction highlights admiration's role in appraising behaviors that signal adaptive superiority, potentially rooted in evolutionary mechanisms for social learning and hierarchy navigation.^[3] Admiration functions adaptively to motivate self-improvement, goal pursuit, and approximation to the admired individual, fostering personal development and cultural transmission of excellence.^[1] Unlike gratitude, which strengthens ties to benefactors through reciprocity, admiration drives intrinsic motivation for success without relational debt.^[1] These effects contribute to psychological well-being by enhancing energy and aspirational orientations, though excessive social comparison may occasionally yield resentment.^[1]^[4]

Definition and Conceptualization

Core Elements of Admiration

Admiration constitutes a positive, other-directed emotion arising from the perception of exceptional non-moral excellence in another individual's skills, talents, or achievements.^[1] This appraisal involves recognizing that the admired party has surpassed conventional standards of competence, often in domains such as athletic prowess, artistic mastery, or intellectual innovation, where the excellence is deemed legitimate and, crucially, attainable through effort or learning.^[1] Unlike self-referential positive affects like joy, which stem from personal gains, admiration focuses externally on the agent's superior performance without implying direct benefit to the observer.^[1] Cognitively, admiration hinges on a structured appraisal process: the observer evaluates the target's actions or traits as exemplary yet replicable, fostering a sense of respect for the underlying agency and control exerted by the admired individual.^[5] This discernment distinguishes admiration from related states like awe, which may involve vastness or incomprehensibility beyond human emulation, or elevation, which targets moral virtue rather than skill-based prowess.^[1] Empirical studies elicit admiration through vignettes of high-skill feats, such as virtuoso musical performances, yielding consistent ratings of inspiration and approbation tied to perceived merit.^[1] Affectively, admiration manifests as a blend of pleasure, uplift, and energetic arousal, frequently accompanied by physiological markers like chills down the spine (reported in 28-37% of cases) and heightened vitality.^[1] Participants in controlled experiments rate it highly on scales of respect (mean 4.68/6) and inspiration, evoking a warm yet invigorating response that contrasts with the prosocial tenderness of gratitude or moral elevation.^[1] Behaviorally, admiration propels motivational tendencies toward self-elevation, including intentions to emulate the model and pursue personal improvement, with experimental data showing elevated desires to "work harder on my own goals" (mean 6.00/7).^[1] This emulation drive aligns with social learning theories, where admiration facilitates the acquisition of adaptive strategies by vicariously reinforcing successful behaviors in hierarchical or competitive contexts.^[5] In aggregate, these elements—appraisal of attainable excellence, positive affective energization, and emulation-oriented action—form the functional core of admiration as an adaptive response to observed superiority.^[1]^[5] Admiration differs from awe in its elicitors and motivational consequences, with admiration typically triggered by perceptions of human agency, skill, or achievement, whereas awe arises from encounters with vast, incomprehensible phenomena such as natural grandeur or cosmic scale that evoke a sense of smallness and perceptual expansion.^[6] Neuroimaging studies indicate that admiration activates regions associated with social cognition and reward, fostering emulation of the admired traits, in contrast to awe's stronger links to accommodation and revised mental schemas without direct imitative drive.^[7] Unlike elevation, another self-transcendent emotion, admiration responds to non-moral excellence like talent or prowess, prompting prosocial behaviors aimed at personal advancement through modeling, while elevation stems from witnessing moral virtue and inspires ethical self-betterment or altruism without necessarily involving aspiration toward the same skills.^[1] Gratitude, by comparison, is elicited by personal benefits received from another's actions, emphasizing reciprocity and indebtedness rather than the upward comparison inherent in admiration, which lacks a direct relational debt.^[1] Admiration is also demarcated from envy, a painful emotion rooted in resentment over another's superior position, particularly when the advantage is deemed attainable; admiration, conversely, is uniformly positive, devoid of hostility, and channels upward social comparison into motivational emulation rather than schadenfreude or derogation.^[8] Research on emotional appraisals shows that benign envy may overlap with admiration in aspirational effects but retains an aversive undertone absent in pure admiration, which uniquely correlates with self-expansion through voluntary affiliation and growth.^[9] In relation to respect, admiration emphasizes emotional uplift from specific admirable behaviors or traits, often leading to dynamic inspiration, whereas respect entails a more stable evaluation of an individual's overall status, moral standing, or authority, with less intensity in affective response and greater focus on deference.^[7] Adoration, an intensified variant, involves reverential bonding or idealization akin to worship, prioritizing relational closeness over the detached aspiration typical of admiration.^[6] These distinctions highlight admiration's unique role among positive "other-praising" emotions in bridging individual agency with social learning.^[1]

Evolutionary and Biological Foundations

Evolutionary Adaptations

Admiration has been proposed as an evolved emotional adaptation that facilitates social learning and upward mobility within hierarchies by motivating individuals to emulate the skills, traits, or achievements of superior others. In ancestral environments characterized by small-group living and resource scarcity, the ability to observe and replicate the competencies of high-status individuals—such as hunting prowess or leadership—would have conferred fitness advantages by enhancing personal survival and reproductive success without direct competition.^[8]^[6] This adaptive function aligns admiration with "other-praising" emotions, distinct from self-focused positive affects like joy, as it directs attention outward to prosocial emulation rather than inward satisfaction. Empirical studies indicate that admiration triggers appraisals of non-imitable excellence, prompting aspirational goals and behavioral mimicry, which in evolutionary terms would promote knowledge transmission across generations and reduce intra-group conflict by fostering deference to expertise. For instance, experimental manipulations eliciting admiration have been shown to increase motivation for self-improvement and prosocial actions toward admired models, suggesting a mechanism for cultural evolution through voluntary alignment with successful strategies.^[1]^[10] Furthermore, admiration regulates social hierarchies by influencing intergroup behaviors, such as affiliation with dominant outgroups or reduced prejudice, thereby stabilizing coalitions and resource access in competitive settings. Dispositional tendencies toward admiration correlate with agency enhancement and ideal-striving, adaptive traits that likely persisted under natural selection pressures favoring flexible status-seeking over rigid dominance contests. In contrast to envy, which motivates leveling down superiors, admiration orients toward leveling up, complementing it as part of an emotional repertoire for navigating inequality.^[11]^[6]^[12]

Neurobiological and Physiological Correlates

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have revealed distinct neural activations during admiration, often differentiated by subtypes such as admiration for skill (AS) or virtue (AV). Both subtypes engage the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex, implicated in emotional processing and interoception, alongside the hypothalamus and mesencephalon, which are linked to motivational and reward-related functions.^[13] AS additionally activates the posterior insula and supramarginal gyrus, associated with exteroceptive awareness and agency perception, while AV involves more inferior/posterior posteromedial cortices tied to interoceptive states.^[13] These patterns distinguish admiration from compassion: AV shares anterior insula and hypothalamic activity with compassion for social pain but activates distinct posteromedial sectors, with AS showing lateral parietal involvement absent in compassion for physical pain.^[13] Admiration intensity modulates the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), a region involved in social semantic knowledge, though less strongly than respect intensity, which evaluates the person holistically rather than specific behaviors.^[7] Mesencephalon activation suggests potential dopaminergic modulation via midbrain structures projecting to reward circuits, though direct ventral striatum engagement remains less evidenced in admiration-specific paradigms compared to other positive emotions.^[13] Physiologically, admiration for virtue elicits elevated heart rate compared to neutral baselines (p < 0.02), indicating sympathetic arousal, whereas admiration for skill shows no significant heart rate change (p = 0.79).^[13] Anterior insula activity during AV peaks later and sustains longer than in compassion contexts (p < 0.05, corrected), correlating with prolonged emotional processing.^[13] Data on other markers like skin conductance or cortisol specific to admiration are sparse, with broader positive emotions showing modest autonomic shifts rather than pronounced arousal.^[14] These correlates underscore admiration's role in motivation without high-arousal distress.

Psychological Functions

Motivational and Self-Improvement Roles

Admiration functions as a motivator by eliciting a desire to emulate the exceptional qualities or achievements of the admired individual, thereby promoting self-improvement through upward social comparison.^[15] Empirical studies indicate that this emotion inspires assimilation-oriented goals, where individuals seek to incorporate the admired traits into their own behavior, distinct from contrast-oriented responses like envy that may hinder progress.^[16] For instance, experiments manipulating exposure to superior performance have shown that admiration correlates with heightened intentions to learn skills or adopt virtues modeled by others, such as technical competence or moral excellence.^[1] In organizational contexts, admiration for leaders displaying proficiency elicits positive affect that enhances employees' mastery and performance goal orientations, leading to increased effort toward skill development.^[17] Neuroscientific perspectives further link admiration for virtue to activation of reward-related brain regions, motivating prosocial emulation and personal elevation toward higher standards.^[18] This motivational pull is particularly evident when self-improvement appears feasible; research demonstrates that when perceived attainability is low, admiration may diminish, yielding less drive compared to envy in such scenarios.^[19] Dispositional tendencies toward admiration also predict greater life satisfaction and well-being by binding individuals to aspirational ideals, encouraging sustained pursuit of self-betterment irrespective of immediate proximity to those ideals.^[6] Overall, admiration's role in self-improvement underscores its adaptive value in social learning, as it facilitates the internalization of role models' strategies for achievement without the defensiveness associated with competitive emotions.^[8]

Links to Personality and Well-Being

Dispositional admiration, defined as the chronic tendency to experience feelings of admiration toward others' achievements or virtues, correlates modestly with specific facets of psychological well-being. In a questionnaire study of 342 adults (mean age 34 years), dispositional admiration showed a positive association with personal growth (r = .15, p < .01), a dimension of Ryff's model encompassing the pursuit of self-improvement and mastery of new skills, but no significant links to life satisfaction, self-acceptance, or environmental mastery.^[6] This pattern aligns with admiration's functional role in motivating emulation of exemplars, thereby supporting developmental processes central to eudaimonic well-being.^[6] Mediation analyses in the same study revealed that admiration indirectly boosts positive affect and well-being dimensions through inspiration (positive effect) and gratitude, though these gains are partially offset by pathways involving fascination and envy (negative indirect effects, e.g., -0.14 on self-acceptance via envy, p < .001).^[6] Such dynamics underscore admiration's dual potential: as an "other-praising" emotion, it fosters prosocial motivation and reduced intergroup hostility, particularly among those high in admiration-proneness, who exhibit lower tendencies for outgroup-directed action when admiration is experimentally induced.^[11] Empirical evidence further links state experiences of admiration to enhanced goal orientations and self-improvement behaviors in organizational contexts, which longitudinally contribute to subjective well-being by aligning personal aspirations with achievable excellence.^[17] Direct ties between dispositional admiration and Big Five personality traits remain underexplored, with measures of admiration-proneness (e.g., 12-item scales adapted from positive emotion inventories, α = .92) not routinely correlated against standard inventories like the NEO-PI-R in published work.^[11] Nonetheless, admiration's emphasis on recognizing agency and competence suggests conceptual overlap with traits facilitating social learning, such as openness to experience, which involves receptivity to novel ideas and aesthetic appreciation—though causal evidence is absent.^[11] In contrast, excessive or pathological admiration, as in celebrity worship, weakly predicts poorer mental health outcomes like depression and low self-esteem, highlighting dosage-dependent effects on well-being.^[20] Overall, admiration's net contribution to well-being appears positive when channeled toward self-elevating rather than affiliative or envious responses.

Interpersonal and Relational Behaviors

Admiration in interpersonal contexts frequently elicits emulation behaviors, whereby individuals observe and attempt to replicate the skills, virtues, or achievements of the admired person to facilitate personal growth and social learning.^[21] This process involves upward social comparison that motivates self-improvement rather than resentment, as evidenced by experimental manipulations showing admiration increases intentions to learn from competent or warm models.^[11] Such emulation strengthens relational ties by aligning the admirer's actions with the admired's standards, fostering mutual respect and shared goals in dyads like mentor-protégé pairs. Prosocial actions also emerge prominently, including verbal praise, supportive gestures, and cooperative efforts directed toward the admired individual or their network.^[8] Studies distinguish admiration from other positive emotions by its propensity to promote affiliation over mere amusement, leading to behaviors that affirm the admired's status and build collaborative bonds.^[1] In organizational or peer settings, this manifests as deference—such as yielding influence or endorsing the admired's decisions—which regulates relational hierarchies without eliciting antagonism, provided the admiration stems from perceived legitimacy.^[11] Within romantic and familial relationships, admiration cultivates enduring bonds by enhancing fondness and countering contempt, key predictors of marital stability according to longitudinal analyses of over 700 couples.^[22] Couples exhibiting frequent expressions of admiration report higher satisfaction, commitment, and positive sentiment override, where minor flaws are overlooked in favor of appreciated traits.^[23] Dispositional tendencies toward admiration correlate with greater relational well-being, including reduced perceptions of inferiority and increased empathy, though they may heighten dependency if unbalanced.^[6] Experimental priming of admired figures similarly boosts harmonious interpersonal behaviors, such as accommodation and trust-building, contributing to overall relational harmony.^[24]

Group-Based and Hierarchical Functions

Admiration serves to stabilize social hierarchies by eliciting voluntary deference toward individuals perceived as competent or exemplary, distinct from fear-based submission in dominance structures. In prestige-based hierarchies, which emerge evolutionarily as an alternative to coercive dominance, admiration arises from observed skills or achievements that benefit the group, prompting followers to grant influence without force. This mechanism fosters efficient resource allocation and knowledge transfer, as admirers emulate high-status models to ascend ranks.^[25]^[11] Empirical studies demonstrate that admiration regulates hierarchical behaviors, particularly when hierarchies are perceived as legitimate; for instance, experimental manipulations increasing perceived fairness in status differences heighten admiration toward superiors, reducing intergroup conflict and promoting acceptance of vertical arrangements. Conversely, low admiration correlates with challenges to authority, as seen in contexts where competence is undervalued, leading to instability. In nonhuman primates and human analogs, prestige pathways—marked by admiration for foraging expertise or innovation—outcompete pure dominance in stable environments by encouraging approach-oriented affiliation rather than avoidance.^[11]^[26] Within groups, admiration functions to enhance cohesion by directing collective attention to effective leaders or members, thereby amplifying their reputation through social endorsement; participants exposed to exemplary actions report urges to publicize these, reinforcing the admired individual's status and group unity. This dynamic supports adaptive group functioning, as admiration motivates prosocial imitation, such as skill acquisition from admired elders in hunter-gatherer societies, where prestige correlates with survival benefits like better hunting yields. In modern settings, dispositional tendencies toward admiration predict greater well-being in hierarchical teams, as they align individual goals with group hierarchies via upward aspiration.^[1]^[27] Hierarchically, admiration underpins motivational cascades that perpetuate inequality when tied to verifiable merit, such as expertise; neuroimaging and behavioral data link admiration to neural reward circuits that incentivize deference, stabilizing structures where high-status roles demand respect for coordinated action, as in military or corporate ladders. However, unchecked admiration can rigidify hierarchies if competence signals are mimicked superficially, though evidence from cross-species comparisons indicates it evolves to counter pure dominance by rewarding genuine value provision.^[28]^[6]

Cultural and Societal Contexts

Cross-Cultural Variations

Cross-cultural studies reveal that while admiration is elicited by similar core qualities such as resilience, determination, and prosocial care across societies, the specific triggers, admired figures, and modes of expression vary systematically. In a 2015 investigation of 525 emerging adults aged 18-28 from the United Kingdom, Iran, China, and Russia, participants described admired figures through open-ended vignettes, identifying care and generativity as the most common theme (prevalent in 54.5% of responses overall, ranging from 45.7% in Iran to 60.4% in Russia), followed by resilience and positivity (49.2%, from 44.9% in Iran to 54.8% in the UK) and determination and drive (43.9%, from 39.4% in Iran to 47.4% in China).^[29] Notable variations included greater emphasis on overcoming limitations and difficulties among Chinese respondents (30.3% prevalence), potentially reflecting collectivist values prioritizing perseverance amid systemic challenges; heightened focus on autonomy and assertiveness in Russia (47.7%); elevated regard for intellect and education there as well (54.1%); and prominence of religion and spirituality in Iran (18.9%). Gender patterns also differed: UK and Russian participants preferred same-sex admired figures, whereas Iranian and Chinese favored males regardless of respondent gender, with admired figures typically midlife adults (mean ages 45-48 years). These differences align with cultural dimensions like Hofstede's individualism-collectivism index, where individualistic societies (e.g., UK) prioritize self-directed traits and collectivist ones (e.g., China) communal endurance.^[29]^[30] Admiration toward socioeconomic success, such as wealth, further illustrates divergence. Among Chinese participants, the rich evoked high envy (mean rating 4.41 on a 7-point scale) alongside moderate admiration (3.26), perceiving them as competent yet cold, which prompted passive facilitation behaviors like association (mean 3.54) over active harm (2.58). American respondents exhibited more differentiated admiration, particularly for entrepreneurial rich (competent mean 3.84, warm 3.12), consistent with cultural narratives of merit-based mobility, though politicians drew envy and contempt (competent 2.32, warm 2.16). Both groups held implicitly positive views of rich competence but explicit ambivalence on warmth, with China's responses showing less outright resentment and more pragmatic engagement.^[31] Cultural norms also shape admiration's expression and perceptual impact. American young adults reported stronger public expressions of admiration elicited by stories of excellence compared to Chinese counterparts (Cohen's d=1.03), correlating with greater neural synchronization in the dorsal anterior insula during emotional appraisal. This expressiveness mediated cultural gaps in how admiration feelings align with physiological responses, suggesting East Asian restraint tempers overt displays to maintain social harmony, while Western openness amplifies motivational effects.^[32] Admiration serves to stabilize social hierarchies by fostering deference toward high-status individuals or groups perceived as legitimate, competent, and warm, thereby reducing tendencies toward political action or antagonism that could challenge existing inequalities. Empirical studies demonstrate that when dominant groups are viewed as legitimately superior—such as through prestigious affiliations—admiration increases, leading to intergroup behaviors like assimilation and learning rather than rivalry or subversion. For instance, in experiments manipulating group legitimacy, participants reported higher admiration (M = 3.96 vs. M = 3.23, p = .036) for dominant entities, which correlated with decreased support for actions against status disparities. Similarly, admiration-proneness as a disposition moderates these effects, with high-admiration individuals showing lower endorsement of compensatory policies for low-status groups (M = 3.45 vs. M = 4.76, p = .02). However, admiration directed at subversive figures, such as symbols of resistance, can invert this dynamic, heightening motivations for hierarchy-challenging behaviors (p < .001).^[11]^[11]^[11] In leadership contexts, admiration enhances follower motivation and organizational effectiveness by inspiring emulation of leaders' traits and goals, particularly when leaders exemplify competence and vision. Transformational leadership theory posits that idealized influence—where leaders serve as role models—elicits followers' admiration, trust, and loyalty, driving discretionary effort and innovation beyond baseline expectations. This is evidenced in models where admiration mediates the link between perceived leader competence and followers' adoption of mastery-oriented goals, as observed in a study of 120 employees exposed to role model scenarios, where admiration predicted shifts toward performance improvement (β = .28, p < .01). Leaders evoking admiration through demonstrated skills thus reinforce hierarchical structures by aligning subordinates' aspirations with group objectives, promoting cohesion and upward mobility within the system.^[33]^[17] Broader societal implications include admiration's role in perpetuating merit-based structures while enabling cultural transmission of valued behaviors, as individuals internalize and replicate admired exemplars to ascend hierarchies. Cross-context evidence indicates that admiration for high-status models facilitates social learning and cooperation, yet risks entrenching inequalities if directed uncritically toward unmerited authority. In organizational settings, for example, leaders' narcissistic admiration—confidence in one's superiority—has been linked to positive follower citizenship behaviors, such as voluntary support (r = .22, p < .05), though this may wane over time without substantive competence. Overall, admiration thus functions as a prosocial mechanism for hierarchy maintenance, balancing stability with adaptive emulation, contingent on the perceived legitimacy of the admired.^[21]^[34]

Criticisms and Controversies

Potential Downsides and Pathologies

Excessive or misplaced admiration can foster envy, particularly when the admired individual's achievements highlight the admirer's shortcomings, leading to indirect negative impacts on psychological well-being and life satisfaction. Empirical analysis of dispositional admiration reveals a positive correlation with envy, which in turn diminishes dimensions of psychological well-being such as positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life, and self-acceptance.^[6] This dynamic arises because admiration often involves upward social comparison, which, while potentially inspirational, can trigger resentful or malicious envy if not channeled into self-improvement, resulting in emotional distress rather than motivation.^[35]^[36] In pathological forms, admiration escalates into obsessive parasocial attachments, as seen in celebrity worship syndrome (CWS), where individuals exhibit intense, non-reciprocal emotional investment in public figures. CWS, particularly its borderline and pathological variants, correlates with elevated levels of anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms, and social dysfunction, as measured by standardized scales like the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the General Health Questionnaire.^[37] Studies indicate that higher CWS intensity predicts poorer mental health outcomes, including body image dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and increased materialism, often exacerbated by media exposure that blurs boundaries between fantasy and reality.^[38]^[39] These effects stem from cognitive absorption that displaces real-world relationships and personal agency, fostering addictive patterns akin to obsessive-compulsive behaviors.^[40] Admiration's downsides extend to motivational inertia in non-pathological contexts, where pure admiration—lacking the competitive edge of envy—may inspire less effectively than mixed emotions, potentially stalling personal goal pursuit. Research demonstrates that benign envy outperforms admiration in driving self-improvement behaviors following upward comparisons, suggesting admiration alone can promote passive idealization over active emulation.^[35] This passivity risks chronic dissatisfaction if admirers internalize unattainable standards without adaptive strategies, amplifying vulnerability to disappointment upon discovering the admired's flaws. Overall, while admiration typically enhances prosociality, its pathologies underscore the need for balanced emotional regulation to mitigate relational distortions and mental health erosion.^[16] Philosophers have debated admiration's moral value, with some viewing it as a catalyst for ethical emulation and virtue acquisition. In Aristotelian and exemplarist frameworks, admiration directs individuals toward moral exemplars, fostering self-improvement through the recognition of superior character traits or achievements deemed attainable and legitimate.^[41] Empirical studies support this by showing that admiration for moral actions, particularly those perceived as important and surprising, triggers inspiration and prosocial motivation, enhancing moral identity and behavior in organizational contexts like cause-related marketing.^[42]^[43] Critics, drawing from Kantian ethics, argue that admiration inherently undermines self-respect by positioning the admirer as inferior, even toward genuine moral exemplars, rendering it a vice that prioritizes heteronomy over autonomous moral agency.^[44] This perspective contends that admiration disrupts moral equality in relationships, as expressions of praise tied to it can foster dependency or resentment when the admired's superiority feels unattainable, potentially overlapping with mimetic desire rather than pure ethical aspiration.^[45]^[3] Psychologically, misdirected admiration—toward unworthy objects like those excelling in non-moral domains such as power or status—can lead to uncritical emulation or hierarchical entrenchment without moral gain.^[46] On social value, admiration is credited with stabilizing hierarchies by promoting deference to legitimate superiors, as evidenced in studies where it influences intergroup behaviors to maintain status differentials perceived as fair.^[11] However, this raises egalitarian concerns: unchecked admiration may perpetuate inequality by discouraging critique of power structures or inspiring resentment when hierarchies appear illegitimate, turning the emotion negative and eroding social cohesion.^[47] Unlike inherently moral emotions, admiration's social utility remains contingent, neither reliably virtuous nor pernicious, but shaped by contextual factors like the perceived legitimacy of the admired's status.^[48]

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How Admiration Can Go Wrong | Psychology Today
Jun 10, 2025 · Admiration can be misdirected and become a liability. Here are a few ways that can happen. 1. We admire the wrong people. Not everyone is worthy of admiration.
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Admiration | Exemplarist Moral Theory - Oxford Academic
Schindler et al. (2013) argue that adoration is a related emotion that is directed toward the divine and leads to a network of religious practices as well as ...
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Is it morally good to admire?: Psychological perspectives on the ...
Answering the question "Is it morally good to admire?" has turned out to be complex. Admiration per se is not a moral emotion. It is neither morally right ...