Seduction and Surprise: Discovering Invisible Emotions for Commitments

The chapter explores the meaning of seduction from a situated approach to emotions by tracing the way surprise uncovers emotional traits that enable commitment. The adoption of a Situated Approach reveals how emotions are intrinsically tied to the situations from which they arise and the crucial role of surprise. The emotion of surprise is central for the value of experience because it amplifies other emotions as well as other traits, and details of the lived situations fixing the meaning of the lived experience. The examination of how various emotions belong to the family of surprise further explains the established differences between persuasion, manipulation and seduction. Ultimately the chapter shows that seduction asks for the recognition of various layers of emotional reality, and how they are made visible by the way in which seduction establishes commitments.