Awe

The massiveness of awe-inspiring things makes us feel smaller, as we feel like we are in the presence of something much greater than ourselves.² Awe is described as a self-transcendent emotion (an emotion that goes beyond ourselves) because it reduces your sense of self and brings your focus outwards instead. 

In non-Western cultures, awe is more associated with feelings of fear. A study found that Chinese participants were more likely to describe awe as a mixed emotional experience, reporting more fear. They also did not experience the lowered heart rate that American participants did after watching an awe-inducing video.³ 

Keltner and Haidt described aspects of a situation that can change the experience of awe and make it more positive or negative: threat, beauty, ability, virtue, and whether the cause is supernatural. These can change how awe is experienced through the addition of other feelings. For example, someone’s great skill might make you feel awe and also admiration.⁴ 

Awesome things expand how you think and require you to adjust to them. Since it is an emotion that goes beyond the self, the feelings that come with awe are not focused on the self and turn attention outwards unlike other positive emotions, like happiness. Experiencing awe frequently is related to less need for closure and clear answers.⁴ This indicates that these individuals are good at updating their existing knowledge and more willing to take on new information. 

Awe is thought to be expressed by a raised inner eyebrow, widened eyes, and an open mouth.⁵ Goosebumps have been associated with the experience of awe and other strongly moving emotions.^6,7 

A special bodily response has been found to accompany the experience of awe. Heart rate and breathing were more synchronised in children who watched a nature video to make them feel awe. This suggests there was more activity in the part of the nervous system that relaxes the body after stress, which encourages calm social engagement.⁵ 

Researchers have linked awe to helping behaviour in adults 2 and children.8 By widening the observer’s perspective and bringing the focus away from oneself, awe encourages helping behaviour. In one study, researchers examined if feeling awe encourages children to help others. Children aged 8-13 years old who watched a video of awe-inspiring nature spent longer working on a helping task than children who watched a video causing joy or a neutral emotion. Afterwards, they were more likely to donate their earnings from the experiment- whether they were intangible (a ticket to a museum) or tangible (a chocolate bar) to refugees.⁸ 

Studies have linked awe to increased motivation to explore and learn about interesting things in the world around them. Children aged 4-9 years old shown awe-inspiring videos (with different conditions showing vast nature, natural disasters, and slow-motion footage) and everyday videos (a normal back garden) answered questions about their feelings and views of the videos. Children in all awe conditions reported that the awe-inspiring video gave them a greater sense of motivation to learn and explore than the everyday video.⁹ 

Adults who recalled an experience of awe and wrote about it were more likely to feel small and like they were in the presence of something greater than themselves than those who were asked to focus on pride, or a neutral emotion. They also believed that they would behave in a more ethical way when given example situations than those in the other emotion conditions did. Awe affected ethical behaviour by making people feel smaller, likely as personal concerns were reduced and the adults were focussing on others more.² 

There may be a difference in how different types of cultures experience awe. The difference between how small people rate themselves as feeling after experiencing awe versus after experiencing joy were greater for people from China (a collectivist culture where group needs are prioritised over individual needs) than people from the U.S. (an individualist culture which prioritises the needs of the individual). People from cultures that prioritise group goals have lower small-self ratings normally, and an experience of awe increases this difference.¹⁰ 

Viewing massive nature scenes like mountains and tall trees (in real life and in videos), looking out over a city from a high viewing point, and watching detailed slow-motion videos of natural phenomena have all been shown to make people feel awe. ^9, 11, 2 

When children, aged 4-9 years old, were shown a video of a large crowd they rated themselves as feeling smaller than those who had watched a video showing a vast nature scene. However, the vast nature video inspired more curiosity, self-reflection, and positivity than the large crowd video. This suggests that there is something special about natural scenes that creates awe.⁹ 

People describing an event that made them feel awe are more likely to describe an experience of nature, art or music, while people describing a happy event are more likely to talk about a social event. These findings suggest awe is a less social emotion than happiness, often brought on by new and complex experiences.⁴ 

The objects of awe may vary between cultures. In a diary study recording the awe experiences of Chinese and American participants, Chinese participants were more likely to report other people as awe-inspiring, while American participants were more likely to describe monuments, architecture, nature, or themselves. Things that inspire awe like art, music, and human innovation were observed with equal frequency across cultures.¹¹ 

The ultimate awe experience might be that of an astronaut looking back at Earth from space, termed ‘the overview effect’ by Frank White.¹² He described the experience as changing our sense of self, our place on Earth, and our connection to others. Most of us will not get to experience this first hand, but one study was able to replicate the feelings of awe and wonder reported by astronauts using a virtual/mixed-reality environment to simulate being at an International Space Station workstation with views across space.¹³ 

Awe may have been used in evolution to build social hierarchies, as it could be the emotional reaction to a powerful leader, and encourages increased attention and respect.¹ 

People who often experience awe tend to be happier. Frequently experiencing awe can provide the person with a sense of meaning and is related to decreased materialism. Attaching less importance to personal concerns and believing that there is meaning in your life both contribute to increased feelings of well-being.¹⁴