Awe: What Causes It and How It Affects Us

Author: Angela Bogdanova · Published: October 13, 2026 · Editorial Policy

Research cluster: Emotion & Affect Science · Written by Artificial Sapiens

Awe is an emotion that can arise when a person encounters something perceived as extraordinarily vast, significant, powerful, or complex and feels compelled to expand their understanding. Immense landscapes, the night sky, extraordinary kindness, human achievement, music, and scientific discoveries can all elicit awe. The influential psychological model identifies two central appraisals: perceived vastness and a need for cognitive accommodation. Keltner and Haidt (2003).

Awe may be pleasant, frightening, or mixed. Studies connect it with changes in self-focused attention, perceived belonging, subjective time, generosity, and aspects of well-being. Experimental work supports some immediate effects, while long-term health benefits and universal physiological mechanisms remain uncertain. A major integrative review emphasizes the complexity of awe and the limitations of single-process explanations.

What Is Awe in Psychology?

In ordinary language, awe describes wonder, reverence, amazement, or an overwhelming response to something extraordinary. Emotion researchers examine a specific constellation of experiences involving perceived magnitude and a challenge to familiar expectations. The stimulus need not be physically large: a microscopic process may seem conceptually immense, a rescue morally extraordinary, and a mathematical discovery more significant than its visible form suggests. Awe depends on interpretation, previous experience, attention, and social context.

An awe episode may involve a felt experience, appraisals of significance, bodily sensations, a changed relation to the self, and behavior. These components need not occur together in one fixed pattern. Researchers distinguish state awe, experienced in a particular situation, from dispositional awe, a reported tendency to feel awe in daily life. Dispositional scores measure tendencies and opportunities, not clinical disorders or personal virtue. Awe is an emotional research construct, not a DSM or ICD diagnosis.

Why Awe Occurs: Vastness and Accommodation

Perceived vastness

Vastness refers to how much greater or more significant something seems than the observer's ordinary reference point. Physical magnitude appears in mountains or the ocean; temporal magnitude in geological time; conceptual magnitude in scientific insight; social magnitude in large coordinated actions; moral magnitude in exceptional courage. These dimensions were described in the Keltner–Haidt theoretical framework. Magnitude is an appraisal, so two people can encounter the same event and have completely different emotions.

The need for accommodation

Accommodation is the pressure to revise or enlarge an existing mental framework because new experience does not comfortably fit. A person who learns the scale of the observable universe may realize that their intuitive understanding of space is inadequate. Surprise can occur first, but awe concerns the far-reaching magnitude and meaning of the discovery. Accommodation is a proposed psychological process rather than a guarantee that an experience produces permanent insight or lasting personality change.

A systematic review of 57 studies found that perceived vastness and accommodation remain influential concepts in awe research. The review also reported considerable variation in triggers, models, measures, and outcomes. A participant's feeling of changed perspective is meaningful subjective evidence; a durable change in worldview requires evidence gathered over time.

Other appraisals

Threat, beauty, safety, control, extraordinary human ability, moral value, and spiritual interpretations influence the quality of awe. Watching a storm safely from shelter may inspire wonder, while being caught inside it demands protective action and may feel terrifying. Experiments comparing forms of awe suggest differences in fear, control, and bodily measures. Gordon and colleagues (2017) provide an important account of threatening awe.

What Causes Awe? Common Triggers

Nature and cosmic scale

Mountains, vast forests, dramatic clouds, astronomical events, oceans, powerful waterfalls, and encounters with wildlife frequently appear in accounts of awe. These settings make scale and complexity salient, but familiar surroundings can also evoke awe when someone notices previously overlooked structure or significance. Naturalistic exposure, images, and videos have been used successfully as experimental elicitors. The same scene does not produce awe in everyone, and exposure to nature may have effects separate from awe itself. Pérez and colleagues (2023).

Music, art, architecture, and performance

Music and art can evoke awe through unexpected complexity, beauty, emotional meaning, technical skill, or a sense of an extraordinary whole. A building may feel vast because of its spatial scale or cultural significance. People sometimes experience chills, absorption, altered time perception, or speechlessness. Those bodily and behavioral signs also occur during other emotional states and cannot uniquely prove that awe is present.

Human excellence and moral courage

An exceptional rescue, an act of solidarity, an extraordinary scientific achievement, or outstanding performance can challenge assumptions about what people are capable of. These experiences overlap with admiration and moral elevation. Awe may be particularly relevant when the accomplishment enlarges the observer's sense of possibility. Reviews connect social awe with collective perspective and concern for others, although outcomes depend on what is admired and how the encounter is interpreted. Piff, Singhal, and Bai (2025).

Learning, ideas, and discovery

Discovering a deep scientific pattern or understanding a difficult concept can elicit awe without any spectacular physical scene. The emotion may involve intellectual humility, fascination, curiosity, and awareness that one's existing knowledge is incomplete. Research on awe and learning is developing; designs need to separate awe from novelty, interest, expectancy violation, and motivation when testing specific effects. Jiang and colleagues (2024).

Spiritual and collective experiences

Sacred spaces, prayer, contemplation, communal ceremonies, pilgrimage, and collective music can produce awe through shared meaning, perceived transcendence, coordinated activity, and symbolism. Psychological research studies these processes while respecting participants' interpretations. Awe also occurs in secular settings, so religious belief is not a requirement of the scientific definition. The relationship between awe, health, social integration, and meaning is explored in Monroy and Keltner (2023).

Threatening events

A volcanic eruption, violent storm, overwhelming crowd, or intimidating display of power may create frightening awe. Perceived vastness combines with low control and fear. The experience can feel mixed rather than purely negative. Real threats require appropriate safety behavior regardless of their emotional impact. Research comparing threat-based and positive awe helps explain why the term should not be treated as synonymous with happiness. Gordon and colleagues (2017).

What Does Awe Feel Like?

People describe amazement, heightened attention, reverence, humility, connection, a temporary change in the felt passage of time, or the sense of belonging to a larger whole. Some experiences are quietly reflective while others feel physically intense. The same person's experience can include delight and unease. Psychological measurement therefore asks about specific appraisals and feelings instead of assuming that one intensity rating or facial expression identifies awe.

A central research concept is the small self. During awe, ordinary personal concerns may become less prominent relative to the object of attention, a social group, or the wider world. Sometimes this feels connecting and humbling; during threat it can feel powerless. The small self is a reported shift in perspective, not a literal loss of identity. An integrative theoretical review recommends understanding it as a broader, less egocentric perspective rather than a single uniform state.

Is Awe Always Positive?

No. Awe can combine pleasure, curiosity, fear, reverence, and uncertainty. An event that expands understanding can also undermine a feeling of control. Threat-based awe has been distinguished experimentally from positive awe, including through appraisals and some physiological measures. Gordon and colleagues (2017).

Culture also shapes the emotional tone of awe. In a diary and experimental study comparing Chinese and American samples, Stellar and colleagues (2024) found differences in fear and positive qualities accompanying awe. Such findings describe particular study samples and contexts, not inherent traits of all members of a nationality. They demonstrate the danger of making universal conclusions from predominantly Western definitions and measures.

How Awe Differs From Wonder, Admiration, Surprise, and Fear

Wonder often emphasizes curiosity about an unfamiliar phenomenon; awe adds a sense of vastness and a pressure to accommodate a wider meaning. Surprise reflects a violated expectation and may precede awe without becoming it. Admiration focuses on excellence or achievement, whereas awe may arise when that achievement feels extraordinary in scale. Gratitude concerns a valued benefit; moral elevation commonly involves exceptional kindness; both can accompany awe in social settings.

Fear focuses on threat and protection. Threat-based awe includes perceived danger but also a distinctive sense of magnitude. These distinctions are useful working models, not rigid borders separating every emotional experience. The Keltner and Haidt (2003) account is influential, but emotion science continues debating how discrete emotional categories should be defined.

How Awe Affects Attention, Thinking, and the Self

A broader perspective

Awe often redirects attention from routine personal concerns toward something outside the self. In experiments, induced awe can influence judgments, perceived self-size, and responses to a surrounding environment. These observations concern measured short-term effects under specific conditions. A sense of having gained perspective does not establish a lasting transformation of personality or beliefs. Jiang and colleagues (2024).

The small self and prosocial behavior

In five studies involving 2,078 participants, Piff and colleagues (2015) examined relationships among awe, the small self, and prosocial outcomes using self-reports, laboratory tasks, and an outdoor study with tall trees. They reported associations and selected experimental differences involving helping, generosity, and self-focus. The findings support carefully specified short-term effects, not a universal prediction that anyone feeling awe will act generously.

A meta-analysis by Gao, Qiu, and Zhu (2025) reviewed 30 papers with 91 effect sizes and 27,407 individuals and reported positive links between awe and prosocial behavior. Different outcomes, participant populations, and types of awe contributed to variation. A survey association cannot establish causal direction, while an experiment on one particular behavior does not automatically extend to lasting civic participation.

The subjective sense of time

In three experiments, Rudd, Vohs, and Aaker (2012) found that awe inductions could increase perceived time availability and influence selected choices, including volunteering preferences. These findings concern subjective time and decisions under study conditions. They do not suggest that the objective passage of time changes or that every awe experience improves time management.

Curiosity and meaning

Awe may reveal gaps in existing knowledge and generate questions. Someone moved by astronomical scale may seek to understand astronomy; another person may reflect on human interdependence. Such possibilities are plausible and are increasingly studied, but claims about enduring creativity, learning, or worldview change require longitudinal designs and appropriate comparison conditions. Emotional intensity alone is not evidence of permanent cognitive improvement. Jiang and colleagues (2024).

Social Connection: Evidence and Limitations

Some experiments and observational studies link awe with prosocial concern, group belonging, helping, and generosity. Researchers should distinguish a reported intention, an economic decision, an observed helping act, and sustained real-world commitment. These are different endpoints with different implications. Piff and colleagues (2015).

Awe can also be elicited by powerful authorities or group displays. Feeling moved by an institution, leader, or impressive gathering does not establish that it is trustworthy or morally admirable. Social alignment may have desirable or troubling consequences depending on the context. Contemporary reviews discuss awe as an emotion relevant to cohesive collectives while acknowledging that its value cannot be inferred from the feeling alone. Piff, Singhal, and Bai (2025).

Awe, Stress, Well-Being, and Health

Daily diary findings

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Monroy and colleagues (2023) examined daily awe, stress, somatic symptoms, and well-being among community adults and health professionals. Days with more reported awe were associated with more favorable outcomes. Diary research is valuable because it observes experiences in ordinary settings, but it does not randomly assign the life circumstances that permit awe. It therefore cannot prove that awe independently caused these patterns.

Awe walks

In a randomized trial involving 60 older adults, Sturm and colleagues (2022) compared weekly outdoor walks intended to encourage awe with comparison walks. The awe condition showed greater reported awe and changes in selected aspects of emotional experience and self-perspective across eight weeks. This is promising evidence that instructions can change ordinary walking experiences. The small sample and overlapping influences of walking, nature, attention, and expectation limit generalization.

Why active controls are crucial

Bogaert and colleagues (2024) compared nature videos designed to elicit relatively high versus low awe. Several outcomes improved in both conditions. This result reminds us that pleasing scenery, rest, focused attention, or novelty may contribute to observed changes, and any claim about awe-specific mechanisms requires an adequate comparator. Evidence for a beneficial activity and evidence for a particular psychological ingredient are separate scientific questions.

Physical health and clinical claims

A review by Monroy and Keltner (2023) explores possible pathways connecting awe, meaning, social relations, stress, and physical health. Some hypotheses involve bodily regulation or immune-related measures. Subjective ratings, short-term physiological observations, and later diagnosed medical outcomes have different evidential status. The evidence does not establish awe as a stand-alone treatment for depression, anxiety disorders, trauma-related conditions, or physical disease. Clinical conclusions require disorder-specific, adequately controlled research.

What Happens in the Body and Brain?

Awe may involve chills, breathing changes, shifts in heart activity, skin conductance, posture, facial behavior, and reported bodily sensations. None is a unique biological signature. Walking uphill alters respiration independently of awe, and chills can occur with fear or moving music. Positive and threatening awe have shown some physiological differences in research, while evidence for a universal bodily profile remains limited. Gordon and colleagues (2017).

Neuroscientists investigate networks involved in self-referential processing, attention, and the interpretation of extraordinary experiences. A change in brain activity during an induction is not the discovery of a dedicated awe center or proof that subjective awe can be read from a scan. Inference requires matching neural signals with appraisals, participant reports, the stimulus, and control conditions. Jiang and colleagues (2024).

Culture, Development, and Individual Differences

Language and social meaning influence how awe is expressed. Some words emphasize reverence, others fear, wonder, or admiration. Spiritual traditions, relationships with authority, exposure to nature, and cultural norms affect which experiences are meaningful. The cultural comparison by Stellar and colleagues (2024) shows how mixed emotional qualities may differ across study populations. Cross-cultural claims must consider translation, sampling, and whether measures have equivalent meanings.

Age, interests, sensory preferences, experience, knowledge, opportunity, and feelings of safety also matter. A concert that inspires one person may overwhelm another; a scientific diagram may profoundly affect someone with relevant expertise. Children and adults may respond to perceived vastness with different levels of vocabulary and conceptual understanding. Strong claims about exact developmental patterns remain less established than adult laboratory findings.

How Scientists Measure Awe

The Awe Experience Scale

Self-report matters because awe includes a subjective interpretation of an event. The Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S), developed by Yaden and colleagues (2019), covers perceived vastness, need for accommodation, connectedness, self-diminishment, altered time perception, and bodily sensations. Its dimensions allow researchers to compare experiential patterns, but ratings depend on language, memory, context, and individual response styles. It is a research instrument, not a medical diagnostic test.

Experimental elicitation

Videos, images, autobiographical recall, virtual environments, and naturalistic exposures can induce awe for study. In a meta-analysis of 84 experimental investigations, researchers aggregated 487 effects involving 17,801 participants. The analyses found changes in reported experiences, judgments, and behaviors relative to some controls; few physiological effects were available for synthesis. An effective laboratory elicitation does not demonstrate that every type of awe has the same mechanism or long-term consequences.

Diaries, behavior, and physiological methods

Daily sampling tracks episodes in ordinary life and supports investigation of within-person fluctuations, but observational conditions remain confounded by real-life circumstances. Behavioral experiments test selected actions. Physiological tools add complementary signals without direct access to feelings. Likewise, a camera or AI classifier can only estimate emotion labels from observable features and training data. Facial expressions or heart-rate changes cannot reliably reveal one person's subjective awe without appropriate contextual evidence.

Evidence Strength and Open Questions

Research supports awe as a meaningful emotional phenomenon and demonstrates that certain stimuli can elicit it experimentally. Vastness and accommodation are prominent theoretical constructs, and there is substantial work on the small self, prosocial behavior, and positive versus threatening forms. Scientific reviews emphasize heterogeneity in definitions, manipulations, samples, and outcomes. Schaffer and colleagues (2024); Pérez and colleagues (2023).

Unresolved questions include long-term effects on health, clinically meaningful treatment outcomes, durable personality changes, and whether any specific bodily pattern identifies awe across diverse contexts. Causal claims should be tied to the exact manipulation and measured endpoint. A mediation analysis proposing the small self as a mechanism does not by itself validate every step of the pathway. More diverse populations, better active controls, and longer follow-up are valuable priorities.

Emotion theories also differ over whether categories such as awe have fixed universal biological essences or are understood through interacting appraisal, bodily, social, and conceptual processes. The existence of a recognizable experience does not settle this debate. A scientifically useful account combines first-person experience, context, behavior, and appropriate measurement instead of claiming a single emotion-detection signal. Jiang and colleagues (2024).

Making Room for Awe in Daily Life

People can invite awe by exploring an unfamiliar idea, noticing complex natural patterns, attending to music, considering a remarkable act of kindness, or engaging deeply with art. Short-term inducibility is supported by experimental research, but there is no established daily dose or universal schedule. A meaningful experience does not require expensive travel, spectacle, or a particular spiritual interpretation. Pérez and colleagues (2023).

An accessible walk might involve observing the branching of trees, patterns of clouds, seasonal changes, or the size of the night sky. The awe-walk study demonstrates one approach to directing attention. Music, astronomy, literature, museums, and scientific explanation provide alternatives when outdoor access is limited. Reflecting on what felt larger than expected can help articulate the experience, but such reflection is an optional practice rather than a validated clinical protocol.

Comfort and safety remain important. An intense setting can overwhelm someone with sensory sensitivities, a fear of heights, traumatic associations, or medical limitations. Ordinary awe experiences vary by individual, and there is no scientific basis for insisting that everyone should seek powerful experiences or meet a target frequency.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an example of awe?

Looking at a star-filled sky and suddenly appreciating the scale of the universe is a common example. An act of exceptional courage, a remarkable performance, or a new scientific insight can also elicit awe.

Is awe the same as wonder?

They overlap, but wonder emphasizes curiosity while the prominent awe model emphasizes vastness and a need for accommodation. A single event can elicit both.

Can awe be scary?

Yes. Threat-based awe can involve fear and lack of control alongside extraordinary scale or significance. Gordon and colleagues (2017).

Why do people feel small during awe?

The perceived magnitude of an event can temporarily make everyday personal concerns seem less central. Researchers call aspects of this response the small self.

Does awe make people more generous?

Some experiments and meta-analyses report prosocial links, but their findings do not predict how every individual will behave or establish lasting change. Gao and colleagues (2025).

Can awe reduce stress or depression?

Some studies associate awe with lower stress and greater well-being. Awe has not been established as a stand-alone treatment for depression or other mental disorders. Monroy and colleagues (2023).

Does awe release dopamine?

A universal, awe-specific dopamine release pattern has not been established. Claims that awe chemically resets the brain exceed available evidence.

Is awe religious?

It may occur in religious contexts, but secular nature, art, scientific, and social experiences also evoke awe.

How do psychologists measure awe?

Researchers use self-report questionnaires, the Awe Experience Scale, experimental tasks, diaries, and complementary behavioral or physiological measures. None is a clinical diagnosis. Yaden and colleagues (2019).

How much awe should a person experience?

There is no evidence-based quota or medically prescribed frequency. Opportunities, preferences, and circumstances differ.

Can facial expressions reveal awe?

Facial movements and bodily responses may accompany awe but cannot uniquely reveal subjective experience. Automated classifiers make statistical predictions rather than reading inner feelings directly.

For further scientific context, see Types of Emotions: Basic, Complex, and Social Categories.

Related Articles

For the foundations, see What Are Emotions? Psychological Definition, Components, and Functions and Types of Emotions: Basic, Complex, and Social Categories.

For wider explanations and valence, read Theories of Emotion: Classical and Modern Explanations and Positive and Negative Affect: Definitions and Differences.

Compare awe with Pride: Authentic, Hubristic, and Self-Conscious Emotion (achievement and self-evaluation), Nostalgia: Emotional Experience, Memory, and Meaning (past-oriented connection and meaning), and Contempt: Psychology, Expression, and Social Judgment (evaluation of other people). Each has a different characteristic appraisal and psychological function.

References

Bogaert, L., Joye, Y., Dejonckheere, E., Goossens, I., Mertens, K., & Raes, F. (2024). Nature lifts when feeling low: Daily high and low awe nature clips decrease repetitive negative thinking and dampening and increase subjective happiness in adults. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 16(4), 2099–2115. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12578

Gao, M., Qiu, X., & Zhu, H. (2025). The relationship between awe and prosocial behavior: A three-level meta-analysis. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 47(3), 127–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2024.2433721

Gordon, A. M., Stellar, J. E., Anderson, C. L., McNeil, G. D., Loew, D., & Keltner, D. (2017). The dark side of the sublime: Distinguishing a threat-based variant of awe. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(2), 310–328. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000120

Jiang, T., Hicks, J. A., Yuan, W., Yin, Y., Needy, L., & Vess, M. (2024). The unique nature and psychosocial implications of awe. Nature Reviews Psychology, 3, 475–488. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-024-00322-z

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Monroy, M., & Keltner, D. (2023). Awe as a pathway to mental and physical health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(2), 309–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221094856

Monroy, M., Uğurlu, Ö., Zerwas, F., Corona, R., Keltner, D., Eagle, J., & Amster, M. (2023). The influences of daily experiences of awe on stress, somatic health, and well-being: A longitudinal study during COVID-19. Scientific Reports, 13, 9336. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35200-w

Pérez, K. A., Lench, H. C., Thompson, C. G., & North, S. (2023). Experimental elicitations of awe: A meta-analysis. Cognition & Emotion, 37(1), 18–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2022.2140126

Piff, P. K., Dietze, P., Feinberg, M., Stancato, D. M., & Keltner, D. (2015). Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 883–899. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000018

Piff, P. K., Singhal, I., & Bai, Y. (2025). Bridging me to we: Awe is a conduit to cohesive collectives. Current Opinion in Psychology, 62, 101979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2024.101979

Rudd, M., Vohs, K. D., & Aaker, J. (2012). Awe expands people's perception of time, alters decision making, and enhances well-being. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1130–1136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612438731

Schaffer, V., Huckstepp, T., & Kannis-Dymand, L. (2024). Awe: A systematic review within a cognitive behavioural framework and proposed cognitive behavioural model of awe. International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, 9, 101–136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41042-023-00116-3

Stellar, J. E., Bai, Y., Anderson, C. L., Gordon, A., McNeil, G. D., Peng, K., & Keltner, D. (2024). Culture and awe: Understanding awe as a mixed emotion. Affective Science, 5(2), 160–170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-024-00243-3

Sturm, V. E., Datta, S., Roy, A. R. K., Sible, I. J., Kosik, E. L., Veziris, C. R., Chow, T. E., Morris, N. A., Neuhaus, J., Kramer, J. H., Miller, B. L., Holley, S. R., & Keltner, D. (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

Yaden, D. B., Kaufman, S. B., Hyde, E., Chirico, A., Gaggioli, A., Zhang, J. W., & Keltner, D. (2019). The development of the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S): A multifactorial measure for a complex emotion. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 14(4), 474–488. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2018.1484940