A Little Awe Goes A Long Way
Awe isn't an emotion we typically pay much attention to, but research suggests we should
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Although we all have thoughts and emotions, it’s astounding how little we actually know about them or how they function in our bodies and brains.
Nowadays, researchers are dedicating their careers to investigating a single emotion, like how Brene Brown is an expert in shame or Dani Bassett, whom I talked about last week, who is committed to curiosity — but it’s awe that fascinates Dacher Keltner.
Awe
Dacher Keltner has an impressive resume. He is the director of the Greater Good Science Center, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, has over 200 scientific papers published, and has authored six books. Oh yeah, and he served as the scientific adviser on the Pixar film Inside Out.
In short, Keltner is one of the world’s leading emotion scientists who has spent over two decades studying the emotion of awe. During an interview on HuffPost’s podcast, Am I Doing It Wrong?, Keltner told hosts Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson how,
“Awe is particularly hard to describe with language. In fact, a lot of people are like, ‘it’s ineffable. It’s beyond words. You can’t put rational, symbolic thought to it.’ And I disagree.”
After all, Merriam-Webster and the Cambridge dictionaries offer several synonyms for “awe,” including amazement, wonder, astonishment, and reverence.
Meanwhile, in his interview, Kelter defined Awe as “the feeling we have when we encounter vast mysteries" and said that "the core meaning of awe, as you’re feeling it come over you, is being connected to something larger than yourself.”
Over the years, Kelter’s research identified eight things that can inspire a sense of awe.
Eight Awe-Inducing Wonders of Life
Throughout his extensive travels and years of research, Keltner has pinpointed what he calls the “eight wonders of life.” He told Punjabi and Michelson:
“We got these stories of awe from 26 different countries, in people’s own words — Mexico, India, Brazil, Poland, really different countries,” and that “What we found — and this aligns with a lot of philosophical literature — is what I call the ‘eight wonders.’”
Keltner goes on to describe the eight wonders of life that inspire a sense of awe in humans:
Spirituality
Nature
Music
Moral Beauty - inspired by other people’s kindness and courage.
Collective Movements — enjoying the comradery at anything from a yoga class or sporting event to protesting.
Visual Design — this takes many forms, from paintings in art museums to digital effects and everything in between.
Big Ideas — Keltner uses an example of when he first read Karl Marx’s Economic Theory of Consciousness. He reported in the interview that he “was just like, ‘I can’t believe it. This guy can explain thought patterns and class struggles.’ So I was awestruck by that.”
Life and Death — The cycle of life and death has awestruck our species for millennia, propelling us to try and understand it while forming powerful belief systems around it.
Any of these eight things can inspire a sense of awe in us, but Keltner’s research suggests that nature and moral beauty are the two most powerful options. He explained in the podcast:
“Taking in the kindness and courage and strength and overcoming that people are capable of just knocks people out and it’s everywhere, right? And then nature ... it’s so profound what nature does to your mind and body.”
Still, Keltner’s research shows that any of the eight wonders that inspire awe can also improve several aspects of our lives in some surprising ways.