Stancato and Keltner have identified additional implications of feeling awed. They share that, “Guided by prior work documenting that awe promotes humility, increases perceptions of uncertainty, and diminishes personal concerns…we tested the hypothesis that awe results in reduced conviction about one’s ideological attitudes…participants induced to experience awe, relative to those feeling amusement or in a neutral control condition, expressed less conviction regarding their attitudes toward capital punishment…and reduced desired social distance from those with different viewpoints regarding immigration…These findings indicate that awe may lead to uncertainty and ambivalence regarding one’s attitudes…and that this in turn may promote reduced dogmatism and increased perceptions of social cohesion.” Research has shown that awe can be induced, for instance, by seeing majestic nature, such as the Grand Canyon, impressive architecture, for instance the Taj Mahal, and examples of outstanding workmanship.
Daniel Stancato and Dacher Keltner. “Awe, Ideological Conviction, and Perceptions of Ideological Opponents.” Emotion, in press, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/emo0000665
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.