[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-269578-105":59,"doc-detail-269578-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","the-science-of-awe-executive-summary-september-2018","The Science of Awe - Executive Summary - September 2018","","Awe is presented as a complex, sometimes positive or negative, self-transcendent emotion with roots in both perception and cognition. It is characterized by perceived vastness and a need for accommodation when stimuli violate expectations. Research links awe to self-diminishment, increased connectedness, and an altered state resembling flow. The paper explains plausible evolutionary functions, identifies common awe elicitors across nature, ideas, and religion, and reviews how personality and social factors shape who experiences it and how often.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-science-of-awe-executive-summary-september-2018/269578/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-science-of-awe-executive-summary-september-2018/269578.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Levi","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-26","2026-09-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",13,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"How is awe characterized in the paper?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"Awe is described as involving perceived vastness and a need for accommodation, where stimuli exceed expectations and prompt cognitive realignment.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"What effects does experiencing awe have?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"The paper connects awe with self-diminishment and greater connectedness, placing people in a self-transcendent state that can resemble an altered consciousness similar to flow.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What factors influence who experiences awe more often?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"Research cited suggests extraversion and openness to new experiences increase awe, while discomfort with ambiguity reduces it. Social class and cultural context are also reported to affect awe frequency.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},269578,1789453148,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},7971461740909,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","A white paper prepared for the John Templeton Foundation by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley  \nSeptember 2018  \nThe Science of Awe  \nKanab, Utah, United States (Photo by Christopher Ruel)  \nWritten by Summer Allen, Ph.D.  \n[ggsc.berkeley.edu](ggsc.berkeley.edu)[ ](ggsc.berkeley.edu)[greatergood.berkeley.edu](greatergood.berkeley.edu)  \nThe Science of Awe  \nEXECUTIVE SUMMARY  \nIf you’ve hiked among giant sequoias, stood in front of the Taj Mahal, or observed a particularly virtuosic musical performance, you may have experienced the mysterious and complex emotion known as “awe.”  \nAwe experiences are self-transcendent. They shift our attention away from ourselves, make us feel like we are part of something greater than ourselves,  \nTaj Mahal, Agra, India (Photo by Julian Yu)  \nand make us more generous toward others.  \nBut what is awe? What types of experiences are most likely to elicit feelings of awe? Are some people more prone to experiencing awe? And what are the effects of awe?  \nWhile philosophers and religious scholars have explored awe for centuries, it was largely ignored by psychologists until the early 2000s. Since then, there has been growing interest in exploring awe empirically. This has led to a number of fascinating discoveries about the nature of awe, while also raising many questions still to be explored.  \nWhat is awe?  \nAwe is a complex emotion that can be difficult to define. Feelings of awe can be positive or negative—unlike most other emotions—and can arise from a wide range of stimuli. In a landmark 2003 paper, psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt presented a “conceptual approach  \nto awe.” In this paper, Keltner and Haidt suggested that awe experiences can be characterized by two phenomena: “perceived vastness” and a“need for accommodation.”  \n“Perceived vastness” can come from observing something literally physically large—the Grand Canyon, for example—or from a more  \nExecutive Summary 2  \ntheoretical perceptual sense of vastness—such as being in the presence of someone with immense prestige or being presented with a complex idea like the theory of relativity.  \nAn experience evokes a “need for accommodation” when it violates our normal understanding of the world. When a stimulus exceedsour expectations in some way, it can provoke an attempt to change the mental structures that we use to understand the world. This need for cognitive realignment is an essential part of the awe experience as conceptualized by Keltner and Haidt.  \nSince Keltner and Haidt’s 2003 paper, studies have shown that awe is often accompanied by feelings of self-diminishment and increased connectedness with other people. Experiencing awe often puts people in a self-transcendent state where they focus less on themselves and feel more like a part of a larger whole. In this way, awe can be considered an altered state of consciousness, akinto a flow state, in addition to an emotional state.  \nWhy might awe have evolved?  \nWhile no one knows for sure why awe evolved, there are some interesting theories. Haidt and Keltner, for instance, suggest that awe evolved because it prompted reverence and devotion to powerful leaders and promoted social cohesion. Alternatively, psychologists Alice Chirico and David Yaden suggest that awe may have evolved because it helped people identify safe places to seek shelter, such as environments with large vistas that would have allowed our hunter-gatherer relatives to see approaching predators or attackers.  \nAwe’s ability to elicit cognitive accommodation may also explain why humans evolved to experience this unique emotion. Experiencing awe may be adaptive because it encourages us to  \ntake in new information and adjust our mental structures around this information, helping us navigate our world and increasing our odds of survival. Finally, awe’s ability to make us feel more connected with others and to be more helpful and generous may have also helped ensure our ancestors’ survi","cbCaihuBAa4pTEn0","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihuBAa4pTEn0","pdf",6995993,45,"English","# Executive Summary\n## What is awe?\n## Why might awe have evolved?\n## What types of experiences elicit awe?\n## Who experiences more awe?\n## Effects of awe","[{\"question\":\"How is awe characterized in the paper?\",\"answer\":\"Awe is described as involving perceived vastness and a need for accommodation, where stimuli exceed expectations and prompt cognitive realignment.\"},{\"question\":\"What effects does experiencing awe have?\",\"answer\":\"The paper connects awe with self-diminishment and greater connectedness, placing people in a self-transcendent state that can resemble an altered consciousness similar to flow.\"},{\"question\":\"What factors influence who experiences awe more often?\",\"answer\":\"Research cited suggests extraversion and openness to new experiences increase awe, while discomfort with ambiguity reduces it. Social class and cultural context are also reported to affect awe frequency.\"}]","The Science of Awe - Executive Summary - September 2018 | PDF",113]