Awe and humility.

Abstract

Humility is a foundational virtue that counters selfish inclinations such as entitlement, arrogance, and narcissism (Tangney, 2000). We hypothesize that experiences of awe promote greater humility. Guided by an appraisal-tendency framework of emotion, we propose that when individuals encounter an entity that is vast and challenges their worldview, they feel awe, which leads to self-diminishment and subsequently humility. In support of these claims, awe-prone individuals were rated as more humble by friends (Study 1) and reported greater humility across a 2-week period (Study 2), controlling for other positive emotions. Inducing awe led participants to present a more balanced view of their strengths and weaknesses to others (Study 3) and acknowledge, to a greater degree, the contribution of outside forces in their own personal accomplishments (Study 4), compared with neutral and positive control conditions. Finally, an awe-inducing expansive view elicited greater reported humility than a neutral view (Study 5). We also elucidated the process by which awe leads to humility. Feelings of awe mediated the relationship between appraisals (perceptions of vastness and a challenge to one's world view) and humility (Study 4), and self-diminishment mediated the relationship between awe and humility (Study 5). Taken together, these results reveal that awe offers one path to greater humility. (PsycINFO Database Record

Assessing the Experience of Awe: Validating the Situational Awe Scale

“…A stronger tendency to experience awe has been shown to be a social-emotional resource for adult children of divorced parents (compared to non-divorced adult children; Bernstein, Keltner, & Laurent, 2012). Moreover, evidence suggests awe promotes humility (Stellar, Gordon, Anderson, Piff, McNeil, & Keltner, 2017), which itself has been associated with healthier social relationships (Peters, Rowatt, & Johnson, 2011), greater wellbeing (Krause, Pargament, Hill, & Ironson, 2016), and resilience (Kesebir, 2014). Finally, awe may be an epistemic emotion and catalyst for learning (Valdesolo, Shtulman, & Baron, 2017).…”

Awe and meaning: Elucidating complex effects of awe experiences on meaning in life

“…First, given that the awe manipulations that produced findings most consistent with our model were images of earth's natural landscapes, our final study featured a cosmos‐based induction of awe. Exposure to images of the universe is linked to greater awe, happiness, and small‐self feelings compared to neutral controls (Hornsey, Faulkner, Crimston, & Moreton, ; Stellar et al., ), and more awe, positive affect, and small‐self feelings compared to an awe‐eliciting video of lava flows (Hornsey et al., ). The inclusion of this awe elicitor allowed us to test our model with a positive awe induction distinct from the awe‐nature video used in previous studies.…”

Space—A Virtual Frontier: How to Design and Evaluate a Virtual Reality Experience of the Overview Effect

“…Another interesting trait of awe is a "small-self " or "diminished self " (Piff et al, 2015;Bai et al, 2017)-which is associated with the trait of humility, an emotion strongly correlated to awe (Stellar et al, 2018). When experiencing awe, one's focus shifts away from themselves, toward a greater collective.…”