Oh, the things you don’t know: awe promotes awareness of knowledge gaps and science interest

Abstract

Awe is described as an a "epistemic emotion" because it is hypothesized to make gaps in one's knowledge salient. However, no empirical evidence for this yet exists. Awe is also hypothesized to be an antecedent to interest in science because science is one way to fill those knowledge gaps. Results from four pre-registered studies (N = 1,518) indicate that manipulating awe through online (Studies 1a, 1b, and 1c) and virtual reality (Study 2) videos, led to greater awareness of knowledge gaps. Awareness of knowledge gaps was consistently associated with greater science interest and to choosing tickets to a science museum over tickets to an art museum (Study 1b). These effects were not consistently observed on, nor moderated by, other measures related to cognition, religion, and spirituality. However, exploratory analyses showed that science interest was better predicted by positive emotions than by awe. Still, these results provide the first empirical evidence of awe as an "epistemic emotion" by demonstrating its effects on awareness of knowledge gaps. These findings are also extended to the effects of awe on science interest as one possible outcome of awareness of knowledge gaps.

Individual and Cultural Differences in Predispositions to Feel Positive and Negative Aspects of Awe

“…Aesthetic beauty can be fueled by feelings of terror (e.g., towards power, the unknown/incomprehensible) into “the sublime” (Halstead & Halstead, 2004; Kant, 1790/ 1987), which is connected to awe. Lastly, becoming aware of the limitation of one’s knowledge itself (McPhetres, 2019) can potentially threaten self-efficacy by eroding trust in one’s senses as a reliable source of understanding. However, at the same time, such awareness can provoke curiosity and the desire to seek the rewards of learning (C.…”

Ehrfurcht/Dankbarkeit als säkulare Form der Spiritualität bei jungen Erwachsenen und Ordens-Christen

“…Auch eine dreiwöchige Dankbarkeits-Schulung hatte positive Auswirkungen auf Wohlbefinden und Stressempfinden (O´Leary & Dockray 2015). Für den Bereich Ehrfurcht gibt es längst nicht so viele Studienergebnisse wie für die Achtsamkeitsmeditation; viele sind experimentelle Arbeiten, die Online-oder virtuelle Realitäts-Szenarien nutzen (Chirico et al 2018;McPhetres 2019). Eine interessante Arbeit von Piff et al (2015) konnte zeigen, dass eine naturalistische Induktion von Ehrfurcht bei Teilnehmern, die sich in einem Baum-Hain aufhielten, ihr prosoziales Verhalten verbesserte.…”

Creating Ambassadors of Planet Earth: The Overview Effect in K12 Education

“…Awe has also been linked to greater awareness of knowledge gaps. That is, awe has been shown to make gaps in one's knowledge salient, which could be attributed to it being a positive emotion (McPhetres, 2019). These findings open up the question on whether the overview effect can be simulated for elementary school children, instilling the feeling of awe in them, and support learning.…”

“…This indicates its connection to awe. Other environments and occurrences that can elicit the same type of emotions are cathedrals (Keltner and Haidt, 2003), (videos of) natural panoramic views and scenes (Rudd et al, 2012;Van Cappellen and Saroglou, 2012;van Elk et al, 2016;Guan et al, 2019;McPhetres, 2019), childbirth (Van Cappellen and Saroglou, 2012;Shiota et al, 2017), natural disasters (Keltner and Haidt, 2003;Guan et al, 2019), and, of course, videos of Earth from space (Rudd et al, 2012;Nelson-Coffey et al, 2019). Similarly to the overview effect, awe-inducing events can result in a feeling of self-transcendence and transformation as well as spirituality (Van Cappellen and Saroglou, 2012;Chirico and Yaden, 2018).…”