Small but Still Significant: Awe and the Self.

Abstract

Awe is an emotion elicited from experiencing great vastness that dramatically expands a person's frame of reference. In this way, awe has been found to have numerous effects on the self, including feeling "small." While smallness has previously been confounded with insignificance, little research has fully examined awe's effects on existential significance (or insignificance). Four within-person experiments tested the effects of awe on subjective perceptions of the size of the self and personal significance. Before and after awe (vs. control), participants completed reports of metaphorical self- and world size and significance. Across studies, awe shrinks the self without making one feel insignificant. Within-person, participants generally report greater significance across all conditions, not specific to awe. Study 4 also examines if fear-based inductions affect significance. This opens future research questions pertaining to awe's existential consequences on perceptions of the self and world.