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Seeing awe: How children perceive awe-inspiring visual experiences
1Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Child Development
|January 31, 2024
Summary
Children aged 4-9 experience awe from vast natural scenes and disasters, which sparks curiosity and a sense of self. These awe-inspiring visual experiences highlight the origins of this profound emotion.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
- Emotional Science
Background:
- Awe is a complex, self-transcendent emotion.
- Understanding the origins of awe in childhood is crucial for developmental research.
- Previous research has not fully explored children's perception of awe-inspiring stimuli.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how children perceive awe-inspiring stimuli.
- To examine the relationship between awe-inspiring experiences and children's cognitive and emotional responses.
- To illuminate the origins and nature of awe as a self-transcendent experience in children.
Main Methods:
- Four preregistered studies were conducted with 444 U.S. children aged 4-9 years.
- Children were exposed to various awe-inspiring stimuli, including expansive nature, natural disasters, and slow-motion objects.
- Control conditions used everyday scenes and expansive social stimuli.
- Perceptual, motivational, and self-related responses were measured.
Main Results:
- Awe-inspiring expansive nature and natural disaster scenes evoked greater perceived vastness, motivation to explore, and awareness of the unknown compared to everyday scenes.
- Expansive nature stimuli positively influenced children's sense of self more than expansive social stimuli.
- Diverse awe-inspiring scenes (vast nature, natural disasters, slow-motion objects) elicited awe and higher learning motivation than everyday scenes.
Conclusions:
- Children aged 4-9 years perceive and respond to awe-inspiring visual experiences.
- Awe in children is linked to perceptions of vastness, motivation to explore, and a sense of self.
- These findings illuminate the origins and nature of awe as a self-transcendent emotion in early development.
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