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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 11, 2025

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Small but Still Significant: Awe and the Self.

Megan E Edwards1, Katelyn Mendenhall1, Christopher Sanders2

  • 1University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.

Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
|August 15, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Experiencing awe, an emotion from vastness, can make individuals feel small but not insignificant. This research explores awe's impact on self-perception and existential significance.

Keywords:
awematteringself-sizesignificance

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Emotion Research

Background:

  • Awe is an emotion triggered by vast experiences, expanding one's frame of reference.
  • Previous research links awe to feeling "small," but its effect on existential significance remains underexplored.
  • The distinction between smallness and insignificance is crucial for understanding awe's psychological impact.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the effects of awe on subjective perceptions of self-size and personal significance.
  • To differentiate between the feeling of being "small" and feeling "insignificant" in the context of awe.
  • To examine whether fear-based inductions influence perceptions of significance.

Main Methods:

  • Four within-person experiments were conducted.
  • Participants reported on metaphorical self- and world size and significance before and after awe induction (vs. control).
  • Study 4 specifically analyzed the impact of fear-based inductions on significance.

Main Results:

  • Awe consistently reduced participants' subjective sense of self-size.
  • Experiencing awe did not lead to feelings of insignificance.
  • Participants generally reported increased personal significance across all conditions, irrespective of awe induction.

Conclusions:

  • Awe shrinks the self metaphorically without diminishing personal significance.
  • The experience of awe does not appear to negatively impact existential significance.
  • Further research is needed to explore the broader existential consequences of awe on self and world perceptions.