Happiness, Not Awe, Makes People More Diversity-Oriented

The current research aimed to examine whether experiencing awe has the potential to make people more positively inclined towards diversity. Awe was contrasted with effects of happiness, another positive and potentially perspective broadening emotion. Specifically, we examined the effect of experimentally induced awe on diversity attitudes, diversity fatigue, and an individual difference variable negatively associated with diversity: social dominance orientation (SDO) and compared this to the effects of a happiness induction. In a large-scale between-subjects experiment (N = 3196), participants were randomly assigned to view an awe-inducing, happiness-inducing, or neutral film clip. We found that happiness consistently enhances diversity attitudes, reduces fatigue, and lowers SDO, while awe did not show any effects on the outcomes. The findings suggest that happiness, rather than awe, may be a more effective emotional lever for promoting diversity and inclusion.