Seek out awe as a broadening and self-transcending emotion
Awe expands perceived time, reduces self-focused thought, and increases prosocial behavior — and it can be deliberately accessed.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Awe expands perceived time, reduces self-focused thought, and increases prosocial behavior — and it can be deliberately accessed.
- Why it works: Awe involves a perception of vastness (something that exceeds current mental models) and accommodation (the need to update those models). In Fredrickson’s framework, awe is among the most powerful broadening emotions. Dacher Keltner’s research adds specificity: awe reduces the small self — the self-focused, threat-monitoring identity — and produces a sense of connection to something larger, with measurable effects on prosocial behavior and wellbeing.
- Evidence: Backed by observational / correlational evidence.
- Avoid: Waiting for awe to find you rather than pursuing the environments and experiences that reliably produce it — the irregularity of modern life requires that awe be somewhat engineered.
Why it works
Awe involves a perception of vastness (something that exceeds current mental models) and accommodation (the need to update those models). In Fredrickson’s framework, awe is among the most powerful broadening emotions. Dacher Keltner’s research adds specificity: awe reduces the small self — the self-focused, threat-monitoring identity — and produces a sense of connection to something larger, with measurable effects on prosocial behavior and wellbeing.
How to do it
- 1Identify two or three reliable awe sources in your accessible environment: a particular outdoor setting, a piece of music, architecture, a specific natural phenomenon.
- 2Schedule at least one deliberate awe experience per week, treating it with the same commitment as sleep or exercise.
- 3During the awe experience, practice allowing the sense of vastness rather than narrating it ("wow, I’m feeling awe") — the absorption matters more than the observation.
What the evidence says
ObservationalAwe inductions in laboratory and field settings have shown increased prosocial behavior, reduced self-focus, expanded time perception, and lower inflammatory markers in several studies. Keltner’s group at Berkeley has been the primary research team.
Honest caveat: Most awe studies use laboratory or short-term field methods; the translation to sustained wellbeing effects through regular practice is plausible but less directly tested.
- — Keltner & Haidt (2003), Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion, Cognition & Emotion
- — Stellar et al. (2015), Positive affect and markers of inflammation: Discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of inflammatory cytokines, Emotion
Common mistake
Waiting for awe to find you rather than pursuing the environments and experiences that reliably produce it — the irregularity of modern life requires that awe be somewhat engineered.
IX Coach asks you to name one awe experience from the past week and invites you to describe it in enough detail to re-access the state — using the recall itself as a partial re-induction.
Practice this with IX Coach →