The wonder of it all: Why awe is critical for our health and happiness

A leading US psychologist believes our capacity to experience awe in everyday life is critical to our health and happiness

An illuminated tent under Milky Way at Matterhorn in Switzerland

When Dacher Keltner found himself sitting next to Steven Spielberg at dinner one evening, there was only one question he wanted to ask the legendary filmmaker.

Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is an expert on the science of emotions and has spent his career exploring happiness and how we can achieve it — he believes that a key element of happiness is finding awe.

When he got the chance to quiz Spielberg about his childhood experience of awe, the director recalled being brought to the cinema by his father at the age of five to see the Cecil B De Mille film, The Greatest Show on Earth, and how when he witnessed two trains careering down the tracks before crashing, he was “wonderstruck”.

The cineplex is just one of the many places we can experience awe — Spielberg himself has undoubtedly conjured it up for millions — and in his new book, Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder, Keltner outlines how we can find awe and in the process improve our physical and mental health. But how do you measure awe?

“As scientists, we identify it in terms of feeling like your self is small and insignificant,” says Keltner. 

“If you’re humble, you feel open to the world. You feel curious … and you start asking yourself questions. And then in the body you feel certain things like the gasp, the ‘whoa’, the tearing up, the goosebumps, the tingles. 

"Sometimes people feel a warmth in their chest. People often fall silent and drop their mouth when they’re feeling awe. Put those all together and you have a profile of the awe experience.”

A unique emotional response

According to Keltner, awe is an emotion distinct from others.

“In the science of emotion, there are tools to differentiate the different states. Awe looks different from fear, anger or surprise, physiologically and in neurophysiology, in the brain. Throughout the book, I make the case for awe as a basic state of mind that is part of life, and to be cultivated.”

Prof Dacher Keltner

Keltner also writes about how awe can aid our mental health by literally taking us out of ourselves. This can be seen in the nature writing of authors such as Wordsworth, Emerson, Thoreau and Rachel Carson, who portray the self as dissolving during experiences of natural awe — what researchers term the “small self” effect.

“That was one of our first really robust findings — the science of the small self. Looking up into trees — small self. Looking out at a view — small self. Watching a beautiful video — small self.”

He says this ability to appreciate the wonder of existence outside ourselves is increasingly important in an age of increasing individualism.

“Sociologists have written about this age of self-focus, taking selfies and going on Instagram and comparing myself to the person who’s doing the fabulous yoga moves. 

"Awe is an antidote to that broad cultural trend ... the era of narcissism and not attending to other people and not thinking about the broader things to be amazed by — awe just gets you there. I think that’s good news for our times.”

The awesome natural world

The natural world is understandably seen as a default source of awe — and the great outdoors is one of Keltner’s favourite places to find it.

However, he says we can also find it in small, everyday moments and in other people.

“I find awe in seeing two old friends laugh, a couple of kids share an ice cream or guys playing pick-up basketball. And I was raised by an artist so visual stuff matters a lot to me, just to go study paintings. One of the really interesting things about awe is when you tell stories of awe, other people feel awe, they will tear up, isn’t that amazing? Like wow, it’s contagious.”

Starry night sky with aurora over the hills

Keltner says while there are many opportunities for finding awe, we live in a pressurised society that mitigates against it and it is important to cultivate it in our children especially.

“Having taught young people for 30 years now, I would say that there’s a lot of awe deprivation — they’re too pressured, they’re too narrow in how they look at things, they are way over-scheduled, at least in the United States.

“We cut art and music classes, and a lot of poorer kids haven’t really been outdoors. That’s why the Rachel Carson essay [ Help Your Child to Wonder] was an epiphany for me — teaching your child to wonder is the fundamental thing to do. And that, I feel, is an urgent call for our times.”

The book also illustrates how we can find awe even when we are in a tough situation or at our lowest ebb — Keltner wrote the book when he was grieving the loss of his brother, taking solace in awe.

One of the most awe-inspiring encounters he has had was inside one of the world’s most notorious prisons, San Quentin in the US, where he gave a talk to prisoners on restorative justice, an experience he describes in the book.

“These guys are killers and I’m like, ‘where do you guys find awe?’ and their answers were mind-blowing.”

As Keltner outlines, the prisoners’ replies included ‘my daughter’, ‘singing in the church band’, ‘the light outside on the yard’ and ‘learning how to read’.

“That was really interesting, the moral beauty of it all,” he says. 

“These guys are brutal and they have been brutalised. And they are working hard to love. I think it is the most profound lesson I’ve ever had about humanity, outside of having kids.”