Answers to open-ended survey questions reflected awe walk participants’ growing sense of wonder and appreciation for the details of the world around them. For example, one participant reflected on “the beautiful fall colors and the absence of them amidst the evergreen forest… how the leaves were no longer crunchy underfoot because of the rain and how the walk was more spongy now… the wonder that a small child feels as they explore their expanding world.” In contrast, participants from the control walk group tended to be more inwardly focused. For example: “I thought about our vacation in Hawaii coming up this next Thursday. Thought about all the things I had to do before we leave.” Another reflected on “what a beautiful day it was and that later I was going to go see my great granddaughter.” [Note the study was conducted prior to COVID-19.]
The researchers also asked participants to take selfies at the beginning, middle, and end of each walk. Analysis of these photos revealed a parallel, visible shift in how participants portrayed themselves: people in the awe group increasingly made themselves smaller in their photos over the course of the study, preferring to feature the landscapes around them. At the same time, the smiles on participants’ faces grew measurably more intense.
“One of the key features of awe is that it promotes what we call ‘small self,’ a healthy sense of proportion between your own self and the bigger picture of the world around you,” Sturm said. “To be honest, we had decided to do this particular analysis of participants’ selfies on a lark — I never really expected we’d be able to document awe’s ability to create an emotionally healthy small self literally on camera!”
The researchers also sent participants daily surveys throughout the eight-week study to assess their day-by-day emotional state. The responses revealed that those in the awe group experienced significant boosts in their daily experience of positive prosocial emotions such as compassion and gratitude over the course of the study.
Participants in the control group actually took more frequent walks during the study, the researchers found, perhaps because some of them suspected that the study was focused on exercise. However, this did not result in significant shifts in emotional well-being – or in the composition of their selfies. This suggests the results in the awe group were really due to the experience of awe, and not just time spent exercising outside.
The effects the researchers observed were relatively moderate but were easy to evoke and grew stronger over time, suggesting the benefits could continue to grow with longer practice.
“I find it remarkable that the simplest intervention in the world – just a three-minute conversation at the beginning of the study suggesting that participants practice feeling awe on their weekly walks – was able to drive significant shifts in their daily emotional experience,” Sturm said. “This suggests promoting the experience of awe could be an extremely low-cost tool for improving the emotional health of older adults through a simple shift in mindset.”
“Experiencing awe is such a simple practice – just taking a moment to look out the window or pausing to consider the technological marvels that surround us – and we now show it can have measurable effects on our emotional well-being,” Sturm added. “A little more joy and a little more connectedness with the world around us is something all of us could use these days.”
Authors: Study authors were Virginia Sturm, Samir Datta, Ashlin Roy, Isabel Sible, Eena Kosik, Christina Veziris, Tiffany Chow, Nathaniel Morris, John Neuhaus, Joel Kramer, and Bruce Miller of UCSF; Sarah Holley, of UCSF and San Francisco State University; and Dacher Keltner of UC Berkeley.
Funding: The research was supported by funding from the Global Brain Health Institute.
Disclosures: The authors declare no competing interests.
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF’s primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.
Pages: 1 · 2
More Articles
- Rose Madeline Mula Writes: Van Gogh and Me
- Barriers to Health Care Experienced by Women in the United States; Harvard Health on Screening Women Over 75; USPSTF Guidelines for Women Over 50
- Pew Trust: Voter Enthusiasm at Record High in Nationalized Midterm Environment
- Liberal Arts and Empathy in Medicine Reprised
- Pew Research Center: On Gender Differences, No Consensus on Nature vs. Nurture; Americans Say Society Places a Higher Premium on Masculinity Than on Femininity
- Update: Senate Hearings on Nominees for Cabinet Posts Continue; Senator Al Franken Spars With Rick Perry
- Why the ‘Skills Gap’ Doesn’t Explain Slow Hiring
- Good News: Dementia Rates Decline Sharply Among Senior Citizens Falling from 11.6% in 2000 to 8.8% in 2012
- Stolen, Chopped Up and Stripped of Parts; Cities Breathe New Life into Abandoned Bikes
- After the Louvre: My Favorite Paris Museum, Musee des Arts et Metiers