You look up at a night sky packed with stars. Or music swells in a street, and your skin tingles. For a second, you feel small next to something big. That feeling has a name: awe.
Sources
Dacher Keltner, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder (2023)
Bai et al., "Awe, the diminished self, and collective engagement", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 113(2), 2017 — https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/whirl/wp-content/uploads/sites/792/2020/08/2017-Awe-the-Diminished-Self-and-Collective-Engagement.pdf (⚠️ 2026-08-11, three targeted passes over the full text: the "falling leaf" and "music in a town square" examples this module carried until today are NOT IN THIS PAPER, and their real origin was not found. Do not re-add them. What the paper does contain: a Coelho camel-driver epigraph, an Emerson epigraph, a Study 2 diary entry about a Facebook post on Mars exploration, an "art/music" elicitor CATEGORY, and a Study 6 sunset/mountain recall prompt.)
Gordon et al., "The dark side of the sublime: Distinguishing a threat-based variant of awe," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2017
McPhetres & Shtulman (2021) — awe, curiosity and interest in science
Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley — awe research summaries
Piff, P. K., Dietze, P., Feinberg, M., Stancato, D. M., & Keltner, D. (2015). "Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 883-899. https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspi0000018.pdf
Rudd, M., Vohs, K. D., & Aaker, J. (2012). "Awe expands people's perception of time, alters decision making, and enhances well-being." Psychological Science, 23(10), 1130-1136. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22886132/
McPhetres, J., & Shtulman, A. (2021). "Piloerection is not a reliable physiological correlate of awe." International Journal of Psychophysiology, 159, 88-93. https://sites.oxy.edu/shtulman/documents/2021a.pdf [NOTE: this REPLACES the existing source_references line "McPhetres & Shtulman (2021) - awe, curiosity and interest in science", which mislabels the paper the module actually cites]
Monroy, M., & Keltner, D. (2023). "Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health." Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(2), 309-320. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10018061/
Stellar, J. E., John-Henderson, N., Anderson, C. L., Gordon, A. M., McNeil, G. D., & Keltner, D. (2015). "Positive affect and markers of inflammation: discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of inflammatory cytokines." Emotion, 15(2), 129-133. https://www.envisionkindness.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Stellar-Positive-affect-and-markers-of-inflammation-discrete-positive-emotions-predict-lower-levels-of-inflammatory-cytokines-Emotion-2015.pdf [the study that MEASURED the IL-6 finding the module attributes to the 2023 review]
Sturm, V. E., Datta, S., Roy, A. R. K., et al., & Keltner, D. (2022). "Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults." Emotion, 22(5), 1044-1058 (published online 21 September 2020). https://memory.ucsf.edu/publications/big-smile-small-self-awe-walks-promote-prosocial-positive-emotions-older-adults
Yaden, D. B., Iwry, J., Slack, K. J., Eichstaedt, J. C., Zhao, Y., Vaillant, G. E., & Newberg, A. B. (2016). "The overview effect: Awe and self-transcendent experience in space flight." Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 3(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000086
Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). "Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion." Cognition and Emotion, 17(2), 297-314. [the module names this paper in three sections but it is absent from source_references]
Nguyen, C., & Quinn, K. A. (2019). "Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior: Replication and Extension." Department Honors presentation, DePaul University Psychology Night. https://via.library.depaul.edu/psychologynight/125/ (project page, NOT a preregistration: https://osf.io/mjx2b/)
"The Relationship Between Awe and Prosocial Behavior: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis." Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 47(3), 2024 - 30 papers, 91 effect sizes, N = 27,407, r = .40. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01973533.2024.2433721
"A meta-analysis examining the relationship between awe and prosocial behavior." Current Psychology, 2024 - 38 articles, 57 effect sizes, N = 20,997. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-024-06039-9
Keltner, D. "What's the Most Common Source of Awe?" Greater Good Magazine (excerpt from Awe, 2023). https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/whats_the_most_common_source_of_awe
Read end to end and corrected: August 10, 2026. Numbers checked: August 10, 2026.