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Uncovering the Effects of Awe on Meaning in Life

DOI:10.1007/s10902-022-00559-6
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Yuwan Dai at Peking University
Yuwan Dai
Tonglin Jiang at Peking University
Tonglin Jiang
Miao Miao at Peking University
Miao Miao
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Research on awe and meaning in life (MIL) is rare. In the current research, we conducted a pre-registered study to examine how awe influences MIL from the perspective of the tripartite model of MIL as well as the construction and detection routes of deriving meaning. The results showed that awe increased MIL via motivating purpose pursuit but decreased MIL by reducing the sense of significance. Overall, awe increased MIL, which was driven mainly by the mediating effect of purpose pursuit. Our findings suggest that awe is not a purely positive emotion, and it affects MIL in a complex way. The implications were discussed.
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RESEARCH PAPER
Accepted: 10 July 2022 / Published online: 6 August 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022
Tonglin Jiang
tljiang@pku.edu.cn
Yuwan Dai
daiyuwan@pku.edu.cn
Miao Miao
miaomaio@bjmu.edu.cn
1 School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and
Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
2 Department of Medical Psychology, School of Health Humanities, Peking University, Beijing,
China
Uncovering the Effects of Awe on Meaning in Life
YuwanDai1· TonglinJiang1· MiaoMiao2
Journal of Happiness Studies (2022) 23:3517–3529
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00559-6
Abstract
Research on awe and meaning in life (MIL) is rare. In the current research, we con-
ducted a pre-registered study to examine how awe inuences MIL from the perspective
of the tripartite model of MIL as well as the construction and detection routes of deriving
meaning. The results showed that awe increased MIL via motivating purpose pursuit but
decreased MIL by reducing the sense of signicance. Overall, awe increased MIL, which
was driven mainly by the mediating eect of purpose pursuit. Our ndings suggest that
awe is not a purely positive emotion, and it aects MIL in a complex way. The implica-
tions were discussed.
Keywords Awe · Meaning in life · Purpose pursuit · Signicance feeling · Coherence
seeking
Awe is a complicated emotion characterized by a perceived sense of vastness and need for
accommodation (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). This perceived vastness comes from observing
something physically or conceptually vast. The need for accommodation refers to the pro-
cess that when the vast stimuli violate people’s common understanding of the world, people
need to change their mental structures to make sense of the stimuli and account for the
deviation between the vast stimuli and one’s current understanding of the world. The emerg-
ing science of awe has accumulated evidence to support a wide range of benecial eects
1 3
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... Accounts for awe, as Rachel Carson wrote in The Edge of the Sea, often help people be aware of their meaning in life. Recently, researchers have begun to investigate the relationship between awe and meaning in life (Dai et al., 2022;Danvers et al., 2016;Ihm et al., 2019;Zhao et al., 2019). Although psychologists have suggested awe is a meaning-making emotion, existing findings regarding awe's effect on meaning in life are still mixed (Dai et al., 2022;Kim et al., 2022;. ...
... Recently, researchers have begun to investigate the relationship between awe and meaning in life (Dai et al., 2022;Danvers et al., 2016;Ihm et al., 2019;Zhao et al., 2019). Although psychologists have suggested awe is a meaning-making emotion, existing findings regarding awe's effect on meaning in life are still mixed (Dai et al., 2022;Kim et al., 2022;. Therefore, empirical research is still needed to clarify how and when awe contributes to meaning in life. ...
... Kim et al. (2022) found that inducing awe did not impact meaning in life. In contrast, Dai et al. (2022) found that awe induction increased meaning in life. found inconsistent effects. ...
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... In addition, the refection on human impact on the environment made some participants feel sad and hopeless. This dual efect might be inherent to the complexity of the awe emotion itself [24,104]. Awe can both reduce the existential feeling of isolation through the experience of vastness, and increase it through the heightened sense of being small [27]. ...
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