Uncovering the Effects of Awe on Meaning in Life

Abstract

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
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Y. Dai et al.
of awe. Awe has been found to increase positive mood, promote prosociality, induce humil-
ity, expand time perception, decrease materialism, improve subjective well-being and life
satisfaction, and enhance the joy and prosocial emotions of the elderly (e.g., Anderson et al.,
2018; Bai et al., 2021; Jiang et al., 2018; Jiang & Sedikides, 2021; Joye & Bolderdijk, 2015;
Pi et al., 2015; Rudd et al., 2012; Stellar et al., 2017; Sturm et al., 2020). In addition, awe
could act as a coping strategy for protecting people from negative incidents such as daily
stress and uncertain waiting periods (Bai et al., 2021; Koh et al., 2019; Rankin et al., 2020).
Awe has also been theorized as a meaning-making emotion (Danvers et al., 2016; Ihm
et al., 2019; Stellar, 2021). However, little research has examined the eects of awe on the
outcomes of meaning-making, such as on the sense of meaning in life (MIL). In the current
research, we aimed to examine the eect of awe on MIL, specically by examining how awe
aects the sense of meaning via three facets of MIL: coherence, purpose, and signicance.
1 Awe as a Meaning-making Emotion
Awe is a meaning-making emotion (Danvers et al., 2016; Ihm et al., 2019; Stellar, 2021)
suggested that awe enables a meaning-making process by helping people establish a grand
framework that integrates people’s life experiences coherently and connects them to a
greater entity. Ihm et al. (2019) suggested that awe enhances the sense of MIL for two pos-
sible reasons. First, people feel awe when they encounter physically or conceptually vast
stimuli that cannot be fully comprehended, thus arousing the need for them to change their
mental structure in order to make sense of the vast stimuli (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). Accom-
modative meaning-making—revising the mental structures and beliefs to have a sense of
meaning—is the cognitive mechanism that could account for why awe enhances MIL (Ihm
et al., 2019). Second, awe also leads to a sense of self-smallness, leading people to feel that
they are small and insignicant (e.g., Bai et al., 2017; Pi et al., 2015; Shiota et al., 2007).
Ihm et al. (2019) suggested that the sense of self-smallness induced by awe reduces people’s
reliance on existing schemas to understand the world, thus promoting a meaning-making
process, which further results in an increased sense of meaning. In contrast, Rivera et al.
(2019) made an opposite suggestion: that self-smallness leads to a decrease in MIL, given
that awe induces the sense that one is small and insignicant.
Empirical research on the relationship between awe and MIL yields inconsistent results.
People who reported more frequent experiences of awe have been found to have a higher
score on MIL (Ihm et al., 2019). In addition, meaningful life events frequently were reported
as the source of awe, which often brought about signicant and lasting changes in people’s
lives (Ihm et al., 2019). However, inducing awe did not aect MIL (Rivera et al., 2019)
found that self-smallness accounted for the negative eect of awe on MIL, whereas hap-
piness accounted for the positive eects of awe on MIL. They suggested that the opposite
mediating eects explained why there was no signicant main eect of awe on MIL (Rivera
et al., 2019).
We suggest that happiness may not stand as a theoretically based mediator for awe’s
eect on MIL. Awe lies in the “upper reaches of pleasure and on the boundary of fear”
(Keltner & Haidt, 2003). Although awe usually includes other positive emotions (Shiota et
al., 2007; Valdesolo & Graham, 2014), positive aect is not the dening prototypical fea-
ture of awe (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). Consistent with this suggestion, Jiang and Sedikides
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(2021) found that compared with participants in the control condition, participants in the
awe condition always reported more positive (e.g., happiness and pride) and negative aect
(e.g., fear). Rivera et al. (2019) found that happiness mediated the positive eect of positive
awe on meaning; however, they found no signicant mediating eect of happiness on the
eect of negative awe, induced by threatening stimuli, on MIL (Rivera et al., 2019, Study
4). In comparing awe with amusement, happiness mediated the negative eect of awe on
MIL (Rivera et al., 2019, Study 5). It seems that whether and how happiness mediates the
eect of awe on meaning depends on the kind of awe-inducing stimuli. Moreover, although
happiness and MIL overlap substantially, they have great dierences (McGregor & Little,
1998). Happiness mainly comes from one’s needs and desires being suciently satised,
whereas MIL comes from the judgment that one’s life has purpose and value (Baumeister et
al., 2013). An unhappy but meaningful life or a happy but meaningless life are both possible.
King and Hicks (2021) suggested that other variables moderate the relationship between
positive aect and MIL. Awe is considered predominantly positive, but it often induces a
mix of positive and negative emotions (Bonner & Friedman, 2011; Keltner & Haidt, 2003).
Thus, although happiness is positively associated with MIL (King et al., 2006; Rivera et al.,
2019), suggesting that happiness accounts for the positive eect of awe on MIL seems not
that theoretically convincing.
To summarize, empirical research does not consistently support awe as being a meaning-
making emotion like psychologists have theorized. Whether and how awe impacts MIL
requires further investigation. In the next section, we discuss how awe aects the sense of
meaning via the three facets of MIL.
2 Awe, MIL, Coherence Seeking, Purpose Pursuit, and Signicance
Feeling
MIL is a construct that has long been studied as unidimensional subjective appraisals (e.g.,
George & Park, 2016a; Heintzelman & King, 2014; Steger et al., 2006). This simplied
research approach suers from conceptual ambiguity and fails to tap into the complexity
of MIL. Recently, researchers have converged on tripartite models of MIL involving coher-
ence, purpose, and signicance (Costin & Vignoles, 2020; George & Park, 2016a, b; King &
Hicks, 2021; Martela & Steger, 2016). Coherence means comprehensibility, predictability,
and order—it is about the feelings that one’s experiences and the world around make sense
(Heintzelman & King, 2014). However, self-related coherence and outside world coherence
are dierent. People could feel uncertain about themselves without feeling uncertain about
the world around them (Costin & Vignoles, 2020) suggested that a sense of meaning focuses
on one’s personal life and identity process; thus, self-related coherence is the dening sense-
making facet of MIL. Purpose refers to one’s directions and goals in life. Signicance refers
to the sense that one’s life is valuable and worth living (Costin & Vignoles, 2020; Heintzel-
man & King, 2014; George & Park, 2016a; Martela & Steger, 2016). Coherence, purpose,
and signicance are three bases upon which people judge their lives as meaningful (MIL
judgments; Costin & Vignoles, 2020); George and Park (2016b) found that purpose, signi-
cance, and coherence together accounted for 60–71% of the variance in MIL judgments, as
measured by dierent scales.
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As MIL judgment comprises purpose, signicance, and coherence, it is reasonable to
suggest that factors that inuence purpose, signicance, and coherence could further inu-
ence MIL judgment. Awe stands out as one of these potential factors. King and Hicks (2009)
distinguished two ways in which people may derive MIL: meaning detection and mean-
ing construction. Meaning detection involves an assimilation process of incorporating new
experiences into one’s mental structure. In contrast, meaning construction works when peo-
ple are faced with chaotic events, which involves people adjusting their mental structure to
accommodate the new stimuli (King & Hicks, 2009). Because awe is a triggering experience
that initiates the accommodation process, we hypothesize that awe may inuence the three
facets of MIL dierently via the two routes of meaning construction and meaning detection.
First, we suggest that awe aects coherence via the meaning-construction route. As dis-
cussed above, people feel awe when their current mental structure cannot accommodate the
vast stimuli, inspiring a need for them to adjust their mental structure for accommodation
(Keltner & Haidt, 2003). Hence, it is reasonable to suggest that awe motivates people to
seek coherence but does not instill a sense of coherence. Empirical research supports this
suggestion. For example, Valdesolo and Graham (2014) found that experimentally induced
awe increased the tendency to seek order and pattern in events, and intolerance for uncer-
tainty mediated this eect. MIL judgement requires a personal framework for making sense
of one’s life as a coherent whole. Seeking coherence promotes the development of such a
personal framework of meaning (Danvers et al., 2016; Ihm et al., 2019). Thus, we expect
that awe initiates the accommodative process of seeking coherence, which in turn contrib-
utes to MIL.
Second, awe impacts purpose via the meaning-construction route. The experience of
awe always makes people ponder deeper questions and reevaluate their goals and purpose
in life (Bonner & Friedman, 2011; Danvers & Shiota, 2017; Schneider, 2009). Awe is also a
self-transcendent emotion. Its self-transcendent nature allows individuals to set aside their
day-to-day concerns and reach out beyond their self-boundary (Jiang et al., 2018; Jiang &
Sedikides, 2021; Reed, 1991), which liberates individuals from the constraints of daily life
and fosters a sense of autonomy. Autonomy enables a sense of freedom to follow one’s own
heart and encourages people to pursue their intrinsic goals (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Consistent
with these suggestions, Jiang and Sedikides (2021) further found that awe motivated people
to pursue the authentic self, as manifested by their important goals and values. In addi-
tion, awe is an approach-oriented emotion (Emmerich & Rigotti, 2017; Impett et al., 2013),
which is conducive to pursuing one’s purpose. Thus, we suggest that awe motivates purpose
pursuit, rather than directly increases the sense of purpose. As meaningful life is expressed
as the pursuit of personally signicant goals (e.g., Costin & Vignoles, 2020; Emmons,
2003), we expect awe enhances MIL judgment via purpose pursuit.
Third, awe aects the sense of signicance via the meaning-detection route. The vastness
associated with awe makes people aware of how small they are. The sense of insignicance
or smallness is well incorporated into people’s mental structure in the face of awe. A grow-
ing body of empirical research has lent support to awe’s small-self eect (Bai et al., 2017;
Joye & Bolderdijk, 2015; Pi et al., 2015; Shiota et al., 2007), which was found consis-
tently in both independent and collectivistic cultures (Bai et al., 2017). Thus, we suggest
that awe triggers feelings of insignicance and smallness. Signicance refers to feelings
of importance and self-worth (George & Park, 2016a; Heintzelman & King, 2014; Martela
& Steger, 2016). The sense of insignicance induced by awe may decrease MIL judgment,
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given that an important aspect of MIL is the feeling of signicance. Consistent with this
suggestion, Rivera et al. (2019) found that self-smallness accounts for the negative eects
of awe on MIL. Thus, we predict that awe decreases MIL judgment via its negative eect
on signicance feeling.
To summarize, we hypothesize that awe increases MIL via coherence seeking and pur-
pose pursuit, but decreases MIL via reducing signicance feeling. Because the indirect
eects are competing, we made no specic hypothesis about the total eect of awe on MIL.
3 Overview of the Current Research
In the current research, from the perspective of the meaning-construction and meaning-detec-
tion routes of deriving MIL, we tested whether induced awe motivates coherence seeking
and purpose pursuit and reduces the sense of signicance, as well as whether awe inuences
MIL judgment via increasing purpose pursuit and coherence seeking, and decreasing sig-
nicance feeling. We received ethical approval from the corresponding author’s institution.
4 Method
4.1 Participants and Design
We used a video clip to manipulate awe, a common method of inducing awe (Algoe &
Haidt, 2009; Jiang & Sedikides, 2021; Pi et al., 2015; Prade & Saroglou, 2016), as well as
scales to measure coherence seeking, purpose pursuit, sense of signicance, and MIL. The
experiment was in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the
Ethics Committee of the corresponding author’s institution. We preregistered this study on
Aspredicted (https://aspredicted.org/id535.pdf).
We tested 300 Chinese participants on Credamo, a reliable platform to recruit partici-
pants similar to Qualtrics Online Sample or Amazon Mechanical Turk (Gong et al., 2020;
Jiang & Sedikides, 2021). We excluded 18 for failing the attention check questions, leaving
282 participants (127 men, 155 women; Mage = 28.15, SDage = 6.63) in the nal sample.
Among them, 276 were Han Chinese, and six were from other ethnicities; 9.93% had a
middle school, high school, or college (preparatory or apprenticeship) degree, 79.79% had a
bachelor’s degree, and 10.28% had a master’s or PhD degree. We randomly allocated them
to the experimental (n = 135) or control (n = 147) condition.
4.2 Procedure and Materials
In the experimental condition, the participants watched a 302-s video (validated by Hornsey
et al., 2018; Jiang & Sedikides, 2021), illustrating the comparative sizes of the Earth and
other celestial bodies. In the control condition, the participants watched a 302-s video illus-
trating how to make a table. Afterward, the participants answered two questions—“To what
extent are you feeling awe?” and “To what extent did the video you just watched make you
feel awe?”—on a 7-point scale, M = 5.06, SD = 1.69, r(282) = 0.93, p < .001 (1 = not at all,
7 = extremely, Koh et al., 2019), to check whether our awe induction was eective or not.
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Next, we measured coherence seeking, purpose pursuit, signicance feeling, and MIL
by adapting the Multidimensional Meaning in Life Scale (Costin & Vignoles, 2020). The
scale has four dimensions: sense of coherence, purpose, mattering, and MIL judgments. We
rephrased the sentences to capture coherence seeking (e.g., “I would like to make sense of
the things that happen in my life”), purpose pursuit (e.g., “I am motivated to pursue what I
am trying to accomplish in my life”), and signicance feeling (e.g., “I feel whether my life
ever existed matters even in the grand scheme of the universe,” reverse-coded), and used the
original items to measure MIL judgements (e.g., “My life as a whole has meaning”). Par-
ticipants had to indicate their agreement with the items. The scores of the items from each
dimension were averaged to index coherence seeking (1 = strongly disagree, 9 = strongly
agree; M = 6.23, SD = 1.04, α = 0.53), purpose pursuit (1 = strongly disagree, 9 = strongly
agree; M = 6.98, SD = 1.30, α = 0.86), signicance feeling (1 = strongly disagree, 9 = strongly
agree; M = 5.10, SD = 1.56, α = 0.77), and MIL (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree;
M = 5.70, SD = 1.08, α = 0.87). The items in the subscales were presented in separate random
order for each participant.
5 Results and Discussion
5.1 Awe Manipulation Check
We present descriptive statistics in Table 1. As predicted, the experimental participants felt
more awe than the control participants did, F(1, 280) = 249.38, p < .001, ηp
2 = 0.471.
5.2 Coherence Seeking, Purpose Pursuit, Significance Feeling, and MIL
Participants in the experimental condition reported greater willingness to pursue purpose,
F(1, 280) = 5.68, p = .018, ηp
2 = 0.020, but less sense of signicance, F(1, 280) = 32.98,
p < .001, ηp
2 = 0.105, than those in the control condition. No dierence was found in coher-
ence seeking, F(1, 280) = 1.41, p = .24, ηp
2 = 0.005. In addition, the participants in the experi-
mental condition reported more sense of MIL than those in the control condition did, F(1,
280) = 5.16, p = .024, ηp
2 = 0.018.
5.3 Mediational Analysis
Next, we tested whether purpose pursuit, signicance feeling, and coherence seeking medi-
ated the eect of awe on MIL. We ran a bootstrapping mediational analysis (Hayes, 2018;
PROCESS 3.5, Model 4) with 5,000 interactions. We entered the awe manipulation as an
Awe Control
Mean SD Mean SD
Awe 6.27 0.72 3.95 1.56
Coherence seeking 6.30 1.08 6.15 1.01
Purpose pursuit 7.17 1.22 6.80 1.35
Signicance feeling 4.58 1.69 5.59 1.25
MIL 5.85 1.06 5.56 1.09
Table 1 Descriptive Statistics
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Uncovering the Effects of Awe on Meaning in Life
independent variable (1 = experimental condition, 0 = control condition); coherence seeking,
purpose pursuit, and signicance feeling as mediators; and MIL as the dependent variable.
The indirect eect of coherence seeking was not signicant, b = 0.05, SE = 0.05, 95% CI
[− 0.0323, 0.1489]; the indirect eect of purpose pursuit was signicant, b = 0.14, SE = 0.07,
95% CI [0.0249, 0.2833]; and the indirect eect of signicance feeling was signicant,
b = − 0.08, SE = 0.03, 95% CI [− 0.1560, − 0.0219] (see Fig. 1). The indirect eect of purpose
pursuit was larger than the indirect eect of signicance feeling, which could account for
that the overall eect of awe on MIL was positive.
These results suggested that awe motivated people to pursue purpose, which further con-
tributed to their sense of MIL. Meanwhile, awe also made people feel insignicance, which
was further detrimental to their sense of MIL. Coherence seeking could not account for the
eect of awe on the sense of MIL.
6 Discussion
Awe has been identied as “the ultimate humanistic moment” (Konecni, 2005, p. 27), in
which people are challenged to look beyond themselves and ponder deep questions about
the MIL. Coherence, purpose, and signicance are three bases upon which people make
MIL judgments (Costin & Vignoles, 2020). However, whether and how the three facets of
MIL contribute to the relationship between awe and MIL was not empirically examined in
prior research. Drawing upon the tripartite model of MIL (e.g., Costin & Vignoles, 2020)
as well as the meaning-construction and meaning-detection routes proposed by King and
Hicks (2009), we found that awe motivated people to pursue their purpose and reduced
their feelings of signicance, which further had competing eects on MIL. Specically, we
found that awe increased MIL judgment via motivating purpose seeking but decreased MIL
judgment via reducing the sense of signicance, which is consistent with previous nd-
ings that MIL was positively associated with an approach orientation (Steger et al., 2008)
Fig. 1 The Eect of Awe, Mediated by Coherence Seeking, Purpose Pursuit, and Signicant Feeling, on
Meaning in Life. Unstandardized coecients displayed
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and was negatively associated with a sense of insignicance and smallness (Rivera et al.,
2019). In contrast to Rivera’s (2019) ndings, we found that awe increased MIL, which was
driven mainly by the mediating eect of purpose pursuit. To our knowledge, the current
research provides the rst empirical evidence examining the eect of awe on MIL from the
perspective of the tripartite model of MIL. These ndings advance our knowledge about the
psychological mechanisms underlying the eect of awe and MIL.
Contrary to our hypothesis, in the current research, we did not nd that awe motivated
coherence seeking. This may be because feeling awe makes people realize that something
exists beyond their comprehensibility. Awe induces humility (Stellar et al., 2018), which
refers to transcending oneself and accepting one’s limits and place in the grand scheme of
things (Kesebir, 2014). Feeling awe makes people feel humble, accurately as well as less
defensively appraise their own characteristics, acknowledge their limitations, and accept
what happens in their life. Thus, their motivation to seek order and comprehensibility in
their personal life might be attenuated. Supporting this suggestion, dispositional awe and
induced awe have been found to be negatively related to, or decrease the need for cognitive
closure (Lv et al., 2021; Shiota et al., 2007). Awe also has been proposed to promote per-
sonal growth and transformative change, which is closely related to MIL, via augmenting
the capacity to accept ambiguity (Armstrong & Detweiler-Bedel, 2008; Bonner & Fried-
man, 2011). These pieces of evidence yield some plausible explanations about why awe
did not motivate coherence seeking. However, our research just provides a single source of
evidence. More systematic research is needed.
Our ndings that awe did not motivate coherence seeking do not speak against Valdesolo
and Graham’s (2014) ndings. In their research, awe motivated people to seek a pattern
and order in the outside world, which is consistent with ndings showing that awe was
positively associated with openness and curiosity (Anderson et al., 2020; Rudd et al., 2018).
However, coherence seeking of MIL concerns seeking predictability and order in one’s per-
sonal life (Costin & Vignoles, 2020). Not seeking predictability and order in one’s personal
life in the wake of awe may reect the self-transcendent nature and humility aspect of awe
(e.g., Jiang & Sedikides, 2021; Stellar et al., 2018). Together with Valdesolo and Graham’s
(2014) ndings, our research indicates that awe might have divergent impacts on coherence
seeking in the outside world and self-related coherence seeking.
Our research speaks to the complexity of awe. We found that awe had divergent and even
opposing eects on dierent facets of MIL. More importantly, we found that although awe
has competing eects on MIL, the insignicance feeling triggered by awe did not mask the
overall eects of awe on MIL. Such ndings imply that as a self-transcendent emotion with
signicant psychological benets (e.g., Bai et al., 2021; Jiang & Sedikides, 2021; Rudd et
al., 2012), awe does not work as a purely positive emotion like most positive psychologi-
cal research examines it as being. There might be a complicated mechanism underlying the
eect of awe on certain outcomes.
Our research has practical implications. Awe has a wide range of psychological ben-
ets, such as improving mental health, well-being, and prosociality (e.g., Anderson et al.,
2018; Bai et al., 2021; Joye & Bolderdijk, 2015). Emerging research has studied awe as a
buer with which to cope with negative incidents (e.g., Bai et al., 2021; Koh et al., 2019;
Rankin et al., 2020). Our ndings suggest that psychological practitioners should take cau-
tious steps in incorporating awe as a strategy to enhance MIL in their practice. Given the
current ndings, awe promotes MIL. However, awe is not a positive emotion with purely
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positive eects. Practitioners who seek to foster MIL via awe should focus on bolstering
the purpose pursuit or on inhibiting the threatening eect of insignicance sense. To inhibit
the threatening eect of insignicance feelings, it is imperative to dierentiate the sense of
smallness and insignicance from the decreased sense of self-salience, which are related
yet distinguishable feelings in the wake of awe. The sense of smallness and insignicance
comes from perceived vastness (Pi et al., 2015). Decreased sense of self-salience refers
to reducing the awareness of the self as a separate and distinct entity, which arises from
shifting attention away from the self and outward to a larger entity (Stellar, 2021). It is the
reducing sense of self-salience that makes feeling small and insignicant less threatening in
the wake of awe (Stellar, 2021). Our current ndings lend credence to the relatively smaller
threatening eect of feeling insignicance. Thus, practitioners could try to reduce the threat-
ening eect of feeling insignicance by augmenting the decreased sense of self-salience.
7 Limitations and Future Directions
Awe may inuence MIL via other routes. For example, self-transcendence is a source of
MIL (Frankl, 1973). Awe is a self-transcendent emotion (Chirico & Yaden, 2018; Jiang
& Sedikides, 2021). It is reasonable to expect that awe may increase MIL via self-tran-
scendence. In addition, religion is a powerful source of meaning in life for many people.
Research has found that awe promotes spirituality and religiosity (Saroglou et al., 2008; Van
Cappellen & Saroglou, 2012), which will also lead to increased MIL. Future research could
test these possibilities.
In the current research, we found the four-item coherence-seeking measure had rela-
tively low internal consistency (α = 0.53, r = .35, ω = 0.70). Previous research suggested that
for short scales with less than ve items, a Cronbach’s alpha exceeding 0.50 is acceptable
(Hinton et al., 2014). In addition, when estimating the reliability of short scales, the main
inter-item correlations should be within a recommended optimal range from 0.20 to 0.40
(Piedmont, 2004), and omega is a more reasonable index (Hayes & Coutts, 2020). Overall,
the reliability of the four-item coherence-seeking measure is acceptable. Nevertheless, we
conducted an item-to-total correlation and an exploratory factor analysis. The results sug-
gested that the fourth item (“I would like to live a life that feels like a sequence of uncon-
nected events”) should be deleted for better internal consistency. After removing the fourth
item, the results consistently supported the nonsignicant main eect of awe on coherence
seeking as well as the nonsignicant mediating eect of coherence seeking,1 suggesting
that the nonsignicant results could not be attributed to the coherence-seeking measure.
Future research should investigate this issue with other valid and reliable coherence-seeking
measurements.
Awe is a complex emotion. The experience of awe could have dierent variants depend-
ing on the dierent characteristics of inducing stimuli. (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). In the cur-
rent research, we induced awe with the video depicting the comparative sizes of the Earth
and other celestial bodies, which is a commonly-used awe-inducing stimulus (e.g., Hornsey
et al., 2018; Jiang & Sedikides, 2021). Future research could extend these ndings by inves-
tigating whether other awe-inducing stimuli have the same competing eects on MIL via
purpose pursuit and the sense of insignicance as we found in current research. Specically,
1 We report the results in the supplementary materials.
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Y. Dai et al.
we thought it worth investigating awe induced by threatening experience (Gordon et al.,
2017). Awe induced by threatening experience has been found to lead to lower self-control
and a sense of powerlessness due to the associated threat appraisals (Gordon et al., 2017). It
is likely that the awe induced by threatening experience may not motivate purpose pursuit,
and hence may not foster MIL. This warrants careful examination in future studies.
Future research could examine how individual dierences impact the ndings we
observed in current research. For example, religious beliefs may be one of the factors worth
investigating. Comparing those without religious beliefs, people with religious beliefs
might have a strong sense of purpose (Galek et al., 2015). The boosting eect of awe on
MIL via purpose would be strengthened, whereas the detrimental eect of awe on MIL via
insignicance feelings would be weakened for those with religious beliefs.
In the current research, we focused on the sense of present meaning without considering
searching for meaning, another important aspect of meaning in life (Steger et al., 2008). Our
aim was to investigate how awe impacts MIL via three facets of MIL. The tripartite model
of MIL we drew upon and the Multidimensional MIL Scale we used as the measurement
(Costin & Vignoles, 2020) do not speak to the searching for meaning aspect. Thus, search-
ing for meaning is beyond the scope of current research. Searching for meaning and present
meaning was not linearly associated (Steger, 2012). Whether and how awe impacts search-
ing for meaning merits investigation.
8 Conclusions
Research on awe as a positive emotion and its positive consequences has ourished in the
last few years. We found that awe promoted MIL via increasing purpose pursuit and decreas-
ing the sense of signicance. These ndings carry theoretical and practical implications by
suggesting that awe is a complex feeling despite its positive valence. MIL, along with other
outcomes, may respond to awe experience in a complex way.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-
022-00559-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Authors’ Contribution Tonglin Jiang and Yuwan Dai contributed to the study conception and design. Material
preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Yuwan Dai and Tonglin Jiang. The rst draft of
the manuscript was written by Tonglin Jiang and all authors commented on previous versions of the manu-
script. All authors read and approved the nal manuscript.
Funding This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholars awarded
to Tonglin Jiang by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 32000767). We conrm
that we have mentioned all organizations that funded our research in the Acknowledgements section of my
submission, including grant numbers where appropriate.
Data Availability We conrm that all data and materials support our published claims and comply with eld
standards. And the datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the
corresponding author on reasonable request.
Declarations
Conflict of Interest We conrm that we have no known competing nancial interests or personal relationships
that could have appeared to inuence the work reported in this paper.
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Ethics Approval The experiment was in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the
Ethics Committee of the Department of Psychology, Peking University.
Consent to Participate Informed consent was obtained from each participant before the experiment.
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