Awe as Experience, Emotion, and Altered State

When in the mountains or by the sea, or witnessing the great wonders of the world—or even just listening to a moving song or experiencing a powerful concert—we often feel a sense of smallness, of being part of something larger. This feeling is known as awe.

Awe According to Cognitive Science

Awe isn’t just a positive emotion; it’s a complex one—and not always pleasant. It can sometimes include fear, confusion, or even a sense of overwhelm. Defining awe, then, is not straightforward. Philosophers have long grappled with its nature, but only recently has awe drawn attention in psychological and neuroscientific research, prompting empirical attempts to pin it down—just as scientists have tried to quantify a smile’s intensity. In episode 48 of Neuroverse, “The Science of Awe”, Clara and Carolina explore the phenomenon of awe and question what the main purpose of this emotion is for humans.

This cognitive realignment, this urge to revise our internal map of the world, is central to the experience of awe.

The discussion is based on the seminal work of Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt, who first proposed a conceptual framework for awe and suggested that awe emerges from two cognitive processes: a perceived vastness and the need for accommodation. Perceived vastness can come from something physically large or an abstract sense of scale, like standing before a Nobel laureate or grappling with the theory of relativity. It’s about facing something that feels far bigger than ourselves. The need for accommodation emerges when an experience challenges our usual mental models—when the world no longer makes sense as it did. In such moments, our brain tries to restructure its understanding to make sense of what’s unfolding. This cognitive realignment, this urge to revise our internal map of the world, is central to the experience of awe as Keltner and Haidt describe it.

Since their framework was introduced, research has shown that awe is often accompanied by feelings of self-diminishment and an increased sense of connectedness with others. It can evoke a self-transcendent state in which personal concerns fade, replaced by a sense of belonging to something larger. In this way, awe resembles an altered state of consciousness, akin to flow—not just an emotion, but a profound shift in being.

A Place for Awe in the Human Mind

Why do we need awe? No one knows for certain, but there are compelling theories. Keltner and Haidt suggest awe may have evolved to promote reverence for powerful leaders, encouraging social cohesion. Others, like Alice Chirico and David Yaden, propose a more environmental angle: that awe helped our ancestors identify safe, elevated places from which they could detect predators—natural vistas that both inspired and protected.

Neurobiologically, awe appears to engage a distinctive set of brain systems. Studies suggest that experiencing awe is associated with reduced activity in the Default Mode Network (DMN)—a network implicated in self-referential thinking—and increased activity in frontoparietal areas responsible for attention and cognitive control. This aligns with reports of self-diminishment and heightened external focus during awe experiences.

More direct evidence comes from a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) study by Guan et al. (2018), which examined the structural neural correlates of dispositional awe—a trait-like tendency to experience awe—among 42 young adults. They found that higher dispositional awe scores (measured via the Dispositional Positive Emotion Scale) were negatively associated with regional gray matter volume (rGMV) in several key brain areas: the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), middle/posterior cingulate cortex (MCC/PCC), and middle temporal gyrus (MTG). These regions are involved in attention regulation, conscious self-monitoring, social emotions, and cognitive control. The findings suggest that dispositional awe is grounded in brain structures tied to self-processing and social-cognitive functions—supporting the idea that awe fundamentally alters how we relate to ourselves and others.

The default mode network in the brain (source: Wikipedia)

And awe isn’t just fascinating—it’s beneficial. Studies show that inducing awe can improve mental and physical well-being, increase life satisfaction, and reduce stress. People who experience awe tend to become more prosocial, generous, and compassionate. They’re more likely to identify with universal categories like "being human", rather than narrower social labels. Awe has been linked to increased creativity, curiosity, skepticism, and voluntary service. It shifts us out of self-interest and toward collective good.

One study even found links between awe and inflammation: awe was associated with lower levels of proinflammatory cytokines. Intriguingly, the relationship may be bidirectional—less inflammation might predispose people to experience more awe, and more awe might reduce inflammation.

The episode also touches on what sort of traits make you more likely to experience awe. Traits like gratitude and open-mindedness seem to make people more susceptible. The book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your

Life by Dacher Keltner returns to Keltner and Haidt’s conceptual framework, reinforcing that awe involves perceived vastness and a cognitive need for accommodation. When an experience violates expectations and triggers a re-evaluation of reality, it often leads to this self-shrinking, world-expanding sensation. Thus, a person needs to be open-minded and willing to change their beliefs in order to experience awe.

The episode ends on a compelling note: could shifts in artistic movements across history reflect awe-driven changes in collective mindset? Perhaps awe doesn't just change individuals—it reshapes cultures.

To find out more, listen to the Neuroverse episode on this topic here.

Further reading

1. Monroy, M., & Keltner, D. (2023). Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health.

Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological

Science, 18(2), 309–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221094856

2. Guan, F., Xiang, Y., Chen, O., Wang, W., & Chen, J. (2018). Neural basis of dispositional

awe. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12, 209. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00209

This article was written by Shivali Verma and edited by Clara Lenherr.