Suddenly enlightened: awe promotes wise reasoning via self-transcendence
Journal of Positive Psychology February 6, 2025 Yuling Wang, Tonglin Jiang, Wei Yan
Awe, an emotion that makes people feel part of something larger than themselves, appears to promote wise reasoning—the ability to consider different perspectives, seek compromise, and recognize the limits of one's own knowledge. Across four studies involving 3,700 participants, including cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental designs, awe consistently predicted or enhanced wise reasoning. This effect was not simply due to awe being a positive emotion, nor to feeling small. Instead, the relationship was explained by a sense of self-transcendence, or feeling connected to something beyond the self. The findings suggest that experiencing awe can help people reason more wisely, especially in conflicts.