Awe's Impact on Attitudes of Connectedness and Respect

Abstract

This research study explored the processes and mechanisms of awe and responds to the call to expand knowledge of awe’s impact on attitudes and behaviors. Chiefly, this research examined how awe impacts people’s sense of connectedness and respect, and how this respect extends beyond the initial source of awe and applies more broadly toward other living things. Research began with a study of this relationship and a review of psychological literature on awe. This is followed by a conceptualization of the small self. The contributions of identity are outlined and related to changes to one’s sense of self, connection to the awe stimulus, and to the larger whole. Changes to sense of self are then considered in relation to the need for cognitive accommodation. The relationship between awe, cognitive dissonance, and cognitive accommodation are explored to understand the potential and actual changes resulting from awe including the neurophysiological elements of each. This understanding of how awe, accommodation, and cognitive dissonance are associated creates a more unified explanation on why accommodation is more likely, but not guaranteed, to occur in response to awe. The findings are synthesized to describe how awe influences people’s sense of connectedness and respect for living things. The clinical implications of these assertions were then linked to the psychological benefits of awe. With this understanding comes the opportunity to advance the psychological body of knowledge and to aid individuals’ and society’s mental health by drawing upon awe to enhance a sense of meaning, internal coherence, connectedness, and loving responsibility.