Seeing Awe: How Children Perceive Awe-Inspiring Visual Experiences

Awe is a profound, self-transcendent emotion. To illuminate its origin, four preregistered studies examined how U.S. 4-9-year-old children perceive awe-inspiring stimuli (N = 444, 55% female, 58%White, tested in 2020-2023). Awe-inspiring expansive nature (Study 1) and natural disaster scenes (Study 2) evoked perceived vastness, motivation to explore, and awareness of the unknown more than everyday scenes did (d ranging 0.32-1.76). Compared to expansive social stimuli, expansive nature stimuli more positively affected children’s sense of self (Study 3). Diverse awe-inspiring scenes (vast nature, natural disasters, and slow-motion objects) all elicited awe and higher learning motivation than everyday scenes did (Study 4). These findings suggest that children appreciate awe-inspiring visual experiences, illuminating the origin and nature of awe as a self-transcendent experience.