Measuring transformative virtual reality experiences in children's drawings.

Transformative experiences in an individual's life have a lasting impact on identity, belief system, and values. At the core of these experiences is the complex emotion of awe that promotes learning, making it worthwhile to study from an educational point of view. Drawing studies may provide a useful measure of awe in children-one that is more intuitive and attractive than questionnaires alone. Previous studies conducted with adults indicated that the diminished self, associated with transformative experiences, manifests in an actual decrease in size for figures representing the self in drawings. In the current study, self-representation was investigated in drawings of 10- to 12-year-old primary school children within the context of an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience that elicits the overview effect, known to lead to an intense apperception of awe. We did not replicate the adult findings regarding self-size in this younger age group. However, details and complexity in children's drawings appeared to be impacted by the awe-elicitation procedure in VR. These elements subsequently correlated to learning gains instead of the overview effect, indicating that this measure could be linked to cognitive ability. The findings of the current study contribute to a better understanding of how drawings reflect self-transcendental experiences; however, they also reveal that in younger age groups, they are not necessarily reflected in decreased self-size.

Prone to wellness? Dispositional awe, religion/spirituality, and well-being among academic scientists.

Recent scholarship has identified a growing mental health crisis among scientists and those in academia more generally. This study draws from nationally representative survey data collected from physicists and biologists working in four countries-the United Kingdom, the United States, India, and Italy (N = 3442)-and examines how religion/spirituality relates to their physical and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential mediating role of dispositional awe, which involves transcendent experience. In the current age, science and religion are generally perceived to be in conflict, but recent evidence suggests they might be more complementary than was previously thought, especially in that they both evoke aesthetic experiences. Results from our regression and mediation analyses suggest that academic scientists who rated religion/spirituality as "very important" in their lives had higher overall flourishing scores, lower psychological distress, and were less likely to report that their mental and physical health had worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings present a strong and consistent case for the explanatory role of a sense of awe in these associations. Taken together, our research invites academic and scientific institutions to recognize and value the personal and spiritual dimensions that scientists may bring to their work.

Interaction between creation and appreciation: How linguistic art creation impacts the aesthetic evaluation of haiku poetry and ink paintings.

In the psychology of aesthetics, compared with appreciation, there are fewer studies on art creation. This study aims to examine the influence of art creation on appreciation using haiku poetry with reference to the Mirror Model-a process model combining creation and appreciation. Although the model has been primarily used to examine visual arts, we examine its applicability to linguistic arts. In addition, we use ink painting to examine whether a generalisation across artistic genres can occur. The 115 participants were divided into two conditions-creation and control. The former created haiku before and after appreciation, while the latter did not create any haiku. The results showed no improvement in evaluation through creation. Additionally, recognising the difficulty related to creation leads to aesthetic evaluation, and this relationship is mediated by awe. These results expand the existing information regarding the Mirror Model in terms of the different art genres.

Effects of finitude salience and value orientation on the feeling of being moved.

Stories sometimes move us; this study examined the factors that strengthen the perception of core values based on the core value goodness hypothesis of being moved. Focusing on the infinity of core values, we hypothesised that the reaffirmation of the finite nature of human beings would emphasise core values. This study examined the factors that promote being moved: finitude salience and value orientation. The participants responded to a family value scale. Subsequently, a descrambling task to manipulate finitude salience was used. The participants composed sentences such as "Everything that exists in this world is finite" and primed finitude. Subsequently, they watched a video on the theme of family love and rated their feelings. From the results, we found that (a) the participants oriented towards the value themed in the video (i.e., love) were more strongly moved by it; and (b) when finitude was salient, people oriented towards the themed value in the video were moved more strongly by it than those who were not. This suggests that the feeling of being moved occurs when we recognise an infinite core value, in contrast to our finite existence.

Relationships Between Meaning in Life and Positive and Negative Spirituality in a Field Setting in Japan.

This study examined the relationships between positive/negative spirituality and meaning in life at two religious sites in Japan. Participants reported greater sadness and less meaning in life at Koyasan Okunoin, a temple with graves surrounded by nature, than at Nachi Kumano Taisha, a shrine with a waterfall. However, greater feelings of happiness protected meaning in life in the presence of sadness at Koyasan. Additionally, participants who felt a sense of awe reported greater meaning in life through self-liberation, regardless of the sites. The results provide new insights into meaning in life from the two sides of spirituality.

Experiences of Awe and Gratitude and Related Triggers Among Religious Brothers and Sisters: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study in Germany.

A cross-sectional survey among religious brothers and sisters (n = 250) with their specific lifestyle and related spiritual practices stated moments of awe perceptions. They responded to both the Awe/Gratitude scale and to free text fields to substantiate their quantitative responses. Qualitative content analysis of their free text responses resulted in six main categories of awe triggers: (1) Nature, (2) Special Moments, (3) Transcendence Perceptions, (4) Religious practices, (5) Distinct People, and (6) Aesthetics, Art and Culture. Awe perceptions can be an immediate feeling and the outcome of a process of reflection in response to admiration, inspiration, and elevation. As these perceptions are related to psychological well-being and prosocial behaviors, their training can generate positive effects on quality of life.

Awe Sparks Prosociality in Children.

Rooted in the novel and the mysterious, awe is a common experience in childhood, but research is almost silent with respect to the import of this emotion for children. Awe makes individuals feel small, thereby shifting their attention to the social world. Here, we studied the effects of art-elicited awe on children's prosocial behavior toward an out-group and its unique physiological correlates. In two preregistered studies (Study 1: N = 159, Study 2: N = 353), children between 8 and 13 years old viewed movie clips that elicited awe, joy, or a neutral (control) response. Children who watched the awe-eliciting clip were more likely to spend their time on an effortful task (Study 1) and to donate their experimental earnings (Studies 1 and 2), all toward benefiting refugees. They also exhibited increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, an index of parasympathetic nervous system activation associated with social engagement. We discuss implications for fostering prosociality by reimagining children's environments to inspire awe at a critical age.

Awe, curiosity, and multicultural experience.

INTRODUCTION: Despite broad consensus about multicultural experience's benefits, there is a lack of research on the antecedents to multicultural experiences. Research has indicated that awe shifts attention away from the self toward larger entities, which could include elements of other cultures. METHODS: Four studies (N = 2915) tested whether trait, daily, and induced awe promoted multicultural experience. RESULTS: Studies 1-2 (adolescents, young, middle, and older adults) showed that trait awe predicted greater multicultural identity and experience independent of other positive emotions and openness. Study 3 (students & adults in U.S. & Malaysia) demonstrated that daily awe predicted more daily multicultural experience independent of yesterday's multicultural experience. These results were explained by trait and daily curiosity. Study 4 (adults) found that induction of awe increased state multicultural identity and experience via state curious emotions and then state curious personality. CONCLUSION: We found that experiencing more awe can be a tool for enhancing the multicultural experience. The discussion focuses on the implications for future research on awe and multicultural experiences.

Experimental elicitations of awe: a meta-analysis.

A meta-analytic review of studies that experimentally elicited awe and compared the emotion to other conditions (84; 487 effects; 17,801 participants) examined the degree to which experimentally elicited awe (1) affects outcomes relative to other positive emotions (2) affects experience, judgment, behaviour, and physiology, and (3) differs in its effects if the awe state was elicited through positive or threatening contexts. The efficacy of methods that have been used to experimentally elicit awe and the possibility of assessing changes in the state of the self with experimental awe elicitations were also examined. Meta-analyses with robust variance estimation revealed that awe affected outcomes compared to other positive emotions and control conditions; affected experience, judgment, and behaviour; and had similar effects if elicited through positive or threatening contexts. The ability to compare awe to negative emotion states and its effects on physiology was limited by a small number of available effects. Images, videos, autobiographical recall, and naturalistic exposure were effective in eliciting awe. Exploratory analyses suggested that some processes involved in changes in the self can be related to experimental awe elicitations. These findings suggest awe is a discrete emotion and identifies areas for future investigation.

Going beyond ourselves: the role of self-transcendent experiences in wisdom.

Having good moral character often involves shifting one's focus of attention from the self to others and the world. Across three studies (N = 605 adults), we found converging evidence that self-transcendent experiences, specifically awe and flow, enabled the expression of wisdom, as captured by wise reasoning and epistemic humility measures. Study 1 found that dispositionally awe- and flow-prone people have stronger wise reasoning and epistemic humility abilities, over and above dispositional happiness. Consistent with Study 1, Study 2 found that, across diverse recalled experiences, individuals who experienced more awe showed greater wise reasoning, and those who experienced more flow showed greater epistemic humility. In Study 3, using situated interventions, we induced awe (watching a video involving vast nature scenes) and flow (composing a song using an online music maker) and compared them with neutral and amusement experiences. Compared to these control conditions, eliciting awe and flow facilitated one's (1) ability to address interpersonal conflicts with wise reasoning, (2) ability to acknowledge one's epistemic gaps, and (3) willingness to improve those aspects and one's general moral character. Altogether, these findings reveal the promising role of self-transcendent experiences in motivating people to appreciate others' perspectives beyond one's own.

The bright side of words: Norms for 9000 Spanish words in seven discrete positive emotions.

In recent years, assumptions about the existence of a single construct of happiness that accounts for all positive emotions have been questioned. Instead, several discrete positive emotions with their own neurobiological and psychological mechanisms have been proposed. Of note, the effects of positive emotions on language processing are not yet properly understood. Here we provide a database for a large set of 9000 Spanish words scored by 3437 participants in the positive emotions of awe, contentment, amusement, excitement, serenity, relief, and pleasure. We also report significant correlations between discrete positive emotions and several affective (e.g., valence, arousal, happiness, negative discrete emotions) and lexico-semantic (e.g., frequency of use, familiarity, concreteness, age of acquisition) characteristics of words. Finally, we analyze differences between words conveying a single emotion ("pure" emotion words) and those denoting more than one emotion ("mixed" emotion words). This study will provide researchers a rich source of information to do research that contributes to expanding the current knowledge on the role of positive emotions in language. The norms are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21533571.v2.

The Moral Significance of Aesthetics in Nature Imagery.

To solicit support for nature and wildlife conservation, mission-driven organizations rely on professional nature and wildlife imagery in their media outlets and campaigns. We investigated whether-and if so, why-the aesthetics of images increase social media engagement (e.g., number of likes) and the extent to which images elicit moral concern for nature and wildlife. In Study 1 (N = 782 U.S. adults), we trained a neural network to predict image aesthetics in National Geographic's Instagram data and identified image-specific attributes that influence aesthetics. We found that image aesthetics predicted engagement with the Instagram posts. In Study 2 (N = 775 U.S. adults), we established the causal effect of aesthetics on engagement and moral concern, which is explained by self-transcendent emotions (awe and inspiration) and purity associated with an image. Study 3 (N = 406 U.S. adults) replicated the results, showing that our key effects were stronger for individuals who place higher importance on beauty. By demonstrating the moral significance of image aesthetics, we highlight the potential of the beauty of nature to invigorate global conservation efforts.

An analysis of the relationship between risk perceptions and willingness-to-pay for commodities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The novel coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has had a significant impact on the global retail market. Nonetheless, consumers will eventually return to the market once the pandemic is effectively controlled. Therefore, it is critical to consider which features closely linked to COVID-19 may affect consumer behavior. The present study thus addresses this gap by investigating the relationship of risk perceptions regarding COVID-19 with an important component of consumer behavior-namely, willingness-to-pay (WTP)-and further explores the underlying mechanisms behind this relationship. Data collected from 480 Chinese participants were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that those with a greater risk perception regarding COVID-19 were more likely to exhibit a higher WTP for various commodities, which can be driven by awe and perceived loss of control induced by COVID-19. The present study delineates the effect that public health emergencies have on the consumption intentions of the general public.

Perceived Changes of Attitudes and Behaviors of Seventh-Day Adventists During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Survey in Germany.

To analyze which pandemic related changes of attitudes and behaviors were perceived by Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) and how these relate to wellbeing, a cross-sectional survey with standardized questionnaires was performed. Participants (n = 1,494) stated changes for Relationships, Digital media usage and Nature/Silence/Contemplation, but not for Spirituality or Reflection of life. Best predictors of psychological wellbeing (WHO-5) were Spiritual wellbeing, perceived Restrictions and Awe/Gratitude (R2 = .32). Mediation analyses (R2 = 0.51) revealed a mediation effect of Awe/Gratitude between spiritual to psychological wellbeing (ß = 0.11, p < 0.0001). Perceived changes were less relevant to buffer the negative effects of the pandemic; instead, they were related to fears of future. More relevant to stabilize SDAs´ wellbeing was their spirituality.

Why dispositional awe promotes psychosocial flourishing? An investigation of intrapersonal and interpersonal pathways among Chinese emerging adults.

Promoting the psychosocial flourishing of emerging adults is crucially important. The tendency to feel awe, as captured by dispositional awe, may be a protective factor that promotes psychosocial flourishing. Inspired by the broaden-and-build theory, the present study sought to investigate the underexplored relationship between dispositional awe and psychosocial flourishing among emerging adults by establishing a dual-mediated model, which focuses on an intrapersonal mechanism of meaning in life and an interpersonal mechanism of social connectedness. Data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of 1213 Chinese emerging adults who completed a series of anonymous questionnaires regarding dispositional awe, psychosocial flourishing, meaning in life, and social connectedness. Results of the correlation analysis revealed positive and significant associations among dispositional awe, meaning in life, social connectedness, and psychosocial flourishing. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that meaning in life and social connectedness fully mediated the association between dispositional awe and psychosocial flourishing. The mediation effect of meaning in life was stronger than that of social connectedness. These findings contributes to the science of flourishing by identifying the internal mechanisms of why dispositional awe promotes the psychosocial flourishing of emerging adults.

Awe liberates the feeling that "my body is mine".

Awe is an emotional response to perceptually vast stimuli that transcend one's current frames of reference. Previous research indicated that awe promotes a smaller self, which led to the creation of a small-self hypothesis. Thus, we shed new light on this hypothesis in terms of sense of body ownership using a rubber hand illusion experiment; through it, we showed that awe evokes an increased sense of body ownership over the rubber hand and this effect was prominent among participants who experienced small self. Our findings suggest that awe might provoke a "liberation of the self" in terms of a sense of body ownership as awe has been thought to liberate existing schemas, hence informing the demonstrable implications of the psychological mechanisms of awe.

Openness to experience and dispositional awe: The moderating role of subjective socioeconomic status and mediating role of Zhong-Yong thinking style in Chinese undergraduates.

Existing research has established that openness to experience can enhance dispositional awe. For the first time, the current study examines whether subjective socioeconomic status (SSES) moderates and a Zhong-Yong thinking style mediates this effect. A sample of 2,377 Chinese undergraduates (mean age 20.7, ranging from 18 to 26) was recruited. As shown in previous research, openness was found to be positively associated with dispositional awe. As predicted, the relationship was moderated by familial and school SSES. The positive correlation was significantly larger in cases of lower familial and school SSES. The mediating effect of Zhong-Yong thinking style was also supported in the relationship between openness and dispositional awe, as was the moderating effect of familial SSES; however, a suppressive effect was found for school SSES. The implications of this study are discussed herein.

Perceived changes of specific attitudes, perceptions and behaviors during the Corona pandemic and their relation to wellbeing.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, most people had to cope with the restrictions of the lockdown, leaving them to their fears, insecurity and isolation. On the other hand, due to the unexpected 'extra time' there was room for new experiences and for personal reflections on what is essential in life, to perceive nature and relations more consciously etc. We, therefore, intended to analyze perceived changes of attitudes and behaviors during the time of lockdown, and whether these perceptions would contribute to personal wellbeing during the pandemic. METHODS: An anonym cross-sectional online survey was performed for data collection, using standardized questionnaires, i.e., the WHO-Five Well-being Index (WHO-5), Brief Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale (BMLSS), Awe/Gratitude scale (GrAw-7), and the newly developed Perceived Changes Questionnaire (PCQ). RESULTS: Within the number of respondents (n = 1277), women were predominating (67.5%). Participants' mean age was 50.9 ± 14.9 years. Exploratory factor analyses showed that the 24-item Perceived Changes Questionnaire differentiated five factors that would account for 61% of variance: (1) Nature/Silence/Contemplation (Cronbach's alpha = .87), (2) Spirituality (Cronbach's alpha = .83), (3) Relationships (Cronbach's alpha = .80), (4) Reflection on life (Cronbach's alpha = .74), (5) Digital media usage (Cronbach's alpha = .74). Strongest changes were observed for Relationships and Nature/Silence/Contemplation. Perceived changes were stronger among older persons, among persons with higher wellbeing, and among those who relied on their faith as a resource. These changes were predicted best by a person's perception of wondering awe in distinct situations with subsequent feelings of gratitude. Stepwise regression analyzes revealed that participants' wellbeing was explained best by low perceived burden and high life satisfaction (R2 = .46). Awe/gratitude, perceived changes in terms of Nature/Silence/Contemplation and low Reflections of live are further variables that would predict a person's wellbeing among the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: During the Corona pandemic, people tried to find ways to adapt to the outcomes of the restrictions. The perceived changes of attitudes and behaviors can be interpreted in terms of a reappraisal strategy. These can be measured with the extended version of the PCQ which was found to have good quality indices and a plausible factor structure. The reported changes contribute to persons' wellbeing only to some extend, indicating that they represent an independent quality of relevance in peoples' life.

High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound in the Treatment of Abdominal Wall Endometriosis.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation therapy for abdominal wall endometriosis (AWE). DESIGN: A retrospective study. SETTING: Gynecologic department of a teaching hospital in China. PATIENTS: Thirty patients with AWE were treated from May 2013 to December 2015. INTERVENTIONS: Thirteen patients were treated with HIFU ablation and 17 patients with surgical resection. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Color Doppler ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging were used to observe the lesions before and after treatment. In addition, recovery time, complications, and adverse reactions of the 2 groups were compared. Menstrual pain was relieved after treatment in all 30 patients. After treatment, the lesions in patients who underwent HIFU ablation decreased gradually, and there was no recurrence. Symptoms recurred in 1 patient in the surgery group 12 months after surgery. The post-treatment hospital length of stay of the HIFU ablation group (1.00 ± 0 days) was significantly shorter than that of the surgical group (5.23 ± 1.24 days; p <.001). The incidence of fever (0% vs 11.8%; p = .049) and complications of the urinary system (7.7% vs 17.6%; p = .043) in the HIFU ablation group were significantly lower than that of the surgical group. CONCLUSIONS: HIFU ablation therapy is a promising treatment for AWE, and further study is warranted.

Are awe-prone people more curious? The relationship between dispositional awe, curiosity, and academic outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: Guided by a functional account of awe, we aimed to test the hypothesis that people who often feel awe are also more curious (Studies 1 and 2), and that this relationship in turn relates to academic outcomes (Study 3). METHOD: In Study 1 (n = 1,005), we used a self-report approach to test the relationship between dispositional awe and curiosity. In Study 2 (n = 100), we used a peer-report approach to test if participants' dispositional awe related to how curious they were rated by their friends. In Study 3, in a sample of 447 high school adolescents we tested if dispositional awe related to academic outcomes via curiosity. RESULTS: We found that dispositional awe was positively related to people's self-rated curiosity (Study 1) and how curious they were rated by their friends (Study 2). In Study 3, we found that dispositional awe was related to academic outcomes via curiosity. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that among the seven positive emotion dispositions tested, awe was related to unique variance in curiosity, and this link in turn predicted academic outcomes. This work further characterizes awe as an epistemic emotion and suggests that activities that inspire awe may improve academic outcomes.