(Press-News.org) It doesn't matter what we've experienced – whether it's the breathtaking scope of the Grand Canyon, the ethereal beauty of the Aurora Borealis, or the exhilarating view from the top of the Eiffel Tower – at some point in our lives we've all had the feeling of being in a complete and overwhelming sense of awe.
Awe seems to be a universal emotion, but it has been largely neglected by scientists—until now.
Psychological scientists Melanie Rudd and Jennifer Aaker of Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management devised a way to study this feeling of awe in the laboratory. Across three different experiments, they found that jaw-dropping moments made participants feel like they had more time available and made them more patient, less materialistic, and more willing to volunteer time to help others.
The researchers found that the effects that awe has on decision-making and well-being can be explained by awe's ability to actually change our subjective experience of time by slowing it down. Experiences of awe help to brings us into the present moment which, in turn, adjusts our perception of time, influences our decisions, and makes life feel more satisfying than it would otherwise.
Now that's awesome.
###
The study, "Awe Expands People's Perception of Time, Alters Decision Making, and Enhances Well-Being," will be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
For more information about this study, please contact: Melanie Rudd at mrudd@stanford.edu.
The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Awe Expands People's Perception of Time, Alters Decision Making, and Enhances Well-Being" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Lucy Hyde at 202-293-9300 or lhyde@psychologicalscience.org.
Being in awe can expand time and enhance well-being
2012-07-20
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Colorful science sheds light on solar heating
2012-07-20
A crucial, and often underappreciated, facet of science lies in deciding how to turn the raw numbers of data into useful, understandable information – often through graphs and images. Such visualization techniques are needed for everything from making a map of planetary orbits based on nightly measurements of where they are in the sky to colorizing normally invisible light such as X-rays to produce "images" of the sun.
More information, of course, requires more complex visualizations and occasionally such images are not just informative, but beautiful too.
Such is the ...
IRVE-3 flight hardware test sounding rocket
2012-07-20
NASA will launch an inflatable aeroshell/heat shield technology demonstrator on a Black Brant XI sounding rocket July 22 from the agency's launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) is the third in a series of suborbital flight tests of this new technology.
Technicians will vacuum pack the uninflated 10-foot (3.05 meters) diameter cone of high-tech inner tubes into a 22-inch (56 centimeters) diameter sounding rocket. During the flight test an on board system will inflate the tubes -- stretching a thermal ...
Tropical Depression Khanun blankets South Korea
2012-07-20
Tropical Depression Khanun came ashore with some heavy rainfall in the morning hours (local time) on Thursday, July 19. NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Khanun's clouds on July 19, covering all of South Korea like a blanket.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument onboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a true-color image of Tropical Depression Khanun over South Korea on July 19, 2012 at 0225 UTC, or 11:25 a.m. local time, Seoul (10:25 p.m. EDT/U.S. on July 18).
The last advisory on Khanun from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center ...
Vitamin D may protect against lung function impairment and decline in smokers
2012-07-20
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with worse lung function and more rapid decline in lung function over time in smokers, suggesting that vitamin D may have a protective effect against the effects of smoking on lung function, according to a new study from researchers in Boston.
"We examined the relationship between vitamin D deficiency, smoking, lung function, and the rate of lung function decline over a 20 year period in a cohort of 626 adult white men from the Normative Aging Study," said lead author Nancy E. Lange, MD, MPH, of the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and ...
CPAP treatment effective in patients with milder OSA and daytime sleepiness
2012-07-20
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), well established as an effective treatment for severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), is also effective in patients with mild and moderately severe OSA and daytime sleepiness, according to a new study.
"The evidence for the efficacy of CPAP in patients with milder OSA is limited and conflicting," said lead author Terri E. Weaver, PhD, RN, professor and dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing. "Our multi-site, double-blind, randomized trial, the first placebo-controlled study to use sham CPAP in sleepy ...
Rutgers study: Anxiety disorders in poor moms likely to result from poverty, not mental illness
2012-07-20
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Poor mothers are more likely to be classified as having the mental illness known as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) because they live in poverty – not because they are suffering from a psychiatric disorder, according to Rutgers researchers.
Judith C. Baer, an associate professor in the School of Social Work, and her team, in the study, "Is it Generalized Anxiety Disorder or Poverty? An Examination of Poor Mothers and Their Children," published online in Child and Adolescent Social Work, argue that although high levels of stress over long periods ...
Racially diverse suburbs growing faster than white suburbs but resegregation threatens prosperity
2012-07-20
Racially diverse suburbs are growing faster than white suburbs, but resegregation threatens their prosperity and stability, according to a study entitled, "America's Racially Diverse Suburbs: Opportunities and Challenges," released this week by the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School.
Long perceived as predominantly prosperous white enclaves, suburbs are now at the cutting edge of racial, ethnic and political change in America. The study finds the number of racially diverse suburbs, municipalities ranging from 20-60 percent ...
AbetterlifeThailand.com Helps People on a Budget Live an Affluent Lifestyle in Thailand
2012-07-20
As more people struggle to afford food, housing, transportation and medical care, one company has introduced a unique solution for the rising cost of living in America.
The founders of A Better Life announced today the release of its initial website, http://www.abetterlifeThailand.com, aimed at people wanting to live a better life, by helping them relocate to exotic Thailand.
Entrepreneurs David Yow and Gary Orman saw a need in the marketplace for a turnkey solution where they help people to visit or relocate to Thailand because of its luxurious yet affordable lifestyle, ...
The new Mercedes-Benz SL: Lightweight, athletic, luxurious
2012-07-20
The new SL has been produced for the first time almost entirely from aluminium and weighs up to 140 kilograms less than its predecessor. Its highly rigid all-aluminium bodyshell provides the basis for agile, sporty handling that has been taken to an entirely new level, coupled with exemplary roll characteristics and ride comfort. Even better driving dynamics come courtesy of the new BlueDIRECT engines; they are more powerful yet at the same time up to 29 percent more economical than the engines in the outgoing generation. Other new features include the unique Frontbass ...
Search Engines Favour Mobile Optimized Websites By Gemini Rising
2012-07-20
Major search engines have recently begun to favour mobile optimized websites if the user executes his, or her search from a mobile device. This is part of an ongoing strategy by search engines to enhance the relevancy of search results and deliver information that is appropriate for the device being used.
In fact, according to Miriam Slozberg, President, Gemini Rising Ltd, a Toronto-based Mobile SEO Consultancy, "The variety of mobile devices, each with its own distinctive features, are being pumped into the market and leaves the web designers with no other alternative ...