Awe-full uncertainty: Easing discomfort during waiting periods

ABSTRACT

Waiting for uncertain news is a common and stressful experience. We examined whether experiencing awe can promote well-being during uncomfortable periods of uncertainty. Across two studies (total N = 729), we examined the relationship between trait awe and well-being as participants awaited feedback on a novel intelligence test or ratings from peers following a group interaction. These studies further examined the effect of an awe induction, compared to positive and neutral control conditions, on well-being. We found partial support for a relationship between trait awe and well-being during waiting periods, particularly with positive emotion. We also found partial support for the benefits of an awe induction: People consistently experienced greater positive emotion and less anxiety in the awe condition compared to a neutral control condition, although these benefits did not always improve upon the positive control experience. Importantly, these benefits emerged regardless of one’s predisposition to experience awe.

KEYWORDS:

• Awe
• well-being
• emotion
• uncertainty

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. The difference in timeline between baseline positive/negative emotions (1 week) and anxiety (3 days) was simply due to an oversight. Our intention with these baseline measures was to control for recent emotional tendencies, which led us to inquire about recent days rather than simply state emotions at baseline. Although we recognize that controlling for participants’ emotional state entering the study has some advantages, we argue that controlling for recent emotional tendencies also has advantages in ruling out third-variable explanations for our findings.

2. We also ran these models comparing the (1) awe induction condition to the neutral control condition (awe induction = +1, positive = 0, neutral = −.1) and (2) awe induction condition to the positive control condition (awe induction = +1, positive = −1, neutral = 0). The only difference in our findings when approached this way is that in the second model, the effect of condition (awe vs positive) dropped slightly below traditional standards for statistical significance as a predictor of anxiety, β = −.08 [−.17, .01], p = .07.

3. As in Study 1, we also ran these models comparing the awe condition to the positive and control conditions separately. Using this approach, the effect of awe vs. control condition dropped slightly below traditional standards for statistical significance as a predictor of anxiety, β = −.07 [−.15, .01], p = .08, and the effect of awe vs. positive did not predict positive emotions, β = −.01 [−.09, .08], p = .91, consistent with our contrast tests.