Awe increases stimulus-specific curiosity

ABSTRACT

Awe, an emotional response to vast stimuli that transcend our schema, is thought to promote epistemic curiosity; however, it remains unclear whether the promotional effect of awe on curiosity is specific to a stimulus-related domain or general domain. In Experiment1 (N = 120), we examined the influence of three emotion conditions (nature-awe, amusement, and neutral emotional state) on curiosity, regarding seven topics (nature, art, food, history, living things, science, and sports). The results showed that the induction of nature-awe specifically increased curiosity about nature. In Experiment 2 (N = 130), we examined the influence of two awe conditions (nature-awe and art-awe) on curiosity on five topics (nature, art, history, living things, and science). The results not only replicated the results of Experiment 1 but also showed that the induction of art-awe specifically increased curiosity about art and history. These results suggest that awe can increase stimulus-specific curiosity.

KEYWORDS:

• awe
• curiosity
• interest
• creativity
• nature
• art

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data and code that support the findings of this study are openly available at https://osf.io/yzne3/.

Ethics approval statement

This study was approved by the local institutional board (CPE-526), and all participants provided written informed consent prior to participation. The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research and JSPS-Fellows-KAKENHI-[grant no JSPS KAKENHI 21J23196 and 22H01103].