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A Little Awe Goes A Long Way
Awe isn’t an emotion we typically pay much attention to, but research suggests we should
Although we all have thoughts and emotions, it’s astounding how little we actually know about them or how they function in our bodies and brains.
Nowadays, researchers are dedicating their careers to investigating a single emotion, like how Brene Brown is an expert in shame or Dani Bassett, whom I talked about last week, who is committed to curiosity — but it’s awe that fascinates Dacher Keltner.
Awe
Dacher Keltner has an impressive resume. He is the director of the Greater Good Science Center, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, has over 200 scientific papers published, and has authored six books. Oh yeah, and he served as the scientific adviser on the Pixar film Inside Out.
In short, Keltner is one of the world’s leading emotion scientists who has spent over two decades studying the emotion of awe. During an interview on HuffPost’s podcast, Am I Doing It Wrong?, Keltner told hosts Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson how,
“Awe is particularly hard to describe with language. In fact, a lot of people are like, ‘it’s ineffable. It’s beyond words. You can’t put rational, symbolic thought to it.’…
