Awe-inspiring cosmic events increase social connections and profoundly influence psychological well-being.
The date marks 28 May, 585 BC, in present-day Anatolia, Turkey. For six years, a conflict persisted between the Medes, an ancient group from the region now known as Iran, and the Lydians, a kingdom from southern Turkey. Progress remained elusive for both sides. However, the turning point came with a solar eclipse that brought the hostilities to an unexpected halt.
“Just as the battle was growing warm, day was of sudden changed into night. The Medes and Lydians, when they observed the change, ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on.”
Herodotus
Although no comparable event is expected during the total eclipse crossing North America on 8 April this year, studies suggest its psychological influence could still be profound, particularly by inspiring a sense of awe.
Few phenomena are as awe-evoking as the rare alignment of celestial bodies enabling a total solar eclipse. This event occurs due to precise cosmic conditions: the Moon’s exact size and distance from Earth, combined with its orbital path, allow it to perfectly obscure the Sun momentarily. Such a sight may, according to research, promote feelings of humility and a deeper concern for others.
“People may be more affiliative – they may say that they have closer social ties with others – and they feel more connected to their community.”
Sean Goldy, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University
The Shock of Immensity
Often overlooked in scientific inquiry, awe has gained significant attention over the past two decades as a profound area of study. Defined as a sense of wonder and amazement, it is evoked by the perception of vastness that creates a feeling of smallness in comparison.
“It’s an emotion felt when perceiving something vast that challenges an understanding of the world. It is the feeling directed at an object or phenomenon so extraordinary as to defy comprehension.”
Jennifer Stellar, a psychologist at the University of Toronto.
The impact can be transformative. As Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, notes in Awe, this emotion has the power to quiet “the nagging, self-critical, overbearing, status-conscious voice of our self, or ego” while fostering an ability “to collaborate, to open minds to wonders, and to discern the deeper patterns of life.”
Such claims are supported by an extensive body of research. In controlled experiments, participants are often shown awe-inspiring videos of natural wonders before completing tasks designed to measure shifts in mindset and behavior.
“Our ego shapes perceptions and decisions, but when a self-transcendent emotion like awe is experienced, its influence diminishes.”
Jennifer Stellar
A study from 2018 explored the connection between awe and humility. Participants were divided into two groups: one watched a video that gradually zoomed out from Earth into the vast Universe, while the other viewed a calming tutorial on building a fence. Following the videos, all participants wrote about their strengths and weaknesses. As predicted, those who viewed the space video reported experiencing awe and listed significantly fewer strengths before describing weaknesses, indicating heightened humility.
In another experiment from the same research, participants were divided into three groups. One group recalled a moment of awe, another reflected on a humorous experience, and the final group described an uneventful trip to buy groceries. Participants then rated, on a scale of 0 to 100%, the extent to which personal talents or external factors such as luck or divine influence contributed to life achievements.
Those primed with feelings of awe were more likely to attribute their success to external forces, reflecting greater humility.
“This aligns with the idea that awe reduces self-importance and self-focus. Our ego shapes perceptions and decisions, but the experience of a self-transcendent emotion like awe diminishes its influence.”
Jennifer Stellar
Blurred Boundaries
The diminishing of ego not only fosters humility but may also encourage a renewed perspective on others.
“When diminished focus on self occurs, the line between one individual and another can blur, creating a sense of being part of the web of humanity.”
Jennifer Stellar
This concept was explored by researchers who asked participants to illustrate their sense of closeness to the community using pairs of circles—one representing the individual and the other representing the surrounding people. The overlap between the circles, resembling a Venn diagram, indicated the strength of social connection and its role in personal identity. After viewing an awe-inspiring video, participants consistently chose circles with significantly greater overlap, a common measure of enhanced social connection.
A similar phenomenon was observed in a study led by S. Katherine Nelson-Coffey from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Participants experienced a virtual-reality spacewalk accompanied by an audio narration adapted from Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot. Compared to a control group that viewed a small model of Earth and Pluto, these participants were notably more likely to agree with statements like
“I felt closer to others and all of humanity.”
Awe can even encourage altruistic behavior. Research by Paul Piff, a psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine, demonstrated this effect. After viewing clips from the BBC’s Planet Earth series, participants were more inclined to share tickets for a $100 raffle than those who watched comedic scenes from Walk on the Wild Side.
The Eclipsed Self
While laboratory experiments offer valuable insights, they may not fully capture spontaneous reactions to natural phenomena. This limitation motivated Sean Goldy during his PhD research.
“A way of studying individuals experiencing something truly momentous was being sought. “
Sean Goldy during his PhD research
The total solar eclipse of 2017 provided an ideal solution. The rare alignment of the Moon and the Sun, showcasing the Sun’s corona, presented a powerful trigger for awe. Moreover, the event inspired numerous social media posts, offering a unique opportunity to analyze immediate responses.
Data was collected from the social media platform now known as X (formerly Twitter). By analyzing location details in user profiles, it was possible to distinguish those who witnessed the total eclipse from those who missed the full spectacle. Linguistic analysis was then applied to posts. Words such as “amazing” or “mind-blowing” were categorized as indicators of awe, while cautious terms like “maybe” or “perhaps” signaled humility. Pro-sociality was identified through terms such as “care,” “volunteer,” gratitude expressions, and mentions of love.
The findings revealed striking patterns. Posts from those in the path of totality were approximately twice as likely to express awe. As anticipated, this heightened awe was linked to greater humility and pro-social sentiments. Pronoun usage also shifted: individuals witnessing the eclipse were more inclined to use first-person plural terms like “we” and “us,” reflecting a shared, collective experience.
Goldy notes that these effects were transient, lasting only about 24 hours. However, even brief moments of increased connection and unity offer relief from everyday tensions. In an era marked by polarisation and division, shared awe at the wonders of the Universe serves as common ground. For those fortunate enough to witness the next eclipse on 8 April, the experience promises a moment of harmony worth treasuring.
https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221085501
Abstract
Astronomical events such as solar eclipses have played a transformative role in human social collectives as sources of collective wonder, inspiration, and reconciliation. Do celestial phenomena systematically shape individuals and their groups? Guided by scientific treatments of awe as an experience that helps individuals form into collectives, we used Twitter data (N = 2,891,611 users) to examine the social impact of a historic, awe-inspiring celestial event: the 2017 solar eclipse. Relative to individuals residing outside the eclipse’s path, individuals inside it exhibited more awe and expressed less self-focused and more prosocial, affiliative, humble, and collective language (Study 1). Further, individuals who exhibited elevated awe surrounding the eclipse used more prosocial, affiliative, humble, and collective language relative to their preeclipse levels and relative to users who exhibited less awe (Study 2). These findings indicate that astronomical events may play a vital collective function by arousing awe and social tendencies that orient individuals toward their collectives.
