Gallery Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

Facing a Cosmic Perspective: Unique and Polarizing Reactions to the Vastness of the Universe (#137)

Arthur Braaten 1 , Veronika Huta 1
  1. University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Witnessing vastness often leads to elevating experiences like awe and wonder (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). However, psychologists (Hornsey et al., 2018) and philosophers (Kahane, 2014) recognize that people can have polarizing existential reactions to the vastness of the universe. Some people can have elevating experiences and others can experience existential distress (e.g., insignificance, powerlessness).

The purpose of this research is to understand how people react when witnessing cosmic vastness. We predicted that a significant proportion of people would report positive (e.g., elevating experiences), negative (e.g., existential distress), and non-valenced (e.g., small self, need for accommodation) reactions to cosmic vastness.

Study 1 was a lab experiment (N = 103 undergraduate students). Participants watched a cosmic vastness video and answered qualitative and Likert-scale questions about their experiences. Content analysis on the qualitative data revealed that people frequently reported elevating experiences (58%), existential distress (46%), perceived vastness (70%), small-self (68%), need for accommodation (34%), existential contemplation (64%), and experience of the unknown (45%). When examining a bipolar Likert-scale question, half of participants reported more elevating experiences (49%), whereas half reported more existential distress (51%), demonstrating polarizing reactions to cosmic vastness.

Data collection for Study 2 is underway and will be completed early 2021. Study 2 compares a cosmic vastness video to two other videos (i.e., neutral control, Earth nature vastness control) using multi-item measures. Preliminary analyses (ANOVAs) of 203 undergraduate students indicate that cosmic vastness elicits more existential distress, perceived vastness, small self, need for accommodation, and experience of the unknown than both control videos. It also elicits more elevating experiences and existential contemplation than the neutral control video.

Overall, this research contributes to an expanding literature on the “dark side” of awe (Gordon et al., 2017), reactions to existential stimuli (Koole et al., 2006), and reactions to extreme forms of vastness.

  1. Gordon, A. M., Stellar, J. E., Anderson, C. L., McNeil, G. D., Loew, D., & Keltner, D. (2017). The dark side of the sublime: Distinguishing a threat-based variant of awe. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113, 310-328. doi:10.1037/pspp0000120
  2. Hornsey, M. J., Faulkner, C., Crimston, D., & Moreton, S. (2018). A microscopic dot on a microscopic dot: Self-esteem buffers the negative effects of exposure to the enormity of the universe. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 76, 198-207. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2018.02.009
  3. Kahane, G. (2014). Our cosmic insignificance. Noûs, 48, 745-772. doi:10.1111/nous.12030
  4. Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17, 297–314. doi:10.1080/02699930302297
  5. Koole, S. L., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2006). Introducing science to the psychology of the soul: Experimental existential psychology. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15, 212-216. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00438.x
  • Keywords: Meaning and Purpose, Positive emotions