The Awe Effect: What Happens in Your Brain and Body When Art Moves You

There is a type of experience that is hard to name but undeniable when it happens. It can occur when we encounter nature, art, or architecture. Something in us responds. It feels like an opening or expansion that is neither purely emotional nor purely intellectual.

Psychologists call this awe. In the past two decades, research on the effects of awe has become some of the most compelling work in positive psychology.

Defining Awe

Psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt laid the groundwork for understanding awe as an emotion. It arises when we face something vast. This can be something physical, conceptual, or moral, but it always challenges our current understanding of the world and pushes us to update our mental frameworks. It’s the feeling of being confronted with something larger than ourselves.

This differs from simple admiration or pleasure. Awe has an edge, a hint of disorientation, and a sense that our usual categories are inadequate. It can feel a bit uncomfortable, even as it remains a positive experience.

What Awe Does to the Body

A landmark study by Stellar and colleagues (2015) looked at the link between specific positive emotions and inflammatory cytokines. These are immune signaling proteins that, when chronically elevated, are associated with depression, heart disease, and other serious health issues.

The results were striking. Among all the positive emotions studied, awe was the strongest predictor of lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. More than joy, love, or contentment.

The researchers suggested that awe’s unique effect on inflammation may be connected to its ability to reduce self-focused thinking, a process known as “ego dissolution.” When we experience awe, we become less preoccupied with ourselves. Chronic self-absorption, as it turns out, has a high physiological cost.

Awe Expands Time and Meaning

Beyond its effects on inflammation, awe is known to stretch our sense of time. It makes moments feel more spacious and less rushed. It boosts feelings of generosity and connectedness. It consistently guides people toward a sense of meaning and purpose and diminishes the small daily worries that prevent us from seeing the bigger picture.

This is why people often say they feel different about their problems after visiting a museum or concert. The scale of their concerns shifts. What felt urgent an hour ago now seems less important. Awe has a unique ability to recalibrate what matters.

Art as an Awe Delivery System

Today, much of our visual experience is designed for speed. Small screens, short attention spans, and immediate gratification dominate. This makes encounters with great art increasingly rare; they demand us to stop. To look. To face something that cannot be consumed in a glance.

As a psychologist, I have started to view museum visits like other health-related behaviors. They are not just entertainment; they are environments where awe, with all its measurable benefits, can happen.

Seek out awe. Deliberately. Regularly. Your inflammatory cytokines will thank you.

Mari

 

Source: Stellar JE, John-Henderson N, Anderson CL, et al. Positive affect and markers of inflammation: Discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of inflammatory cytokines. Emotion. 2015;15(2):129–133. PubMed PMID: 25603133.

If you'd like a little more awe in your everyday, browse my original paintings and canvas prints.