Awe and Epistemology in a Science Museum

Abstract

Museums are located at the intersection of awe and learning: When guests arrive, they are expecting to be amazed, inspired, and educated. This is particularly true in science museums, and researchers have pointed to awe as an epistemic emotion that can promote science learning. We present two studies of awe in a science museum. The first study (n = 293) examined how aweconceptualized as a multifaceted construct associated with positive feelings of liberation/connection, negative feelings of oppression/isolation, chills, and diminished-self perceptions-differed across museum locations and in relation to prior knowledge. The second study (n = 708) expanded the investigation to also examine the relationship between awe and critical thinking. Across both studies, we found that, relative to baseline spaces, vast, beautiful spaces elicited positive awe-related emotions (amazement, curiosity) and stronger awe correlates (chills, diminished-self perceptions); vast, threatening spaces also elicited stronger amazement, chills, and diminished-self perceptions-but also stronger oppression/isolation. In both studies, pre-visit knowledge was associated with awe experiences during the visit. In Study 2, we also found evidence for relationships between awe and skepticism and aesthetic thought, two aspects of critical thinking: Positive aspects of awe (liberation/connection, curiosity) were associated with more skepticism, and negative aspects of awe (oppression/isolation, disorientation) with less skepticism. In terms of aesthetic thinking, diminished-self perceptions were associated being able describe observed roles and actions, and chills were associated with being able to describe personal opinions. These results support the assertion that awe can be used to encourage engagement and learning in informal science settings.

Exploring the Awe-some: Mobile eye-tracking insights into awe in a science museum

“…In particular, beyond the suggestion that visual attention to awe-inducing stimuli is associated with self-reported connection for ostensibly positive awe elicitors (i.e., the dome of the Rotunda) and self-reported oppression for ostensibly negative awe elicitors (i.e., the U-505), the data also offer the tantalizing possibility that selfdiminishment is fundamental to the experience. This is not a new suggestion (e.g., [15]), but our data provide the first hint that the feeling of self-diminishment is underpinned by visual attention.…”

“…Laboratory evidence supports a role for awe in promoting critical thinking and learning, for example, when students are curious or experience interest-which are likely to accompany awe-they persist longer at learning tasks, spend more time studying, and get better grades [12]. Moreover, awe promotes critical thinking, in the form of a lower likelihood of being persuaded by weak arguments [13], promotes ethical decision-making [14], and increases skeptical thinking [15]. Our results elsewhere confirm that museum exhibits with different features elicit different profiles of awe [7] and that facets of awe experienced in a public zoo differ in their associations with beliefs about animals [16].…”

“The Bloody Hell and Holy Cow Moment:” Feeling Awe in the Art Museum

“…Researchers at the Minneapolis Institute of Art found no relationship between awe and curiosity in their study, but that may be because it was bounded within one particular exhibition in the museum (Price et al, 2019b). It’s possible that when people are exposed to a wider range and type of art work that they encounter more things that they can’t make sense of, and that they are both awe‐struck and curious about what they’re seeing.…”

“…What exhibit content is more and less likely to foster awe? Just as Price et al (2019b) examined the extent to which awe varied across science museum spaces, further research might investigate how awe varies across art museum exhibits and across interpretive strategies used in art museum exhibits.…”

“…In addition, adults were asked to describe in detail the emotion they rated the highest, excluding awe since it was asked about later in the interview. This line of inquiry was informed by research that shows a “complicated, sometimes fuzzy relationship” between awe and other positive emotions (Allen, 2018, p. 9; Price et al, 2019b). The goal was to understand how awe might relate to other emotions in the art museum context.…”