Why being dazzled by the world can help memory and make us more generous

Whenever Ethan Kross gets into a mental cycle of worry and negative thoughts, he walks five blocks to his neighborhood public garden to contemplate one of the magnificent trees there and the incredible power of nature.

If he can’t make it to the garden, he spends a few moments thinking about the fabulous possibilities offered by aircraft and space travel. “I keep thinking about how we were trying to light fires, just a few thousand years ago, and now we can safely land on another planet,” he says.

The purpose, in this case, is to evoke wonder — which he defines as “the wonderful feeling of finding something that we cannot easily explain.”

Kross’ habits are based on scientific evidence. As a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan in the United States, he knows that feelings of wonder can have a very profound influence on the mind—increasing our memory and creativity, as well as inspiring us to act more altruistically toward people around us. our back. They can also have a profound impact on our mental health, allowing us to put our anxieties into perspective.

As most of us are only amazed sporadically, we still don’t know its benefits. When we’re sad, we may be more likely to seek relief from a comedy, for example — looking for feelings of fun that are far less powerful.

But generating awe can bring about a major mental shift. Therefore, it can be an essential tool to improve our health and well-being. And there are many ways to cultivate that emotion in our daily lives.

small earthquakes

Michelle Shiota, professor of Social Psychology at Arizona State University in the United States, was one of the pioneers in discovering the benefits of awe. Her particular interest lies in the ways in which he can remove our “mental filters” to encourage greater flexibility in thinking.

Let’s consider memory. If someone tells us a story, we usually remember what we think we should have heard rather than the specific details of the event. This may indicate that we have missed unusual or unexpected elements that add the clarity and specificity needed to understand what happened. We can even form false memories of events that do not exist, but that we think could have happened in this type of situation.

A few years ago, Shiota decided to study whether evoking a sense of wonder could prevent this. She asked participants, first, to watch one of three videos: a science film that inspires awe, taking viewers on a journey from outer space to subatomic particles; an exciting film about a figure skater who won an Olympic gold medal; or a neutral film about building a cinder block wall.

Then the participants listened to a five-minute story describing a couple going out for a romantic dinner and answered questions about what they had heard. Some of these questions referred to events typically expected at any meal (“Did the waiter serve the wine?”), while others referred to unusual information, such as whether the waiter was wearing glasses.

Confirming the hypothesis formulated by Shiota, the participants who had watched the scientific film remembered more accurately the details they had heard than those who had watched the neutral or encouraging film.

What would be the reason? Shiota indicates that the brain is constantly forming predictions of what will happen next. It uses its experiences to form mental stimuli that guide our perception, attention and behavior.

Experiences that inspire awe — with their sense of grandeur, awe and amazement — can confound those expectations, creating a “small earthquake” in the mind that causes the brain to redetermine its assumptions and pay more attention to what’s really in front of it.

“The mind reprograms its ‘prediction code’ to simply look around and gather information,” she says. In addition to expanding our memory for details, this can improve critical thinking, according to Shiota, as people pay more attention to the specific nuances of an argument rather than relying on their intuitions to convince themselves or not.

This ability to let go of assumptions and look at the world and its problems from a fresh perspective may also explain why this emotion contributes to greater creativity. There is a study by Alice Chirico and her colleagues at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy, published in 2018.

Participants who walked through a forest in virtual reality scored higher on tests of original thinking than those who watched a more common video of chickens roaming the grass. Participants inspired by wonder were more innovative when asked how to improve a children’s toy, for example.

Attenborough effect

The most transformative effects of awe can refer to the way we look at ourselves.

When we marvel at something truly amazing and grand, “we perceive ourselves as smaller and more insignificant than the rest of the world,” says Shiota. One consequence is greater altruism.

“When I’m less focused on myself, my own goals and needs, and the thoughts that go through my head, I’m more able to observe you and [perceber] what you might be living”, she says.

To measure these effects, a team led by Paul Piff of the University of California at Irvine, USA, asked a third of the participants to watch a five-minute clip from the BBC’s Planet Earth series, made up of grandiose images and sweeping landscapes, mountains, plains, forests and canyons. The rest watched a five-minute clip of funny animal videos or a neutral do-it-yourself video.

Then, participants rated how much they agreed with four statements, such as “I feel the presence of something bigger than myself” and “I feel small and insignificant.” Finally, they participated in an experiment known as the “dictator’s game,” in which they were given a resource — in this case, ten coupons from a $100 gift card raffle — that they might or might not share with a partner. , if desired.

The feelings of awe produced a significant change in the generosity of the participants, increasing the number of coupons shared with partners. The statistical analyzes that followed allowed the researchers to demonstrate that this was caused by changes in how they felt about themselves. The smaller the participants felt, the greater their generosity.

To replicate the discovery in a more natural setting, one of the researchers took the students on a walk through a Tasmanian eucalyptus grove — which grow to over 60 m. As the students gazed at the splendor of the trees, the researchers “accidentally” dropped the pens they were carrying and watched as participants offered to pick them up.

They felt with complete confidence that the participants were more helpful during this awe-inspiring walk than the students who had spent their time gazing at a tall but not-so-majestic building.

putting in perspective

On top of all that, the benefits for our mental health are enormous. They are caused, like the increase in generosity, by the reduction of the sense of self, which seems to reduce ruminant thinking.

This is potentially very important as rumination is a known risk factor for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders. “You’re often so focused on the situation that you don’t think about anything else,” says Ethan Kross, whose book Chatter: The voice in our head, why it matters and how to harness it (“Talk: The Voice in Your Head, Why It Matters, and How to Master It”) explores the effects of these negative self-talk.

Dazzle forces us to broaden our perspective, he says, in order to interrupt the cycle of ruminating thought. “When you’re in the presence of something vast and indescribable, you feel better and your negative chatter also diminishes,” he says.

To prove his point, Kross points to an extraordinary experiment carried out by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, in the United States. Participants were military veterans and youth from disadvantaged communities, many of whom were experiencing serious life stress (some even with persistent symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder).

All of them had previously signed up for a white water rafting trip on the Verde River in Utah, United States, sponsored by a philanthropic organization. Before and after the trip, they were asked about their general psychological well-being, including their feelings of stress and their ability to cope with life’s challenges. And after each day of rafting, participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire, rating their feelings of wonder, fun, contentment, gratitude, joy, and pride.

As might be expected, the trip was generally very pleasant for most participants. But it was the feeling of wonder that indicated the most important improvements in her stress and overall well-being.

These were clearly exceptional circumstances, but the researchers observed very similar effects in a second study that examined students’ daily contact with nature. Again, they found that experiences of wonder had a much greater impact on students’ long-term well-being compared to feelings of contentment, fun, gratitude, joy, and pride.

Is this good or bad?

Before we get blown away by this research, Shiota cautions that scientists have yet to examine whether this potent emotion has any negative effects. She suspects, for example, that wonder might explain the appeal of many conspiracy theories — with their intricate and mysterious explanations of how the world works. But generally speaking, the benefits of awe need to be considered whenever we feel that our thinking has become stuck in an unproductive or harmful rut.

“The capacity [que temos] stepping outside of ourselves is a very valuable technique”, says Kross. He believes that walking in his neighborhood’s public garden and thinking about space travel brings the necessary feelings of awe, respect and reverence, but indicates that each of us will have our personal preferences.“Try to identify what your own triggers are,” he suggests.

For Michelle Shiota, the possibilities are as endless as the universe. “The stars in the night sky remind us of the universe beyond our experience. The sound of the ocean reminds us of its immense depths; the brilliant sunset reminds us of how vast and thick the atmosphere around our planet is,” she says. Not to mention the sublime experiences offered by music, cinema or art.

“It’s all about experiencing and paying attention to the extraordinary around us, rather than what is routine for us,” she concludes.

David Robson is a science writer based in London. O his latest book, “The Expectation Effect: How Your Thinking Can Transform Your Life” (in free English translation) was published in the UK on January 6, 2022, and in the US it will be published on February 15, 2022. His Twitter account is @d_a_robson.

Read the original version of this report (in English) on the BBC Worklife website.

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