Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

This wonderful outing by University of California, Berkeley psychology professor Keltner (The Power Paradox) lays out a scientific overview of awe. He contends that awe is a “basic human need” that’s good for one’s well-being and produces a transcendent sense of dissolving boundaries between the self and the wider world. Pondering why awe sometimes produces tears, Keltner suggests that adults might tear up as a learned reaction from childhood when one cried while feeling “small and lacking agency,” an emotion similar to the overwhelming sensation that accompanies awe. The feeling has practical applications, the author posits, detailing scientific studies that found awe to be associated with lower levels of inflammation and capable of mitigating perceptions of political polarization. He outlines the “eight wonders of life” that are most likely to induce awe: moral beauty (e.g., courage in battle), collective effervescence (e.g., participating in a political rally), nature, music, visual art, spirituality, mortality, and epiphanies. Their power, he writes, stems from their likelihood to remind the beholder that “we are part of many things that are much larger than the self.” Eye-opening science and Keltner’s appropriate sense of wonder add up to an enlightening take on the importance and potency of awe. Readers will be enchanted. (Jan.)