Human values and the transformative effects of awe.

Awe is a transformative emotion, and in this research, we aimed to clarify how it influences people's values. Across five experiments (four preregistered; Ntotal = 1,679) conducted with U.K. community and student samples between 2023 and 2025, we tested whether awe reminded people of specific values, and whether this carried over to greater inspiration to pursue these values. We found that experiences of awe (vs. control) consistently reminded people more of universalism, stimulation, and humility values (Experiments 1a-3), using different awe induction methods and comparing awe with both neutral and positive emotion conditions (i.e., amusement). Salience of these values, in turn, mediated the effects of awe on inspiration to act according to these values (Experiments 2b-3). In addition, awe elicited by nature reminded people of somewhat different values than awe elicited by a social context (Experiments 2a-2b). These findings deepen our understanding of awe and the mechanisms behind the transformative effects of this emotion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).