Awe Expands People's Perception of Time, Alters Decision Making, and Enhances Well-Being

Melanie Rudd, Kathleen D. Vohs, Jennifer Aaker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

458 Scopus citations

Abstract

When do people feel as if they are rich in time? Not often, research and daily experience suggest. However, three experiments showed that participants who felt awe, relative to other emotions, felt they had more time available (Experiments 1 and 3) and were less impatient (Experiment 2). Participants who experienced awe also were more willing to volunteer their time to help other people (Experiment 2), more strongly preferred experiences over material products (Experiment 3), and experienced greater life satisfaction (Experiment 3). Mediation analyses revealed that these changes in decision making and well-being were due to awe's ability to alter the subjective experience of time. Experiences of awe bring people into the present moment, and being in the present moment underlies awe's capacity to adjust time perception, influence decisions, and make life feel more satisfying than it would otherwise.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1130-1136
Number of pages7
JournalPsychological Science
Volume23
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2012

Keywords

  • decision making
  • emotions
  • preferences
  • time perception
  • well-being

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