2026 Theses Doctoral

Awe in Modern Life: How Technology and Everyday Experiences Shape the Elicitation and Consequences of Awe

White, Michael W.

Awe, an epistemic emotion triggered by perceptual vastness and the need for accommodation, has been associated with enhanced well-being, prosociality, and social connection, among other benefits for individuals. Yet as modern life increasingly unfolds in contexts defined by rapid technological change and mundane routines, the conditions under which awe is elicited and its consequences may look quite different from those previously studied. If we do not understand how awe operates in these settings, we risk knowing about awe only in the conditions least representative of how most people actually live. This dissertation takes up that challenge directly, examining how awe can be elicited in the mundane contexts of everyday life and how it shapes people’s experience at work. In

Chapter 1, I draw on appraisal theories of emotion and philosophical accounts of the arts to examine how generative artificial intelligence (AI) shapes awe. I show that the use of generative AI undermines the capacity of prototypical awe-eliciting experiences to evoke awe, with downstream consequences for how people experience empathy for others.

In Chapter 2, I address the relative scarcity of awe by identifying a pathway to make it more accessible. Integrating research on savoring with appraisal theories of emotion, and drawing on samples spanning commuters, runners, and law enforcement officers, I demonstrate that individuals can cultivate awe through mundane experiences, which consequently enhances job satisfaction.

In Chapter 3, I reveal how awe reduces social evaluative threat, thereby decreasing identity suppression at work. Together, this research suggests that awe is not a rare gift reserved for mountaintops. Rather, awe is a psychological experience that can be elicited with meaningful consequences in the ordinary contexts of modern life.