Awe Enhances the Sense of Immeasurability

Awe arises in reaction to features that exceed (but don’t disconfirm) expectancies and increase people’s need for accommodation (Gocłowska et, al., 2024; Keltner & Heidt, 2003). Psychological research has yet to explain how awe influences people’s epistemological beliefs. To explore this, we introduce the concept of immeasurability, defined as the subjective perception that conventional measures, such as words or numbers, are inadequate to describe aspects of the world around us (e.g., the beauty of nature, the goodness of others). We developed an 8-item scale of subjective immeasurability. This tool can be applied to capture the immeasurability of a range of properties of the outside world (e.g., beauty, goodness). When applied to the beauty of nature, our measure demonstrated good reliability, construct validity, and predictive validity. Next, we proposed that awe experiences foster a generalised sense of immeasurability of the beauty of nature. In four studies (N = 708), manipulated awe increased the subsequent sense of immeasurability. This causal effect was explained by the extent to which the awe scene was seen as exceeding (but not disconfirming) expectancies. Future studies will expand our focus to other emotions from the awe family, testing our effects’ domain specificity and comparing the intensity of immeasurability following intense emotion experiences. These findings provide new insights into how awe affects people’s epistemological beliefs about the world.