“awe- shucks”: uncovering the relationship between awe and domains of humility
abstract
the current study sought to examine the relationship between awe (both valences) and domains
of humility. in a preregistered study, 268 participants completed an online questionnaire with 12
measures of humility (ethical, intellectual, epistemic, environmental, religious, einsteinian, self-abasing, modesty, sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance, and valuing humility) along with a video
and written task meant to induce positive or negative awe. of all the domains of humility used, it
was hypothesized that positive awe (elicited and dispositional) would be best predicted by
intellectual humility whereas negative awe (elicited and dispositional) would be best predicted
by self-abasing humility. results showed partial support for these hypotheses. elicited positive
awe from the videos was best predicted by epistemic humility followed by a facet of intellectual
humility (appropriate discomfort of limitations) which were not significantly different. religious
humility was the best predictor of elicited positive awe from the written task and valuing
humility was the best predictor of dispositional (positive) awe. elicited negative awe from the
videos was best predicted by religious humility however “meek self-abasing humility” was the
best predictor amongst the emergent 18 humility factors. modesty was the best predictor for
elicited negative awe from the written task and dispositional negative awe was best predicted by
appropriate discomfort of limitations followed by self-abasing humility which were not
statistically different. overall, cognitive domains of humility were better predictors of awe than
(pro)social domains of humility which may have implications for the function of awe.