A short burst of happiness may nudge people to adopt more inclusive attitudes than a moment of awe, according to a new study in the International Journal of Psychology. Led by Jens Agerström of Linnaeus University, the research tested how fleeting emotional states influence openness to social diversity in a sample of 3,196 adults recruited online through Prolific.
Awe is described as an emotional response triggered by perceiving something vast and extraordinary that unsettles ordinary thinking, such as a star-filled sky or a dramatic mountain range. It tends to shift attention away from the self and frame the surrounding world as interconnected and meaningful.
The study set out to determine whether awe could promote more positive attitudes toward different social groups, building on the idea that awe can foster a sense of belonging to something larger than the self.
“Previous research has shown that people who are exposed to awe-inducing stimuli (e.g., vast and beautiful landscapes, moon landings) are more likely to act more prosocially (e.g., help another person),” Agerström told PsyPost. “We wanted to extend the research literature by examining whether awe can also make people more diversity oriented by, for instance, expressing more positive attitudes toward ethnic minority groups.”
Earlier work suggested awe might bridge social divides. For instance, a 2015 study found that awe shifts attention away from the self and promotes generosity, while a 2023 PsyPost-covered experiment reported that awe, rather than joy, increased children’s willingness to donate to members of an outgroup.
In the same vein, happiness served as the comparison, given its broad mood-boosting effects on outlook and cooperation. Yet happiness has its own mixed record, with a 1994 study linking happy moods to reliance on social stereotypes.
Participants were randomly allocated to one of three groups and watched a 28-second video designed to evoke a specific emotion. The awe group viewed majestic images of the universe and landscapes with accompanying music, the happiness group watched joyful scenes of children playing and birthday parties with upbeat music, and a neutral control group saw everyday images with ambient sound.
Immediately after the clips, respondents completed three questionnaires assessing their orientation toward diversity. They measured general attitudes toward diversity, diversity fatigue, and social dominance orientation, which gauges beliefs in the inferiority of some groups and the acceptability of inequality.
The findings showed that the awe video produced no measurable changes on any of the three measures when compared with the neutral group.
By contrast, the happiness clip consistently shifted responses toward more inclusive attitudes. The neutral group averaged about 4.6 on a 6-point diversity attitude scale, while the happiness group scored roughly 0.08 points higher. The happiness group also reported about 0.10 points less diversity fatigue on a 5-point scale and about 0.15 points lower on social dominance orientation on a 6-point scale.
When directly comparing the two emotion groups, the happiness group volunteered more positive attitudes toward diversity than the awe group and showed a marginally lower preference for social hierarchy—the latter difference not reaching conventional statistical significance. There was no reliable difference in diversity fatigue between the two groups.
Researchers note the effects were small, yet they emerged after a brief video and on measures thought to be relatively stable. They suggest happiness may promote social bonding, cooperation, and concern for others, potentially transferring to more welcoming attitudes, though the study did not test this mechanism.
“Brief inductions of awe do not seem to make people more diversity oriented,” Agerström observed. “Somewhat unexpectedly we found that happiness, which we used as a contrasting emotion, resulted in more positive diversity-related attitudes. Perhaps most interestingly, happiness seems to reduce social dominance, an individual difference characteristic capturing preferences for inequality and discrimination.”
Agerström added that the team’s biggest surprise was finding happiness “triumph over awe when it comes to diversity.”
The absence of an effect for awe contrasts with earlier work cited in PsyPost, which reported that evoking awe through science fiction heightened a sense of humanity. The current study, however, measured specific attitudes toward demographic diversity and social equality, not a broad sense of global connectedness.
Notable outside commentary echoed the cautious tone. Ewa Palikot of the Institute of Psychology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, who was not involved in the study, said: “The main takeaway is that even a brief experience of happiness can make people more positive toward diversity and reduce diversity fatigue and social dominance orientation. Interestingly, the researchers did not find similar effects for awe.”
Palikot also cautioned against over-interpreting the findings. “It is important to remember that these findings do not mean that happier people are necessarily more open to diversity in everyday life,” she told PsyPost. “The researchers looked at how a brief feeling of happiness affected people’s reported attitudes right after watching a video. We still don’t know how long these effects last or whether they influence people’s actual behaviour.”
The study’s sample began with relatively low preferences for social hierarchy, leaving less room for reduction, though happiness effects remained detectable. The researchers emphasised the need for replication before drawing broad conclusions and suggested exploring whether other awe-inducing methods might yield different results.
Looking ahead, Agerström described plans for unobtrusive studies to observe actual diversity-related behaviours without prompting socially desirable responses. He also invited cross-cultural examination, noting that happiness and positive emotions are interpreted differently across cultures. Palikot added that in some East Asian contexts emotional balance is valued, and intense positive emotions can carry negative connotations, warranting further cross-cultural exploration.
The study, “Happiness, Not Awe, Makes People More Diversity-Oriented,” is credited to Jens Agerström, Magnus Carlsson, and Towe Nilsson.
