Coaches sometimes invoke awe as a way to boost self-esteem. But this can have negative consequences as well as benefits. It depends on whether your client spontaneously imagine themselves outside of their own experiences (3rd person perspective) viewing themselves as a bystander or inside their experiences (1st person perspective) unfolding before their eyes, especially if the experiences are emotionally laden.
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Key Takeaway
If your client views themselves as inside the awe experience, invoking awe to boost self-esteem could backfire. Rather, it could have the opposite effect to what you intended, reducing self-esteem and viewing their challenges as threats rather than as obstacles that can be overcome.
Here's research finding that after experiencing awe, people who view their experiences in the 3rd person tend to see "personal obstacles associated with a stressful situation seem insignificant compared to the vastness of the awe-inspiring experience."
However, those who view their experiences in the 1st person tend to see their abilities, not their obstacles, as insignificant after awe. This can produce the opposite effect to what was intended.
"Awe describes an emotional response that occurs when one is in the presence of something larger than the self that requires mental accommodation to make sense of its vastness."
In this study, participants were first asked to recall "a recent upsetting experience in which they were rejected by a close other. Immediately afterwards, they were asked to indicate, on a 7-point Likert-type scale, the extent to which they saw the event occurring through their own eyes or as an outside observer.
Participants then watched a 5-min video. Half the participants watched a BBC Planet Earth video to inspire awe and the other half watched a nature video designed to induce a neutral state. After the video, they completed an awe manipulation check and the analysis showed that the BBC video was effective in inducing awe, compared to those in the neutral condition.
The participants then "presented a 2-min speech about a current setback or obstacle, and how they could approach or address this problem." To increase their desire to perform well, they were told that their speech would be evaluated by the research team.
To measure whether the participants saw the speech as a challenge or a threat, the researchers used cardiovascular measures that were taken continuously during the speech task, specifically changes in cardiac output (CO) and total peripheral resistance (TPR). "Challenge leads to dilation of arteries (low TPR), helping the heart to pump more blood (high CO) in a way that parallels aerobic exercise. In contrast, threat leads to constriction of arteries (high TPR), which hinders the heart from pumping blood (low CO)."
Here's what they found:
"For people likely to adopt a self-distanced perspective, being exposed to the awe-inducing video led to a challenge response during the speech, relative to exposure to the neutral video. In contrast, for people who adopted a self-immersed perspective, the awe-inducing video led to a relative threat response."
What does this mean?
If your client views themselves as inside the awe experience, invoking awe to boost self-esteem could backfire. Rather, it could have the opposite effect to what you intended.