A key psychological factor helps explain how planetarium films boost interest in science
Getting people excited about science can be a challenge, but a recent study offers a promising approach. Researchers discovered that inducing awe, specifically through immersive planetarium films, is highly effective at sparking and growing people’s interest in scientific subjects. This suggests awe could be key to making science more engaging for everyone. The work has been published in the journal Cognition and Emotion. Scientists have long recognized that emotions play a significant role in how we learn and remember things. Emotions related to knowledge and understanding, termed epistemic emotions, are particularly relevant in learning environments. For example, feeling curious can lead to deeper engagement with new material, while boredom can hinder learning. Awe is one such emotion, often described as the feeling we get when we encounter something vast and beyond our current understanding, prompting us to adjust our perspective of the world. Though awe is thought to be a driving force behind science learning, exactly how it affects our thinking processes during learning has remained largely unknown. Previous research exploring awe has often taken …