A Paper by Assistant Professor Masataka Nakayama, Dr. Yuki Nozaki (Researcher at that time), Dr. Pamela Taylor (Research Assistant at that time) and Professor Yukiko Uchida, entitled “Individual and Cultural Differences in Predispositions to Feel Positive and Negative Aspects of Awe,” has been published in the online version of Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

A paper by Assist. Prof. Masataka Nakayama, Dr. Yuki Nozaki (Researcher at that time), Dr. Pamela Taylor (Research Assistant at that time) and Prof. Yukiko Uchida, entitled “Individual and Cultural Differences in Predispositions to Feel Positive and Negative Aspects of Awe,” has been published in the online version of Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

When looking up at the starry sky and feeling the beauty and grandeur of nature, or when being afraid and trembling at the sight of natural threats as earthquakes and typhoons, our views on life and the world will change. Emotions experienced through such experiences are studied as “awe” (畏怖, 畏敬 in Japanese). However, such research has been centered in the Western context, and little is known about how awe emotions are influenced by culture.

Prof. Uchida, Assist. Prof. Nakayama, Prof. Dacher Keltner (University of California Berkeley), and the team examined cultural differences in whether people feel positive or negative aspects of awe, in terms of individual differences in predisposition to feel awe. The results showed that North Americans are more likely to feel positive awe compared to Japanese, while in Japan, awe is felt as a mixture of positive and negative feelings.

Nakayama, M., Nozaki, Y., Taylor, P. M., Keltner, D., & Uchida, Y. (2020). Individual and cultural differences in predispositions to feel positive and negative aspects of awe. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022120959821

2020/11/25