Awe Changed How 528 People Saw Themselves: Here's What That Means for All of Us

That's not a rhetorical premise — it's what a new study actually found. Research published in May 2026 in the journal People and Nature reveals that awe isn't just a beautiful feeling. It's a force that shapes identity, deepens belonging, and draws people closer to science.

The Study: Citizen Science Meets the Solar Eclipse

In April 2024, a total solar eclipse swept across North America. Researchers at NC State University seized the moment — and turned it into a participatory science project.

They recruited 528 volunteers, ranging in age from 8 to 80, and asked them to do something simple: observe and record animal behavior before, during, and after the eclipse.

Participants received basic online training, completed their observations, and then answered a detailed survey about their experience — including how much awe they felt and how they related to science afterward. The findings were striking.

What the Researchers Found

• Awe was the key ingredient. Participants who witnessed the total eclipse — where the sun was completely blocked — reported significantly higher awe than those who only saw a partial eclipse. And the more awe people felt, the greater their increase in science identity (seeing science as part of who they are) and science belonging (feeling like they fit in when doing science).

  
  

• Even animals contributed to the sense of wonder. Participants who unknowingly recorded unusual animal behavior during the eclipse — animals responding to the sudden darkness — reported higher awe. They didn't need to know they were documenting something rare. The experience itself did the work.

  
  

• One experience was enough. This is perhaps the most powerful finding. Meaningful shifts in how people identified with and felt connected to science didn't require months of training or repeated participation. A single afternoon of awe-filled observation moved the needle.

  
  

• The experience worked across every age group. Children and older adults alike reported feeling awe and experiencing increased science identity and belonging. Wonder, it turns out, doesn't have an age requirement.

  
  

Awe Isn't Just Inspiring — It's Identity-Shaping

We often talk about awe as something that opens us up to something bigger than ourselves and draws us closer together to others and our world. But this study points to something even deeper. Awe changes how we see ourselves.

When study participants stood under a darkening sky and watched birds go quiet and animals react to the sudden twilight, something shifted inside them. They didn't just feel amazed. They started to feel like people who do science. People who belong in that world.

Awe as a Social and Communal Force

There's another layer here worth sitting with. These 528 people weren't just having private moments of wonder. They were participating together — in a shared project, directed toward a shared phenomenon, at the same moment in time.

Awe, when it happens collectively, it does something that solitary amazement can't quite replicate. It dissolves the distance between people. It creates a sense of shared smallness — and paradoxically, shared significance. Research has long suggested that awe makes us feel more connected to others, more generous, and less preoccupied with our individual egos.

This study adds to that picture. When people feel awe together while doing something meaningful, they don't just bond with each other. They bond with the endeavor itself. They become part of science, not just observers of it.

That's what belonging feels like.

You Don't Need an Eclipse

One of the most hopeful observations noted from the research is explained as follows: "You don't need a solar eclipse to feel awe. Small moments of awe can occur in your own neighborhood."

A spider building its web at dawn. The sound of a creek you've walked past a hundred times. The way light hits a hillside right before a storm. Scripture invites exactly this kind of attention — "Consider the lilies of the field" (Matthew 6:28), or "ask the animals, and they will teach you" (Job 12:7). These aren't lesser versions of awe. They're the everyday texture of a life that's paying attention.

The question isn't whether awe is available to you. It almost certainly is. The question is whether you're permitting yourself to slow down long enough to feel it — and whether you have people to feel it with.

A Reflection to Carry With You

Science identity and belonging aren't reserved for researchers. This study is a reminder that the door to science — and to a deeper sense of who you are — can be opened by a darkened sky, a hushed crowd, and the willingness to notice what's happening around you.

So the next time something stops you in your tracks — something vast, strange, or quietly extraordinary — let it. "Be still, and know" (Psalm 46:10). Let it change you a little. Share it with someone if you can. That moment might be doing more than you realize.