Synonyms
Definition
Feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar.
Introduction
People are capable of rare moments when they are moved beyond themselves and their immediate concerns – moments of transcendence accompanied by feelings described as “wonder” or “awe.” These emotions are evoked upon perception of a stimulus outside of ordinary experience. These could be natural events such as tornadoes or unusual sunsets or social events such as the face of your child. The experience of self-transcendent emotions is often experienced as overwhelming and drives a need to integrate the experience into one’s understanding of the world (Fuller 2006; Keltner and Haidt 2003). Philosopher Alexander Bain (1859) described wonder as an emotional reaction to an environmental stimulus that “very much surpasses or deviates from our habitual experience....” He also described the telltale signs of wonder in...
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References
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Perez, K.A., Lench, H.C. (2020). Wonder. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_563
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_563
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