Oh my: a psychological approach to awe – Science Weekly podcast

Nicola Davis asks what's behind one of humanity's most powerful and possibly evolutionarily important emotions

When it comes to emotions, words such as joy, anger and disgust immediately spring to mind. But in recent years, psychologists have been turning their attention to a lesser-studied emotion: awe. Whether it's a breathtaking landscape or a glorious sunset, this research is painting awe, and the effects it has on us, as potentially one of the most important in our emotional repertoire. But what might be going on psychologically? How might these effects have helped our ancestors? And could we all do with more awe?

To help answer all this and more, Nicola Davis talks to University of California, Berkeley's Professor Dacher Keltner, who, in 2003, co-authored one of the field's most important theoretical papers. And to see how this theory is backed up by the experimental evidence, we hear from the University of Houston's Dr Melanie Rudd, whose work has found links between time perception, wellbeing and awe.