New research from the Stanford Graduate School of
Business shows that moments of awe can change your perceptions of time,
enhancing your quality of life.
I share with you Susan Greenberg’s
article published at the website of Stanford Graduate School of Business which
talks about a recent research that suggests that eliciting a sense of awe is
a way to expand your perception of time. Included in the article you will find my personal notes. If you are a professional
dedicated to envision, design, plan, build or deliver brand experiences, this
reading is a must for you.
“Experiencing
something awe-inspiring — whether it’s the Grand Canyon, a soaring
cathedral, or a Puccini aria — can expand perceptions of time, enhancing
quality of life” says Jennifer Aaker, Stanford GSB’s General Atlantic
Professor of Marketing and author of a new paper on the subject. The key,
she continues, is that awe makes us feel small, not larger than life, the way
happiness can “When you feel small, there’s a reapportioning of what’s out
there… Time is reapportioned also”.
The
study defines awe as something that is both vast (in size, scope, number,
ability, or importance) and capable of altering one’s view of the world. To calculate the effects of awe on
how people perceive and use time, Aaker — along with lead author Melanie Rudd
of Stanford GSB’s PhD program, and Kathleen D. Vohs, associate professor from
the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management — conducted three
experiments.
In the
first, they sought to assess whether awe would be more likely than happiness to
enhance the perception of available time. They asked 63 students to watch a
60-second television ad. One group watched a commercial depicting people
encountering “awesome” images — waterfalls, whales, and space exploration. The
other group watched a commercial which showed individuals crossing paths with a
parade of happy, brightly dressed people tossing confetti. Afterwards, they all
rated their agreement with a series of beliefs, including four key variations
on the idea: “I have lots of time in which I can get things done.”
Consistently,
subjects who had watched the “awe” commercial agreed more strongly with the
statements relating to ample time than those who had watched the “happy” ad. “When
you feel awe, you feel very present — it captivates you in the current moment,”
says Rudd. “And when you are so focused on the here and now, the present moment
is expanded — and time along with it.”
[Zack’s
note: Check RedBull’s YouTube Channel and Redbull.tv and ponder on to which
type do their videos belong, the ‘awesome’ or the ‘happy’. Check the amount of
views the videos get. What do you think about what their marketing niche is
feeling while watching in correlation to this study?]
The
second experiment sought to determine whether people who experience awe would
feel less impatient, as well as be more inclined to volunteer their time to
charity. First, each of 86 student subjects was asked to write a personal
narrative. Half described an experience that had filled them with awe — defined
as “a response to things perceived as vast and overwhelming that alters the way
you understand the world” — and half wrote about something that made them
happy. Then, they had to
fill out a series of surveys, rating their feelings of impatience, their
willingness to volunteer time and donate money to a worthy cause, and their
overall feelings of excitement, awe, pride, and happiness.
Those
who wrote about awe were more likely to craft essays about nature, art or
music, or the accomplishments of others, while those who wrote about happiness
were more likely to write about social interactions or personal
accomplishments. But regardless of the essay topic, those in the awe group
reported significantly less impatience than those who had recounted happy
events. Furthermore, the awe essay writers indicated they’d be more willing to
volunteer their time — but no more willing to donate money — than the happiness
essay writers. That supports the argument that awe makes people feel richer in
hours, since participants were willing to be generous only with their time, not
with their pocketbooks.
Building
on the first two experiments, the third sought to demonstrate that awe, by
expanding the perception of available time, would prompt participants to choose
experiential over material gifts. In other words, someone who didn’t feel
pressed for time would value a temporal, sensory experience over a concrete
possession.
To test
the hypothesis, subjects were instructed to read one of two stories and attempt
to empathize with the main character. The first story, meant to elicit awe,
described climbing the Eiffel Tower for an expansive view of Paris. The second
described ascending an unnamed tower for a view of a generic landscape. Neither
story mentioned the word “awe.” Then subjects rated their agreement with
various statements about the availability of time, including “Time is slipping
away” and “Time is boundless.” They were also asked to select between a pair of
equally priced hypothetical gifts, such as a watch and a Broadway show ticket,
or a scientific calculator and a professional massage.
Like the
earlier experiments, the third revealed a strong causal link between awe and
the sense of more plentiful time. It also showed that members of the “awe”
group were more likely than the neutral group to choose an experience — such as
dinner out or a movie — over a material possession, such as a new jacket or
backpack. Additionally, those who expressed greater feelings of awe reported
greater life satisfaction, at least momentarily.
The
results of the three experiments proved more conclusive than the researchers
had anticipated. “The power of the [awe] effect was surprising,” says Aaker.
“It was quite robust".
[Zack’s
note: Having worked at Disney Parks, I had hours and hours to
observe guests behaviors, responding to all the stimuli surrounding them.
Without a doubt I can say that there is a sense of awe evoked in each guest
that visits the parks. Of course the degree in which it is evoked would depend
on each person’s age, life experiences and other factors, but, since the well
thought and planned ‘stages’, as Disney calls every park or attraction, are
designed to communicate to the senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch),
these highly stimulating messages irremediably evoke a great deal of wonder or
awe. They do. They are consciously designed to do that. Being an eyewitness I
was able to testify that this sense of awe influenced guests on how to deal
with waiting times and money spending. Thanks to this study, now we can understand why people
are willing to wait so patiently in line for large amount of minutes, even
hours; but, in contrast to their findings though, I observed that guests at the
end of the day, tired and exhausted are willing to pay for souvenirs and/or
food. Maybe, as this study reports, people are
not willing to donate money and they prefer experiences over material
possessions, but surely I saw guests were willing to spend on comfort and
happiness, for them individually and for their loved ones. My hypothesis is
that guests buy food and beverages at the end of the day responding to
immediate satisfaction –comfort at the present moment; the action of buying
food or beverages, in my opinion, is the answer to a personal question of ‘how
can I make this moment comfortable for me (or the others with me) I am tired,
exhausted, hungry and thirsty?’ Souvenirs on the other hand, as I dare to
theorize, are the ‘happy’ reaction for experiencing something awe-influencing,
as the study calls it. To Disney, merchandise stores are a ‘stage’ too, they
are a way to continue delivering entertainment. No wonder named the practice as merchantainment. This is not an
exclusive Disney concept. As Joseph Pine and Jim Gilmore
shared in their book The Experience Economy, is a common practice among brand experience deliverers. As an example, for themed restaurants like the Hard Rock Cafe,
Planet Hollywood, or the House of Blues, the food is just a 'prop' for what’s
known as “eatertainment”; as for stores such as Niketown, Cabella’s, and
Recreational Equipment Incorporated the offering of fun activities, fascinating
displays, and promotional events is labeled as “shoppertainment” or
“entertailing”. So, what I dare to theorize based on my observations and
connections with what I’ve read and analyzed, is that what guests are
emotionally seeking through buying a souvenir at any Disney shop, is that
they want to take a ‘peace’ of that wonderful stage, and this merchandise, no
matter what they choose to buy or how many, become the thing or things that
summarizes all the happiness, all that sense of awe and fulfillment felt and
lived during their stay and visits to the parks. Therefore, the merchandise
transforms into the object that encapsulates all these feelings for the person
to prolong them through time. What I reflect on, is that the sense of awe evoked in
people thru extraordinary experiences, like Disney does, influences them in a
way that they are willing to invest time and money to feel an intense sense of
awe no matter how brief or long that moment is when it is actually happening,
but also will invest time and money to make it last. For me what on the third
experiment researchers asked for products that were no related to the
experience, so what would have happened if the objects they asked about had a
strong correlation with the awe-inspiring experience? I would dare to say
results would be contrastingly different.]
“[Awe]
is more of a mindset than we think,” says Aaker. “This research suggests you
can cultivate it in similar ways, as you do gratefulness or happiness. Yet,
when it is present, awe can transform people and reorient their lives, goals,
and values.”
Future
studies will examine how malleable awe is, and how it can change other
perceptions and behaviors. The larger goal, she says, is to understand how well
various emotions — awe, gratefulness, peacefulness, or excitement — serve us in
different situations. For now, perhaps the best we can do is watch a sunset or
listen to a Brahms piano concerto. Then we’ll feel like we have all the time in
the world.
From my
point of view as an Experience Adviser, this is a key subject to take in mind
for all organizations that would like to deliver extraordinary or awe-inspiring
brand experiences, because they would be influencing people’s lives positively
resulting in a strong bond between customer and brand.[My final note - Zack]
Inspiring source: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/time-warp.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=Time
Follow me on twitter: @Zack_gj
