Seek awe in collective rituals and shared experience

Experience something vast alongside others to amplify both the awe and the connection.

Why it works

Keltner argues that awe evolved partly as a social-cohesion mechanism — experienced together, it synchronizes bodies (goosebumps, tears, stillness), dissolves distinctions between self and group, and produces the "we" focus that underlies collective action. Shared awe activates the small-self effect simultaneously in multiple people, making connection effortless rather than a project.

How to do it

1. Attend one live, collective awe experience per month: a concert, a ceremony, a game, a natural event at a gathering point.
2. Do not narrate it to the people beside you — let shared silence be the connection.
3. After, compare what struck each person; the conversation deepens the bond.

Evidence

Keltner’s cultural and evolutionary argument for collective awe is supported by anthropological evidence and by the observation that awe reliably produces prosocial, we-focused cognition; direct trials of collective awe are limited. (mechanistic)

The collective-awe argument is the least experimentally tested aspect of Keltner’s work; the social-cohesion pathway is theoretically strong and anthropologically plausible.

Common mistake

Consuming the same awe-producing content (films, videos) alone, which provides the emotional experience but not the synchrony and shared presence that make collective awe specifically bonding.