Supplementary Material Online: Validation of Stimuli and Pre-test 1 & 2 In the existing literature, different methods to induce awe have been used (e.g. using a recall task or presenting a contextual manipulation) and different elicitors of awe have been documented by using qualitative data [1]. Studies in the domain of music perception have systematically investigated how different types of music induce different types of emotions [see for instance: 2]. In addition, neuroimaging studies have shown how crossmodal integration of visual and auditory information may underlie emotional experiences [3]. Still, a systematic study of the awe-inducing potential of different stimuli that are typically used in research on awe is still missing. For instance, it is unclear whether and how the specific combination of auditory (i.e., music) and visual (i.e., video) information contributes to feelings of awe. As a first starting point, in the first Pre-test we present a novel collection of video stimuli (available upon request from the first author), consisting of both natural phenomena (e.g., volcanoes, oceans, etc.) and of man-made phenomena (e.g., skyscrapers, wonders of the world, etc.) that induce feelings of awe and wonder to a different extent [1]. Following previous findings that high compared to low-arousing music elicits stronger feelings of happiness and can more readily induce the feeling of ‘chills’ [4,5], we also manipulated the arousal of the music accompanying the different videos, by including high vs. low arousing musical excerpts. We assessed the awe-inducing effects of the different stimuli that we created and relied on the natural variability in awe ratings across the different stimuli to investigate the relation between feelings of awe and body size perception. Pre-test 1: Short Video Fragments Method Participants Data from 33 participants was included in the analysis (11 females; mean age = 34.0 years, SD = 7.1). All participants were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk online participation system and received 2 dollars for their participation. Participants gave online informed consent before participating and the study protocol was approved by the local ethics committee at the Psychology Department of the University of Amsterdam. Stimuli and Experimental Procedure For the first pre-test 10 novel 60-seconds video stimuli were created. The videos were compiled based on longer Youtube fragments that were edited into shorter cuts by using IMovie. Five videos were related to natural phenomena (e.g. displaying shots from BBC EarthFlight, BBC Planet Earth, BBC Ocean, Volcano eruptions) and five videos were related to manmade objects or activities (e.g. skydiving, rocket launch, sports victories, wonders of the world, demolition of skyscrapers). Videos were edited such that they contained approximately a similar number of perspective changes. Each video was combined with either low-arousing music and with high arousing music. Musical fragments were based on different excerpts from music by Sigur Ros. In a pre-test the different musical fragments were rated for valence and arousal by 26 participants who did not participate in pre-test 1 (16 males, 10 females; mean age = 34.4 years, SD = 10.0). The low-arousing musical fragments were rated as lower in arousal (mean = 37.4; 0 = not arousing at all, 100 = strongly arousing) compared to the high-arousing musical fragments (mean = 59.2), while the fragments did not differ in terms of valence (low 1 arousing = 63.6; high arousing = 66.5; 0 = very negative, 100 = very positive). Thus in total, we obtained 20 different videos according to a 2 (Low vs. High arousing music) x 2 (Natural vs. Man-related phenomena) design with 5 videos per category. In order to reduce the total duration of the experiment and to avoid boredom, each participant rated 10 videos. A pseudo-randomization was used such that each of the 10 different videos was presented to each participant only once. Participants were instructed to watch each video carefully and next they were required to rate their experience while watching the video. They completed three questions related to ‘awe’ (‘To what extent did watching this video induce ‘chills’ or ‘goose bumps’?’; ‘To what extent did you experience ‘awe’ while watching the video?’; ‘To what extent did you experience ‘wonder’ while watching the video?’), two questions related to ‘familiarity’ (‘To what extent did you recognize the video?’; ‘To what extent are you familiar with the video?’). In addition, participants were required to indicate their feelings of arousal and valence using a pictorial semantic differential scale [6]. A pictorial body size estimation task was used (see Figure 1), requiring participants to indicate how they perceived the size of their body with respect to the environment Furthermore, participants were required to indicate using a continuous visual analog scale (0 = not at all, 100 = very much) whether watching the video induced changes in their perception of time (‘While watching the movie, did time went slower or faster than usual?’), felt presence (‘While watching the movie, did you feel the presence of God?’), connectedness (‘While watching the movie, did you feel connected to the universe as a whole?’), feelings of uncertainty (‘While watching the movie, did you feel uncertain?’) and feelings of powerlessness (‘While watching the movie, did you feel powerlessness?’). Results In a first analysis, we were interested in the relation between feelings of awe and the other variables. As can be seen in Supplementary Table 1, awe was positively correlated to valence, reflecting that more positive videos induced stronger feelings of awe. In addition, awe was negatively correlated to body perception, reflecting that videos that induced a strong sense of awe were accompanied by a tendency to perceive one’s body as smaller. Interestingly, awe was also highly correlated to ‘felt presence’ and ‘connectedness’, indicating that videos that induced a sense of awe also elicited the felt presence of a supernatural being and made participants feel more connected to the universe as a whole. No other significant correlations with awe were observed. 2 Supplementary Table 1: Cross-item correlations between the different video-ratings. * p < .05, **p < .001. Awe Arousal Valence Familiar Body Time Uncertain Presence Connectedness Awe 1 Arousal .18 1 Valence .66** -.21 1 Familiar -.38 .04 -.02 1 Body -.46* -.17 .02 .35 1 Time .19 .37 .27 -.16 .16 1 Uncertain -.22 .71** -.67** -.03 -.27 -.04 1 Powerlessness .07 .76** -.58** -.21 -.40 .03 .90** 1 Presence .85** .09 .77** -.21 -.31 .13 -.26 -.06 1 Connectedness .85** -.12 .89** -.27 -.25 .17 -.50** -.31 .91** 1 In a subsequent analysis we tested how feelings of awe were modulated as a function of the music accompanying the video (low or high arousing music) and as a function of the content of the video (displaying human-related phenomena or natural phenomena). To this end, the feelings of awe were analyzed using a ANOVA with Music (low vs. high arousing) and Scene (Human vs. Natural) as independent variables. The ratings for the different variables as a function of Music and Scene are presented in Supplementary Table 2. For feelings of awe, a main effect of Scene, F(1, 16) = 14.2, p = .002, h2 = .47, reflected that natural scenes induced stronger feelings of awe (mean = 47.9, SE = 2.2) compared to human-related phenomena (mean = 36.2, SE = 2.2). Music did not affect feelings of awe (F < 1). 3 Supplementary Table 2: Ratings of Awe, Arousal, Valence for the different videos, according to whether the videos were accompanied by low-arousing or high-arousing music and according to whether the videos displayed natural phenomena or man-made phenomena. Awe (1 = not awe-inducing, 100 = strongly awe inducing), Arousal (1 = Calm, 100 = highly arousing), Valence (1 = negative, 100 = positive), Familiarity (1 = unfamiliar, 100 = familiar), Body Perception (1 =small, 100 = large), Time (1 = slower than usual, 100 = faster than usual), Uncertainty (1 = Very Certain, 100 = very uncertain), Powerlessness (1 = Powerful, 100 = powerless), Felt Presence (1 = not at all, 100 = very much), Connectedness to Universe (1 = not at all, 100 = very much). Awe Arousal Valence Familiarity Body Time Uncertain Power Presence Connectedness Low Arousing Music - Natural Phenomena EarthFlight 46.3 61.3 78.9 16.2 40.3 57.6 16.7 23.9 19.1 42.5 PlanetEarth1 48.3 43.8 72.8 11.7 29.5 41.2 15.5 23.6 21.5 40.6 PlanetEarth2 52.5 52.6 84.2 10.2 35.8 48.1 14.2 18.9 24.8 48.4 Ocean 46.1 40.4 69.4 12.7 40.3 47.4 12.5 16.1 14.3 32.7 Volcano 41.1 48.4 57.8 8.8 34.3 49.6 23.9 33.6 15.7 27.6 Low Arousing Music - Manmade Phenomena Skydiving 39.8 63.6 62.5 45.3 41.6 47.1 25.9 28.5 15.8 27.2 Rocket Launch 38.6 48.1 67.6 18.5 36.9 49.7 10.7 16.4 13.1 31.6 Buildings 28.2 60.5 33.6 3.7 38.7 39.2 36.2 39.4 5.9 7.6 Sports 32.1 42.8 64.0 36.7 49.2 43.3 12.8 15.9 9.6 20.4 WorldWonders 34.0 38.7 61.8 24.2 35.6 44.3 14.4 16.2 13.3 21.8 High Arousing Music - Natural Phenomena EarthFlight 48.6 47.1 67.5 8.9 44.3 52.9 9.2 20.0 15.5 34.4 PlanetEarth1 52.9 42.6 78.7 9.9 32.7 45.6 10.1 15.4 22.4 52.4 PlanetEarth2 52.6 43.1 74.3 13.6 37.9 47.6 11.1 20.4 17.8 39.8 Ocean 39.3 42.8 73.6 11.0 51.3 55.1 11.2 16.8 21.2 39.7 Volcano 51.3 67.8 51.9 11.2 32.6 45.0 24.5 39.5 20.0 28.2 High Arousing Music - Manmade Phenomena Skydiving 49.7 72.2 72.2 25.9 37.6 59.9 26.4 31.3 21.2 34.5 4 Rocket Launch 46.4 66.2 66.9 18.6 38.2 52.2 18.6 28.8 15.5 28.9 Buildings 29.4 54.2 47.8 11.5 37.2 60.9 21.2 25.9 5.2 10.4 Sports 23.8 43.0 57.7 41.8 47.8 42.0 12.4 14.3 9.5 14.9 WorldWonders 40.0 55.0 71.5 7.3 47.0 52.5 15.9 19.1 14.7 27.9 Discussion The stimuli that were used in pre-test 1 differed in important respects from previous studies on awe: they consisted of relatively short fragments of 60 seconds, and included both natural and man-made phenomena.