Aquanauts experience awe-inspiring ‘underview effect’
SMRTR summary
Floating 300 feet beneath the Caribbean, marine biologist Mark Patterson once sat on the sandy ocean floor, tethered to a glowing underwater lab, surrounded by bioluminescent plankton shimmering like stars. That moment sparked what scientists now call the "underview effect," a profound sense of awe experienced by aquanauts living on the seafloor for days at a time.
Much like astronauts describe the "overview effect" when gazing back at Earth from orbit, aquanauts report feeling a deep, almost overwhelming connection to the natural world. Patterson, who has spent a total of 89 days underwater, was among 14 aquanauts whose experiences were studied in the journal Environment and Behavior.
Researchers believe these accounts could reshape how people relate to the ocean. Stanford psychologist Johannes Eichstaedt notes that awe is "one of the strongest ways to weaken the boundaries of ourselves." And you don't need a submarine to feel it. Says lead researcher Kristen Kilgallen, "You can find exploration rewarding in and of itself, regardless of what you find."
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Scientific American.
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