Underview Effect Gives Aquanauts Their Own Version of Astronaut Awe

Marine biologist Mark Patterson spent 89 days underwater across multiple missions, and the most vivid moment came when he sat on the sandy ocean floor tethered by a 300-foot cord, watching his Hydrolab habitat glow like a jewel while bioluminescent plankton shone like stars. "That's when I felt, 'Wow, this is the coolest thing maybe I'm ever going to do: live underwater,'" Patterson told Scientific American. He's one of 14 aquanauts interviewed for a new study in Environment and Behavior that formally names what they experienced: the "underview effect."

What the Underview Effect Feels Like

Astronauts get the overview effect — a perspective shift from seeing Earth from orbit. Aquanauts get its underwater mirror. Saturation divers live on the seafloor for days, unable to surface without spending 24 hours decompressing for every 100 feet of depth. That forced immersion, plus daily excursions lasting up to eight hours, rewires perception. A moray eel stops being a random fish and becomes an individual with daily habits. Barracudas become neighbors. Storms overhead pressurize the water and pop ears; plankton undulate with wave motion. Stanford psychologist Johannes Eichstaedt, who studied the overview effect, says inducing awe is "one of the strongest ways to weaken the boundaries of ourselves" and generate connection to nature.

Why Duration Matters for Awe

The study's lead author, Northeastern Ph.D. candidate Kristen Kilgallen, found that the length of observation is a key ingredient. Eight-hour dives force you to sit with the environment until the novel becomes familiar, then awe-inducing. That's not a quick submarine ride — it's living there. Patterson first dove in 1984 inside Hydrolab in the eastern Caribbean, and kept going back. The effect isn't limited to deep-sea habitats; Kilgallen argues that awe can come from simply disrupting routines. "You can find exploration rewarding in and of itself, regardless of what you find," she says.

Could Underwater Awe Shift Ocean Conservation?

Previous studies showed the overview effect made astronauts more attuned to humanity's impact on Earth. The Environment and Behavior authors suggest the underview effect could do the same for the oceans — if the stories get told. Eichstaedt points out that sharing these experiences can broaden empathy. Kilgallen's advice is simpler: go try something new. You don't need 89 days on the seafloor; just a willingness to break the daily script might be enough to feel that the boundaries between you and the world are thinner than you think.

Source: Aquanauts experience awe-inspiring 'underview effect'
Domain: scientificamerican.com