Does an encounter with a deer inspire awe? Does the call of an owl give you goose bumps?

As an undergraduate, Jonathan Hicks studied journalism at Western Illinois University. A winding career path led him to several years in environmental education and then to graduate studies in Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois. He is currently working toward his Ph.D. and investigating the role that awe plays in encounters with wildlife. His research home base has been Urbana Park District natural areas, specifically Busey Woods and Meadowbrook Park—places where people go and encounter wildlife: Some visits being specifically for encountering wildlife and some being pure serendipity. Regardless of the original intent of their visit, Hicks wants to know how seeing wildlife during their visits affects people.

“I am exploring the emotion of awe,” Hicks explained. “I am trying to get a better understanding of how experiences with wildlife can be awe inspiring for people. What do those experiences look like? What animals are involved,” he said.

His research comprises three phases. In the first phase in 2014, he wanted to be sure he understood the word awe in the same way that the general public did, and so he had conversations with people outside the Anita Purves Nature Center.

“I have a table set out and invite people to talk. What I want to do with people is have a conversation with them. We have more interesting conversations when we can sit and relax and talk.”

Hicks said that awe has not been researched a lot to date, and he surmised that is because of the difficulty in explaining it.

“One question I like to ask is, ‘What’s made you feel goose bumps?’ Awe itself isn’t a word a lot of people use. They used ‘awesome’, but ‘awe’ was not what came out. Some people had some difficulty. They knew when they’d felt it [awe], but could not always define it,” Hicks said.

Hicks is about to begin phase two of the research, a more traditional survey, the point of which is to get numerical data about the experiences people have in natural areas.

The third stage will begin in coming weeks. He will conduct follow-up interviews with those who completed the questionnaire with the intention of chronicling how people have experienced awe to date and learning how awe shaped their leisure behavior.

The general public can take the survey. Find it here: https://uiuc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6KlG7izNbGP6vnT

 “I have an environmental education background. To me it is important to take this and apply it to how we educate people. If we can understand how people experience awe, it will further our discussion about how we teach people to interact in these natural spaces,” he said.

Hicks said he plans to finish up his research by the end of summer 2015.