In 1984, marine biologist Mark Patterson spent a week living underwater inside the Hydrolab in the eastern Caribbean. Decades later, he and 13 other aquanauts took part in a study describing an intense sensation of awe—called the “underview effect”—that appear
When Mark Patterson opened the hatches and swam out from the Hydrolab. he didn’t just leave a research station behind—he entered a world where returning had rules of its own. It was 1984 in the eastern Caribbean. and Patterson was living underwater for a week inside the station. a white. cylindrical lab at the bottom of the ocean.
The mission was built around saturation diving: descending to the seafloor and staying there for multiple days. Patterson, a marine biologist at Northeastern University, would spend daytime hours leaving the lab to explore as an aquanaut. Once his body acclimated to the depths, he couldn’t simply rise if he wanted to. To avoid dire health consequences at the end of the trip. he would have to spend 24 hours for every 100 feet of depth slowly decompressing.
Patterson wanted to dive at night, so he geared up, opened the hatches, and swam into open water. A 300-foot-long cord tethered him to the lab. When the cord pulled taut. he sat on the sandy ocean floor. staring back toward the distance where the lab glowed like a jewel. Around him, bioluminescent plankton shimmered “like stars.”.
“That’s when I felt, ‘Wow, this is the coolest thing maybe I’m ever going to do: live underwater,’” Patterson says. He has spent a total of 89 days under the sea.
The awe that flooded in during that first phase of deep-water life is at the center of a study in Environment and Behavior. Scientists call the experience the “underview effect.” In the aquanauts who took part—14 in total—the sensation of intense awe appears to strengthen perceptions of human connectedness to the world.
The term is patterned after the “overview effect” astronauts describe when they look back at Earth from orbit. In earlier work. researchers have concluded that the overview effect helped astronauts and the people who heard their stories become more attuned to how human behavior has altered Earth. The new study’s authors build from that. suggesting that descriptions of awe-inspiring time underwater could help others think differently about the seas.
For many of the aquanauts surveyed, the structure of their days mattered. Their daily excursions can last eight hours, and the length of observation is part of what makes the experience special. A moray eel or a barracuda is no longer just an animal in the distance; it becomes an individual with daily habits and behaviors. Storms overhead shift the pressure below the surface and make ears pop. Even the plankton undulate with the movement of waves.
Johannes Eichstaedt. a Stanford University psychologist who has studied the overview effect and was not involved in the recent paper. ties the feeling to a broader psychological mechanism. Inducing awe. he says. is “one of the strongest ways to weaken the boundaries of ourselves.” For some people. he adds. awe can generate a sense of connection to nature.
Kilgallen, the lead study author and a psychology Ph.D. candidate at Northeastern, points to how awe doesn’t always require a grand destination. Awe in the natural world, she says, can come simply from trying something new that disrupts everyday routines. “You can find exploration rewarding in and of itself, regardless of what you find,” she says. “That’s what keeps you engaged with the world.”.
For Patterson. the feeling began the moment he realized he was living underwater for real—tethered to a glowing station. watching plankton light up the dark. Now, with the “underview effect” under study, the question is no longer only what aquanauts see when they descend. It’s what that awe might do when they describe it—how awe. time. and the unfamiliar can reach beyond the seafloor and pull people into a stronger sense of connection to the world beneath the surface.
aquanauts underview effect awe Environment and Behavior saturation diving Hydrolab marine biologist Northeastern University overview effect bioluminescent plankton Eastern Caribbean
So they just… decompress for 24 hours per 100 feet? That seems made up, like cmon.
The title makes it sound like it’s a video game thing lol. Under-view effect like when you look at the ocean and forget who you are or what?
Wait, I thought the “awe moment” was instant and they could just pop back up. Also tethered to a cord?? Sounds like a safety thing but kinda creepy.
Honestly the coolest part is the whole “live underwater inside a white cylinder” from 1984, like we were already doing sci-fi. But the article is kinda confusing—are they saying awe makes your body decompress slower or something? I saw another post say it’s basically PTSD from deep sea, so idk.