LAKE TAHOE BASIN, Calif. / Nev. — The blue waters of Lake Tahoe shimmer when sunlight hits the surface and glow with warm shades of orange as the sun dips behind the Sierra Nevada. The view is often enough to stop people mid-sentence, caught in a quiet moment of awe. But what, exactly, is happening beneath that feeling?

During the summer of 2025, Paul Piff and his research team from the University of California, Irvine turned to Lake Tahoe to explore that question. Their work is featured in the docuseries Beyond Awe Struck: The Scientific Search for Connection, which examines the science behind one of the most powerful — and often overlooked — human emotions.

Piff, an associate professor of psychology, has spent more than a decade studying awe and its psychological and social effects.

“We’re trying to map out the ways in which experiences of awe and experiences of nature help people solve essential problems in their lives,” Piff said on the film’s website.

Through a combination of controlled experiments and surveys involving more than 1,000 participants, the team measured how people responded to Tahoe’s landscapes. Across seven studies conducted around the lake, they found a 34% increase in reported feelings of awe. Even brief moments mattered: just two minutes of mindful appreciation of the lake led to a 33% increase in happiness.

The effects extended beyond individual emotion. Participants also showed a 20% increase in their desire to protect the environment, suggesting awe may play a role in fostering environmental stewardship.

To better understand how awe functions in real-world settings, researchers designed a series of place-based experiments around Tahoe. At the Heavenly Gondola, participants were asked to spend two minutes taking in sweeping views. At Emerald Bay State Park, researchers explored whether awe can be shared between people. On the water, a Clearly Kayak Tahoe tour experiment examined whether awe lingers after the moment passes. Meanwhile, along the Van Sickle Bi-State Park trail, researchers studied how an “awe-enhanced” hike influenced emotional well-being.

The documentary also follows a diverse group of individuals whose lives intersect with awe in different ways, including Matthew Billet, a postdoctoral fellow studying how cultural worldviews shape responses to global challenges like climate change, and Adrian Ballinger, founder of Alpenglow Expeditions, who leads expeditions designed to evoke awe in high-altitude environments.

Taken together, the research suggests awe is more than a fleeting feeling. It is measurable, repeatable, and deeply tied to how people connect — to each other, to themselves and to the natural world.

The first episode of the docuseries is available on VisitLakeTahoe.com and Outside TV, with additional episodes set to be released March 23 and March 30.

At Lake Tahoe, that connection may begin with something as simple as pausing to take it all in