Is there a scientific explanation as to why people respond emotionally to a eclipse?

Factual Questions
21

It’s that sense ofAwe.

I recall having the same reaction to the first time I saw a funnel cloud from a safe distance,awestruck by the beauty and amazed that such a thing was possible… The second one that I saw was coming straight towards me and gave me a sense of awe AND fear at the same time. So perhaps it’s related to a survival instinct, it’s wows us but could also be something dangerous, so you stop and look to determine if it requires a response to flee. Of course we knew it was coming, but our primal mind still sees it as possibly something threatening.

22

I think it’s a combination of two things that have already been mentioned.

One, it’s impressive direct evidence of cosmic motion. We are used to seeing the apparent motion of objects across the sky all the time as the earth rotates, but this is the obvious motion of one natural heavenly body relative to another one. As the moon crossed the sun I couldn’t help but think that I was actually witnessing in real time the moon continuing onward in its timeless orbit, whose origins go back billions of years to the earth’s formative era. You don’t normally see this directly, you simply see the moon rise and set like everything else. A bit of research reveals that the dynamics of the moon’s orbit is actually surprisingly complex, an interesting subject in itself. In that respect I think the “people are stupid” argument is entirely wrong, because the more you understand what’s really going on, in many ways the more impressive it is.

And then at the same time, the total eclipse itself is a pretty awesome thing to behold, and the shared awe is probably self-reinforcing, just like the crowd reaction at a major sporting event is entirely different than if you were sitting at home by yourself watching it on TV.

All these different things work together to shape a pretty impressive experience. I am so looking forward to 2024! :slight_smile:

23

What determines whether an emotional reaction to something is “stupid”? Is it just whether or not you would have the same reaction?

Stupid or not, it’s not unusual for humans to get excited about big, dramatic natural phenomena. People travel for thousands of miles to see the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls. It would be pretty surprising if a big, dramatic natural phenomenon that you only get rare opportunities to see didn’t evoke a strong reaction from a lot of people.

24

Really? You couldn’t be bothered to say “Homo sappyens?” Jeezus, some people.

Not a chance. They happen once every seven years somewhere in the world for 2 minutes. You can’t even detect a partial eclipse with the naked eye without knowing about it beforehand. The odds a solar eclipse affected our species’ DNA is approximately zero, unless you count retina cancer.

Now there’s your answer. I once waited in line at a McDonalds where the ice cream machine had malfunctioned. It was partially disassembled, and a big chunk of soft serve was hanging out of the front, slowly melting like a glacier. It got longer and longer, creeping ever so slowly toward the floor, like a sugary icicle. I thought for sure it was seconds away from dropping and going SPLAT on the tile.

My gaze was transfixed to this frozen dessert appendage. Soon, my brother caught sight of it and was equally mesmerized. A minute passed, and the icy dagger had grown well beyond the bounds of anyone’s original estimate of a breaking point. Before I knew it, two dozen customers and employees stood still, eyes fixed to the melting miracle. Longer and longer, thinner and thinner. Two minutes go by. No one breathes.

The glob of goodness was attached to the main body by a spider-silk tether, it seemed. Suddenly the growth began to accelerate. The cream swelled near the bottom. A gasp went up from the crowd! Faster and faster it grew and stretched, higher and higher went the pitch of our collective “aaaaahhhhHHHHH!!!”

SNAP! PLOP! SPLASH! The daily confection reached its physical limit, snapped at the neck, and a pint impacted the tile. We all went on with our lives after that. Some of us went to college, others had babies. Someone got arrested, another became a long haul truck driver who ships peaches out of…get this…Utah.

We shared something that day, for in that brief moment in time, we were white or black, Republican or Democrat, servant or free, no more. We felt something. We saw something. And we know others saw it too.

THAT’S why people cry at an eclipse.

25

Great link, albeit brief. Just what I am trying to answer.

26

How about if every 50 years or so the paint suddenly flew off, formed a beautiful, shimmering pattern many times larger than the house, then re-attached itself just as before? Might that prompt a yell?

27

It is widely known that people watching a Space Shuttle launch in person would often burst into tears.

Things that are incredibly amazing to perceive evoke strong emotional reactions. It’s biology.

28

If you seek a textbook explanation from psychologists, etal, to diagram human emotions for this particular situation, it will probably not occur in our lifetime.

My unprofessional take on one’s ability (or lack of therein) to become emotional concerning inanimate objects or occurrences such as an eclipse, may have something to do with their religious belief, whereas such belief tends to suppress empathy/emotion related to non-animate objects, and most notably: non-human. I do not feel this is an end-all explanation, but merely one possible factor of influence.

Like you, I often have difficulty giving credence to some folk’s emotions related to some things inanimate. However…

The visceral reaction of great joy I experienced to the ephemeral occurrence of the total eclipse is unexplainable, akin to the sense of wonder I experienced when first among the redwoods on the Pacific coast.

I hope someday, you too will feel this overwhelming sense of joy related to something inanimate.:slight_smile:

29

Exactly. We have this great big brain but it’s still a lizard brain at its core. It’s cool to tickle that part of the mind once in a while. Another time I experienced something similar was on a canoe trip in Canada. We had planned this weeklong trip to coincide with the annual Perseid meteor shower. It was during a new moon that year, the lake is canoe only, remote with dark skies and access is limited. So we paddled to our spot and set up camp. When it got dark we started watching for meteors. But then something truly astonishing happened…

The Aurora Borealis came out and totally upstaged the meteor show. In Washington State we sometimes see the northern lights but never like this. It filled the entire sky. Giant moving curtains of light and it actually made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. A completely visceral response and you know what? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. For me, stuff like that makes me feel alive. The total eclipse did that for me yesterday.

LOL. When we were driving home yesterday someone messaged that to my phone. I replied with the scrotum song.

30

Interesting take; I would have thought the opposite–that religious people would associate such an event with divine acts and be moved by what appears to be an act of whatever god they believe in.

That’s not a very good analogy. The eclipse is something we understand and can predict with great precision centuries in advance. Your analogy is something with no known explanation, and defies all common sense, human experience, and science. It would prompt a yell, because up until that point it should have been impossible for that to happen. And the yell would be something like, “What the FUCK?!?!”. I would not be shedding tears.

Although it’s rare, I don’t know why it is any more emotionally moving than phases of the moon.