New research suggests that experiencing aesthetic chills — those goosebump-inducing moments triggered by profound stimuli — can positively shift core self-beliefs in individuals with depression. The findings, published in BMC Psychiatry, hint at a promising, non-drug approach to fostering psychological well-being by tapping into the body’s natural response to moving experiences.
Depression, a complex and often debilitating mental health condition, affects millions worldwide. It’s characterized by persistent sadness, lack of interest in life, and a suite of cognitive issues, including harmful self-beliefs. Traditional treatments like medication and psychotherapy focus on altering these negative thought patterns. Recently, interest has spiked in using psychedelic experiences to radically change these core beliefs due to their ability to induce significant emotional and psychological insights.
However, psychedelics’ legality, accessibility, and potential side effects limit their use. Led by Felix Schoeller of the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies in Santa Monica and Abhinandan Jain of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a team of researchers aimed to explore whether the profound experience of aesthetic chills could offer similar benefits without the complications associated with drug use.
Participants for the study were recruited through an online platform called Prolific. This platform allowed the researchers to select individuals based on specific criteria, ensuring that all participants had a prior diagnosis of depression. The final cohort consisted of 96 participants, who reported being in therapy and on medication to manage their depression.
The core of the study involved exposing participants to one of two selected videos known to induce aesthetic chills—a physiological response often accompanied by goosebumps and shivers, triggered by deeply moving or profound experiences. These videos were sourced from ChillsDB, a database of audiovisual content previously identified to elicit chills. One video aimed to directly impact self-schema through motivational content, while the other was designed to evoke pro-social feelings, both proven to induce chills in most viewers.
Before and after the video exposure, participants completed assessments using the Emotional Breakthrough Inventory (EBI) and the Young Positive Schema Questionnaire (YPSQ). The EBI measured the participants’ emotional responses, akin to those reported in psychedelic experiences, focusing on breakthroughs in processing difficult emotions. The YPSQ assessed changes in positive beliefs about oneself, specifically looking at factors like self-acceptance and shame.
Approximately half of the participants reported experiencing chills in response to the selected stimuli. This group not only reported a significant emotional breakthrough, as measured by the EBI, but also demonstrated an improvement in self-acceptance, according to the YPSQ.
The relationship between the intensity of the chills experienced and the degree of emotional breakthrough reported by participants was statistically significant. Those who reported stronger chills also described greater emotional insights, suggesting a dose-response-like effect where more intense aesthetic experiences could lead to more profound psychological benefits.
Experiencing chills led to an increase in both emotional valence (the positivity or negativity of the emotional state) and arousal (the level of emotional activation or excitement). This indicates that chills not only elevate mood but also engage the individual at a higher level of emotional intensity.
Importantly, participants’ emotional states before exposure to the stimuli did not predict their likelihood of experiencing chills, suggesting that the capacity for such profound responses is not limited by one’s initial emotional condition.
The findings suggest that the experience of aesthetic chills can mimic some of the psychological benefits of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy without the need for drug ingestion and its associated risks. This opens up a promising avenue for therapeutic interventions that could complement existing treatments for depression, offering a non-invasive, easily accessible method to potentially shift core maladaptive beliefs and enhance emotional well-being.
Despite these promising results, the study includes some important limitations, including the self-reported nature of the data and the relatively small and homogenous sample size. These factors underscore the need for further research to validate and expand upon these findings. Future studies could explore larger, more diverse populations and employ additional objective measures to deepen our understanding of how aesthetic chills might contribute to treating depression and other mental health conditions.
“Aesthetic chills may be a promising avenue for future therapeutic interventions and offer a non-pharmacological and easily accessible means to induce psychoplastogenic states. This preliminary study suggests that chill-inducing stimuli may have the potential to affect the core schema of depressed patients, specifically in terms of shame and self-acceptance,” the researchers concluded.
“The mechanism of action during the chills response may resemble the form of insight induced by the psychedelic and psychotherapeutic experience, leading to similar positive outcomes for the subject. However, further research is needed to fully understand the immediate and long-term effects of chills on depression and other reward-related or dopaminergic illnesses.”
The study, “Aesthetic chills mitigate maladaptive cognition in depression,” was authored by Felix Schoeller, Abhinandan Jain, Vladimir Adrien, Pattie Maes, and Nicco Reggente.