Research Group Led by Professor Xiaolan Fu and Research Assistant Professor Feng Liu at the School of Psychology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Publishes an Editorial on the Overview Effect in Modern Human Spaceflight

Recently, the editorial "The Overview Effect: From cognitive awe to psychophysiological challenge in modern spaceflight," by the joint research team led by Professor Xiaolan Fu and Research Assistant Professor Feng Liu at the School of Psychology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was published online in The Innovation Informatics.

The Overview Effect refers to a possible shift in worldview and self-perception when individuals view Earth from space. It is often accompanied by awe, a heightened sense of Earth's wholeness and fragility, and a stronger feeling of interconnectedness. As commercial human spaceflight develops and the backgrounds of spaceflight participants become more diverse, the Overview Effect is increasingly relevant to research on spaceflight mental health.

The editorial re-examines the Overview Effect across the full spaceflight mission cycle and proposes a conceptual framework comprising experience trigger, psychophysiological integration, and mission-stage management. It notes that Earth visibility differs across mission contexts, which may affect opportunities to trigger the Overview Effect and the availability of Earth viewing as a potential psychological resource.

Figure 1. Proposed conceptual framework of the Overview Effect.

Core Perspectives

Existing research on the Overview Effect relies mainly on astronaut self-reports and ground-based virtual reality experiments, leaving limited direct evidence on long-term changes during actual space missions. The editorial recommends event-linked longitudinal study designs that establish individual baselines before flight and collect psychological, physiological, sleep, and cognitive data around real Earth-viewing events to track changes over time.

The editorial further proposes that AI-enabled information systems could integrate multimodal time-series data to identify changes in individual states and provide supporting information for psychological assessment and support during spaceflight. Such research should also follow strict requirements for ethical review, informed consent, and privacy protection. The editorial provides a reference for future research on the Overview Effect and spaceflight mental health.

Conclusion

The editorial extends the conceptualization of the Overview Effect from a one-time experience of awe to a psychophysiological process spanning the entire spaceflight mission. As participation by non-professional spaceflight participants grows, future studies should be conducted more extensively in actual in-orbit environments and examine long-term trajectories across different training backgrounds and individual characteristics, providing evidence for psychological support in commercial spaceflight and deep-space exploration.

Research Assistant Professor Feng Liu is the first and corresponding author, Professor Xiaolan Fu is a co-corresponding author, and Junhan Gu is a co-author. Junhan Gu is an undergraduate research assistant supervised by Dr. Liu. The work was supported by the Space Medical Experiment Project of the China Manned Space Program (Grant No. HYZHXMR01014), the National Key R&D Program of China, Key Special Project on "Proactive Health and Technological Responses to Population Aging" (No. 2024YFC3606802), the Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2030 Initiative, and the Startup Fund for Young Faculty at SJTU (Grant No. 25X010506040).

Article Information

Title: The Overview Effect: From cognitive awe to psychophysiological challenge in modern spaceflight

Journal: The Innovation Informatics

Published online: July 30, 2026

Article: https://doi.org/10.59717/j.xinn-inform.2026.100055