Awe’s prosocial effect: the mediating role of the small self and the authentic self

Subjects: Psychology >> Personality Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-06-15

Zhao Yue Hu Xiaoyong Ma Jiaxin

Abstract： Awe is an emotional response to vast stimuli that challenge the current frames of reference and require a new schema to accommodate. A large body of empirical studies have highlighted that awe engenders various forms of prosocial behavior. Regarding the psychological mechanisms implicated, the small-self hypothesis posits that the vastness of stimuli that evokes awe elicits feelings of self-smallness, which diverts the individual's attention away from the self and towards others, thus promoting prosocial behavior; the authentic-self hypothesis suggests that awe helps to facilitate a shift in the individual's attention from regular mundane concerns to a larger spiritual presence, which stimulates the individual's pursuit of his or her authentic self, thus promoting prosocial behavior. These research hypotheses can be integrated within the 'Big Two' framework, which suggests that awe promotes prosocial behavior through two parallel paths in the dimension of agency (authentic self) and communion (small self). Future research needs to further explore the psychological mechanisms underlying the prosocial effects of awe and, on this basis, develop efficacious interventions to promote prosocial behavior, such as donations, in order to provide psychological strategies for the effective implementation of the third distribution strategy.

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