Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior.

@article{Piff2015AweTS,
  title={Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior.},
  author={Paul K. Piff and Pia Dietze and Matthew Feinberg and Daniel M Stancato and Dacher Keltner},
  journal={Journal of personality and social psychology},
  year={2015},
  volume={108 6},
  pages={
          883-99
        }
}
Awe is an emotional response to perceptually vast stimuli that transcend current frames of reference. Guided by conceptual analyses of awe as a collective emotion, across 5 studies (N = 2,078) we tested the hypothesis that awe can result in a diminishment of the individual self and its concerns, and increase prosocial behavior. In a representative national sample (Study 1), dispositional tendencies to experience awe predicted greater generosity in an economic game above and beyond other… 
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378 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
30
Background Citations
105
Methods Citations
21
Results Citations
22

378 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Awe’s effects on generosity and helping
It is unclear whether positive emotionality in general, or some specific positive emotions (e.g. other-oriented ones), but not others (e.g. self-oriented and, possibly, stimulus-oriented ones),…
The awe-prosociality relationship: evidence for the role of context
ABSTRACT People in a state of awe have been found to perceive their needs as small while also expressing intentions to act in a prosocial way, benefitting others at personal cost. However, these…
Elicited Awe Decreases Aggression
Awe is a feeling of wonder and amazement in response to experiencing something so vast that it transcends one's current frames of reference. Across three experiments (N = 557), we tested the…
Awe and prosocial tendency
Feelings of positive awe have been hypothesized to promote prosocial behaviors in Western contexts. However, the emergent scientific study of awe rarely emphasizes the downstream effect of negative…
Why Does Awe Have Prosocial Effects? New Perspectives on Awe and the Small Self
  • J. Perlin, L. Li
  • Psychology, Medicine
    Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
  • 2020
TLDR
It is proposed that awe may interact with the self not just in terms of attentional focus but rather at multiple layers of selfhood, and further reinterpret the small self using the notion of the quiet ego from personality psychology.
Awe, the Diminished Self, and Collective Engagement: Universals and Cultural Variations in the Small Self
TLDR
It is proposed that awe diminishes the sense of self and shifts attention away from individual interests and concerns, fitting with claims that awe promotes integration into social groups.
Awe, ideological conviction, and perceptions of ideological opponents.
TLDR
The findings indicate that awe may lead to uncertainty and ambivalence regarding one's attitudes, a form of epistemological humility, and that this in turn may promote reduced dogmatism and increased perceptions of social cohesion.
Moving the self and others to do good: The emotional underpinnings of prosocial behavior.
TLDR
Understanding the role of emotion in prosociality requires joint attention to intrapersonal and interpersonal effects, and discusses the emerging patterns from a social-functional perspective.
The Effect of Preceding Self-Control on Prosocial Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Awe
TLDR
Results indicated that the exertion of self-control was detrimental to prosocial behaviors and awe weakened the detrimental effects of exerting self- control on prosocial behavior, and these results were interpreted in terms of the protective inhibition ofSelf-regulation and motivation (PRISM) model.
Awe and the interconnected self
ABSTRACT Awe is a self-expansive emotion, where the boundaries of a separate self are transcended to process a larger, complex reality. The current review integrates the existing scholarship on awe…
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