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Research Article | Open Access

Natural awe but not other types promotes altruistic behavior by increasing sense of the small self

Li Luo1, Xinyu Yan2,3( ), Jiajin Yuan2( )
School of Educational Science, Neijiang Normal University, Neijiang 641100, China
Sichuan Key Laboratory of Psychology and Behavior of Discipline Inspection and Supervision, Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China
Faculté des Sciences Psycholgiques et de lʹÉducation, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1050, Belgium
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Abstract

Background:

Awe promotes altruistic behavior by enhancing the sense of the small self. However, this mediation mechanism has not been consistently replicated, possibly due to variations in the types of awe. No studies have directly examined whether the mediation of the sense of the small self between awe and altruistic behavior holds true in general, or is specific to a certain type of awe induction. Here, we describe an experiment aimed to address this issue.

Methods:

Two hundred and thirty-five participants were randomly assigned to different emotion groups, including natural awe, social awe, spiritual awe, amusement, and neutrality. After emotional manipulation, the participants were informed of a student’s misfortune and asked to decide how much of their experimental compensation money (RMB 50) they would donate.

Results:

We observed a promoting effect of awe induction on monetary donation in general, and this effect was similar across the three types of awe. Further mediation analysis indicated that natural awe, uniquely promoted altruistic behavior via the mediation role of the small self.

Conclusion:

The current study demonstrates the novel insight that, although the different types of awe induction similarly promote altruistic behavior, only natural awe promotes altruistic behavior through increasing sense of the small self.

Keywords

awealtruistic behaviormonetary donationsmall selfmediation effect

Electronic Supplementary Material

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SAB-2023-0003 supplementary_materials.docx (22.1 KB)

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Stress and Brain
Volume 3 Issue 3,
November 2023
Pages 123-133
DOI: 10.26599/SAB.2022.9060036
Cite this article:
Luo L, Yan X, Yuan J. Natural awe but not other types promotes altruistic behavior by increasing sense of the small self. Stress and Brain, 2023, 3(3): 123-133. https://doi.org/10.26599/SAB.2022.9060036

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Received: 03 March 2023
Revised: 22 September 2023
Accepted: 08 October 2023
Published: 05 November 2023
© The Author(s) 2023

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attributtion-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission.
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