Experiencing awe can reduce personal focus and encourage more generous behavior
In short: Researchers who studied the emotional impact of awe found that this response to vast stimuli can diminish an individual's focus on themselves. Across five studies, the team observed that people with a natural tendency toward awe were more generous in economic games. Furthermore, intentionally inducing awe led to improvements in ethical decision-making, personal values, and helpfulness.
The researchers suggest that awe works by making people feel like a smaller part of a larger whole, which helps them prioritize collective concerns over personal ones. The team used various methods, including economic games and a naturalistic setting where people viewed massive trees. However, because some of these findings rely on self-reported tendencies or specific experimental inductions, the results may not capture every way awe influences human behavior in daily life.
Why it matters: Understanding how awe shifts our perspective from 'me' to 'us' can help explain why it fosters community-minded behavior.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Research: Piff et al. (2015). Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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