Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
 2015
DOI: 10.1037/pspi0000018
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Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior.

Paul K. Piff
1
,
Paul Dietze
2
,
Matthew Feinberg
3
et al.

Abstract: 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 prosocial emotions (e.g… Show more

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Cited by 1,118 publications

(1,587 citation statements)
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“…This contradicts previous literature, which suggested more specific predictions-such that surprise (and possibly awe) would be interrupting (Meyer et al, 1997;Reisenzein et al, 2017;Van Elk et al, 2016; and that awe (and possibly surprise, curiosity, and interest) would be absorbing (Pekrun, 2019;Van Elk et al, 2016. Feeling small was, as predicted, part of awe (Piff et al, 2015;Van Elk et al, 2016), but we also found it for confusion, and for boredom (with low scores for surprise and interest). Next, while all emotions except boredom were associated with high exploration in an absolute sense, curiosity and interest scored higher in exploration than all other emotions did (see also Murayama et al, 2019;Noordewier & Van Dijk, 2020;Silvia, 2010).…”
Section: Summary Of Resultscontrasting
confidence: 99%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
show abstract
“…This contradicts previous literature, which suggested more specific predictions-such that surprise (and possibly awe) would be interrupting (Meyer et al, 1997;Reisenzein et al, 2017;Van Elk et al, 2016; and that awe (and possibly surprise, curiosity, and interest) would be absorbing (Pekrun, 2019;Van Elk et al, 2016. Feeling small was, as predicted, part of awe (Piff et al, 2015;Van Elk et al, 2016), but we also found it for confusion, and for boredom (with low scores for surprise and interest). Next, while all emotions except boredom were associated with high exploration in an absolute sense, curiosity and interest scored higher in exploration than all other emotions did (see also Murayama et al, 2019;Noordewier & Van Dijk, 2020;Silvia, 2010).…”
Section: Summary Of Resultscontrasting
confidence: 99%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
show abstract
“…Thus, while the awe‐nature condition increased small‐self feelings relative to both the control and awe‐not‐nature conditions, small‐self feelings did not differ between the control and awe‐not‐nature conditions. This means that, in contrast to previous research (Piff et al., ), we did not find that the awe‐not‐nature video significantly affects small‐self feelings relative to a neutral control.…”
Section: Resultscontrasting
confidence: 99%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
show abstract
“…Our study also showed a significant improvement in empathy and prosocial behaviour in the 4-day group but not in the 1-day group. While previous studies (Castelo et al 2021;Piff et al 2015) have shown that brief nature exposure, such as looking at trees or taking a short walk in a park, enhances empathy and prosocial behaviour, our findings suggest that this does not apply to adolescents. Prosocial behaviour stems from empathy, an emotional response that arises from understanding or perceiving another's emotional state or condition (Acar and Torquati 2015), and such empathy towards other living things can be developed from interactions with nature (Cheng and Monroe 2012).…”
Section: Discussioncontrasting
confidence: 99%
Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.
show abstract
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