Cargando…

Awe promotes moral expansiveness via the small-self

The experience of awe has been shown to challenge how people think about themselves and the world around them, linking them to something greater than themselves. We investigated whether this emotional experience of awe may also challenge the boundaries of our moral consideration, leading to a genera...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Song, Ji Young, Klebl, Christoph, Bastian, Brock
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10025529/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36949922
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1097627
_version_ 1784909353884581888
author Song, Ji Young
Klebl, Christoph
Bastian, Brock
author_facet Song, Ji Young
Klebl, Christoph
Bastian, Brock
author_sort Song, Ji Young
collection PubMed
description The experience of awe has been shown to challenge how people think about themselves and the world around them, linking them to something greater than themselves. We investigated whether this emotional experience of awe may also challenge the boundaries of our moral consideration, leading to a generalized expansion in our moral worlds. Across five studies (N = 990), we examined whether awe might promote moral expansiveness; that is, increased moral concern across a broad range of entities (e.g., out-groups, animals, plants, environments). Cross-sectional Studies 1a and 1b, found dispositional awe was related to greater moral expansiveness. Experimental Studies 2 and 3, using video-induced awe, found consistent indirect effects on moral expansiveness, via self-reported awe and the small-self sense of vastness. Experimental Study 4, using Virtual Reality induced awe, found those in the awe condition (vs. control) reported greater moral expansiveness, and this was fully mediated by the small-self sense of vastness. Our findings show awe expands our sense of connectedness to the broader world, and through this, increases the breath of our moral concern.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10025529
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-100255292023-03-21 Awe promotes moral expansiveness via the small-self Song, Ji Young Klebl, Christoph Bastian, Brock Front Psychol Psychology The experience of awe has been shown to challenge how people think about themselves and the world around them, linking them to something greater than themselves. We investigated whether this emotional experience of awe may also challenge the boundaries of our moral consideration, leading to a generalized expansion in our moral worlds. Across five studies (N = 990), we examined whether awe might promote moral expansiveness; that is, increased moral concern across a broad range of entities (e.g., out-groups, animals, plants, environments). Cross-sectional Studies 1a and 1b, found dispositional awe was related to greater moral expansiveness. Experimental Studies 2 and 3, using video-induced awe, found consistent indirect effects on moral expansiveness, via self-reported awe and the small-self sense of vastness. Experimental Study 4, using Virtual Reality induced awe, found those in the awe condition (vs. control) reported greater moral expansiveness, and this was fully mediated by the small-self sense of vastness. Our findings show awe expands our sense of connectedness to the broader world, and through this, increases the breath of our moral concern. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10025529/ /pubmed/36949922 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1097627 Text en Copyright © 2023 Song, Klebl and Bastian. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Song, Ji Young
Klebl, Christoph
Bastian, Brock
Awe promotes moral expansiveness via the small-self
title Awe promotes moral expansiveness via the small-self
title_full Awe promotes moral expansiveness via the small-self
title_fullStr Awe promotes moral expansiveness via the small-self
title_full_unstemmed Awe promotes moral expansiveness via the small-self
title_short Awe promotes moral expansiveness via the small-self
title_sort awe promotes moral expansiveness via the small-self
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10025529/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36949922
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1097627
work_keys_str_mv AT songjiyoung awepromotesmoralexpansivenessviathesmallself
AT kleblchristoph awepromotesmoralexpansivenessviathesmallself
AT bastianbrock awepromotesmoralexpansivenessviathesmallself