Awe fosters global self-continuity: The mediating effect of global processing and narrative.

Abstract

Awe is a self-relevant emotion, but whether and how awe impacts global self-continuity (GSC), a sense of connectedness among past, present, and future selves, has never been investigated. In six studies (N = 1,384), we examined the relationship between awe and GSC, as well as the mechanisms underlying this relationship, with both correlational and experimental design. We found awe positively associated with (Studies 1 and 3) and predicted (Studies 2 and 4–6) GSC. Moreover, we found that global processing (processing information in a general and big-picture way) and narrative (depicting one’s life as a story) serially mediated the relation (Studies 3–6). The effect of awe on GSC and the mediating effect of global processing and narrative could not simply be attributed to awe is predominantly positive (Studies 3, 4, and 6), and the model also holds for awe brought by threatening experience (Study 5). These findings enrich the literature about the way awe affects self-concept.

How and when awe improves meaning in life: The role of authentic-self pursuit and trait authenticity.

“…Mediation analysis does not require both significant a and b coefficients (e.g., MacKinnon et al, 2002; Preacher & Hayes, 2004). Therefore, although without preregistration, we dissociated the effects of awe per se on dependent variables from threat-based awe by conducting a series of parallel mediation, which included awe and fear index as the parallel mediators (Pan & Jiang, 2022). We also reported the results following the preregistered analysis plans.…”

“…Therefore, to examine the effects of the emotion of awe per se, researchers have attempted to separate awe's effects from the co-occurring emotions statistically or experimentally (e.g., Bai et al, 2017Bai et al, , 2021T. Jiang & Sedikides, 2022;Pan & Jiang, 2022;Piff et al, 2015).…”

“…Similar to awe, amusement is induced by the disparities between expectations and experiences (Morreall, 1989). Therefore, it is often used to control for positive emotions’ effects in awe-related research (e.g., Pan & Jiang, 2022; Piff et al, 2015; Valdesolo & Graham, 2013; Van Cappellen & Saroglou, 2012). In addition, we measured happiness and self-smallness to examine whether the proposed mediating effect of authentic-self pursuit establishes beyond them.…”

Shining our humanity: The benefits of awe on self-humanity.

“…Despite the differences in level, abundant literature suggested that both state and trait awe exhibit the same effects on many kinds of outcomes, including self-smallness, authentic-self pursuit, life satisfaction, global selfcontinuity, and prosocial behavior (e.g., Bai et al, 2017Bai et al, , 2021T. Jiang & Sedikides, 2022;Pan & Jiang, 2022;Piff et al, 2015). Therefore, in the current research, we aimed to test the possible effect of awe on self-humanity both at the state (Studies 2a, 2b, 3, 5, and 6) and trait (Studies 1 and 4) levels.…”

“…However, some have also challenged and criticized this perspective (for details, see Perlin & Li, 2020). Recently, another line of research complemented this perspective by arguing that awe can inspire authentic-self pursuit via self-transcendence (e.g., T. Jiang & Sedikides, 2022) and that self-smallness is not the only way for awe to shape self-perception (e.g., Pan & Jiang, 2022). Our results align with the perspective of self-transcendence, where awe increases the humanness one perceives in oneself; this effect can be explained by authentic-self pursuit rather than self-smallness.…”