Within the depth-psychology and emotion-science corpus represented in this library, prosocial behavior is treated not as a simple volitional act but as the downstream consequence of deeper psychological transformations — principally, shifts in the architecture of the self. The most sustained theoretical treatment appears in Piff and colleagues' programmatic research (2015), which positions prosocial behavior as an outcome of self-diminishment induced by awe: when the individual self contracts in the presence of something vast, concern for others expands proportionally. Keltner's broader work reinforces this mechanism, linking the vanishing of self-focus to cooperation, sacrifice, and sharing. A significant tension runs through these accounts: prosocial outcomes depend not on the direct cultivation of altruistic intent but on the indirect dissolution of self-enhancement — a finding that resonates with depth-psychological insights about the ego's resistance to genuine other-directed orientation. McGilchrist's critique of the self-esteem movement adds a complementary note, arguing that ethical behavior, rather than being a product of inflated selfhood, is more appropriately its reward. The role of moral elevation, oxytocin, and vagal tone in mediating prosocial tendencies (Yaden, Lench) further situates prosociality at the intersection of physiology, emotion, and transcendence. Religion emerges as a structuring institution that channels awe toward prosocial ends, bridging individual experience and collective morality.
we tested the hypothesis that awe can result in a diminishment of the individual self and its concerns, and increase prosocial behavior
This passage states the central thesis: awe-induced self-diminishment is the primary mechanism by which prosocial behavior is increased across five empirical studies.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015thesis
processes that diminish attention to the individual self and its interests can increase prosocial tendencies
The passage grounds the awe-prosociality hypothesis in a broader literature showing that reduced self-importance reliably predicts greater other-directed behavior.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015thesis
awe leads to more prosocial tendencies by broadening the individual's perspective to include entities vaster and more powerful than oneself and diminishing the salience of the individual self
This passage synthesizes the mediation findings across studies, identifying the small-self mechanism as the operative pathway from awe to prosociality.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015thesis
Awe exerts a specific and likely unique effect on prosociality that is distinct from the influences of other positive emotions, not confounded by more general positive affect
The passage establishes the specificity of awe's prosocial effect by systematically ruling out alternative positive emotions such as pride, amusement, love, and compassion.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015thesis
the experience of awe will increase prosocial behavior, and that these effects will be driven by what we refer to as the 'small self'—a relatively diminished sense of self
The passage introduces the small-self construct as the theoretical mediator linking awe to prosocial outcomes, framing the research program's central hypothesis.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015thesis
a third pathway by which awe may improve mental and physical health is through enhanced prosociality. Empirical studies have found that transient experiences of awe in the lab and in naturalistic contexts leads to cooperation, sacrifice, and sharing
Keltner situates prosociality as one of three health-relevant pathways activated by awe, extending Piff's findings into the domain of well-being research.
, Awe: A Pathway to Health, 2023supporting
the effects of religion on prosociality may be partly attributable to awe. Religious institutions may promote prosociality insofar as they attune individuals to forces more powerful than themselves
The passage proposes that religion functions as an institutional conduit of awe, suggesting that documented links between religiosity and prosocial behavior are partly mediated by awe-experience.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015supporting
In several studies, such intentions track onto actual prosocial behavior
Lench's review confirms that moral elevation reliably translates prosocial intentions into measurable behavior across multiple experimental and trait-level studies.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
awe is associated with increased prosociality. Though the size of this effect was modest, it held when controlling for dispositional tendencies to experience other positive emotions, including love and compassion
The passage reports Study 1's finding that dispositional awe independently predicts generosity even after controlling for other prosocially relevant positive emotions.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015supporting
The vagus nerve is activated during self-transcendent positive emotions like awe, compassion, gratitude, and love, suggesting a potential mechanism underlying STEs
Yaden links vagal tone and oxytocin to the physiological substrate of self-transcendent emotions, offering a neurobiological basis for the prosocial consequences of awe and related states.
, The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience, 2017supporting
psychological entitlement, which reflects a sense that one deserves more and is entitled to more valued resources than others, and is inimical to prosocial behavior
The passage frames entitlement as the psychological antithesis of prosocial behavior, operationalizing the self-inflation that awe counteracts in Study 5.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015supporting
boost self-esteem as a reward for ethical behaviour and worthy achievements
McGilchrist, citing Baumeister, argues that prosocial and ethical behavior should precede rather than follow self-esteem, inverting the popular assumption that high self-regard promotes other-directed conduct.
, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, 2021supporting
a recent review of eighty-eight studies involving 25,000 participants from around the world documents how robust our tendency is to imitate the prosocial behaviors of others, sharing, cooperation, and assisting in need
Keltner references meta-analytic evidence for prosocial modeling, situating imitation of other-directed behavior as a robust cross-cultural mechanism.
, Awe The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can, 2023supporting
in Study 1 we controlled for other positive prosocial states (e.g., love, compassion), in Study 2 we pitted awe against pride, in Study 3 we pitted awe against amusement
The passage describes the methodological strategy for isolating awe's unique contribution to prosocial outcomes across a multi-study design.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015supporting
The Prisoner's Dilemma is a problem that will be familiar to many readers, originating in an aspect of economic and social modelling known as games theory
McGilchrist introduces the Prisoner's Dilemma as a game-theoretic model relevant to cooperation, gesturing toward the structural conditions that constrain or enable prosocial choice.
, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, 2009aside