Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior

Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior is a work by Paul K. Piff (2015).

Core claims

• Across five studies, Piff and colleagues demonstrate that awe — whether induced by nature, memory, or virtual reality — consistently diminishes the sense of self (the ‘small self’ effect) and increases prosocial behavior including generosity, ethical decision-making, and cooperative resource sharing.
• The mechanism linking awe to prosociality is specifically the reduction of self-focus rather than general positive affect: controlling for other positive emotions eliminates their prosocial effects but leaves awe’s contribution intact.
• The ‘small self’ finding provides empirical support for what Jung described as ego-relativization and what Otto called creaturehood — the phenomenological dissolution of self-importance before something that exceeds personal scale.

Related questions

• Does Piff’s ‘small self’ describe the same phenomenon as Jung’s ego-relativization before the Self, or is it a shallower, more transient deflation of self-focus that lacks the transformative depth individuation requires?
• How might Hillman critique the prosocial framing of awe — could the insistence that ego-dissolution must serve social goods represent a domestication of the numinous that strips it of its autonomous, sometimes destructive, archetypal power?

See also

• Library page: /library/the-body/piff-awe-small-self-prosocial/

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