Children move through life, often experiencing new and exciting things. This often leads to awe, which is thought of as reverential, rooted in respect and wonder. But can awe be advantageous for kids? A study published in Psychological Science suggests that awe can lead to prosocial behavior in children.
Awe is an important emotion that has many tangible benefits, such as better physical health, increased social functioning, and higher ability to regulate emotions. Awe has been linked to prosocial behavior, or the likelihood to engage in actions that benefit others, in adults. This is due to the fact that awe makes people feel smaller, humbler, less entitled, and more aware of the world around them.
Awe is less studied in child samples, despite the fact that it is a very prevalent feeling for kids, as they learn new information about the world around them. This study seeks to address that gap in the literature by exploring how awe in children could be related to prosocial behavior.
Eftychia Stamkou and colleagues explored art-elicited awe and prosociality in children through two studies. Study 1 included 159 participants and study 2 included 353 Dutch-speaking participants, all of whom were children between the ages of 8 and 13 years old. In study 1, participants were randomly watch a clip that elicited awe, elicited joy, or was a neutral control video.
Following the clip, participants rated their emotions and completed 2 prosocial behavior tasks. The first one asked participants to complete an easy but time-consuming task that benefited others and the second task measured willingness to donate a raffle ticket. In study 2, EEG was conducted on the children to monitor physiological responses.
Next, they watched videos explaining the emotions of joy and awe. After this, they were randomly assigned to a joy, awe, or control video and asked to report their emotional reactions, similarly to study 1. Prosocial behavior was measured with the easy but time-consuming task that was used in study 1.
For study 2, the second prosociality task involved experimenters asking participants to choose a snack as compensation for participation and then asking if they’d like to donate it to refugee children. Experimenters left the room while they decided, in order to reduce any authority bias.
Results showed that children who viewed the awe-inspiring video were more likely to donate to benefit others. In study 1, children who viewed the awe-inspiring video were more likely to spend their time on an easy but time-consuming task to benefit refugees, but in study 2 there were not significant differences between video conditions.
In both study 1 and study 2, participants who were in the awe condition were more likely to donate their earnings from participation, whether it be a raffle ticket or a snack. While study 1 had a more abstract reward of a raffle ticket, the chocolate was in the room with the children for study 2, increasing temptation.
Additionally, study 2 showed that physiologically, children who watched the awe clip had greater parasympathetic nervous system activity, which is related to cardiac health and emotional regulation.
This study took steps into better understanding if the advantages of awe extended to children. Despite this, there are limitations to note. One such limitation is that prosociality was measured immediately after the awe-inspiring experience. Future research should involve follow up to see if the effect is lasting. Additionally, the sample was consisted of only Dutch children; future research should expand sampling to include other cultures.
The study, “Awe Sparks Prosociality in Children“, was authored by Eftychia Stamkou, Eddie Brummelman, Rohan Dunham, Milica Nikolic, and Dacher Keltner.