When a small self means manageable obstacles: Spontaneous self-distancing predicts divergent effects of awe during a subsequent performance stressor

Abstract

The emotion of awe occurs when one feels small relative to something vaster than the self; it leads to benefits such as care for others. However, because awe elicits the experience of a "small self," it is unclear to what extent awe positively versus negatively affects responses to subsequent stressors. If personal obstacles seem trivial in comparison to awe-inspiring stimuli, stressors should seem either manageable or unimportant, but if one's capabilities seem comparatively insignificant, stressors should seem unmanageable. We hypothesized that awe would have a generally positive effect on responses during a subsequent performance stressor, but that this would further depend on whether people tended to spontaneously take on a selfdistanced versus self-immersed perspective. In the face of awe, focusing less on the self (selfdistanced perspective) should make obstacles in particular seem trivial, whereas focusing more on the self (self-immersed) should lead one's capabilities to seem insignificant. Using the biopsychosocial model of challenge/threat, we found that spontaneous self-distancing significantly moderated awe's effects on responses during a subsequent performance stressor (speech task): For participants who self-distanced, the awe condition led to cardiovascular responses consistent with greater challenge than the neutral control condition (reflecting evaluating the stressor as more manageable); for participants who self-immersed, awe predicted relative threat (less manageable stressor). There was no support for awe making people care less about the stressor (as reflected in cardiovascular responses consistent with task engagement).This offers insight into how awe can have divergent effects on people's experiences during performance stressors.

Awe Guards My Creativity: The Interactive Effect of Perceived Abusive Supervisory Behavior, Dispositional Awe, and Creative Self-Efficacy on Chinese Employee Creativity

“…Ultimately, dispositional awe can induce higher spiritual intelligence (Bonner, 2015 ) and an increased grasp of the meaning of life (Moon et al, 2018 ). It can also promote a spontaneous self-distancing (Le et al, 2019 ), which positively influences an individual's psychological state and substantially increases feelings of self-efficacy (Moon et al, 2018 ). In sum, employees experiencing supervisor dispositional awe have higher creative self-efficacy and creativity.…”

“…Self-diminishment was found to reduce employee's negative reactions to adverse work stressors (Fredrickson, 2004 ; Li et al, 2019 ). Supervisor dispositional awe might also provoke subordinates to engage in spontaneous self-distancing when they encounter a problem (Le et al, 2019 ). According to Le et al ( 2019 ), immersion in awe promotes spontaneous self-distancing in individuals.…”

“…Supervisor dispositional awe might also provoke subordinates to engage in spontaneous self-distancing when they encounter a problem (Le et al, 2019 ). According to Le et al ( 2019 ), immersion in awe promotes spontaneous self-distancing in individuals. Spontaneous self-distancing enables subordinates to forego immediate reactance in favor of strategies that might boost their creative self-efficacy (Ayduk and Kross, 2010 ; Le et al, 2019 ).…”

The good things in urban nature: A thematic framework for optimising urban planning for nature connectedness

“…This replicates themes of wonder and colour in the three good things analysis (Richardson et al, 2015). A recent paper found that generating feelings of awe through natural views has the ability to reduce anxiety and contextualise one's lifeproblems as seeming relatively minor (Le et al, 2019). Indeed, having open views of nature, with less evidence of urbanisation (such as coastal views) has been shown to be of particular benefit to wellbeing (White, Alcock, Wheeler, & Depledge, 2013).…”

Is satisficing really satisfying? Satisficers exhibit greater threat than maximizers during choice overload

“…Given that maximizers tend to search more exhaustively through their options than do satisficers, it is possible they may have engaged in more active motor behavior during the think‐aloud task (e.g., speaking, card movement), thereby impacting the cardiovascular responses of interest. However, past work demonstrates that evaluative speaking tasks lead to a generalized increase in levels of sympathetic nervous system activity, including both HR and VC (Blascovich et al., 2004; de Wit et al., 2012; Le et al, 2019; Lynch et al, 1980; Seery et al., 2009). Notably, we only found differences in challenge/threat responses in the current work and did not find significant differences between maximizers’ and satisficers’ task engagement responses (a composite measure of HR and VC; see Table 4).…”