Awe and Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of Presence of Meaning in Life and the Moderating Role of Perceived Social Support

Ya-Nan Fu; Ruodan Feng; Qun Liu; Yumei He; Ofir Turel; Shuyue Zhang; Qinghua He

doi:10.3390/ijerph19116466

Awe and Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of Presence of Meaning in Life and the Moderating Role of Perceived Social Support

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 26;19(11):6466. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19116466.

Authors

Ya-Nan Fu^{1

2}, Ruodan Feng^{1

2}, Qun Liu^{1

2

3}, Yumei He^{1

2}, Ofir Turel⁴, Shuyue Zhang^{1

2}, Qinghua He^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China.
² Guangxi University and College Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Applied Psychology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China.
³ School of Marxism, Neijiang Normal University, Neijiang 641112, China.
⁴ School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia.
⁵ MOE Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.

Abstract

Although awe has been shown to increase prosocial behavior, there is limited knowledge about the mechanisms underlying this relationship, and about this relationship during unique periods. To bridge these gaps, this study examined the influence of awe on prosocial behaviors, the mediating role of the presence of meaning in life, and the moderating role of perceived social support. Based on longitudinal surveys from 676 Chinese college students we showed that: (1) awe was positively associated with prosocial behavior; (2) the presence of meaning in life mediated this association, and; (3) these associations were moderated by perceived social support. Specifically, the positive relationship between awe and the presence of meaning in life was only significant for college students with low perceived social support; and the positive relationship between the presence of meaning in life and prosocial behavior was stronger for college students with high perceived social support.

Keywords: awe; longitudinal moderated mediation model; perceived social support; presence of meaning in life; prosocial behavior.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Altruism*
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Social Support*
Students

Grants and funding

S.Z. was supported by research grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32060197), Guangxi Philosophy and Social Science Project (20BSH002), Key Topic of Theoretical and Practical Research of Ideological and Political Education for Guangxi University and College Students (2020MSZ039), and Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi (2019JJB130190), and Q.H. was supported by research grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972906), Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (cstc2020jcyj-msxmX0215), and the High-end Foreign Expert Introduction Program (G20190022029).