In this blogpost we wish to highlight the following article as a candidate for a set of Robustness Reports:
Stamkou, E., Brummelman, E., Dunham, R., Nikolic, M., & Keltner, D. (2023). Awe sparks prosociality in children. Psychological Science, 34(4), 455–467. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221150616
The abstract:
Rooted in the novel and the mysterious, awe is a common experience in childhood, but research is almost silent with respect to the import of this emotion for children. Awe makes individuals feel small, thereby shifting their attention to the social world. Here, we studied the effects of art-elicited awe on children’s prosocial behavior toward an out-group and its unique physiological correlates. In two preregistered studies (Study 1: N = 159, Study 2: N = 353), children between 8 and 13 years old viewed movie clips that elicited awe, joy, or a neutral (control) response. Children who watched the awe-eliciting clip were more likely to spend their time on an effortful task (Study 1) and to donate their experimental earnings (Studies 1 and 2), all toward benefiting refugees. They also exhibited increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, an index of parasympathetic nervous system activation associated with social engagement. We discuss implications for fostering prosociality by reimagining children’s environments to inspire awe at a critical age.
We propose this article for re-analysis due to its potential societal implications. Also, the findings show that awe elicited prosocial behavior whereas another positive emotion, joy, did not. A re-analysis could show if the varying consequences of experiencing awe or joy persist among different analytical decisions. This would increase the confidence in the conclusions.
The data are publicly available at https://osf.io/8mv7h/overview.
Author
Jari Holla
References
Stamkou, E., Brummelman, E., Dunham, R., Nikolic, M., & Keltner, D. (2023). Awe sparks prosociality in children. Psychological Science, 34(4), 455–467. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221150616