The experience of awe in nature

This Small Grant built on earlier work by the Principal Investigator on moral emotions, funded by an ESRC First Grant. Overall the research programme investigates various moral emotions and their role on thoughts and behaviours. The current project more specifically explored positive moral emotions, including awe, moral elevation and admiration for skill.
Several studies tested the influence of awe on prosocial and environmental concern. Another set of studies investigated the cognitive and behavioural difference in response to other people's excellence in the moral domain, or in domains of exceptional skill.
We additionally focussed on other aspects of the broader research programme of the Principal Investigator, on embodied moral emotions and their role in judgments and decisions. For example, we tested the influence of linguistic metaphors on the extremity of moral judgment.
A number of novel findings were obtained and have been published consequently, including on the influence of moral elevation on prosocial behaviour, and on various non-rational influences on moral judgment.

本小额基金项目基于首席研究员此前由ESRC初期基金资助的道德情绪研究工作展开。整体研究计划旨在探究各类道德情绪及其对思想与行为的作用。当前项目则更聚焦于积极道德情绪的探索，包括敬畏、道德升华及技能钦佩。

多项研究检验了敬畏情绪对亲社会行为与环境关切的影响。另有一组研究则探究了人们在面对他人于道德领域或卓越技能领域所展现的杰出表现时，其认知与行为层面的差异。

我们还聚焦于首席研究员更广泛研究计划中的其他方面——具身道德情绪（embodied moral emotions）及其在判断与决策中的作用。例如，我们检验了语言隐喻对道德判断极端性的影响。

本项目取得了多项创新性发现并已相应发表，包括道德升华对亲社会行为的影响，以及各类非理性因素对道德判断的作用。