Trial reportEmotion (Washington, D.C.)2022
Big smile, small self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults.
Trial report in Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 119 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of well-being-focused interventions.Nature human behaviour · 2026Pooled it
- Awe reduces depressive symptoms and improves well-being in a randomized-controlled clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Developing Methods for Observing Awe Narration in Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Experiencing awe in daily life is linked to lower loneliness.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- "Awe-scillations": EEG spectral and complexity representations of awe.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Association of Alzheimer's disease concerns with amyloid burden and lifestyle behaviors in cognitively unimpaired older adults.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Dispositional Awe Predicts Mental Health Through Interpretation Bias During COVID-19 Transmission: A Longitudinal Study.PsyCh journal · 2025Article
- Effects of physical activity, social capital on positive emotions in older adults-A study based on data from the 2022 CFPS survey.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Measuring transformative virtual reality experiences in children's drawings.Memory & cognition · 2025Article
- Experiences of Awe Mediate Ketamine's Antidepressant Effects: Findings From a Randomized Controlled Trial in Treatment-Resistant Depression.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2024Article
- A closer look at the time course of bodily responses to awe experiences.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Breaking the Link Between Negative Emotion and Unhealthy Eating: the Role of Emotion Regulation.Affective science · 2023Article
- Dispositional Awe and Self-Worth in Chinese Undergraduates: The Suppressing Effects of Self-Concept Clarity and Small Self.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Dynamic autonomic nervous system states arise during emotions and manifest in basal physiology.Psychophysiology · 2023Article
- Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2023Article
- Nature-Based Therapy in Individuals with Mental Health Disorders, with a Focus on Mental Well-Being and Connectedness to Nature-A Pilot Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Valuing embodiment: insights from dance practice among people living with dementia.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Development of a Japanese version of the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S): A structural topic modeling approach.F1000Research · 2023Article
- Hostage negotiator resilience: A phenomenological study of awe.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- NASA resilience and leadership: examining the phenomenon of awe.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Aging into later life is often accompanied by social disconnection, anxiety, and sadness. Negative emotions are self-focused states with detrimental effects on aging and longevity. Awe-a positive emotion elicited when in the presence of vast things not immediately understood-reduces self-focus, promotes social connection, and fosters prosocial actions by encouraging a "small self." We investigated the emotional benefits of a novel "awe walk" intervention in healthy older adults. Sixty participants took weekly 15-min outdoor walks for 8 weeks; participants were randomly assigned to an awe walk group, which oriented them to experience awe during their walks, or to a control walk group. Participants took photographs of themselves during each walk and rated their emotional experience. Each day, they reported on their daily emotional experience outside of the walk context. Participants also completed pre- and postintervention measures of anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction. Compared with participants who took control walks, those who took awe walks experienced greater awe during their walks and exhibited an increasingly "small self" in their photographs over time. They reported greater joy and prosocial positive emotions during their walks and displayed increasing smile intensity over the study. Outside of the walk context, participants who took awe walks reported greater increases in daily prosocial positive emotions and greater decreases in daily distress over time. Postintervention anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction did not change from baseline in either group. These results suggest cultivating awe enhances positive emotions that foster social connection and diminishes negative emotions that hasten decline. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.