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Whether and how awe impacts inspiration lacks sufficient empirical research. We conducted five studies (N = 941) to examine the awe – inspiration link and the mediating effect of self-transcendence. We found that awe promoted inspiration, which was indexed by an actual behavior indicator, others' ratings (Study 1), and multiple self-reported scales (Studies 2–4). Self-transcendence mediated this effect (Studies 3–4). The effect of awe on inspiration and the mediating effect of self-transcendence were established when comparing awe with a general positive emotion (i.e., amusement in Study 2a and happiness in Study 2b) and nature (Study 4), having emotions controlled for (Studies 2–4), and inducing awe with a threatening experience (Study 4). Taken together, awe exerted a unique effect on inspiration, and self-transcendence mediated this effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on awe and meaning in life (MIL) is rare. In the current research, we conducted a pre-registered study to examine how awe influences MIL from the perspective of the tripartite model of MIL as well as the construction and detection routes of deriving meaning. The results showed that awe increased MIL via motivating purpose pursuit but decreased MIL by reducing the sense of significance. Overall, awe increased MIL, which was driven mainly by the mediating effect of purpose pursuit. Our findings suggest that awe is not a purely positive emotion, and it affects MIL in a complex way. The implications were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose that the emotion of awe (i.e., challenge that exceeds the scope of one's mental structures, requiring cognitive accommodation) awakens self-transcendence (i.e., reaching beyond one's self-boundary), which in turn invigorates pursuit of the authentic self (i.e., alignment with one's true self). This process has implications for prosociality. We supported our theoretical model in 14 studies (N = 4,438) using distinct awe manipulations or measures, employing different assessments of authentic-self pursuit, testing participants both in laboratory and field settings, and involving samples from both collectivistic and individualistic cultures. In Studies 1–2 (N = 828), dispositional awe was positively associated with authentic-self pursuit and induced awe motivated authentic-self pursuit. In Studies 2–9 (N = 2,461), dispositional awe was positively associated with, and induced awe strengthened, authentic-self pursuit via self-transcendence. These effects were independent of pride and happiness. In Study 10 (N = 281), self-smallness (i.e., a sense of self as small and insignificant), albeit induced by awe, did not account for the unique effects of awe on authentic-self pursuit via self-transcendence. Finally, in Studies 11–14 (N = 868), awe-induced authentic-self pursuit was linked with higher general prosociality, but lower inauthentic prosociality. The findings invite a reexamination of awe's relation with the self, while highlighting the complexity and intricacy of that relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research concerns the relations among self-concept clarity, autobiographic memory, and self-continuity. We hypothesized, and tested in 7 studies, that low self-concept clarity would disrupt self-continuity, but resorting to autobiographic memory would counter this disruption, thus restoring self-continuity. In Studies 1 and 2, low or threatened self-concept clarity was associated with decreased, or led to a decrease of, self-continuity. In Study 3, participants low (vs. high) in self-concept clarity manifested a stronger preference for an autobiographical memory task (but not for a control task). In Study 4, a suppressed mediational model of autobiographical memory received empirical backing: Threatened self-concept clarity decreased self-continuity, but also increased the propensity to evoke autobiographical memory, which fostered self-continuity. By manipulating autobiographical memory in different ways, Studies 5 through 7 provided additional direct evidence for the capacity of autobiographical memory to restore self-continuity. Taken together, the results converge in support of the hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the temporal need–threat model, ostracism results in three stages of responses. Research on the responses to ostracism has predominantly focused on the first two stages, and the literature needs further empirical evidence on responses to long-term ostracism. We conducted two studies to better understand the association between long-term ostracism and depressive symptoms. Study 1 found a positive association between long-term ostracism and depressive symptoms. More importantly, Study 1 found the threatened sense of meaning in life partially mediates the relationship. Study 2 further found that self-compassion, a positive and healthy trait, weakens the relationship between long-term ostracism and depressive symptoms. More specifically, self-compassion moderates the relationship between the threatened sense of meaning in life and depressive symptoms. Our findings not only further our understanding about the negative consequences of long-term ostracism but also suggest a possible way to mitigate depressive symptoms associated with long-term ostracism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In five studies, we tested whether ostracism triggers feelings of relative deprivation and whether relative deprivation accounts for the impact of ostracism on aggression. Relative to participants who recalled either inclusive or neutral experiences, participants who recalled ostracism experiences reported higher levels of relative deprivation (Study 1). Furthermore, the feeling of relative deprivation mediated the effect of ostracism on aggression (Studies 2, 3a, and 3b). Framing ostracism as an experience of nondeprivation weakened the connection between ostracism and aggression (Study 4), which suggests an effective way of reducing aggression following an ostracism experience. Together, these findings highlight the significance of relative deprivation in shaping people's responses toward ostracism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined individual factors contributing to online shaming, a recent phenomenon where people engage in social policing by shaming transgressions using the Internet technology. It focused on the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and the belief in a just world (BJW). A sample of 245 city employees in Nanjing, China participated in the study. Participants read an online post about a real-life transgression and reported their willingness to engage in online shaming. Their subjective SES and BJW were assessed. Participants with higher SES exhibited a greater tendency to engage in online shaming than those with lower SES, and participants with stronger BJW were more likely to engage in online shaming. BJW further mediated the relationship between SES and online shaming. The findings have important practical implications in the Internet era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-blogging sites such as Twitter and its Chinese equivalent Weibo are characterized by fragmentation in information communication (FIC). Yet little is known about information comprehension in the micro-blogging context and the mechanism underlying any possible influence. Using E-Prime ® to simulate information communication at Weibo, we conducted two experiments to investigate the effect of Weibo's structural features, namely, irrelevant information interference and feedback, on information comprehension. We found that participants' online information comprehension was negatively affected after browsing (reposting and passing) Weibo messages through the feedback function, and that this negative effect further extended to an offline reading task. Furthermore, meditation analysis showed that cognitive overload mediated the negative effect of reposting on information comprehension. The findings provide important insights into the influence of Internet technology on reading and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Nostalgia increased positive affect relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia increased self-esteem relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia increased self-continuity relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia increased social-connectedness relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia increased meaning in life relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia increased optimism relative to brooding (but not reflection). • Nostalgia led to higher boredom reduction relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia led to higher conversation relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia led to higher intimacy maintenance relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia led to higher death preparation relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia led to lower bitterness revival relative to brooding and reflection. • Nostalgia also increased teach/inform relative to brooding (but not reflection). • The benefits of nostalgia were similar for British and Chinese participants. We sought to clarify the psychological profile of experimentally induced nostalgia, compared to two other modes of thinking about one's past—reflection and brooding—also experimentally induced. We tested both British and Chinese participants. Our main hypothesis was that nostalgia's profile is more positive in terms of six psychological benefits and seven autobiographical memory functions. The results were consistent with the hypothesis. In regard to psychological benefits, nostalgia (vs. reflection and brooding) increased positive affect, self-esteem, self-continuity, social connectedness, and meaning in life. Furthermore, nostalgia increased optimism relative to brooding (but not reflection). In regard to autobiographical memory functions, nostalgia (vs. reflection and brooding) led to higher boredom reduction, conversation, intimacy maintenance, and death preparation, as well as lower bitterness revival. Nostalgia also elevated teach/inform relative to brooding (but not reflection). The findings were similar for British and Chinese participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explored whether people hold double standards in a public crisis. We proposed that during the COVID‐19 pandemic, people required others to strictly follow self‐quarantine rules and other preventive behaviours, whereas they themselves would not, demonstrating double standards. Moreover, this effect would be moderated by the perceived threat from the pandemic. Using data collected in the United States and China, three studies (N = 2180) tested the hypotheses by measuring (Study 1) and manipulating the perceived threat (Studies 2 and 3). We found that people generally applied higher standards to others than to themselves when it came to following the self‐quarantine rules. This effect was strong when a relatively low threat was perceived, but the self–other difference disappeared when the perceived threat was relatively high, as the demands they placed on themselves would increase as the perceived threat intensified, but their requirements of others would be constantly strict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social pain is ubiquitous and has deleterious effects on people's health. Thus, identifying how to promote social pain recovery is important. Across three studies (N = 989), we examined whether a self-administered online awe-intervening approach could help people recover from social pain. With participants from the United States and China, we found that the online awe-intervening approach helped people recover from social pain associated with both cyber-social exclusion (Study 1) and real-life social exclusion events (Studies 2 and 3). Moreover, we found a significant mediating effect of the global sense of connectedness (Studies 2 and 3). We further demonstrated that the awe-intervening approach's effect on social pain recovery and the mediating effect of the global sense of connectedness were distinct from general positive emotions, exposure to nature, self-diminishment, and distraction (Study 3). Taken together, our findings endorse the online awe-intervening approach as an effective social pain reliever. • Online awe-intervening approach promotes social pain recovery. • Extended awe's benefits from intrapersonal to interpersonal problems. • Global connectedness mediated this effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal narratives constitute one of the most fundamental means of making sense of one's experiences. In the digital age, documenting life online has emerged as a new form of personal narrative. However, what contributes to documenting life online and its implications has remained unaddressed. With self-reported scales (Studies 1–2) and the behavioral indicator from social media (i.e., posts on Weibo, a Twitter-like online platform in China; Study 2), we examined the relationship between documenting life online and nostalgia, as well as implications for global self-continuity (i.e., a sense of connectedness among past, present, and future selves) and psychological well-being. We found nostalgia was positively associated with self-reported (Study 1) and behavioral (Study 2) documenting life online. Meanwhile, we also found a sequential mediation model: nostalgia was positively associated with documenting life online. Further, this act of online documentation is sequentially linked to positive impacts on global self-continuity and psychological well-being (Studies 1–2). Theoretical and practical implications were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's past, as a buffer against psychological threats has been well-established across various domains. However, whether nostalgia could alleviate cyberbullying's adverse effects has never been investigated. We have conducted two studies (N = 471) to examine nostalgia as a buffer against cyberbullying victimization on social media. We found that people who have been cyberbullied more frequently reported a lower level of psychological well-being. Notably, they also reported more proneness to feel nostalgic, which led to a higher level of psychological well-being (Study 1). We complemented these findings with an experiment in which we simultaneously manipulated cyberbullying victimization and nostalgia and assessed the psychological well-being associated with being cyberbullied (Study 2). Nostalgia induction increased psychological well-being in the wake of cyberbullying victimization. Therefore, nostalgia is a psychological resource that can be harnessed to buffer cyberbullying. • Being cyberbullied was negatively related to psychological well-being (PWB). • Being cyberbullied was positively related to nostalgia. • Being cyberbullied and PWB relationship was strengthened when we controlled for nostalgia. • Nostalgia increased PWB in the wake of being cyberbullied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eleven studies (N = 2,254; 2 preregistered) examined whether ostracism would trigger suicidal thoughts and whether perceived meaning in life would account for this effect. The feeling of ostracism was induced via recalling a past experience (Studies 1a, 1c, 2c, and 3b), imagining a future experience (Studies 1d, 1e, and 2b), engaging in an online real-time interaction (Studies 1b and 2d), or receiving bogus personality feedback (Study 3a). Across all 11 studies, ostracism increased suicidal thoughts. Study 1a found that ostracism increased implicit associations of "death" and "me" relative to "life" and "me" on the Implicit Association Test of Suicide (Nock et al., 2010). In Study 1b, ostracized participants showed more suicidal thoughts in imagined stressful situations than did included participants. Studies 1c, 1d, and 1e further showed that ostracism increased explicit suicidal thoughts compared with both inclusion and neutral experiences. Furthermore, we found that perceived meaning in life accounted for ostracism's effect on suicidal thoughts (Studies 2a and 2b), even after controlling for depressive affect (Study 2c). In Study 2d, a preregistered study, we directly compared the contributions of perceived meaning in life and the 4 basic needs and mood proposed in William's (2007, 2009) ostracism framework, and we found that perceived meaning in life had a distinct mediating role in the ostracism-suicidal thinking link. Finally, Studies 3a and 3b found that self-affirmation exercises reduced suicidal thoughts following ostracism. Life lacks meaning without social connection, thereby activating suicidal thoughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]