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) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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灿烂的笑容，小小的自我：敬畏之心能促进老年人亲社会积极的情绪。

到晚年生活通常会伴随着社交疏离，焦虑和悲伤。负面情绪是自我集中的状态，会对衰老和长寿产生不利影响。敬畏是一种积极的情感，当在没有立即被理解的广阔事物面前时，就会引起自我敬畏，从而降低自我集中度，促进社交联系并通过鼓励“小自我”促进亲社会行为。我们调查了健康老年人中新型“敬畏行走”干预的情感益处。60名参与者每周进行15分钟的户外散步，为期8周；参与者被随机分配到一个敬畏行走小组（该小组将他们定向为在行走过程中体验敬畏）或一个对照行走小组。参与者在每次散步时都为自己拍照，并评估他们的情感体验。每天，他们报告了步行环境以外的日常情感经历。参与者还完成了焦虑，抑郁和生活满意度干预前后的措施。与进行控制步行的参与者相比，进行敬畏步行的参与者在步行过程中会表现出更大的敬畏感，并且随着时间的推移，他们的照片表现出越来越“小的自我”。他们在散步时表现出更大的欢乐和亲社会的积极情绪，并在研究中表现出越来越高的微笑强度。在步行环境之外，敬畏散步的参与者报告说，随着时间的流逝，每天的亲社会积极情绪增加得更多，而每天的苦恼减少得更多。两组患者的干预后焦虑，抑郁和生活满意度与基线相比均未发生变化。这些结果表明，敬畏精神的培养可以增强积极情感，促进社交关系，减少消极情绪，加速衰落。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。