Awe is a widely researched, self-transcendent emotion with a robust ability to prompt prosocial behavior. Within the communication and media disciplines, however, the effects of awe have received only limited empirical attention. Moreover, extant research has ignored the role that media affordances may play in engendering awe and prosocial outcomes. This article presents two studies that explore the prosocial consequences of awe, as mediated by presence and when engendered by immersive features of various media, including virtual reality (VR). Study 1 (N = 154) found that awe content presented in highly immersive VR induced awe via an effect entirely mediated by presence, though impacts on subsequent prosocial outcomes were inconsistent. Study 2 (N = 188) attempted to replicate and clarify the prosociality results from Study 1, as well as contextualize them with respect to eudaimonic appreciation and hedonic enjoyment. Results demonstrated awe effects across all three measures of prosociality.

中文翻译：

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身临其境和互动的敬畏：通过虚拟现实和在线视频中的存在唤起敬畏以提示亲社会行为

敬畏是一种被广泛研究的、自我超越的情绪，具有促进亲社会行为的强大能力。然而，在传播和媒体学科中，敬畏的影响只得到了有限的经验关注。此外，现有的研究忽略了媒体可供性在产生敬畏和亲社会结果方面可能发挥的作用。本文介绍了两项研究，探讨敬畏的亲社会后果，由存在介导，以及由包括虚拟现实 (VR) 在内的各种媒体的沉浸式特征产生。研究 1 (N = 154) 发现，高度沉浸式 VR 中呈现的敬畏内容通过完全由存在介导的效果引起了敬畏，尽管对随后的亲社会结果的影响并不一致。研究 2 (N = 188) 试图复制和阐明研究 1 的亲社会性结果，以及将它们与 eudaimonic 欣赏和享乐相关的情境化。结果证明了所有三个亲社会性指标的敬畏效应。