When facing failure or personal setbacks, many people instinctively resort to self-criticism, believing it necessary for personal growth or improvement.
However, a new study suggests that experiencing awe – a profound feeling of wonder and connection to something larger than oneself – could instead foster self-compassion, helping individuals respond with kindness rather than criticism.
A recent investigation published in the journal Emotion (2025), reveals that experiencing awe can significantly enhance self-compassion by promoting a psychological state known as self-transcendence.
The researchers explored the relationship between awe and self-compassion, motivated by evidence linking high levels of self-criticism with negative mental health outcomes, including increased risks of depression, anxiety, self-injury, and even suicide.
Self-compassion, in contrast, involves treating oneself with kindness, understanding failures as part of the human condition, and maintaining a balanced emotional perspective.
Prior studies have established the benefits of self-compassion for mental and physical health, highlighting its role in emotional resilience and well-being.
In a series of five studies involving a total of more than 1,000 participants, Yuan and colleagues tested the hypothesis that awe could act as a catalyst for self-compassion.
The studies varied from controlled laboratory experiments to a naturalistic diary study, providing robust evidence across different settings.
In one experiment, 176 participants were randomly assigned to watch either an awe-inspiring video depicting vast celestial bodies or a neutral video showing everyday street scenes.
Those exposed to awe-inducing content reported significantly higher levels of self-compassion compared to the neutral group.
Notably, the researchers found that awe triggered self-compassion by promoting a state of self-transcendence – where individuals experience reduced focus on their own concerns and increased connectedness to something greater than themselves.
In another experiment involving 165 participants, researchers directly manipulated self-transcendence and observed a corresponding increase in self-compassion, further confirming the causal link.
This study demonstrated clearly that experiencing self-transcendence itself can foster self-compassion, emphasizing the crucial role of this psychological state in bridging awe and compassionate self-treatment.
Importantly, Yuan and colleagues also addressed potential confounding factors.
For example, they found that the positive impact of awe on self-compassion was distinct from merely experiencing general positive emotions such as happiness or amusement.
Similarly, the beneficial effects of awe were not simply due to nature exposure, as participants who experienced amusement from nature-related content did not show the same increase in self-compassion.
The practical implications of these findings are substantial.
Self-compassion can buffer against mental health issues, enhance emotional resilience, and motivate healthy behaviors, but existing interventions often require substantial time and effort.
Awe, however, can be elicited quickly and naturally through accessible experiences, such as observing spectacular natural landscapes, engaging with inspiring art or music, or even watching awe-inducing videos online.
The researchers suggest that awe could serve as an easily implementable “first-aid” strategy for enhancing self-compassion in the face of unexpected hardship.
Despite the promising outcomes, the study authors acknowledged certain limitations.
For instance, they did not investigate how negative forms of awe – such as awe combined with fear – might impact self-compassion.
Future studies could examine whether such “threat-based awe” has similarly beneficial effects, or if the presence of fear diminishes the positive outcomes observed.
Overall, this research provides compelling evidence for a novel approach to fostering self-compassion through awe-induced experiences.
By helping individuals shift perspective beyond their immediate concerns and fostering a deeper sense of connection and humility, awe experiences offer an accessible, immediate means to enhance emotional resilience and well-being, potentially transforming how people respond to life’s inevitable challenges.
Citation
Yuan, W., Chang, J., Jiang, F., & Jiang, T. (2025). Be kinder to yourself: Awe promotes self-compassion via self-transcendence. Emotion, 25(5), 1244–1255. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001495
