Introduction

The world is currently facing a range of shared challenges, such as natural disasters, resource shortages, global warming, pandemics, and ongoing intergroup conflicts. Each of these has inflicted profound and lasting damage on human society, leading to sharp increases in extreme poverty, large-scale displacement, and constant threats to human lives (Kahn et al., 2022; Miao et al., 2024). A newly released report corroborates this view and states that 310 million people across 72 countries worldwide will need humanitarian aid (OCHA, 2025).

Faced with these global crises, the significance of prosocial behaviour, defined as voluntary actions aimed at benefiting others or society (Eisenberg et al., 2006), has become increasingly salient. Prosocial behaviour has long been recognised as profoundly important for the stability and development of human society (Taylor, 2020). Therefore, against this backdrop of recurrent global crises, relying on positive intergroup behaviours, such as international altruism, may be one of the most promising approaches to resolve our current dilemmas (Wang et al., 2024; Yue et al., 2024).

International altruism is a subtype of out-group prosocial behaviour, a kind of social behaviour that directs altruism toward out-group members (i.e., foreigners) through the practices of helping, sharing, and giving (McFarland et al., 2012; Sivert and Magnus, 2010). Its core lies in a pure altruistic motivation: a universal concern for the well-being of people in other countries, accompanied by voluntary acts of helping without seeking any form of return (Zagefka, 2022). This essentially sets it apart from related constructs, such as “ally-helping” that serves the strategic interests of specific groups, “collective action” that pursues group demands through social change, and “social entrepreneurship” that relies on market-based solutions. (De Souza and Schmader, 2025; Miller et al., 2012; van Zomeren et al., 2008). International altruism is typically manifested in behaviours such as donations targeting people in other countries (e.g., providing food, medicine, and shelter for refugees in war, natural disasters, or famine), voluntary resource sharing, and offering emotional support to people in other nations (Duclos and Barasch, 2014; Yue et al., 2024). Prior studies have shown that international altruism plays an important role in promoting international harmony and global peacebuilding (Wang et al., 2021; Yue et al., 2024).

Nonetheless, the actual situation of international altruism is less optimistic because of the negative influences of in-group preference and out-group derogation (Zagefka, 2022). Studies to date on prosocial behaviour generally agree that individuals tend to be more prosocial toward in-group members than out-group members (Balliet et al., 2014; Borinca et al., 2021; Pech et al., 2024). For example, people are more likely to give charitable donations to those who are members of their own country or ethnicity than to those who are not (Xiao et al., 2023). Therefore, the question of how to improve this unfavourable status quo and promote prosocial behaviour toward out-group members is undoubtedly of great significance. There is, then, an urgent need to explore what factors may facilitate or hinder people’s international altruism.

Although prior studies have identified some predictors of international altruism from perspectives such as personality traits (e.g., humility), personal beliefs, intergroup contact, and attitudes toward out-groups (Borinca et al., 2021; McFarland et al., 2012; Taylor et al., 2020; Whitt et al., 2021; Yue et al., 2024), the role of emotional factors, especially positive emotions, remains relatively unexplored. Awe, in particular, is a predominantly positive emotion that blends wonder, confusion, obedience, and admiration. It is characterised by appraisals of vastness and a need for cognitive accommodation, and provides a promising avenue to fostering international altruism (Bai et al., 2017; Keltner and Haidt, 2003; Wang, Alice et al., 2025). Awe manifests in two distinct forms: situational awe and dispositional awe. Situational awe is a transient, awe-induced emotional experience (Jiang and Sedikides, 2022; Pan et al., 2024) that arises from encounters with stimuli such as natural wonders, great figures, and artistic masterpieces. By contrast, dispositional awe typically reflects a person’s propensity to experience the emotion of awe in daily life and remains stable over time and across situations (Shiota et al., 2006; Zhao and Zhang, 2023).

Studies to date have primarily documented the benefits of awe at the individual and interpersonal levels. For example, studies have shown that awe facilitates wise conflict resolution (Wang, Jiang et al., 2025), enhances individuals’ physical and psychological well-being (Pan et al., 2024; Zhao and Zhang, 2023), and promotes prosocial behaviour (Jiang and Sedikides, 2022; Kaplan et al., 2024; Li et al., 2024). Although a few recent studies have begun to explore the positive intergroup consequences of awe, such as reducing prejudice toward sexual minority group members (Wang, Alice et al., 2025), diminishing blatant dehumanisation of out-group members (i.e., obese people), and enhancing prosociality toward refugees (e.g., ethnic minorities; Stamkou et al., 2023), it remains unclear whether these findings generalise to international altruism (i.e., a voluntary altruistic behaviour towards people living in other nations). After all, one might assume that helping ethnic minorities differs psychologically from aiding people living in another nation. In other words, whether awe relates to international altruism remains an open question. In addition, social functional theory posits that awe broadens an individual’s perspective to encompass all humanity, thereby promoting international altruism that can facilitate the coordinated resolution of collective-level challenges (i.e., resource sharing and common defence) and ultimately fulfills the individual’s deeper need for belonging at the collective level (Keltner et al., 2022). Accordingly, we infer that dispositional awe may also yield beneficial effects at the intergroup level; specifically, we hypothesise that dispositional awe may be positively associated with international altruism.

Meanwhile, it is equally critical to understand the mechanisms that link dispositional awe to international altruism. Early research primarily supported the “small-self hypothesis,” which posits that the “small self” (a sense of perceiving the self as small and insignificant; Jiang et al., 2024) is the core mechanism by which awe promotes prosocial behaviour (Bai et al., 2017; Piff et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2023). According to this view, experiences of awe reduce attention to self-oriented concerns, shifting individuals’ attention from the self to others or collectives, thereby facilitating more collective actions and prosocial behaviours. However, recent scholars have questioned the explanatory power of this hypothesis (Jiang and Sedikides, 2022; Perlin and Li, 2020) and have proposed a revised perspective. They argue that awe possesses transformative power (Chirico and Yaden, 2018) that does not simply shift attention from the self to others, but instead guides individuals toward deeper self-exploration, reflection, and transformation. This process does not diminish the self; rather, by enhancing respect for the autonomy of both self and others, it fosters an interdependent “we” identity (e.g., identifying oneself as a member of all humanity). This collective concern, which transcends the self-other dichotomy, is rooted in humanity’s deep psychological drive for collaborative symbiosis (Tomasello, 2019), ultimately promoting prosocial behaviour (Jiang et al., 2024; Perlin and Li, 2020). Schwartz (2015) defined self-transcendence as a value that focuses on the inner self and emphasises self-growth. We thus speculate that self-transcendence and identification with all humanity (IWAH) may serve as the key psychological mechanisms by which dispositional awe promotes international altruism.

Self-transcendence as a mediator

Values are important guidelines in people’s lives, and they exert a significant impact on shaping people’s attitudes and behaviours (Schwartz et al., 2012). Self-transcendence is one of the values in Schwartz’s (1992) model of human basic values. It reflects a person’s desire to transcend their own interests and involves understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and concern for the well-being and demands of all people and of nature (Schwartz et al., 2012). In other words, the motivational goal of self-transcendence is to transcend self-interest and enhance the welfare of others. Prior studies have confirmed that self-transcendence is a strong predictor of positive attitudes, behavioural intentions (McFarland et al., 2012; Wolf et al., 2019), and prosocial behaviours toward out-group members, such as donating (Cheng et al., 2024; Politi et al., 2024), and demonstrating reduced prejudice (Wang, Alice et al., 2025; Zagrean et al., 2025). Accordingly, it is reasonable to hypothesise that self-transcendence may be positively associated with international altruism.

Moreover, experiences of awe may enhance a person’s self-transcendence. Hedonic adaptation theory suggests that repeated exposure to mood-enhancing situations will promote the accumulation of positive emotion and its concomitant psychological effects, which can trigger changes in an individual’s attitudes and behaviours (Erickson et al., 2018). Self-transcendence is considered to be the primary psychological effect of the experience of awe (Jiang and Sedikides, 2022). Specifically, individuals who frequently experience awe tend to go beyond their existing cognitive framework, and this helps to open their minds and encourages deeper thinking (Perlin and Li, 2020), which may, in turn, have a lasting and profound impact on the individual’s deep values and beliefs. Existing evidence supports this view (Jiang et al., 2024). An increasing number of new studies have consistently reported a positive causal relationship between the experience of awe and self-transcendence (Dai and Jiang, 2024; Wang, Alice et al., 2025; Wang, Jiang et al., 2025). This connection is robust across different cultures and has been specifically observed in both Chinese and U.S. samples (Jiang and Sedikides, 2022). More importantly, prior studies have shown that self-transcendence may serve as a mediator in the link between awe and attitude toward out-group members (Wang, Alice et al., 2025). Combining these theoretical considerations and the empirical evidence presented above, it is reasonable to infer that self-transcendence could mediate the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism.

Identity with all humanity as a mediator

Identity with all humanity (IWAH) is the extent to which a person feels close to human beings around the world, cares about them deeply, and identifies with the human race as a whole (McFarland et al., 2012). According to the common in-group identity model (Gaertner and Dovidio, 2000), the key to increasing positive intergroup attitude and behaviours is to motivate in-groups to recategorise out-group members as part of a broader, superordinate in-group. In other words, treating all humans as a large family can enhance positive behaviours toward groups typically considered out-groups (e.g., other nationalities, religions, and races). This encourages people to attach more importance to the welfare of those who would otherwise be considered to be members of out-groups. A wealth of emerging literature has linked high IWAH to a range of positive intergroup outcomes, including more concern for human rights and humanitarian needs, as well as a greater willingness to provide humanitarian help to people from other countries who have suffered (Deng, 2021; McFarland et al., 2012; Sparkman and Hamer, 2020). Hence, these theoretical considerations and empirical evidence indicate that IWAH may be positively correlated with international altruism.

Moreover, dispositional awe may be positively linked with IWAH. Awe can change the way people view themselves (Shiota et al., 2007), in that the experience of awe makes individuals expand their self-boundaries, perceive themselves as more closely connected to the world, and view themselves and the world in a way that is not hindered by the boundaries of their identity, such as describing themselves as being a member of the human race as a whole (Bai et al., 2017; Chen and Mongrain, 2021). For instance, Wang and colleagues (2023) found that natural disaster-elicited awe was positively associated with a sense of global community (i.e., perceiving oneself as a member of the global community). Similarly, Seo and colleagues (2023) conducted four experiments involving different awe-inspiring paradigms (i.e., recall, pictures, and videos) and cues (i.e., universe, peaceful/fresh nature scenes). Their results consistently revealed that awe fosters deeper IWAH. However, no study has yet tested the role of IWAH in connecting dispositional awe to international altruism. Based on the indirect evidence mentioned above, we expect that dispositional awe could affect international altruism through the mediating role of IWAH.

A multiple mediation model

As previously mentioned, we anticipate that self-transcendence and IWAH can separately mediate the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism (i.e., parallel mediation). However, existing theories and empirical studies suggest that self-transcendence and IWAH may also serve as serial mediators in this relationship. More specifically, the revised small-self hypothesis (Perlin and Li, 2020) posits that awe precipitates transformative shifts (Chirico and Yaden, 2018) that can offer an opportunity for individuals to adopt a broader, non-egocentric perspective and re-examine their self and the world with a more open mind (Jiang et al., 2024). This profound cognitive restructuring helps to shape self-transcendent values. Correspondingly, individuals who hold such values, such as emphasising the need to treat all people equally, will tend to see the boundaries between different social groups as being blurry and permeable and will seek connection with grander entities beyond themselves, such as other humans or even the entire universe (Csikszentmihalyi, 1993; Seo et al., 2023; Yaden et al., 2017). This process makes it easier for individuals to identify and accept themselves as members of humanity, seen as a broader, superordinate social group, thereby making them more willing to engage in international altruistic behaviours. Additionally, prior empirical research provides support for such a sequential mediation pathway. Some direct evidence indicates a significant positive association between self-transcendence (such as universalism) and IWAH (Hamer et al., 2019; Hamer and McFarland, 2023). We thus propose that self-transcendence and IWAH may be sequential mediators in the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism in young adults.

The present study

Although a few studies have begun to explore the association between awe and international altruism, the underlying mechanisms of that association remain unclear. More importantly, research to date on cultural variations in awe has been remarkably limited, primarily because the relevant samples have almost exclusively been confined to single cultural contexts (Katz and Franz, 2025). In fact, studies have identified cultural differences in prosocial behaviour toward out-groups (Duclos and Barasch, 2014; Liu et al., 2021), but these findings do not appear to be consistent. For example, Feygina and Henry (2015) showed that collectivist cultures exhibit stronger in-group prosocial bias, whereas individualist cultures demonstrate smaller differences in helping in-groups vs. out-groups. Conversely, self-construals of independence vs. interdependence are typical characteristics of individualist vs. collectivist cultures, respectively (Markus and Kitayama, 1991). Interestingly, research has found that societies characterised by interdependence exhibit higher levels of helping behaviour toward both in-group and out-group members (Baron and Miller, 2000). Moreover, studies more directly related to this topic indicate that the relationship between awe and individual-level prosocial behaviour also shows significant cultural differences (Keltner et al., 2022). As a recent meta-analysis found, the relationship between awe and pro-social behaviour is significantly stronger in collectivist than in individualist cultures (Lin et al., 2025). However, whether there are cross-cultural similarities or differences in the effects of dispositional awe on out-group prosocial behaviour (i.e., international altruism) remains unknown.

To fill these gaps, we chose China and the United States (US) as representative countries for collectivist and individualist cultures, respectively (Hofstede, 2001), to investigate whether self-transcendence and IWAH play mediating roles in the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism, as well as whether that relationship exhibits cross-cultural universality. Therefore, we test a multiple mediation model (see Fig. 1) and propose the following four hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1. Dispositional awe is positively associated with international altruism among young adults in both China and the US.

Hypothesis 2. Self-transcendence mediates the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism among young adults in both China and the US.

Hypothesis 3. IWAH mediates the link between dispositional awe and international altruism among young adults in both China and the US.

Hypothesis 4. Self-transcendence and IWAH sequentially mediate the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism, and this serial mediation model is valid among young adults in both China and the US.

Fig. 1: Proposed multiple mediation model.
Fig. 1: Proposed multiple mediation model.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
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IWAH stands for identity with all humanity.

Methods

Participants and procedures

Seven hundred eighty young adults from China (N = 497) and the US (N = 283) were recruited for this study. For the Chinese sample, we selected all participants using the convenience sampling method from three public universities in Shaanxi Province, China. They completed the survey online through the Wenjuanxing platform within their regular class settings. We excluded 11 participants who exhibited regular responses (i.e., selecting the same option for all items) or excessively short response times (less than half the average). The final 497 valid responses remained, of whom 44.1% (N = 219) were female, and 87.32% were Han Chinese. The college students’ average age was 19.84 years (SD = 1.34), ranging from 18 to 25.

For the US sample, we recruited all participants through the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform, and all reported having a college degree or higher. We excluded 24 participants using the same criteria as for the Chinese sample (i.e., regular responses or excessively short response times). The final 283 valid cases remained, of whom 51.6% (N = 146) were female, and the majority of participants (69.3%) were white. Their average age was 25.04 years (SD = 1.81), ranging from 18 to 30. All participants engaged in the study voluntarily and anonymously, and we assured them of their right to withdraw at any time. Each survey took ~20 min to complete. This study was approved by the institutional review board of the corresponding author’s university. Note that we did not pre-register the study protocol before data collection, due to a lack of awareness regarding the importance of pre-registration. To alleviate any potential methodological concerns arising from this situation, we have made the data publicly available to enhance the transparency of the study.

Measurements

Dispositional awe

We assessed dispositional awe using the six-item (e.g., “I often feel awe.”). Dispositional awe subscale taken from the Dispositional Positive Emotions Scale (DPES; Shiota et al., 2006). Participants rated all items on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. Higher average scores indicate higher levels of dispositional awe. Previous research has demonstrated the scale’s good reliability with both Chinese and US samples (Zhang et al., 2023; Zhao and Zhang, 2023). In our study, for the Chinese sample, the indices of CFA indicate a good fit: χ2/df = 3.33, RMSEA = 0.069, TLI = 0.98, CFI = 0.99, and SRMR = 0.021. Likewise, for the US sample, the indices of CFA indicate a good fit: χ2/df = 2.47, RMSEA = 0.072, TLI = 0.97, CFI = 0.98, and SRMR = 0.029. In addition, the Cronbach’s α was 0.89 for the Chinese sample and 0.86 for the US sample.

Self-transcendence

We measured self-transcendence using the 10-item (e.g., “He believes that all the world’s people should live in harmony. Promoting peace among all groups in the world is important to him”). self-transcendence subscale taken from the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ; Cieciuch and Schwartz, 2012). Prior to the study, we adapted the original English scale for the Chinese context. This process involved bilingual psychology researchers performing translation and back-translation, with iterative rounds of discussion and refinement to ensure cultural and linguistic congruence. We then asked participants to assess their similarity to the described person. Participants rated all items using a six-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 = not like me at all to 6 = very much like me. Higher average scores indicate higher levels of self-transcendence. In our study, for the Chinese sample, the indices of CFA indicate a good fit: χ2/df = 3.30, RMSEA = 0.068, TLI = 0.97, CFI = 0.98, and SRMR = 0.026. Likewise, for the US sample, the indices of CFA indicate a good fit: χ2/df = 1.81, RMSEA = 0.054, TLI = 0.96, CFI = 0.97, and SRMR = 0.038. In addition, the Cronbach’s α was 0.94 for the Chinese sample and 0.88 for the US sample.

Identification with all humanity

We measured IWAH using the nine-item (e.g., “How close do you feel to people all over the world?”). Identification with All Humanity Scale (IWAHS; McFarland et al., 2012). Participants rated all items using a five-point Likert scale from 1 = not at all to 5 = very much. Higher average scores indicate higher levels of IWAH. This scale has demonstrated good internal consistency with both Chinese and the US samples in prior studies (Reysen and Hackett, 2016; Yue et al., 2024). In the current study, for the Chinese sample, the indices of CFA indicate a good fit: χ2/df = 2.72, RMSEA = 0.059, TLI = 0.97, CFI = 0.98, and SRMR = 0.029. Likewise, for the US sample, the indices of CFA indicate a good fit: χ2/df = 2.58, RMSEA = 0.075, TLI = 0.95, CFI = 0.96, and SRMR = 0.042. In addition, the Cronbach’s α for this scale was 0.88 for the Chinese sample and 0.87 for the US sample.

International altruism

We employed the four situational materials pertaining to international altruism, originally developed by McFarland and colleagues (2012), translated and adapted into Chinese by Yue and colleagues (2024), to measure international altruism. These materials cover four themes, namely “COVID-19”, “African drought”, “2019 Australian forest fires”, and “global hunger”. We asked participants to rate the extent to which they would be willing to donate to these charities in order to help other disaster-affected countries. Participants rated all four items on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = very unwilling to 5 = very willing. Higher average scores indicate greater international altruism. In our study, for the Chinese sample, the indices of CFA indicate a good fit: χ2/df = 2.13, RMSEA = 0.048, TLI = 0.99, CFI = 0.99, and SRMR = 0.006. Likewise, for the US sample, the indices of CFA indicate a good fit: χ2/df = 1.90, RMSEA = 0.057, TLI = 0.99, CFI = 0.99, and SRMR = 0.016. In addition, the Cronbach’s α values were 0.89 for the Chinese sample and 0.85 for the US sample.

Data analysis

We employed SPSS 26.0 for descriptive statistics and correlation analyses of the main variables, and used AMOS 29.0 for multiple mediation analysis and multi-group path comparisons. During data processing, we handled the missing data (<1%) with the mean imputation (Little and Rubin, 2002). Then, we tested the hypothesised model through structural equation modelling and bootstrapping methods (bootstrap = 5000). To evaluate model fit, we adopted the following multiple indicators: chi-square ratio (χ2/df; acceptable ≤ 5), comparative fit index (CFI; acceptable ≥ 0.90), the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI; acceptable ≥ 0.90), standardised root mean square residual (SRMR; acceptable ≤ 0.08), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA; acceptable ≤ 0.08) (Hu and Bentler, 1999). When the 95% confidence intervals (CI) did not include 0, the mediating effect was deemed significant (Preacher and Hayes, 2008).

To further investigate the invariance of structural paths across countries, we employed multi-group analysis, a methodological framework designed to assess invariance via structural equation modelling across different groups (Wu, 2017). We used maximum-likelihood estimation in AMOS 29.0 to compare the chi-square differences between an unconstrained baseline model and a constrained model with equality constraints imposed across countries (Milfont and Fischer, 2010). The increase in chi-square (Δχ2) due to the equality constraints was used as a significance test. Additionally, previous studies have found that gender, age, and annual household income can have an impact on international altruism, and thus these were set as control variables in this study (Sivert and Magnus, 2010). Notably, referring to prior research (Hu, 2017; Wang et al., 2024), we assessed annual household income using a 5-point scale for Chinese participants (1 = Below ¥30,000 to 5 = Above ¥200,000) and an 8-point scale for the US participants (1 = Under $10,000 to 8 = $150,000 or above).

Results

Preliminary analyses

Prior to the formal analysis, we conducted competitive model comparisons in both the Chinese and the US samples to verify that the theoretically constructed four-factor model was the optimal solution. The results showed that the fit of the four-factor model was significantly superior to that of alternative models, including the three-factor, two-factor, and one-factor models (all Δχ² with p < 0.001). Further validity tests indicated that the model exhibits good convergent and discriminant validity: the composite reliability (CR) of all factors was above 0.70, and the vast majority of average variance extracted (AVE) values also met the ideal standard of 0.50. Additionally, the square roots of the AVE for each factor were generally greater than the correlations between that factor and other constructs, and all heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) values fell below the critical threshold of 0.85. Detailed results and tables are available in the Supplementary Materials.

Subsequently, Tables 1 and 2 show the descriptive statistics and correlations among the main variables for the Chinese and the US samples, respectively. As predicted, in both samples, dispositional awe, self-transcendence, IWAH, and international altruism were all significantly and positively correlated with each other (p < 0.01).

Table 1 Descriptive statistics and correlations of the main variables in the Chinese sample (N = 497).
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Table 2 Descriptive statistics and correlations of the main variables in the US sample (N = 283).
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This study employed structural equation modelling to examine the mediating roles of self-transcendence and IWAH in the association between dispositional awe and international altruism for the two cultural groups. Dispositional awe (6 items), self-transcendence (10 items), IWAH (9 items), and international altruism (4 items) are all unidimensional latent variables. We estimated the model using the maximum-likelihood (ML) method and tested the significance of indirect effects via the bias-corrected percentile bootstrap method (5000 resamples). For the Chinese sample, after controlling for participants’ gender, age, and annual household income, the model demonstrated good fit: χ2/df = 3.13, RMSEA = 0.066, TLI = 0.90, CFI = 0.90, and SRMR = 0.069. All pathways were significant (as presented in Fig. 2 and Table 3). Furthermore, both the total effect of dispositional awe on international altruism (total effect = 0.29, 95% CI = [0.17, 0.40]) and the total indirect effect (total indirect effect = 0.15, 95% CI = [0.09, 0.23]) were significant. Specifically, the pathway of “dispositional awe → self-transcendence → international altruism” was significant (indirect effect = 0.07, 95% CI = [0.02, 0.14]), accounting for 24.14% of the total effect. The additional pathway of “dispositional awe → WAH → international altruism” was also significant (indirect effect = 0.03, 95% CI = [0.01, 0.07]), accounting for 10.34% of the total effect. Thus, self-transcendence and IWAH mediate the link between dispositional awe and international altruism in parallel. Moreover, the sequential pathway of “dispositional awe → self-transcendence → IWAH → international altruism” was significant as well (indirect effect = 0.05, 95% CI = [0.02, 0.09]), accounting for 17.24% of the total effect. The residual direct pathway of “dispositional awe → international altruism” was still significant (b = 0.14, 95% CI = [0.02, 0.25]), which means that self-transcendence and IWAH partially mediated it. The multiple mediation model thus explains a significant amount of the variance in international altruism in the Chinese sample (R2 = 0.21).

Fig. 2: Multiple mediation pathway model for the Chinese sample.
Fig. 2: Multiple mediation pathway model for the Chinese sample.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
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All path coefficients were standardised. For the sake of brevity, the items of each latent variable are not shown in the figure. Ahi = Annual household income. Gender was dummy-coded (0 = male, 1 = female). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

Table 3 Pathways of the multiple mediation model in the Chinese (N = 497) and the US samples (N = 283).
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The same data analysis was applied to the US sample. After controlling for participants’ gender, age, and annual household income, the model demonstrated good fit: χ2/df = 1.76, RMSEA = 0.052, TLI = 0.91, CFI = 0.91, and SRMR = 0.056. Both the total effect of dispositional awe on international altruism (total effect = 0.55, 95% CI = [0.41, 0.68]) and the total indirect effect (total indirect effect = 0.63, 95% CI = [0.42, 0.86]) were significant. Individually, as presented in Fig. 3 and Table 3, the pathway of “dispositional awe → self-transcendence → international altruism” was not significant (95% CI = [−0.21, 0.25]), but the pathway of “dispositional awe → IWAH → international altruism” was significant (indirect effect = 0.24, 95% CI = [0.01, 0.50]), accounting for 43.64% of the total effect. The difference between these two pathways shows that self-transcendence and IWAH play different roles in the link between dispositional awe and international altruism. Furthermore, the sequential pathway of “dispositional awe → self-transcendence → IWAH → international altruism” was significant (indirect effect = 0.34, 95% CI = [0.17, 0.67]), accounting for 61.82% of the total effect. The residual direct pathway of “dispositional awe → international altruism” was not significant (95% CI = [−0.33, 0.17]), which means that self-transcendence and IWAH fully mediated it. The multiple mediation model thus explains a notable amount of the variance in international altruism in the US sample (R2 = 0.64).

Fig. 3: Multiple mediation pathway model for the US sample.
Fig. 3: Multiple mediation pathway model for the US sample.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
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All path coefficients were standardised. For the sake of brevity, the items of each latent variable are not shown in the figure. Ahi annual household income. The dotted lines represent non-significant coefficients. Gender was dummy-coded (0 = male, 1 = female). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Testing structural invariance across the Chinese and the US samples

We then used multigroup analysis to determine whether the structural paths were invariant across the Chinese and American samples (Wu, 2017). Using AMOS 29.0 with maximum-likelihood estimation, we compared a model that constrained these paths to be equivalent across both countries with a baseline model in which all parameters were freely estimated (Ahn et al., 2021; Milfont and Fischer, 2010). After controlling for the potential confounding effects of gender, age, and annual income, the results showed a significant increase in chi-square (Δχ² (38) = 630.46, p < 0.001), suggesting that the structural paths were not invariant between the two countries.

Furthermore, to identify specific pathways whose strength was not equivalent in the two countries, we assessed the critical ratios (CRs) for parameter differences between countries. A critical ratio exceeding the absolute value of 1.96 indicates a significant difference in the parameter estimate between the samples. The results show that only two relationships demonstrated significant differences between the Chinese and American samples: that between dispositional awe and self-transcendence, and that between IWAH and international altruism (CR = 3.41, p < 0.01; CR = 5.66, p < 0.01, respectively). However, there were no significant cross-cultural differences in the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism (see Table 4).

Table 4 Multi-group model and path comparison for the Chinese (N = 497) and the US samples (N = 283).
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Discussion

Prior studies have widely acknowledged that awe enhances prosocial outcomes at the individual level (Lin et al., 2025; Stamkou et al., 2023). This study aims to determine whether the positive effects of awe extend to the domain of intergroup relations, with a focus on unpacking the mechanisms of its influence on international altruism in young adults and testing its cross-cultural consistency. Overall, our hypotheses were largely supported. Specifically, a positive association between dispositional awe and international altruism was observed in both the Chinese and the US samples, with self-transcendence and IWAH playing mediating roles in that relationship. Yet, notably, subtle differences in the strength of the specific pathways were observed between the two samples, which are discussed in detail below.

A key finding of this study reveals a positive correlation between dispositional awe and international altruism in both the Chinese and the US samples. This result not only aligns with recent findings on the positive impact of awe on out-group prosocial behaviours (Luo et al., 2023; Wang et al., 2023) but also supports and enriches the social functional theory (Keltner et al., 2022), which posits that awe fosters individuals’ sense of belonging by promoting collective problem-solving. Evidence from this study’s cross-national samples (i.e., China and the US) indicates that the “collective” scope facilitated by awe can extend to behaviours of addressing border-transcending common challenges oriented at the welfare of all humanity, such as resource sharing and acting together against global threats including climate change and public health crises. In other words, the core function of awe lies precisely in redefining the boundaries of “us” to encompass all of humanity, thereby establishing a psychological foundation for collaborative responses to global crises.

Notably, we observed no significant cultural difference in the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism across Chinese and the US samples. This finding contrasts with the conclusion of Lin et al. (2025), who reported stronger prosocial effects of awe in collectivist cultures than in individualist ones. The discrepancy may arise from differences in prosocial targets. Individuals in collectivist cultural contexts typically prioritise harmony, adhere to norms and obligations within their in-group, and generally exhibit a stronger preference for their in-group, while maintaining relatively distant relationships with out-groups (Oyserman et al., 2002; Liu et al., 2021). By contrast, those in individualist cultural contexts tend to emphasise independence and personal goals, and often show less differentiation in their treatment of in-groups versus out-groups (Feygina and Henry, 2015; Triandis et al., 1988). Consequently, in collectivist cultures, the prosocial effect elicited by experiences of awe may primarily be directed towards in-group members (e.g., fellow nationals). When faced with situations requiring assistance for out-groups (e.g., engaging in international affairs), this awe-induced prosocial motivation may be weakened or offset. Ultimately, this could lead to the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism exhibiting similar strength in both collectivist and individualist cultural contexts. Despite this discrepancy in the findings, the value of this study lies in its direct comparison of the association between dispositional awe and international altruism across different cultural contexts, which robustly fills a research gap in this domain (Lin et al., 2025). Certainly, given that this study focused solely on out-group prosocial targets (i.e., international altruism), future research that simultaneously examines the effects of awe on prosocial behaviour toward both in-groups and out-groups across cultures would provide more direct evidence for understanding the underlying cultural difference mechanisms.

Furthermore, this study demonstrates that self-transcendence and IWAH mediated the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism across both the Chinese and the US samples. Specifically, in the Chinese sample, dispositional awe indirectly affected international altruism through the mediating roles of self-transcendence and IWAH, both in parallel and sequentially. By contrast, in the US sample, dispositional awe indirectly affected international altruism through the independent mediating role of IWAH, as well as the sequential mediating effects of self-transcendence and IWAH. These findings expand upon earlier research that primarily viewed the “small self” as the core mechanism through which awe promotes prosocial behaviour (Piff et al., 2015; Stellar et al., 2018). The cross-cultural results of this study fundamentally support self-transcendence and IWAH as additional mechanisms explaining the intergroup prosocial effects of awe, providing robust empirical support for the revised small-self hypothesis (Jiang and Sedikides, 2022; Perlin and Li, 2020). This suggests that frequent experiences of awe prompt individuals to re-examine their self and the world from a broader, non-egocentric perspective, fostering self-growth and the formation of self-transcendent values. Correspondingly, individuals may transcend group boundaries, view themselves as part of a larger entity such as all humanity, and focus on the interdependent “we”, leading them to engage in international altruism (Jiang et al., 2024). Additionally, the results reveal an interesting phenomenon: in the US sample, when self-transcendence and IWAH were simultaneously included in the model, the separate mediating effect of self-transcendence between dispositional awe and international altruism became non-significant. This suggests that, in an individualistic cultural context, the effect of self-transcendence may be more readily incorporated into IWAH, a more concrete form of identification that emphasises group inclusivity, and thereby makes IWAH the core mechanism linking awe to international altruism.

However, we also observed significant cultural differences in some pathways, such as the relationship between dispositional awe and self-transcendence, as well as the link between IWAH and international altruism, with both effects being stronger in the US sample than in the Chinese sample. It is known that in individualistic cultures (e.g., the US), the association between dispositional awe and self-transcendence is stronger, as per the findings of Bai and colleagues (2017) on cultural differences in the effects of awe on self-awareness. In individualistic cultures, value formation emphasises internal experiences, reflection, and autonomous choice. As a profound and transformative positive emotion, dispositional awe serves as a key intrinsic catalyst for individuals to internalise and reinforce self-transcendent values in that cultural context. By contrast, in collectivist cultures (e.g., China), value internalisation primarily occurs through socialisation processes, adherence to role norms, and collective practices. Although emotional experiences (e.g., awe) are indispensable, they may not be the primary drivers of value formation in such cultures (Markus and Kitayama, 1991).

Similarly, the association between IWAH and international altruism was stronger in the individualistic culture of the US. Although prior studies have speculated about potential cultural variations in the relationship between IWAH and prosocial outcomes (Zhao et al., 2024), empirical validation has been lacking, prompting calls for dedicated enquiry. This study addresses this gap by providing the first empirical evidence that the link between IWAH and international altruism in young adults is indeed affected by culture. A plausible explanation for this is that in individualistic cultures, the self is viewed as being a relatively independent and autonomous entity, and group membership is more based on personal choice, shared values, or abstract principles (i.e., human rights and equality). Thus, the universal group concept of “all humanity”, which is highly abstract, has blurry boundaries and transcends specific social relationships and is thus more easily accepted and internalised into one’s independent self-construal as part of the individual’s self-definition. Once formed, the normative power of this identification directly and strongly guides the individual’s behaviour. Conversely, in collectivist cultures, interdependent self-construal is deeply rooted in concrete, hierarchical networks of real-world relationships (e.g., family, nation). Group identification highly depends on clear in-group boundaries and real-world reciprocity mechanisms. When considering out-group members from distant geographical and cultural backgrounds without direct ties, the concept of “all humanity” is too abstract and boundary-blurred to activate specific social interactions and reciprocity expectations, thus weakening the association between IWAH and international altruism.

Several limitations warrant attention while cautiously interpreting our findings and providing guidance for follow-up studies. First, the cross-sectional design of this study meant it was not possible to make causal inferences regarding the relationships among the variables. In the future, longitudinal or experimental studies could address this issue. Second, although the selection of both the Chinese and the US samples focused on college-educated young adults, the Chinese sample was confined to college students, whereas the US sample encompassed a broader range of social groups. While this study employed statistical methods to control for the potential effects of gender, age, and annual household income, it must be acknowledged that other sample characteristics may confound the findings. Therefore, a cautious attitude should be adopted when interpreting its results in terms of cultural differences. Future research would benefit from using samples with more rigorously matched characteristics to further verify the robustness of any cultural effects. Third, the present study only identified self-transcendence and IWAH as potential mediators in the relation between dispositional awe and international altruism in Chinese and American youths. However, other underlying mechanisms may exist. For example, recent research has established that future self/collective continuity fosters out-group prosocial beliefs and diminishes out-group prejudice (Simić et al., 2025). Global or future self-continuity has also been found to be potentially affected by awe (Pan and Jiang, 2023; West, 2018). Consequently, other potential mechanisms warrant further exploration in future studies. Fourth, this study only assessed young adults’ prosocial intentions toward out-group members. A measure that assesses their actual prosocial behaviours, rather than just their intentions, would offer more insight into how dispositional awe affects international altruism.

Despite these limitations, this study provides significant theoretical and practical implications for understanding international altruism in Chinese and American youths. Theoretically, our study provides preliminary evidence for a positive correlation between dispositional awe and international altruism across cultures, and identifies self-transcendence and IWAH as key mechanisms in this relationship during youth. These findings not only extend prior work on international altruism but also support the revised small-self model.

Practically, cultivating awe may be a promising avenue for promoting positive intergroup behaviour. Researchers have developed effective intervention strategies for eliciting awe, such as mindfulness training (Waller et al., 2021) and engaging in awe walks (Sturm et al., 2022), but their efficacy in promoting international altruism warrants further examination. Moreover, in daily life and educational practice, we can design experiences for exposing young adults to grand narratives (such as natural wonders and human achievements) to evoke a sense of awe. Notably, when selecting intervention programs, cultural differences in awe elicitation (e.g., self-related experiences are a common source of awe for American participants, but rarely so for their Chinese counterparts; Bai et al., 2017) must be carefully considered. Additionally, designing and implementing interventions aimed at enhancing young adults’ self-transcendence values (e.g., through online brief interventions; Russo et al., 2022) and increasing IWAH (e.g., through empathy cultivation training programs; Brito-Pons et al., 2018) may be viable strategies for promoting international altruism. Other approaches also include encouraging participation in community activities (e.g., volunteer services) and instilling values of equality and kindness in youth (Georgiou et al., 2018; Sigurdardottir et al., 2019) to cultivate self-transcendence values. Meanwhile, educators or practitioners can enhance IWAH by organising seminars on global issues and promoting cross-cultural interaction and collaboration projects (Seo et al., 2023).

Conclusion

Based on the revised small-self hypothesis, the current study contributes to the literature by offering intrinsic mechanisms for the link between dispositional awe and international altruism in young adults, as well as the cross-cultural consistency of this relationship. The results largely show that, in both the Chinese and the US samples, self-transcendence and IWAH mediated the relationship between dispositional awe and international altruism. These findings not only provide empirical evidence for understanding the prosocial effects of awe but also contribute practical guidance for developing young people’s international altruism, offering ways to reduce intergroup conflict, cope with common dilemmas, and construct global harmony and stability.