敬畏作为一种自我超越的情绪，通常出现在面对巨大的自然事物或不同的自然事物的组成的反应中，这些事物可以扩展个体当前的心理结构，以适应超出一般水平参照系的新体验。敬畏的体验会引起自我的弱化并唤起对比个体自我更大的实体的归属感，同时注意力也向之转移。敬畏作为一种自我超越的情绪，其进化学意义在于其社会功能，如促进团队凝聚力，合作和协调社会团体内部的互动，从而促进亲社会行为和集体参与，随之增强集体认同。基于敬畏的这些特征，我们认为敬畏体验能够减少对自我的关注，并将注意力转向自然，从而唤起对自然的归属感，以此增加自然世界对个体的重要性。 我们通过两个研究检验了我们的假设，即敬畏对亲环境行为的影响以及环境身份在其中的中介作用，后者表现为个体与自然世界的联系及自然对个体的重要性。这两项研究，包括预研究在内，均借助Amazon Mechanical Turk进行，这是一个广泛认可的用于收集研究数据的在线平台。研究一采用一系列问卷来检验敬畏倾向、环境身份和自我报告的亲环境行为（过去一年）之间的关系，其结果表明，敬畏与亲环境行为存在正相关关系，且环境身份在其中起部分中介作用。研究二中，我们探究了敬畏对亲环境行为的因果影响以及环境身份在其中的中介作用。研究二通过视频片段（相对于中性条件）操纵敬畏，视频内容主要为银河系和其他恒星的夜景，包括白雪皑皑的山脉，红色岩石台地，海洋和森林。实施研究二之前，我们进行了一项独立的预实验以确保刺激（视频片段）能够有针对性地引发敬畏情绪。其结果表明，相比于中性条件，实验材料成功地诱发了敬畏，这一检验是通过观看视频后所体验到的愉悦、愤怒、厌恶、恐惧、悲伤、幸福（作为一般积极性）和敬畏的程度来测量。研究二结果表明，诱发敬畏（相比于中性条件）显著增加了个体参与亲环境行为的意向，同时环境身份对敬畏和亲环境行为意向之间的关系起中介作用。这些研究结果表明，敬畏除了能够影响社会群体内的社会过程以外，还可以在促进亲环境行为方面发挥重要作用，同时强调了人与自然互动的重要性。 我们的发现补充了亲环境行为潜在预测因素的调查研究。通过将个人利益转向自然世界，敬畏可以作为提高个体对环境问题兴趣的动机因素。将环境视为自身的一部分可以调节并促进日常生活中的亲环境行为。自然世界是一种诱发敬畏体验的典型刺激，但敬畏和亲环境行为的相关文献是很有限的。本研究将调查研究扩展至敬畏和亲环境行为的关系，并且结果表明，敬畏不仅可以作为亲社会行为的促进因素，同时还可以促进亲环境行为。 本研究在敬畏对人与自然世界关系的影响方面具有一定的理论和实践意义。人与自然的不和谐可能会对周围的世界产生负面影响。敬畏情绪有助于加强个体与自然界的联系，并增加其对环境的关注;敬畏的这一影响机制可以作为解决许多环境问题的决定性因素，此外还可以被用作环境课程开发的支持材料。

Awe as a self-transcendent emotion typically arise in response to vast natural objects or different compositions of natural objects that can expand individuals' current mental structure to accommodate a new experience that beyond the ordinary level of frame of reference. The experience of awe leads to diminishment of the emphasis on the self and evoke a sense of belonging to something greater entity than the individual self, to which attention is being shifted. Evolutionary origins of the awe as a transcendent emotion are social functions such as facilitation of group cohesion, cooperation and coordination social interactions within the group, which as a result increases prosocial behavior and collective engagement, and following strengthening collective identity. Based on these features of awe, we assumed that the awe experience can reduce the focus on the self and shift attention to nature, consequently, arouse a sense of belonging to nature, which increases the importance of the natural world for the individual. In two studies, we tested our hypothesis that awe effects on pro-environmental behavior as well as the mediating role of environmental identity, which expressed in connectedness with natural world and importance of nature for the individual. Both studies, including pilot study, were conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk, which is well validated online platform to collect a research data. In study 1, series of questionnaires were used to examine the relationship between dispositional tendencies to experience awe, environmental identity and self-reported pro-environmental behavior (within the past year). Results of study 1 demonstrated that awe positively correlated with pro-environmental behavior and revealed partial mediation effect of environmental identity. In the second study we tested the causal effect of awe on pro-environmental behavior and mediating role of environmental identity. Study 2 manipulated awe by video-clip (versus neutral condition), which contained time lapse with mostly night scenes of Milky Way and other stars, including snow-capped mountains, red rock mesas, ocean and forests. Before the second study we conducted a separate pilot study to ensure that the stimuli (video-clip) induce the targeted awe emotion. The results suggest that the awe condition successfully elicited awe emotion compare to neutral condition, which measured after watching the video by indicating the extent of experiencing amusement, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness (as a general positivity) and awe. Results of study 2 revealed that induction of awe (versus neutral condition) increased individuals’ intentions to engage in pro-environmental behavior, moreover, the relationship between awe and pro-environmental intention explains by mediating role of environmental identity. These findings suggest that besides the social functions of awe affecting social processes within a social group, awe can play a significant role in promoting pro-environmental behavior, and highlights the importance of human interaction with nature.