Note that we had hypothesized that awe will

Note that we had hypothesized that awe will
facilitate (increase or activate) the connection
between R/S and relative feelings and behav-
ioral intentions. In fact, in both experiments,
awe activated these connections. This study
suggests that some of the well-known correlates
or effects of religion (which are most often of
modest size) may be highly dependent on con-
textual features. This is in line with two recent
studies. In the first one, religious Christian peo-
ple were not found to be prosocial in general,
but only after having attended Sunday mass
(Malhotra, 2010). In the second one, similarly,
it is on Sunday, but not on other weekdays that
religious service attendees differ from nonreli-
gious peers by subscribing less to porn sites
(Edelman, 2009).
The present experiments indicate the impor-
tant role of (some) positive emotions in activat-
ing, among R/S people, aspirations and feelings
that are in correspondence with, if not resulting
from, their faith and spirituality. These findings
may be of interest for understanding the specific
role religious rituals (chants, sermons, symbols,
prayer, ritual acts, reading sacred texts) have in
activating not only intellectually, but also emo-
tionally, R/S motivations, projects, and deci-
sions. This can explain why, although God is
believed to be everywhere, and spiritual deci-
sions can be taken at any moment, humans,
across religions, have created formal moments
and spaces that provide emotional arousal to
R/S aspirations. In a similar vein, the present
experiments suggest that religiosity and spiritu-
ality, like other individual differences (see
Leary & Hoyle, 2009; Rhodewalt, 2008), may
not constitute fixed attitudes and stable “ways of
being,” but are importantly sensitive to the con-
text, including emotion.
Interesting additional information was pro-
vided in Experiment 2, when we distinguished
between two dimensions of spirituality, that is,
universality and connectedness (as defined in
the Spiritual Transcendence Scale; Piedmont,
1999), between two kinds of awe elicitors (na-
ture and childbirth), and between two kinds of
feelings (oneness with all human beings, and
oneness with proximal targets, i.e., friends).
Two pathways were attested. On one hand, par-
ticipants endorsing universality (belief in the
unitive nature of life and attachment to human-
kind as a whole) showed high feelings of one-
ness with all humans (but not necessarily
friends) after they were exposed to the awe
video of pure nature. On the other hand, partic-
ipants endorsing connectedness (belief in life’s
harmony through responsibility toward familiar
others and the community) showed high feel-
ings of oneness with friends (but not necessarily
with humans in general) after being exposed to
the awe of childbirth video. Although the two
spirituality dimensions are interrelated (Pied-
mont, 1999), they may translate specific forms/
components of spirituality (i.e., a more imper-
sonal and universalistic version vs. a more em-
bodied to concrete interpersonal relationships
version), and thus have distinct consequences.