Moral beauty, natural beauty, and artistic beauty cause self-transcendent emotions

Self-transcendent emotions (STEs) are a proximal cause of moral behavior, and contribute to individual and collective flourishing. While natural, artistic, and moral beauty have been shown to cause particular STEs, no published research has examined the differential influence among those three forms of beauty on causing a range of STEs. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four video conditions: natural beauty, artistic beauty, moral beauty, or control. A measure of state self-transcendent emotions was given as a pre- and post-measure, and analysis indicated that all three beautiful videos significantly, and with medium effect sizes, increased levels of STEs over the control video; with no significant difference in gain among experimental conditions. A causal mediation analysis affirmed that subjective perceptions of beauty explained the increase in STEs. Additionally, self-reported importance of spirituality significantly predicted STE gain; as did trait engagement with beauty.