Research team led by Professor Xin Zhiyong and Assistant Professor Du Xiaopeng publishes paper inJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology

A research team led by Professor Xin Zhiyong and Assistant Professor Du Xiaopeng from the Department of Psychology,School of Sociology and Psychology[1], Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) published a research paper recently in the international cross-cultural psychology journalJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. The study proposes and systematically elaborates a new type of awe rooted in Chinese culture and grounded in perseverance-based moral beauty, termed “Yu Gong–inspired awe.” The research finds that this form of awe—elicited by the resilient spiritual strength of ordinary people—not only enhances charitable donation intentions among high-income groups but also helps reduce negative stereotypes toward people living in poverty, offering new insights into promoting prosocial behavior and improving social cognition.

TheJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychologyis classified as an AA-category journal by CUFE, with a five-year composite impact factor of 3.3. As a flagship journal in cross-cultural psychology, it provides an important interdisciplinary platform for scholars studying the relationship between culture and behavior and serves as a key global source of knowledge and academic exchange in cross-cultural research.

The paper can be accessed at:https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220221251385963.

Drawing inspiration from the traditional Chinese story “Yu Gong Moves the Mountains,” the study defines Yu Gong–inspired awe as the sense of awe experienced when individuals witness ordinary people confronting immense environmental and developmental challenges with unyielding perseverance. Across five empirical studies, the research team found that this form of awe is comparable to nature-based awe in emotional intensity and shares core structural components of awe—such as perceptions of vastness and a need for cognitive accommodation—while being clearly distinct from natural awe in its sources. The findings further indicate that Yu Gong–inspired awe can significantly reduce negative stereotypes held by high-income individuals toward impoverished groups and substantially increase their willingness to engage in charitable giving. The study responds to calls within the international psychology community to explore the diversity of awe elicitors and provides new insights into addressing economic inequality by fostering greater donation willingness among affluent individuals.

Using Chinese culture as its theoretical starting point, the research seeks to identify novel sources of awe embedded in traditional Chinese cultural narratives. Centered on the symbolic spirit of “Yu Gong Moves the Mountains,” the research team translated the story’s core qualities of perseverance and resilience into an operational and empirically testable psychological construct. This approach demonstrates the potential for generating original psychological concepts grounded in traditional Chinese cultural resources. Although the cross-cultural applicability of this concept requires further examination, the study illustrates how Chinese contexts, stories, and culture can offer fresh perspectives and approaches to international psychological research. It also represents a meaningful effort to disseminate Chinese culture through academic research and to contribute to the construction of China’s independent knowledge system in psychology.The corresponding author of the paper is Professor Xin Zhiyong, and the first author is Assistant Professor Du Xiaopeng. Other authors include Wang Yajing, a postgraduate alumnus of the Department of Psychology; Associate Professor Weng Xuedong, also from the Department of Psychology; and Professor Xin Ziqiang from the Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China.

Writers: DU Xiaopeng

Reviewers:LV Jie, ZHANG Hongchuan

Editors: LI Ying

Approvers: HUO Xiaoran