Cited by 176Psychological Well-being and Life SatisfactionIdentity, Memory, and TherapyMind wandering and attention

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Mental simulation and meaning in life.

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Waytz, Adam, Hershfield, Hal E., Tamir, Diana I.·2015·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Abstract

Mental simulation, the process of self-projection into alternate temporal, spatial, social, or hypothetical realities is a distinctively human capacity. Numerous lines of research also suggest that the tendency for mental simulation is associated with enhanced meaning. The present research tests this association specifically examining the relationship between two forms of simulation (temporal and spatial) and meaning in life. Study 1 uses neuroimaging to demonstrate that enhanced connectivity in the medial temporal lobe network, a subnetwork of the brain's default network implicated in prospection and retrospection, correlates with self-reported meaning in life. Study 2 demonstrates that experimentally inducing people to think about the past or future versus the present enhances self-reported meaning in life, through the generation of more meaningful events. Study 3 demonstrates that experimentally inducing people to think specifically versus generally about the past or future enhances self-reported meaning in life. Study 4 turns to spatial simulation to demonstrate that experimentally inducing people to think specifically about an alternate spatial location (from the present location) increases meaning derived from this simulation compared to thinking generally about another location or specifically about one's present location. Study 5 demonstrates that experimentally inducing people to think about an alternate spatial location versus one's present location enhances meaning in life, through meaning derived from this simulation. Study 6 demonstrates that simply asking people to imagine completing a measure of meaning in life in an alternate location compared with asking them to do so in their present location enhances reports of meaning. This research sheds light on an important determinant of meaning in life and suggests that undirected mental simulation benefits psychological well-being.

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Recall of remote episodic memories can appear deficient because of a gist-based retrieval orientation
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Company, Country, Connections
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“Image preprocessing then corrected for slice-time acquisition differences (Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, London, United Kingdom) and for head motion (FSL, FMRIB, Oxford, United Kingdom); volumes were then normalized to a T1 EPI template in MNI atlas space This document is copyrighted by the American Psyc…”
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“…from the correlation between MTL connectivity and meaning in Study 1, as well as previous research demonstrating the role of the MTL network and temporal simulation, Study 2 showed that simulating the past or future, compared with considering the present, enhanced perceptions of meaning in life.”
A Wandering Mind
Bonfiglioli, C. (2011) · UTS ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney) · Cited by 18
Neural and motivational mechanics of meaning and threat.
Tullett, A. M., Prentice, M. S., Teper, R., Nash, K. A., Inzlicht, M., & McGregor, I. (2012) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/14040-020 · Cited by 18
The Impact of Culture
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“Coding the future and past conditions as “1” and the present condition as “0,” we used Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS macro (bias-corrected, 20,000 resamples) to conduct a bootstrapping mediation analyses to determine whether these three variables (entered simultaneously) mediated the relationship between condition and presenc…”
Counterfactual thinking about one’s birth enhances well-being judgments
Heintzelman, S. J., Christopher, J., Trent, J., & King, L. A. (2013) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2012.754925 · Cited by 14
Finding Meaning from Mutability: Making Sense and Deriving Significance through Counterfactual Thinking
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Twists of fate: Moments in time and what might have been in the emergence of meaning.
Kray, L. J., Ersner-Hershfield, H., George, L. G., & Galinsky, A. D. (2012) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/14040-016 · Cited by 7
"It was meant to be": Retrospective meaning construction through mental simulation.
Lindberg, M. J., Markman, K. D., & Choi, H. (2012) · American Psychological Association eBooks · doi:10.1037/14040-017 · Cited by 7
Default Network
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The Legacy Motive
Fox, M. P., Tost, L. P., & Wade‐Benzoni, K. A. (2010) · Cited by 2
It was meant to be.
Kalmar, B., & Ruby, H. (1923) · York University Digital Library (York University) · Cited by 1

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The Science of Meaning in Life
King, L. A., & Hicks, J. A. (2020) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-072420-122921 · Cited by 633
Counterfactual Thought
Byrne, R. M. J. (2015) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033249 · Cited by 467
“F or p er so na l u se o nl y. PS67CH06-Byrne ARI 14 November 2015 8:47 Counterfactual explanations also imbue the past with personal meaning—a sense of purpose and coherence—by influencing judgments that certain pivotal events were “meant to be” (e.g., Kray et al. 2010, Waytz et al. 2015).”
Background
Purpose in Life and Its Relationship to All-Cause Mortality and Cardiovascular Events: A Meta-Analysis
Cohen, R., Bavishi, C., & Rozanski, A. (2016) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/psy.0000000000000274 · Cited by 447
“Although the literature suggests that life purpose is a component of meaning in life (12,13), for the purpose of this meta-analysis, we were interested in the net effect of purpose and meaning on important health outcomes.”
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Prosocial behavior increases perceptions of meaning in life
Klein, N. (2016) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2016.1209541 · Cited by 364
Leisure reading and social cognition: A meta-analysis.
Mumper, M. L., & Gerrig, R. J. (2017) · Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts · doi:10.1037/aca0000089 · Cited by 249

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Authors: Waytz, A., Hershfield, H. E., & Tamir, D. I.
Affiliations: Northwestern University (US)
Princeton University (US)
ORCID: Waytz, Adam
Tamir, Diana I.
Venue: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 2015-02
Volume: 108
Issue: 2
Pages: 336-355
ISSN: 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
1939-1315
DOI: 10.1037/a0038322
PMC: PMC4480924
OpenAlex: W2107411906
Cited by: 176
References: 164
Citations by year: 2026: 10 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 3
FWCI: 18.00
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: hybrid
doi.org
Licence: other-oa
www.apa.org/pubs/journals/resources/open-access.aspx (am, 352 d)
Locations: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion, other-oa)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders: National Institutes of Health
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
Keywords: mental simulation, meaning in life, temporal simulation, spatial simulation, prospection, retrospection, default mode network, medial temporal lobe, self-projection, psychological well-being
MeSH terms: Adult, Arousal, Brain, Brain Mapping, Character, Female, Humans, Imagination, Individuality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Mental Processes, Motivation, Nerve Net, Projection, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reality Testing, Social Environment, Statistics as Topic, Echo-Planar Imaging

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