Article

Personality and Social

Social Threats, Happiness, and the Psychology Bulletin

36(10) 13051317
2010 by the Society for Personality
Dynamics of Meaning in Life Judgments and Social Psychology, Inc
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DOI: 10.1177/0146167210381650
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Joshua A. Hicks1, Rebecca J. Schlegel1, and Laura A. King2

Abstract
Four studies examined social relatedness and positive affect (PA) as alternate sources of information for judgments of meaning
in life (MIL). In Studies 1 through 3 (total N = 282), priming loneliness increased reliance on PA and decreased reliance on
social functioning in MIL judgments. In Study 4 (N = 138), daily assessments of PA, relatedness needs satisfaction (RNS), and
MIL were obtained every 5 days over 20 days. Multilevel modeling showed that on days when RNS was low, PA was strongly
related to MIL. Results suggest the dynamic ways that social relationships and PA inform judgments of MIL. Informational and
motivational accounts of these results are discussed.

Keywords
existential meaning, social relationships, positive affect, loneliness

Received February 3, 2009; revision accepted April 13, 2010

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to more strongly linked to MIL when information associated
day, and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not with loneliness is accessible. To begin, we briefly review the
the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning literature on judgment processes in subjective well-being to
of a persons life at a given moment. lay the foundation for the dynamic approach to MIL judg-
ments from which our hypotheses are derived.
Viktor E. Frankl, 1963/1984

Although meaning in life (MIL) is an important contributor The Accessibility of Meaninglessness:

to health and well-being (see Steger, 2009, for a review), The Informational Perspective
relatively little is known about the processes that influence Decades of research has examined judgments of subjective
MIL judgments. The present studies attempt to fill this void well-being. Schwarz and Strack (e.g., 1991, 1999) were the
by examining whether and how threats to meaning influence first to articulate the role of basic social-cognitive processes
the type of information individuals draw on when judging in these types of judgments. A key component of their model
their MIL. Our hypotheses are guided by the assumption that is that individuals typically consult a limited amount of
individuals are strongly motivated to affirm lifes meaning. information when forming well-being judgments, ending the
We believe this motivation leads individuals to base their search as soon as they feel they have answered the question
MIL on information that affirms the meaningfulness of their with an adequate degree of confidence (see also Frster, &
existence and to discount information that potentially contra- Liberman, 2007; Schwarz, 2001). This informational per-
dicts this optimistic worldview. The current studies specifi- spective suggests two social-cognitive factors that influence
cally test this hypothesis by examining whether the cognitive well-being judgments: an individuals mood and relevant
accessibility of a fundamental threat to meaning, loneliness information that is cognitively accessible at the time of the
(Williams, 2009), biases the type of information people use judgment.
to judge their MIL. Our dynamic approach to MIL suggests
that when loneliness is accessible, people turn to alternative
sources of information, unrelated to the threat, to help them 1
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
maintain a high level of MIL. We focus on positive affect 2
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
(PA) as this alternative source of meaning (King, Hicks,
Corresponding Author:
Krull, & Del Gaiso, 2006). Specifically, a series of priming Joshua A. Hicks, Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University,
studies and a daily diary study were used to test the notion that 4235 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4235
alternate, affirming sources of meaning (i.e., PA) becomes Email: joshua.hicks@gmail.com

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1306 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36(10)

With regard to mood, most research has demonstrated Overall, these studies have shown that accessible infor-
mood-congruent effects on well-being judgments. For exam- mation leads to assimilation effects on MIL (i.e., accessible
ple, people report higher levels life satisfaction when they information is incorporated into the judgment, influencing
are in a positive mood and lower levels of life satisfaction either its level or its basis). However, and importantly,
when they are in a negative mood (provided their mood is not research has focused almost exclusively on the accessibility
attributed to a specific source; e.g., Schwarz & Clore, 1996). of positive information. The present studies address a ques-
Notably, Schwarz and Strack (1991, 1999) suggest that mood tion that has received little empirical attention: whether and
is often such a strong determinant of well-being that pro- how accessible information associated with meaninglessness
nounced mood states may serve as the default source of infor- is incorporated into judgments of MIL. Does negative infor-
mation for judgments of well-being.1 mation, like positive information, lead to assimilation effects
Although mood is an important contributor to judgments (and, consequently, to lower levels of MIL)? To address this
of well-being, accessible information can also bear heavily question, it is critical to consider the motivational underpin-
on these types of judgments. Both chronically (e.g., Diener, nings of MIL.
Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Lucas, Dyrenforth, & Diener,
2008; Schimmack & Oishi, 2005) and temporarily (Schwarz,
Strack, & Mai, 1991) accessible information can influence The Accessibility of Meaninglessness:
levels of well-being. For instance, people may rely on rela- Motivational Considerations
tively stable sources of information when judging how satis- Although MIL judgments are susceptible to the social-cognitive
fied they are with their lives (Schimmack, Diener, & Oishi, factors outlined previously, a comprehensive model of MIL
2002), or they may be influenced by information that is tem- must consider the contribution of motivation. After all, MIL is
porarily brought to the fore by contextual cues (Strack, Mar- viewed as desirable and morally good (King & Napa, 1998;
tin, & Schwarz, 1988). Importantly, accessible information Scollon & King, 2004) and has been recognized as a central
not only influences levels of well-being judgments, but it human motivation (e.g., Baumeister, 1991; Frankl, 1963/1984).
also shapes the type of information used as the basis for Various perspectives suggest that people have a natural (and
those judgments. For instance, Strack et al. (1988) showed adaptive) tendency to believe their lives are meaningful (e.g.,
that answering questions about marital satisfaction before Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2004). Based on these
global life satisfaction increased the relation between the two ideas, we suggest the type of information that contributes to
variables (see also Schwarz et al., 1991). Similarly, subtle MIL judgments may ebb and flow not only as a function of its
primes associated with excitement led participants to base accessibility but also to the extent that it affirms a positive
their overall life satisfaction more heavily on their current sense of MIL. As such, when faced with potential threats to
level of excitement (Oishi, Schimmack, & Colcombe, 2003). meaning, people may place more weight on information that
Clearly, researchers have made great strides in under- affirms a sense of MIL and less weight on information that
standing the factors and processes that influence judgments contradicts that belief. Thus, the negative effects of threaten-
of well-being, particularly life satisfaction. Currently, we know ing information should be mitigated provided the individual
far less about judgments of MIL. However, mounting evi- has an alternative, affirming source of meaning to draw on.
dence suggests that MIL judgments are often susceptible to Such self-protective processes have long been recognized
the same social-cognitive influences as other subjective well- (e.g., Pyszczynski & Greenberg, 1987; Taylor & Brown,
being judgments. For instance, studies have shown that posi- 1988). Studies have shown that people often selectively ignore
tive mood inductions increase judgments of MIL (e.g., Hicks threatening stimuli (e.g., Sedikides & Green, 2000) or demon-
& King, 2008). Accessible information also influences these strate self-serving biases in information processing (e.g.,
types of judgments: Priming participants with established Sanitioso, Kunda, & Fong, 1990).
sources of meaning (e.g., ones family, true self) enhances These ideas fit with previous conceptualizations of the
MIL ratings (e.g., Lambert et al., 2010; Schlegel, Hicks, human need for meaning. The meaning maintenance model
Arndt, & King, 2009; see also Stillman et al., 2009). Simi- (MMM; Heine, Proulx, & Vohs, 2006) asserts that the chronic
larly, the cognitive accessibility of positive information human need for meaning motivates the reinstatement of
associated with meaning influences the basis for MIL judg- meaning in response to expectancy violations. This meaning
ments. To illustrate, Hicks and King (2009) showed that peo- reinstatement may be characterized by fluid compensation,
ple who were primed with words associated with positive such that individuals may reinstate meaning via alternate
social relationships (e.g., friends, family) were more likely routes when expectations in a particular realm have been vio-
to base their MIL on their level of social relationship func- lated (Heine et al., 2006). Although the MMM does not
tioning. Overall, MIL judgments appear to be strongly influ- directly address the phenomenological experience of MIL,
enced by what is experienced (i.e., PA) or brought to mind this model certainly resonates with the current argument that
(e.g., ones relationships) at the time of the judgment. when one source of meaning is threatened, attention may shift

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Hicks et al. 1307

to alternate sources. Likewise, Baumeister (1991) has sug- Social relationships. A strict informational account would
gested that when one of his theorized needs for meaning differ from a motivational account, however, in terms of pre-
proves inadequate, people often switch to another source of dictions for the effects of negative primes on the use of the
MIL. Integrating these conceptions with contemporary per- related source of information on MIL judgments. An infor-
spectives on the effects of goal activation on social judgments mational account might suggest that negative primes will
(e.g., Frster, Liberman, & Friedman, 2007), we might con- nevertheless activate related concepts, leading to assimila-
clude that threats to meaning implicitly (or explicitly) acti- tion effects with regard to the predictors of MIL (i.e., people
vate a goal to reinstate or affirm ones sense of MIL. As such, will be more likely to use social relationships when judging
we expect that sources of meaning that facilitate goal attain- their MIL).
ment (i.e., provide a positive sense of MIL) will become more In contrast, we suggest that negative primes associated
strongly related to MIL after this goal is activated. with meaning (e.g., loneliness primes) may imply that the
relevant source of information (e.g., social relationship
functioning) is off-limits for the MIL judgment because
Overview and Predictions the information is not unambiguously congruent with the
Although the informational perspective certainly informs our belief that ones life is meaningful (see Park, Yoon, Kim,
understanding of how positive information is processed in & Wyer, 2001, for a discussion of the effects of priming
MIL judgments, we believe this approach may fail to fully one pole of a concept on the activation of the entire dimen-
capture how people process negative information. In line with sion of that concept). This rather drastic response to
the motivational account presented previously, we hypothe- threatening primes has been demonstrated in research on
size that making negative information accessible will promote religious commitment and MIL (Hicks & King, 2008):
a dynamic judgment process such that people will shift the Priming Christians with words related to hell effectively
basis of their meaning to an alternative source of meaning that wiped out the relation between religiosity and MIL,
is unrelated to the potentially threatening information. We test regardless of levels of religious commitment. Although
this hypothesis through a series of priming studies and a daily semantically related to religion, the valence of these primes
diary study that focus on two variables that share strong links seemed to render religious commitment a potentially dis-
to the experience of meaning: social relationships and PA affirming source of information for MIL judgments. Thus,
(e.g., King et al., 2006; Steger, Kashdan, Sullivan, & Lorentz, in response to threatening primes, the strong need to affirm
2008). In each study, we examine whether accessible informa- lifes meaning appears to render a domain (regardless of
tion related to loneliness influences the relations among MIL, the persons standing in that domain) temporarily irrele-
PA, and social relationship functioning. In the following sec- vant to MIL.
tions, we address specific predictions regarding the relations Strict informational and motivational accounts provide
among these variables from both the informational and moti- differing predictions for the influence of social threats on the
vational perspectives of MIL judgments. relation between individual differences in social functioning
Positive affect. Based on our motivational perspective, we and judgments of MIL. From an informational perspective,
predict that PA will become a stronger predictor of MIL primes associated with loneliness would be expected to bol-
when concepts related to loneliness are cognitively accessi- ster the link between social relationship variables and MIL.
ble. That is, when loneliness is accessible, alternative sources In contrast, if people are motivated to affirm that life is
of affirming information (i.e., PA) should become more meaningful, the opposite effect should be evident. Specifi-
strongly linked to MIL to overcome this potential existential cally, we predict that loneliness primes will attenuate the
void. Empirically, this suggests that participants in a positive link between relationship functioning and MIL.
mood should be relatively unaffected by the loneliness
primes and maintain relatively high levels of MIL because
PA provides these individuals with an alternative affirming Overview and Predictions for Study 1
source of MIL. If an individual is not in a positive mood, Study 1 participants completed a measure of relatedness
however, the accessibility of this negative information might need satisfaction (RNS) and then were suboptimally (i.e., for
lead to lower levels of MIL because there is no alternative 40 ms) exposed to either neutral words or words related to
affirming source. Overall, this would produce a strong linear loneliness. After priming, participants completed measures
relation between PA and MIL. Importantly, this prediction of MIL and positive mood. We predicted 2 two-way interac-
does not necessarily differ from the informational account. tions, with prime condition moderating the relations of PA
Recall that Schwarz and Strack (1999) suggest that people and relatedness to MIL judgments. Specifically, we predicted
consult their mood states as information for well-being judg- that loneliness primes would enhance the relation between
ments. As such, an informational account of MIL judgments PA and MIL and attenuate the relation between social relat-
is still viable even if this prediction is borne out in the data. edness and MIL.

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1308 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36(10)

Study 1 Finally, participants were debriefed and probed for suspi-

cion. Three participants reported seeing some words (other
Method than the targets) during the lexical decisions task; however,
Participants. Seventy-nine participants (55 women) enrolled none of the participants were aware of the specific types of
in an introductory psychology course at the University of words that were displayed. Moreover, none of the partici-
Missouri participated for course credit. Ages ranged from pants expressed any suspicion related to the hypotheses of
18 to 22 (M = 18.42, SD = .89). the study.

Materials and Procedure Results and Discussion

Relatedness need satisfaction. Upon arrival, participants Preliminary analyses. A t test verified that priming condi-
were instructed that they would be completing a variety of tion did not influence mood (p = .71) or MIL (p = .54). MIL
tasks. For the first task, participants completed a question- was positively correlated with PA (r = .63) and RNS (r =
naire packet. Embedded in the packet was the Relatedness .44), and PA was positively correlated with RNS (r = .36; all
Need Satisfaction subscale of the Basic Psychological Needs ps < .01).
Scale (Gagn, 2003). A sample item is People in my life PA, RNS, priming, and MIL. A hierarchical regression equa-
care about me. In this study (and in all subsequent studies), tion was computed to examine the contribution of PA, RNS,
all items were rated on a 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much) scale and primes to MIL judgments. PA and RNS scores were con-
(M = 5.78, SD = .89, = .81). verted to mean deviation scores and priming condition was
Priming. Next, participants were instructed that they would dummy coded (0 = control, 1 = loneliness). The products of
complete a lexical decision task, purportedly to examine how these scores, along with the dummy variable, were used as the
various types of stimuli influence task performance. Partici- interaction terms (Aiken & West, 1991). The main effects were
pants were asked to categorize stimuli as either words (by press- entered on the first step contributing significantly (R2 change =
ing the Z key) or nonwords (by pressing the / key). .45, p < .001), with PA ( = .54, p < .01) and RNS ( = .25, p <
Participants were told to respond as quickly as possible. They .01) predicting MIL. These main effects were qualified by sig-
were instructed that a random string of letters would be pre- nificant PA Condition ( = .35 p < .05) and RNS Condition
sented before each stimulus and that We [were] interested in ( = .28, p < .05) interactions, entered on the second step
how the presentation of these random stimuli influences subse- (R2 change = .06, p < .05). The three-way interaction, entered
quent lexical decisions. Each trial began with a + presented on the third step, was not significant (p = .26).
in the middle of the screen for 1,000 ms. Participants were To probe the two-way interactions, MIL was regressed on
instructed that they should stare at the + to help them respond PA and RNS within each condition, and means were gener-
as quickly as possible. After the +, a string of &s was dis- ated for individuals +1 SD from the mean on PA or RNS.
played for 400 ms. Immediately after the string of &s was Results are shown in Figure 1. As predicted (Panel A), PA
presented, either the experimental (n = 40) or control (n =39) was a stronger predictor of MIL in the loneliness condition
words were presented for 40 ms. Examples of words in the ( = .74, p < .001) compared to the control condition ( = .26,
experimental condition included alone, lonely, outcast, isolated, p < .08). In contrast (Panel B), RNS was a strong predictor of
and abandoned. In the control condition participants were MIL in the control condition ( = .49, p < .01) but did not
primed with words related to animals such as giraffe, rabbit, predict MIL in the loneliness condition ( = .07, p = .55).
elephant, and zebra. Immediately after the primes, a string of Supplementary analyses tested whether the strength of the
Xs was presented for 400 ms as a backward mask. After this regression coefficients, within condition, varied significantly
string, participants were presented with another letter string across predictors (Pendhazur, 1997). In the loneliness prime
(e.g., irony or nogzp), which served as the stimulus for the lexi- condition, compared to RNS, PA was a significantly stronger
cal decision. The primed stimuli were displayed 110 times. predictor of MIL, t(40) = 13.98, p < .01. In the control condi-
MIL and PA measures. After the lexical decision task, par- tion, however, compared to PA, RNS was a significantly
ticipants were instructed to complete an Attitudes and stronger predictor of MIL, t(38) = 3.71, p < .01.
Thoughts Survey. They first completed four items adapted The results of Study 1 support the hypothesis that the
from the PIL (purpose in life; Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1964; sources that are used to evaluate lifes meaningfulness are sen-
King et al., 2006; M = 5.43, SD = 1.09, = .78; e.g, My per- sitive to subtle contextual changes. The loneliness primes
sonal existence is very purposeful and meaningful). Partici- influenced judgments of MIL, but only to the extent that the
pants then rated six positive mood adjectives (e.g., happy, joy, individual did not have another source of information to draw
pleased) to provide a measure of current PA (M = 4.69, SD = on (i.e., PA) at the time of the judgment. Furthermore, the
1.11, = .87; Diener, Smith, & Fujita, 1995). Participants then loneliness primes influenced the prediction of MIL judgments
completed a variety of unrelated measures. from RNS. Even among individuals for whom relationships

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Hicks et al. 1309

become less associated with MIL after the activation of

social threats.

Method
Participants. Seventy-three participants (43 females) enrolled
in an introductory psychology course participated for course
credit (M age = 19.21, SD = 1.48).

Materials and Procedure

Parafoveal priming. At the beginning of the laboratory ses-
sion, participants were told they would be completing a vari-
ety of tasks for separate research projects. For the priming
task, participants completed a periphery decision task.
Participants were told that the researchers were interested in
how different random stimuli would influence their perfor-
mance on the task. They were instructed that a + would
appear in the middle of the computer screen and that this
would be followed by a stimulus presented on either the right
or the left side of the screen. Participants were told that their
task was to indicate the side of the screen the stimulus
appeared on by pressing a red circle, located on the ; key if
the stimulus appeared on the right, or a green circle, located
on the a key, if the stimulus appeared on the left. They
were instructed to focus on the + throughout the duration
of task. The stimuli for the task were random strings of let-
ters and numbers. Primes were presented immediately before
the random stimuli in the parafoveal region of vision to the
right or left of the fixation point. Stimuli presented in this
region are not believed to reach conscious awareness (see
Bargh & Chartrand, 2000, for a review). In this task, each
Figure 1. Meaning in life as a function of positive affect, related word was displayed for 35 ms and immediately masked by a
needs satisfaction, and prime condition, Study 1 string of Xs. There were 50 trials, each of which lasted 2 s.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of two condi-
tions. In the experimental condition (n =36), primes were
might have indicated a positive answer to the question of MIL, related to loneliness (e.g., lonely, alone, outcast, isolated,
RNS did not predict MIL. Priming the negative pole of the shunned). In the control condition (n =37), primes were
RNS dimension may be sufficient to render the entire con- related to neutral others (e.g., people, peer, man, woman,
struct off-limits for MIL judgments. person).
MIL, RNS, and PA. After priming, participants completed
the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) Presence of
Study 2 Meaning subscale (Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler, 2006;
Study 2 sought to replicate and extend these results. In Study 1, M = 5.23, SD = 1.14, = .87), which has shown convergent
RNS was measured before priming. It is possible, then, that and discriminant validity, as well as high testretest reliabil-
the primes might have influenced participants feelings of ity (Steger et al., 2006; Steger & Kashdan, 2007). A sample
relatedness, which might account for the attenuation of the item is I understand my lifes meaning. After completing
relation between RNS and MIL in the loneliness condition. the MLQ, participants completed the same RNS subscale
As such, in Study 2, RNS was measured after the primes. In (M = 6.00, SD = .85, = .78) and Mood Adjective scale from
this study, participants were subliminally primed with either Study 1 (M = 4.72, SD = 1.01, = .89).
socially neutral words or words related to loneliness. After Finally, participants completed a variety of unrelated
priming, they completed measures of MIL, PA, and RNS. measures, and they were debriefed and probed for suspicion.
Again, we predicted PA would become a stronger predictor No one reported seeing any of the primed words or expressed
of MIL after the loneliness primes condition and RNS would suspicion related to the hypotheses of the study.

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1310 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36(10)

Results and Discussion

The t tests comparing the prime groups revealed no differ-
ences on RNS or MIL (ps > .62), though there was a sig-
nificant difference in PA, t(71) = 1.99, p < .05.
Interestingly, those primed with loneliness reported higher
PA (M = 4.96, SD = 1.19) compared to controls (M = 4.50,
SD = .76).
Primary analyses examined the predictions for condition,
RNS and PA, seeking to replicate the results of Study 1. The
main effects were entered on the first step of a hierarchical
regression equation (R2 change = .40, p < .001), with con-
dition ( = .32, p < .01), PA ( = .52, p < .01), and RNS
( = .19, p < .03) predicting MIL. Once again, main effects
were qualified by significant PA Condition ( = .40, p <
.05) and RNS Condition ( = .35, p < .05) interactions,
entered on the second step (R2 change = .07, p < .05). The
three-way interaction was not significant (p = .84).
Panel A of Figure 2 shows that PA was a stronger predic-
tor of MIL in the loneliness prime condition ( = .77, p <
.001) compared to the control condition ( = .23, p = .14).
Panel B shows that although RNS was a strong predictor of
MIL in the control condition ( = .42, p < .01), as in Study 1,
it did not predict MIL in the loneliness prime condition ( =
.06, p = .60). Supplementary analyses again showed that
PA was a significantly stronger predictor of MIL than RNS
in the loneliness prime condition, t(35) = 10.54, p < .01, but
in the control condition, RNS was a significantly stronger
predictor of MIL than PA, t(36) = 2.62, p < .05.
Studies 1 and 2 converge to suggest that the implicit
activation of concepts associated with meaninglessness
can influence the sources of information used in MIL judg-
Figure 2. Meaning in life as a function of positive affect, related
ments. Participants low in PA reported lower levels of MIL
needs satisfaction, and prime condition, Study 2
after primes associated with loneliness (rendering PA a
stronger predictor of MIL after those primes). Importantly,
RNS was not a significant predictor of MIL after loneliness
primes, regardless of participants levels on this individual used in this study was a measure of loneliness. Thus, partici-
difference. pants were consciously reminded of a personal experience
of loneliness and completed a measure of social functioning
directly relevant to the prime. We again predicted that in the
Study 3 loneliness prime condition, PA would be more strongly
One purpose of Study 3 was to replicate the previous find- related to MIL, and individual differences in loneliness
ings using a more diverse sample of participants. Whereas would be less strongly related to MIL relative to the control
Studies 1 and 2 included only college student samples, in an condition.
effort to demonstrate the generalizability of these findings,
Study 3 included a community sample of adults. Further-
more, in Study 3, participants wrote about a personal expe- Method
rience of loneliness or a control topic. We used this task Participants. One hundred and thirty-two University of
because previous research has shown that such a task can Missouri employees (114 women)3 participated in an online
influence cognitions and behaviors associated with loneli- study in return for a raffle ticket for a $100 gift card at the
ness (e.g., Pickett, Gardner, & Knowles, 2004). This proce- local mall (M age = 40.9, SD = 11.39). Data from 4 partici-
dure also allowed us to more directly test whether and how pants were excluded because they did not complete the writ-
salient, personally relevant, negative information would ing task, and 2 participants were excluded because they
influence MIL judgments. The measure of social functioning expressed suspicion about the hypotheses of the study.

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Hicks et al. 1311

Materials and Procedure

Supraliminal priming. Participants were instructed that
they would complete a few unrelated tasks sponsored by the
department of psychological sciences (adapted from Pickett
et al., 2004). All participants first read:

We are interested in how adults describe certain life

experiences. Research in the psychological sciences
has collected a large amount of information on col-
lege students descriptions of various life experiences,
but surprisingly little research has been conducted on
how non-student populations describe common life
experiences.

Participants in the control condition (n = 69) were instructed:

For this task, we are interested in how you would

describe walking around the university campus. That
is, think of what it is like to walk around the university
campus and spend a few minutes writing about the
experience. Dont worry about spelling or grammar;
just write down as much detail about the experience as
possible.

Participants in the experimental condition (n = 57) were

instructed:

For this task, we are interested in how adults describe

the experience of feeling lonely. Think of a time when
you felt lonely and spend a few minutes writing about
the experience. Dont worry about spelling or gram-
mar; just write down as much detail about the experi- Figure 3. Meaning in life as a function of positive affect,
ence as possible. loneliness, and prime condition, Study 3

MIL, loneliness, and PA. After the writing task, participants

were instructed to complete an Attitudes and Thoughts p < .001), with PA ( = .49, p < .001) and loneliness ( = .19,
Survey, including the MLQ Presence subscale (M = 5.13, p < .05) predicting MIL. Main effects were qualified by sig-
SD = 1.29, = .91), followed by the UCLA Loneliness scale nificant PA Condition ( = .30, p < .01) and Loneliness
(Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona, 1980; M = 2.82, SD = 1.14, = Condition ( = .35, p < .01) interactions entered on the second
.94). The UCLA Loneliness scale assesses subjective feel- step (R2 change = .08, p < .01). The three-way interaction,
ings of social isolation and has been shown to have excellent entered on the third step, was not significant (p = .67).
concurrent and discriminant validity (Russell et al., 1980). As shown in Panel A of Figure 3, and in accord with
A sample item is, How often do you feel you have nobody predictions, PA was a stronger predictor of MIL in the
to talk to? Participants then completed the Positive Mood loneliness prime condition ( = .73, p < .01) compared to
Adjectives scale (M = 4.95, SD = 1.39, = .92) and a variety the control condition ( = .26, p < .05). In contrast, as
of unrelated measures, after which they responded to an shown in Panel B, although loneliness was a strong predic-
open-ended suspicion check. tor of MIL in the control condition ( = .45, p < .01), it did
not predict MIL in the loneliness prime condition ( = .06,
p = .62). Thus, for individuals who had just been writing
Results and Discussion about loneliness, loneliness (even when it was low) did not
T tests revealed no significant differences between groups on predict MIL. Supplementary analyses showed that com-
PA (p = .41), MIL (p = .60), or loneliness (p = .78). pared to loneliness, PA was a significantly stronger predic-
As in the previous studies, main effects were entered on the tor of MIL in the loneliness prime condition, t(57) = 5.57,
first step of a hierarchical regression equation (R2 change = .37, p < .01, whereas loneliness was a significantly stronger

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1312 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36(10)

predictor of MIL compared to PA in the control condition, that they should try to complete each online survey at the
t(68) = 6.79, p < .01.2 same time each day. The response rate across the four waves
Overall, the results of Studies 1 through 3 demonstrate a of the study was high, with approximately 88% of the par-
remarkably consistent pattern, suggesting the influence of ticipants completing all four surveys. Multilevel modeling
loneliness primes on the sources of information used in MIL can accommodate missing data at Level 1 (i.e., the repeated
judgments. As predicted, loneliness primes led to lower MIL measures level); thus, missing data for the remaining partici-
only for individuals who were low on PA at the time of the pants was not a concern.
judgment. Moreover, loneliness primes enhanced the relation To help disguise the purpose of the study, other measures
of PA to MIL and attenuated the relation of individual differ- (approximately 30 items; taken from the Rational Experien-
ences in social functioning to these judgments. These findings tial Inventory; Pacini & Epstein, 1999) were given at end of
highlight the dynamic ways that negative accessible informa- the survey. After the first survey, participants were instructed:
tion can influence judgments of MIL (both in terms of their
levels and the information used for these judgments). Please note: the questions on the survey are very simi-
lar to the questions you already completed. For this
survey, we are interested in how you feel about the
Overview and Predictions for Study 4 questions right now. That is, even though you may
The purpose of Study 4 was to generalize these experimental have already answered the same types of questions in
findings to everyday life. Participants completed an online the previous survey, we would like to know about your
diary study every 5 days over 3 weeks. Daily reports included current beliefs and feelings.
measures of PA, RNS, and MIL. In this study, rather than
rely on primes, we examined how the relevance of PA and Each report contained the positive mood adjectives (M =
RNS to MIL judgments varied depending on the levels of 4.81, SD = 1.39, = .92), RNS (M = 5.62, SD = .90, = .86),
these variables. Notably, for each daily report, the order of and the Presence subscale of the MLQ (M = 4.69, SD = 1.22,
measures was identical, with participants completing the = .90).
mood measure first, followed by RNS, and then MIL. Thus,
social relationships should have been relatively more acces-
sible than mood when judging MIL (similar to the Strack Results and Discussion
et al., 1988, study of marital and life satisfaction). Thus, from Preliminary analyses. Aggregating over the days, correla-
a purely informational perspective, we might expect that RNS tional analyses indicated that, not surprisingly, mean MIL
would be strongly related to daily MIL, regardless of mood. was correlated with mean PA (r = .37, p < .01) and mean
However, if low levels of RNS function in ways similar to RNS (r = .48, p < .01). Aggregated PA and RNS were also
the loneliness primes in Studies 1through 3, we would predict correlated (r = .31, p < .01).
that when RNS is low, individuals will likely render MIL judg- Primary analyses. Multilevel modeling, using HLM (Ver-
ments primarily as a function of PA. Thus, for those whose sion 6.02; Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002), was used to examine
social relationships are not going well, if they happen to be in a the prediction of daily MIL as a function of daily levels of
good mood, we predict a high level of MIL. In contrast, if rela- PA, RNS, and their interaction. Multilevel modeling can
tionships are going poorly and PA is low, life will be judged appropriately accommodate the lack of independence in the
less meaningful. Thus, for these data, we predicted a signifi- observations (i.e., repeated observations within a person).
cant RNS PA interaction, such that MIL would be more The multilevel analyses included two levels. Level 1 repre-
strongly related to PA on days when individuals experience sented the days nested within individuals. Level 2 repre-
lower than average satisfaction with their social relationships. sented mean differences between individuals. Six dummy
variables were created to control for day of the week effects
(Sunday was the comparison group). These dummy vari-
Study 4 ables were entered as Level 1 predictors along with the three
Method predictors of interest. PA and RNS were both standardized,
and the product of these two standardized variables served as
Participants. One hundred thirty-eight participants (83 the interaction term. To control for the potential bias intro-
women) enrolled in a psychology course at the University of duced by between-person differences in mean levels on the
Missouri participated for partial course credit. Ages ranged predictors of interest, the three primary predictors were
from 18 to 27 (M = 19.19, SD = 1.23). centered within person at Level 1 and the within-person
Materials and Procedure. Participants completed an online means for PA and RNS were included as Level 2 covariates
daily diary study four times over 3 weeks (every 5 days). Par- (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002; Schwartz & Stone, 1998;
ticipants were told that the study involved daily assessments Snijders & Bosker, 1999). The effects of daily PA, daily
of personality characteristics among college students and RNS, and their interaction were estimated as random effects.

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Hicks et al. 1313

The results for the Level 2 covariates suggested that an indi-

viduals mean level of RNS and PA influenced individual
intercepts. These effects represent the relation between a
persons average amount of PA and RNS and daily MIL, and
indicate that mean levels of PA ( = .38, p < .001) and RNS
( = .56, p < .001) were positively associated with daily MIL.
The analyses for the Level 1 predictors revealed that state
PA ( = .22, p < .001) predicted MIL over and above the
individuals average level of PA (replicating past research;
King et al., 2006). State relatedness ( = .01, p = .06) was not
related to MIL. The small size of this effect is almost cer-
tainly due the relatively large effect of between-person relat-
edness that was controlled for in the model. In any case,
these main effects were qualified by a significant PA RNS
interaction ( = .21, p < .05).
Tests of simple slopes were conducted via recentering at
1 SD above and below the mean of RNS. As shown in Figure 4,
these analyses revealed that the contribution of PA to MIL Figure 4. Daily meaning in life as a function of daily positive affect
was much stronger on days when RNS was low ( = .43, p < (PA) and daily related needs satisfaction (RNS), Study 4
.001) than on days when RNS was high ( = .01, p > .80).
Thus, as predicted, the relation between daily PA and daily
MIL was moderated by daily RNS, suggesting that low lev- a positive mood at the time of the judgment. Moreover,
els of RNS have effects similar to primes of loneliness. Con- unlike primes associated with positive social connections
sistent with the priming studies, only participants who were (Hicks & King, in press), loneliness primes decreased the
experiencing a threat to their relationships and who were low relation between social relationship functioning and MIL.
in PA reported relatively low MIL. Corroborating the experi- Overall, the remarkably consistent patterns of two-way inter-
mental studies, these results suggest that when faced with a actions observed across the studies shed light on the contri-
threat to RNS (whether it is via a prime in the lab or a lonely bution of both informational and motivational processes to
day in life), people are more likely to use PA as a source of MIL judgments.
information for MIL judgments.
The pattern of results in Figure 4 is strikingly similar to
past research examining the influence of a positive relation- Informational and Motivational
ship primes on the relation between naturally occurring PA Accounts of MIL Revisited
and MIL (Hicks & King, in press, Study 3). In that work, Across all four studies, loneliness (whether primed or expe-
supraliminal primes of positive social relationships produced rienced) enhanced the relation between PA and MIL. For
high levels of MIL, regardless of mood. For those who were Studies 1 and 2, this effect can be readily explained by
exposed to neutral primes, however, PA was a strong predic- Schwarz and Stracks (1991, 1999) model of well-being
tor of MIL. When positive social relationships are not salient judgment processes. Again, this model states that people
(Hicks & King, in press) or when social relationships pro- typically use pronounced mood for well-being judgments
vide a less than positive answer (current Study 4), MIL is unless another source of information is made salient. If they
more likely to depend on PA. are not in a pronounced mood, however, they should turn to
information that is accessible in memory. Although the sub-
optimal and subliminal primes used in Studies 1 and 2 likely
General Discussion made threatening information accessible, it is unlikely that
The current studies highlight the complex ways accessible these subtle manipulations made thoughts of loneliness truly
knowledge and mood shape judgments of MIL. Although salient (see Higgins, 1996, for a distinction between acces-
previous research has shown that accessible positive infor- sibility and salience). Therefore, the PA Condition interac-
mation either increases MIL (e.g., Schlegel et al., 2009), tion effects are consistent with Schwarz and Stracks model:
wipes out the effects of mood on MIL (e.g., Hicks & King, MIL judgments were tempered only for individuals in the
2008), or increases the relation between MIL and informa- loneliness prime conditions who were not in a pronounced
tion associated with the prime (Hicks & King, in press), the positive affective state.
current research suggests that accessible negative informa- The results of Studies 3 and 4, however, are more difficult
tion is processed in a more dynamic fashion. Negative acces- to explain using a strict informational account. In these stud-
sible information had no influence on MIL for individuals in ies, participants either explicitly wrote about experiences of

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1314 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36(10)

loneliness or completed measures of social functioning consistent with previous findings (Hicks & King, 2007, in
immediately before rating MIL. For these participants, infor- press). In previous research, neither individual differences in
mation associated with loneliness was clearly salient at the RNS nor religious commitment interacted with both PA and
time of the judgment. Despite this salience, participants in a (relationship or religious) primes to predict MIL. Instead,
positive mood reported high levels of MIL regardless of primes appear to have a general influence on the incorpora-
prime condition (Study 3) or their current level of social tion (or lack thereof) of information in judgments of MIL,
functioning (Study 4). These results support the idea that which is potentially automatic and perhaps less nuanced
when an important source of MIL is potentially challenged, than for other social judgments. Integrating the present find-
alternate sources of meaning become more strongly linked to ings with past research suggests that priming the positive
MIL. It is important to note that PA in these studies might be pole of a dimension leads to the use of that dimension in MIL
serving as a proxy for a host of other unmeasured sources of judgments, whereas priming the negative pole renders the
MIL (e.g., competence, religious beliefs, etc., that are them- dimension broadly irrelevant to the judgment. Future
selves typically correlated with PA). In this way, PA may research on MIL judgments should continue to probe this
serve as a particularly robust alternate source of MIL. fascinating possibility with a variety of sources of MIL.
Further support for a motivational account of MIL judg- It should be noted that, as might be expected in psycho-
ment processes comes from the consistent Social Function- logically healthy people, the mean levels of MIL were rela-
ing Condition interactions found in Studies 1 through 3. tively high for all studies and conditions. As such, tempering
Across all three studies, loneliness primes dramatically atten- ones MIL by not consulting high RNS, for example, after
uated the relation between social functioning and MIL. the loneliness primes may have been a low-stakes sacrifice.
Again, these findings are inconsistent with a strict informa- Examining these questions in samples with truly low MIL
tional account of well-being judgment processes. From an (or who are chronically lonely) would allow for stronger
informational perspective, primes associated with loneliness conclusions about when settling for a lower level of MIL
should activate the entire dimension of social relationships. might be less attractive and how individuals might rely on
This activation, in turn, should make this accessible domain various sources when MIL itself is low.
even more strongly linked to MIL. Such results would be
consistent with many findings that demonstrate congruence
between accessible domains and the type of information Knowledge Activation and
used as the basis for judgments of well-being (e.g., Hicks & the MIL Judgment Process
King, in press; Oishi et al., 2003). The present findings Activated knowledge structures can influence thoughts
do not show these straightforward effects but may be and behaviors through different mechanisms (e.g., Frster &
explained by the possibility that individuals used alternative Liberman, 2007). To understand MIL judgments (or any
(and affirming) sources of meaning after primes threatening type of judgment), it is crucial that researchers uncover
the social domain. which of these mechanisms is mediating the influence of
Interestingly, none of the priming studies revealed a knowledge activation on judgments. For example, by acti-
three-way (Social Functioning Social Threat PA) inter- vating concepts associated with loneliness, the primes may
action. These null effects are surprising for two reasons. also activate concepts associated with meaninglessness
First, research has suggested primes should only influence because the two concepts are so closely associated in mem-
thoughts and behaviors to the extent that they are perceived ory (Williams, 2007a, 2007b). Although semantic priming
as relevant to the individual (see Frster et al., 2007, for a effects might have partially contributed to the current find-
review). As such, one might expect that the shifting effect ings, based on the motivational perspective described here,
shown in the current studies applies only to those who were we believe the loneliness primes either consciously or uncon-
currently feeling lonely. Those who were not lonely would sciously activated a goal to maintain or affirm ones sense of
have perceived the accessible information as personally meaning (e.g., Heine et al., 2006; see also Proulx & Heine,
irrelevant and therefore had no reason to ignore social rela- 2009).
tionships as a source of MIL (producing a three-way interac- Recently, Frster et al. (2007) elegantly described various
tion). Second, research suggests that PA leads to assimilation ways to disentangle other types of priming effects (i.e.,
effects (Avramova & Stapel, 2008). Drawing on this work, semantic and procedural effects) from goal activation. For
one might predict that lonely participants in a positive mood example, goal activation should lead individuals to place
would report the lowest levels of MIL after social threats more value on objects and behaviors that facilitate the attain-
(i.e., another three-way interaction). Neither of these sce- ment of the goal. If the goal to reinstate or affirm meaning is
narios was supported by the present data. Although null activated, individuals should place more value on sources of
effects can always be attributed to low statistical power, meaning. Although the enhanced reliance on PA after the
these findings may highlight the relatively automatic mecha- loneliness primes suggests that the affective domain is con-
nisms that might influence judgments of MIL and are sidered more important to the judgment, having participants

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Hicks et al. 1315

explicitly list how much they value PA after these primes negative emotions may often have an adaptive role in the
may be necessary to further demonstrate this effect. experience of MIL. For instance, negative affect may be help
The effects of goal activation are also evident when reinstate meaning after ones meaning systems have been
primes do not have an effect on individuals who would not disrupted by traumatic events (e.g., Steger et al., 2006).
typically expect to achieve the goal. This possibility further Although this process is emotionally unpleasant, searching
suggests future research should examine the meaning judg- for meaning can ultimately lead to an enriched sense of MIL
ment processes of people with low MIL. These individuals (e.g., Janoff-Bulman & Yopyk, 2004).
may be less likely to switch to an alternate source of mean- Clearly, the present investigation invites a variety of
ing because of the expectation that such a shift would ulti- intriguing research questions about the nature of MIL itself.
mately prove futile. These results make a compelling case for considering MIL
Finally, goal activation often leads to the inhibition of as a judgment that may be a product of shifting sources of
other unrelated goals (Shah, Friedman, & Kruglanski, 2002). information. Results also highlight the fact that, despite
As such, we might, for example, expect that people primed decades of research demonstrating the importance of MIL to
with loneliness would be faster to respond to stimuli associ- human functioning, we still have a great deal to learn about
ated with the goal to reinstate meaning (e.g., stimuli associ- this construct. Confronted with the question of whether ones
ated with happiness) compared to stimuli associated with life is meaningful, a person might consult his or her mood or
irrelevant goals. Overall, these possibilities highlight many standing with regard to other important life outcomes, such
ways accessible information and alternate sources of infor- as social relationships. Given that previous research has
mation, including mood, may converge to influence ones asked simply about the subjective sense of MIL, we do not
perception of MIL. know what type of information was used when forming these
The present studies raise many other intriguing questions judgments. The present results speak to the value of thinking
for future research. For instance, what are the differences of MIL as the result of a judgment and attending to the vari-
between MIL and life satisfaction judgment processes? ous sources of that judgment. To fully understand the impor-
Although many of the same factors should influence both tant construct of MIL, researchers must confront a central
types of judgments, it may be less threatening to conclude human dilemma: Not simply whether life is meaningful, but
that ones life is not satisfying than to conclude that ones what it is that makes it so, in the words of Frankl, from man
life is utterly meaningless. As such, life satisfaction judg- to man, from day to day, and from hour to hour (Frankl,
ments may not be influenced by the same motivational 1963/1984, p. 110).
influences described in the current research. Importantly, an
aspect of this research that differs from past research on Authors Notes
judgment processes in well-being is the inclusion of more We thank Caroline Lavelock and Jamie Arndt for helpful conversa-
than one source of information for the judgment, and the exam- tions throughout the process of this investigation. Portions of this
ination of the interactions of these sources. Because most paper were presented in a symposium entitled The Search for
research has not considered the potential interactive contri- Meaning at the annual meeting of the American Psychological
butions of sources of information on well-being judgments, Association, San Francisco, CA, Michael Steger, chair.
we know little about the variables that may be accounting for
such judgments beyond their main effects. Declaration of Conflicting Interests
In addition to contextual and affective influences on MIL The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
judgments, future research should examine the contribution to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
of chronic sources of meaning. Chronic sources of informa-
tion are strong contributors to judgment of life satisfaction Funding
(e.g., Schimmack & Oishi, 2005). In fact, many times chronic The authors received no financial support for the research and/or
sources of information are likely the first type of information authorship of this article.
people use when determining the degree to which their
lives are satisfying (e.g., Schwarz & Strack, 1999). Because Notes
chronic sources of MIL represent stable aspects of ones 1. Importantly, such mood-as-information effects are not always a
belief system, they may lower the contributions of mood or function of unconscious misattribution processes. Many people
temporarily accessible information to judgments of MIL. believe that moods are an integrative function of all of the ex-
Finally, examining the role of negative emotions in MIL periences [individuals] have (Schwarz & Strack, 1991, p. 37),
judgment processes may also be fruitful endeavor. Typi- suggesting that affective information is sometimes consciously
cally, both positive and negative moods are thought to influ- perceived as an important component of well-being (which, of
ence judgments of well-being. In our studies, however, we course, it is; Diener, 2009).
do not typically find independent effects of negative affect 2. It should be noted that in Studies 1through 3, the zero-order
on MIL ratings (e.g., King et al., 2006, Study 5). Still, correlations between related needs satisfaction and meaning in

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1316 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36(10)

life were significant in the experimental group (rs = .33, 35, Hicks, J. A., & King, L. A. (2007). Meaning in life and seeing the
.31, ps < .05); however, these effects disappeared in the re- big picture: Positive affect and global focus. Cognition and
gression analyses. Emotion, 21, 1577-1584.
3. The low number of men in each study precluded the explora- Hicks, J. A., & King, L. A. (2008). Mood and religion as information
tion of gender differences. However, to examine whether the about meaning in life. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 43-57.
effects for positive affect (PA) in the loneliness conditions held Hicks, J. A., & King, L. A. (2009). Meaning in life as a subjective
for men, we examined only the men across the three studies. In judgment and lived experience. Social and Personality Psychol-
every case, in the control condition PA was related to mean- ogy Compass, 3, 638-653.
ing in life judgments (average r = .25), but in the loneliness Hicks, J. A., & King, L. A. (2009). Positive mood and social relat-
conditions, this relation was much stronger (average r = .85), edness as information about meaning in life. Journal of Positive
suggesting that results for PA and meaning in life judgments Psychology, 4, 471-482.
are not specific to women only. Higgins, E. T. (1996). Knowledge activation: Accessibility, appli-
cability, and salience. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.),
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