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Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness

People are known to engage in behaviours aimed at replenishing social connectedness after their sense of belonging is threatened. We explored whether the mental strategy of daydreaming about significant others could have similar effects by acting as an imaginary substitute when loved ones are unavai...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Poerio, Giulia L., Totterdell, Peter, Emerson, Lisa-Marie, Miles, Eleanor
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Routledge 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4917923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26192399
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1049516
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author Poerio, Giulia L.
Totterdell, Peter
Emerson, Lisa-Marie
Miles, Eleanor
author_facet Poerio, Giulia L.
Totterdell, Peter
Emerson, Lisa-Marie
Miles, Eleanor
author_sort Poerio, Giulia L.
collection PubMed
description People are known to engage in behaviours aimed at replenishing social connectedness after their sense of belonging is threatened. We explored whether the mental strategy of daydreaming about significant others could have similar effects by acting as an imaginary substitute when loved ones are unavailable. Following a loneliness induction, participants (N = 126) were asked to either daydream about a significant other, daydream about a non-social scenario or complete a control task. Social daydreamers showed significantly increased feelings of connection, love and belonging compared to non-social daydreamers and control participants. Consistent with the proposition that social daydreaming replenished connectedness, social daydreamers also behaved more pro-socially and expressed less of a desire to interact with others after daydreaming. These findings demonstrate that through imagination, social daydreaming can replenish connectedness providing a potential strategy for enhancing socio-emotional well-being.
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spelling pubmed-49179232016-06-28 Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness Poerio, Giulia L. Totterdell, Peter Emerson, Lisa-Marie Miles, Eleanor Cogn Emot Brief Report People are known to engage in behaviours aimed at replenishing social connectedness after their sense of belonging is threatened. We explored whether the mental strategy of daydreaming about significant others could have similar effects by acting as an imaginary substitute when loved ones are unavailable. Following a loneliness induction, participants (N = 126) were asked to either daydream about a significant other, daydream about a non-social scenario or complete a control task. Social daydreamers showed significantly increased feelings of connection, love and belonging compared to non-social daydreamers and control participants. Consistent with the proposition that social daydreaming replenished connectedness, social daydreamers also behaved more pro-socially and expressed less of a desire to interact with others after daydreaming. These findings demonstrate that through imagination, social daydreaming can replenish connectedness providing a potential strategy for enhancing socio-emotional well-being. Routledge 2016-08-17 2015-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC4917923/ /pubmed/26192399 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1049516 Text en © 2015 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Brief Report
Poerio, Giulia L.
Totterdell, Peter
Emerson, Lisa-Marie
Miles, Eleanor
Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness
title Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness
title_full Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness
title_fullStr Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness
title_full_unstemmed Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness
title_short Helping the heart grow fonder during absence: Daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness
title_sort helping the heart grow fonder during absence: daydreaming about significant others replenishes connectedness after induced loneliness
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4917923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26192399
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1049516
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