June 2025
·
6 Reads
Motivation and Emotion
While hope is related to greater meaning in life, how hope promotes meaning has been under-explored. One pathway may be that hope motivates behaviors that help us reach our hoped-for goal, which in turn increases a sense of meaning. The current studies test this process in the domain of health. Two correlational studies show that hope for one’s health promotes related behaviors and in turn, greater meaning. Study 1 examines this relation under the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed a large threat to meaning, thus, hope was a particularly relevant resource for meaning during this time. Study 2 aimed to examine this relation in domains widely applicable to everyday life: exercise and nutrition. In Study 3, participants randomly assigned to write about being hopeful (vs. hopeless) about their health reported greater healthy eating/exercising intentions, which in turn, led to greater meaning. The studies inform how working towards one’s hoped-for goals can be impactful on meaning in life.