This One Powerful Emotion May Give Life Lasting Meaning

New research suggests that hopeful feelings predict greater meaning in life. Here’s what six studies reveal about the emotional power of hope.

These studies were conducted by Edwards and colleagues from the USA and China, and their paper is currently published online ahead of print in Emotion.

Meaning in life typically involves three components:

• Purpose: Having a central aim in life.
• Coherence: Feeling a sense of order in our personal experiences.
• Existential significance: Believing that one’s life matters and is worth living.

Research shows that meaning in life is positively associated not only with psychological well-being, but also with social and even physical functioning. It also facilitates coping with trauma and stress.

To increase the sense that life has meaning and to improve well-being, it helps to nurture positive emotions and character strengths such as nostalgia, awe, and gratitude.

The current study explored whether hope, as an emotion, may also contribute to meaning in life. This is important because most research has focused less on the emotion of hope and more on the motivational and cognitive aspects of hope—namely, the desire for and belief in a wished-for future.

Why? Because Snyder’s influential model defines hope as stemming from a way of thinking. Specifically, the belief that one can (a) develop pathways toward desired goals and (b) sustain the motivation (i.e., willpower and determination) to pursue those pathways.

However, Edwards et al. argue that focusing solely on agency and pathways neglects the emotional side of hope; that is, the feeling that something good and desirable could occur in the future.

Of course, it makes intuitive sense that hope, as a positive feeling, would be associated with meaning in life. But there may be more to hope than just its positivity, which it shares with other emotions like happiness or gratitude.

For instance, hope may enhance meaning by supporting long-term goal pursuit, even when outcomes are delayed or outside of one’s control. Similarly, hope is a future-oriented emotion and promotes a sense of coherence and self-continuity.

Therefore, hope has the potential to enhance meaning in life even during times when other positive feelings are less accessible, such as during times of uncertainty, hardship, or trauma.

To explore these possibilities, the authors conducted six studies using multiple research methods. They “expected that hope would relate to meaning in life independent of positive affect and, for the reasons described above, that hopeful feelings would be a more robust predictor of meaning in life than general positive affect.”

Investigating how hope contributes to life's meaning

Research

Studies 1–2 (cross-sectional): N₁ = 183 (mean age = 41); N₂ = 755 (mean age = 43)

Tested whether hopeful feelings predicted meaning in life, even after controlling for positive affect and cognitive aspects of hope (agency/pathways).

Study 3 (daily diary): N = 132 (mean age = 27)

Tested whether daily hopeful feelings predicted daily meaning in life, even when other emotions were controlled.

Study 4 (longitudinal): N = 301 (college students; mean age = 21)

Examined whether hope predicted long-term meaning in life over the semester, controlling for mood.

Study 5 (experimental): N = 941 (mean age = 41)

Examined whether hope could explain the link between positive feelings and meaning in life.

Study 6 (experimental): N = 678 (mean age = 46)

Tested causal effects of induced hope vs. hopelessness on perceived life meaning.

Measures

Measures included those of positive affect (e.g., “I feel amused, fun-loving, and silly”), global hope (e.g., “I am hopeful about the future”), and meaning in life (e.g., “I understand my life’s meaning”), among others.

Findings

Across six studies, involving both American and Chinese participants and diverse methodologies, the researchers found that “hopeful feelings consistently predicted meaning in life, above and beyond other positive emotions and positive affect.”

Summary

Most research has treated hope primarily as a cognitive construct. For example, Snyder’s widely used model defines hope as a positive motivational state (and not a feeling) made up of two key components:

• The perceived ability to generate pathways to desired goals (e.g., “I believe I can figure out a way to achieve what I want”)
• The motivation to initiate and persist in using those pathways (e.g., “I won’t give up, no matter how hard it gets”)

But hope also has an affective (emotional) component, which is the actual feeling of being hopeful.

The new research shows that feelings of hopefulness and optimism contribute to life meaning independently of both cognitive aspects of hope and other positive emotions (e.g., excitement, happiness, self-confidence). Hope predicted meaning more strongly than many of these other positive feelings.

How can we feel more hopeful and optimistic?

In the research reviewed, reading hopeful articles (e.g., about positive climate developments) was enough to induce hope. This suggests that media consumption (TV, social media, news) can shape our emotional state and sense of meaning.

Therefore, it's a good idea to be intentional about what we expose ourselves to each day.

Another approach you can use is writing about a time or situation that made you feel hopeful, like a meaningful conversation, a personal success, or a moment when you showed resilience.

Even more powerful might be nonverbal hope inducers. A recent study found that images of babies and saplings were especially effective at eliciting hopeful feelings.

Babies and saplings symbolize fresh starts, potential, growth, and the future. There are also spiritual and religious associations between hope and birth/rebirth.

In summary, to cultivate hopeful feelings, you could try:

• Reading uplifting news or stories
• Writing about your sources of hope (children, new projects, global progress)
• Viewing symbolic images of growth and renewal

See for yourself if small intentional choices in what you read, see, and reflect on can build your sense of hope and meaning in everyday life.

Hope is a key positive emotion that can enhance meaning in life. It takes time and effort, but nurturing it may be well worth the investment.