Wikiversity:Colloquium

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== Add an edit count requirement for autoconfirmed? ==

Currently, only waiting for four days is required for a user to become autoconfirmed. I am proposing that we include a minimum edit count of &lt;s&gt;10 edits (akin to Wikipedia)&lt;/s&gt; 5 edits especially because of [[Special:AbuseFilter/16|a private abuse filter]], and LTAs may game autoconfirmed permissions to vandalize here. Thoughts? [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 23:01, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
: [[Wikiversity:Autoconfirmed users]]
: Are you suggesting an additional requirement? i.e., 4 days + 10 edits?
: How is it adjusted? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 03:57, 5 September 2026 (UTC)
:: Yes. [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 01:30, 6 September 2026 (UTC)
:: @[[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]]: I said yes to your first question. As for the adjustment question, in the InitialiseSettings.php file on noc.wikimedia.org, on &lt;code&gt;wgAutoConfirmCount&lt;/code&gt; is where English Wikiversity would be added as &lt;code&gt;'enwikiversity' =&gt; 10,&lt;/code&gt;. Does my reply make sense? [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 18:31, 15 September 2026 (UTC)
:As a newly volunteered member, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to require a certain number of edits to establish my bona fides. [[User:Cfm490|Cfm490]] ([[User talk:Cfm490|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Cfm490|contribs]]) 17:53, 5 September 2026 (UTC)
:I agree that adding an edit count requirement is a reasonable expectation before the user can become autoconfirmed. [[User:IanVG|IanVG]] ([[User talk:IanVG|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/IanVG|contribs]]) 18:56, 6 September 2026 (UTC)
:+ 1 —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 19:40, 6 September 2026 (UTC)
:'''Weak support''' Generally reasonable, but I would caution that we should really make this clear for those instances where professors have students edit here and make it frictionless for them to get autoconfirmed status. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 19:42, 6 September 2026 (UTC)
: {{oppose|No support}} because I cannot see the [[Special:AbuseFilter/16|abuse filter]] cited as the primary reason and I do not know what LTAs is. I guess you don’t want support from ''ordinary'' users. ‑‑[[User:Kai Burghardt|Kays]] ([[User talk:Kai Burghardt|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Kai Burghardt|contribs]]) 18:18, 14 September 2026 (UTC)
::Also some readers may be interested in this:
::* [[Wikipedia/Types of user accounts]]
::[[Special:Contributions/~2026-40514-81|~2026-40514-81]] ([[User talk:~2026-40514-81|talk]]) 19:05, 14 September 2026 (UTC)
::: An LTA means a long-term abuser, and it means someone who is usually abusive. [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 20:42, 14 September 2026 (UTC)
:'''Strong''' {{support}}; specially to battle LTA [[User:Mbataw|Mbataw]] ([[User talk:Mbataw|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Mbataw|contribs]]) 13:17, 18 September 2026 (UTC)
:{{support}}, having no edit count requirement for autoconfirmed is a bad idea in general. [[User:BooksBooksBooks3|BooksBooksBooks3]] ([[User talk:BooksBooksBooks3|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BooksBooksBooks3|contribs]]) 01:43, 19 September 2026 (UTC)
:Comment: I realize that it is not easy to be an admin on wikimedia projects. I realize that many admins have to deal with some VERY unpleasant personalities. But..
:Admins are not the only users who encounter harassment on wikimedia projects, big or small. Anyone who's been here as long as I have, has come across users who are not tolerated by the &quot;community&quot;. Not necessarily because they are spammers, trollers, paid editors, LTAs , disruptive etc, but simply because they are different. 
:When I &quot;edit&quot; without logging in, I carry no baggage. I also get encouraging prompts such as this:
:* This year, Wikipedia has had fewer visitors and fewer new supporters, so '''&lt;big&gt;your visit today means a lot&lt;/BIG&gt;'''
:Anyway, back to the topic at hand [[Wikipedia/Types of user accounts]]. I believe the section about IP editors is outdated since wikimedia now views users who are not logged-in as anonymous, and only trusted users are allowed to see their IP address (I am not clear on the details). I wonder if anyone participating here has an interest in bringing this page uptodate? [[Special:Contributions/~2026-40514-81|~2026-40514-81]] ([[User talk:~2026-40514-81|talk]]) 04:13, 22 September 2026 (UTC)
: If there's some obvious things to fix, I'd say go ahead. It looks like there were several useful anonymous contributions to that page recently. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 07:54, 22 September 2026 (UTC)
:hmm [[User:Tornaiden|Tornaiden]] ([[User talk:Tornaiden|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Tornaiden|contribs]]) 02:02, 27 September 2026 (UTC)
:{{support}} Having a reasonable (and very modest) number of edits in addition to 4 days is sensible and not overly burdensome. The benefits outweigh any inconveniences. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] &lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 04:18, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
::I agree that the 5 edit minimum described below is sufficient. [[User:Mu301|mikeu]] &lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 01:14, 13 October 2026 (UTC)
:I'd say that a minimum of five (5) edits would be a good compromise, given the lower user activity/user traffic present here (when compared with Wikipedia). [[User:SamLaxarox|SamLaxarox]] ([[User talk:SamLaxarox|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/SamLaxarox|contribs]]) 17:47, 12 October 2026 (UTC)
: I agree that a minimum edit count is a prudent addition, but also agree with @[[User:SamLaxarox|SamLazaraox]] that a minimum of 5 is sufficient. It can be frustrating for new, genuine users when they get caught in new user restrictions. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 21:49, 12 October 2026 (UTC)
:: I adjusted the proposal to require at least 5 edits for autoconfirmed users, instead of 10. [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 01:18, 13 October 2026 (UTC)
: Here is current page about [[Wikiversity:Autoconfirmed users]]. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 21:50, 12 October 2026 (UTC)

== Bartending Course on Wikiversity ==

I recently finished the course on [[Bartending]], and while I have experience editing on Wikipedia, this is my first Wikiversity project. If any of you have the time or interest, I could use an experienced eye to see if there's anything obviously missing from the course in terms of Wikiversity administration. I'm not sure what's active, if the course should belong in an existing school, or if there's any obvious discoverability tool I haven't implemented. Any tips are welcomed, or just a thumbs up saying it looks fine would be great. [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] recommended I post this here in case someone wanted to include the new course under News on the [[Wikiversity:Main Page|Main Page]]. Thanks! [[User:Sabbier|Sabbier]] ([[User talk:Sabbier|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Sabbier|contribs]]) 01:24, 1 September 2026 (UTC)

:Wow! Fantastic work- I'm so impressed! Your work gives me inspiration on how to better organize the courses I'm working on. :) [[User:IanVG|IanVG]] ([[User talk:IanVG|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/IanVG|contribs]]) 21:32, 3 September 2026 (UTC)
: Awesome work. I've added this course to the [[Main Page/News|main page news]].
: We could also consider for [[Wikiversity:Featured]]. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 00:43, 5 September 2026 (UTC)
::The course [[Creating Wikiversity Courses]] is intended to provide guidance to new Wikiversity editors. I hope it is helpful and I welcome improvement suggestions. Thanks.  [[User:Lbeaumont|Lbeaumont]] ([[User talk:Lbeaumont|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Lbeaumont|contribs]]) 14:08, 6 September 2026 (UTC)
:Just checked it out; Very impressive! [[User:SamLaxarox|SamLaxarox]] ([[User talk:SamLaxarox|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/SamLaxarox|contribs]]) 17:48, 12 October 2026 (UTC)

== Writing news here ==

I'm bringing up this discussion again because I think it is beneficial to the project since Wikinews is gone, thank you. [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 03:17, 1 September 2026 (UTC)
: Given that the community consensus here was not to replicate WikiNews within Wikiversity, I suggest thinking differently e.g., in terms of specific news-related projects you are interested in that have educational objectives that satisfy Wikiversity's mission. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 00:46, 5 September 2026 (UTC)
::I wonder if you mean &lt;u&gt;Wikiversity:Main Page/News ?&lt;/u&gt;
::If so I have just checked this page and I see it only contains news for 2026 and part of 2025, even though the history indicates it was created in the 2000-decade. If you go back and check all revisions there is a wealth of (historical?) information. [[Special:Contributions/~2026-40514-81|~2026-40514-81]] ([[User talk:~2026-40514-81|talk]]) 16:28, 13 September 2026 (UTC)
::: I didn't mean that page, but yes, its history could be reconstructed into a more accessible format. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 21:37, 13 September 2026 (UTC)

== [[Wikiversity talk:Interface administrators#My thoughts about this user group]] ==

As I suggested, I would like to propose allowing permanent interface administrators on English Wikiversity. My temporary interface admin rights are about to expire soon, and I will soon create a new CfIA page (and its header). We should also have a minimum of two interface administrators. Thoughts? [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 16:44, 6 September 2026 (UTC)

:I am also in favor of this and we did discuss it pretty recently and came to a consensus on extending IA rights and lowering the administrative overhead, but not allowing indefinite at this juncture. From my perspective, since we discussed this so recently and nothing seems to have changed much, I personally would recommend holding off for a couple of years or until/unless there is some critical new information. Again, I would continue to support indef IA rights were it to come up again and think that at least two is also a sensible proposal. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 17:32, 6 September 2026 (UTC)
::Responding to myself so that I don't derail: I would be interested/willing to be an indef IA. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 17:36, 6 September 2026 (UTC)
: I made [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Interface Adminship]]. [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 18:24, 6 September 2026 (UTC)
:: CC to @[[User:Koavf|Koavf]]. I made a request since my IA rights are about to expire. We should also hold a separate vote to allow permanent IAs here (for this policy). [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 16:55, 7 September 2026 (UTC)
: @[[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]], I count at least three in favor (votes below, and Koavf agreeing), so can you close this request? Thank you. [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 15:22, 24 September 2026 (UTC)
:: Second ping to @[[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]]. [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 02:24, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
:Temporary rights can be extended for a year. I'd like a little more time to consider permanent rights and justin's sensible suggestion of a minimum of two. Let's not rush into this. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] &lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 04:38, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
::Sorry, my mistake, policy is 120 days. Interface allows 1 year or indef. I don't see any reason why a nom couldn't request extending rights for another 120 days while we clarify indef and other wording of policy. I'll look closer tomorrow. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] &lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 05:00, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
: Personally, I'm not convinced of the need for permanent interface administrators. This isn't necessarily a strong view. But it seems that Wikiversity's interface administration needs can largely currently be met by permitting temporary periods for individual users.
: If there are users who make productive use of several temporary periods, then that could strengthen a case for allowing longer periods or permanent use. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 10:15, 12 October 2026 (UTC)
:I am also not (yet) convinced of the need for permanent, but could be persuaded. My main concern is that we are simultaneously voting on changing the policy while also voting for a nom to hold the right based on a policy that doesn't yet exist. The current [[WV:IA|policy]] states &quot;For now, Wikiversity does not have a need for permanent or long term interface administrators. Accordingly, interface administratorship '''may only be granted temporarily'''...&quot; This should have been addressed before the community even started a discussion on a permanent nomination. I'd be inclined to change temporary from &quot;between 14 and 120 days&quot; to &quot;between 1 week and 1 year&quot; just to align with the pull down menu options in [[Special:UserRights|UserRights]]. I'm in favor of the suggestion that there be a minimum of two with permanent, should we adopt that. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] &lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 19:31, 13 October 2026 (UTC)

=== Votes ===
* For the record, I am creating a separate subsection for voting, whether or not we should allow permanent interface administrators. {{support}} accordingly. [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 18:32, 15 September 2026 (UTC)
*: To the above, I support for indefinite interface adminship rights. [[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 18:47, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
* {{support}} [[User:PieWriter|PieWriter]] ([[User talk:PieWriter|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/PieWriter|contribs]]) 00:51, 18 September 2026 (UTC)
*{{support}} ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 02:22, 7 October 2026 (UTC)
* Temporary {{oppose}} until there has been further discussion. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] &lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 19:31, 13 October 2026 (UTC)

== Paid part-time Administrative Officer position with WikiJournal ==

[[WikiJournal User Group|WikiJournal]] is an open-access, nonprofit scholarly publisher hosted on Wikiversity. It uses the wiki format to allow authors to write and develop scholarly articles directly online. Submitted articles then undergo formal academic peer review and, when accepted, are published as citable journal articles while remaining freely accessible.

WikiJournal is seeking expressions of interest in a new part-time '''Administrative Officer''' position. The officer would support the project's day-to-day organizational work, including:

* Setting up and administering a system for tracking contractor hours and issuing payments.
* Coordinating the contracting, onboarding, timekeeping and payment of technical editors and other contractors.
* Maintaining financial, contractor and administrative records.
* Assisting with grant administration, budget tracking and reporting.
* Following up on board action items, deadlines and recurring obligations.
* Supporting recruitment and other operational tasks as needed.

This is a remote, flexibly scheduled contractor role averaging approximately '''6 hours per week'''. Compensation is proposed at '''US$25 per hour''', with up to approximately '''320 hours (US$8,000) available over the year'''.

Applicants may be based internationally, although appointment will depend on WikiJournal being able to establish a practical and legally appropriate contracting and payment arrangement in the applicant's country of residence.

Relevant experience may include administrative organization, bookkeeping or financial administration, contractor or personnel coordination, nonprofit or grant administration, Wikimedia participation, academic publishing, and open-access work. Applicants are not expected to have experience in every area.

For the complete role description and further details, see [[WikiJournal User Group/Administrative officer]].

Those interested should reply in the '''[[Talk:WikiJournal User Group#Call for interest: Administrative Officer|Call for interest: Administrative Officer]]''' discussion by '''30 September 2026''', briefly describing their relevant experience, any connection to WikiJournal or related communities, and their general availability. Expressions of interest received later may still be considered if the position has not been filled. Recommendations of potentially suitable candidates are also welcome. 
[[User:Mikael Häggström|Mikael Häggström]] ([[User talk:Mikael Häggström|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Mikael Häggström|contribs]]) 20:00, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

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''(Apologies for posting in English. You can help by translating it)''

Hello, I’m Danny from [[:en:w:Wikimedia_Deutschland|Wikimedia Deutschland’s]] [[m:Wikidata_For_Wikimedia_Projects|Wikidata For Wikimedia Projects]] team.&lt;br/&gt;
We have been investigating and examining how Wikidata’s use in the [[Special:RecentChanges]] and [[Special:Watchlist]] pages can be made to be more useful, or less ‘noisy’ (fewer edits that have little value to the reader).

We are currently exploring to make a change in the volume and the type of Wikidata edits that appear in these pages, and '''we need your feedback''' to help us ensure this is a positive change for the Wikis and won’t disrupt your workflows.&lt;br/&gt;
Language links are also known as sitelinks or interlanguage links and describe when a Wikidata item is connected to a Wiki, adding it to the language dropdown tool for other connected Wikis.
[[File:Types of Lang Link changes.png|x350px|frame|A variety of &quot;Language Link&quot; edits as seen in the Recent Changes feed]]

The request for feedback is whether you support the removal of these language link edits from the Recent Changes and Watchlist feed, or would you oppose such a change and if so, why?
Please share you thoughts on the dedicated '''[[m:Talk:Wikidata_For_Wikimedia_Projects/Clearer_Wikidata_Edit_Summaries/Hide_Language_Link_edits|metawiki Talk page]]'''. 

Further information about this change: [[m:Wikidata_For_Wikimedia_Projects/Clearer_Wikidata_Edit_Summaries/Hide_Language_Link_edits|m:Wikidata_For_Wikimedia_Projects/Hide_Language_Link_edits]]

Thank you for any participation or feedback you give, -- [[m:User:Danny_Benjafield_(WMDE)|User:Danny Benjafield (WMDE)]] 12:23, 25 September 2026 (UTC)
&lt;!-- Message sent by User:Danny Benjafield (WMDE)@metawiki using the list at https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Danny_Benjafield_(WMDE)/MassMessage_test_list&amp;oldid=31080985 --&gt;

== Wikidata Sitelink changes in Recent Changes and Watchlist ==
''(Apologies for cross-posting in English, translating it will help spread the message)''

Editors on group 1 wikis, including Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikivoyage, and Wikisource, will no longer see notifications on [[Special:RecentChanges|Recent Changes]] and [[Special:Watchlist|Watchlist]] when a link to ''another'' language version of a page is added, removed, or changed in its Wikidata item. This change will begin on '''October 5 at 07:00 UTC''' as a two-week trial to reduce high-volume, low-value notifications and make higher-value changes easier to identify. Editors who rely on these notifications should be aware of the change and can share feedback or concerns on the [[m:Wikidata For Wikimedia Projects/Clearer Wikidata Edit Summaries/Hide Language Link edits|project]] or [[m:Talk:Wikidata_For_Wikimedia_Projects/Clearer_Wikidata_Edit_Summaries/Hide_Language_Link_edits|talk page]].&lt;br/&gt;Please reach out if you have any questions, thank you! -- [[User:Danny_Benjafield_(WMDE)|Danny Benjafield (WMDE)]] ([[User_talk:Danny_Benjafield_(WMDE)|talk]])  sent via [[User:MediaWiki message delivery|MediaWiki message delivery]] ([[User talk:MediaWiki message delivery|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/MediaWiki message delivery|contribs]]) 12:42, 1 October 2026 (UTC)
&lt;!-- Message sent by User:Danny Benjafield (WMDE)@metawiki using the list at https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Danny_Benjafield_(WMDE)/MassMessage_test_list&amp;oldid=31106967 --&gt;

== Demote [[Wikiversity:CheckUser policy]]? ==
I am proposing that we demote that policy to a standard page, mostly for two reasons:
# Considering the few amount of custodians and the size of this wiki, I'd say that this project is considered too small to have any CUs, and relying on the stewards would be a more logical choice.
# We haven't elected two CUs in a few years.
[[User:Codename Noreste|&lt;span style=&quot;color: blue&quot;&gt;Codename Noreste&lt;/span&gt;]] /// [[User talk:Codename Noreste|⭐️✨]] 20:53, 1 October 2026 (UTC)

:Reasonable. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 17:09, 4 October 2026 (UTC)

== General Questions and Reference Questions  ==
&lt;p&gt;Hey everyone,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; My apologies in advance if these questions are oblivious or their responses readily apparent, but I figured I'd ask just to be safe.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt; '''Questions'''&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt; 1. Should pages have inline citations and a reference section? A [[Fundamentals of Neuroscience/What is Neuroscience|majority of pages]] I have explored have neither, while [[Neurobiology of emotion|others have a more traditional approach to references]].&lt;/br&gt;
2. Are there widely-used templates for weasel-words, references, etc.? 

&lt;/p&gt;
'''CONTEXT''': I migrated from Wikipedia, so I'm not entirely sure what the norms/roc are here.&lt;/br&gt;

Thanks in advance,&lt;/br&gt;
[[User:SamLaxarox|SamLaxarox]] ([[User talk:SamLaxarox|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/SamLaxarox|contribs]]) 18:40, 12 October 2026 (UTC)

:You're asking fine questions. I posted {{tl|welcome}} to your talk page which I think will help you. To answer your direct questions:
:#This project spun out of [[:b:]] and both here and there, you can post original research. This does not mean that you can post just anything, so if you want to post an educational resource and you want to justify claims you make with inline citations, that's great. If you want to include a bibliography, that's also quite helpful for readers. Generally, the way that Wikiversity works in practice is that individual users make a resource and then tend to work on it solo and have broad latitude about what you can do and how it looks.
:#You can take al look at [[:Category:Templates]] and the subcat [[:Category:Maintenance templates]]. At Wikipedia, it's very common to point out issues with tone or uncited claims. That's not really as common here. We [[:d:Q7780480|do not have an equivalent]] of [[:w:en:Template:weasel]], but we do have a [[Template:Citation needed|local version]] of [[:w:en:Template:Citation needed]].
:―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 20:31, 12 October 2026 (UTC)
::Thanks for the heads up on both accounts; I'm happy to join forces with all y'all!
::[[User:SamLaxarox|SamLaxarox]] ([[User talk:SamLaxarox|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/SamLaxarox|contribs]]) 23:39, 12 October 2026 (UTC)</text>
      <sha1>mrelgesmv78q0k5fzmg4ov7ft4kp95e</sha1>
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  </page>
  <page>
    <title>Help:Wikitext quick reference</title>
    <ns>12</ns>
    <id>1644</id>
    <revision>
      <id>2840188</id>
      <parentid>2819860</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T07:16:41Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Dick Bos</username>
        <id>24466</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>update link(s) LaTeX</comment>
      <origin>2840188</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="10693" sha1="nwunf8nw4s8tvylmy6ymr6jsxvx2joh" xml:space="preserve">==Wikitext markup==
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{main|Help:Editing}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;
{{for|further guidance|Wikiversity:Wikitext}}
Making your page look the way you want with [[w:wikitext|Wikitext]]

* You can see some more detailed examples at [[Help:Wiki markup examples]].
* If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the [[{{ns:4}}:Sandbox]].

=== Basic text formatting ===
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
 ! width=&quot;25%&quot; | Name
 ! width=&quot;37%&quot; | Typing
 ! width=&quot;37%&quot; | Displays
 |-
 | [[File:Button bold.png]] Bold
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot; &gt;Make text '''bold'''&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | Make text '''bold'''
 |-
 | [[File:Button italic.png]] Italic
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;Make text ''italic''&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | Make text ''italic''
 |-
 | [[File:Button link.png]] Internal Link
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;Link to [[Help:Editing|a page]] or [[#Basic text formatting|a section of a page]].&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | Link to [[Help:Editing|a page]] or [[#Basic text formatting|a section of a page]].
 |-
 | [[File:Button extlink.png]] External Link
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;Link to [http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Help:Editing a page] or [http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Help:Editing#Editing_basics a section of a page].&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | Link to [http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Help:Editing a page] or [http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Help:Editing#Editing_basics a section of a page].
 |-
 | [[File:Button headline.png]] Level 2 Heading
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;== Section Heading ==&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | {{font|font=Georgia;|size=1.5em|Section Heading}}
 |-
 | [[File:Button image.png]] Embed File
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;[[File:Button image.png]]&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | [[File:Button image.png]]
 |-
 | [[File:Button media.png]] File link
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;[[Media:Button media.png]]&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | [[Media:Button media.png]]
 |-
 | [[File:Button math.png]] Mathematical Formulas&lt;br /&gt;([[mw:Extension:Math|Extension:Math]] and [[m:wExtension:Math/Syntax|LaTex]])
 | [[Help:Formula|&lt;nowiki&gt;&lt;math&gt;2^3&lt;/math&gt;&lt;/nowiki&gt;]]
 | &lt;math&gt;2^3&lt;/math&gt;
 |-
 | [[File:Nowiki_icon.png]] Ignore wiki markup
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;&lt;math&gt;2^3&lt;/math&gt;&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | &lt;nowiki&gt;&lt;math&gt;2^3&lt;/math&gt;&lt;/nowiki&gt;
 |-
 | [[File:Button sig.png]] Signature
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;Thanks guys --~~~~&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | Thanks guys --[[User:Karl Wick|Karl Wick]] 07:46, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
 |-
 | [[File:Button hr.png]] Horizontal line
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;----&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 |
----
 |-
 | [[File:Button redirect.png]] Page Redirect
 | &lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=&quot;yes&quot;&gt;#redirect [[Help:Editing#Basic text formatting]]&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 | [[File:Redirect arrow without text.svg|#REDIRECT]] [[Help:Editing#Basic text formatting]]
 |}

For a list of HTML tags that are allowed, see [[Help:HTML in wikitext|HTML in wikitext]]. However, you should avoid HTML in favor of Wiki markup whenever possible.

===Just show what I typed===
A few different kinds of formatting will tell the Wiki to display things as you typed them.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
 ! width=&quot;25%&quot; | Name
 ! width=&quot;37%&quot; | Typing
 ! width=&quot;37%&quot; | Displays
 |-
 | '''&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot; inline=yes&gt;&lt;nowiki&gt;&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt; tags'''
 |&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
&lt;nowiki&gt;
The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''.
It reformats text by removing newlines    and multiple spaces.
It still interprets special characters: &amp;amp;rarr;
&lt;/nowiki&gt;
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|
&lt;nowiki&gt;
The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''.
It reformats text by removing newlines    and multiple spaces.
It still interprets special characters: &amp;rarr;
&lt;/nowiki&gt;
 |-
 | '''&amp;lt;pre&amp;gt;'''
 |&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
&lt;pre&gt;
The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] and &lt;strong&gt;HTML&lt;/strong&gt; ''markup''.
It also doesn't     reformat text.
It still interprets special characters: &amp;rarr;
&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
 |
&lt;pre&gt;
The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] and &lt;strong&gt;HTML&lt;/strong&gt; ''markup''.
It also doesn't     reformat text.
It still interprets HTML special characters: &amp;rarr;
&lt;/pre&gt;
 |-
 | '''Leading spaces'''
 |
Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting.

&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
 Putting a space at the beginning of each line
 stops the text   from being reformatted. It still
 interprets [[Wiki]] ''markup'' and special
 characters: &amp;amp;rarr;
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;

but it puts the text in a box.
 |
Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting.

 Putting a space at the beginning of each line
 stops the text   from being reformatted. It still
 interprets [[Wiki]] ''markup'' and special
 characters: &amp;rarr;

but it puts the text in a box.
 |}

=== Organizing your writing ===
{| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;2&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot;
|-
!What it looks like
!What you type
{{Help:Headings}}
|-
| {{anchor|anchor=lists}}
* ''Unordered [[Help:List|list]]s'' are easy to do:
** Start every line with a star.
*** More stars indicate a deeper level.
*A newline
*in a list  
marks the end of the list.
*Of course you can start again.
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
* ''Unordered lists'' are easy to do:
** Start every line with a star.
*** More stars indicate a deeper level.
*A newline
*in a list  
marks the end of the list.
*Of course you can start again.
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|-
|
# Numbered lists are also good:
## Very organized
## Easy to follow
A newline marks the end of the list.
#New numbering starts with 1.

|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
# Numbered lists are also good:
## Very organized
## Easy to follow
A newline marks the end of the list.
#New numbering starts with 1.
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|-
|
* You can even do mixed lists
*# and nest them
*#* or break lines&lt;br&gt;in lists.
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
* You can even do mixed lists
*# and nest them
*#* or break lines&lt;br&gt;in lists.&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|-
| {{anchor|Description list|DL}}
Another kind of list is a '''description list''':
; word : description of the word
; longer phrase 
: phrase described at length, such that, even with a relatively large window width one can see that the wrapping of the text maintains the indentation of the description and thus a highlight of the described term.  This accentuates readability of the list.
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
Another kind of list is a '''description list''':
; word : description of the word
; longer phrase 
: phrase described at length, such that, even with a
relatively large window width one can see that the 
wrapping of the text maintains the indentation of the 
description and thus a highlight of the described term.  
This accentuates readability of the list.&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|-
|
:A colon indents a line or paragraph.
A newline after that starts a new paragraph.
::This is often used for discussion on [[Help:Talk page|Talk page]]s.
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
:A colon indents a line or paragraph.
A newline after that starts a new paragraph.
::This is often used for discussion on talk pages.
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|-
|
You can make [[w:horizontal dividing line|horizontal dividing line]]s
to separate text.
----
But you should usually use sections instead,
so that they go in the table of contents.
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
You can make horizontal dividing lines
to separate text.
----
But you should usually use sections instead,
so that they go in the table of contents.
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|}

===Images, tables, video, and sounds===
This is a very quick introduction (please do not forget to [[Uploading files|upload your files]]). For more information, see:
* [[w:Wikipedia:Media help|Images and sound files]] for help with media files
* [[w:Help:Extended image syntax]] for how to arrange images on the page
* [[Help:Table]] for how to create a table

{| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;2&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot;
|-
!What it looks like
!What you type
|-
|
A picture, including alternate text:

[[File:Wikiversity_beta.png|50px|The logo for this Wiki]]

You can put the image in a frame with a caption:
[[File:Wikiversity_beta.png|thumb|The logo for this Wiki]]
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
A picture, including alternate text:

[[File:Wikiversity_beta.png|50px|The logo for this Wiki]]

You can put the image in a frame with a caption:
[[File:Wikiversity_beta.png|frame|The logo for this Wiki]]
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|-
|
A link to Wikiversity's page for the image:
[[:File:Wikiversity beta.png]]

Or a link directly to the image itself:
[[Media:Wikiversity beta.png]]
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
A link to Wikiversity's page for the image:
[[:File:Wikiversity beta.png]]

Or a link directly to the image itself:
[[Media:Wikiversity beta.png]]
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|-
|
Use '''media:''' links to link to sounds
or videos.

Sound File Example: [[media:Sound_Of_Fear.ogg|A sound file]]

pdf File Example: [[Media:Darkside-graphak1.pdf|A pdf file]]
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
Use '''media:''' links to link to sounds
or videos.
Sound File Example: [[media:Sound_Of_Fear.ogg|A sound file]]
pdf File Example: [[Media:Darkside-graphak1.pdf|A pdf file]]
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|-
|
{{center top}}
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5
| This
| is
|- 
| a &lt;!-- much less intuitive than a standard html --&gt;
| '''table'''
|}
{{center bottom}}
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
{{center top}}
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5
| This
| is
|- 
| a
| '''table'''
|}
{{center bottom}}
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|}

===Templates===
'''[[Help:Template|Templates]]''' are segments of Wiki markup that are meant to be copied automatically (&quot;transcluded&quot;) into a page.
You add them by putting the template's name in &lt;nowiki&gt;{{double braces}}&lt;/nowiki&gt;.

Some templates take ''parameters'', as well, which you separate with the pipe character.
{| border=&quot;1&quot; cellpadding=&quot;2&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot;
|-
!What it looks like
!What you type
|-
|
{{Transclusion demo}}
|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
{{Transclusion demo}}
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|-
|
This template takes two parameters, and creates
underlined text with a hover box:

{{H:title|This is the hover text|
Hover your mouse over this text}}

Go to [[template:H:title|this page]] to see the H:title template itself.

|&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;wikitext&quot;&gt;
This template takes two parameters, and creates
underlined text with a hover box:

{{H:title|This is the hover text|
Hover your mouse over this text}}

Go to [[template:H:title|this page]] to see the H:title template itself.
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
|}

[[Category:Help]]</text>
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  </page>
  <page>
    <title>Introductory Classical Mechanics/Units of Measurement</title>
    <ns>0</ns>
    <id>28511</id>
    <revision>
      <id>2840152</id>
      <parentid>1580828</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T04:52:38Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Rex Valerio</username>
        <id>3112554</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>Grammar and spacing fixes</comment>
      <origin>2840152</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="2344" sha1="brqbpa3m32nwh0nelr9t68d7xbkqbsk" xml:space="preserve">In general a ''Unit of Measurement'' is a term which describes a physical phenomenon. The system of measurements used almost universally in physics is the SI, or metric system. The fundamental units of any system quantify distance, mass, time, temperature, electric current, brightness of light, and quantity of matter. The units and abbreviations are the meter (m), kilogram (kg), second (s), kelvin (K), ampere (A), candela (cd),  and the mole (mol).
{{RightTOC}}
==The Fundamental Units==
===The meter===
The meter is the fundamental unit of distance. It is defined as the distance a beam of light travels in a perfect vacuum in 3.33564095 billionths of a second.

===The kilogram===
The kilogram is the fundamental unit of mass. A kilogram is the exact mass of a sample of platinum iridium kept in the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

===The second===
The second is the fundamental unit of time. It is the time taken for an atom of cesium to oscillate through 9.192631770 billion cycles.

===The kelvin===
The kelvin is the fundamental unit of temperature, equivalent to the temperature increment of .003661 part of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water.

===The ampere===
The ampere, or amp, is the fundamental unit of current. The definition is that an ampere is the amount of constant charge carrier flow through two straight, parallel, infinitely thin wires placed 1 meter apart in a vacuum that results in a force between the conductors of 10 millionths of a Newton per linear meter.

===The candela===
The candela is the unit of luminous intensity. It equals 1/683 of a watt of radiant energy at a frequency of 54 terahertz in a solid angle of one steradian.

===The mole===
The mole is the quantity of particles that has a mass in grams equal to the molecular weight of said particle. It is equal to Avogadro's number, or 6.02×10^23 particles

==Derived units==
Derived units are units that are products of fundamental units

===The newton===
The newton is the unit of force, equivalent to one kg*m/s^2.

===The joule===
The joule is the unit of energy or the result of a force acting through a distance.  One joule is equal to one newton meter. 
     
&lt;math&gt;Nm=kgm^2/s^2&lt;/math&gt;.

==See also==
* [[Level of measurement]]
* [[Metrology|Topic:Metrology]]

[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Metrology]]</text>
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  </page>
  <page>
    <title>Category:Page flag templates</title>
    <ns>14</ns>
    <id>34088</id>
    <revision>
      <id>2840025</id>
      <parentid>2840014</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T12:13:40Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>MathXplore</username>
        <id>2888076</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>Restored revision 119819 by [[Special:Contributions/McCormack|McCormack]] ([[en:w:User:BrandonXLF/Restorer|Restorer]])</comment>
      <origin>2840025</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="208" sha1="d9n7ki5spm89b4sg3anovtdqj2iuspp" xml:space="preserve">Page flags are templates which are commonly inserted at the top of existing pages to mark them for any of a variety of purposes (e.g. warning, information, requests, cleanup, merging).

[[Category:templates]]</text>
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  </page>
  <page>
    <title>Wikiversity:Request custodian action</title>
    <ns>4</ns>
    <id>75745</id>
    <revision>
      <id>2840059</id>
      <parentid>2839950</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T19:08:50Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>SamLaxarox</username>
        <id>3112542</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>/* Unable to Create Page (?) */ Reply</comment>
      <origin>2840059</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="12423" sha1="lhjvnoz9cwtjeq301jzjov2kv3juhmy" xml:space="preserve">{{/Header}}

==Review changes to [[Special:AbuseFilter/4]]==
{{ping|Codename Noreste}} Could you review changes I made to this filter to help prevent profanity spam using obfuscated spellings? -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 03:44, 25 May 2026 (UTC)
: I've adjusted the filter to prevent any potential false positives, see its conditions. [[User:Codename Noreste|Codename Noreste]] ([[User talk:Codename Noreste|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Codename Noreste|contribs]]) 18:10, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

== Please unban ==

I want to create a new page (a pro/contra discussion page [[Are humans omnivores or herbivores?|like this one]]); initially it included an entry in the &quot;== External Links ==&quot; section, so it got blocked. I tried using a doi.org link; unfortunately that got blocked, too. Then I tried without, and it said I tried too often…
Please unban my user so I can create the page (without an external link…). In general, please consider adding doi.org to a whitelist. DOI links are virtually all academic, so how bad can that possibly be?
Thank you! :-) [[Special:Contributions/&amp;#126;2026-44661-47|&amp;#126;2026-44661-47]] ([[User talk:&amp;#126;2026-44661-47|talk]]) 11:02, 15 August 2026 (UTC)
: Thanks for letting us know. Some suggestion:
:* Although you can edit anonymously, it is better to create an account and log in - that will give you more permissions
:* You are hitting some spam filters, but the system will learn to trust you if you login and engage in some constructive editing (e.g., edit and improve a page before before adding external links); basically, it doesn't trust you yet. We don't have a lot of volunteer admins so it isn't perfect (there are some false positives), but it prevents a lot of clean-up.
: 
: But now for the not-so-good news. The Wikiversity community recently decide to stop Wikidebates because there were some problematic topics and responses. However, if it is a good topic, there's likely some way to do something similar that would be accepted. -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 11:21, 15 August 2026 (UTC)
::My debate question is: &quot;Are humans monogamous or polygamous?&quot; (In my opinion, that makes it very analogous to the diet question I liked to.) [[Special:Contributions/&amp;#126;2026-44661-47|&amp;#126;2026-44661-47]] ([[User talk:&amp;#126;2026-44661-47|talk]]) 11:37, 15 August 2026 (UTC)
::: This question is an example of a potentially educationally relevant topic to have as a learning project in debate format, but currently debates are not permitted (see [[Wikidebates]] for more info). -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 12:03, 15 August 2026 (UTC)
::::I understand. I would generally find it noteworthy that a debate club which used to pretend to be liberal would so readily admit to the opposite and shut itself down, simply because – I'm assuming – someone asked the forbidden questions of our time or questioned the truisms of our time, which stirred up some emotions in the overly sensitive. That, of course, is not what the enlightenment taught us, nor is it in line with what ''actually'' liberal academia is all about. However, it is no surprise to me at all for a socialist project of the Wikimedia realm. I'll go and find myself some better people. Thank you and have a good day, Jtneill. [[Special:Contributions/&amp;#126;2026-44661-47|&amp;#126;2026-44661-47]] ([[User talk:&amp;#126;2026-44661-47|talk]]) 12:10, 15 August 2026 (UTC)

== Request to review AbuseFilter block on a student research draft ==

Hello. I am a new contributor attempting to create [[Draft:Anti-IL-6 scFv–RDVLPGT fusion concept]], a clearly labeled student research project. The draft separates cited evidence from an unvalidated design hypothesis, states the central limitation (extracellular anti-IL-6 scFv versus intracellular MyD88), includes falsifiable expectations, and uses external links only for DOI references, RCSB PDB 4DOM, and an NCBI iCn3D structural-context view. The edit was disallowed by the rule “New user creating page with external link.” Could a custodian please review the draft and allow the constructive edit, or advise the appropriate way to publish it without removing its verifiable sources? Thank you. [[User:Jayhan0302|Jayhan0302]] ([[User talk:Jayhan0302|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Jayhan0302|contribs]]) 08:47, 22 August 2026 (UTC)
: Hi Jayhan,
: Because you're a new user, the system wants to learn to trust you, so try editing at first without including external links. Then, after a while, it will realise that you're to be trusted, and then you'll be able to add external links.
: I hope that helps.
: Sincerely,&lt;br&gt; James -- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 09:04, 22 August 2026 (UTC)
:This is a little embarrassing, but I've never been an EditFilter whiz, so I just added the links myself. You will be able to add links yourself after you have made &lt;var&gt;x&lt;/var&gt; edits in &lt;var&gt;y&lt;/var&gt; days. I can never recall the exact numbers, but they are very small. Let me know if you need more help. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 09:06, 22 August 2026 (UTC)

== Report concerning [[special:contribs/Bśadów$ki112|Bśadów$ki112]] ==
'''Reasons''': Long-term abuse. Impersonation of [[:sulutil:Bsadowski1|Bsadowski1]]. --[[User:Morkoz|Morkoz]] ([[User talk:Morkoz|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Morkoz|contribs]]) 19:19, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

:{{done}} ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 19:20, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

== Custodianship ==
proofreading and summarizing I excel in  social science and current events history political science are my areas of past study. Could I be custodian of primarily pages dealing with social science and politics? I have experience editing am a advanced reader and can accept more than one point of view on almost any topic the point is to see the ethical standard and protection of people of sacred belief of food equitable relationships and not accept any point of view that includes towards a laissez faire attitude on abuse. To me it's what we can do as individuals,as community,as friends as family not what harm is possible for that is off the boards not acceptable. I'll keep a open mind and not stifle any dissent. My interest is also in assuring the complete construction of explanatory paragraphs,proper wording and generally good punctuation.  [[Special:Contributions/~2026-50875-97|~2026-50875-97]] ([[User talk:~2026-50875-97|talk]]) 15:27, 21 September 2026 (UTC)

:What you posted here does not require custodian action and show some poor judgement: This board is for escalated issues that a standard user can't perform. What you are basically writing here is &quot;I would like to be a custodian&quot;. There is a process for that, but step one would be having an actual account to edit from, so do that first, then edit here as a non-custodian in a helpful manner, and then make the request if you'd still like that. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 15:38, 21 September 2026 (UTC)

== I am trying to publish a biography ==
I am a beginner, I cannot succeed. [[User:Petrosa51|Petrosa51]] ([[User talk:Petrosa51|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Petrosa51|contribs]]) 12:57, 27 September 2026 (UTC)

:I posted a [[Template:welcome|welcome message]] to your talk page that gives you an overview of Wikiversity. While a biography &lt;em&gt;could&lt;/em&gt; be considered appropriate here if part of a larger exercise in learning but this is not an encyclopedia like our sibling project Wikipedia, so generally, we won't have much in the way of article-long biographies. Why were you trying to post a biography here and of whom? ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 16:24, 27 September 2026 (UTC)
::I am a writer I publish in Romania and USA, and I wanted to put on-line officially, the Bibliography, both in romanian and english, maybe I am not on the right topic pages, I did much work in Romania, and both in USA, and I am proud, but just maybe I didn't came out with the right issued page, I will do my best to make a bibliography, if I may. It was about my works, so far. I will try another day, if I succeed... Very much greetings Iulia, ro Where I can put the text, I have seen other Bibliographies, on wiki? [[User:Petrosa51|Petrosa51]] ([[User talk:Petrosa51|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Petrosa51|contribs]]) 16:41, 27 September 2026 (UTC)
:::If you want to contribute here and you want to mention your publications on your userpage, I think that's fine. If you just want to make a user page for vanity's sake and aren't going to actually contribute here, I don't think that's useful: we don't provide free hosting. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 17:11, 27 September 2026 (UTC)
::::Thank you very much for your response, I will agree with that. I have seen book lists at other authors, and that was why, is not vanity is work, Iulia E., from Romania... (Wikipedia hosted that kind, it was not my invention), maybe I will contribute if I may with other things, with much friendship, Iulia [[Special:Contributions/~2026-52080-44|~2026-52080-44]] ([[User talk:~2026-52080-44|talk]]) 22:00, 27 September 2026 (UTC)

== Request for protection of User:Bobiversity ==
Hello.

I would like to request protection of [[User:Bobiversity]] because I would prefer that other users not edit my user page.

Thank you. [[User:Bobiversity|Bobiversity]] ([[User talk:Bobiversity|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Bobiversity|contribs]]) 04:01, 11 October 2026 (UTC)

:The anonymous editor(s) have been blocked for two weeks for vandalism. Please let us know if this activity continues. [[User:Mu301|mikeu]] &lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 04:57, 11 October 2026 (UTC)

== Unable to Create Page (?) ==
Hi, I'm trying to create a page: [[Magnetoencephalography (MEG)]]. &lt;/br&gt;

When I attempt to create it however, it does not allow me, spitting the following message: &lt;/br&gt;

&quot;This action has been automatically identified as potentially harmful, and therefore disallowed. If you believe your action was constructive, please [[Wikiversity:Request custodian action|inform an administrator]] of what you were trying to do. A brief description of the abuse rule which your action matched is: New user exceeded new page limit&quot;

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
[[User:SamLaxarox|SamLaxarox]] ([[User talk:SamLaxarox|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/SamLaxarox|contribs]]) 23:34, 12 October 2026 (UTC)

:There are restrictions on new accounts. We could do two things: I personally recommend that you create it in your userspace and build it up to be ready for primetime and then it can be moved or I could make a blank page and you can edit it from there. I'm willing to do that, but think it's not the best method. ―[[User:Koavf|Justin (&lt;span style=&quot;color:grey&quot;&gt;ko'''a'''&lt;span style=&quot;color:black&quot;&gt;v&lt;/span&gt;f&lt;/span&gt;)]]&lt;span style=&quot;color:red&quot;&gt;❤[[User talk:Koavf|T]]☮[[Special:Contributions/Koavf|C]]☺[[Special:Emailuser/Koavf|M]]☯&lt;/span&gt; 02:09, 13 October 2026 (UTC)
::No worries, I'll just put it in my userspace; Thanks for the help! [[User:SamLaxarox|SamLaxarox]] ([[User talk:SamLaxarox|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/SamLaxarox|contribs]]) 19:08, 13 October 2026 (UTC)</text>
      <sha1>lhjvnoz9cwtjeq301jzjov2kv3juhmy</sha1>
    </revision>
  </page>
  <page>
    <title>User talk:Atcovi</title>
    <ns>3</ns>
    <id>106891</id>
    <revision>
      <id>2840086</id>
      <parentid>2833395</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T22:47:00Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>MediaWiki message delivery</username>
        <id>983498</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>/* The Signpost: 13 October 2026 */ new section</comment>
      <origin>2840086</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="24613" sha1="aj0cnwyx4ga866b3btcxmpobv8ff3em" xml:space="preserve">[[User:Atcovi/Archive 1|/Archive 1 (September 25, 2013 - November 15, 2013)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 2|/Archive 2 (November 15, 2013 - November 27, 2013)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 3|/Archive 3 (December 3, 2013 - December 25, 2013)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 4|/Archive 4 (December 24, 2013 - January 1, 2014)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 5|/Archive 5 (January 2, 2014 - January 20, 2014)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 6|/Archive 6 (March 24, 2014 - April 14, 2014)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 7|/Archive 7 (April 19, 2014 - September 8, 2014)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 8|/Archive 8 (September 12, 2014 - November 3, 2014)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 9|/Archive 9 (November 6, 2014 - January 26, 2015)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 10|/Archive 10 (January 28, 2015 - March 11, 2015)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 11|/Archive 11 (March 22, 2015 - June 25, 2016)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 12 (June 26, 2016 - January 8, 2018)|/Archive 12 (June 26, 2016 - January 8, 2018)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 13 (January 9, 2018 - April 14, 2023)|/Archive 13 (January 9, 2018 - April 14, 2023)]] • [[User talk:Atcovi/Archive 14 (April 15, 2023 - May 5, 2026)|/Archive 14 (April 15, 2023 - May 5, 2026)]]

:''Before 2013: [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Atcovi&amp;diff=750617&amp;oldid=740650 see this]'' 
{{tmbox
|small = 
|image = [[Image:Busy desk.svg|{{#ifeq:|yes|40px|75x50px}}]]
|text = This user is busy in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_life Real Life] {{#if:|until&amp;nbsp;{{{end}}}&amp;nbsp;}}{{#if:|due to&amp;nbsp;{{{reason}}}&amp;nbsp;}}and may not respond swiftly to queries.{{#if:|&lt;P&gt;{{{msg}}} }} 
| style     = {{#if:|width: {{{width}}}px;}} {{#ifeq:{{{shadow}}}|yes|{{box-shadow|0px|2px|4px|rgba(0,0,0,0.2)}}|}}
}}

== Please vote ==

on Wikinews rebirth possibly on Wikiversity, thanks @[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User:BigKrow|BigKrow]] ([[User talk:BigKrow|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/BigKrow|contribs]]) 22:21, 15 May 2026 (UTC)

:Hi BigKrow. I've been watching the discussion on the sidelines. Hopefully I'll have an input soon, I just have other commitments I'm catering to. Best of luck with your projects and welcome to Wikiversity! —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 13:44, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

== ''The Signpost'': 22 May 2026 ==

&lt;div lang=&quot;en&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;mw-content-ltr&quot; style=&quot;margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;&quot;&gt;[[File:WikipediaSignpostIcon.svg|40px|right]] ''News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's newspaper''&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;column-count:2;&quot;&gt;
* News and notes: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/News and notes|Offline: Osama Khalid still in prison]]

* In the media: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/In the media|Indonesian editors, you shall return!]]

* Disinformation report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Disinformation report|Who is a typical paid editor? Who are their typical clients?]]

* Recent research: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Recent research|WikiLambda the Ultimate]]

* Traffic report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Traffic report|This is where I'll be, so heavenly, so come and dance with me Michael!]]

* Forum: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Forum|WikiAnnotate: help us build a dataset of article quality evaluations]]

* In focus: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/In focus|Demystifying the 2026-27 Annual Plan]]

* Opinion: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Opinion|Wikipedia isn't a battleground. So why does it feel like one?]]

* Serendipity: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Serendipity|Wikinews: Into the Wikiverse]]

* Special report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Special report|Wikimedia Foundation closes Wikinews after 21 years]]

* Community view: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Community view|Wikipedia's traffic drop: more on languages and freshness]]

* Gallery: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Gallery|Earth Day and Mother's Day]]

* Comix: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-05-22/Comix|Brother, can you spare a page?]]

&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;&quot;&gt;'''[[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost|Read this Signpost in full]]''' · [[w:en:Wikipedia:Signpost/Single|Single-page]] · [[m:Global message delivery/Targets/Signpost|Unsubscribe]] · [[m:Global message delivery|Global message delivery]] 05:19, 22 May 2026 (UTC)
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== Wikiversity:Candidates for Bureaucratship/Atcovi ==

RE: [[Wikiversity:Candidates for Bureaucratship/Atcovi]] I have closed this as successful. Congrats! See [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Wikiversity:Candidates_for_Bureaucratship/Atcovi&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=2812184] and [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&amp;logid=3549048]. --[[User:Mu301|mikeu]] &lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 19:23, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

:Thank you Mike! —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 20:55, 30 May 2026 (UTC)
::Congratulations @[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]]. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 16:58, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

== Question ==
Hello don't mean to bother and Ik its a silly question, on wikipedia there is a tool that allows for the creation of user boxes does wikiversity have it? Or should I create them myself like {{Userbox
| border-c = #000000
| id = [[File:(logo) Gate jieitai kanochi nite, kaku tatakaeri.svg|100x50px]]
| id-c = #000000
| id-fc = #000000
| id-s = 14
| info = This user testified in front of the [[National Diet|national diet]]
| info-c = #000000
| info-fc = #ffffff
| info-s = 8
}}
however when i try to display them like on wikipedia i can't
{{yytop}}
{{yy|User:AUBSTRAWBS/GATE}}
{{yyend}}

Anyways sorry to bother you with somthing like this but i'm really stumped as to how to share them. Any help would be super apreciated also if you want any user boxes i can make them :). {{unsigned|AUBSTRAWBS}}
:Hello {{ping|AUBSTRAWBS}} no need to worry about bothering me, I'm always happy to help. I think for Wikiversity you'd have to manually create them, as I have done so. For example: [[Template:User Sri Lankan]] &amp; [[Template:User soccer]]. If you'd like to bring over templates from Wikipedia, then feel free to just copy them and paste them here - tho it may be better just to manually create them as it could be a lengthy and messy process. I do think the way you've created the &quot;national diet&quot; userbox is perfect and achieves the intended goal. Let me know if you have any more questions! —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 12:38, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

:Here's one I created just now: [[Template:User university student]]. More templates are listed here: [[:Category:User templates]]. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 12:45, 9 June 2026 (UTC)
:Thank you very much [[User:AUBSTRAWBS|AUBSTRAWBS]] ([[User talk:AUBSTRAWBS|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/AUBSTRAWBS|contribs]]) 23:02, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

== ''The Signpost'': 21 June 2026 ==

&lt;div lang=&quot;en&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;mw-content-ltr&quot; style=&quot;margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;&quot;&gt;[[File:WikipediaSignpostIcon.svg|40px|right]] ''News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's newspaper''&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;column-count:2;&quot;&gt;
* From the editors: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/From the editors|Ways for beginners to support ''The Signpost'' community journalism]]

* News and notes: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/News and notes|Community Tech development team disbanded]]

* Disinformation report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/Disinformation report|PR for the people?]]

* Recent research: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/Recent research|Proposed tagging system for AI involvement; successful and unsuccessful AI tools for contributors]]

* In the media: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/In the media|Who won a 14th century battle and who won the 2026 Iran war?]]

* Community view: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/Community view|Putting the Wish into the Wishlist]]

* In focus: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/In focus|A global standard for Neutral Point of View]]

* On the bright side: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/On the bright side|Flowers, blue helmets, reefs, pride, and Juneteenth]]

* Op-ed: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/Op-ed|Breathe, Don’t Panic, there is a different story about Wikimedia + AI futures]]

* Opinion: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/Opinion|Wikimedia Foundation staff develop union and Wikimedia user community reacts]]

* Technology report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/Technology report|Community Tech team is disbanded, controversy erupts]]

* Traffic report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/Traffic report|'Cause this is thriller, thriller night]]

* WikiConference report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/WikiConference report|Report of Volunteer Supporters Network Annual Meeting 2026]]

* Comix: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/Comix|Take your turn]]

* Humour: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-06-21/Humour|Group of banned T-shirt makers comes out of hiding to sell new Wikipedia-themed merchandise]]

&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;&quot;&gt;'''[[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost|Read this Signpost in full]]''' · [[w:en:Wikipedia:Signpost/Single|Single-page]] · [[m:Global message delivery/Targets/Signpost|Unsubscribe]] · [[m:Global message delivery|Global message delivery]] 03:21, 21 June 2026 (UTC)
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== 'Bioleninism' and 'Slave, Sister, Sexborg, Sphinx' ==

Hello, I just want to give my takes on the removal of my pages 'Bioleninism' and 'Slave, Sister, Sexborg, Sphinx'

Both of those terms are widely used online by adherents of a political movement known as '[[w:Dark Enlightenment|Dark Enlightenment]]'- the source I used for Bioleninism is the manifesto that coined the term, the same source is used on the Wikitionary entry for Bioleninism (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bioleninism) - whereas for 'Slave, Sister, Sexborg, Sphinx' I used three sources from [[w:Nick Land|Nick Land]], a Philosopher associated with the movement. 

The Wikipedia page for Nick Land's book [[w:Fanged Noumena|Fanged Noumena]] briefly mentions 'Slave, Sister, Sexborg, Sphinx' but doesn't get into deep detail.

Both of those articles are for people learning about The Dark Enlightenment movement, Wikiveristy has a page for [[Neocameralism|neocamerialism]] - which is another important Dark Enlightenment term - and I believe these two pages are necessarily as well for analysis.

Thank you! [[User:Apallo334|Apallo334]] ([[User talk:Apallo334|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Apallo334|contribs]]) 04:28, 27 June 2026 (UTC)

:Hello {{ping|Apallo334}} and welcome to Wikiversity! Please note that the issue is not notability (I did a few quick web searches and was able to figure out that this is a notable topic), the issue is that these seem to be loner pages that are not integrated into a [[Wikiversity:Learning projects|learning project]]. Ideally, we want these pages to be under the same project (similar to [[Neocameralism/Definitions]]). So for example:
:*[[The Cracker Factory]] --&gt; [[Neocameralism/The Cracker Factory]]
:*[[Slave, Sister, Sexborg, Sphinx]] --&gt; [[Neocameralism/Slave, Sister, Sexborg, Sphinx]]
:Example projects which you can model your pages off of would be:
:#[[Introduction to Computers]]
:#[[Philosophy of science]]
:Here are some extra useful resources:
:*[[Wikiversity:Learning by doing]]
:*[[Wikiversity:What is Wikiversity?]]
:*[[Wikiversity:Scope]]
:Please let me know if you have any questions. —[[User:Atcovi|Atcovi]] [[User talk:Atcovi|(Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Atcovi|Contribs)]] 16:51, 27 June 2026 (UTC)

== ''The Signpost'': 13 July 2026 ==

&lt;div lang=&quot;en&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;mw-content-ltr&quot; style=&quot;margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;&quot;&gt;[[File:WikipediaSignpostIcon.svg|40px|right]] ''News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's newspaper''&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;column-count:2;&quot;&gt;
* News and notes: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-07-13/News and notes|An exclusive club]]

* In the media: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-07-13/In the media|Battle for a soul - who won?]]

* Opinion: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-07-13/Opinion|We need to innovate with Wikimedia decision-making]]

* Recent research: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-07-13/Recent research|LLMs and NPOV, 20 years of user blocks, Esperanto and Volapük Wikipedias]]

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* Special report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-07-13/Special report|Wikipedia escapes Category 1 designation under the UK Online Safety Act - for now]]

* On the bright side: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-07-13/On the bright side|Fatherhood, weather, and diplomacy]]

* Op-ed: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-07-13/Op-ed|A Layup Easy Proposal for Wikimedia at 25: Spend 25% of Donations on the Community]]

* Traffic report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-07-13/Traffic report|The grass was greener, the light was brighter]]

* Comix: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-07-13/Comix|schnozzed]]

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== ''The Signpost'': 2 August 2026 ==

&lt;div lang=&quot;en&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;mw-content-ltr&quot; style=&quot;margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;&quot;&gt;[[File:WikipediaSignpostIcon.svg|40px|right]] ''News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's newspaper''&lt;/div&gt;
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* In the media: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-02/In the media|Union drive, most prolific editor make headlines]]

* News and notes: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-02/News and notes|Foundation rejects voluntary recognition of union, proposed board eligibility rules sharply restrict candidates]]

* WikiConference: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-02/WikiConference|&quot;Kurier, Signpost, wikipress: You can be a Wikimedia journalist&quot; - Wikimania presentation by User:Noé Recap]]

* In focus: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-02/In focus|Is Larry Sanger the co-founder of Wikipedia?]]

* Arbitration report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-02/Arbitration report|Think, and not just about content]]

* News from Diff: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-02/News from Diff|Meet the Wikimedians of the Year 2026!]]

* On the bright side: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-02/On the bright side|The beautiful game]]

* Traffic report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-02/Traffic report|Odyssey and Oyarzabal]]

* Comix: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-02/Comix|Well-spotted]]

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== ''The Signpost'': 24 August 2026 ==

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* News and notes: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/News and notes|Union process progresses, unanswered questions about Littler Mendelson remain]]

* In the media: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/In the media|Wikipedia editors save Sam Altman's life]]

* Recent research: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/Recent research|Women in blue? Wikipedia's gender gap reverses in some areas]]

* Discussion report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/Discussion report|Again and Again]]

* Traffic report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/Traffic report|Look out, here comes the Spider-Man!]]

* Humour: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/Humour|Her tastes, her Wikimania, her upcoming tour... Baby Globe reveals everything]]

* On the bright side: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/On the bright side|The great outdoors]]

* Opinion: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/Opinion|Are we embarrassed yet?]]

* Special report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/Special report|Paris Syndrome: Labor Strife, AI Anxiety, and a Leadership Test at Wikimania 2026]]

* Comix: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-08-24/Comix|WP:FAOWN]]

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== ''The Signpost'': 16 September 2026 ==
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&lt;div style=&quot;column-count:2;&quot;&gt;
* News and notes: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/News and notes|The Balance of Power]]

* In the media: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/In the media|Shocking photos may be changed on Wikipedia]]

* Disinformation report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/Disinformation report|Have UN Secretary-General candidates manipulated Wikipedia?]]

* Recent research: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/Recent research|Google's AI overviews may have reduced search engine referrals to English Wikipedia by 5%]]

* WikiConference report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/WikiConference report|The backwater symbiosis – reflections from Wiki Conference India 2026]]

* Traffic report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/Traffic report|Heaven let your light shine down]]

* Serendipity: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/Serendipity|Wikipedia Family Mosh Pit]]

* Obituary: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/Obituary|Passing of Gobonobo, community leader advocating for women and minorities]]

* On the bright side: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/On the bright side|Fantasy video games, hopeful science fiction, and the change of seasons]]

* Comix: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-09-16/Comix|The Adventure of the Unknown Corpse]]

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== ''The Signpost'': 13 October 2026 ==
&lt;div lang=&quot;en&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot; class=&quot;mw-content-ltr&quot; style=&quot;margin-top:10px; font-size:90%; padding-left:5px; font-family:Georgia, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Times, Times New Roman, serif;&quot;&gt;[[File:WikipediaSignpostIcon.svg|40px|right]] ''News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's newspaper''&lt;/div&gt;
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* News and notes: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/News and notes|AELECT returns, Jimbo gives a union update, VisualEditor is now default]]

* Serendipity: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/Serendipity|From a rare portrait of a female millionaire in Nancy to a Japanese painter in Lyon]]

* Obituary: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/Obituary|Doug Weller]]

* In the media: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/In the media|A(I)pocalypses afoot]]

* WikiConference Report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/WikiConference Report|WikiConference 2026 &amp; the importance of in-person community]]

* By the numbers: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/By the numbers|Does the country of birth affect the likelihood of having a Wikipedia biography?]]

* News from Diff: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/News from Diff|OpenAI &quot;rogue&quot; agent activities found on Wikimedia projects]]

* On the bright side: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/On the bright side|Good people]]

* Op-ed: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/Op-ed|Who are our readers?]]

* Traffic report: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/Traffic report|This world is big and wild and half insane]]

* Comix: [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2026-10-13/Comix|Fudging the numbers]]

&lt;/div&gt;
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    <title>Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions</title>
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      <comment>/* Overview */ * Individual perceptions (interpretations) of significant life events influence what emotion will be experienced</comment>
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      <text bytes="7769" sha1="c28jfhm0vpn8lt74bu5tx8x6ezeaooc" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures|Lecture 9: Individual emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Complete}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/In development}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Complete}} --&gt;

==Overview==
[[File:Emotion collage.png|right|300px]]

This lecture discusses 20 specific emotions, including:
* what causes them,
* how they are expressed, and 
* what they motivate.

Take-home messages:
* Individual perceptions (interpretations) of significant life events influence what emotion will be experienced 
* All emotions are purposeful—they guide action tendencies towards adaptive functional response
* Learning about the causes, functions, and consequences of individual emotions expands emotion knowledge and makes adaptive responses to different situations more likely

==Outline==
20 individual emotions:
* '''Basic (7)'''
** Fear
** Anger
** Disgust
** Contempt
** Sadness
** Interest
** Joy

* '''Self-conscious (5)'''
** Shame
** Guilt
** Embarrassment
** Pride
** Triumph

* '''Cognitively complex (8)'''
** Envy
** Gratitude
** Disappointment
** Regret
** Hope
** Schadenfreude
** Empathy
** Compassion

==Motivations generated by specific emotions==
Typical motivational urges generated (i.e., functions served) by 20 specific emotions are shown in Table 1.

'''Table 1'''

''Motivational Urges Generated by 20 Specific Emotions'' (based on Reeve (2024, p. 277))
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|'''Emotion'''
|'''Motivational urge'''
|-
|'''Basic (7)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
|Flee; protect oneself
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Anger]]
|Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
|Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
|Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
|Repair a loss or failure
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
|Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
|Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
|'''Self-conscious (5)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
|Restore the self; protect the self
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
|Make amends
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
|Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
|Authentic: Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks
Hubristic: Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
|Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
|'''Cognitively complex (8)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
|Benign: Move up; improve one’s position
Malicious: Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
|Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
|Give up; helplessness; acceptance of negative outcome
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
|Undo or repair a poor decision or behaviour
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
|Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
|Joy at justice being served; reinforces feelings of superiority
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
|Act prosocially; help someone
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
|Reduce suffering
|}
''Note''. Links go to categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Also see the table of individual emotions with definitions and links to corresponding Wikipedia articles in the [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions#Individual emotions|20 emotions tutorial]].

==Readings==
* &lt;!-- Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2018|Reeve, 2018]]) or --&gt;Chapter 13: Individual emotions and feelings ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Slides==
* [https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-XdVSEAVAWahOMksgubomM75asUHHwjuyCA3k2gYEUA/edit?usp=sharing Individual emotions] (Google Slides)
&lt;!-- * [http://www.slideshare.net/jtneill/individual-emotions Lecture slides] (Slideshare)
* Handouts
** [[Media:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 6slidesperpage.pdf|Download 6 slides to a page]]: [[File:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 6slidesperpage.pdf|100px]]
** [[Media:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 3slidesperpage.pdf|Download 3 slides to a page]]: [[File:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 3slidesperpage.pdf|100px]]
--&gt;

==See also==
* [[/Images/]]

; Lectures
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Aspects of emotion|Aspects of emotion]] (Previous lecture)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Unconscious motivation|Unconscious motivation]] (Next lecture)

; Tutorial
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions|20 emotions]] (Tutorial)

==Recording==
* [Lecture 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/9800d60cf1dd42a9965a01aedc64012f Lecture 9 (2025)] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/9917dadac2144ffeb6a6ea773aad9ce8 Lecture 9 recording] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/c61875ec86bd4258ac3f5e0ceaeded04 Lecture 9 recording] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/fb1b6680261a4a55b4ee699544c920f8 Lecture 9 recording](2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/6bc4d9bf00b643d7b19aff736a499f39 Lecture 9 recording] (2021)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/96e78b4252504c3193258d2e0dc2f05e Lecture 9 recording] (2020)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/4fa588c8-f9f8-4f6f-8bc5-2a0411bbc261/public Lecture 9 recording] (2019)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/68737326-23d4-4ceb-ad51-ef21a6855637/public Lecture 9 recording] (2018)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/8ed1c121-f6b4-4ac1-b5a2-5130d65c38ca/public Lecture 9 recording] (2017)
--&gt;
&lt;!-- ==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

O'Connell, B. H., O'Shea, D., &amp; Gallagher, S. (2017). Feeling thanks and saying thanks: A randomized controlled trial examining if and how socially oriented gratitude journals work. ''Journal of Clinical Psychology'', ''73''(10), 1280–1300. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22469

}}
--&gt;

==External links==
* [https://medium.com/polyamory-today/compersion-or-mudita-unlearning-jealousy-the-buddhist-way-aad804a81d7 Compersion or mudita: Unlearning jealousy the buddhist way] (Polyamory Today)
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12079828_Dirt_Disgust_and_Disease_Is_Hygiene_in_Our_Genes Dirt, disgust, and disease: Is hygiene in our genes] (Curtis &amp; Biran, 2001; pdf)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/hide-and-seek/201505/empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs. sympathy] (Psychology Today)
* [http://www.rpforschools.net/articles/ASP/Tangney,%20Tracy%20&amp;%20Robins%202007%20The%20self-conscious%20emotions%20-%20Theory%20and%20Research.pdf The self-conscious emotions] (Tangney et al., 2007; pdf)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/joy-and-pain/201401/what-is-the-difference-between-envy-and-jealousy What is the difference between envy and jealousy?] (Psychology Today)
{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Navigation}}

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Empathy]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions]]</text>
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      <text bytes="7769" sha1="504ldagiga8uxcie5516a282qnv2qov" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures|Lecture 9: Individual emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Complete}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/In development}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Complete}} --&gt;

==Overview==
[[File:Emotion collage.png|right|300px]]

This lecture discusses 20 specific emotions, including:
* what causes them,
* how they are expressed, and 
* what they motivate.

Take-home messages:
* Individual perceptions (interpretations) of significant life events influence what emotion will be experienced 
* All emotions are purposeful—they guide action tendencies towards adaptive functional response
* Learning about the causes, functions, and consequences of individual emotions expands emotion knowledge and makes adaptive responses to different situations more likely

==Outline==
20 individual emotions:
* '''Basic (7)'''
** Fear
** Anger
** Disgust
** Sadness
** Contempt
** Interest
** Joy

* '''Self-conscious (5)'''
** Shame
** Guilt
** Embarrassment
** Pride
** Triumph

* '''Cognitively complex (8)'''
** Envy
** Schadenfreude
** Disappointment
** Regret
** Gratitude
** Hope
** Empathy
** Compassion

==Motivations generated by specific emotions==
Typical motivational urges generated (i.e., functions served) by 20 specific emotions are shown in Table 1.

'''Table 1'''

''Motivational Urges Generated by 20 Specific Emotions'' (based on Reeve (2024, p. 277))
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|'''Emotion'''
|'''Motivational urge'''
|-
|'''Basic (7)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
|Flee; protect oneself
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Anger]]
|Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
|Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
|Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
|Repair a loss or failure
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
|Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
|Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
|'''Self-conscious (5)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
|Restore the self; protect the self
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
|Make amends
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
|Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
|Authentic: Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks
Hubristic: Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
|Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
|'''Cognitively complex (8)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
|Benign: Move up; improve one’s position
Malicious: Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
|Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
|Give up; helplessness; acceptance of negative outcome
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
|Undo or repair a poor decision or behaviour
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
|Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
|Joy at justice being served; reinforces feelings of superiority
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
|Act prosocially; help someone
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
|Reduce suffering
|}
''Note''. Links go to categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Also see the table of individual emotions with definitions and links to corresponding Wikipedia articles in the [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions#Individual emotions|20 emotions tutorial]].

==Readings==
* &lt;!-- Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2018|Reeve, 2018]]) or --&gt;Chapter 13: Individual emotions and feelings ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Slides==
* [https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-XdVSEAVAWahOMksgubomM75asUHHwjuyCA3k2gYEUA/edit?usp=sharing Individual emotions] (Google Slides)
&lt;!-- * [http://www.slideshare.net/jtneill/individual-emotions Lecture slides] (Slideshare)
* Handouts
** [[Media:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 6slidesperpage.pdf|Download 6 slides to a page]]: [[File:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 6slidesperpage.pdf|100px]]
** [[Media:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 3slidesperpage.pdf|Download 3 slides to a page]]: [[File:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 3slidesperpage.pdf|100px]]
--&gt;

==See also==
* [[/Images/]]

; Lectures
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Aspects of emotion|Aspects of emotion]] (Previous lecture)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Unconscious motivation|Unconscious motivation]] (Next lecture)

; Tutorial
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions|20 emotions]] (Tutorial)

==Recording==
* [Lecture 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/9800d60cf1dd42a9965a01aedc64012f Lecture 9 (2025)] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/9917dadac2144ffeb6a6ea773aad9ce8 Lecture 9 recording] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/c61875ec86bd4258ac3f5e0ceaeded04 Lecture 9 recording] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/fb1b6680261a4a55b4ee699544c920f8 Lecture 9 recording](2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/6bc4d9bf00b643d7b19aff736a499f39 Lecture 9 recording] (2021)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/96e78b4252504c3193258d2e0dc2f05e Lecture 9 recording] (2020)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/4fa588c8-f9f8-4f6f-8bc5-2a0411bbc261/public Lecture 9 recording] (2019)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/68737326-23d4-4ceb-ad51-ef21a6855637/public Lecture 9 recording] (2018)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/8ed1c121-f6b4-4ac1-b5a2-5130d65c38ca/public Lecture 9 recording] (2017)
--&gt;
&lt;!-- ==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

O'Connell, B. H., O'Shea, D., &amp; Gallagher, S. (2017). Feeling thanks and saying thanks: A randomized controlled trial examining if and how socially oriented gratitude journals work. ''Journal of Clinical Psychology'', ''73''(10), 1280–1300. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22469

}}
--&gt;

==External links==
* [https://medium.com/polyamory-today/compersion-or-mudita-unlearning-jealousy-the-buddhist-way-aad804a81d7 Compersion or mudita: Unlearning jealousy the buddhist way] (Polyamory Today)
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12079828_Dirt_Disgust_and_Disease_Is_Hygiene_in_Our_Genes Dirt, disgust, and disease: Is hygiene in our genes] (Curtis &amp; Biran, 2001; pdf)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/hide-and-seek/201505/empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs. sympathy] (Psychology Today)
* [http://www.rpforschools.net/articles/ASP/Tangney,%20Tracy%20&amp;%20Robins%202007%20The%20self-conscious%20emotions%20-%20Theory%20and%20Research.pdf The self-conscious emotions] (Tangney et al., 2007; pdf)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/joy-and-pain/201401/what-is-the-difference-between-envy-and-jealousy What is the difference between envy and jealousy?] (Psychology Today)
{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Navigation}}

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Empathy]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions]]</text>
      <sha1>504ldagiga8uxcie5516a282qnv2qov</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840178</id>
      <parentid>2840176</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T06:28:58Z</timestamp>
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        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
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      <text bytes="7769" sha1="d9rzofgnriiqe7zqhlf4w8w20jnl8aw" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures|Lecture 9: Individual emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Complete}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/In development}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Complete}} --&gt;

==Overview==
[[File:Emotion collage.png|right|300px]]

This lecture discusses 20 specific emotions, including:
* what causes them,
* how they are expressed, and 
* what they motivate.

Take-home messages:
* Individual perceptions (interpretations) of significant life events influence what emotion will be experienced 
* All emotions are purposeful—they guide action tendencies towards adaptive functional response
* Learning about the causes, functions, and consequences of individual emotions expands emotion knowledge and makes adaptive responses to different situations more likely

==Outline==
20 individual emotions:
* '''Basic (7)'''
** Fear
** Anger
** Disgust
** Sadness
** Contempt
** Interest
** Joy

* '''Self-conscious (5)'''
** Shame
** Guilt
** Embarrassment
** Pride
** Triumph

* '''Cognitively complex (8)'''
** Envy
** Schadenfreude
** Disappointment
** Regret
** Gratitude
** Hope
** Empathy
** Compassion

==Motivations generated by specific emotions==
Typical motivational urges generated (i.e., functions served) by 20 specific emotions are shown in Table 1.

'''Table 1'''

''Motivational Urges Generated by 20 Specific Emotions'' (based on Reeve (2024, p. 277))
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|'''Emotion'''
|'''Motivational urge'''
|-
|'''Basic (7)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
|Flee; protect oneself
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Anger]]
|Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
|Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
|Repair a loss or failure
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
|Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
|Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
|Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
|'''Self-conscious (5)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
|Restore the self; protect the self
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
|Make amends
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
|Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
|Authentic: Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks
Hubristic: Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
|Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
|'''Cognitively complex (8)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
|Benign: Move up; improve one’s position
Malicious: Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
|Joy at justice being served; reinforces feelings of superiority
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
|Give up; helplessness; acceptance of negative outcome
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
|Undo or repair a poor decision or behaviour
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
|Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
|Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
|Act prosocially; help someone
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
|Reduce suffering
|}
''Note''. Links go to categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Also see the table of individual emotions with definitions and links to corresponding Wikipedia articles in the [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions#Individual emotions|20 emotions tutorial]].

==Readings==
* &lt;!-- Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2018|Reeve, 2018]]) or --&gt;Chapter 13: Individual emotions and feelings ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Slides==
* [https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-XdVSEAVAWahOMksgubomM75asUHHwjuyCA3k2gYEUA/edit?usp=sharing Individual emotions] (Google Slides)
&lt;!-- * [http://www.slideshare.net/jtneill/individual-emotions Lecture slides] (Slideshare)
* Handouts
** [[Media:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 6slidesperpage.pdf|Download 6 slides to a page]]: [[File:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 6slidesperpage.pdf|100px]]
** [[Media:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 3slidesperpage.pdf|Download 3 slides to a page]]: [[File:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 3slidesperpage.pdf|100px]]
--&gt;

==See also==
* [[/Images/]]

; Lectures
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Aspects of emotion|Aspects of emotion]] (Previous lecture)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Unconscious motivation|Unconscious motivation]] (Next lecture)

; Tutorial
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions|20 emotions]] (Tutorial)

==Recording==
* [Lecture 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/9800d60cf1dd42a9965a01aedc64012f Lecture 9 (2025)] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/9917dadac2144ffeb6a6ea773aad9ce8 Lecture 9 recording] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/c61875ec86bd4258ac3f5e0ceaeded04 Lecture 9 recording] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/fb1b6680261a4a55b4ee699544c920f8 Lecture 9 recording](2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/6bc4d9bf00b643d7b19aff736a499f39 Lecture 9 recording] (2021)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/96e78b4252504c3193258d2e0dc2f05e Lecture 9 recording] (2020)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/4fa588c8-f9f8-4f6f-8bc5-2a0411bbc261/public Lecture 9 recording] (2019)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/68737326-23d4-4ceb-ad51-ef21a6855637/public Lecture 9 recording] (2018)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/8ed1c121-f6b4-4ac1-b5a2-5130d65c38ca/public Lecture 9 recording] (2017)
--&gt;
&lt;!-- ==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

O'Connell, B. H., O'Shea, D., &amp; Gallagher, S. (2017). Feeling thanks and saying thanks: A randomized controlled trial examining if and how socially oriented gratitude journals work. ''Journal of Clinical Psychology'', ''73''(10), 1280–1300. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22469

}}
--&gt;

==External links==
* [https://medium.com/polyamory-today/compersion-or-mudita-unlearning-jealousy-the-buddhist-way-aad804a81d7 Compersion or mudita: Unlearning jealousy the buddhist way] (Polyamory Today)
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12079828_Dirt_Disgust_and_Disease_Is_Hygiene_in_Our_Genes Dirt, disgust, and disease: Is hygiene in our genes] (Curtis &amp; Biran, 2001; pdf)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/hide-and-seek/201505/empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs. sympathy] (Psychology Today)
* [http://www.rpforschools.net/articles/ASP/Tangney,%20Tracy%20&amp;%20Robins%202007%20The%20self-conscious%20emotions%20-%20Theory%20and%20Research.pdf The self-conscious emotions] (Tangney et al., 2007; pdf)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/joy-and-pain/201401/what-is-the-difference-between-envy-and-jealousy What is the difference between envy and jealousy?] (Psychology Today)
{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Navigation}}

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Empathy]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions]]</text>
      <sha1>d9rzofgnriiqe7zqhlf4w8w20jnl8aw</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840191</id>
      <parentid>2840178</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T07:46:28Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>/* Recording */ Update for 2026</comment>
      <origin>2840191</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="7840" sha1="sanams2yjprwllfh2d7w5yz9gx72oae" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures|Lecture 9: Individual emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Complete}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/In development}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Complete}} --&gt;

==Overview==
[[File:Emotion collage.png|right|300px]]

This lecture discusses 20 specific emotions, including:
* what causes them,
* how they are expressed, and 
* what they motivate.

Take-home messages:
* Individual perceptions (interpretations) of significant life events influence what emotion will be experienced 
* All emotions are purposeful—they guide action tendencies towards adaptive functional response
* Learning about the causes, functions, and consequences of individual emotions expands emotion knowledge and makes adaptive responses to different situations more likely

==Outline==
20 individual emotions:
* '''Basic (7)'''
** Fear
** Anger
** Disgust
** Sadness
** Contempt
** Interest
** Joy

* '''Self-conscious (5)'''
** Shame
** Guilt
** Embarrassment
** Pride
** Triumph

* '''Cognitively complex (8)'''
** Envy
** Schadenfreude
** Disappointment
** Regret
** Gratitude
** Hope
** Empathy
** Compassion

==Motivations generated by specific emotions==
Typical motivational urges generated (i.e., functions served) by 20 specific emotions are shown in Table 1.

'''Table 1'''

''Motivational Urges Generated by 20 Specific Emotions'' (based on Reeve (2024, p. 277))
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|'''Emotion'''
|'''Motivational urge'''
|-
|'''Basic (7)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
|Flee; protect oneself
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Anger]]
|Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
|Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
|Repair a loss or failure
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
|Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
|Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
|Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
|'''Self-conscious (5)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
|Restore the self; protect the self
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
|Make amends
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
|Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
|Authentic: Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks
Hubristic: Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
|Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
|'''Cognitively complex (8)'''
|
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
|Benign: Move up; improve one’s position
Malicious: Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
|Joy at justice being served; reinforces feelings of superiority
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
|Give up; helplessness; acceptance of negative outcome
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
|Undo or repair a poor decision or behaviour
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
|Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
|Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
|Act prosocially; help someone
|-
|[[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
|Reduce suffering
|}
''Note''. Links go to categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Also see the table of individual emotions with definitions and links to corresponding Wikipedia articles in the [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions#Individual emotions|20 emotions tutorial]].

==Readings==
* &lt;!-- Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2018|Reeve, 2018]]) or --&gt;Chapter 13: Individual emotions and feelings ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Slides==
* [https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-XdVSEAVAWahOMksgubomM75asUHHwjuyCA3k2gYEUA/edit?usp=sharing Individual emotions] (Google Slides)
&lt;!-- * [http://www.slideshare.net/jtneill/individual-emotions Lecture slides] (Slideshare)
* Handouts
** [[Media:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 6slidesperpage.pdf|Download 6 slides to a page]]: [[File:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 6slidesperpage.pdf|100px]]
** [[Media:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 3slidesperpage.pdf|Download 3 slides to a page]]: [[File:Motivation and Emotion - Lecture 09 - Individual emotions 3slidesperpage.pdf|100px]]
--&gt;

==See also==
* [[/Images/]]

; Lectures
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Aspects of emotion|Aspects of emotion]] (Previous lecture)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Unconscious motivation|Unconscious motivation]] (Next lecture)

; Tutorial
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions|20 emotions]] (Tutorial)

==Recording==
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/d16b7605b26d4500998258a78e8bb9e8 Lecture 9] (2026)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/9800d60cf1dd42a9965a01aedc64012f Lecture 9 (2025)] (2025)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/9917dadac2144ffeb6a6ea773aad9ce8 Lecture 9 recording] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/c61875ec86bd4258ac3f5e0ceaeded04 Lecture 9 recording] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/fb1b6680261a4a55b4ee699544c920f8 Lecture 9 recording](2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/6bc4d9bf00b643d7b19aff736a499f39 Lecture 9 recording] (2021)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/96e78b4252504c3193258d2e0dc2f05e Lecture 9 recording] (2020)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/4fa588c8-f9f8-4f6f-8bc5-2a0411bbc261/public Lecture 9 recording] (2019)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/68737326-23d4-4ceb-ad51-ef21a6855637/public Lecture 9 recording] (2018)
* [https://echo360.org.au/media/8ed1c121-f6b4-4ac1-b5a2-5130d65c38ca/public Lecture 9 recording] (2017)
--&gt;
&lt;!-- ==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

O'Connell, B. H., O'Shea, D., &amp; Gallagher, S. (2017). Feeling thanks and saying thanks: A randomized controlled trial examining if and how socially oriented gratitude journals work. ''Journal of Clinical Psychology'', ''73''(10), 1280–1300. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22469

}}
--&gt;

==External links==
* [https://medium.com/polyamory-today/compersion-or-mudita-unlearning-jealousy-the-buddhist-way-aad804a81d7 Compersion or mudita: Unlearning jealousy the buddhist way] (Polyamory Today)
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12079828_Dirt_Disgust_and_Disease_Is_Hygiene_in_Our_Genes Dirt, disgust, and disease: Is hygiene in our genes] (Curtis &amp; Biran, 2001; pdf)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/hide-and-seek/201505/empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs. sympathy] (Psychology Today)
* [http://www.rpforschools.net/articles/ASP/Tangney,%20Tracy%20&amp;%20Robins%202007%20The%20self-conscious%20emotions%20-%20Theory%20and%20Research.pdf The self-conscious emotions] (Tangney et al., 2007; pdf)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/joy-and-pain/201401/what-is-the-difference-between-envy-and-jealousy What is the difference between envy and jealousy?] (Psychology Today)
{{Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Navigation}}

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Empathy]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions]]</text>
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  <page>
    <title>Python</title>
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        <username>~2026-55092-86</username>
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      <comment>Changed an &quot;and&quot; to an &quot;an&quot;</comment>
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      <text bytes="3467" sha1="i585nt6sds3hwm02wr8zjmgie6u0qyy" xml:space="preserve">'''Python''' is a widely used high-level&lt;ref&gt;Programming languages can be low-level or high-level. 
[[File:Python.svg|right|180 px|Python logo]]
High-level languages can be more readable to humans, 

while low-level languages are harder to understand. Low-level languages are closer to machine code. High-level languages are closer to the English language &lt;/ref&gt;, general-purpose, interpreted&lt;ref&gt;There are interpreted and compiled programming languages: 

compiled languages output an executable file, while

interpreted languages are executed line-by-line, using the interpreter.&lt;/ref&gt;, dynamic programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability, and its syntax allows programmers to express concepts in fewer lines of code than possible in other popular programming languages.

== Courses ==
* [[Python Concepts]]
* [[Python Programming]]
* [[Python/Serial port/pySerial|Serial communication with pyserial]]{{stage short|100%}}
* [[Python/MQTT|MQTT client with paho-mqtt library]]{{stage short|100%}}
* All Python ''{{Subpages/Simple}}''

== Examples ==
* [[Python/Time, Distance, and Speed|Time, Distance, and Speed]]
* [[/Prime factorization/]]
* [[/Musical intervals (numpy matplotlib)/]]
* [[Handler for references at Wikiversity pages]]
* [[Python Programming/GUI/Serial monitor|Develop the Arduino serial monitor-like with Tkinter and 3rd libary pySerial]]{{stage short|100%}}
* [[Python Programming/GUI/Oscilloscope|Develop the Oscilloscope-like desktop application with Tkinter, Matplotlib and 3rd libary pySerial]]{{stage short|100%}}

== Resources ==
* [[/pip (package manager)/]]

== Multimedia ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Tko2YC5hA YouTube: What is Python and Why You Must Learn It]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLZuut1fYzQ YouTube: What Can You Do with Python? - The 3 Main Applications]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfscVS0vtbw YouTube: Learn Python - Full Course for Beginners]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uQrJ0TkZlc YouTube: Python Tutorial for Beginners]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khc5jR9EGGg YouTube: Python Course - Learn Python]
*[https://cs50.harvard.edu/python/2022/ CS50's Python Course]

== Other Information ==
Python is a multi-paradigm programming language, that is dynamically typed and garbage-collected. Many of the capabilities that the Python language supports are object-oriented programming and functional programming. This language follows a philosophy, which consists of phrases such as:

* &quot;Beautiful is better than ugly&quot;
* &quot;Simple is better than Complex&quot; 
* &quot;Readability counts&quot;
* &quot;Explicit is better than implicit&quot;
* &quot;Complex is better than complicated&quot;

See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_of_Python Zen of Python] for more information about this philosophy. 

Python aims for simplicity and a less-cluttered syntax, while allowing developers to have options for their preferred coding method. Python has many versions out for developers to use. This consists of Python 2 (now on Sunset Status) and Python 3.13 (October 2024).

== Also See ==
* [[Computer Programming]]
* [[Pyjamas]] port of Google Web Toolkit (GWT)
* [[Wikipedia: Python (programming language)]]
* [[Wikibooks: Python Programming]]
* [https://programiz.pro/learn/master-python Beginner Python Course]  
* [https://www.wscubetech.com/resources/python Python Tutorial] 
* [https://www.wscubetech.com/resources/python/compiler Python Compiler]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Python| ]]</text>
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  <page>
    <title>Animal Phyla/Nematoda</title>
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        <username>The Citer</username>
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      <comment>Added phylogeny! It took so much effort to make. I hope someone finishes my phylogeny.</comment>
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      <text bytes="2459" sha1="k9woexo1p50u4706cbtbfwkmg9wk70q" xml:space="preserve">[[Image:Mermis nigrescens beentree.jpg|thumb|300px|Right|''Mermis nigrescens beentree'', a nematode worm.]]
*Nematoda
*Name Meaning: Thread like
*English Common Name: Round worms, Nematodes
*Major distinguishing characteristics: Round cross section, keratin, cuticle
*Approximate number of species described: 80 000 - 1 million

==Description==
Nematodes live in almost every environment. About half of known species are parasitic, about 35 species in humans.

About 90% of the animals found on the ocean floor are Nematodes. They have been found in the deepest gold mines in South Africa.

==Taxonomy==
There are at least four classes, but little is known about many nematodes, so this is subject to revision.

*Chromadorea
*Enoplea
*Secernentea
*Dorylaimea

Over 2200 genera are recognized in over 250 families. New species are regularly being described.
==Phylogeny==
{{Clade
|label1=Nematoda
|1={{clade
|1=Monhysterida
|2={{Clade
|label1=Chromadorea
|1={{Clade
|1=Araeolaimida
|2=Chromadorida
|3=Desmodorida
|4=Desmoscolecida
|5=Monhysterida
|6=Rhigonematida
|7=Leptoaimida
|8={{Clade
|1=Ascaridida
|2=Rhabditida}}
}}
|label2=Enoplea
|2={{clade
|label1=Enoplia
|1={{Clade
|1=Rhaptothyreida
|label2=Enoplica
|2={{Clade
|1=Enoplida
|2=Ironida
|3=Tripyloidida
|4=Alaimida
|5=Trefusiida}}
}}
|2=Oncholaimida
|label3=Triplonchica
|3={{clade
|1=Triplonchida
|2=Tripylida}}
|label4=Dorylaimia
|4={{clade
|1=Dioctophymida
|2=Dorylaimida
|3=Mermithida
|4=Mononchida
|5=Trichocephalida
}}
}}
}}
}}
}}
==Anatomy==
Nematodes are worms ranging in length from 0.1 millimeter to 1 meter (3 feet).

They have a tubular digestive system with a mouth and an anus. The mouth may have three or six &quot;lips&quot;, and may have teeth.

The body is bilaterally symmetrical, but the distinct head is radially symmetrical.

==The Fossil Record==
Nematodes are soft bodied and most are extremely small making fossilization problematic. However, fossils from Cambrian China have been found, suggesting they existed in the Precambrian.

==Quiz==

* [[/Nematoda Quiz/]]
==References and Further Reading==
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nematode Nematoda] at Wikipedia
*[http://tolweb.org/Nematoda/2472 Nematoda] at Tree of Life
*[http://eol.org/pages/2715/overview Nematoda] at Encyclopedia of Life
*[http://www.fossilmuseum.net/fossils/Nematoda-fossils.htm Nematoda Fossils] at the Virtual Fossil Museum

[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Zoology]]
[[Category:Taxonomy]]</text>
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  <page>
    <title>Social Victorians/People/Ripon</title>
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      <comment>/* Ripon */ Delete Edith Walker and her children. There is no evidence that their father was the 2nd Marquis. It is a rumour started by Barbara Taylor Bradford's biographer, based on their names, mostly, but the Marquis was always known as 'Olly', not Frederick.</comment>
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      <text bytes="23115" sha1="p0mx6vgjgewdrqy4m1idm23xzl10yeg" xml:space="preserve">== Overview ==
Gwladys Herbert's first husband was [[Social Victorians/People/Lowther|St. George Lowther, 4th Earl of Lonsdale]], who died in 1882. They had one daughter. Her life as Countess of Lonsdale is covered on [[Social Victorians/People/Lowther|the Lowther page]]. In 1885 she married Oliver Robinson, Earl de Grey, who succeeded to the Marquessate of Ripon in 1909. This page covers her life as Countess de Grey and Marchioness of Ripon.

Gwladys Robinson, Lady de Grey attended the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball|Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House]], as did her husband, Frederick Oliver Robinson, Earl de Grey. She had attendants, including Mahomed Taha, an Egyptian hired for the occasion. Her mother's father had plantations in the West Indies.&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt;

Oscar Wilde dedicated ''A Woman of No Importance'' to her.&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt;

== Also Known As ==
*Family name: Robinson
*Marquess of Ripon
**George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon (23 June 1871 – 9 July 1909)&lt;ref name=&quot;:0&quot;&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2020-08-16|title=George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Robinson,_1st_Marquess_of_Ripon&amp;oldid=973232157|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt;
**Frederick Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon (9 July 1909 – 22 September 1923)&lt;ref name=&quot;:5&quot;&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2020-08-14|title=Frederick Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frederick_Robinson,_2nd_Marquess_of_Ripon&amp;oldid=972888603|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt;
**Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon&lt;ref name=&quot;:5&quot; /&gt;
*Marchioness of Ripon
**Henrietta Anne Theodosia Vyner Robinson (28 January 1859 – )
**Constance Gwladys Herbert Lowther Robinson (9 May 1909 – 28 October 1917)
*Constance Gwladys Herbert Robinson
**Gwladys de Grey (1885–1909)
**[[Social Victorians/People/Lowther|Countess of Lonsdale]] (6 July 1878 – )
**Gwladys Robinson, Countess de Grey (1885–1909)
*[[Social Victorians/People/Ripon#Subsidiary Titles|Subsidiary Titles]]

== Acquaintances, Friends and Enemies ==
=== Friends ===
==== Gwladys Robinson ====
*[[Social Victorians/People/Oscar Wilde | Oscar Wilde]] (dedicated A ''Woman of No Importance'' to Gwladys Robinson, Lady de Grey)&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot;&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2020-07-02|title=Gwladys Robinson, Marchioness of Ripon|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gwladys_Robinson,_Marchioness_of_Ripon&amp;oldid=965652983|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt;
*Nellie Melba&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt;
*Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt;
*Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt;
*Vaslav Nijinsky&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt;
*Jean and Édouard de Reszke&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt;

==== Frederick Oliver Robinson ====
*[[Social Victorians/People/Albert Edward, Prince of Wales | Albert Edward, Prince of Wales]], long-time friend
== Timeline ==
'''1862 May 30''', Gwladys Herbert was granted the rank of an earl's daughter (she had just turned 3 years old).&lt;ref name=&quot;:13&quot;&gt;&quot;Lady Constance Gwladys Herbert.&quot; {{Cite web|url=https://www.thepeerage.com/p1153.htm#i11529|title=Person Page|website=www.thepeerage.com|access-date=2020-11-02}}&lt;/ref&gt;

'''1878 July 6 or 10''', Gwladys Herbert and St. George Lowther, 4th [[Social Victorians/People/Lowther| Earl of Lonsdale]], married.&lt;ref name=&quot;:03&quot;&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2020-07-02|title=Gwladys Robinson, Marchioness of Ripon|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gwladys_Robinson,_Marchioness_of_Ripon&amp;oldid=965652983|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt; They had one daughter, Lady Juliet Lowther. He died 8 February 1882.&lt;ref name=&quot;:8&quot; /&gt;

'''1885 May 7''', Constance Gwladys Herbert Lowther and Oliver Robinson married.&lt;ref name=&quot;:04&quot;&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2020-07-02|title=Gwladys Robinson, Marchioness of Ripon|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gwladys_Robinson,_Marchioness_of_Ripon&amp;oldid=965652983|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt;

'''1897 June 28, Monday''', according to the ''Morning Post'', the Marquis and Marchioness of Ripon were invited to the 28 June [[Social Victorians/Diamond Jubilee Garden Party|Queen's Garden Party]], the official end of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in London.&lt;ref&gt;“The Queen’s Garden Party.” ''Morning Post'' 29 June 1897, Tuesday: 4 [of 12], Cols. 1a–7c [of 7] and 5, Col. 1a–c. ''British Newspaper Archive''  ''&lt;nowiki&gt;https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0000174/18970629/032/0004&lt;/nowiki&gt;'' and ''&lt;nowiki&gt;https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18970629/032/0005&lt;/nowiki&gt;''.&lt;/ref&gt; (Were Gwladys, Countess de Grey and Oliver, Earl de Grey invited?)

'''1897 July 2, Friday''', Constance Gwladys, Lady de Grey [[Social Victorians/People/Gwladys Robinson |Constance Gwladys Herbert Robinson]] attended the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball | Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]] at Devonshire House, attended by what an Egyptian man. Oliver Robinson, Earl de Grey was also present at the ball.

'''1900 June 3, Sunday, Whit Sunday''', Lord and Lady de Grey were present at a [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1900s#3 June 1900, Sunday|Whitsun house party at Sandringham House]].

'''1909 July 6''', Oliver Robinson, who had been Earl de Grey, became the Marquess of Ripon.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2020-08-14|title=Frederick Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frederick_Robinson,_2nd_Marquess_of_Ripon&amp;oldid=972888603|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt;

==Costume at the Duchess of Devonshire's 2 July 1897 Fancy-dress Ball==
[[File:Gwladys-Robinson-Marchioness-of-Ripon-when-Countess-de-Grey-as-Cleopatra.jpg|thumb|alt=Black-and-white photograph of a seated woman richly dressed in an historical costume|Gwladys Robinson, Countess de Grey as Cleopatra. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.]]
=== Gwladys Robinson, Countess de Grey ===
At the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball | Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball]], accompanied by an &quot;Ethiopian&quot; or &quot;Nubian&quot; (actually Egyptian) attendant, Gwladys Robinson, Countess de Grey walked in the Duchess group or in the &quot;Oriental&quot; Procession and sat at Table 2. She had &quot;a great diamond bird in her hair and a golden bird in her hand.&quot;&lt;ref name=&quot;:2&quot;&gt;&quot;Fancy Dress Ball: Unparalleled Splendour.&quot; ''Carlisle Patriot'' Friday 9 July 1897: 7 [of 8], Col. 4a–b. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000365/18970709/084/0007.&lt;/ref&gt; The newspapers were not clear about who she was dressed as, reporting variously that she went to the ball as Cleopatra, Lysistrate and Zenobia.

W. &amp; D. Downey's portrait (right) of &quot;Gwladys Robinson, Marchioness of Ripon when Countess de Grey as Cleopatra&quot; in costume is photogravure #281 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery.&lt;ref name=&quot;:3&quot;&gt;&quot;Devonshire House Fancy Dress Ball (1897): photogravures by Walker &amp; Boutall after various photographers.&quot; 1899. National Portrait Gallery https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait-list.php?set=515.&lt;/ref&gt; The printing on the portrait says, &quot;Countess de Grey as Cleopatra,&quot; with a Long S in ''Countess''.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Countess de Grey as Cleopatra.&quot; ''Diamond Jubilee Fancy Dress Ball''. National Portrait Gallery https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw65859/Gwladys-Robinson-Marchioness-of-Ripon-when-Countess-de-Grey-as-Cleopatra.&lt;/ref&gt;

The Lafayette Negative Archive has Countess de Grey with Mahomed Taha standing behind her, holding her train: 

*http://lafayette.org.uk/gre1394.html
Another image exists of Taha kneeling with de Grey's hand on his shoulder (but we can't find it again right now).

Martin Spies' article on Gwladys Robinson, Countess de Grey and Taha reproduces the image from the Lafayette Negative Archive that includes the Egyptian man.

==== Countess de Grey's Attendant ====
Before the ball the ''Edinburgh Evening News'' reported that Countess de Grey “will take the character of Cleopatra, and is to be attended by a real Egyptian negro.”&lt;ref&gt;“The Duchess of Devonshire's Ball.” ''Edinburgh Evening News'' 21 June 1897, Monday: 4 [of 6], Col. 5c. ''British Newspaper Archive'' http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000452/18970621/079/0004.&lt;/ref&gt; Some newspapers reported this attendant as Ethiopian or Nubian (often code for Black African), but we actually know something about this Egyptian man, whose name was Mahomed Taha. A photograph of Countess de Grey with Taha is in the Lafayette Negative Archive (discussed above, http://lafayette.org.uk/gre1394.html). We know Taha’s name thanks to Martin Spies, who found correspondence between Gwladys, Countess de Grey and Taha in a clipping book he bought on Ebay because he collects clipping books — and because he saw that these artifacts would be worth researching.&lt;ref name=&quot;:6&quot;&gt;Spies, Martin. “Late Victorian Aristocrats and the Racial Other: The Devonshire House Ball of 1897.” ''Race &amp; Class'' April–June 2016 (57.4): 95–103. Doi: 10.1177/0306396815624869.&lt;/ref&gt;

The Countess de Grey called Taha the &quot;abyssinian boy who carried my train at Devonshire House.&quot;&lt;ref name=&quot;:6&quot; /&gt;{{rp|100}} And her 2nd husband, Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquis of Ripon, wrote later that this &quot;'slave,' called Mahomed, [was] imported from Egypt especially for the occasion.&quot;&lt;ref name=&quot;:6&quot; /&gt;{{rp|qtd. p. 100}}

Also, according to the ''Ladies’ Pictorial'', Taha was “imported from Egypt especially for the occasion” and is dressed in “real old Egyptian slave's attire.&quot;

What else we know of him is in one letter, which is in French and on Savoy Hotel stationery. Taha writes to thank the Countess de Grey for the £5 she paid him and the photographs she sent, perhaps the ones taken by Lafayette.&lt;ref name=&quot;:6&quot; /&gt;{{rp|101}} The Savoy’s guest and employment records no longer exist, so we don’t know what Taha’s relationship with the Savoy was, if he had one. Spies theorizes that he may have been a professional performer, perhaps in London on his own account or perhaps brought from Egypt.
==== Newspaper Accounts of Her Costume ====
The ''Derbyshire Times'', on 12 June 1897, says that Lady de Grey was &quot;going as Zenobia, and is getting her dress from Doucet.&quot;&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Gleanings in the Peak.&quot; ''Derbyshire Times'' 1897-07-24 July 1897, Saturday: 6 [of 8], Col. 2b. ''British Newspaper Archive'' http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000228/18970724/026/0006.&lt;/ref&gt; Since the Duchess of Devonshire was dressed as Zenobia, perhaps Lady de Grey decided against going as that queen, if she could have known? According to the other newspapers,
*Lady de Grey was &quot;Cleopatra, [with] a real Ethiopian attendant.&quot;&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Duchess of Devonshire's Fancy Ball. A Brilliant Spectacle. Some of the Dresses.&quot; London ''Daily News'' Saturday 3 July 1897: 5 [of 10], Col. 6a–6, Col. 1b. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000051/18970703/024/0005 and https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0000051/18970703/024/0006.&lt;/ref&gt;{{rp|p. 5, Col. 7c}}
*&quot;The manteau was of crepon de chine, covered with embroidered gauze and applique of coloured satin, and studded with jewels; a ceinture and pendent were of white satin, with cerise applique and embroidery, and she wore a jewelled headdress, she was '''Lysistrate'''.&quot;&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Ball at Devonshire House.&quot; The ''Times'' Saturday 3 July 1897: 12, Cols. 1a–4c ''The Times Digital Archive''. Web. 28 Nov. 2015.&lt;/ref&gt;
*&quot;The Orientals were the first to pass [before the Prince of Wales], headed by Lady de Grey. Her train was borne by a Nubian in gorgeous and correct dress.&quot;&lt;ref&gt;“The Duchess’s Costume Ball.” ''Westminster Gazette'' 03 July 1897 Saturday: 5 [of 8], Cols. 1a–3b [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002947/18970703/035/0005.&lt;/ref&gt;{{rp|p. 5, Col. 2c}}
*&quot;The Orientals were headed by Lady de Grey in magnificent attire, rich with gems and gold and silver, a great diamond bird in her hair and a golden bird in her hand. Her train was borne by a Nubian in gorgeous and correct dress.&quot;&lt;ref name=&quot;:2&quot; /&gt;
*&quot;There were also two Cleopatras — Lady de Grey was one mass of beautiful embroideries ....&quot;&lt;ref name=&quot;:4&quot;&gt;“The Duchess of Devonshire’s Ball.” The ''Gentlewoman'' 10 July 1897 Saturday: 32–42 [of 76], Cols. 1a–3c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003340/18970710/155/0032.&lt;/ref&gt;{{rp|p. 32, Col. 2c}}
The ''Carlisle Patriot'' provides detail (Carlisle is in Cumbria, which has a shortish border with North Yorkshire county).


The Countess de Grey's costume and attendant were mentioned in a letter written by Sir Reginald Lister:&lt;blockquote&gt;the person who shone out conspicuously above everybody was Lady de Grey. When she walked up the room at the head of the Orientals – swathed in gold and clinging draperies – blazing with jewels – with bunches of purple orchids on her head and a long glittering train carried by an Arab slave – the effect was ''renversant''; one felt she should always be dressed like that, and never in nineteenth-century clothes.&lt;ref&gt;R. Godfrey, ''Olly: the life and times of Frederick Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquis of Ripon'' (privately printed, 2012), pp. 161, 163. Qtd. in Martine Spies, &quot;Late Victorian aristocrats and the racial other: the Devonshire House ball of 1897,&quot; ''Race and Class'' 57(4).&lt;/ref&gt;{{rp|99}}&lt;/blockquote&gt;
==== Commentary on Her Costume ====
This costume has no basis in history or reality: it is fantasy, whether Cleopatra or Lysistrata. Perhaps Doucet, who made Gwladys de Grey's costume, based its design was influenced by the costumes worn by [[Social Victorians/People/Sarah Bernhardt|Sarah Bernhardt]] in performances in 1891 and 1893.
*In one of the photographs of Bernhardt, her headdress appears to include the raised head of a cobra or snake, but otherwise she is not wearing imagery associating her with the adder she used for her suicide in Shakespeare's telling, which is common in imagery of Cleopatra.
*Gwladys's elaborate headdress is not Egyptian or classical but Victorian. Her hair is up, unlike Bernhardt's, which is down and loose.
*The sash around Gwladys's waist is similar to the style worn by Bernhardt in 1891, but its very fine pleating is interesting. Is this a precursor to the Negrin/Fortuny Delphos gown?&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2025-08-13|title=Mariano Fortuny (designer)|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mariano_Fortuny_(designer)&amp;oldid=1305600788|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt;
*She appears to be wearing sandals with her bare toes showing, one of which might have a toe ring with a large jewel.
*Her loose, shapeless, Aesthetic-style dress is covered in jewels, flowers and, generally, Victorian frou-frou. It hangs down as if its fabric is heavy. The fabric may be [[Social Victorians/Terminology#Crepon de Chine|crepon de chine]], which would make it heavy, and is covered in jewels, embroidery and possibly appliqué. Even though the dress is Aesthetic-style and not shaped to Gwladys's torso, the closure on the sash sexualizes it by making her genital area a focal point of the costume.
*The train is attached at the shoulders. It may be made of a crepe fabric or of something more translucent. It also is decorated with jewels, embroidery and possibly appliqué.
*The encrustation of jewels is not unusual for this ball, but the many ropes of pearls are.

==== The Historical Cleopatra ====
Cleopatra lived from 70/69 B.C.E. to 10 or 12 August 30 B.C.E., the last of the Hellenistic pharaohs.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2025-08-04|title=Cleopatra|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cleopatra&amp;oldid=1304135144|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt; But nonscholarly late 19th-century Britons, Europeans and Americans would have known her less as a historical figure than a cultural one, by her presence in the arts and in popular culture. Sarah Bernhardt's performance as Cleopatra toured Europe, the UK and the US. The general discussion of the character and the popular-culture figure of Cleopatra appears on [[Social Victorians/People/Sarah Bernhardt#Cleopatra|Bernhardt's page]].

==== The Historical Lysistrata ====

[[File:Frederick-Oliver-Robinson-2nd-Marquess-of-Ripon-when-Earl-de-Grey-as-Admiral-Coligny.jpg|thumb|alt=Black-and-white photograph of a standing woman richly dressed in an historical costume|Frederick Robinson, Earl de Grey as Admiral Coligny. ©National Portrait Gallery, London.]]
=== Oliver Robinson, Earl de Grey ===
Frederick Oliver Robinson, Earl de Grey was dressed as Coligny. He is not listed as having walked in a procession or danced in a quadrille.

Walery's portrait of &quot;Frederick Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon when Earl de Grey as Admiral Coligny&quot; in costume is photogravure #213 in the album presented to the Duchess of Devonshire and now in the National Portrait Gallery.&lt;ref name=&quot;:3&quot; /&gt; The printing on the portrait says, &quot;Earl de Grey as Admiral Coligny.&quot;&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Earl de Grey as Admiral Coligny.&quot; ''Diamond Jubilee Fancy Dress Ball''. National Portrait Gallery https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw158576/Frederick-Oliver-Robinson-2nd-Marquess-of-Ripon-when-Earl-de-Grey-as-Admiral-Coligny.&lt;/ref&gt;

==== Newspaper Descriptions of His Costume ====

* &quot;Earl de Grey, as Coligny, was in black and citron.&quot;&lt;ref&gt;“Girls’ Gossip.” ''Truth'' 8 July 1897, Thursday: 41 [of 70], Col. 1b – 42, Col. 2c. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0002961/18970708/089/0041.&lt;/ref&gt;{{rp|42, Col. 2c}}
* He was wearing a &quot;doublet, black satin, slashed on the breast with long slashes of yellow satin and puffed with lemon yellow satin; cloak of black satin lined lemon yellow, satin sleeves same as doublet; trunks, black satin, slashed and puffed same as doublet.&quot;&lt;ref name=&quot;:4&quot; /&gt;{{rp|p. 41, Col. 3c – 42, Col. 1a}}

==== Commentary on His Costume ====

* Earl de Grey is wearing mid-to-late 16th-century court dress for King Charles IX of France.
* He is wearing a slashed jacket-like doublet with fluted ruffs at the neck and wrists, slashed trunk hose (pumpkin breeches) and a short, slashed high-collared cape. The slashes were yellow satin, the rest of the fabric black satin. Instead of an Elizabethan doublet, his doublet is constructed like a Victorian jacket, with a closure down the front and a belt at his natural waist.
* His waxed mustache is very Victorian.

==== The Historial Coligny ====
Admiral Coligny was Gaspard II de Coligny (1519–1572), a Huguenot and advisor to King Charles IX of France.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2021-11-05|title=Gaspard II de Coligny|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gaspard_II_de_Coligny&amp;oldid=1053667276|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard_II_de_Coligny.&lt;/ref&gt; Charles IX was Catholic and opposed to the Protestant Huguenot; he may have been responsible for the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, which saw the death of many Huguenots.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2026-03-10|title=Charles IX of France|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_IX_of_France&amp;oldid=1342736971|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt;

== Demographics ==

=== Nationality ===
*George Frederick Samuel Robinson, British&lt;ref name=&quot;:0&quot; /&gt;
*Gwladys Herbert Lowther Robinson, British&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt;

=== Residences ===

==== Gwladys Robinson, Lady de Grey ====

* Wilton House, Wiltshire, the family estates of her father, Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea (16 September 1810 – 2 August 1861), younger brother of the Earl of Pembroke, who was living in Paris.&lt;ref name=&quot;:7&quot;&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2025-09-07|title=Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sidney_Herbert,_1st_Baron_Herbert_of_Lea&amp;oldid=1310130809|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt; George Herbert, 13th Earl of Pembroke was Gwladys's brother.
* 49 Belgrave Square, London, her parents' house.&lt;ref name=&quot;:7&quot; /&gt;

== Family ==

=== Ripon ===
*George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon (24 October 1827 – 9 July 1909)&lt;ref&gt;&quot;George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon.&quot; {{Cite web|url=https://www.thepeerage.com/p2988.htm#i29876|title=Person Page|website=www.thepeerage.com|access-date=2020-11-02}}&lt;/ref&gt;
*Henrietta Anne Theodosia Vyner Robinson (17 April 1833 – 28 February 1907)&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Henrietta Anne Theodosia Vyner.&quot; {{Cite web|url=https://www.thepeerage.com/p3114.htm#i31137|title=Person Page|website=www.thepeerage.com|access-date=2020-11-02}}&lt;/ref&gt;
#Frederick Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon (29 January 1852 – 22 September 1923)
#Mary Sarah Robinson (16 July 1857 – 3 July 1858)


*Constance Gwladys Herbert Robinson (22 April 1859 – 28 October 1917)&lt;ref name=&quot;:13&quot; /&gt;
*St George Henry Lowther, 4th [[Social Victorians/People/Lowther | Earl of Lonsdale]] (4 October 1855 – 8 February 1882)&lt;ref name=&quot;:8&quot;&gt;{{Cite journal|date=2017-09-09|title=St George Lowther, 4th Earl of Lonsdale|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=St_George_Lowther,_4th_Earl_of_Lonsdale&amp;oldid=799748653|journal=Wikipedia|language=en}}&lt;/ref&gt;
#Lady (Gladys Mary) Juliet Lowther (9 April 1881 – 23 September 1965)
*Frederick Oliver Robinson (29 January 1852 – 23 September 1923) was Earl de Grey (1871–1909)&lt;ref name=&quot;:5&quot; /&gt;

=== Relations ===
* Frederick Oliver Robinson married the widowed Constance Gwladys Herbert Lowther. Edith Walker, a servant at the estate, bore 2 children fathered by Robinson.

=== Subsidiary Titles ===

*Earl of Ripon
**George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 2nd Earl of Ripon (28 January 1859 – 9 July 1909)&lt;ref name=&quot;:0&quot; /&gt;
*Countess of Ripon
**Henrietta Anne Theodosia Vyner Robinson (28 January 1859 –)
**Constance Gwladys Herbert Robinson ()
*Earl de Grey
**George Frederick Samuel Robinson, Earl de Grey (23 June 1871 – 9 July 1909)
**Frederick Oliver Robinson, Earl de Grey (1871–1909)
*Countess of de Grey
**Constance Gwladys Herbert Robinson (2 May 1885 – 1909)
*Earl de Grey and Ripon
**George Frederick Samuel Robinson (28 January 1859 – 1871)
*Viscount Goderich
**George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 2nd Viscount Goderich (28 January 1859 –1859)&lt;ref name=&quot;:0&quot; /&gt;
**Frederick Oliver Robinson, 3rd Viscount Goderich (1859 and 1871)

== Notes and Questions ==
#[[Social Victorians/People/Gwladys Robinson|Gwladys Robinson, Countess de Grey]] is #136 on the [[Social Victorians/1897 Fancy Dress Ball#List of People Who Attended|list of people who were present]] at the Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball; Frederick, Earl de Grey is #656.
#A Sir Reginald Kay, identified as a diplomat by Martin Spies, described Gwladys, Countess de Grey in her costume.&lt;ref name=&quot;:6&quot; /&gt;(99) Was he present at the ball?
#Why was Gwladys granted the rank of a daughter of an earl when she was 3?
#She died at 58: why so early?
#Who took Oliver Robinson's portrait? Is it in the Lafayette Negative Archive?
#Citations for Spies.

== Footnotes ==
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      <text bytes="146243" sha1="5u6xe1vk6apmokl3wv3ushn2mor3s8w" xml:space="preserve">[[Social Victorians/Timeline/1840s|1840s]]  [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1850s |1850s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1860s | 1860s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1870s | 1870s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1880s | 1880s Headlines]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1890s | 1890s Headlines]] 1890 [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1891 | 1891]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1892 | 1892]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1893 | 1893]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1894 | 1894]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1895 | 1895]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1896 | 1896]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1897 | 1897]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1898 | 1898]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1899 | 1899]]  [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1900s|1900s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1910s|1910s]] [[Social Victorians/Timeline/1920s-30s|1920s-30s]]

==January 1890==
Sometime in January 1890, [[Social Victorians/People/Horniman|Annie Horniman]] was initiated into the Golden Dawn (Gilbert 86 144).

Sometime in 1890 Annie Besant and [[Social Victorians/People/Helena Blavatsky|Helena Blavatsky]] founded the Working Women's Club in the East End (Besant Chronology.pdf). Maye Dilke was a member (Crawford 170).

[[Social Victorians/People/Frank Harris|Frank Harris]] says,&lt;blockquote&gt;One day in 1890 I had George Meredith, Walter Pater and [[Social Victorians/People/Oscar Wilde|Oscar Wilde]] dining with me in Park Lane and the time of sex-awakening was discussed. Both Pater and Wilde spoke of it as a sign of puberty. Pater thought it began about thirteen or fourteen and Wilde to my amazement set it as late as sixteen. Meredith alone was inclined to put it earlier.&lt;ref&gt;Harris, Frank. ''My Life and Loves''.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

===1 January 1890, Wednesday, New Year's Day===
&lt;blockquote&gt;Sharp frost was experienced over the East of England yesterday morning, and in South London the thermometer had been as low as 27deg., and 28deg. in Hyde-park. It rose during the day to 41deg., but in the evening frost again set in. Later the thermometer rose again to 32deg., and there was an appearance as of coming rain.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;cite&gt;The Morning Post. 1 January 1890 (No. 36,675): P. 4, Col. F.&lt;/cite&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;Influenza was spreading all over Europe. A true pandemic carried by international commerce and travel, it was called the Russian flu.&lt;p&gt;

According to the &quot;Court Circular: Orders for Court Mourning&quot; in the Morning Post,&lt;blockquote&gt;A second supplement to the Gazette, issued last night, contains the following: —

&quot;Lord Chamberlain's Office, January 1.

&quot;Orders for the Court's going into mourning on Thursday next, the 2d instant, for her late Majesty the Empress of Brazil, viz.&quot; —

&quot;The ladies to wear black dresses, white gloves, black or white shoes, feathers, and fans, pearls, diamonds, or plain gold or silver ornaments. The gentlemen to wear black Court dress, with black swords and buckles.

&quot;The Court to change the mourning on Thursday, the 16th instant, viz.: — [new paragraph] The ladies to wear black dresses, with coloured ribbons, flowers, feathers, and ornaments, or grey or white dresses, with black ribbons, flowers, feathers, and ornaments. The gentlemen to continue the same mourning.

&quot;And on Thursday, the 23d instant, the Court to go out of mourning.&quot;&lt;ref&gt;&lt;cite&gt;&quot;Court Circular: Orders for Court Mourning.&quot; The Morning Post, 2 January 1890 (No. 36,676): page 5 Col. G.&lt;/cite&gt;&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 6 January 1890, Monday ===
Empress Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach died on 7 January, and her funeral was on 11 January 1890. (She had been Queen of Prussia and the first German Empress. Her mother had been a Romanov, and she had been married to William I, German Emperor; their eldest son, Frederick William, married Vicky, Princess Royal, Queen Victoria's first-born child. She had politics similar to those of her daughter-in-law, but not of her grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II or Bismarck.) Bertie did not attend her funeral:&lt;blockquote&gt;The decision of the Prince of Wales not to go to Berlin for the funeral of the Empress Augusta has caused much surprise, to say the least of it; but H.R.H. preferred to conclude his visit to Baron Hirsch at Merton, where there was a prodigious slaughter of partridges during the four days' ''chasse''.&lt;p&gt;

The guests invited to Merton to meet the Prince were the Duc de Chartres, the Duchess of Manchester, Lord Hartington, Lord and Lady de Grey, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], Mr. Henry Chaplin, and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sassoon.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;What the World Says.&quot; ''The World'' 15 January 1890, Wednesday: 14 [of 40], Col. 2b [of 2]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0006339%2F18900115&amp;page=14. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;The local paper, the Thetford and Watton Times and People's Weekly Journal, has a full account:&lt;blockquote&gt;Royal Visit. — On Monday H.R.H. the Prince of Wales arrived here by special train on a visit to the Baron de Hirsch, who is residing at Merton Hall. The train was in charge of Mr. Kimm, the District Superintendent. The Prince was accompanied by the Marquis of Hartington, and attended by Colonel Teesdale. Long before the arrival of the train a large number of the townspeople and many from neighbouring villages gathered in the station yard, the platform being kept clear by a staff of police, who were under the direction of Inspector Knights. Crimson cloth was laid from the platform through the station to Lord Walsingham’s carriage, which was in waiting to convey the visitors to the Hall. His Royal Highness was met on the platform by the Baron. The crowd cheered most heartily as the Prince left the station yard. The company invited to meet His Royal Highness and staying at the Hall are the Duchess of Manchester, Lord Hartington, Colonel Teesdale, Mr. Mackenzie, Colonel Ellis, Lord and Lady Brook, Earl and Countess de Grey, Duc de Chartres, Mr. and Mrs. Sassoon, Viscountess Mandeville and Miss Giese. The Right Hon. Henry Chaplin was prevented by illness from being present. On Tuesday the party went partridge shooting at Stanford, where game was abundant. Lord Hartington was taken ill from the effects of a cold soon after his arrival at Merton. On Wednesday and Thursday the party had &quot;mixed shooting,&quot; and to-day (Friday) they shoot through the Home Coverts.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Watton.&quot; ''Thetford &amp; Watton Times'' 11 January 1890, Saturday: 5 [of 8], Col. 1a [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive''https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001533%2F18900111&amp;page=5&amp;article=091&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''Thetford and Watton Times and People's Weekly Journal'', p. 5.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;''Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper'' says,&lt;blockquote&gt;The Prince of Wales, attended by General Teesdale, C.B., left Sandringham on Monday afternoon [Monday, 6 January] for Merton. ... The Princess of Wales, with Princesses Victoria and Maud, remains at Sandringham. The Prince of Wales is the guest of the Baron de Hirsch at Merton, the ancient seat of the De Grey's in Norfolk. Among the other guests at Merton are the Marquis of Hartington, who travelled by special train with the Prince from Wolferton, via King's Lynn and Swaffham, to Wotton, where the host met them and conducted them to Merton; the Duc de Chartres, the Duchess of Manchester, Viscountess Mandeville, and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sassoon.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;The Queen and Royal Family.&quot; ''Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper'' 12 January 1890, Sunday: 12 [of 12], Col. 2a [of 5]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000079%2F18900112&amp;page=12&amp;article=046&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper'', p. 12.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;The ''Thetford and Watton Times and People's Weekly Journal'' has a little more:&lt;blockquote&gt;The Prince of Wales, attended by General Teesdale, C.B., left Sandringham on Monday afternoon for Merton. ... The Princess of Wales, with Princesses Victoria and Maud remain at Sandringham. The Prince of Wales is the guest of the Baron de Hirsch at Merton. Among the other guests at Merton are the Marquis of Hartington, M.P., who travelled by special train with the Prince from Wolferton, ''vía'' King’s Lynn and Swaffham, to Watton, where the host met them and conducted them to Merton; the Duc de Chartres, the Duchess of Manchester, the Earl and Countess de Grey, Viscountess Mandeville, General Ellis, Sir James Mackenzie, and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sassoon. Mr. Chaplin was expected to have joined the party, but at present is unable to do so.&lt;ref&gt;''Thetford &amp; Watton Times'' 11 January 1890, Saturday: 4 [of 8], Col. 7c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001533%2F18900111&amp;page=4&amp;article=090&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''Thetford &amp; Watton Times and People's Weekly Journal'', p. 4.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;And the ''County Gentleman'' has a little more:&lt;blockquote&gt;The party assembled to meet the Prince of Wales at Merton Hall included Lord Hartington, who came on from Wolferton with the Prince. Baron Hirsch met them at Walton Station, and conducted them back to Merton. There was a nice little crowd of country people at the station, who cheered H.R.H. lustily. The Duc de Chartres, the Duchess of Manchester, Lord and Lady de Grey, Lady Mandeville, and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sassoon were of the party. Mr. Chaplin, laid up with influenza, was unable to accept the Baron's invitation. The shooting was excellent. I hear that the Baron will, after all, buy Houghton, and take up his abode there next year. ... 

Death has been busy in Imperial circles this week. Scarcely had mourning been decreed for the ex-Empress of Brazil than we heard of the death of the venerable Empress Augusta of Germany at the advanced age of 80. She had been a great invalid for many years past, and influenza found her an easy victim. ...

The Empress Frederick's visit to Italy has been abruptly terminated by the death of her mother-in-law, the Empress Augusta. ...

Court mourning will considerably modify the programmes arranged for next week at Bournemouth, Poole, and Canford Manor. The Prince and Princess will, of course, be Lord and Lady Wimborne's guests, but the balls will have to be given up, much to the vexation of spirit of all concerned. Mourning is to be worn for four weeks, from Wednesday until February 5.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;The Man about Town.&quot; ''Sporting Gazette'' 11 January 1890, Saturday: 6 [of 34], Col. 1b–c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0002525%2F18900111&amp;page=6&amp;article=039&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''The County Gentleman'', p. 38.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 1890 January 7, Tuesday ===
The newspaper reports of several fights lack dates, so these aggregated descriptions are still under construction. Check February, too. The Fracas at the Trocadero and the meeting at the Pelican Club occurred on the same day. The [[Social Victorians/Boxing/Smith-Slavin 1889-12-23|Smith-Slavin Fight]] was 23 December 1889. At least 2 [[Social Victorians/Boxing/Pelican Club Meeting Smith-Slavin match|meetings at the London Pelican Club]] followed, as well as the [[Social Victorians/Boxing/Fracas at the Trocadero|Fracas at the Trocadero]].

=== 9 January 1890, Thursday ===

==== The York Hunt Ball ====
This account is from the ''Irish Society'', which explains which women's costumes are the focus:&lt;blockquote&gt;The fashionable world and his wife are out of town just now, having good times at country houses. They shed the light of their brilliant presence on those annual functions known as county balls, and enjoy themselves also at those popular and picturesque entertainments to which they are bidden by the masters and members of the various hunts.

One of the smartest dances of last week took place at York on Thursday evening. It was in fancy costume, and was in aid of funds for the York County Hospital. Once upon a time the journey from London to the Minster City of the North was a far cry, and one not lightly undertaken. Now it is luxurious and short. In consequence this hall presented the appearance of one in town in mid-season.

There was conspicuous for height and handsomeness the familiar figure and face of Countess de Grey. Lady Helen Duncombe, too, who shares with her Grace of Leinster, and Lady Cynthia Graham, the family beauty of the House of Feversham, was seen in the marvellously becoming (to her) costume of the Empire period. Lady Lilian Wemyss, a lady &quot;divinely tall,” and appropriately fair, was garbed in pink and white of a fashion hailing from the Empire. A &quot;square;” in which the lady dancers were all gowned empirically, was the event of the evening. An event worth remembering it was. The costumes were superb, but their attractions were nowhere in comparison with the charms the [Col. 1c–2a] wearers. These were all tall and each one handsome. Lady de Trafford’s pretty face and fine figure showed to great advantage in her gown of white satin, veiled with gold-bordered ''chiffon'', and with an Empire trained cloak from her shoulders of Rose du Barri velvet lined with white satin, and bordered with gold galon. The colour of the velvet in what is seen in the half-yellow, half-scarlet petals of the soft textured nasturtium bloom. [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Mrs Algernon Bourke]] looked a picture in a Gainsborough gown. The white satin skirt was flounced with sable and veiled with ''chiffon'', the setuage of which was left to show without being hemmed up. There was a broad sash of rose-pink silk and each buttonhole was filled round with crimped lisse. One might go on for long enough describing costume after costume, and then leave them half out. Therefore, we shall, like the judge &quot;sum up” and &quot;charge” for a verdict of the utmost brilliancy.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Our London Letter.&quot; ''Irish Society'' (Dublin) 11 January 1890, Saturday: 17 [of 24], Col. 1b–2a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001939/18900111/042/0017. Same print title, p. 29.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 1890 January 10, Friday ===
The ball at the Ulster Club Ball, Belfast:&lt;blockquote&gt;The Ulster Club gave on Friday evening last week, in the Ulster Hall, Belfast, one of the most successful balls ever held in that prosperous City of the North of Ireland. It was given in honour of the Marquis of Londonderry and the Marchioness, who, with their son, Lord Castlereagh, were the guests of the evening. Lord Londonderry is an Ulster man of whom the natives of the Northern Province are justly proud, and to entertain him was an honour which has been long looked for by the Club. The hall, which is a splendid building admirably adapted for the purpose of a large dance, was changed beyond the recognition of its oldest frequenters by the skill of clever and tasteful decorators. A temporary archway was erected at the entrance, with cloakrooms for ladies and men at either side. The entrance was prettily carpeted and gracefully draped with delicately-coloured Oriental silk. The walls were hung with handsome Eastern fabrics of rich and harmonious colour, with large mirrors at intervals, which served in effect to double the size of the room. The prettily proportioned vestibule and smaller apartments adjoining the ball-room were decorated and furnished each in the style of a different period. The ceilings were prettily draped with rich but soft-coloured India and China silks. The minor hall made an admirable supper-room, and was also most artistically decorated. The flowers on the table were much admired. The orchestra made music from out a very multitude of floral blooms, and that most effective decoration of blocks of ice hollowed out and lighted by electricity, which so puzzled the Shah of Persia when over here, was liberally made use of. The principal families in the north of Ireland were invited; among others, Prince and Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Duke and Duchess of Abercorn, the Duke and Duchess of Manchester, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], the Marchioness of Downshire, the Earl and Countess of Lanesborough, the Earl and Countess of Enniskillen, the Earl and Countess of Belmore, the Earl and Countess of Caledon, the Earl and Countess of Gosford, the Earl and Countess of Ranfurley,  and the Earl and Countess of Erne, His Grace the Primate of all Ireland, Mrs. Knox and the Misses Knox. The regiments stationed in the North of Ireland were largely represented. Mr. J. Blakiston-Houston, V.L., as senior trustee of the club, had the honour of taking Lady Londonderry to supper. The Marquis took the Countess of Castlestuart; the Right Hon. Col. Forde, D.L., also a club trustee, Lady Fanny Lambert; Sir Edward Cowan, Lord Lieutenant of the County Antrim, Lady Clanmorris; Captain Cramsie, J.P., High Sheriff of Antrim, Lady O'Neill; Lord Castlestuart, Lady Charlotte Montgomery; Lord Clanmorris, the Hon. Mrs. Alexander; Lord O'Neill, Mrs. Forde; and General Wiseman-Clarke, Mrs. Knox. Dancing was kept up till an early hour on Saturday morning, the ball having proved a genuine success.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Court and Society Notes.&quot; ''Lady's Pictorial'' 18 January 1890, Saturday: 44 [of 60], Col. 1b [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0005980%2F18900118&amp;page=44. Same print title, p. 94.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;The Dublin Daily Express has a much fuller report, including a much longer guest list:&lt;blockquote&gt;Belfast, Friday.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry, who reached Kingstown this morning by the mail steamer Munster from Holyhead, arrived by the Dublin Limited mail in Belfast in the forenoon, and proceeded direct by special train to Newtownards, and thence to Mountstewart, their county Down residence. This evening the Marquis and Marchioness returned to Belfast, and were the principal guests at a grand ball given by the Ulster Club in the Ulster Hall. Upwards of seven hundred and fifty invitations were issued for the ball, and the attendance included the ''elite'' of the North of Ireland. The Ulster Hall presented a most charming appearance. The piazza, vestible, and ladies' and gentlemen's cloakrooms were transformed into beautiful drawingingrooms [sic], fitted up with tasteful draperies, and furnished with suitable furniture, while beautiful evergreens distributed here and there gave the place a really lovely appearance. The large hall was striking and brilliant. The front of the orchestra across the hall was fitted up with silver plate-glass, and this mirroring was draped with crimson silk plush, and reflected the countess lights and surroundings to great advantage. The lofty windows especially looked well, draped and festooned as they were with rich material in gold and blue and white. Crimson Utrecht velvet, festooned with gold sateen, covered the front of the balconies, and the pillars below were also artistically draped with rich material. The corridors were fitted up as refreshment rooms, and also beautifully adorned with draperies of art muslin and other material. The Minor Hall was arranged as a supper room.

The invitations included the following — General Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar and Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Duke and Duchess of Manchester, Duke and Duchess of Abercorn, the Marchioness of Downshire, the Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry, Viscountess Mandeville, Earl and Countess of Lanesborough, Earl and Countess of Enniskillen, Earl and Countess of Belmore, Earl and Countess of Caledon, Earl and Countess of Gosford, Earl and Countess of Ranfurly, Lord Herbert Vane Tempest, Earl and Countess of Erne, Lord and Lady De Ros, Lord and Lady Garvagh, Earl and Countess of Castlestuart and Ladies Muriel and Mary Stuart, Lord and Lady Langford, the Mayor and Mayoress of Belfast, his Grace the Primate of All Ireland, Mr Knox and the Misses Knox, Col Saunderson, MP, and the Hon Mrs Saunderson; Col the Hon Sir West Ridgeway and Lady Ridgeway, Right Hon A J Balfour, Lord A Hill, MP; the Inspector-General RIC. The military included — Headquarter Staff — Major-Gen Wiseman-Clarke, CB, and Mrs Wiseman-Clarke; Capt Wiseman-Clarke, ADC; Major and Mrs Pollock, Capt and Mrs Knocker, Lieut-Col, Mrs, and Miss Parker, Deputy Surgeon-Gen, Mrs, and Miss Tippets — Major and Mrs Brereton, Royal Scots Greys, Major the Hon W P Alexander, and Mrs Alexander; officers Royal Scots Greys, Major the Hon W Alexander and Mrs Alexander; Royal Engineers — Major J Cameron; Gordon Highlanders, Lieut-Col Essex, and officers 2nd Batt Gordon Highlanders — Major, Mrs, and Miss Robertson, Major the Hon J Scott Napier, Mrs Napier, and the Misses Leith, Capt W H Dick-Cunynghan [sic], VC, and Mrs Dick-Cunygham [sic], Capt and Mrs Singlair-Wemyss, Hon W R D Forbes and Mrs Forbes, Black Watch — Colonel Kidston and officers 2nd Batt the Black Watch, Colonel and Mrs Kidston, Major and Mrs Ganter. Capt and Mrs Coode, Capt and Mrs Moulton-Barrett, Mr and Mrs J Stuart, and Capt and Mrs Filmore. Royal Irish Ritles — Colonel Guiness, CB, and officers, Depot, Royal Irish Rifles; Major and Mrs Knox, Capt and Mrs Tobin, Lieut-Colonel Maberley and officers the Royal Scots Greys, Dundalk; Colonel Griffiths and officers 2nd Batt the East Lancashire Regt, Newry; Colonel Kinloch and officers 2nd Batt the Kings Royal Rifle Corps, Enniskillen; Colonel Latham and officers, Royal Artillery, Londonderry; Colonel Hopton, CB, and officers, depot Princess Victoria's, Armagh; Colonel Caldwell and officers depot the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliees [sic], Omagh; Colonel Dickson and officers 5th Dragoon Guards, Dublin; Colonel and Mrs Dickson, Major and Mrs  Bowers, Major and Mrs Bromfield, Captain and Mrs Forster. Medical Staff — Surgeon-Major and Mrs O F Molloy, Surgeon S J Flood, AMS, and Mrs  Flood; Surgeon J Watson, AMS; Surgeon P M Carleton, Surgeon R L Love, Surgeon F A B Daly, Surgeon T Moynihan, Surgeon J  M'Laughlin. Army Pay Department — Captain  and Mrs W M F Trotman, Captain M'Causland. Army Service Corps — Captain A G lnglis, Major Forde, Miss Forde, Miss A Forde, Colonel Wm B Forde and Mrs Forde, the Countess Fingall, Mr H M Herron, RH; Captain and Mrs Greer, Mr and Mrs Edward Greer, Captain G O Gage, RM; and Miss Gage, Lady and the Misses Heygate, Mr J  Blakeston Houston, V L and Mrs Houston, Mr T B Houston and Miss Houston, Captain and Mrs Hobbs, Sir E J Harland, Bart, MP; Captain M'Calmont, MP, and Mrs M'Calmont, W Ellison Macartney, MP; Colonel H B Johnston, Lieutenant Colonel Knox, Dr and Mrs Letts, Captain Lloyd, Lady Fanny Lambert, Major Lambert, Sir Henry Lawrence, Bart; General Montgomery, CSI, and Mrs Montgomery; General Montgomery Moore and the Hon Mrs Moore, Mr and Mrs Harry S Moore, Major J F Mars, Major Somerset Maxwell and Lady Florence Maxwell, Mr and Mrs Stephen Percival Maxwell, Mr Robert Davidson Percival Maxwell, Captain Molesworth, Mr Hugh Montgomery and the Lady Charlotte Montgomery and Miss Evelyn Montgomery; Viscount Massereene and Ferrard, Major R Percival Maxwell, Colonel W E Montgomery, Lieutenant Colonel M'Cance, Miss Eva M'Cance, and Mrs J S M'Cance; Major H S M'Clintock and Miss M'Clintock, Captain and Miss M'Neill, Major M'Cammon, Lieut-General Nugent, Captain H M Orr, Mr James Owens, DL; the Hon R T O'Neill, MP; Lord and Lady O'Neill, Captain Preston, RM, and Mrs Preston, Mr John Preston, Lady Preston, and Mr and Mrs George J Preston, Mr and Mrs W J Perrie, Captain Perry, Captain, Mrs, and Miss Blackwood Price, Dr and Mrs Poole, Rev A H Pakenham, Captain and Mrs Richards, Miss Richardson, Mr Thomas Richardson, Major Rodgers, Mrs Charles H Richardson, Captain John Riky, Mr and Mrs A P Richardson, Mr Robert H Reade, Mr James Theodore Richardson, Mr Charles H Richardson, Captain W L Stronge, Mr C E Stronge, Commander Lester Stuart, Mrs Lester Stuart and Miss Lester Stuart, Miss Stronge and Miss Fanny Stronge, Mr and Mrs Stronge, Dr and Mrs Bryce Smith, Major and Mrs Stokes, Major and Mrs Scarlett, and Mr and the Hon Mrs Southby, Mr and Mrs Thomas R Stanus [sic] and Miss B Staunus [sic], Colonel Stoddert, Sir William and Lady Style, Major H Seymour Allen, Mr Edward and Mrs Archdale, Major A G S Alexander and Mrs Alexander, Major Alason, Major the Hon Chas and Mrs Alexander, Capt Stewart Bruce and Miss Bruce, Capt and Mrs Knox Browne, Miss Knox Browne,  Mr Knox Browne, Mr and Mrs Barbour, Capt St G Burton, Sir Henry and Lady Bruce, Mr and Mrs J M'C Blizard, Miss C J Blizard, Mr and Mrs James Bruce, Mrs Bruce, Miss Bruce and Master Bruce, Col and Mrs Buchanan, Capt Buckle, Miss Erskine Brownrigg, Dr and Mrs J W Browne, Mr R N Batt, Mrs and Miss  Batt, Mr and Mrs Claud Brownlow and Miss Brownlow, Major Boyton, Lord Terence Blackwood, the Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore, Sir Victor and Lady Brook, Mr J M Barbour, Mr E Jones Bristow, Mr Charles Brownlow, Mr William Charley, Miss Charley, Miss L Charley, Mr E J Charley, Mr Arthur Charley, Mr and Mrs Abraham Combe, Miss and Mr R H Crawford, Mr James Craig, Lord and Lady Clanmorris, Captain and Mrs J S Cramsie, Mr Robert Cramsie, Major and Mrs S K Cowan, Sir Edward Porter- Cowan, Lady Cowan, Miss Cowan, Mr Victor Cortes, Mr William Cortes, and Miss Cortes, Mr N Delacherois Crommelin, Captain Carden, Captain Arthur Chambers, RHA; Lady Elizabeth Cochrane, Major Campbell, Mr Colin Campbell, Captain Cuppadge, Mr and Mrs Robert G Dunville. Mr S and the Misses Delacherois, and Miss A J Delacherois, Captain Darwell, Miss de Wind, Lieutenant-General and Mrs Dickey, Rev Freeman and Mrs Dudley, Mr John Dunville, Mr H de Wind, Mr John Torrens and Mrs Torrens, Captain Townsend, Captain J A Torrens, the Town Inspector of Belfast, and Mrs Singleton; Mr H Verner, the Hon Kathleen Ward, the Hon Emily Ward, Colonel and the Misses White, Captain Robert Wallace, Captain R Wallace, the Misses Young, Mr Henry G Young, and Mr Wm R Young.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Grand Ball to the Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry. (From our correspondent.)&quot; ''Dublin Daily Express'' 11 January 1890, Saturday: 5 [of 8], Col. 3a–c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001384%2F18900111&amp;page=5&amp;article=095&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''The Daily Express'', p. 5.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 1890 January 13, Monday ===
==== Wallace-Camp Boxing Match ====
An Important Boxing Match between two 8-stone (112-pound, Bantam-weight) boxers. Lord Mandeville seems to have been an organizer. Nunc (Edwin) Wallace in June of 1890 fought American George Dixon, who defeated Wallace to become the first Black fighter to win a world prize in boxing.&lt;blockquote&gt;Nunc Wallace and G. Camp for £1,000.

On Monday night, at the Ormonde Club, London, the above-named met to do battle for the largest sum of money that has ever been &quot;put up&quot; for a glove contest. That a couple of 8st [8 stone] men could be brought together in a glove contest for the sum of £1,000 would, even in the palmy days of the Prize Ring, have been scouted by the merest tyro in ring matters. Celebrities like Peter Morris, George Holden, Joe Nolan, and Dan Thomas never fought for more than £200, but here we have a stake of £500 a-side freely put down to see who is the better man of the  two. This money, when the match was made last autumn, would have been gladly increased by either side to double the amount, therefore &quot;the fight of his life&quot; is applicable to both George Camp and Edwin (&quot;Nunc&quot;) Wallace.

The match, made so far back as October last was really the outcome of the bout between Camp and Wallace in the second round of an 8st competition, decided at the Royal Aquarium in December, 1888. A very close struggle ensued, so close, indeed, that the judges ordered a fourth round of two minutes. Wallace eventually get- [Col. 2c–3a] ting the award. From the moment the decision was given Camp's friends were dissatisfied, and hence the contract which was signed for Monday night's battle.

With thirteen weeks in which to get fit, neither man was in a hurry to commence work, and the match had been ratified neatly a month before  Wallace took up his quarters at Sutton Coldfield, with Ben Garrington to look after him. Camp journeyed to Brighton with his old trainer, George Bagnall, and it is needless to say neither man wanted for anything. Thinking a change desirable, Wallace a mouth ago also made a move to Brighton, where his interests were studied to the minutest detail by Mr. Sam Mordecai. Both men were waited on hand and foot. Mr. Sam Blandford, representing Camp's backer, took up residence in the famous watering-place, and hardly ever lost sight of the Bermondsey youth. On the other hand Wallace hardly ever drank out of a pot that Mr. Sam Mordecai did not examine, and in this way the men progressed satisfactorily in their training. 

Lords and Dukes begged for the &quot;tip&quot; as to where the meeting would be in vain, and letters from legal luminaries, magistrates and city magnates came in shoals to those entrusted with the management. The backers on each side were obdurate, and at the final deposit the names of the fortunate &lt;nowiki&gt;''&lt;/nowiki&gt;thirty&quot; agreed upon, were handed in. 

The men were articled to weigh at twelve o'clock on Monday, and so as not to attract attention it was decided this important part of the programme should be performed at Brighton. Accordingly the scales having been fixed in Camp's bedroom, the rivals, in the presence of Lord  Mandeville, Mr. E W Bayly, Mr. Derriman, Mr. Sam Blandfold, and Mr. Dunning, and their trainers, &quot;tipped the beam[.]&quot; Wallace was the first to &quot;pass,&quot; weighing 8ths 8st 1 1/2lb stripped. Camp failing to reach this by half a pound, also clothed in Nature's garb. Both looked in splendid trim, though Camp's ruddy complexion was more taking to the eye than the pale appearance of &quot;Nunc.&quot; 

Wallace was attired in black drawers with a gold stripe, red socks, and black rubber-soled shoes. Camp was all in white, with canvas shoes, and amidst almost oppressive silence they faced each other at 8.50 p.m. 

The Contest 

... 

Round 15 and Iast. The doctoring of Harper and Habbijam brought Camp round before he had again to face the music, but he looked very bad indeed when the watch holder gave the word to start once more. It was only a question of a few minutes, for Wallace was as yet little the worse for the struggle so far, while on Camp's part there was everything to fear. The latter, however, without the slightest trace of the &quot;white feather,&quot; sprang up and met Wallace full of confidence, the latter coming at his weak opponent with a straight left on the face. The &quot;Brum forced&quot; Camp back to the ropes, and then smashed the left on the mouth, and only just missed with the right. Still having the best of it he popped in the left again, and down Camp went Iike a log through the ropes. In quicker time than it takes to tell the Surrey boxer was up and at it once more, but with a manifest disadvantage. Receiving right and left on the head he again went down, and in falling strunk his head against the skirting board outside the ring. Wallace stood over him, but at respectable distance, like a Roman gladiator, and the smile which played round his features, was one of victory, for Camp this time was beaten. Failing to rise within the stipulated ten second[s], Mr Angle awarded the fight to Wallace, the round having lasted 2min 45sec. The award was received with exulting shouts by the friends of Wallace, and the clever little boxer was at once raised shoulder high and lifted from the ring. Poor Camp soon came to, but was terribly cut up over his defeat, and for a time refused to be comforted. Wallace, recognising the pluck and ability of his vanquished foe, shook hands in kindly fashion, and thus ended one of the best conducted of modern contests with the gloves. Time of contest, 58 min 45secs.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;A Great Glove Fight.&quot; ''Dublin Sporting News'' 17 January 1890, Friday: 3 [of 4], Col. 2c–4x [of 4]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004807%2F18900117&amp;page=3&amp;article=022&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;

===16 January 1890, Thursday===
&lt;blockquote&gt;About two hundred members of the newly formed Dulwich Literary and Scientific Association attended the conversazione given on Jan. 16 at Surrey House Museum, Forest Hill, when Mr. Horniman, F.R.G.S., acted as cicerone round the rooms, richly stored with historical relics, ornithological curiosities, and art treasures.&lt;ref&gt;''Illustrated London News'' (London, England), Saturday, January 25, 1890; pg. 120; Issue 2649, Col. 3.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 1890 January 21, Tuesday ===
The marriage of Baron S. Alfred Oppenheim and Miss Florence Hutchins:&lt;blockquote&gt;In the church of St. Mary Abbotts, Kensington, the marriage took place of Baron S. Alfred von Oppenberm and Miss Florence Hutchins, daughter of Mrs. Parkinson Sharp, of Palace-gate. The Hon. and Rev E. Carr Glyn and the Rev. Henry White, M.A., officiated. Among those who attended the reception afterwards held were Prince and Princess Malcom Khan, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Viscountess Mandeville]], Dowager Countess of Harrington, Admiral Sir Edward Inglefield, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Lady Cottenham, and General Du Plat.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;London Day by Day.&quot; ''Daily Telegraph &amp; Courier'' (London) 22 January 1890, Wednesday: 5 [of 8], Col. 3b [of 8]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001112%2F18900122&amp;page=5&amp;article=080&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''Daily Telegraph'', p. 5.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;The ''Pall Mall Gazette'' has a description that is slightly more full. Is Count von Alten related to [[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Louisa, Duchess of Manchester]]?&lt;blockquote&gt;At St. Mary Abbots, Kensington, yesterday, the marriage took place of Baron S. Alfred Von Oppenheim, only son of Baron Edward Von Oppenheim, of Cologne and Schloss Schlenderham, and Miss Florence Hutchins, only daughter of Mrs. Parkinson Sharp, of 10, Palace-gate. The service was fully choral, the officiating clergy being the Hon. R. E. Carr-Glyn, rector of St. Mary Abbots, and the Rev. Henry White, M.A., chaplain in ordinary to the Queen. The bride, who was given away by her stepfather, Mr Parkinson Sharp, wore a plain dress of rich white ivory satin, elaborately draped with real orange blossoms. Count C. Von Leyden, Councillor of the German Embassy, attended the Baron as best man. Half a dozen bridesmaids followed the bride elegantly attired in costumes of white cashmere, with white corded silk sashes. They were Miss Aim e [sic] Winslow, Miss Emry Von Oppenheim, Miss Vitty Von Oppenbeim, Miss Potter, Miss Eleanor Heywood, and Miss Seymour. The reception was given at Mrs. Parkinson Sharp's town residence, 10, Palace-gate, Kensington, which was largely attended among those present being Prince and Princess Malcom Khan, Baron and Baroness E. von Oppenheim, Baron Max Oppenheim, Baron von Wedd Yarlsberg, Countess de Bunsen, Baron and Baroness de Plency, Count von Alten, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Viscountess Mandeville]], Dowager Countess of Harrington, Admiral Sir Edward Inglefield, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Lady Cottenham, General Du Plat, &amp;c.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Marriage of Baron S. Alfred Von Oppenheim.&quot; ''Pall Mall Gazette'' 22 January 1890, Wednesday: 7 [of 8m], Col. 2c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000098%2F18900122&amp;page=7&amp;article=016&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 1890 January 28, Tuesday ===
According to the ''Dundee Evening Telegraph'' on 28 January 1890 people were buying &quot;Exploration&quot; shares, which funded exploration expeditions with the possibility of rights to minerals or resources or the development of monopolies for goods that were &quot;discovered.&quot;&lt;blockquote&gt;Royalty and the peerage have gone in for &quot;Exploration&quot; shares. The Duchess of Albany is the possessor of fifty shares, which hardly seems to assume the dimensions of a royal investment. Certainly the general public would incline to the idea that a princess would never condescend to invest so small a sum as £25 in anything unless it were a hat or a jacket. The Duke of Fife, on the other hand, has been allotted a thousand shares. The Duchess of Manchester and the Countess of Mandeville have thirty each.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Notes — Mainly Personal.&quot; ''Dundee Evening Telegraph'' 28 January 1890, Tuesday: 2 [of 4], Col. 2b [of my 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000453%2F18900128&amp;page=2&amp;article=001&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''Evening Telegraph'', n.p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 1890 January 29, Wednesday ===
[[Social Victorians/Santurce Murrieta Wedding 1890-01-29|Santurce Murrieta Wedding 1890-01-29]]

=== 1890 January 30, Thursday, through at least 1890 February 8, Saturday ===
Kim, Lord Mandeville was in Brighton — at 80, King's-road — at least as early as 30 January.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Brighton Visitors.&quot; ''Brighton Gazette'' 30 January 1890, Thursday: 3 [of 8], Col. 2a [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000938%2F18900130&amp;page=3&amp;article=073&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''Brighton Gazette and Sussex Telegraph'', p. 3.&lt;/ref&gt; The ''Lady's Pictorial'' lists &quot;recent arrivals&quot; in Brighton:&lt;blockquote&gt;Though a good many people have left Brighton, still fresh visitors arrive, and the front is crowded when the weather is a little kind. Amongst the most recent arrivals may be mentioned the Countess of Strafford, Lady Susan Byng, Lady Chelmsford, Lord and Lady Seaton, Lady Jane Grimston, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lord Mandeville]], Lord Romilly and the Hon. John Romilly, Viscount and Viscountess Hampden, the Hon. R. Somerset, the Hon.  Thomas Dundas, the Hon. Sidney Greville, the Hon. A. W. Verney Cave, Lady Elizabeth Cartwright, Colonel Sir Alfred and Lady Kirby, Mr. Bazley White, M.P., and Lady Bazley White, Sir Hugh Montgomery, Sir Frederick and Lady Perkins, Lady Ellis, General Seymour, &amp;c., &amp;c.&lt;ref&gt;Dorothy. &quot;Brighton Notes.&quot; ''Lady's Pictorial'' 8 February 1890, Saturday: 51 [of 60], Col. 3a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0005980%2F18900208&amp;page=51&amp;article=671&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title, p. 203.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

==February 1890==

=== 1890 February 6, Thursday ===

Before 6 February but not long before. The prize-fighter Pete Jackson fought a match at the New Pelican Club.&lt;blockquote&gt;It is always well to hear that distinguished visitors have enjoyed the hospitality which we have extended to them. This satisfaction is afforded us in full measure by the eminent &quot;Parson&quot; Davis, manager of Pete Jackson, the prize-fighter, who has just been regaling an American interviewer with an account of his experiences in England:—

He had been treated in splendid style, and Jackson was received well everywhere. Nothing would give him greater pleasure than to revisit England, and he hoped soon to do so. &quot;I shook a paw with the Prince,” said the parson. &quot;We had a high old time with Albert E. His Royal Highness was exceptionally friendly with Jackson, and actually made a pump handle of his arm. He shook hands with him again and again. The Prince is in capital  health, and&quot; ——

But at this point the interviewer mysteriously breaks off.

The Prince, however, was not the only British notable to whom Parson Davis referred. He explained that the cause of the trouble with Smith at the New Pelican Club was that the gloves furnished Jackson were too small in the fingers, and when he closed his hand he almost split them, and could not fight. The matter was explained to the officers of the Club, where the fight took place, and other gloves were procured for Jackson:—


Fair play was given, and the audience, which included [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lords Mandeville]] and Lonsdale, were loud in their admiration of Jackson's skill.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;The Tittle Tattle of the Week.&quot; ''Pall Mall Budget'' 6 February 1890, Thursday: 4 [of 36], Col. 1b [of 2]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0005967%2F18900206&amp;page=4. Same print title, p. 162.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
==== The Fracas at the Trocadero ====
This report from the ''Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal'', 12 January 1890, has paragraphs with gossip; the middle paragraph is not about Lord Mandeville, and the paragraph that follows these is about an epidemic in London; could it be the Russian flu?&lt;blockquote&gt;A great stir has been caused in London by the repert [sic] — only too well authenticated I regret to say — to the effect that a certain individual, who for some years past has been connected somewhat prominently alike with journalism and theatrical enterprise, has suddenly levanted [sic] in consequence of his name being associated with the recent West End scandals. What makes the matter all the more talked about is the fact that the person most concerned has for a long time posed as a conspicuous figure in Society, having given numerous receptions and himself being strongly to the fore at most of the big banquets, first nights and similar gatherings. He has hob-nobbed, in fact, with the wealthy and illustrious, but there is every reason to believe that his pleasant career has been prematurely cut short by a series of disclosures, which are too gross and too scandalous to be referred to in detail. The report is all the talk at the clubs.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Notes of the Week.&quot; ''Eddowes's Shrewsbury Journal'' 15 January 1890, Wednesday: 3 [of 12], Col. 2b [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001504%2F18900115&amp;page=3. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
=== 12 February 1890, Wednesday ===

==== Lady Constance Leslie's Reception ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;On Wednesday last Lady Constance Leslie had an evening party at her residence in Stratford-place.&lt;p&gt;

The numerous guests included Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe, Princess Victor of Hohenlohe, and the Countesses Gleichen, the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Count Mensdorf, Count and Countess Henry Lützow, Mr. and Mrs. Henry White, Baroness de Brienen and Mdlles de Brienen, the Duke of Abercorn, the Duchess of Cleveland, the Marchioness of Blandford and Lady Frances Spencer Churchill, Earl and Countess of Portarlington, Earl Stanhope, the Earl of Northbrook, the Earl and Countess of Arran, the Earl and Countess of Erne and the Ladies Cole, Julia Countess of Jersey and Mr. Brandling, Viscount Clifden, Viscountess Bary, Viscount Torrington, Viscount and Viscountess Castlerosse and Lady Louisa Beauclerk, Viscount and Viscountess de Vesci and Lady Sarah Spencer, Viscountess Galway, and Mr Caryl Ramsden, Lord de L'Isle and Dudley, Lord Alcester, Lord and Lady Wantage, Lord Ashbourne, Lady Henry Grosvenor and Lady G. Ogilvy, Lady Cloncurry, Lord Morris and Mr. M. Morris, Lady Charles Beresford, Lord Rowton, Lady Blanche Hozier, Lady Colville, Lady Rayleigh, Lady Constance Lytton and Mr. Charles Earle, Lady Evelyn Sutton, Lady Ernest Seymour and Ladies Fortescue, Lord and Lady Sandhurst, Lady Mary Lloyd, Lady Tweedmouth, Lady Windsor, Lord and Lady William Seymour, Lady Guy Campbell, Lady Egerton, Lady Fitzgerald, Baron d'Erlanger and Mr. Charles Derenberg, Hon. R. C. Spencer, M.P., and Mrs. Spencer, Hon. Evelyn Ashley, Hon. W. Mansfield, Hon. Lionel Ashley, Hon. A. Hood, Hon. William Lowther and Miss Lowther, Hon. Sydney Greville, Hon. Fitzroy and Mrs. Stewart, Hon. Frederick Leveson Gower, Hon. Kenneth Howard, Hon. Francis Villiers, Hon. Francis Bertie, Hon. Arthur Walsh, Colonel the Hon. Charles Edgcumbe, General Hon. John Bourke, General and Hon. Mrs. Ellis and Mrs. R. Sneyd and Miss Ellis, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Algernon and Mrs. Bourke]], Hon. Alan and Hon. Evan Charteris, Hon. Alexander Yorke, Hon. Derek Keppel, General Sir Dighton Probyn, Hon. Percy Wyndham, Hon. Everard Baring and Hon. Susan Baring, Hon. Mrs. Brett, Hon. Claud Hay, the Right Hon. Henry Matthews, Sir George Arthur, Sir George Maude, Sir Philip Currie, C.B., Sir Redvers and Lady Audrey Buller, Sir Charles Grant, Sir Mackenzie Wallace, Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P., Sir Oscar Clayton, Sir Robert Gresley, Sir Algernon West and Mr. Horace West, Sir George and Lady Russell and Miss Brackenbury, Sir Henry and Lady Longley, the Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal, General Crealock, General Charles Fraser, Colonel Saunderson, M.P., and Hon. Mrs. Saunderson, Colonel and Mrs. Stewart and Miss Streatfeild [siv], Colonel and Miss Balfour, Colonel and Mrs. Stanley Clarke and Miss Clarke, Colonel R. Baring, Captain and Mrs. Jekyll, Captain and Mrs. J. Bagot, Captain Lambert Ward, Captain A. Bagot, Mr. Charles Hall, Q.C, M.P., Mr[.] Hussey Walsh, M.P., Mr and Mrs. W. Hartpole Lecky, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Combe, Mr Henry Foley, Mrs. Arbuthnot and Miss Guthrie, Mr. and Mrs. Heseltine and Miss Dorothy Heseltine and Lord Cantelupe, the Miss Stopford Brooke, Mr. and Mrs. Thackeray Ritchie, Mr Edmund Byng, Mr. and Mrs. Wilton Phipps, Professor Sidney Colvin, Mr. and Miss Tennant, Mr. Godfrey Webb, Mr. and Mrs. Turton and Mr. Sidney Ponsonby, Mrs. Adare, Mrs Cecil Paget and Mr. Hugo Wemyss, Mrs. L. Drummond, Mr. and Mrs E. Hope, Mrs. L. Seymour and Miss Seymour, Mr. Guy Repton, Mr. and Mrs. Julian Sturgis and Miss Beresford, Mr. Poynter, R.A., Mrs. Daniel Cooper, Mr. Hamilton Aïdé, Mr. Alwyne Maude, Mrs. C. Bentinck, Mrs. Bingham Mildmay, Mr. Philip Habord, Mr. and Mrs. George Bulteel, Mrs. Beerbohm Tree and Miss Julia Neilson, Mr. Hallé [Halle?], Mr. Rudolph Lehmann and Miss Lehmann, [[Social Victorians/People/Fanny Ronalds|Mr. R. Ronalds]], Mr. Ellice, Mr. Arthur, Madame Blumenthal, Miss Julia Leslie, Mr. and Mrs. Jeune, Mr and Mrs. Charles Stuart-Wortley and Misses Millais, Mrs. Arkwright, Mr Joachim, Mr. Gillett, Mr. Pulteney (Scots Guards), Colone| Cuthbert Larking, Mr. Harry Higgins, M. Tividar Nachez, Mr. G. Ross, Herr Johannes Woolff, Mrs. Charles Bagot and Miss Bagot, Mrs. Bischoffsheim, Mr. Henry Petre, Miss Balch, Mr. and Lady Maud Ramsden, Mr. Adolphus Liddell, Mr Knowles, Mr. Grenfell, Mr. Edward Hamilton, Mrs. Henry Gordon and Miss Gordon, Mr. Henry James, Mr. St. Leger, Mrs. Dacre Hamilton and the Misses Nugent, Mr. Harbord, Mr Somerset, Mr. Ruggles-Brise, Mr. and Miss Hughes of Kinmel, Mr. and Mrs Douglas Freshfield, Mrs. Homer, Mr. W. H. Mallock, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Benson, Mr. H. Seymour, Mr. Ernest Law, Mr. Hugh Grimston, Mr. Lionel Cust, Mr. Chappell, Mr. and Mrs. Du Maurier, Mr. Boughton, R.A., and Mrs. Boughton, Mr. R. Roche, Mr. Montagu Wilson, Mr. Herbert Hope, &amp;c.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Lady Constance Leslie's Reception.&quot; ''Morning Post'' 15 February 1890, Saturday: 2 [of 8], Col. 5c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900215/008/0002. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 24 February 1890, Monday ===
Lilly Langtry starred in Shakespeare's ''As You Like It'' at the St. James's Theatre. The Daily Telegraph had a long review and mentioned more names:&lt;blockquote&gt;
The motto of Petronius, which is said to have adorned the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare's time, &quot;Totus mundus agit histrionem,&quot; and which is reproduced in Jaques' famous speech, may be said to have received a novel illustration in the brilliant audience which completely filled the St. James's Theatre last evening. A very distinguished section of the world &quot;played the actor&quot; in the stalls, boxes, and dress-circle, and evinced the keenest dramatic interest in the long-deferred production of &quot;As You Like It.&quot; The Prince and Princess of Wales, with the Duchess of Fife, surveyed the scene from the Royal box, while amongst the many who secured seats for the first were the Austrian Ambassador, the [[Social Victorians/People/Louisa Montagu Cavendish|Duchess of Manchester]], Countess de Grey, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Viscountess Mandeville]], Lady Colin Campbell, Lord Wolverton, Lord and Lady Coleridge, Sir Charles Russell, Sir Edward and Lady Guinness, Baroness de Stern, and Mr. Alfred Rothschild. Naturally enough there was much curiosity in seeing once more on the London stage an actress who has since her last appearance devoted so much serious study to her profession, and gained so much success both before American and provincial audiences; while the sympathy evoked by her recent severe illness, delaying for four weeks the production of the comedy, added an almost pathetic note to the general excitement and enthusiasm. In the second scene of the first act, when the tenderly attached cousins make their earliest appearance on the stage, Celia's first words, &quot;| pray thee, Rosalind, sweet, my coz, be merry,&quot; answered by Rosalind’s &quot;Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress of,&quot; were almost drowned in the applause which accompanied the  recognition of Mrs. Langtry. From time to time, whenever opportunity served, enthusiasm broke out anew, culminating in the triumph of plaudits which formed the fit ending to the gracefully-delivered epilogue with which Rosalind takes her farewell of her audience. There can be no doubt that, with all due allowance for the inevitable nervousness which accompanied a first production before a critical though sympathetic house, the revival of the immortal comedy was generally pronoanced to be a success.

The fancifally-named &quot;As You Like It&quot; — where even in nomenclature the author confesses his indebtedness to the romance of Thomas Lodge — with greater dullness than is usually the case with Shakespeare's plays. Indeed interest is hardly aroused till the scene before the Duke's Palace, where Rosalind and Celia witness the wrestling — which after a few more performances will probably go less stagily than it did last night — between Charles and Orlando. It is only when we are transported to the Forest of Arden that Shakespeare's romantic fancy allows itself full course, and it was only when she was accoutred in the doublet and hose that Mrs. Langtry exercised her full charm upon the audience. The difficulty for the actress in the character of Rosalind is the contrast between the early abandon of her frankly-expressed love for the son of Rowland de Bois and the subsequent archness and reserve with which she plays with her lover in the forest. Orlando goes through precisely an opposite change. From the careless desperateness of a man who is out of favour with fortune in the opening scene, he changes to the sentimental devotion of a &quot;love-shaked fancy-monger&quot; in the sylvan glades. If that interchange of parts be missed much is lost in the sprightly  contrasts of the drama. Unfortunately, no sooner did Orlando enter on the wrestling-ground last night, than he started and caught at his heart in obvious suggestion of love at first sight. Much is lost of the utter wonderment at Rosalind’s unexpected graciousness in giving him her chain, which keeps him tongue-tied later, if he betrays so early the fatal ravages of Cupid — a betrayal which is hardly likely in a man whom neglect and misery have driven to the last stage of reckless hardihood. Rosalind must love her champion before her winning thanks for his prowess have made the starred younger brother first marvel at and then adore the frank and generous advances of his benefactress. In the fine words, &quot;My father was no traitor,&quot; Mrs. Langtry rose to the full height of the character she was depicting. Throughout the greater part of the first act there was grace, loveableness, charm, but also a kind of flatness, or, at all events, an even and somewhat uninteresting level of characterisation which did not convey the promise of all that this loveliest creation in Shakespeare's gallery could do, when the Court life was exchanged for the freer and less conventional existence in the woods.

All the more praise, therefore, is Mrs. Langtry’s due, that when she finds herself in the Forest of Arden, she brings before us a truer Rosalind. The beautiful first scene between the disguised Ganymede and her amorous swain showed Mrs. Langtry at her best. The quick and nimble wit, the archness and pretty coquetry of a girl who is sick at heart with love and feeds her passion in a playful and adorable tyrannising over the unconscious lover, were depicted with a reality which won instant recognition from the spectators. For the rest, however, Mrs. Langtry’s Rosalind was an unequal performance, now rising with unexpected force into the regions of pure comedy, now sinking to an ordinary level of  uncomfortably-disguised womanishness. There were bright patches of power in the midst of a somewhat dull and colourless expanse. Much of this was, no doubt, due to the excitement and fatigue of a first night, to which also may be attributed possibly the sameness of some of her gestures and a restlessness which was something more than Rosalind's anxiety to win in her own incomparable way the happiness of which she was in search. A few nights hence firmness of carriage and self-control of manner will fill in the details of a character which was most graphically and sympathetically sketched in outline at the St. James’s last night. Mr Laurence Cautley as Orlando made most favourable impression on his audience. Through all the earlier scenes — with the exception of that wholly unnecessary lapse into amorousness on the lawn of Duke Frederick, which has been already noted — he sustained the character of a picturesque and youthful gallant with considerable success, though, possibly, a stronger dash of manly independence might not have come amiss to the Shakespearean hero. Touchstone is a more difficult part to play. Indeed, in some respects, he is the most difficult of all Shakespeare's clowns. He is on the borderland between the earlier, more conventional style of Costard, Launce, and Launcelot, and the far more elaborate and important clowns in &quot;Twelfth Night&quot; and &quot;King Lear.&quot; He is not so clever as Feste, not so human and real as that inimitable and tender-hearted Edgar who tries to solace the wild ravings of his discrowned king. He is halfway between such farcical beings as Kempe and Tarlton probably depicted, and that witty, self-conscious, irresponsible Jester, which Shakespeare ultimately made an entirely new creation on Elizabethan boards. It is no discredit to Mr. Sugden that he failed to realise so ingenious a conception. He presented a Touchstone who was full of amusing quips, and he went through all the catalogue of points in the Book of Honour in the fifth act with admirable skill; the Touchstone of &quot;As You Like It&quot; we are probably not likely to see often on the modern stage. Mr. Bourchier’s Jaques was a far higher piece of portraiture, grave and bitter and cynical as that early disciple of Schopenhauer should be, with touches of humour which only serve to show the depths of a naturally perverse and misanthropical nature. The celebrated &quot;Seven Ages&quot; speech  was capitally delivered, with a conscientious care and easy mastery which are rare enough in an actor who has so lately left the ranks of the amateurs. For the rest, the Adam of Mr Everill, and the Andrey of Miss Marion Lea seemed to give most pleasure to the audience, though she was sometimes — espectally in the pronunciation of the word &quot;poetry&quot; — inclined to represent the boorishness of the wench with an accent  which reproduced simulated inebriation rather than native clumsiness. Miss Armbruster as Hymen also deserves a word of praise. The piece was produced under the direction of the Hon. Lewis Wingfield, and the scenery, which in the Forest Glade of Acts II., III., and IV., formed a beautiful stage picture, was designed by Messrs. Perkins and Bruce Smith.

After all, was any one ever wholly satisfied with the representaton of one of Shakespeare's comedies? No thing is further from the truth as a general statement than the pedant’s theory that Shakespeare is for the study, and not for the boards. If ever, however, the paradox be true that a great dramatic artist suffers when his plays gain a dramatic representation, it is when &quot;As You Like It,&quot; &quot;Twelfth Night&quot; and &quot;Midsummer Night's Dream&quot; are brought face to face with a modern audience and amid nineteenth century surroundings. It ts not with impunity that the light that never was on sea and land is parodied by the glare of the footlights. For, honest stage-craftsman as Shakespeare was, in the full spring-tide of his poetic genius there was a divine and masterful intolerance of the real and the commonplace, a reckless flight into an ideal world, peopled by beings coined in the mint of his dainty imagination — aerial and disembodied creations whose actions and characters refuse to submit themselves to the narrow rules of the every-day world. In such a sphere banished lovers shall be predestined to meet and cement their happy unions, and lions and snakes shall be the habitual denizens of a forest where shepherds and shepherdesses prattle their erotic strains, and even a crafty Oliver shall repent of his past sins and fall in love with gentle Celia, owing to the poetic exigencies of Cloud Cuckoo Land. How can one  see all these things with the cynical eye of the modern ''Fin de Siècle'' and not feel an inevitable shock of dissatisfaction and surprise? How is it possible to avoid the jarring sense of discord when the dream picture is realised in the setting of prosaic reality? For Shakespeare's comedy is a romantic work of the mind, a refuge for all those delightful improbabilities which an indolent or whimsical fancy strings together to construct a series of complications and incidents which interest us, while they elude the sober tests of reason and judgment. But we must not carry this vein of thought too far. It is true that we have in such plays comedies of incident rather than of character. Yet Shakespeare is too and heart-whole to linger only at the Ivory gate. He throws even into these merry plots the force of that instinctive knowledge of human nature which produces real personages, tricked out in witty and imaginative guise. Shakespeare was able to pour everything into his comedies which he did into his tragedies, though in the one there is only suggestion, while in the other there is the elaboration of that is deep and tragic as well as humorous in life. Rosalid, Orlando, Touchstone, and Jaques are none the less real because they are ideal; and it is on these grounds that we can praise the conscientious and capable artists who presented these characters in flesh and blood on the St. James's stage. Nor does Shakespeare, as some have thought, intend in this play to preach [Col. 1c–2a]  any polemic against the life of the town, or compose any passionate encomium for the simple graces of the country. He is too great to be didactic on such narrow issues. Wherever men and women live, there they can be happy; or, as Touchstone says to Corin, when he expresses ignorance of the Court, one-sided enthusiasts for either streets or hedge-rows are truly damned, &quot;like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side.&quot; Equanimity, such that of the Duke and old Adam, carries with it, wherever it be, the gracious gentleness of an eternal Eden.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;St. James's Theatre.&quot; ''Daily Telegraph &amp; Courier'' (London) 25 February 1890, Tuesday: 5 [of 12], Col. 6a–7a [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001112%2F18900225&amp;page=5&amp;article=048&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''The Daily Telegraph'', p. 5.

&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
The ''St. James's Gazette'' reported:&lt;blockquote&gt;
We came intending to like it very much, and we succeeded in our intention. Indeed, we spent a really pleasant evening at the St. James's Theatre, Many of us knew one another to nod to, and some of us had bowing acquaintance with the author of the play; so it was all very sociable and comfortable. There were just enough shop-window celebrities to give an air of distinction to the rest of the audience, and everybody had a right to hope that his neighbours were wondering who he was. The critics were quite at their ease, having nothing to criticise except the acting; not being expected to suggest any slight alterations in the play (such as cutting out Acts I., III., and V., and rewriting Acts II. and IV.), but just to accept it as it stood, without even tracing it back to the French vaudeville from which it was, no doubt, originally adapted.

The performance had many individual merits, but it also had two general faults. The first and least striking fault was that the interludes were  slurred over instead of being played up to. Now, the plot of &quot;As You Like It&quot; is so loose that a lengthy interlude (provided it be pretty) does not check the flow of interest; indeed, it gives a welcome rest and allows you to pick up your thoughts again. The other fault is one which may be, and is likely to be, remedied the play goes on. But at present it is neither smart nor spontaneous: the parts do not hang well together, and there is none of the enthusiasm which helps to pass off the interior performances of less skilful actors. The deficiency which we have noted was probably due to the serious illness from which Mrs. Langtry had been suffering and from which it was evident last night that she had not made a complete recovery. She worked very hard as Rosalind, and worked very well, and several times she made a really good hit; she was, perhaps, at her best in her indignant appeal to the usurper Duke against his unexpected and unjust decree of banishment. She was charming, again, in her embarrassment (as Miss Litton was charming before her) when she had her first meeting with her unconscious lover and she suggested very cleverly the absence of her skirts. She did her love-making archly and merrily; but though the pretended pretence gave her a right to go beyond the limits of maiden coyness, she seemed occasionally to assume the masculine Initiative when the feminine Suggestive would have been prettier. it was a pleasant though uneven performance, with plenty of grace in it and plenty of brains. The Touchstone of Mr. Sugden was in every way admirable — crisp, humorous, and distinctive. That his clowning was occasionally tedious was no fault of his. The palate of a modern audience does not relish these long-drawn pedantries of buffoonery. Our sense of humour is not more refined — it is different, and that's the end of it. But in the scenes with Audrey (and Miss Marion Lea made a capital Audrey — open-mouthed and innocently wicked or wickedly innocent) Mr. Sugden had a better opportunity and he made the most of it. There the humour was not conventional, and the audience enjoyed a laugh which was not scholarly. A word of praise must given to Mr. Brodie for his conscientious and effective rendering of the difficult and ungrateful part of the moonstruck lover of the wayward Phoebe. The first appearance of Mr. Bourchier in London attracted much interest. As an amateur at Oxford and elsewhere he was believed Iikely to to great things upon the stage, and his performance of Jaques was by no means a disappointment. The fault of it was that he did not suggest either the melancholy or the sententiousness which we associate with the character. The melancholy was but skin-deep, and the sententiousness simply was not there. But every actor has a right to read a part in his own way if it is a good way. And there is much to said for Mr. Bourchier's interpretation of Jaques. The temptation is to be stagy; Mr. Bourchier's tendency is to be natural. And he carried it out with great success in speaking the lines of the Seven Ages of Man. He caught up the Duke's phrase just as if it had dropped in the course of an ordinary conversation; and he played with it for a time until it seemed of itself to suggest to his mind the famous soliloquy. Certainly Mr. Bourchier’s method was effective, as it drew one of the heartiest rounds of applause in the whole evening.

Among the company were noticed the following well known persons:— His  Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Fife, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], Lord De Grey, Mr. Alfred De Rothschild, Lord Lurgan, Sir Charles Russell, Sir Edward Guinness, Lady Colin Campbell, Lady Curzon, Lady Londonderry, Lady Hothfield, Hon. Alan Charteris, Mr. Oscar Wilde, Mr. Akers Douglas, M.P., Mr. Justin McCarthy, M.P., Sir Allen Young, Lord and Lady Coleridge, the Austrian Ambassador, the Spanish Ambassador, Lady Hozier, Mr. George Lewis, Mr. Whistler, Lady Greville [&lt;nowiki/&gt;[[Social Victorians/People/Lady Violet Greville|Lady Violet Greville]]?].&lt;ref&gt;&quot;As You Like It.&quot;  ''St James's Gazette'' 25 February 1890, Tuesday: 5 [of 16], Col. 1b–c [of 2]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001485%2F18900225&amp;page=5&amp;article=027&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p.

&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
This report is from ''Blalud, The Bath Society Paper'':&lt;blockquote&gt;Happily, there was no disappointment in store for the friends and admirers of Mrs. Langtry, who gathered on Monday night at the St. James’s Theatre in great force, to welcome this popular lady back to London and receive her with an extra warmth of cordiality in token of satisfaction at her recovery from her recent severe illness. Eight years have elapsed since she last played Rosalind in London. Since then she has travelled much, both at home and abroad, and followed the study and practice of her art with unfailing spirit and determination. She returns to the character which all leading actresses aspire to play in Shakespeare’s glorious dream of the Court of Duke Frederick and the forest of Arden a far riper artist, and, says the ''Daily News'', she presented us on Monday with an impersonation which compared to her former efforts is as the finished portrait to the crude sketch. Her performance may lack the great high tide of girlish impulsiveness, but first nights before an exceptionally critical audience and some remains of the languor of her recent indisposition doubtless contributed to rob her acting of something of its force and impulse. But her ''Rosalind'' remains a most winning and beautiful performance. A handsomer ''Rosalind'', or one that has worn the doublet and hose with more grace and picturesqueness (Mrs, Langtry, we may here note, scorns the modern heresy of boots, and appears in the more orthodox hose cross-gartered), has certainly not been seen in our time. The performance is full of good points; as when at the words, &quot;here on the skirts of this forest like the fringe of a petticoat,&quot; she remembers with a momentary touch of maidenly shyness that petticoats no longer form part of her attire. Again, when in bantering her lover, who exhibits so strange an inability to recognize the voice and features of the woman whom he passionately loves, she pauses at &quot;a beard neglected,&quot; and pointing at ''Orlando’s'' smooth chin bursts into uncontrollable laughter; again, when in the mock marriage scene, with ''Celia'' for the priest, her mind for the moment seems to wander away into such a dream as this mockery might suggest to one so deeply in love. The distinguishing feature of the impersonation, indeed, is the subtle suggestion of serious passion that underlies the frolicsome and bantering moods, and exhibits itself again and again in many subtle forms. The play is beautifully put on the stage, and if some of the performers fall a long way short of ideal excellence there are several impersonations that stand forth in strong relief and are of far more than common excellence. The ''Phœbe'' and ''Silvius'' of Miss Beatrice Lamb and Mr. Matthew Brodie deserve special note: but the most brilliant success of all in the case of the minor characters was undoubtedly the ''Audrey'' of Miss Marion Lee, whose hoydenish, but not ungraceful antics, whose happy, contented ignorance, whose mingled wonderment and admiration at ''Touchstone's'' philosophical utterances were admirable. Everything that taste can suggest has been done to embellish the play; the musical features are strengthened by an efficient chorus, and the costumes designed by the Hon. Lewis Wingfield are rich and handsome. Perhaps it might be objected that Mrs. Langtry’s beautiful green velvet doublet, with its slashes, tags, and laces, her cinnamon jerkin, her black cap and jewelled buckle, and her rich and massive cloak were hardly suited to her daring enterprise on the highways and in the forests of the Duke’s dominions. The restoration of Hymen, gracefully represented by Miss Violet Armbruster, and the final morris dance in honour of the nuptials, gave the crowning fanciful touch to the performance, and prepared the spectators for the playful epilogue, which was spoken by Mrs. Langtry, in her simple nuptial white robe and leopard skin, with rare elocutionary grace and effect,. [sic]

The audience which greeted Mrs. Langtry was at once distinguished and interesting. The Royal box was occupied by the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duchess of Fife, the Princesses Victoria and Maud of Wales, and the Duke of Fife. Among the representatives of &quot;Society&quot; were Lady Londonderry, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], Lord de Grey, Lord and Lady Coleridge, Lady Curzon, Lady Hothfield, Lord Lurgan, Lady Greville [&lt;nowiki/&gt;[[Social Victorians/People/Lady Violet Greville|Lady Violet Greville]]?], Lady Hozier, Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, Sir Charles Russell, Sir Edward Guinness, Mr. Coningsby Disraeli, Mr. Akers Douglas, M.P., Mr. Justin M‘Carthy, M.P., Sir Allen Young, Lady Colin Campbell, Lady Monckton, Mrs. Labouchere, and the Austrian and Spanish Ambassadors. Pictorial art was represented by Mr. Whistler; music by Mdme. Antoinette Sterling; dramatic writing by Mr. H. A. Jones; and theatrical interests by Mrs. Bancroft, Miss Genevieve Ward, Mr. and Mrs. John Lart, Mrs. John Hare, Mr. M. L. Mayer, Mr. Augustus Harris, &amp;c.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Mrs. Langtry.&quot; ''Bladud'' 26 February 1890, Wednesday: 9 [of 16], Col. 2b–c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0005771%2F18900226&amp;page=9&amp;article=055&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''Blalud, The Bath Society Paper'', p. 9.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 25 February 1890, Tuesday ===
On 5 March, the ''World'' reports on a party hosted by Mrs. Adair that must have been held the week before:&lt;blockquote&gt;Many smart people were present at Mrs. Adair's party in Curzon Street on Tuesday night. The rooms, lighted by electricity, looked their prettiest with floral decorations consisting entirely of tulips, the hostess appearing in a gown of terra-cotta velvet trimmed with dark fur. The Austrian Ambassador and Madame Waddington were among those who listened to Miss Damian’s rendering of a new song by Tosti, and to the glees sung by Mr. Avon Saxon's American quartet; and among others present were Lady Charles Beresford, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], the Duchess of Marlborough, Lady Fanny Marjoribanks, who brought her sister, Lady Sarah Churchill, Sir Arthur Sullivan (just back from his annual sojourn at Monte Carlo), Lord and Lady Wharncliffe, Lady Howe and Lady Edith Curzon, Lord and Lady William Nevill, Mrs. Cavendish-Bentinck, General Charles Fraser, Lady Conyers, Madame de Brienen, and Sir Philip Currie.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;What the World Says.&quot; ''The World'' 5 March 1890, Wednesday: 19 [of 44], Col. 2a [of 2]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0006339%2F18900305&amp;page=19&amp;article=061&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;The ''Daily Telegraph'' covered the party with a few additional names:&lt;blockquote&gt;A casual passer-by in Curzon-street last night might almost have imagined from the long string of carriages assembled there that, in spite of the cold east wind blowing, the London season had already begun. Mrs. Adair had together to hear some beautiful music, including a celebrated quartette of American singers, a large and fashionable crowd, composed of the ''élite'' of London society, comprising among many others, the Austrian Ambassador, the French Ambassadress, the Marquis and Marchioness of Tweeddale, Lady Charles Beresford, Lady Fanny Marjoribanks and Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill, Earl and Countess of Wharncliffe, Countess Howe and Lady Edith Curzon, Lord and Lady William Nevill, Lord George Nevill, Viscount and Viscountess Curzon, Countess of Sefton and Lady Rose Molyneux, Viscountess Mandeville, Julia Countess of Jersey and Mr Brandling, Viscount and Viscountess Bury and the Hon. Mary Keppel, the Countess of Crawford, the Earl of Clonmell, the Countess of Antrim and Lady Louisa Beauclerk, Viscountess Melgund, Lady Conyers, Hon. Lady Cotterell and Miss Cotterell, Lord Alington, Lord Alcester, Lord Greenock, Viscount de Vesci, Lady Hilda Brodrick, Hon. W. Lowther, M.P., and Mrs. Lowther, Hon. Mrs. Bampfylde, Hon. Hallyburton Campbell, Mrs. and Miss Campbell, Hon. Kenneth Howard, Hon. Derek Keppel, Hon. FitzRoy and Mrs. Stewart, Lady FitzGerald, Mrs. Bischoffsheim, Madame de Brienen, Lieutenant-General Sir Seymour Blane, General C. Fraser, M.P., Mr. Chamberlain, M.P., Mr. Howard Vincent, M.P., and Mrs Vincent, Mr. Charles Hall, M.P., Mrs. Cavendish-Bentinck, Sir C. Rivers Wilson, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir Philp Currie.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;London Day by Day.&quot; ''Daily Telegraph &amp; Courier'' (London) 26 February 1890, Wednesday: 5 [of 8], Col. 4a [of 8]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001112%2F18900226&amp;page=5&amp;article=094&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Print title: ''The Daily Telegraph'', p. 5.

&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;The ''Sporting Gazette'' also had a report, on 1 March:&lt;blockquote&gt;Mrs. Adair's party in Curzon-street on Tuesday night was, as usual, exceedingly smart and dressy. The &quot;smarties&quot; turned out strong for this Anglo-American function, and wore their best frocks and jewels. Lady Tweeddale, Lady Howe, with Lady Edith Curzon, Lady Fanny Majoribanks chaperoning her younger sister, Lady Sarah Churchill, Lady Curzon, Lady Antrim with Lady Louisa Beauclerk, Lady William Nevill with some lovely diamonds, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Lady Mandeville]], Lord Alington, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Mrs Cavendish Bentinck, and others. The singing of an American quartette was ''the'' feature of the evening.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;The Man About Town.&quot; &quot;The County Gentleman.&quot; ''Sporting Gazette'' 1 March 1890, Saturday: 6 [of 38], Col. 2b [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0002525%2F18900301&amp;page=6&amp;article=053&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title, p. 274.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

==March 1890==

=== 10 March 1890, Monday ===
The Prince and Princess of Wales hosted a ball in celebration of their wedding anniversary.

This report from the ''Bedfordshire Mercury'' is very brief:&lt;blockquote&gt;
The Prince and Princess of Wales, in celebration of the anniversary of their wedding on March 10, 1863, gave a dance at Marlborough House on Monday night. The Danish Minister and Madame de Falbe were among the company invited, also the Earl and Countess Brownlow, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Viscountess Mandeville]], Lord Alwyne Compton, Baron F. de Rothschild, &amp;c.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Notes of the Aristocracy.&quot; ''Bedfordshire Mercury'' 15 March 1890, Saturday: 7 [of 8], Col. 4b [of 6]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001290%2F18900315&amp;page=7&amp;article=073&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
The report from the ''Morning Post'' suggests that this was a smaller party than usual for the Prince and Princess of Wales:&lt;blockquote&gt;In celebration of the anniversary of the Prince and Princess of Wales's wedding day, their Royal Highnesses gave an evening party (dancing) at Marlborough House last night.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice (Princess Henry of Battenberg) and his Royal Highness Prince Henry of Battenberg, her Royal Highness the Princess Louise of Wales (Duchess of Fife) and the Duke of Fife, his Royal Highness Prince George of Wales, her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria of Wales, her Royal Highness the Princess Maud of Wales, her Royal Highness the Princess Mary Adelaide (Duchess of Teck), and his Highness the Duke of Teck and her Serene Highness the Princess Victoria of Teck and his Serene Highness Prince Francis of Teck, and their Serene Highnesses the Prince and Princess Victor of  Hohenlohe-Langenburg and the Countess Victoria Gleichen were present.

The following had the honour to receive invitations, but some amongst them were unavoidably prevented from attending: —

The French Ambassador (M. Waddington) and Madame Waddington, the German Ambassador (Count Hatzfeldt) and the Countess Marie Hatzfeldt, the Turkish Ambassador (Rustem Pasha), the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador (Count Deym) and the Countess Deym, the Italian Ambassador  (Count Tornielli), the Countess Tornielli, and Mademoiselle Virginia dei Conti Lazzari, the Danish Minister (M. de Falbe) and Madame de Falbe, the Russian Chargé d'Affaires (M. Bontineff), his Serene Highness Prince Louis Esterhazy, M. A. Kroupensky, M. A. de Stoeckl, Count Leyden, Count Albert Mensdorff, Count Reventlow, Mr. and Mrs. Henry White, M. de Soveral, the Marques and Marquesa de Santurce, Mr. A. de Murrieta, Mr. C. de Murrieta.

The Duke and Duchess of Leeds and Lady Alice Osborne, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, the Duke and Duchess of Portland, the Duke and Duchess of Westminster, the Marchioness of Blandford and Lady Frances Spencer Churchill, the Marquis and Marchioness of Granby, the Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry, the Marquis and Marchioness of Ormonde, the Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury and Lady Gwendolen Cecil, the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford, Count Gleichen, the Earl and Countess Brownlow, the Earl and Countess Cadogan and Lady Emily  Cadogan, the Earl and Countess of Clarendon, the Earl of Chesterfield, the Earl of Clonmell, the Earl of Dudley, the Earl and Countess of Dunraven and Lady Florence Wyndham Quin, the Earl and Countess Granville and Lady Victoria Leveson Gower, the Earl and Countess of Hardwicke, the Earl and Countess Howe and Lady Evelyn Curzon, the Earl and Countess of  Kilmorey, the Earl and Countess of Lathom and Lady Alice Wilbraham, the Earl and Countess of Lucan and Lady Rosalind Bingham, the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe and Lady Albertha Edgcumbe, the Earl and Countess of Romney and Lady Florence Marsham, the Earl and Countess of Rosebery, the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Earl of Stradbroke, the Earl and Countess of Sefton and Lady Gertrude Molyneux, the Earl and Countess Spencer, Viscount Drumlanrig, Lord and Lady Randolph Spencer Churchill, Lord Frederick Hamilton, Lord Ernest Hamilton, Lord and Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox, [[Social Victorians/People/Mandeville|Viscountess Mandeville]], Lord Charles Montagu, Viscount Chelsea, Viscount and Viscountess Coke and the Hon. Violet White, Viscount Curzon, Lady Georgina Curzon and Lady Sarah Spencer Churchill, Viscount Fincastle, Viscount Royston, Viscount Valletort, Lord and Lady Brooke, Lord Burghersh, Lord Capell, Lord and Lady Norreys and the Hon. Coralie Glyn, Lady Charles Beresford, Lord Marcus Beresford, Lord Alwyne Compton, Lord and Lady William Nevill, Lord Richard Nevill, Lord Henry Paulet, Lord Henry Vane Tempest, Lord Herbert Vane Tempest, Admiral Lord Alcester, Lady Ampthill and the Hon. Constance Russell, Lord Alington and the Hon. Winifred and Hon. Mildred Sturt, Lord and Lady Colville of Culross  and the Hon. Blanche Colville, Lord and Lady De  Ramsey, Lady Hastings, Lord and Lady Hindlip, Lord Lurgan, Lord and Lady Revelstoke and the Hon. Susan Baring, Lord and Lady Rothschild,  Lord Rowton, Lord Suffield and the Hon. Judith and Hon. Eleanor Harbord, Lord and Lady Wimborne and the Hon. Frances Guest, Lord Wolverton, Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, Captain the Hon. Maurice Bourke, R.N., Colonel the Hon. Henry Byng and the Misses Byng, the Hon. Alan Charteris, Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. C. Edgcumbe, the Hon. Sir Spencer and Lady Ponsonby Fane, the Hon. Sidney Greville, Colonel the Hon. Oliver Montagu, the Hon. C. R. and Mrs. Spencer, the Hon. S. M'Donnell, the Hon. Alexander Yorke, the Hon. H. and Lady Feodora Sturt, the Hon. Arthur Walsh, the Hon. R. Winn, the Right Hon. W. E. and Mrs. Gladstone and Miss Gladstone, the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, the Right Hon. H. Chaplin, the Right. Hon. Sir Henry James, the Right Hon. Sir C. L. Wyke, the Hon. S. C. Colville, the Hon. Assheton Harbord, the Hon. Julia Stonor, the Hon. H. Stonor, the Hon. E. Stonor, Captain the Hon. Henry White, Sir Edward and Lady Guinness, Sir Charles Hartopp, Sir Frederick Johnstone, Sir John and Lady Lister Kaye, Sir James and Lady  Mackenzie, Colonel Sir Nigel and Lady Emily Kingscote, Admiral Sir R. and the Hon. Lady Macdonald and Miss Macdonald, General Sir Dighton and Lady Probyn, Sir Francis and the Hon. Lady Knollys, Major-General Sir Christopher Teesdale, Sir Oscar Clayton, Sir Allen Young, Lieutenant-General Bateson, Lieutenant-General Charles Fraser, Major-General and the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Ellis and Miss Ellis, Colonel J. P. Brabazon, Colonel and Mrs. Stanley Clarke and the Misses Clarke, Captain H. F. Stephenson, R.N., Lieutenant-Colonel F. H. Poore, Lieutenant-Colonel R. Vivian, Major C. Swaine, Captain Douglas Dawson, Captain C. H. A. Hervey, the officers of the Queen's Guard, St. James's Palace, Mr. G. Byng, Mr. Henry Calcraft, Mr. Victor Cavendish, Mr. Henry Ellis, Mr. Horace Farquhar, Mr. and Mrs. George Forbes and Miss Forbes, Mr. Montagu Guest, Mr. Charles Hall, Mr. E. W. Hamilton, Mr. and Lady Hilda Higgins, Mr. Holzmann, Miss Knollys, Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Knollys, Mr. Ronald Moncrieffe, Mr. Alfred Montgomery, Mr. Arnold Morley, Mr. Henry Petre, Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, Mr. and Mrs. Leopold de Rothschild, Mr. Reuben Sassoon and Miss Sassoon, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sassoon, Mr. Edgar Sebright, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Sneyd, Mr. Christopher Sykes, and Mr. O. G. St. George Williams.

Messrs. Coote and Tinney's band was in attendance.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Marlborough House.&quot; ''Morning Post'' 11 March 1890, Tuesday: 5 [of 8]. Col. 6b–c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.com/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000174%2F18900311&amp;page=5&amp;article=055&amp;stringtohighlight=mandeville+viscount. Same print title and p.
&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

==April 1890==
Arnold Dolmetsch took out a three-day ticket to the Reading Room in April 1890 (Campbell 22).

=== 9 April 1890, Wednesday ===

==== The New Forest United Hunt Ball ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;This annual ball was beld at the New Forest Hall, Lyndhearst, on Wednesday night, and was a most brilliant gathering, upwards of 200 being present, not only the New Forest but also neighbouring hunts being well represented. Among those present were Earl and Countess of Londesborough, Lady Mildred Denison, Lady Lilian Denison, Hon. Louis Johnstone, Hon. Gerald and Mrs Lascelles, Major Downman, Capt. Sandbach, R.H.A., Col. and Mrs Sinkins, Col. Fitzroy Smyth, Lady Thursby and party, Mr Stanley Pearce (Master of the Foxhounds), Mr F. Lovell (Master of the Deerhounds) and party, Lady Adela Goff and party, Hon. Miss St. Leger Glyn and party, Mr A. H. Jeffreys, M.P., and Mrs Jeffreys, Hon. Mrs A. Peter, Mr Somerset H. Onslow, Mr Lancelot Orde, Lord Garioch, Mr and Mrs C. K. Francis, the Countess of Normandy, Lady Mary Agar, Lord Montagu, Hon. John Scott Montagu, Viscount Cantelupe, Prince Dhuleep Singh, Hon. D. Keppel, Col. Charles Needham (1st Life Guards), [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs Algernon Bourke]], Mrs Cornwallis West, Mr and Mrs Shelley Bontein, Col. Gridley, Col. Newton, Col. Elliot, R.H.A., Lady Meyrick and party, Sir W. Jervois, Lady Jervois and  party, &amp;c.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;The New Forest United Hunt Ball.&quot; ''The Sportsman'' 11 April 1890, Friday: 2 [of 4], Col. 5c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001055/18900411/024/0002. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

==May 1890==
Leonora Braham appeared at the Opera Comique as Ruth Ferns in ''Gretna Green''.
===21 May 1890, Wednesday===
It was his pupil the young Countess Valda Gleichen who found a sponsor for Dolmetsch's first but brief appearance at a London concert on 21 May 1890, when the 'Magpie Minstrels' … gave one of their bi-annual performances at the Princes' Hall&quot; (Campbell 30).

==June 1890==

=== 3 June 1890, Tuesday ===

==== Dinner and Concert Hosted by Mrs. Arthur Williams and Ball by Mrs. Menzies ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;Yesterday evening society passed a large proportion of time on wheels, and the number of receptions was more than the most inveterate could get through wvith comfort. ... Meanwhile, the Duke of Clarence and Avondale dined with Mrs. Arthur Wilson in Grosvenor-place, and a small and select concert followed. The Duchess of Leinster was, as ever, the most beautiful among many beauties, the Hon. Helen Henniker, after her long mourning, was warmly greeted by swarms of friends, and the Countess of Lovelace, in grey satin, chaperoned her débutante niece, Miss Milbank.

Prince &quot;Eddie&quot; went from Mrs. Arthur Wilson's hospitable mansion to that of Mrs. J. Graham Menzies. It is unusual to find mother and daughter entertaining this illustrious young man on the same evening. Mrs. Menzies, who has succeeded Lord Suffield in his beautiful house in Upper Grosvenor-street, had one of the smartest and most successful balls of the present season. The Blue Hungarians played with immense vigour and owing to the postponement of Lady Carnarvon's ball, there was no competition for men and married women. Countess Howe, Lady Brougham and Vaux, Lady Aveland and Miss Willoughby, Viscountess Stormont, the Hon. Lady Grey Egerton and Miss Egerton, the Duchess of Buccleuch, the [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs. Algernon Bourke]], the Earl of Craven, Countess of Coventry, Mrs. Mackay, Lady Sykes, the Marchioness of Granby, Mrs. Hwfa Williams, Lord Garioch, Sir Savile and Lady Crossley, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lawson, and many others were present.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Yesterday Evening Society.&quot; ''Pall Mall Gazette'' 4 June 1890, Wednesday: 4 [of 8], Col. 3a [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000098/18900604/015/0004. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

==== Münster-Hay Wedding ====
Account of the wedding of Count Alexander Münster and Lady Muriel Henrietta Constance Hay. Count Bismarck sent a gift.&lt;blockquote&gt;St. Andrew's Church, Wells-street, was completely filled yesterday afternoon on the occasion of the marriage of Count Alexander Münster, son of Count Münster, German Ambassador in Paris, with Lady Muriel Henrietta Constance Hay, younger daughter of the Earl and Countess of Kinnoull. The ceremony was fixed for half-past two o'clock, but all the seats in the body of the church were occupied long before that time by invited guests. The rood screen was hidden with white flowers, and a number of tall palms were skilfully arranged in and about the chancel. The bridegroom was early in his place, and wore the splendid white and gold uniform of the Garde du Corps of the Emperor; his best man, Prince Hans Heinrich Pless, wearing the scarlet and gold uniform of the Garde Hussars. The six bridesmaids were Lady Mildred Denison, Lady Dorothea Stewart Murray, Hon. Marie Hay, Hon. Marjory Murray, Miss Rosalind Lovell, and Miss Gladys Hadow (niece of the bride). They wore pretty dresses of pale blue satin, veiled with white chiffon; the skirts were edged with a frill, and the bodices finished with quaint fichus of the chiffon, fastened in front with a bunch of forget-me-nots. They wore drawn hats of the chiffon, covered with forget-me-nots, and their posies were of the same flowers, intermixed with pink roses, and tied with narrow pink ribbons. Each wore a gold bangle with centre forming the initials &quot;A.M.,&quot; and a single turquoise drop. The bride entered the church at half-past two, and was received by her father, who led her to the chancel steps, preceded by the choristers singing a nuptial hymn. The bride's dress was of ivory satin made with a very long train. The front was fringed round the hem with orange blossoms and veiled with old Brussels lace, the gift of her mother; the bodice was entirely covered with beautiful old lace, and finished at the neck on one side with a cluster of orange blossoms. She wore a small wreath of orange blossoms and myrtle arranged in the hair at the back and a tulle veil falling almost to the end of the train and held by diamond stars, the gift of the bridegroom. The bride's other jewels included two diamond drop hairpins, the gift of Count Münster; an emerald and diamond brooch, from the bridegroom; enamel and diamond heartsease brooch, from Lady Mary Mills; a diamond and emerald bracelet, from the Duke of Beaufort; and a diamond bracelet, from the Duke and Duchess of Athole. Her train was held by her two little nephews, Masters Roland and Patrick Hadow, wearing Scotch dress with lace ruffles. The service, which was fully choral, was performed by the Rev. Provost Rorison, of St. Ninian's Cathedral, Perth, assisted by the Rev. W. T. Houldsworth, rector of St. Andrew's.

The Earl and Countess of Kinnoull afterwards entertained the bridal party at the residence of the Earl of Londesborough, uncle of the bride, in Grosvenor-square. Among the numerous guests were the Russian Ambassador and Madame de Staal, the German Ambassador, the Austrian Ambassador and Countess Deym, Count Münster and the Countesses Marie, Julia, and T. Münster, Prince Pless, Prince Louis Esterhazy, Count Donhoff, Baroness von Beckendorff-Hindenburg, Baron E. Fürstenberg, Count Paul Metternich, Geheimrath Schmettau, Countess Valentin, [[Social Victorians/People/de Soveral|M. de]] [[Social Victorians/People/de Soveral|Soveral]], Captain Hasenclever, Count Leyden, Herr von Rath, Count Francis Deym, Baron and Baroness Deichmann, Count Mensdorff, Herr Pilgrim Baltazzi, Count and Countess Henry Lützow, Baroness d' Erlanger [?], Herr von Kemnitz, Baron Cramm, Vicomte de Janzé, the Duke of Beaufort, the Duchess of Athole, and the Ladies Stewart Murray, the Marchioness of Downshire, the Marchioness of Stafford and Lady Sybil St. Clair Erskine, Maria Marchioness of Ailesbury, the Countess of Dunraven and Ladies Wyndham Quin, the Countess of Kilmorey, the Countess of Galloway and Miss Stewart, the Countess of Dudley and Lady Edith Ward, the Countess of Strathmore and Lady Constance Lyon, the Earl and Countess of Roden, Lady Willoughby de Eresby and Hon. Miss Willoughby, the Countess of Westmorland. Viscount and Viscountess Raincliffe, Viscountess Coke, Viscountess Stormont and Hon. MabeI Murray, Viscountess Malden and Hon. Miss Capel, Lord Hay of Kinfauns [?], Lady Delamere and Miss Cholmondeley, Lady Brougham, Lady Esher, Lord Saye and Sele and Hon. Maud and Hon. Gertrude Fiennes, Lady Helen MacGregor and Miss MacGregor, Lord and Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox and Lady Angela St. Clair Erskine, Lady Raglan, Lord Charles Innes Ker, Lady Elizabeth Bertie, Lady Frances Pratt and Lady Clementine Pratt, Lady Geraldine Somerset, Lady Dalton Fitzgerald and Miss Payne, Lady Mary Mills and Miss Pereira, Lady Dorchester, Lady Louisa Moncreiffe and Misses Moncreiffe, Lady Norreys, Lady Petre, Lady Jane Trefusis, Lord Frederic Hamilton, Baroness de Brienen and Miss de Brienen, Helen Lady Forbes and the Misses Forbes, Lady Scott, Miss Scott and Mrs. Green, Lord Zouche and Hon. Miss Curzon, Mr. and Lady Constance Hadow, Hon. Lady Campbell, Lady William Nevill and Miss Bannerman, Hon. Alastair and Mrs. Hay, Hon. Miss Greville, Captain Hon. Randolph Stewart, Hon. FitzRoy and Mrs. Stewart, Hon. Charles Walsh, Hon. William Walsh, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs. Algernon Bourke]], Colonel Hon. Charles and Mrs. Hay and Miss Maude Hay, Hon. Mrs. Greville Nugent, Hon. Mrs. Colville and Miss Streatfeild [sic], Hon. Claude Hay, Sir Charles and Lady Forbes of Newe, Laely Borthwick, Sir Francis Montefiore, Sir Henry Hoare, Sir George Arthur, Sir William Gordon Cumming, General and Mrs. Wilkinson, Colonel and Mrs. Chaine, Colonel Arthur Paget, Colonel H. M. Hozier, the Provost of St. Ninian's, Major Finch, Major Candy, Colonel Lloyd, Captain and Mrs. Stewart, Mr. and Mrs. Hay Drummond, Captain and Mrs. Lloyd, Mr. William Gillett, Mr. Hulse, M.P., and Mrs. Hulse, Captain Lumley, Captain Barrow, Major Anstruther, Mrs. Hwfa Williams, Mr. Arthur Hay, Mr. Raglan Somerset, Mr. and Mrs. George Cavendish Bentinck, Mrs. Villiers, Mr. Henry Petre, Mrs. Keighley, Mrs. E. Balfour and Miss Balfour and Miss Ellice, Mrs. Dick Cunynghame and Miss A. M'Gregor, Rev. C. Weidemann, Miss Balfour and Miss E. Balfour, Mrs. and Miss Halford, Mr. and Mrs. Toler, Mrs. and Miss Townley, Rev. Dr. M'Ewan, Mr. A. F. Levita, Mr. F. Stephens, Mrs. and Miss Leigh, Mr. and Mrs. George Forbes and Miss Forbes, Mrs. Luke Wheeler, Mrs. J. Beerbohm, Dr. and Mrs. W. M. Collins, Mrs. and Miss Orde, Mrs. Murray, Miss Glyn, Mrs. Godfrey Pearse, Mr. Balfour, Mr. Leopold Goldberg, Mr. and Miss Oswa d [Oswald], Mr. and Mrs. C. Bulteel, Mrs. Brydges Wyllyams, Mr. H. Balfour, the Misses Codrington, Miss Finch, Mrs. Barron and Miss Sullivan, Mr. Hamilton Aidé, Mr. Granville and Miss Berkeley, Mr. M'Gregor, Mrs. and Miss Needham, Mr. and Mrs. A. Consett and Miss Consett, Mrs. Herbert Naylor LeyIand, Mr. and Mrs. A. Darby, Mrs. Montefiore, Mrs. Charles Murray and Miss Murray, Mrs. Thomas Legh, the Rev. John F. Mitchell, Mr. and Mrs. Claud Hay, Mr. Fiztalan Manners, Mr. Albert Stopford, Mr. Hervey Pechell, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Orde.

Later in the day Count Alexander Münster and his bride left for Hillingdon Court, Uxbridge, the residence of the Hon. A. Mills, where they will pass the early days of the honeymoon, and then proceed to Chàlet Sans Souci, Bellaggio, Lake of Como, lent by Mr. Hervey Pechell. They will afterwards go to Wiesbaden, and thence to Count Münster's German country seat, where a great reception awaits them.

The wedding presents were very numerous. Count Munster presented the bride with a diamond necklace and pair of diamond drop hairpins. The bridegroom's gifts to his bride included a tiara of three diamond stars, a brooch formed of an emerald of unusual size set in diamonds, large pearl pendant, gold bracelet set with turquoises, and diamond and turquoise ring. The Duke of Beaufort presented Lady Muriel with an emerald and diamond bracelet. The Earl and Countess of Kinnoull's presents included a quantity of plate and other articles. Prince Henry of Battenberg sent a large silver-mounted claret jug; Count Bismarck, a silver box; the Marchioness of Waterford, gold snake bracelet, with pearl head and ruby eyes; the Duke and Duchess of Athole, diamond &quot;M&quot; bangle; Lady Ermyntrude Malet, massive silver bowl; Countess Marie Münster, silver tea set and tray; Baron E. Fürstenberg, pair of gold-mounted claret jugs; Baron and Baroness Erlanger, large silver bowl; Baron and Baroness Gungberg, pair of antique silver mounted jugs.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Marriage of Count Alexander Münster and Lady Muriel Hay.&quot; ''Morning Post'' 4 June 1890, Wednesday: 7 [of 12], Col. 7a–c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900604/064/0007. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

===4 June 1890, Wednesday===
Derby Day.

According to the Morning Post, &lt;quote&gt;Lady Thurlow's first dance. / Mrs. Coddington's Ball. / The Fourth of June celebration at Eton. / ... Royal Society of Literature — Paper on &quot;Early England,&quot; by Mr. Carmichael, S. &lt;/quote&gt; (&quot;Arrangements for This Day.&quot; The Morning Post Wednesday, 4 June 1890: p. 7 [of 12], Col. 6A).

===13 June 1890, Friday===
? or on the 12th? Arnold Dolmetsch had a concert at which his students performed (Campbell 31). It was reviewed very positively in the 13 June Daily Graphic, especially Helene Dolmetsch's performance. They did Purcell's Fairy Queen. They used a harpsichord.

===26 June 1890, Thursday===
There was apparently a regular celebration of [[Social Victorians/People/Arthur Collins|Arthur Collins]]' birthday, 26 June, by Bret Harte, George Du Maurier, [[Social Victorians/People/Arthur Sullivan|Arthur Sullivan]], Alfred Cellier, Arthur Blunt, and John Hare (Nissen, Axel. Brent Harte: Prince and Pauper: 239. [http://books.google.com/books?id=WEDewmUnapcC]). Choosing 1885–1902 as the dates because those apparently are the dates of the close relationship between Harte and Collins, ending in Harte's death in 1902.

==July 1890==
===3 July 1890, Thursday===
&lt;blockquote&gt;On July 3, 1890, Besant’s house at 19 Avenue Road, St. John’s Wood, was inaugurated as a new center of Theosophical work, serving as the European headquarters of the [[Social Victorians/Theosophical Society|Theosophical Society]] and as HPB’s residence. That house became also the meeting place of HPB’s Inner Group, twelve of her students who were eager for more intense training than was feasible in a larger, more general gathering.&lt;/blockquote&gt;That Inner Group is different from the Esoteric Section.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Esoteric World Chapter 23.&quot; ''The Theosophical Society of America, Online Resources''. http://www.theosophical.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;catid=23&amp;id=1725&amp;Itemid=53&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;The hall had a seating capacity of about 200. On the opening night [July 3, 1890] [sic] the room was crammed, and many were unable to gain admission. The speakers were Mrs. Besant, Mr. Sinnett, a Mrs. Woolff (of America), and Mr. [Bertram] Keightley. HPB was present but said nothing, on account of the critical state of her health.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;23a. Henry S. Olcott, July 1890, London [Olcott 1931, 4:254–6].&quot; Esoteric World Chapter 23. ''The Theosophical Society of America, Online Resources''. http://www.theosophical.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;catid=23&amp;id=1725&amp;Itemid=53.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 4 July 1890, Friday, 11 p.m. ===

==== The Queen's State Ball at Buckingham Palace ====
The Prince and Princess of Wales were hosts of this ball, as Queen Victoria was not present. Many of the Queen's children and their spouses were present.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;State Ball at Buckingham Palace.&quot; ''Morning Post'' 5 July 1890, Saturday: 5 [of 8], Col. 5a–7b [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900705/038/0005. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt; The dancing commenced shortly after the Prince and Princess of Wales arrived at 11:00.

=== 1890 July 15, Tuesday ===

==== Garden Party at Marlborough House to Meet the Queen ====
The beginning of the ''Morning Post'' article, which is followed by a very long list of people invited:&lt;blockquote&gt;Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales gave a garden party at Marlborough House yesterday afternoon to meet the Queen.

Her Majesty was accompanied by their Royal Highnesses the Princesses Victoria and Margaret of Prussia, and was attended by the Duchess of Roxburghe, Miss M'Neill, the Hon. Evelyn Moore, the Hon. Bertha Lambert, and Major-General Sir Henry Ewart and Major F. A. Bigge. Madlle. De Perpigna was in attendance on the Princesses Victoria and Margaret.

The following were present: — Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and Prince Alfred, and the Princesses Marie, Victoria, Alexandra, and Beatrice of Edinburgh; their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and Prince Arthur, and the Princesses Margaret and Patricia of Connaught; their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein Sonderburg-Augustenburg and Princess Victoria and Princess Louisa of Schleswig-Holstein, her Royal Highness the Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, and the Marquis of Lorne.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Albany, her Royal Highness the Princess Frederica and the Baron von Pawell-Rammingen, his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, her Royal Highness Princess Mary Adelaide Duchess of Teck and his Highness the Duke of Teck and Princess Victoria of Teck, his Royal Highness the Duke d'Orleans and Princess Hélène d'Orleans, his Imperial Highness Don Pedro Augustus of Coburg and Braganza, his Serene Highness the Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, his Serene Highness the Prince of Leiningen and their Serene Highnesses Prince and Princess Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and the Countesses Gleichen, and Count Gleichen.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Garden Party at Marlborough House.&quot; ''Morning Post'' 15 July 1890, Tuesday: 5 [of 8], Col. 3a–7c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900715/044/0005. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 19 July 1890, Saturday ===

==== Wedding of James Francis Harry St. Clair-Erskine and Violet Aline Vyner ====
This report from the ''Fife Free Press'' is missing a big piece of the 2nd paragraph, where the bridesmaids' and bride's dresses are described, because the page was damaged. The digitized copy is also generally poor.&lt;blockquote&gt;On Saturday forenoon, in Michael’s Church, Chester Square, London, was celebrated the marriage of Lord Loughhorough, eldest son of the Earl of Rosslyn with Miss Violet Aline Vyner, younger daughter of Mr R. C. Vyner, of Fairfield, Yorkshire. The chancel was beautifully decorated with palms and a profusion of lilies most artistically arranged. The Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge. Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess and the Duke of Teck, and Princess Victoria, and the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone were among those present.

The wedding party began to arrive at 11 o’clock, the bridesmaids being early in attendance. They were the Ladies Sybil and Angela St Clair Erskine, sisters of the bridegroom; Lady Anne Lambton, Miss Musgrave, Miss Rachel Gurney, and Miss Fleming. They were charmingly dressed in soft cream crepon, with violet velvet Zoave jackets, forming half sleeves and capes at the back, and pretty turn-down collars and cravats of white mosseline [mousseline?] chiffon, and the skirts were very plainly made. They wore large white hats lined with a band of violet velvet near the face, and trimmed on the crown with white ostrich plumes, a bunch of violets fastening the brim at the back. Each wore a brooch — the St Clair cross in rubies and diamonds set in a circle of the latter, and surmounted by a baron’s cornet of the same precious stones — the gift of the bri[degroom]; and carried a bouquet of Marechal Niel [roses?] ...ging sprays of the same, and tied w... ribbons. The bride entered the ... eleven o’clock, being received at ... father, who led her to the cha... her away. The service be... procession was preceded up ... choir, who sang &quot;The voic...&quot; The bride’s dress was ... with a long court train, ... white velvet being embro... ...und the train, and fasten... ...ver true lover’s knot. The picture... ...gh silver waistband, had full slee... mousseline chiffon; and a small ... blossoms was most becomingly arra... with a long tulle veil. The Earl of Chesterfield discharged the duties of best man.

The Rev. Canon Fleming, Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen and Vicar of St Michael's, performed the marriage rite, assisted by the Rev. Edgar Sheppard, Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal, and the Rev. J. Thomson, of Rosslyn, near Edinburgh. The hymn “Thine for ever! For of love,” was sung the end of the service. Canon Fleming afterwards delivered a most impressive address. After the benediction the clergy and bride and bridegroom passed to the vestry, the Prince of Wales following with Mrs Vyner. Pretty wedding favours of orange blossoms, Parma violets, and white heather were then distributed amongst the congregation.

Mr and Mrs Vyner afterwards welcomed the wedding party at Ashburnham House, Dover-street. The ''dejeuner'' was served in three rooms, one being reserved for the bride and bridegroom and the Royal party. The table in the latter room was decorated with several of Mr Vynet's racing trophies. The band of the Grenadier Guards performed in the garden during the reception. The Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Teck and Princess Victoria were present at the breakfast, and among the general company were Count Munster and Countess Maria Munster, the Marchese and Marchesa de Montagliari, the Marquis and Marchioness of Ripon, the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford, the Marquis of Cholmondeley, the Marquis of Northampton, Maria Marchioness of Ailesbury, the Dowager Marchioness of Conyngham and Lady Blanche Conyngham, the Marchioness of Downshire, the Countess of Rosslyn, Earl and Countess Compton, the Earl of Feversham, the Earl of Durham, the Countess of Coventry and the Ladies Coventry, Countess Howe and Ladies Curzon, the Countess of Yarborough, the Earl of Clonmell, the Earl and Countess of Loudoun, the Countess of Kilmorey, Countess de Grey, Viscount Molyneux, the Bishop of Gibraltar and Mrs Sandford, Viscountess de Labrosse and Mdles. de Labrosse, Lord Greenock, Lord and Lady Algernon Lennox, Lady Lilian Wemyss, Lady Julia Wombwell and Miss Wombwell, Hon. Lady Campbell of Blythswood, Lady Constance Harris, Lady Florence Harris, Lord and Lady Burghley, Lady Dorchester, Lord Houghton, Lady Curzon, Lady Brougham and Vaux and Miss Musgrave, Baron de Hirsch, Helen Lady Forbes and the Misses Forbes, Baroness Burdett Coutts and Mr Burdett Coutts, M.P., Lady Astley, Lord and Lady William Nevill, Lord and Lady Brooke and Hon. Leopold and Hon. Marjorie Greville, Lady Dalton Fitzgerald and Miss Payne, Lord Elcho, Lady Willoughby de Eresby and the Misses Willoughby, Lady Ewart, Lady Hindlip, Lady Cecilia Rose, Lord Rowton, Lord Capell, Lady Mabel Compton, Lord and Lady Herries, Lady Sykes, Lord and Lady Alwyne Compton, Lady Ventry and Hon. Miss de Moleyns, Hon. Lady Knollys, Lady Manners, Hon. Lady Drummond and Misses Drummond, Hon. Sydney Greville, Hon. Assheton Harbord, Hon. Derek Keppel, Hon. Captain Bourke, Hon. Mrs Percy Mitford, Hon. Philip Harbord, Hon. and Rev. L. Tyrwhitt, Hon. Coralie Glyn, Hon. M. Lambton, Hon L. Greville, Hon. Alwyn Greville, Hon[.] Eva Greville, Hon. Frances Dawnay, Hon Evelyn Paget, Hon Mrs Algernon Grosvcnor, Hon and Mrs Lambton. Hon. Mrs Evelyn Pelham, Hon. Fitzroy St Clair Erskine, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs Algernon Bourke]], Hon. W. Maxwell, Hon. G. and Mrs Dawnay, Hon. Captain Lambton, General Sir Seymour Blane, Sir William Gordon Cumming, Sir Archibald and Miss Edmunstone, Sir Henry and Lady Meysey Thompson, Mrs Gladstone, Mr and Lady Margaret Cameron, Mr and Lady Florence Astley, Mr and Lady Elizabeth Melville Cartwright and Miss Melville Cartwright, General and Mrs Duff and Miss Duff, General Owen Williams, Colonel and Mrs Anstruther Thompson, Colonel Stopford Sackville, Colonel Craig, Colonel Brabazon, Colonel Forester, Colonel Stanley Clarke (in attendance on the Prince of Wales) and Miss Clarke, Major Davidson, Canon and Mrs Fleming, Captain St John Mildmay (in attendance on the Duke of Cambridge), Captain and Mrs FitzGeorge, Mrs William Portal, the Sub Dean of the Chapels Royal, Rev. W. M. and Mrs Wollaston, Rev. R. West, Mr and Miss Chamberlain. Mr and Mrs W. H. Grenfell, Mr Christopher Sykes, M.P., Mr Reuben Sassoon, Mr Arthur Sassoon, Mrs Bischoffsheim, Mr and Mrs Herbert Naylor Leyland, Dr and Mrs Anderson, Mrs Oswald, Mr and Mrs Surtees, Mr Fitzgerald, Mr and Mrs Menzies, Miss Willoughby and Miss Gertrude Willoughby, Mr Arthur Paget, Miss Christie, Mr Dowdall, Mrs Eastwood and the Misses Eastwood, Mr Frederick Warre, Mr William Williamson, Mrs Burton, Mrs Chaine, Captain and Mrs Livesey Wardle, Captain A. R. Hill, Miss Helby, Mrs and Miss Winslow, Mr and Miss Oswald, Mr Willoughby, Mr Quintin Hume, Mr F and Miss Fitzherbert, Mrs and Miss F. Hotham, Mr and Mrs Moreton Frewin, Mrs Charles Otway, Mr Calcraft, Mr Watson, Mr Fennick, Mr Montgomery, Mr Cecil Murray, Mr and Mrs Sneyd, Mr Leslie Stephen, Mr Edgar Sebright, Miss Fleetwood Wilson, Mrs and Miss Farmer of Nonsuch, Mr and Mrs Dennistoun and Miss Dennistoun, Mr and Mrs J. R. Lane Fox and Miss Lane Fox, &amp;c. 

The bride and bridegroom left early in the afternoon for Easton Lodge, Dunmow, the seat of Lord and Lady Brooke, in Essex, where they will spend the honeymoon. The bride travelled in a costume of biscuit coloured armure silk, the top of the bodice and sleeves being of pale pink mousseline de soie, and the lower part of the former inserted with pink velvet ribbons to form a high band, Tuscan straw-hat trimmed with pink crepe de chine, and biscuit feathers. The presents exceeded four hundred in number. The Prince of Wales presented the bride with a trefoil moonstone and diamond brooch and the bridegroom with a sapphire and diamond pin. The Princess of Wales's gift the bridegroom was a silver-necked claret jug. The Duke of Cambridge gave an amethyst and diamond pendant, and the bridegroom a pair of silver gilt candlesticks; and Princess Mary and the Duke of Teck presented the bride with a silver sugar basin. The bridegroom’s gifts to the bride were a diamond and sapphire watch bracelet, a diamond half-hoop ring, diamond brooch with pearl centre, diamond and turquoise brooch, formed of the St Clair badge in rubies and diamonds set in a circle of diamonds, surmounted by a baron’s coronet in the same precious stones, a large salts bottle with two heart-shaped moonstones set with rubies and diamonds and a silver sugar basin. The bride presented Lord Loughborough with a turquoise and diamond stud. The Earl of Rosslyn presented the bride with diamond necklet. The Countess of Rosslyn’s gifts were diamond orchid brooch and a pink feather fan. Mr R. C. Vyner’s gifts to his daughter were a diamond and pearl tiara and gold mounted dressing case, and Mrs Vyner gave her a sapphire and diamond ring. The Marchioness of Stafford gave a ruby and diamond pin; Lady Mary Vyner antique diamond tiara; the Ladies Angela and Sybil Erskine sapphire and diamond bracelet; Hon. Fitzroy St Clair Erskine with &quot;1890&quot; in rubies and diamonds; Lord and Lady A. Compton large diamond star; the Earl of Rosslyn presented his son with a large silver bowl and two silver dishes; the Countess of Rosslyn's present was a travelling bag; Mr Vyner gave him a luncheon basket; Mrs Vyner a silver ''entree'' dish; the Marchioness of Stafford case containing silver coffee and tea pots, urn and stand, sugar basin, and cream jug; Lord and Lady Brooke four antique silver sauce boats; Lord and Lady Algernon Gordon ['''Col. 1c–2a'''] Lennox three antique silver ''entree'' dishes. The Earl of Rosslyn's Fifeshire tenants presented Lord Loughborough with a beautiful antique silver bowl, two antique silver dessert dishes, and two antique sugar castors; and to the bride they gave an antique silver tea service. The congregation of Rosslyn Chapel presented the bridegroom with a complete and elegant writing set, whilst Lord Rosslyn's servants gave him a silver inkstand and pair of silver candlesticks. Mr Vyner's servants presented the bride with a silver salver and six ''liqueur'' cups. The servants of Newby Hall gave a silver coffee pot, and Mr Vyner’s Cheshire tenants presented a case containing silver tea pot, sugar basin, and cream jug. The bride also received from the Duchess of Portland a travelling bag; the Duchess de Luynes, sapphire and diamond ring; the Duke of Westminister, Indian necklace; the Marquis of Northampton, diamond bracelet; the Marquis of Ripon, sapphire and diamond bracelet; the Marchioness of Ripon, turquoise and diamond bangle, the Earl of Durham, a diamond half hoop bracelet; Earl and Countess Cowper, a diamond &quot;V V” brooch; Dowager Viscountess Downe, moonstone and diamond crescent; Lady Skyes [Sykes] ruby and diamond fish brooch; Lady Millbank, sapphire and diamond brooch Lord Douglas Compton, double heart brooch; Lord Herbert Vane Tempest, gold curb chain bracelet set with pearls; Earl and Countess Compton, bangle with “Vi” and “good luck” on it; the Duke and Duchess of St Albans, tea service with table; the Marchioness Conyngham, silver cream jug; the Marchioness of Tavistock, silver vase; the Countess of Rodin, a silver I bowl; the Countess of Yarborough, silver candlesticks; Viscountess Downe, silver tea caddie; Lady de Trafford, gold mounted salts bottle; the Hon. F. Dawnay, large silver candlesticks[;] Hon. F and Lady Lampton, travelling clock; Hon. W. Lambton, silver candlesticks; Sir R. and Lady Graham, silver salver; Sir Roderick and Miss Cameron, two silver dishes; General Williams, diamond bangle; Colonel and Mrs G. FitzGeorge, gold mounted bottle; Major and Mrs Egerton, pair of silver candlesticks; Major Stuart Wortley, diamond Swallow; Major Davidson, heart-shaped brooch in coral and diamonds; Captain and Lady Cecilia Rose, a brougham; Mr Beaumont, silver bowl; Miss Edmonstone, moonstone and diamond hat pins; Mrs Harris, sapphire and diamond bracelet; Mr Egerton, turquoise and diamond brooch; Sir Cecil Murray, sapphire and diamond pin; Mr A. Farquharson, diamond swallow brooch; Mr and Mrs Hulse, two small silver vases; Miss Fleetwood Wilson, diamond bangle; Mrs A. Wilson, tortoiseshell candlestick; Mr Quintin Hume, salts bottle mounted with diamonds and rubies; Miss Helbert, gold violet pin; Mr Chamberlain, pair of silver candlesticks; Hon. Arthur Coventry, gold mounted bottle with &quot;Vi&quot; in diamonds; Mrs Leopold de Rothschild, diamond hand brooch, together with a number of other gifts. Among the presents to the bridegroom were — from the Marchioness of Downshire, antique silver sugar sifter; the Marquis of Exeter, silver sandwich case; the Marchioness of Bath, antique Dutch silver box; the Marquis of Downshire, a gold pencil; Count Munster, cigarette case and match box; Count Alexander Munster, a hunting flask; the Countess of Lindsay, antique silver pen-tray; the Earl of Mar and Kellie, silver matchbox; the Earl and Countess of Loudoun, silver cigarette box; the Earl of Chesterfield, antique silver gilt inkstand; the Countess of Bradford, gold seal with agate; the Countess of Warwick, antique silver bowl; the Earl of Coventry, silver pen-tray; the Countess of Wharncliffe, two silver candlesticks; the Earl and Countess of Cromartie, two antique silver cups; Viscountess of Newport, silver paper knife; Mr and Mrs A. Sassoon, ruby and diamond pin; Lord John Cecil, silver salver; Lord and Lady Willoughby de Eresby, antique silver-mounted cruet stand; Lord William Nevtll, antique brandy carrier; Lady Margaret Spicer, silver match box; Lord Burghley, four silver salt cellars and spoons; Baron de Hirch [Hirsch?], silver inkstand; Lady W. E. Osborne Elphinstone, silver inkstand; Lord Kesteven, silver cream jug; Lord Capell, silver cigarette case; Lord and Lady Gerard, tortoiseshell and silver travelling clock; Lady Lilian Wemyss, silver cigarette case; Dad Alwyne Compton, umbrella containing matchbox and whistle; Lord and Lady Lennox, two antique silver ''entree'' dishes and bacon dish; Lord Burghersh, silver cigarette lighter; Lady Angela 8t Clair Erskine, four silver salt cellars; Lady Randolph Churchill, gold pencil case, with two sapphires; Lord Houghton, antique gold basket; Lady Sybil St Clair Erskine, umbrella; Lord and Lady Dorchester, large crystal seal; Hon. Derek P. Keppel, pair of silver candlesticks; Hon. E. and Mrs Pelham, silver inkstand; Hon. G. N. Curzon, silver gilt bowl; Hon. F. St Clair Erskine, four silver candle-sticks; [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. A. and Mrs Bourke]], four small silver dessert dishes; Hon. Mrs Elliot Yorke, pair of silver candlesticks; Hon. Mr and Mrs L. Greville, tortoise-shell and silver box; Hon. R Somerset, diamond and pearl pin; Hon. G. H. Willoughby, silver ink-stand; Hon. H. and Mrs Grosvenor, umbrella; [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs Algernon Bourke]], enamel and diamond pin; Captain Hon. Maurice Bourke, cigarette case and lighter; Hon. W. Maxwell, silver-backed clothes and hat brushes; Hon. Sidney Greville, saltspoons; Hon. M. C. Maxwell Scott, two silver ''menu'' plates; Hon. W. Edwardes, pin; [[Social Victorians/People/Greville|Captain Hon. A.]] and [[Social Victorians/People/Lady Violet Greville|Mrs Greville]], silver gilt bowl, fork, spoon, and ladle; Sir Frederick Milner, diamond and moonstone pin; Sir George Chetwynd, two long silver flagons; Sir M. and Lady Fitzgerald, two silver saltspoons; Sir N. Gordon Gumming, silver-handled paper knife, &amp;c.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Marriage of Lord Loughborough with Miss Vyner.&quot; ''Fife Free Press'' 26 July 1890, Saturday: 2 [of 8], Col. 1a–2b [of 6]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001110/18900726/015/0002. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;

=== 24 July 1890, Thursday ===

==== Dinner and Dance Hosted by Lord Alington ====
Perhaps the date on this is uncertain, since the article in ''Truth'' would suggest it was held in late May or early June. The newspaper story in the ''Queen'' mentions another occasion in which the flowers were notable as well.

From ''Truth'':&lt;blockquote&gt;
But not a quarter of a mile distant [from a dinner and dance hosted by Lord Rothschild featuring Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne] a more important event was proceeding, for Lord Alington, having previously walked down the Row and invited his friends right and left to Alington House, South Audley-street, proceeded to give a dance which was honoured by the presence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Princesses Victoria and Maud, the Duke of Clarence, Princess Mary Adelaide, and Princess &quot;May&quot; and Prince and Princess Christian. This without exaggeration, with the exception of Lady Leconfield's, Lady Willoughby de Eresby's, and Lady Cadogan's, was the best ball hitherto given this season, and the prolific way ortolans [small songbirds regarded as a delicacy] were distributed at supper will long linger in the memories of those by whom these delicacies are cherished. One lady displayed her enthusiastic appreciation by devouring five of these, and it is to be hoped her devotion did not endanger her life. As for beauty, seldom before have so many pre-eminent for good looks been present at one gathering, as a mere enumeration of a few of these will prove. Of course the Duchess of Leinster heads the list, followed in quick succession by the Duchess of Portland, Lady de Grey, Lady Randolph Churchill, Lady Dudley, Lady Kilmorey, Lady Brooke, Lady de Trafford, Lady Helen Duncombe, Lady Hilda Dundas, Lady Sybil St. Clair Erskine, Lady Olivia Taylour, Miss Rachael Gurney, Lady Cardross, Miss Bourke, Lady Rose Leigh and her sister-in-law, Miss Leigh, Miss Berens (sister to Lady Cairns), Mrs. Ralph Sneyd, Lady Gerard, and a host of others far too numerous to mention. I often wonder that no painter has yet attempted to give us in one picture a permanent record of the chief beauties of our day. It would make a most interesting and exquisite group of lovely women, such as could not be found probably in any other country than this.&lt;ref&gt;Marmaduke, pseud. &quot;Letters from the Linkman.&quot; ''Truth'' 12 June 1890, Thursday: 26 [of 56], Col. 1a–b [of 2]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002961/18900612/064/0026. Same print title, p. 1212.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
From the ''Queen'':&lt;blockquote&gt;The P&lt;small&gt;RINCE AND&lt;/small&gt; P&lt;small&gt;RINCESS OF&lt;/small&gt; W&lt;small&gt;ALES&lt;/small&gt; and the Princesses Victoria and Maud honoured L&lt;small&gt;ORD&lt;/small&gt; A&lt;small&gt;LINGTON&lt;/small&gt; by their presence at D&lt;small&gt;INNER&lt;/small&gt;, at A&lt;small&gt;LINGTON&lt;/small&gt; H&lt;small&gt;OUSE&lt;/small&gt;, South Audley-street, on the 24th ult., when a distinguished party was present to meet them, including, among others, the Duke and Duchess of Leinster, the Marquis of Hartington, the Marquis and Marchioness of Ormonde, Maria Marchioness of Ailesbury, Earl and Countess Cadogan and Lady Emily Cadogan, the Earl Countess of Lucan and Lady Rosaline Bingham, the Earl  of Hardwicke, the Countess of Dudley and Lady Edith Ward, the EarI of Chesterfield, the Earl of Stradbroke and Lady Hilda Rous, and Earl Annesley. Covers were laid for sixty. Lord Alington afterwards gave a dance to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales and their daughters. As on the previous occasion, the floral decorations were exquisite. The entrance hall and the approaches to the reception rooms were decorated with tall palms and a profusion of lilies, pelargoniums, ferns in every variety, and roses in every imaginable shade. The conservatories at the back were carpeted and furnished luxuriously, and blocks of ice, lighted by fairy lamps, were placed about with artistic effect, serving to keep the atmosphere cool and fresh. Feathery palms, hydrangeos [hydrangeas] and arums were here used freely, and a particularly pretty result was obtained by the windows being framed, one in a fringe of ferns and red pelargoniums, and the other in ferns and fuschias. The ballroom fireplaces were adorned on each side with palms reaching to the ceiling, the mantelpieces being hidden by a delicate arrangement of roses in various shades springing from banks of hydrangeas, calceolarias, pelargoniums, and marguerites, and the walls of the staircase leading from the conservatory to the ball-room were hung with half-balls of floral roses. The supper was served in the dining-room, the tables being embellished with the loveliest orchids and roses of the most delicate tints, intermixed with pancretia; the arrangement was so light and elegant that it was difficult to believe that hands had ever touched the flowers. On those tables with silver candelabra in the centre, the flowers were all pure white, and those having gold candelabra were treated with mauve orchids and the palest pink and yellow roses. A tent, arranged near the conservatory for the Prince of Wales, was draped with Oriental hangings, and outside were groups of flowers and myriads of fairy lamps. The company began to arrive at eleven o'clock, when dancing commenced to the strains of the Blue Hungarian Band. The Princess of Wales was dressed in white striped satin and silk, the front being embroidered in pale shades, and wore handsome diamond ornaments. The Princesses Victoria and Maud wore white tulle over satin, the front being sprinkled all over with tiny sprays of lilies of the valley, each laid on a single leaf. The Duchess of Wellington was in black satin, with a pink sash arranged very prettily across the back of the bodice, and falling to the feet; a cluster of pink flowers and a beautiful diamond spray were fastened in the front of the bodicea and a diamond rivière was arranged in the hair, a diamond necklace being also worn. The Duchess of Westminster was in white satin trimmed with gold embroidery, and veiled in white chiffon. The Marchioness of Ormonde wore white striped brocade and satin trimmed with white lace, and a splendid diamond tiara and other ornaments. Countess de Grey, palest blue satin, with front beautifully embroidered in beads, and a diamond and pearl coronet. Maria, Marchioness of Ailesbury, white brocade and lace, with splendid diamond and emerald ornaments. The Marchioness of Bath, cream an violet brocaded velvet, the front being covered with mauve [38, Col. 3c – 39, Col. 1a] violets. Lady Mary Mills, rose-pink satin, with front richly embroidered; Lady Cardross, white satin, trimmed round the bodice and train with silver embroidery; Lady William Nevill, pale yellow brocade, the front veiled with black net, trimmed up the side with jet leaves, and all round the skirt was a bordering of Maréchal Niel roses, over a flounce of black net; Countess Granville wore rich white brocade and beautiful jewels; the Countess of Sefton, black satin and diamonds; Viscountess Dungan, white mousseline de soie, the skirt edged with a deep flounce; Lady Brooke, pale blue satin, trimmed with silver; Lady Emma Crichton, white satin train, with front of white lisse, prettily embroidered in red; Lady Idina Brassey, pale mauve bengaline, with front of chiffon and a handsome diamon coronet; Lady Rose Molyneux, white cross crêpe de Chine, with a pale green sash, and prettily trimmed with pink roses; Lady Wimborne, pale grey satin; the Hon. Miss Guest, pink satin, veiled with white net, sparkling with silver; Lady Sarah Spencer Churchill, white satin, with a chiffon frill; Lady Chesham, white silk, with pink roses; the Countess of Normanton, pale grey satin, with front of fine old lace; Mrs Hulse, handsome white brocade, diamond tiara, &amp;c.; Mrs Bischoffsheim, white silk, embroidered with silver, and trimmed round the bottom of the skirt and train with a ruche of pale yellow crèpe; the Hon. Muriel Brassey, white chiffon, over satin, slightly trimmed with pink; and the [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Hon. Mrs Algernon Bourke]] was in pink, with magnificent diamonds.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Entertainments, Balls, &amp;c.&quot; ''The Queen'' 2 August 1890, Saturday: 38, Col. 3c – 39 [of 82], Col. 1a–1c [of 3]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0002627/18900802/237/0038 and https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002627/18900802/237/0039. Print: ''The Queen, The Lady's Newspaper'', pp. 170–171.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;This is the story from the ''Morning Post'':&lt;blockquote&gt;The Prince and Princess of Wales and the Princesses Victoria and Maud honoured Lord Alington by their company at dinner last evening at Alington House, South Audley-street. The guests present to meet their Royal Highnesses comprised the Duke and Duchess of Leinster, the Marquis of Hartington, the Marquis and Marchioness of Ormonde, Maria Marchioness of Ailesbury, Earl and Countess Cadogan and Lady Emily Cadogan, the Earl and Countess of Lucan and Lady Rosaline Bingham, the Earl of Hardwicke, the Countess of Dudley and Lady Edith Ward, the Earl of Chesterfield, Earl Annesley, the Earl of Stradbroke and Lady Hilda Rous, Lord and Lady Gerard, Lady Norreys, Lord Rowton, Lord Calthorpe, Lord Frederick Hamilton, Lord Charles Montagu, Lord Herbert Vane Tempest, Lord Arthur Grosvenor, Lady Lilian Wemyss, Colonel the Hon. Oliver Montagu, Sir John and Lady Lister Kaye, the Hon. Humphrey and Lady Feodore Sturt, the Hon. John Baring, the Hon. Henry and the Hon. Julia Stonor, the Hon. Gilbert Willoughby, Lady Suffield and Major-General Ellis, in waiting on the Prince and Princess of Wales; Sir Henry Calcraft, Mr. and Lady Rose Leigh, General and Mrs. Owen Williams, Mr. Mildmay, M.P., Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Sassoon, Mr. Montague Guest, Captain Orr-Ewing, Mrs. Bulkeley, Mr. Ricardo, and Mr. Caryl Craven.

Lord Alington afterwards gave a dance expressly to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Among the company were— The Russian Ambassador, the Danish Minister, Prince Louis Esterhazy, Comte Costa de Beaunyardt, the Duchess of Buccleuch and Lady Evelyn Fitzmaurice, the Duchess of Westminster, the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough and Lady Sarah Spencer Churchill, the Duchess of Wellington and Lady Cardross, the Marquis and Marchioness of Granby and Miss Bourke, the Marchioness of Stafford and Lady Sybil St. Clair Erskine, the Marchioness of Bath and Lady Beatrice Thynne, the Marquis of Cholmondeley, the Marquese and Marquesa de Santurce and Lady Wilham Nevill, Countess Spencer, Countess Granville and Lady Victoria Leveson-Gower, Countess de Grey, the Earl of Dunraven, the Countess of Lathom and Lady Edith Wilbraham, the Countess of Enniskillen and Lady Christian Cole, the Earl of Ilchester, the Earl of Durham and Lady Anne Lambton, the Earl of Dalkeith and Lord Ernest Scott, the Countess of Sefton and Lady Rose Molyneux, Countess Howe and the Ladies Curzon, the Countess of Normanton and Lady Mary Agar and Miss Mary Liddell, Earl Craven, Viscount Clifden, Viscount Ennismore and Lady Beatrice Hare, Viscount Coke and the Hon. Violet White, Viscount and Viscountess Castlerosse and the Hon. Susan Baring, Viscountess Newport and the Hon. Miss Bruce, Viscount and Viscountess Melgund, Viscount and Viscountess Curzon, Viscount and Lady Violet Dangan and Lady Eva Wellesley, Viscount Dungarvan, Viscount Chelsea, Viscount Royston, Lady Hastings, Lord Capell, Lord and Lady Willoughby de Eresby and Hon. Margaret Willoughby, Lady Cloncurry and Hon. Miss Winn, Lord and Lady Brooke, Lady Wimborne and Hon. Miss Guest, Lord Sandhurst, Lord and Lady Edmund Talbot, Lord and Lady Alwyne Compton and Miss Gurney, Lord and Lady Chesham, Lady Rossmore and Miss Naylor, Lord Kenyon, Lord Garioch, Lady Alice Portal, Lady Margaret Levett and the Ladies Ashley, Lady W. Nevill, Lord Paulet, Lady Charles Beresford, Lady Forbes and Misses Forbes, Lady Claud Hamilton, Lord Carlow, Lady Mary Mills, Lord Lurgan, Lord Henry Vane Tempest, Lord and Lady Algernon Gordon Lennox, Lord Richard Nevill, the Hon. W. Coventry, the Hon. G. Joliffe, the Hon. Schomberg M'Donnell, the Hon. H. Coventry, Captain the Hon. E. Dawson, the Hon. Alistair and Mrs. Hay, the Hon. Mrs. Grosvenor, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|the Hon. Algernon and Mrs. Bourke]], the Hon. F. Dawnay, the Hon. E. J. Mills, the Hon. A. Johnstone, the Hon. Claude Hay, the Hon. Sidney Greville, the Hon. Mr. Dundas and Lady Hilda Dundas, the Hon. Thomas and Lady Idina Brassey and the Hon. Muriel Brassey, the Hon. Mr. Mansfield, Colonel the Hon. Henry Byng and Miss Byng, the Hon. Mrs. Oliphant, the Hon. Mr. Harbord, the Right Hon. Henry Chaplin, M.P., the Hon. G. Somerset, Sir William Gordon Cumming, Sir George Arthur, Sir Hubert Miller, Sir Charles Forbes, Sir William and Lady Eden, Sir George Chetwynd, Sir Frederick Johnstone, Sir John D. Poynder, Colonel and Lady Emma Crichton, the Hon. Miss Harbord, Captain and Lady Jane Combe, Colonel Paget, Captain Williams, Captain Ford, Captain Doyle, Captain Hanbury, Captain Campbell, Captain Constable, Captain Kinloch, Captain Longfield, M. Gutmansthal, Mrs. Bingham, Mr. Guthrie, Mrs. Arthur Paget, Mrs. Charles Wilson and Miss Wilson, Mr. Hulse, M.P., and Mrs. Hulse, Mr. de Murrieta, Mrs. Bischoffsheim, Mr. Spencer Portal, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Paget, Mr. Leigh and Miss Leigh, Mr. Percy Daniell, Mr. Lister, Mr. Frederick Vincent, Mr. Cazalet, Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, Mr. John Savile Lumley, Mr. and Mrs Leopold de Rothschild, Mr. and Mrs. Skeffington Smith and Miss Taylor, Mrs. George Cavendish Bentinck, Mr. Alfred Farquhar, [[Social Victorians/People/Fanny Ronalds|Mr. Reginald Ronalds]], Miss Alice Ellice, Mr. George Marjoribanks, Mr. Wyndham, Mr. Dugdale, Mr. Montagu, Mrs. Sneyd, Mr. Wynn, Mr. Edward Hamilton, Mr. Murray Guthrie, Mr. George Lambert, Mrs. Sanford, Miss Mabel Forbes. Mr. Herbert Magniac, Mr. Bailey, Mr. Milner, Mr. Charles Kindersley, Mr. Beaumont, Mr. Walter Hervey, Mr. H. Hoare, Mr. Foley, Mr. Scott Murray, Mr. Coventry, Mr. Bertie, Mr. Jarvis, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. George Cavendish Bentinck, Mr. E. Charteris, Mr. Cholmondeley, Mr. Oswald Magniac, Mr. Cecil Campbell, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Oppenheim, Mr. Peploe, Mr. A. Charteris, Mr. Seymour Gore, Mr. Robert Antrobus, Mr. Elliot, M. de Champs, Mr. Wombwell, Mr. Charles Hoare, M.P., and many others.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Lord Alington's Ball.&quot; ''Morning Post'' 25 July 1890, Friday: 3 [of 8], Col. 5 b–c [of 7]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000174/18900725/014/0003. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

==August 1890==
===6 August 1890, Friday===

==== Beautiful Women ====
The ''Lancaster Observer and Morecambe Chronicle'' reprinted a story from ''Vanity Fair'' about &quot;Beautiful Women&quot;:&lt;blockquote&gt;Beautiful Women. — ''Vanity Fair'' asks what country in the world can show a more beautiful bevy of women than England? When Lady Helen Vincent, with her sister, Lady Cynthia Graham; when Lady Warwick with her sisters, the Duchess of Sutherland and Lady Westmorland; and when Lady Mar and Kellie, Lady de Trafford, Princess Pless, Lady de Gray[,] Lady Naylor-Leyland, the Duchess of Portland, Lady Alington, Lady Sophie Scott, Lady Chelsea, [[Social Victorians/People/Bourke|Lady Algernon Bourke]], Lady Henry Bentinck, Mrs. Willie Grenfell, Mrs. Rupert Beckett, Mrs. Arthur Paget, and Countess Clary are gathered together it is a sight to make an old man young; while Mrs. Gerard Leigh and her sister, Lady Yarborough, and Lady Powis, Lady Norreys, Mrs Farquharson, Mrs. Willie James, Lady Dalkeith, Mrs. Pretyman, Mrs. Gervase Beckett, Lady Rossmore, Lady Sarah Wilson, Lady Colebrook, Lady Hartopp, Mrs. Willie Walker, and Lady Milton are almost equally admired. The many pretty girls include Miss Enid and Miss Muriel Wilson, who still head the list of the unmarried beauties, Lady Beatrice Butler, Lady Alexandra Hamilton, Miss Kennard, Miss Madeline Bourke, and Miss Leila Crichton; while among the debutantes Lady Evelyn Crichton and Lady Vivian's daughters have had a great success, and Lady Alice Montagu, petite and charmingly pretty, has been so much admired. The daughters of Lady Gosford, Lady Verulam, Lady Leitrim, Lady Inchiquin, and Lady Grey have also been admired, as well as Lady Helen Stewart, Lady Katherine Scott, and Miss Chaplin.&lt;ref&gt;&quot;Beautiful Women.&quot; ''Lancaster Observer and Morecambe Chronicle'' 6 August 1897, Friday: 2 [of 8], Col. 5b [of 8]. ''British Newspaper Archive'' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001804/18970806/023/0002. Same print title and p.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

===25 August 1890, Monday===
Summer Bank Holiday

==September 1890==
==October 1890==
===22 October 1890, Wednesday===
Arnold Dolmetsch went to the Reading Room (Campbell 22).

===25 October 1890, Saturday===
[[Social Victorians/Loder De Vere Beauclerk Wedding|Loder—De Vere Beauclerk Wedding]]

===31 October 1890, Friday===
Halloween.

==November 1890==
===5 November 1890, Wednesday===
Guy Fawkes Day
===19 November 1890, Wednesday===
Arnold Dolmetsch, with some of his students and his daughter Helene, provided musical illustrations for a lecture given by Dr. Frederick Bridge on &quot;Mozart as Teacher,&quot; probably at Gresham College, where Bridges was professor (Campbell 34).

===21 November 1890, Friday===
Dr. Frederick Bridge's last fall 1890 lecture at Gresham College, for which Dolmetsch provided illustration. Campbell says, &quot;it is, in fact, the first record in modern times of music by Byrd, Dr. Bull, Jenkins, Simpson, Lawes, Locke and Purcell being played 'on the instruments for which it was written'&quot; (Campbell 34).

===25 November 1890, Tuesday===
Arnold Dolmetsch got a three-month pass to the Reading Room and &quot;thereafter held yearly tickets until 1916&quot; (Campbell 22).

==== 1890 November 29, Saturday ====

===== [[Social Victorians/Dudley-Beckwith Wedding 1890-11-29|Wedding of Francis Dudley, Lord Leigh and Héléne Forbes Beckwith]] =====

==December 1890==
Sometimes in December 1890, [[Social Victorians/People/William Robert Woodman|William Woodman]], one of the founding members of the [[Social Victorians/Golden Dawn|Golden Dawn]], died (Gilbert 86 12).

=== 4 December 1890, Thursday ===

==== [[Mure-Portal Wedding 1890-12-04|Wedding of Miss Mure and Mr. S. J. Portal]] ====

===19 December 1890, Friday===
&quot;The eleventh annual ''Truth'' Toy Exhibition for the children in London hospitals, workhouses, and infirmaries was held at the Grosvenor Gallery, Bond-street, on Dec. 19 and 20. There are over 22,000 children in these institutions, and each of them has a separate toy, besides the large and more expensive toys which are presented for the general use of the inmates. A special feature of the show was the dolls dressed by lady readers of ''Truth''. Several special donations in connection with the fund have been made, the principal of which is that of 10,200 new sixpences sent for distribution by the same liberal donor who has given a similar present on former occasions; while Mr. Tom Smith has had specially made, and has forwarded for distribution, over 22,000 crackers; and Mr. Horniman (as stated in our last issue) has given to the adults in hospitals and workhouses 1200 packets of tea, to be given to them as Christmas boxes.&quot; (Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, December 27, 1890; pg. 806; Issue 2697, Col. B)

===20 December 1890, Saturday===
&quot;In order that the adults connected with the hospitals and workhouses may participate in the good things given to the children in the ''Truth'' toy distribution, Mr. F. J. Horniman, of Wormwood-street, City, has sent Mr. Labouchere 1200 packets of tea to be given to them as a Christmas box.&quot; (Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, December 20, 1890; pg. 774; Issue 2696, Col. B) 

From the ''Times'', 22 December 1890, &quot;The Late Sir Edgar Boehm&quot;: &lt;blockquote&gt;On Saturday, in accordance with the special request of the Queen, the late Sir Edgar Boehm, R.A., was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral, in the south aisle of the crypt, the spot being known as “The Painters Corner.” [new paragraph] The funeral cortége left the residence of the deceased at about 11 o’clock, there being five mourning and several private carriages. In the first carriage were the chief mourners, Sir Edgar Collins Boehm, the only son of the late baronet, and Mr. Conrad Herapath. The second and third carriages were occupied by Sir Frederic Leighton, P.R.A., Sir Nigel Kingscote, Mr. Richard Mills, Colonel Francis Baring, Mr. Alma-Tadema, R.A., Sir R. H. Collins, Mr. Edward J. Poynter, R.A., and Mr. Duncan MacGregor, all of whom subsequently, at the cathedral, acted as pall bearers. The fourth carriage contained representatives of the Council of the Royal Academy – Mr. Edwin Long, R.A., Mr. J. B. Burgess, R.A., Mr. F. Goodall, R.A., and Mr. Beavis. In the fifth carriage were the following members of the professional staff of the deceased – Mr. R. Glassby, Mr. E. Lantéri, Signor Finili, and Herr Gross. The cortége stopped for a few moments at the Royal Academy, in order that it might be joined by two carriages containing other representatives of the institution. Leaving Piccadilly, the route taken was Waterloo-place, Pall-mall, Cockspur-street, the Strand, Fleet-street, and Ludgate-hill, the cathedral being reached about noon.

The procession was met at the great west door by Canon Gregory, the Archdeacon of London, the Rev. Dr. Baker, Minor Canons Milman, Russell, and Kelly, and the choir, who had a few minutes previously left the vestry; by Major Bigge, Equerry to the Queen, representing her Majesty; Colonel Stanley Clarke, who attended on behalf of the Prince and Princess of Wales; and Colonel W. J. Colville, representing the Duke of Edinburgh. The [[Social Victorians/People/Princess Louise|Princess Louise]] (Marchioness of Lorne) attired in deep mourning, and accompanied by [[Social Victorians/People/Arthur Collins|Lieut.-Col. Arthur Collins]] and Lady Sophia Macnamara, arrived at the cathedral a few minutes before 12 o’clock, and was conducted to a seat in the south side of the nave, close to the late Sir Edgar Boehm’s two daughters, upon whom her Royal Highness had called earlier in the morning. As the procession came slowly up the nave towards the chancel, “I am the resurrection of life” and other sentences of the burial service were chanted to music by Dr. Croft. The coffin, which was completely hidden by splendid wreaths, was preceded by the choristers and the clergy. Then followed Sir E. C. Boehm, with Mr. Conrad Herapath and Mr. Alfred Gilbert, A.R.A., the officers and council of the Royal Academy, and members of the deceased’s studio. The coffin was deposited upon a bier, which had been placed under the dome in front of the opening into the crypt, through which the body was subsequently lowered. The mourners having been conducted to the seats which had been reserved for them, and the clergy and choir having proceeded to their places in the chancel, Psalms xxxix. and xc. Were sung to music by Purcell and Felton, followed by Spohr’s anthem, “Blest are the departed,” and the lesson 1 Cor. Xv. 20, which was read by Canon Gregory. Whilst the hymn “Days and moments quickly flying” was being sung the Archdeacon of London and Minor Canon Milman proceeded from the chancel and took up positions by the side of the coffin. The remainder of the service preceding and following the lowering of the body into the crypt was read by Minor Canon Milman, and the collect was impressively recited by Archdeacon Sinclair. The late Dr. Newman’s beautiful hymn, “Lead kindly light,” was afterwards sung by the choir, and the service was brought to a close by Beethoven’s Funeral March, which was played in compliance with the special request of her Majesty, at whose desire also Chopin’s Funeral March had preceded the service. Dr. Martin was the organist.

While Beethoven’s march was being played the son and daughters of the late “Sculptor in ordinary to her Majesty,” together with other mourners, descended the crypt by the door near Howard’s monument, and saw the coffin for the last time. It bore the following inscription:- “Joseph Edgar Boehm. Born July 6, 1834; died at his work December 12, 1890. Thy will be done.” The coffin had already been deposited in the brick grave prepared for it, which is next to that of Sir Edwin Landseer. Immediately around it lie the remains of painters and sculptors of bygone days – Sir Joshua Reynolds, James Barry, Benjamin West, Henry Fuseli, Sir Thomas Lawrence, J. M. W. Turner, and John Henry Foley, while within half-a-dozen yards is the tomb of the great architect of the cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren. The coffin as last seen was covered by the floral tributes of loving friends, the symbolic laurel wreath forwarded by her Majesty surmounting them. This bore the inscription, “A tribute of gratitude for many beautiful memorial works executed for her. From Victoria, R. I.” Attached to the beautiful wreath sent by the Prince and Princess of Wales were the words, “A token of sincere regard and friendship.” Wreaths were forwarded by other members of the Royal Family, by Sir John and Lady Millais, Lord and Lady Reay, the Countess Sydney, Lord and Lady de Vesci, Mr. Henry Irving, Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, by members of the council, students and officers of the Royal Academy, the Society of Artistic Sculptors (Vienna), and by the London Hungarian Association.&quot; (http://glassby.com/Chapter1.htm) &lt;/blockquote&gt;

===24 December 1890, Wednesday===
&quot;The people of South London and adjacent suburbs have to be grateful to Mr. Frederick Horniman, a well-known City merchant residing at Dulwich, for a munificent and beneficial Christmas gift. This gentleman has, during thirty years, formed a collection, worth above £100,000, of specimens of art, European, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese, also of decorative manufactures, and of ethnology and natural history, and rare books and manuscripts, at Surrey House, Forest Hill, which he intends to present to the public. The museum was opened by Sir Morell Mackenzie on Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 24. It already comprises twenty-four rooms, containing many beautiful specimens of horse and chain armour, Elizabethan bed-room furniture, an old English parlour and pantry, an Oriental armoury, a bible and manuscript room, an Egyptian gallery, and ethnographical saloon, a book and embroidery saloon, a porcelain and glass room, and a zoological saloon, with two live Russian bears and a monkey. We may describe the museum further, after another visit. Our Artist has sketched, in the ethnograhical saloon, an idol's shrine, made of cocoanut-fibre, from Fiji. Mr. Horniman, in acknowledging a vote of thanks, said that in an adjoining house he had accumulated a vast library of bibles and entomological works and specimens. It was his intention to build a hall at the back of the present building to contain a thousand persons, while the galleries would contain a library, and a stage would be provided, so that both eye and ear could be amused. He also contemplated buying sufficient land to enable a public body to erect class-rooms and gymnasia. Three cheers were given for Mr. Horniman, and the company proceeded to inspect the museum.&quot; &quot;(Mr. F. Horniman's Museum, Forest Hill.&quot; Illustrated London News (London, England), Saturday, January 03, 1891; pg. 7; Issue 2698, Col. C)

===25 December 1890, Thursday===
Christmas Day
===26 December 1890, Friday===
Boxing Day
==Works Cited==
*&quot;Besant Chronology.pdf.&quot; From Anderson, Nancy Fix, Walter L Arnstein, Deborah Logan, and Susie L Steinbach, Volume Editors. Lives of Victorian Political Figures, Part III: Queen Victoria, Florence Nightingale, Annie Besant and Millicent Garrett Fawcett by their Contemporaries. Volume 3 of Lives of Victorian Political Figures. Series Editors, Nancy LoPatin-Lummis and Michael Partridge. London: Pickering and Chatto, 2008.
*Crawford, Elizabeth. The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866–1928. Google Books. Accessed 14 October 2010.</text>
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{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists each of the 20 emotions and describes they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

To gain experiential insight, practice using &quot;I feel ... &quot; statements when you experience a wide range of different emotions.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets:
## Find the emotion and category that matches the definition
## Find the definition and category that matches the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; However, shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour''&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy
|envy, jealousy, gluckschmerz
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]]
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
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    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840111</id>
      <parentid>2840110</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T02:03:08Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
      <minor />
      <comment>/* Individual emotions */</comment>
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      <text bytes="11185" sha1="aewmudceh5cbpuv9cm020yla6nvuutw" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel ... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets:
## Find the emotion and category that matches the definition
## Find the definition and category that matches the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; However, shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour''&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy
|envy, jealousy, gluckschmerz
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]]
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
      <sha1>aewmudceh5cbpuv9cm020yla6nvuutw</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840112</id>
      <parentid>2840111</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T02:05:24Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
      <minor />
      <comment>/* Individual emotions */</comment>
      <origin>2840112</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="11184" sha1="oy4x3q5xz4ef64yrmu34v0yqdr15sbw" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets:
## Find the emotion and category that matches the definition
## Find the definition and category that matches the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; However, shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour''&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy
|envy, jealousy, gluckschmerz
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]]
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
      <sha1>oy4x3q5xz4ef64yrmu34v0yqdr15sbw</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840113</id>
      <parentid>2840112</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T02:12:13Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
      <minor />
      <comment>/* Emotion matching exercise */</comment>
      <origin>2840113</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="11164" sha1="t5trd83s0xeai83u2h32ts1bi77yulq" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets, to match:
## the emotion and category to the definition
## the definition and category to the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; However, shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour''&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy
|envy, jealousy, gluckschmerz
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]]
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
      <sha1>t5trd83s0xeai83u2h32ts1bi77yulq</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840115</id>
      <parentid>2840113</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T02:17:19Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
      <minor />
      <comment>/* Discussion */</comment>
      <origin>2840115</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="11178" sha1="4e1j8fh8g11xjg4hgqz76afrs3csol4" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets, to match:
## the emotion and category to the definition
## the definition and category to the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of the ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour'' and harm to others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy
|envy, jealousy, gluckschmerz
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]]
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
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    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840134</id>
      <parentid>2840115</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T03:38:13Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
      <minor />
      <comment>/* Discussion */</comment>
      <origin>2840134</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
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      <text bytes="11176" sha1="t253mfp0b32b67jxobjvjjsxxgzdjnj" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets, to match:
## the emotion and category to the definition
## the definition and category to the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of the ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour'' and harm to others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy
|envy, jealousy, gluckschmerz
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]]
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
      <sha1>t253mfp0b32b67jxobjvjjsxxgzdjnj</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840171</id>
      <parentid>2840134</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T06:10:33Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
      <minor />
      <comment>/* Individual emotions */</comment>
      <origin>2840171</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="11176" sha1="m36w9cdkkeymc1kq5wqon2wpwmfs0b9" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets, to match:
## the emotion and category to the definition
## the definition and category to the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of the ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour'' and harm to others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy
|envy, jealousy, gluckschmerz
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]]
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
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      <id>2840173</id>
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        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
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      <text bytes="11176" sha1="rejpjkytlgy5cmhn9kkesy6d8j5avy9" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets, to match:
## the emotion and category to the definition
## the definition and category to the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of the ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour'' and harm to others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy
|envy, jealousy, gluckschmerz
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]]
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
      <sha1>rejpjkytlgy5cmhn9kkesy6d8j5avy9</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840175</id>
      <parentid>2840173</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T06:24:40Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
      <minor />
      <comment>/* Individual emotions */</comment>
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      <model>wikitext</model>
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      <text bytes="11176" sha1="0ml4u6wo7om3rvrwreym2igddbptxpl" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets, to match:
## the emotion and category to the definition
## the definition and category to the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of the ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour'' and harm to others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy
|envy, jealousy, gluckschmerz
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]]
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
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      <id>2840190</id>
      <parentid>2840175</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T07:45:06Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
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      <text bytes="11249" sha1="h6npm07wrf48oiqj0bm7jkq8svwrtcs" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets, to match:
## the emotion and category to the definition
## the definition and category to the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of the ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour'' and harm to others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy, vicarious pride
|bitterness, envy, gluckschmerz, jealousy, resentment, spite 
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, gloatrage, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]], vindication
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [Tutorial 9] (2026)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
      <sha1>h6npm07wrf48oiqj0bm7jkq8svwrtcs</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840192</id>
      <parentid>2840190</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T07:47:50Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Jtneill</username>
        <id>10242</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>/* Recording */ Update for 2026</comment>
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      <text bytes="11320" sha1="sy81u9o81f4cl0aszxpm9xvpiyiw1g9" xml:space="preserve">{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials|Tutorial 9: 20 emotions|ninth}}
{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}}
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Complete2}} --&gt;
&lt;!-- {{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/In development}} --&gt;

==Overview==
This tutorial discusses the causes, functions, types, and consequences of 20 individual emotions.

==Individual emotions==
This tutorial distinguishes 20 individual emotions and their causes and functions.

When dealing with many emotions, it helps to organise them into categories. The 20 individual emotions can be organised into three categories (Reeve, 2024; see Table 1):
* '''Basic''' (7) - present in early development and recognised cross-culturally
&lt;!-- 
### Fear
### Anger
### Disgust
### Contempt
### Sadness
### Joy
### Interest --&gt;
* '''Self-conscious''' (5) - occur when we become self-aware about how others perceive us
&lt;!-- 
### Shame
### Guilt
### Embarrassment
### Pride
### Triumph
--&gt;
* '''Cognitively complex''' (8) - arise from thoughts/perceptions about life events often involving others
&lt;!--
### Envy
### Gratitude
### Disappointment
### Regret
### Hope
### Schadenfreude
### Empathy
### Compassion --&gt;

Table 1 lists 20 emotions and describes how they ''feel'' and why do we feel them.

'''Table 1'''

''20 Individual Emotions Organised Into Three Categories, Subjective Experiences, and Motivational Urges''

&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
! width=20%; |Category
! width=20%; |Emotion
! width=30%; |&quot;I feel ...&quot;
! width=30%; |Motivational urge
|-
| rowspan=&quot;7&quot; | '''Basic''' (7)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Fear|Fear]]
| I feel in danger
| Flee; protect oneself
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Anger|Anger]]
| I feel injustice
| Overcome obstacles; right an illegitimate wrong
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust|Disgust]]
| I feel repulsed
| Reject; get rid of; get away from contaminated object
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Sadness|Sadness]]
| I feel bad about a loss
| Repair a loss or failure
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Contempt|Contempt]]
| I feel superior to you
| Maintain dominance and social hierarchy
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Joy|Joy]]
| I feel happiness within
| Continue goal striving; play; engage in social interaction
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Interest|Interest]]
| I feel curious
| Explore; seek; acquire new information; learn
|-
| rowspan=&quot;5&quot; | '''Self-conscious''' (5)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Shame|Shame]]
| I feel bad about myself because I am publicly wrong
| Restore the self; protect the self
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Guilt|Guilt]]
| I feel bad about wronging you
| Make amends
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Embarrassment|Embarrassment]]
| I feel awkward in front of you
| Appease others; communicate blunder was unintended
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Pride|Pride]]
| I feel good about myself and achievements
| '''Authentic:''' Acquire further skill; persist at challenging tasks&lt;br&gt;'''Hubristic:''' Self-inflation to boost self-esteem and social standing
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Triumph|Triumph]]
| I feel victorious
| Display dominance and power over the defeated
|-
| rowspan=&quot;8&quot; | '''Cognitively complex''' (8)
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Envy|Envy]]
| I feel jealous – I want what you have
| '''Benign:''' Move up; improve one's position&lt;br&gt;'''Malicious:''' Tear down; reduce another's position
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Schadenfreude|Schadenfreude]]
| I feel pleasure at your misfortune
| Reinforce feelings of superiority
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disappointment|Disappointment]]
| I feel down about a poor outcome
| Give up; helplessness
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Regret|Regret]]
| I feel sorrow for what I did
| Undo a poor decision or behaviour
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Gratitude|Gratitude]]
| I feel thankful
| Act prosocially; grow the relationship
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Hope|Hope]]
| I feel optimistic about my future
| Keep engaged in pursuit of a desired goal
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy|Empathy]]
| I feel with you
| Act prosocially; help the other
|-
| [[:Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Compassion|Compassion]]
| I feel caring towards you
| Reduce suffering
|}
&lt;/div&gt;

''Note''. The &quot;I feel ...&quot; descriptions represent the subjective experience of each emotion. Motivational urges indicate typical functions served by each emotion. Links go to Wikiveristy categories which list relevant [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]. Adapted from Reeve (2024).

To gain experiential insight into these emotions:
* practice using &quot;I feel... &quot; statements when experiencing each of a wide range of different emotions
* play emotion bingo using the 20 emotions — tick off each one as you experience it, until complete

==Emotion matching exercise==

{{anchor|Activity}}{{RoundBoxTop|theme=10}}
'''Activity: Emotion matching'''
[[File:Antu 67EF addoninstaller.0.svg|right|100px]]
# Collaborate in pairs to discuss and complete the &lt;!-- Handout: [[:File:20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise.pdf|20 Individual Emotions Matching Exercise]] --&gt; [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OvG1jp1OBEGBzcDmL5W_yczXNGsqN43D_Zpdn9jHqsU 20 Emotion Matching Exercise]
# Each pair completes two sheets, to match:
## the emotion and category to the definition
## the definition and category to the emotion
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Discussion==
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are your '''favourite''' or '''most interesting''' emotion(s)? Why?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;!-- &lt;li&gt; What emotions are '''missing'''?&lt;/li&gt; --&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''shame''', '''guilt''', and '''embarrassment'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame and guilt both involve feeling bad about the standard of the self's behaviour&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame is public; guilt is private (''shame in the courtroom''; ''guilt in the cell'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Shame focuses on the inadequacy of the ''self''; guilt focuses on the poor ''behaviour'' and harm to others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Embarrassment arises from innocent social blunder; it acknowledge this awareness and asks for forgiveness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''pride''' and '''triumph'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve feeling good&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Pride is more personal, based on achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Triumph is more social, based on competitive victory over others&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''pride'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Authentic: Based on genuine achievement&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Hubristic/Narcissistic: Self-puffery; based on desire to be better/more dominant than others; undermines relationships&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What emotions are associated with these '''interpersonal scenarios'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width: 90%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;
!
!'''I feel good because...'''
!'''I feel bad because...'''
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels good'''
|[[w:compersion|compersion]], [[w:confelicity|confelicity]], empathy, [[wikt:freudenfreude|freudenfreude]], mudita, vicarious joy, vicarious pride
|bitterness, envy, gluckschmerz, jealousy, resentment, spite 
|- style=&quot;vertical-align:top;&quot;
|'''...other person feels bad'''
|arrogance, contempt, gloatrage, hate, narcissism, [[wikt:schadenfreude|schadenfreude]], vindication
|compassion, empathy, sympathy
|}
&lt;ol start=&quot;6&quot;&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two types of '''envy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Benign: Focuses on self-improvement (''building up'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Malicious: Focuses on undermining another (''tearing down'')&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''empathy''', '''compassion''', and '''sympathy'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Empathy: Mirrors the feelings of another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Compassion: Motivates action to help another &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Sympathy: Pitying of others; involves power &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the difference between '''disappointment''' and '''regret'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Both involve experiencing a worse outcome than expected; the difference is the amount of perceived control&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Disappointment: Perceives that one's behaviour could not have lead to a different outcome&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Regret: Perceives that, had one's behaviour been different, a better outcome could have been achieved&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What are the two aspects of '''gratitude'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Indebtedness &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Exchange-based relationship: If the receiver focuses on what was received (e.g., $50), then the receiver may feel indebted to repay, leading to an exchange-based relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Care &lt;math&gt;\rightarrow&lt;/math&gt; Communal relationship: If the receiver focuses on the giver (e.g., a friend), then the receiver may feel cared for and loved, leading to a communal relationship&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; What is the opposite of '''hope'''?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear and hope are about expectations of the future&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt; Fear arises from a negative view of the future; hope arises from a positive view of the future
&lt;li&gt; Also consider hopelessness / helplessness&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

==Readings==
* Chapter 14: Individual emotions ([[Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024|Reeve, 2024]])

==Recording==
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3931a3d2715a41209a9e325ab733a506 Tutorial 9] (2026)&lt;!--
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/ad82252fd3b942dab76549b587afdc21 Tutorial 9] (2025)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/805b463d37464601986875924da3588a Tutorial 9] (2024)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/7ba704c041be4506b9b9176dd7063e9c Tutorial 9] (2023)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/30253ce91beb4a02907ddca89ab11a8d Tutorial 9 recording Pt 1] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/60135634ce83484482bf7a2ef8199bd0 Tutorial 9 recording Pt 2] (2022)
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/3d5dd6db621d4c309db303408bdcaa19 Tutorial 9 recording], 2021
* [https://au-lti.bbcollab.com/recording/1efcf556a5384d3586d2abc55a7b2109 Tutorial 9 recording], 2020
--&gt;

==See also==
&lt;!--
;Book chapters
;Wikipedia
--&gt;
;Lecture
* [[Motivation and emotion/Lectures/Individual emotions|Individual emotions]] (Lecture)

;Tutorials
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Measuring emotion|Measuring emotion]] (Previous tutorial)
* [[{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|2}}/Time perspective|Time perspective]] (Next tutorial)

;Admin
* [[/Instructor notes/]]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

{{:Motivation and emotion/Readings/Textbooks/Reeve/2024}}

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Brené Brown on empathy] (YouTube; 2:53 mins)
* [https://twentyonetoys.com/blogs/teaching-empathy/brene-brown-empathy-vs-sympathy Empathy vs sympathy (Dr Brené Brown)] (twentyonetoys.com)
* [https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/talkback-how-to-deal-with-guilt/102450958 How to deal with guilt] (Life Matters, ABC Radio National, 9 June, 2023)
&lt;noinclude&gt;{{Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Navigation}}&lt;/noinclude&gt;

[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/20 emotions]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Embarrassment]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Guilt]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Emotion/Shame]]</text>
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  <page>
    <title>Category:Media reform to improve democracy</title>
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      <timestamp>2026-10-13T17:26:42Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>DavidMCEddy</username>
        <id>218607</id>
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      <text bytes="20357" sha1="hbpr23596cnrnhj0oxwllklffhoqmyg" xml:space="preserve">A number of seemingly credible sources are describing an increase in political polarization worldwide. [[w:Maria Ressa|Maria Ressa]] describes how [[w:Rodrigo Duterte|Rodrigo Duterte]], former President of the [[w:Philippines|Philippines]] &quot;started ... with five hundred volunteers&lt;ref&gt;Ressa (2022, pp. 147-8).&lt;/ref&gt; (1) creating “sock puppets,” or fake accounts that attack or praise; (2) “mass reporting,” or organizing to negatively impact a targeted account; and (3) “astroturfing,” or fake posts or lies designed to look like grassroots support or interest.&lt;ref&gt;Ressa (2022, pp. 152-3).&lt;/ref&gt; These actions tricked the algorithms of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter into amplifying fraudulent messages including incitements to violence and criminal prosecutions based on trumped up charges. The results easily overwhelmed honest media. [[w:Leila de Lima|Leila de Lima]], a Senator and former Secretary of Justice of the Philippines, spent years  in pretrial detention before the charges were dropped for lack of evidence.&lt;ref&gt;Ressa (2022, p. 158ff) and Wikipedia, &quot;[[w:Leila de Lima|Leila de Lima]]&quot;, accessed 2024-07-22.&lt;/ref&gt; Ressa's news organization, [[w:Rappler|Rappler]].com, was ordered to close. Ressa herself was convicted on questionable charges. Both continued operating while the legal procedures against them were appealed.&lt;ref&gt;Ressa (2022, pp. 152-3) and Wikipedia, &quot;[[w:Maria Ressa|Maria Ressa]]&quot;, accessed 2024-07-22.&lt;/ref&gt; Ressa says similar procedures are making major contributions to the rise of fascism and far-right nationalist populists in the US, Europe, Turkey, India, Russia, and elsewhere.&lt;ref&gt;Ressa (2022, pp. 152-3).&lt;/ref&gt; [[w:H. R. McMaster|H. R. McMaster]], former President Trump's second National Security advisor, said that &quot;The internet and social media thus provided [Russia] with a low-cost, easy way to divide and weaken America from within.&quot;&lt;ref&gt;McMaster (2020, pp. 47-48).&lt;/ref&gt; The [[w:2021 Facebook leak|2021 Facebook leak]] documented how executives of [[w:Facebook|Facebook]] and [[w:Meta Platforms|Meta]] knowingly prioritized profits over action to limit incitements to violence, even facilitating the [[w:Rohingya genocide|Rohingya genocide]] in [[w:Myanmar|Myanmar]], because doing otherwise would have reduced their profits. 

This &quot;Category:Media reform to improve democracy&quot; include videos of experts and activists working this issue along with 29:00 mm:ss audio files submitted to a ''Media &amp; Democracy'' series syndicated on the [[w:List of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates|Pacifica radio network]]&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Media &amp; Democracy on Audioport--&gt;{{cite Q|Q127839818}}&lt;/ref&gt; plus text and space for moderated discussions. 

Some of this work is cited in the book on ''[[Media Literacy and You]]'', which is being written -- [[w:Crowdsourcing|crowdsourced]] -- to help humans better understand how they can counter the trend toward increasing political polarization and violence by talking politics, calmly, with respect and humility, with others with whom they may vehemently disagree, because the alternative is killing humans over misunderstanding. The goal is ''not'' to convince anyone that they are wrong. Rather it is to build relationships where humans can agree to disagree agreeably and collaborate to improve issues of common concern. 

== Table of episodes == 

{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot;
|+ Episodes of &quot;Media &amp; Democracy&quot; for the [[w:List of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates|Pacifica Radio Network]]
|-
! 
!! colspan=3 | Date !! colspan=2 | Guest(s) !! !! 
|- 
! no. || recorded !! broadcasted on [[w:KKFI|KKFI]] !! released to Pacifica !! given name !! surname !! Organization(s) !!Episode 
|-
| 63 || 2026-09-25 || 2026-11-03 || 2026-10-31 || 
{| 
| Spencer   
|- 
| Ursula
|- 
| MarkAlain
|} 
| 
{| 
| Graves&lt;ref name=Graves&gt;&lt;!--Spencer Graves--&gt;{{cite Q|Q56452480}}&lt;/ref&gt;
|- 
| Ruedenberg&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Ursula Ruedenberg--&gt;{{cite Q|Q70230619}}&lt;/ref&gt;
|-
| Déry&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--MarkAlain Déry--&gt;{{cite Q|Q141673893}}&lt;/ref&gt; 
|} 
| 
{| 
| [[w:KKFI|KKFI]]
|- 
| [[w:Pacifica Foundation|Pacifica affiliates network]]
|- 
| [[w:WHIV-LP|WHIV]]
|} 
| [[Media &amp; Democracy syndicated for Pacifica]]
|-
| 62 || 2026-09-18 || 2026-10-06 || 2026-10-17 || Rainey || Reitman&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Rainey Reitman--&gt;{{cite Q|Q28778243}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Freedom of the Press Foundation|Freedom of the Press Foundation]] || [[Rainey Reitman on how finance companies punish speech]]
|-
| 61 || 2026-09-03 || 2026-09-22 || 2026-10-03 || [[w:Nolan Higdon|Nolan]] || [[w:Nolan Higdon|Higdon]] || [[w:California State University, East Bay|California State University, East Bay]] &amp; [[w:University of California, Santa Cruz|University of California, Santa Cruz]] || [[Media literacy and why you should care]]
|-
| 60 || 2026-08-31 || 2026-09-08 || 2026-09-19 || Rachel || Clark&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Rachel Clark--&gt;{{cite Q|Q141168609}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Veterans for Peace|Veterans for Peace]] || [[The impact of news media on the Japanese political economy]] 
|-
| 59 || 2026-08-27 || 2026-09-01 || 2026-09-05 || [[w:Renée DiResta|Renée]] || [[w:Renée DiResta|DiResta]] || [[w:Georgetown University|Georgetown University]] || [[Managing the good and the evils of social media]] 
|-
| 58 || 2026-08-13 || 2026-08-18 || 2026-08-22 || 
{| 
| Teresa  
|- 
| Ann
|} 
| 
{| 
| Wilke&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Teresa Wilke--&gt;{{cite Q|Q141110943}}&lt;/ref&gt; 
|- 
| Suellentrop&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Ann Suellentrop--&gt;{{cite Q|Q104978249}}&lt;/ref&gt;
|} 
| 
{| 
| [[w:KKFI|KKFI]]
|- 
| PeaceWorks Kansas City,&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!-- PeaceWorks Kansas City--&gt;{{cite Q|Q64287449}}&lt;/ref&gt; ...
|} 
| [[How to expose media lies and have fun doing it]]
|-
| 57 || 2026-07-31 || 2026-08-11 || 2026-08-08 || Yonty || Friesem&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Yonty Friesem--&gt;{{cite Q|Q140685186}}&lt;/ref&gt; || Media Education Lab,&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Media Education Lab--&gt;{{cite Q|Q140686986}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[Yonty Friesem on media education]]
|-
| 56 || 2026-07-01 || 2026-07-21 || 2026-07-25 || Dimitar || Zagorski&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Dimitar Zagorski, 3rd--&gt;{{cite Q|Q130719781}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]] || [[Wikimedia concerns with European copyright rules including AI and scientific research]]
|- 
| 55 || 2026-07-02 || 2026-07-14 || 2026-07-11 || [[w:Robert Corn-Revere|Robert]] || [[w:Robert Corn-Revere|Corn-Revere]] || [[w:Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression|Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression]] (FIRE) || [[Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression]]
|- 
| 54 || 2026-06-20 || 2026-06-23 || 2026-06-27 || Katerina || Canyon&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Katerina Canyon--&gt;{{cite Q|Q140290658}}&lt;/ref&gt; || Peace Economy Project,&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Peace Economy Project--&gt;{{cite Q|Q140290765}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[Peace Economy Project]]
|-
| 53 || 2026-05-29 || 2026-06-09 || 2026-06-13 || [[w:Nolan Higdon|Nolan]] || [[w:Nolan Higdon|Higdon]] || [[w:California State University, East Bay|California State University, East Bay]] &amp; [[w:University of California, Santa Cruz|University of California, Santa Cruz]] || [[Let's agree to disagree and seek common ground]]
|-
| 52 || 2026-05-14 || 2026-05-26 ||2026-05-30 || Allison || Butler&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Allison Butler--&gt;{{cite Q|Q132918386}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:University of Massachusetts Amherst|University of Massachusetts Amherst]] || [[How women are centered and silenced in the major media]]
|-
| 51 || 2026-05-06 || 2026-05-12 || 2026-05-16 || [[w:Yael Eisenstat|Yaël]] || [[w:Yael Eisenstat|Eisenstat]] || Cybersecurity for Democracy (C4D),&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Cybersecurity for Democracy--&gt;{{cite Q|Q139568543}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[Online platforms' effects on public health, safety and democracy]]
|-
| 50 || 2026-04-09	|| 2026-04-28 || 2026-05-02 || Stephen || Bezruchka&lt;ref name=Bezruchka&gt;&lt;!--Stephen Bezruchka--&gt;{{cite Q|Q118236581}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:University of Washington School of Public Health|University of Washington School of Public Health]] || [[How US media threaten the health of all]]
|- 
| 49 || 2026-04-06 || 2026-04-14 || 2026-04-18 || Mickey ||Huff&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Mickey Huff--&gt;{{cite Q|Q104530435}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Project Censored|Project Censored]] &amp; [[w:Ithaca College|Ithaca College]] || [[News suppressed for those who control money for the media]] 
|-
| 48 || 2026-03-27 || 2026-03-31 || 2026-04-04 || [[w:Robin Andersen|Robin]] || [[w:Robin Andersen|Andersen]] || [[w:Fordham University|Fordham University]] || [[Media and war]]
|-
| 47 || 2026-03-12 || 2026-03-17 || 2026-03-21 || Bill || Yousman&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Bill Yousman--&gt;{{cite Q|Q138604097}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Sacred Heart University|Sacred Heart University]] || [[Media literacy to dispel myths and improve public policy]]
|-
| 46 || 2026-02-26 || 2026-03-03 || 2026-03-07 || Stephan || Russ-Mohl&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Stephan Russ-Mohl--&gt;{{cite Q|Q2343781}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:University of Lugano|University of Lugano]] || [[Concerns about media, especially in Germany]]
|-
| 45 || 2026-02-12 || 2026-02-17 || 2026-02-21 || Paul || Bame&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Paul Bame--&gt;{{cite Q|Q138057986}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Prometheus Radio Project|Prometheus Radio Project]] || [[Underserved serve themselves with low-power FM]]
|-
| 44 || 2026-01-30 || 2026-02-03 || 2026-02-07 || Anthony || Nadler&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Anthony Nadler--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135514734}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Ursinus College|Ursinus College]] || [[Conservative media are different]]
|-
| 43 || 2026-01-15 || 2026-01-20 || 2026-01-24 || 
{| 
| Tim  
|- 
| Zach 
|} 
| 
{| 
| Franklin&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!-- Tim Franklin--&gt;{{cite Q|Q137763244}}&lt;/ref&gt; 
|- 
| Metzger&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Zach Metzger--&gt;{{cite Q|Q137803164}}&lt;/ref&gt; 
|} 
| [[w:Northwestern University|Northwestern University]] || [[Medill says you can help yourself by helping improve local media]] 
|-
| 42 || 2026-01-03 || 2026-01-06 || 2026-01-10 || Lisa || Loving&lt;ref&gt;{{cite Q|Q65115420}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:KBOO|KBOO]] || [[Lisa Loving on media literacy and how you can report for your community]]
|- 
| 41 || 2025-12-11 || 2025-12-23 || 2025-12-27 || [[w:John Maxwell Hamilton|John Maxwell]] || [[w:John Maxwell Hamilton|Hamilton]] || [[w:Louisiana State University|Louisiana State University]] || [[John Maxwell Hamilton on American propaganda]] 
|- 
| 40 || 2025-12-05 || 2025-12-09 || 2025-12-13 || Mark || Hurst&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Mark Hurst--&gt;{{cite Q|Q65030170}}&lt;/ref&gt; || Techtonic&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Techtonic--&gt;{{cite Q|Q137087746}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[You can better protect yourself from Big Tech]]
|- 
| 39 || 2025-11-20 || 2025-11-25 || 2025-11-29 || Kareem || El Damanhoury&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Kareem El Damanhoury--&gt;{{cite Q|Q113752441}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:University of Denver|University of Denver]] || [[Differences between media outlets including coverage of Gaza]]
|- 
| 38 || 2025-11-06 || 2025-11-11 || 2025-11-15 || Spencer || Graves&lt;ref name=Graves/&gt; || [[w:KKFI|KKFI]] || [[Media &amp; Democracy lessons for the future]]
|-
| 37 || 2025-10-23 || 2025-20-28 || 2025-11-01 || [[w:Kwame Karikari (journalist)|Kwame ]] || [[w:Kwame Karikari (journalist)|Karikari]] || [[w:Media Foundation for West Africa|Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)]] || [[Media reform initiatives in West Africa]]  
|-
| 36 || 2025-10-03 || 2025-10-14 || 2025-10-18 || Seth || Radwell&lt;ref name=Radwell&gt;&lt;!--Seth David Radwell--&gt;{{cite Q|Q136406332}}&lt;/ref&gt; || || [[Seth Radwell says that the two Enlightenments tell us how to heal US political polarization]]
|-
| 35 || 2025-09-25 || 2025-09-30 || 2025-10-04 || Dan || Hind&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Dan Hind--&gt;{{cite Q|Q136393606}}&lt;/ref&gt; || Media Reform Coalition (MRC).&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Media Reform Coalition--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135440829}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[Media Reform Coalition challenges anti-democratic media bias in the UK]]
|- 
| 34 || 2025-09-12 || 2025-09-16 || 2025-09-20 || [[w:Anna M. Gomez|Anna]] || [[w:Anna M. Gomez|Gomez]] || [[w:Federal Communications Commission|Federal Communications Commission]] || [[Fighting back against the campaign of censorship and control]]
|- 
| 33 || 2025-08-28 || 2025-09-02 || 2025-09-06 || Doug || Samuelson&lt;ref name=Samuelson&gt;&lt;!--Douglas A. Samuelson--&gt;{{cite Q|Q89781201}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Trevor N. Dupuy#Academic and research career|Dupuy Institute]]&lt;ref name=Dupuy&gt;&lt;!--Dupuy Institute--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135969462}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[The role of the media in conflict]]
|- 
| 32 || 2025-07-31 || 2025-08-19 || 2025-08-21 || Nick || Hart&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Nick Hart--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135663983}}&lt;/ref&gt; || Data Foundation&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Data Foundation--&gt;{{cite Q|Q134705118}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[Evidence-informed public policy]]
|-
| 31 || 2025-08-01 || 2025-08-05 || 2025-08-09 || Reece || Peck&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Reece Peck--&gt;{{cite Q|Q131374387}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:City University of New York|City University of New York (CUNY)]] || [[What the Left can learn from Fox]]
|-
| 30 || 2025-07-17 || 2025-07-22 || 2025-07-26 || Natalie || Fenton&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Natalie Fenton--&gt;{{cite Q|Q112529317}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Goldsmiths, University of London|Goldsmiths, University of London]] || [[Democratic delusions: Fix the media to fix democracy]]
|- 
| 29 || 2025-07-03 || 2025-07-08 || 2025-07-12 || Heidi J.S. || Tworek&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Heidi J.S. Tworek--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135116400}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:University of British Columbia|University of British Columbia]] || [[News from Germany 1900-1945 and implications for today]]
|-
| 28 || 2025-06-12 || 2025-06-24 || 2025-06-28 || Nik || Usher&lt;ref name=Usher&gt;&lt;!--Nik Usher--&gt;{{cite Q|Q134715348}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:University of San Diego|University of San Diego]] || [[How news impacts democracy per USD Communications Professor Nik Usher]]
|-
| 27 || 2025-06-08 || 2025-06-10 || 2025-06-14 || [[w:Richard R. John|Richard R.]] || [[w:Richard R. John|John]] || [[w:Columbia University|Columbia University]] || [[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John]]
|- 
| 26 || 2025-05-21 || 2025-05-27 || 2025-05-31 || Dean || Starkman&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Dean Starkman--&gt;{{cite Q|Q17036928}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:International Consortium of Investigative Journalists|International Consortium of Investigative Journalists]] (ICIJ) || [[Dean Starkman and the watchdog that didn't bark]]
|- 
| 25 || 2025-05-08 || 2025-05-13 || 2025-05-17 || 
{| 
| Seth 
|- 
| Lauren 
|} 
| 
{| 
| Stern&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Seth Stern--&gt;{{cite Q|Q134333839}}&lt;/ref&gt; 
|- 
| Harper&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Lauren Harper--&gt;{{cite Q|Q134371468}}&lt;/ref&gt; 
|} 
| [[w:Freedom of the Press Foundation|Freedom of the Press Foundation]] || [[Freedom of the Press Foundation says...]]
|- 
| 24 || 2025-04-24 || 2025-04-29 || 2025-05-03 ||  Marc || Edge&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Marc Edge--&gt;{{cite Q|Q127419557}}&lt;/ref&gt; || || [[Canadian journalist Marc Edge on media reform to improve democracy]]
|-
| 23 || 2025-04-10 || 2025-04-15 || 2025-04-19 || Katie || Moylan&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Katie Moylan--&gt;{{cite Q|Q133832220}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:University of Leicester|University of Leicester]] || [[The value of indigenous and community radio]]
|- 
| 22 || 2025-03-28 || 2025-04-01 || 2025-04-05 || Amy || O’Hara&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Amy O'Hara--&gt;{{cite Q|Q133554516}}&lt;/ref&gt; ||  [[w:Georgetown University|Georgetown University]] &amp; Association of Public Data Users (APDU),&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--APDU--&gt;{{cite Q|Q131542415}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[Trump ordered changes in public data]]
|-
| 21 || 2025-03-06 || 2025-03-11 || 2025-03-22 || Rick || Goldsmith,&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Rick Goldsmith--&gt;{{cite Q|Q1792246}}&lt;/ref&gt; || || [[Vulture capitalists destroying newspapers]]
|- 
| 20 || 2025-02-25 || 2025-02-25 || 2025-03-08 || Roger M. || White&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Roger M. White--&gt;{{cite Q|Q132460597}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Arizona State University|Arizona State University]] || [[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]]
|-
| 19 || 2025-02-06 || 2025-02-11 || 2025-02-22 || [[w:Greg Palast|Greg]] || [[w:Greg Palast|Palast]] || || [[Palast says Trump lost, vote suppression won the 2024 elections]]
|-
| 18 || 2025-01-25 || 2025-02-04 || 2025-02-12 || 
{|
| Omali 
|- 
| Elisa 
|- 
| Gerald 
|} 
| 
{|
| Yeshitela
|- 
| Mejia
|- 
| Horne 
|}
| Friends of Community Media,&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Friends of Community Media--&gt;{{cite Q|Q100167560}}&lt;/ref&gt;, Pacifica Fightback,&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Pacifica Fightback--&gt;{{cite Q|Q132035380}}&lt;/ref&gt;, ... || [[Defend free speech hybrid town hall]]
|-
| 17 || 2025-01-13 || 2025-01-14 || 2025-01-25 || Bulgarova || Bella Akhmedovna&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Bulgarova Bella Akhmedovna--&gt;{{cite Q|Q131737349}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia|Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia]] || [[Media in the Syrian conflict]]
|-
| 16 || 2024-12-20 || 2024-12-31 || 2025-01-04 || Michael || Novick || || [[HR 9495, the nonprofit-killer bill, per Michael Novick]]
|- 
| 15 || 2024-12-13 || 2024-12-24 || 2024-12-21 || [[w:Victor Pickard (professor)|Victor]] || [[w:Victor Pickard (professor)|Pickard]] || [[w:Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania|Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania]] || [[Information is a public good per communications prof Pickard]]
|-
| 14 || 2024-12-02 || 2024-12-10 || 2024-12-07 || Ahmed || Al-Rawi&lt;ref name=AlRawiSFU&gt;&lt;!--SFU homepage of Ahmed Al-Rawi--&gt;{{cite Q|Q131349551}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Simon Fraser University|Simon Fraser University]] || [[Media literacy for the Arab World per Ahmed Al-Rawi]]
|-
| 13 || 2024-11-21 || 2024-11-26 || 2024-11-23 || [[w:Thom Hartmann|Thom]] || [[w:Thom Hartmann|Hartmann]] || || [[Thom Hartmann on The Hidden History of the American Dream]]
|-
| 12 || 2024-10-25 || 2024-11-05 || 2024-11-09 || Dimi || Dimitrov.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!-- Dimi Dimitrov--&gt;{{cite Q|Q130719781}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[meta:Wikimedia Europe|Wikimedia Europe]] || [[Legal concerns of Wikimedia Europe]] 
|-
| 11 || 2024-10-26 || 2024-10-19 || 2024-10-27 || Karl || Brooks&lt;ref name=Brooks&gt;&lt;!--Karl Boyd Brooks--&gt;{{cite Q|Q128214400}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:University of Kansas|University of Kansas]] || [[Project 2025 per Professor Brooks]]
|-
| 10 || 2024-10-01 || 2024-10-01 || 2024-10-12 || Jacob || Ware&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Jacob Ware--&gt;{{cite Q|Q130315296}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Council on Foreign Relations|Council on Foreign Relations]] (CFR) &amp;  [[w:Georgetown University|Georgetown University]] || [[Jacob Ware on far-right terrorism in the US]]
|-
| 9 || 2024-09-13 || 2024-09-17 || 2024-09-29 || Patricia Weems || Gaston.&lt;ref name=Gaston&gt;&lt;!--Patricia Weems Gaston--&gt;{{cite Q|Q130215888}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:University of Kansas|University of Kansas]] || [[Dis- and misinformation and their threats to democracy]]
|- 
| 8 || 2024-09-11 || 2024-11-12 || 2024-09-14 || Jiva || Manske&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Jiva Manske--&gt;{{cite Q|Q130287696}}&lt;/ref&gt; || 22nd Century Initiative&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--22nd CI--&gt;{{cite Q|Q129361855}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[22nd Century Initiative]]
|- 
| 7 || 2024-08-22|| 2024-08-27 || 2024-08-31 || Heidi || Beirich,&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!-- Heidi Beirich--&gt;{{cite Q|Q128844587}}&lt;/ref&gt; || Global Project Against Hate &amp; Extremism (GPAHE).&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!-- GPAHE--&gt;{{cite Q|Q125952435}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[Global Project Against Hate &amp; Extremism (GPAHE)]]
|-
| 6 || 2024-08-19 || 2024-08-20 || 2024-08-24 || [[w:Frances Haugen|Frances]] || [[w:Frances Haugen|Haugen]] || || [[Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says]]
|-
| 5 || 2024-08-13 || 2024-08-13 || 2024-08-17 || Matt || Wood&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Matt Wood--&gt;{{cite Q|Q128630750}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Free Press (advocacy group)|Free Press]] || [[Legal concerns of Free Press including Section 230]]
|-
| 4 || 2024-08-02 || 2024-08-06 || 2024-08-10 || Ian Axel || Anderson&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Ian Axel Anderson--&gt;{{cite Q|Q128639294}}&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:California Institute of Technology|Caltech]] || [[How psychological and interpersonal processes are influenced by human-computer interactions]]
|-
| 3 || 2024-07-30 || 2024-07-30 || 2024-08-03 || [[w:Dean Baker|Dean]] || [[w:Dean Baker|Baker]] || [[w:Center for Economic and Policy Research|Center for Economic and Policy Research]] || [[Dean Baker on Internet companies threatening democracy internationally and how to fix that]]
|-
| 2 || 2021-04-29 || 2021-04-29 || 2021-05-16 || Craig || Aaron,&lt;ref&gt;{{cite Q|Q104624986}}&lt;!-- Craig Aaron --&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; || [[w:Free Press (organization)|Free Press (Freepress.net)]] || [[Media reform per Freepress.net]]
|- 
| 1 || 2021-02-23 || 2021-02-23 || 2021-03-17 || [[w:Dean Baker|Dean]] || [[w:Dean Baker|Baker]] || [[w:Center for Economic and Policy Research|Center for Economic and Policy Research]] ||[[Unrigging the media and the economy]]
|}

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography == 

* &lt;!-- H. R. McMaster (2020) Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World--&gt;{{cite Q|Q104774898}}
* &lt;!--Maria Ressa (2022) How to Stand Up To a Dictator--&gt;{{cite Q|Q117559286}}

[[Category:Interdisciplinary studies]]

[[Category:Political science]]
[[Category:Economics]]
[[Category:Freedom and abundance]]
[[Category:Videoconferences on media and democracy]]</text>
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      <text bytes="27110" sha1="frwqmqxwv0s7doakdiccdwn5929kfcn" xml:space="preserve">:''This discusses a 2025-07-17 interview with Natalie Fenton&lt;ref name=Fenton&gt;&lt;!--Natalie Fenton--&gt;{{cite Q|Q112529317}}&lt;/ref&gt; about her new book, '' Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''&lt;ref&gt;Fenton (2025).&lt;/ref&gt; and related research. A video and 29:00 mm:ss podcast excerpted from the interview will be added when available. The podcast will be released 2025-07-26 to the fortnightly &quot;Media &amp; Democracy&quot; show&lt;ref name=M&amp;D&gt;&lt;!--Media &amp; Democracy--&gt;{{cite Q|Q127839818}}&lt;/ref&gt; syndicated for the [[w:Pacifica Foundation|Pacifica Radio]]&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Pacifica Radio Network--&gt;{{cite Q|Q2045587}}&lt;/ref&gt; Network of [[w:List of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates|over 200 community radio stations]].&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--list of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates--&gt;{{cite Q|Q6593294}}&lt;/ref&gt;''

:''This articles invite others to contribute other perspectives, subject to the Wikimedia rules of [[w:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|writing from a neutral point of view]] while [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|citing credible sources]]&lt;ref name=NPOV&gt;The rules of writing from a neutral point of view citing credible sources may not be enforced on other parts of Wikiversity. However, they can facilitate dialog between people with dramatically different beliefs&lt;/ref&gt; and treating others with respect.''&lt;ref name=AGF&gt;[[Wikiversity:Assume good faith|Wikiversity asks contributors to assume good faith]], similar to Wikipedia. The rule in [[w:Wikinews|Wikinews]] is different: Contributors there are asked to [[Wikinews:Never assume|&quot;Don't assume things; be skeptical about everything.&quot;]] That's wise. However, we should still treat others with respect while being skeptical.&lt;/ref&gt;

[[File:Democratic delusions-Fix the media to fix democracy.webm|thumb|2025-07-17 interview with Natalie Fenton about her new book ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''.]]
[[File:Democratic delusions-Fix the media to fix democracy.ogg|thumb|29:00 mm:ss podcast from interview conducted 2025-07-17 of Natalie Fenton by Spencer Graves about about her new 2025 book ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''.]]

Natalie Fenton&lt;ref name=Fenton/&gt; discusses her new 2025 book, ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It'', and related work. She is interviewed by Spencer Graves.&lt;ref name=Graves&gt;&lt;!--Spencer Graves--&gt;{{cite Q|Q56452480}}&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton is a Professor of Media and Communications at [[w:Goldsmiths, University of London|Goldsmiths, University of London]]. She is author or co-author of 10 books and dozens of other academic publications and an editor of numerous other publications. Her research focuses on the relationship between media, democracy and social change.&lt;ref name=Fenton/&gt; She is also a founder, continuous member, and leading researcher with the Media Reform Coalition in the UK.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Media Reform Coalition--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135440829}}&lt;/ref&gt;

==Highlights==

===Immigrants===

Graves asked for &quot;a specific example of something really important that the public ought to know and is being suppressed.&quot; 

Fenton suggested that the coverage of the current war involving Israel, Palestine, and other countries is not balanced. And few humans have much limited understanding of international concerns. 

{{quote| 
But it's not just what's excluded. It's also how things are narrated in particular ways and across the western world now we're seeing a shift to the far right. We're seeing a rise of authoritarian politics in many instances, and some of the media representations over the last three decades have ... contributed to the place we find ourselves in, particularly ... the ways in which immigration and migrants are framed, and that has led to a kind of monstering and misrepresentation of what immigration is and what it results in to the extent that lots of migrants are now seen as entirely illegal, completely kind of unnecessary to our economies and the need for expulsion of them.}}

Graves said he, &quot;recently interviewing someone about that very issue, talking about reopening a private prison in Leavenworth, Kansas to house the people that Donald Trump wants to deport. Three Wikipedia articles I pulled up fairly quickly, basically said, both the sending country and the receiving country tends to benefit, on average, from migration.&quot; And a massive amount of research on immigration on immigrants and immigrant-friendly jurisdictions found that sancturay jurisdictions are either not different from non-sanctuary jurisdictions or have on average less crime and higher median incomes.&lt;ref&gt;Clause et al. (2025).&lt;/ref&gt;

Fenton replied that is &quot;not what we hear.&quot;

=== History and evolution of news and its impact on political economy ===

Graves asked Fenton to &quot;talk about the history and evolution of news and its impact on political economy.&quot;&lt;ref name=John&gt;This is also discussed in &quot;[[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John]]&quot; and in John (1995).&lt;/ref&gt; Fenton replied, 

{{quote|
News has, we know, a very real impact on the political economy ... and part of that impact is a result of the fact that these organizations have established hugely powerful positions in society by virtue of their size. ... Across the world, we've had an increasing concentration of ownership of the vast majority of our legacy media, and pretty much ... without exception, all of those countries have failed to prevent the escalation of that concentration of ownership. These forms of concentration obviously have an impact on the plurality of our news environment, but they also have an impact on how our politicians relate to them. They create fear in politicians: If they don't garner favor with these institutions, then they can represent them in a negative light, and therefore their re election chances will be limited. It's a very simple way in which actually, these organizations hold power over these individuals. 

What we know that goes viral is are controversial issues, ... so ... the more outrageously spoken a politician is, the more likely they are to get media pickup, because it's those clicks that will generate the advertising revenue.}}

Graves replied, &quot;Last August, I interviewed [[Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says|Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen]]. She said that 'the shortest path to a click is anger or hate.'&quot;

=== News deserts ===

Graves asked about [[w:News desert|news deserts]]. Fenton replied, &quot;News deserts are a very worrying phenomenon. ... The history of news deserts is that they have really come hot and fast on the heels of digitalization of the news industry. ... Once upon a time, many newspapers would get much of their finance from their classified advertising. As soon as we entered into the digital age, much of that classified advertising went to sites like [[w:eBay|eBay]], and so they lost all of that revenue. ... And so you saw the business model of the news industry bottom out&quot; with many news organizations either merging or closing and creating news deserts.&quot;

Graves said, &quot;There's literature that says that when a local newspaper dies, split ticket voting goes away, so people are more likely to vote a party line.&lt;ref name=newsDeserts&gt;Discussed further in [[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]] and [[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]].&lt;/ref&gt; ... The cost of local government goes up by 0.13 percent of GDP on average due to increased executive compensation, increased staffing and increased cost of borrowing, because because investors know they cannot trust their money.&lt;ref&gt;Gao et al. (2019).&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton continued, &quot;We also know people vote less.&quot;&lt;ref name=newsDeserts/&gt;

=== Postal Service Act of 1792 and implications for the future ===

Graves note that [[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John|Richard John has a 1995 book that says that the US led the world in number of independent newspaper publishers per million population because of the US Postal Service Act of 1792.]]&lt;ref name=John/&gt; Robert McChesney estimated was like cost the US taxpayers, like 0.21 percent of GDP.&lt;ref name=McCh_N2010/&gt; And he's been recommending 0.15 percent of GDP distributed to the local news nonprofits, with some kind of firewall to prevent political interference in the content.&lt;ref name=newsDeserts/&gt; 

Fenton said, {{quote|

I think there are many ways we can deal with it. ... That's one potential way. I think we need to find new mechanisms to reinvigorate local journalism, and that needs to be funded ... sustainably. I don't think you can expect that local journalism to be sustained through advertising. ... You can apply to charitable foundations to support news organizations. ... But I also think that there should be an onus on the tech giants ... who are benefiting both from the news content that is being produced, that they are circulating, and getting a share of those that clicks and the advertising from from those clicks ... . They should be taxed to a level that will put something back into that news economy that could then ... be distributed through a democratic mechanism to nonprofit journalism ... to function in the public interest.

When you're saying, have a some kind of firewall on political interference, absolutely . This has to be independent journalism of integrity that is serving the local community in particular ways and is doing so with a prioritization for the public interest, not for commercial gain. ... If you can create those sorts of mechanisms, then it is entirely possible that you can regenerate local media in critical ways that would have a massive impact on democracy.}}

=== Watchdogs protect the people who feed them === 

Graves noted that [[How news impacts democracy per USD Communications Professor Nik Usher|he had recently intereviewed Nick Usher]], who has a research report with a with a co author about &quot;How loud does the watchdog bark: a reconsideration of local news, local journalism, news nonprofits and political corruption.&quot;, They found that US Federal jurisdictions with members of the [[w:Institute for nonprofit news|Institute for nonprofit news]] had on average, 1.4 more federal prosecutions for political corruption per year than jurisdictions without such local news nonprofits not beholding to advertising.&lt;ref&gt;Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022).&lt;/ref&gt;

Fenton replied, {{quote|

I think that makes a very important point, that if you haven't got a local news organization that is not kind of dependent on local business advertising, so it's not corrupted by those commercial pressures, and it doesn't have political interference. If you don't have that, who else is going to hold these organizations to account? ... 

It's very, very difficult to then see how anybody is going to be investigated, how any local communities can really bring issues that are crucial to them and their community survival to bear. ... One of the reasons local newspapers work in that way is because local organizations are fearful of being outed and found guilty of corruption. 

So then it's not just that people are reading them. It's the very threat that they exist. ...

But the moment they become too commercialized and the moment they become too powerful, then the balance of power starts to shift, and they either start to completely just chase profit, ... or they start to actually exert their own power over politicians in what can be quite a negative way. 

One of my main points in my latest book is we have to take out the commercial incentive.}} 

Graves added, &quot;The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.&quot; 

=== The BBC and its impact on political economy ===

Graves asked, &quot;Talk about the history of the BBC and its impact on the political economy.&quot; 

Fenton replied, {{quote|

The wonderful BBC here, here is a publicly funded broadcasting system that ... makes a really valuable contribution to the news ecology in the UK. It remains one of the most trusted news sources in the UK and globally ... . It has a wide reach, and it's pretty unique in the way that it functions. 

However, it's not without problems. The BBC is in need, I think, of some quite fundamental reform to ensure that it keeps its relevance to the general public in a digital age ... . The BBC is funded by a license fee. Everybody who possesses a television has to pay the license fee. And increasingly people are refusing to do that, because they're saying, 'We don't watch the BBC. ... We're not going to pay the license fee.' So they're struggling with that. 

At the same time, the government has made huge funding cuts over the years to what it does, so the quality and standards of what it's doing are now mimicking far more commercial outlets because they're chasing viewers. ... The government of the day and all previous governments also try and interfere endlessly in what the BBC does. ... And we haven't yet found an adequate mechanism for preventing that political interference. So it is losing its sense of independence from government, which is a devastating thing to claim. ... It is deeply problematic that the government hold the purse strings over the BBC, because it will threaten it endlessly with funding cuts if it doesn't play ball. 

We need to radically reform the BBC. ... If it's going to be called a public service broadcasting, it's got to have much more connection to the public. It's got to show how its universalism is not only practiced in terms of its content, but also in terms of its structures of governance and its personnel. 

However, I would never want to see it disappear. It's always been, to some extent, struggled with this relationship with the state ... And of course, you can see that more when you're coming into situations of increased issues around security and potential war. That's you're also getting much more direct interference from government. I think we all need to have an organization that is an independent of commercial pressures and of political interference, in order to get adequate news for democracies to function.}}

=== Local multi-media centers ===

Graves asked aboutt [[Information is a public good per communications prof Pickard|local multi-media centers managed by boards selected at random like jury duty, as recommended by Victor Picard]]. 

Fenton said, {{quote|

I've got a lot of sympathy with that sort of view, but I would go further in some ways. 

We have newspapers that are managed in similar ways in the UK. An example is ''[[w:The Bristol Cable|The Bristol Cable]]'' in the UK, which is a ... newspaper cooperative. ... Local community members pay on a very minimal sliding scale to be members of the news organization. As a result, they can then have an input on their editorial decisions, their advertising policy, what sorts of investigations they think these newspapers should be doing. And these are packed meetings of hundreds of people from the local community ... because they see the importance of this newspaper. It's had phenomenal success in holding the council to account, local businesses to account, and investigating concerns that the local community has brought to them. So the community itself is setting that news agenda, rather than a handful of journalists and an editor. ... 

I would like to see those sorts of citizen juries and assemblies being very much part of the BBC. I would like to see in all regions all around the UK, a BBC citizen assembly that reports back on the sorts of things that the BBC is doing, how it's going down, ... but also directs some of the crucial issues that are happening, and also monitors controversy. 

So where controversial things do come into play, which they constantly do in the in terms of the BBC, where they've recently broadcast a documentary on Gaza, and they've come under great criticism, you know, should that, and there was a big internal report that was just released this week, by all means, have An internal investigation, but that should also have gone to citizen assemblies of BBC viewers to say, what do you think? What do you think is the outcome of this, rather than it laying on, you know, one or two elites within the organization itself. Victor's right. We need more citizen involvement in setting news agendas and responding to concerns over our news environment, not less. ...

All communities should have a news hub, something like a local library, which is a newsroom that is occupied by all manner of news organizations. It can be community radio stations like yourself. It can be newspapers, it can be, local community TV. But it's a space where the local community can come with issues they think need to be covered and investigated. They could then also be trained in how to write those stories, how to investigate it, how to do the journalism themselves. 

In Glasgow right now we have an organization and Govanhill magazine, which has done precisely that.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Greater Govanhill--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135440538}}, described in Fenton (2025, pp. 188-189).&lt;/ref&gt; It has taken over a disused shop, and it's opened it up as a news hub to the local community and said, Come in. Tell us what needs to be done. Work with us to investigate these issues. .... It's training journalists in the process, and it's ... holding power to account for that local community.}}

=== Brexit === 

Graves asked Fenton to describe [[w:Brexit|Brexit]].&lt;ref&gt;Brexit is mentioned in multiple places in Fenton (2025).&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton replied, {{quote| 

Brexit was the moment at which we had a referendum, largely triggered by internal fights within the Conservative Party over a very small group of MPs who thought that the UK should leave the European Union. ... To quell that infighting, ... the then-Prime Minister [[w:David Cameron|David Cameron]] decided to hold a referendum to put this issue to bed once and for all. He ... said he very clearly thought that the referendum would vote, &quot;No&quot;, we don't want to leave Europe. But in fact, by a narrow margin, it voted to leave Europe. So since 2016 The UK has no longer been part of Europe, and that's what we call Brexit. 

I think our newspapers had a very large part to play in that vote, because for the past three decades, [[w:Tabloid journalism|tabloid press]] had been endlessly talking about the nonsense that was the [[w:European Union|EU]] and ... all sorts of nonsense stories about how bananas had to be a certain shape, or cheeses, the name of great British cheeses had to be changed. These were all largely nonsense stories, but it was all seen feeding this idea that there's an excess of regulation that is coming from the EU. We're paying them loads of money for what they do, and we'd be better off doing it on our own, rather than talking about all the things that we were gaining from the EU. 

And of course, as soon as Brexit happened, our economy massively plummeted, and we found that all of those regulations that we thought were were hampering our economy had actually given us huge protections over employment rights and human rights. And so there's now, there's a there's a real antipathy towards that Brexit vote. ... However, it's highly unlikely that the current government will hold another referendum because of the politics that are involved.}}

=== Final words ===


Graves said, &quot;We're pretty close to out of time. Any final words for our audience?&quot; 

Fenton replied, {{quote|

There are a lot of what we haven't really spoken about is the power of big tech, which I also cover in my book a lot. But the issues around those tech giants are huge in terms of the role they are playing in distorting and corrupting our democracy. And you've got so many examples of that in the US, I probably don't need to tell your listeners that story. 

But ... the role that we are seeing [[w:Elon Musk|Elon Musk]] play in in the political environment in the US is a kind of extension of what we've had from [[w:Rupert Murdoch|Rupert Murdoch]] in years gone by. So he is ... the new kind of oligarch on the block that is disrupting and destroying our political systems in many ways, and it's not just the tech. 

Of course, our political systems themselves need massive reform, but those big tech giants have been able to garner so much power that we now don't know how to limit that power, and that's a really dangerous place to be.}}

== The need for media reform to improve democracy == 

This article is part of [[:category:Media reform to improve democracy]]. We describe here briefly the motivation for this series.

[[Great American Paradox|One major contributor to the dominant position of the US in the international political economy]] today may have been the [[w:Postal Service Act|US Postal Service Act of 1792]]. Under that act, newspapers were delivered up to 100 miles for a penny when first class postage was between 6 and 25 cents. [[w:Alexis de Tocqueville|Alexis de Tocqueville]], who visited the relatively young United States of America in 1831, wrote, “There is scarcely a hamlet that does not have its own newspaper.”&lt;ref&gt;Tocqueville (1835, p. 93).&lt;/ref&gt; McChesney and Nichols estimated that these newspaper subsidies were roughly 0.21 percent of national income (Gross Domestic Project, GDP) in 1841.&lt;ref name=McCh_N2010&gt;McChesney and Nichols (2010, pp. 310-311, note 88).&lt;/ref&gt;

At that time, the US probably led the world by far in the number of independent newspaper publishers per capita or per million population. This encouraged literacy and limited political corruption, both of which contributed to making the US a leader in the rate of growth in average annual income (Gross Domestic Product, GDP, per capita). Corruption was also limited by the inability of a small number of publishers to dominate political discourse.

That began to change in the 1850s and 1860s with the introduction of high speed rotary presses, which increased the capital required to start a newspaper.&lt;ref&gt;John and Silberstein-Loeb (2015, p. 80).&lt;/ref&gt;

In 1887 [[w:William Randolph Hearst|William Randolph Hearst]] took over management of his father’s ''[[w:San Francisco Examiner|San Francisco Examiner]]''. His success there gave him an appetite for building a newspaper chain. His 1895 purchase of the ''[[w:New York Morning Journal|New York Morning Journal]]'' gave him a second newspaper. By the mid-1920s, he owned 28 newspapers. Consolidation of ownership of the media became easier with the introduction of broadcasting and even easier with the Internet.&lt;ref&gt;John and Silberstein-Loeb (2015). See also Wikiversity, “[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]” and “[[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]]“.&lt;/ref&gt; [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy|This consolidation seems to be increasing political polarization and violence worldwide]], threatening democracy itself.

=== The threat from loss of newspapers ===

A previous ''Media &amp; Democracy'' interview with Arizona State University accounting professor Roger White on &quot;[[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]]&quot; describes problems that increase as the quality and quantity of news declines and ownership and control of the media become more highly concentrated: Major media too often deflect the public's attention from political corruption enabled by poor media. This too often contributes to other problems like [[w:Scapegoating|scapegoating]] [[w:Immigration|immigrants]] and attacking [[w:Diversity, equity, and inclusion|Diversity, equity, and inclusion]] (DEI) while also facilitating increases in pollution, the cost of borrowing, political polarization and violence, and decreases in workplace safety. More on this is included in other interviews in this ''Media &amp; Democracy'' series available on Wikiversity under [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]].

An important quantitative analysis of the problems associated with deficiencies in news is Neff and Pickard (2024). They analyzed data on media funding and democracy in 33 countries. The US has been rated as a &quot;flawed democracy&quot; according to the [[w:Economist Democracy Index|Economist Democracy Index]] and spends substantially less per capita on media compared to the world's leading democracies in Scandinavia and Commonweath countries. They note that commercial media focus primarily on people with money, while publicly-funded media try harder to serve everyone. Public funding is more strongly correlated with democracy than private funding. This recommends increasing public funding for media as a means of strengthening democracy. See also &quot;[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]&quot;.

==Discussion ==

:''[Interested readers are invited to comment here, subject to the Wikimedia rules of [[w:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|writing from a neutral point of view]] [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|citing credible sources]]&lt;ref name=NPOV/&gt; and treating others with respect.&lt;ref name=AGF/&gt;]''

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

* &lt;!-- Bill Clause, Beverly Harvey, Skie Pearson, and Spencer Graves (2025-07-15) &quot;More on the Solidarity School and other activism&quot;--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135437631}}
* &lt;!--Natalie Fenton (2025) Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135288717}}
* &lt;!--Pengjie Gao, Chang Lee, and Dermot Murphy (2019) &quot;Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance&quot;--&gt;{{cite Q|Q55670016}}
* &lt;!--Richard R. John (1995) Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse--&gt;{{cite Q|Q54641943}}
* &lt;!--Richard R. John and Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb (eds.; 2015) Making News: The Political Economy of Journalism in Britain and America from the Glorious Revolution to the Internet (Oxford University Press)--&gt;{{cite Q|Q131468166}}
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2010). The Death and Life of American Journalism (Bold Type Books) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q104888067}}.
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2021). &quot;The Local Journalism Initiative: a proposal to protect and extend democracy&quot;. Columbia Journalism Review, 30 November 2021 --&gt;{{cite Q|Q109978060}}
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2022), To Protect and Extend Democracy, Recreate Local News Media (PDF), FreePress.net (updated 25 January 2022) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q109978337|access-date=2024-06-23}}
* &lt;!-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1835, 1840; trad. 2001) Democracy in America (trans. by Richard Heffner, 2001; New America Library) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q112166602|publication-date=unset|author=Alexis de Tocqueville (1835, 1840; trad. 2001)}}
* &lt;!--Nik Usher and Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell (2022-01) How Loud Does the Watchdog Bark? A Reconsideration of Local Journalism, News Non-profits, and Political Corruption --&gt;{{Cite Q|Q134715465}}

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      <text bytes="27110" sha1="1hy4jlzwd3eet0jbjen6xvnaqfpa14n" xml:space="preserve">:''This discusses a 2025-07-17 interview with Natalie Fenton&lt;ref name=Fenton&gt;&lt;!--Natalie Fenton--&gt;{{cite Q|Q112529317}}&lt;/ref&gt; about her new book, '' Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''&lt;ref&gt;Fenton (2025).&lt;/ref&gt; and related research. A video and 29:00 mm:ss podcast excerpted from the interview will be added when available. The podcast will be released 2025-07-26 to the fortnightly &quot;Media &amp; Democracy&quot; show&lt;ref name=M&amp;D&gt;&lt;!--Media &amp; Democracy--&gt;{{cite Q|Q127839818}}&lt;/ref&gt; syndicated for the [[w:Pacifica Foundation|Pacifica Radio]]&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Pacifica Radio Network--&gt;{{cite Q|Q2045587}}&lt;/ref&gt; Network of [[w:List of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates|over 200 community radio stations]].&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--list of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates--&gt;{{cite Q|Q6593294}}&lt;/ref&gt;''

:''This articles invite others to contribute other perspectives, subject to the Wikimedia rules of [[w:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|writing from a neutral point of view]] while [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|citing credible sources]]&lt;ref name=NPOV&gt;The rules of writing from a neutral point of view citing credible sources may not be enforced on other parts of Wikiversity. However, they can facilitate dialog between people with dramatically different beliefs&lt;/ref&gt; and treating others with respect.''&lt;ref name=AGF&gt;[[Wikiversity:Assume good faith|Wikiversity asks contributors to assume good faith]], similar to Wikipedia. The rule in [[w:Wikinews|Wikinews]] is different: Contributors there are asked to [[Wikinews:Never assume|&quot;Don't assume things; be skeptical about everything.&quot;]] That's wise. However, we should still treat others with respect while being skeptical.&lt;/ref&gt;

[[File:Democratic delusions-Fix the media to fix democracy.webm|thumb|2025-07-17 interview with Natalie Fenton about her new book ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''.]]
[[File:Democratic delusions-Fix the media to fix democracy.ogg|thumb|29:00 mm:ss podcast from interview conducted 2025-07-17 of Natalie Fenton by Spencer Graves about about her new 2025 book ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''.]]

Natalie Fenton&lt;ref name=Fenton/&gt; discusses her new 2025 book, ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It'', and related work. She is interviewed by Spencer Graves.&lt;ref name=Graves&gt;&lt;!--Spencer Graves--&gt;{{cite Q|Q56452480}}&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton is a Professor of Media and Communications at [[w:Goldsmiths, University of London|Goldsmiths, University of London]]. She is author or co-author of 10 books and dozens of other academic publications and an editor of numerous other publications. Her research focuses on the relationship between media, democracy and social change.&lt;ref name=Fenton/&gt; She is also a founder, continuous member, and leading researcher with the Media Reform Coalition in the UK.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Media Reform Coalition--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135440829}}&lt;/ref&gt;

==Highlights==

===Immigrants===

Graves asked for &quot;a specific example of something really important that the public ought to know and is being suppressed.&quot; 

Fenton suggested that the coverage of the current war involving Israel, Palestine, and other countries is not balanced. And few humans have much limited understanding of international concerns. 

{{quote| 
But it's not just what's excluded. It's also how things are narrated in particular ways and across the western world now we're seeing a shift to the far right. We're seeing a rise of authoritarian politics in many instances, and some of the media representations over the last three decades have ... contributed to the place we find ourselves in, particularly ... the ways in which immigration and migrants are framed, and that has led to a kind of monstering and misrepresentation of what immigration is and what it results in to the extent that lots of migrants are now seen as entirely illegal, completely kind of unnecessary to our economies and the need for expulsion of them.}}

Graves said he, &quot;recently interviewing someone about that very issue, talking about reopening a private prison in Leavenworth, Kansas to house the people that Donald Trump wants to deport. Three Wikipedia articles I pulled up fairly quickly, basically said, both the sending country and the receiving country tends to benefit, on average, from migration.&quot; And a massive amount of research on immigration on immigrants and immigrant-friendly jurisdictions found that sancturay jurisdictions are either not different from non-sanctuary jurisdictions or have on average less crime and higher median incomes.&lt;ref&gt;Clause et al. (2025).&lt;/ref&gt;

Fenton replied that is &quot;not what we hear.&quot;

=== History and evolution of news and its impact on political economy ===

Graves asked Fenton to &quot;talk about the history and evolution of news and its impact on political economy.&quot;&lt;ref name=John&gt;This is also discussed in &quot;[[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John]]&quot; and in John (1995).&lt;/ref&gt; Fenton replied, 

{{quote|
News has, we know, a very real impact on the political economy ... and part of that impact is a result of the fact that these organizations have established hugely powerful positions in society by virtue of their size. ... Across the world, we've had an increasing concentration of ownership of the vast majority of our legacy media, and pretty much ... without exception, all of those countries have failed to prevent the escalation of that concentration of ownership. These forms of concentration obviously have an impact on the plurality of our news environment, but they also have an impact on how our politicians relate to them. They create fear in politicians: If they don't garner favor with these institutions, then they can represent them in a negative light, and therefore their re election chances will be limited. It's a very simple way in which actually, these organizations hold power over these individuals. 

What we know that goes viral is are controversial issues, ... so ... the more outrageously spoken a politician is, the more likely they are to get media pickup, because it's those clicks that will generate the advertising revenue.}}

Graves replied, &quot;Last August, I interviewed [[Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says|Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen]]. She said that 'the shortest path to a click is anger or hate.'&quot;

=== News deserts ===

Graves asked about [[w:News desert|news deserts]]. Fenton replied, &quot;News deserts are a very worrying phenomenon. ... The history of news deserts is that they have really come hot and fast on the heels of digitalization of the news industry. ... Once upon a time, many newspapers would get much of their finance from their classified advertising. As soon as we entered into the digital age, much of that classified advertising went to sites like [[w:eBay|eBay]], and so they lost all of that revenue. ... And so you saw the business model of the news industry bottom out&quot; with many news organizations either merging or closing and creating news deserts.&quot;

Graves said, &quot;There's literature that says that when a local newspaper dies, split ticket voting goes away, so people are more likely to vote a party line.&lt;ref name=newsDeserts&gt;Discussed further in [[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]] and [[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]].&lt;/ref&gt; ... The cost of local government goes up by 0.13 percent of GDP on average due to increased executive compensation, increased staffing and increased cost of borrowing, because because investors know they cannot trust their money.&lt;ref&gt;Gao et al. (2019).&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton continued, &quot;We also know people vote less.&quot;&lt;ref name=newsDeserts/&gt;

=== Postal Service Act of 1792 and implications for the future ===

Graves note that [[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John|Richard John has a 1995 book that says that the US led the world in number of independent newspaper publishers per million population because of the US Postal Service Act of 1792.]]&lt;ref name=John/&gt; Robert McChesney estimated was like cost the US taxpayers, like 0.21 percent of GDP.&lt;ref name=McCh_N2010/&gt; And he's been recommending 0.15 percent of GDP distributed to the local news nonprofits, with some kind of firewall to prevent political interference in the content.&lt;ref name=newsDeserts/&gt; 

Fenton said, {{quote|

I think there are many ways we can deal with it. ... That's one potential way. I think we need to find new mechanisms to reinvigorate local journalism, and that needs to be funded ... sustainably. I don't think you can expect that local journalism to be sustained through advertising. ... You can apply to charitable foundations to support news organizations. ... But I also think that there should be an onus on the tech giants ... who are benefiting both from the news content that is being produced, that they are circulating, and getting a share of those that clicks and the advertising from from those clicks ... . They should be taxed to a level that will put something back into that news economy that could then ... be distributed through a democratic mechanism to nonprofit journalism ... to function in the public interest.

When you're saying, have a some kind of firewall on political interference, absolutely . This has to be independent journalism of integrity that is serving the local community in particular ways and is doing so with a prioritization for the public interest, not for commercial gain. ... If you can create those sorts of mechanisms, then it is entirely possible that you can regenerate local media in critical ways that would have a massive impact on democracy.}}

=== Watchdogs protect the people who feed them === 

Graves noted that [[How news impacts democracy per USD Communications Professor Nik Usher|he had recently intereviewed Nick Usher]], who has a research report with a with a co author about &quot;How loud does the watchdog bark: a reconsideration of local news, local journalism, news nonprofits and political corruption.&quot;, They found that US Federal jurisdictions with members of the [[w:Institute for nonprofit news|Institute for nonprofit news]] had on average, 1.4 more federal prosecutions for political corruption per year than jurisdictions without such local news nonprofits not beholding to advertising.&lt;ref&gt;Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022).&lt;/ref&gt;

Fenton replied, {{quote|

I think that makes a very important point, that if you haven't got a local news organization that is not kind of dependent on local business advertising, so it's not corrupted by those commercial pressures, and it doesn't have political interference. If you don't have that, who else is going to hold these organizations to account? ... 

It's very, very difficult to then see how anybody is going to be investigated, how any local communities can really bring issues that are crucial to them and their community survival to bear. ... One of the reasons local newspapers work in that way is because local organizations are fearful of being outed and found guilty of corruption. 

So then it's not just that people are reading them. It's the very threat that they exist. ...

But the moment they become too commercialized and the moment they become too powerful, then the balance of power starts to shift, and they either start to completely just chase profit, ... or they start to actually exert their own power over politicians in what can be quite a negative way. 

One of my main points in my latest book is we have to take out the commercial incentive.}} 

Graves added, &quot;The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.&quot; 

=== The BBC and its impact on political economy ===

Graves asked, &quot;Talk about the history of the BBC and its impact on the political economy.&quot; 

Fenton replied, {{quote|

The wonderful BBC here, here is a publicly funded broadcasting system that ... makes a really valuable contribution to the news ecology in the UK. It remains one of the most trusted news sources in the UK and globally ... . It has a wide reach, and it's pretty unique in the way that it functions. 

However, it's not without problems. The BBC is in need, I think, of some quite fundamental reform to ensure that it keeps its relevance to the general public in a digital age ... . The BBC is funded by a license fee. Everybody who possesses a television has to pay the license fee. And increasingly people are refusing to do that, because they're saying, 'We don't watch the BBC. ... We're not going to pay the license fee.' So they're struggling with that. 

At the same time, the government has made huge funding cuts over the years to what it does, so the quality and standards of what it's doing are now mimicking far more commercial outlets because they're chasing viewers. ... The government of the day and all previous governments also try and interfere endlessly in what the BBC does. ... And we haven't yet found an adequate mechanism for preventing that political interference. So it is losing its sense of independence from government, which is a devastating thing to claim. ... It is deeply problematic that the government hold the purse strings over the BBC, because it will threaten it endlessly with funding cuts if it doesn't play ball. 

We need to radically reform the BBC. ... If it's going to be called a public service broadcasting, it's got to have much more connection to the public. It's got to show how its universalism is not only practiced in terms of its content, but also in terms of its structures of governance and its personnel. 

However, I would never want to see it disappear. It's always been, to some extent, struggled with this relationship with the state ... And of course, you can see that more when you're coming into situations of increased issues around security and potential war. That's you're also getting much more direct interference from government. I think we all need to have an organization that is an independent of commercial pressures and of political interference, in order to get adequate news for democracies to function.}}

=== Local multi-media centers ===

Graves asked aboutt [[Information is a public good per communications prof Pickard|local multi-media centers managed by boards selected at random like jury duty, as recommended by Victor Picard]]. 

Fenton said, {{quote|

I've got a lot of sympathy with that sort of view, but I would go further in some ways. 

We have newspapers that are managed in similar ways in the UK. An example is ''[[w:The Bristol Cable|The Bristol Cable]]'' in the UK, which is a ... newspaper cooperative. ... Local community members pay on a very minimal sliding scale to be members of the news organization. As a result, they can then have an input on their editorial decisions, their advertising policy, what sorts of investigations they think these newspapers should be doing. And these are packed meetings of hundreds of people from the local community ... because they see the importance of this newspaper. It's had phenomenal success in holding the council to account, local businesses to account, and investigating concerns that the local community has brought to them. So the community itself is setting that news agenda, rather than a handful of journalists and an editor. ... 

I would like to see those sorts of citizen juries and assemblies being very much part of the BBC. I would like to see in all regions all around the UK, a BBC citizen assembly that reports back on the sorts of things that the BBC is doing, how it's going down, ... but also directs some of the crucial issues that are happening, and also monitors controversy. 

So where controversial things do come into play, which they constantly do in the in terms of the BBC, where they've recently broadcast a documentary on Gaza, and they've come under great criticism, you know, should that, and there was a big internal report that was just released this week, by all means, have an internal investigation, but that should also have gone to citizen assemblies of BBC viewers to say, what do you think? What do you think is the outcome of this, rather than it laying on, you know, one or two elites within the organization itself. Victor's right. We need more citizen involvement in setting news agendas and responding to concerns over our news environment, not less. ...

All communities should have a news hub, something like a local library, which is a newsroom that is occupied by all manner of news organizations. It can be community radio stations like yourself. It can be newspapers, it can be, local community TV. But it's a space where the local community can come with issues they think need to be covered and investigated. They could then also be trained in how to write those stories, how to investigate it, how to do the journalism themselves. 

In Glasgow right now we have an organization and Govanhill magazine, which has done precisely that.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Greater Govanhill--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135440538}}, described in Fenton (2025, pp. 188-189).&lt;/ref&gt; It has taken over a disused shop, and it's opened it up as a news hub to the local community and said, Come in. Tell us what needs to be done. Work with us to investigate these issues. .... It's training journalists in the process, and it's ... holding power to account for that local community.}}

=== Brexit === 

Graves asked Fenton to describe [[w:Brexit|Brexit]].&lt;ref&gt;Brexit is mentioned in multiple places in Fenton (2025).&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton replied, {{quote| 

Brexit was the moment at which we had a referendum, largely triggered by internal fights within the Conservative Party over a very small group of MPs who thought that the UK should leave the European Union. ... To quell that infighting, ... the then-Prime Minister [[w:David Cameron|David Cameron]] decided to hold a referendum to put this issue to bed once and for all. He ... said he very clearly thought that the referendum would vote, &quot;No&quot;, we don't want to leave Europe. But in fact, by a narrow margin, it voted to leave Europe. So since 2016 The UK has no longer been part of Europe, and that's what we call Brexit. 

I think our newspapers had a very large part to play in that vote, because for the past three decades, [[w:Tabloid journalism|tabloid press]] had been endlessly talking about the nonsense that was the [[w:European Union|EU]] and ... all sorts of nonsense stories about how bananas had to be a certain shape, or cheeses, the name of great British cheeses had to be changed. These were all largely nonsense stories, but it was all seen feeding this idea that there's an excess of regulation that is coming from the EU. We're paying them loads of money for what they do, and we'd be better off doing it on our own, rather than talking about all the things that we were gaining from the EU. 

And of course, as soon as Brexit happened, our economy massively plummeted, and we found that all of those regulations that we thought were were hampering our economy had actually given us huge protections over employment rights and human rights. And so there's now, there's a there's a real antipathy towards that Brexit vote. ... However, it's highly unlikely that the current government will hold another referendum because of the politics that are involved.}}

=== Final words ===


Graves said, &quot;We're pretty close to out of time. Any final words for our audience?&quot; 

Fenton replied, {{quote|

There are a lot of what we haven't really spoken about is the power of big tech, which I also cover in my book a lot. But the issues around those tech giants are huge in terms of the role they are playing in distorting and corrupting our democracy. And you've got so many examples of that in the US, I probably don't need to tell your listeners that story. 

But ... the role that we are seeing [[w:Elon Musk|Elon Musk]] play in in the political environment in the US is a kind of extension of what we've had from [[w:Rupert Murdoch|Rupert Murdoch]] in years gone by. So he is ... the new kind of oligarch on the block that is disrupting and destroying our political systems in many ways, and it's not just the tech. 

Of course, our political systems themselves need massive reform, but those big tech giants have been able to garner so much power that we now don't know how to limit that power, and that's a really dangerous place to be.}}

== The need for media reform to improve democracy == 

This article is part of [[:category:Media reform to improve democracy]]. We describe here briefly the motivation for this series.

[[Great American Paradox|One major contributor to the dominant position of the US in the international political economy]] today may have been the [[w:Postal Service Act|US Postal Service Act of 1792]]. Under that act, newspapers were delivered up to 100 miles for a penny when first class postage was between 6 and 25 cents. [[w:Alexis de Tocqueville|Alexis de Tocqueville]], who visited the relatively young United States of America in 1831, wrote, “There is scarcely a hamlet that does not have its own newspaper.”&lt;ref&gt;Tocqueville (1835, p. 93).&lt;/ref&gt; McChesney and Nichols estimated that these newspaper subsidies were roughly 0.21 percent of national income (Gross Domestic Project, GDP) in 1841.&lt;ref name=McCh_N2010&gt;McChesney and Nichols (2010, pp. 310-311, note 88).&lt;/ref&gt;

At that time, the US probably led the world by far in the number of independent newspaper publishers per capita or per million population. This encouraged literacy and limited political corruption, both of which contributed to making the US a leader in the rate of growth in average annual income (Gross Domestic Product, GDP, per capita). Corruption was also limited by the inability of a small number of publishers to dominate political discourse.

That began to change in the 1850s and 1860s with the introduction of high speed rotary presses, which increased the capital required to start a newspaper.&lt;ref&gt;John and Silberstein-Loeb (2015, p. 80).&lt;/ref&gt;

In 1887 [[w:William Randolph Hearst|William Randolph Hearst]] took over management of his father’s ''[[w:San Francisco Examiner|San Francisco Examiner]]''. His success there gave him an appetite for building a newspaper chain. His 1895 purchase of the ''[[w:New York Morning Journal|New York Morning Journal]]'' gave him a second newspaper. By the mid-1920s, he owned 28 newspapers. Consolidation of ownership of the media became easier with the introduction of broadcasting and even easier with the Internet.&lt;ref&gt;John and Silberstein-Loeb (2015). See also Wikiversity, “[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]” and “[[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]]“.&lt;/ref&gt; [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy|This consolidation seems to be increasing political polarization and violence worldwide]], threatening democracy itself.

=== The threat from loss of newspapers ===

A previous ''Media &amp; Democracy'' interview with Arizona State University accounting professor Roger White on &quot;[[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]]&quot; describes problems that increase as the quality and quantity of news declines and ownership and control of the media become more highly concentrated: Major media too often deflect the public's attention from political corruption enabled by poor media. This too often contributes to other problems like [[w:Scapegoating|scapegoating]] [[w:Immigration|immigrants]] and attacking [[w:Diversity, equity, and inclusion|Diversity, equity, and inclusion]] (DEI) while also facilitating increases in pollution, the cost of borrowing, political polarization and violence, and decreases in workplace safety. More on this is included in other interviews in this ''Media &amp; Democracy'' series available on Wikiversity under [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]].

An important quantitative analysis of the problems associated with deficiencies in news is Neff and Pickard (2024). They analyzed data on media funding and democracy in 33 countries. The US has been rated as a &quot;flawed democracy&quot; according to the [[w:Economist Democracy Index|Economist Democracy Index]] and spends substantially less per capita on media compared to the world's leading democracies in Scandinavia and Commonweath countries. They note that commercial media focus primarily on people with money, while publicly-funded media try harder to serve everyone. Public funding is more strongly correlated with democracy than private funding. This recommends increasing public funding for media as a means of strengthening democracy. See also &quot;[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]&quot;.

==Discussion ==

:''[Interested readers are invited to comment here, subject to the Wikimedia rules of [[w:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|writing from a neutral point of view]] [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|citing credible sources]]&lt;ref name=NPOV/&gt; and treating others with respect.&lt;ref name=AGF/&gt;]''

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

* &lt;!-- Bill Clause, Beverly Harvey, Skie Pearson, and Spencer Graves (2025-07-15) &quot;More on the Solidarity School and other activism&quot;--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135437631}}
* &lt;!--Natalie Fenton (2025) Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135288717}}
* &lt;!--Pengjie Gao, Chang Lee, and Dermot Murphy (2019) &quot;Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance&quot;--&gt;{{cite Q|Q55670016}}
* &lt;!--Richard R. John (1995) Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse--&gt;{{cite Q|Q54641943}}
* &lt;!--Richard R. John and Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb (eds.; 2015) Making News: The Political Economy of Journalism in Britain and America from the Glorious Revolution to the Internet (Oxford University Press)--&gt;{{cite Q|Q131468166}}
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2010). The Death and Life of American Journalism (Bold Type Books) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q104888067}}.
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2021). &quot;The Local Journalism Initiative: a proposal to protect and extend democracy&quot;. Columbia Journalism Review, 30 November 2021 --&gt;{{cite Q|Q109978060}}
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2022), To Protect and Extend Democracy, Recreate Local News Media (PDF), FreePress.net (updated 25 January 2022) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q109978337|access-date=2024-06-23}}
* &lt;!-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1835, 1840; trad. 2001) Democracy in America (trans. by Richard Heffner, 2001; New America Library) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q112166602|publication-date=unset|author=Alexis de Tocqueville (1835, 1840; trad. 2001)}}
* &lt;!--Nik Usher and Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell (2022-01) How Loud Does the Watchdog Bark? A Reconsideration of Local Journalism, News Non-profits, and Political Corruption --&gt;{{Cite Q|Q134715465}}

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      <text bytes="27125" sha1="rmc3bu2qjmwo38ptmj9l31ef10z7n91" xml:space="preserve">:''This discusses a 2025-07-17 interview with Natalie Fenton&lt;ref name=Fenton&gt;&lt;!--Natalie Fenton--&gt;{{cite Q|Q112529317}}&lt;/ref&gt; about her new book, '' Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''&lt;ref&gt;Fenton (2025).&lt;/ref&gt; and related research. A video and 29:00 mm:ss podcast excerpted from the interview will be added when available. The podcast will be released 2025-07-26 to the fortnightly &quot;Media &amp; Democracy&quot; show&lt;ref name=M&amp;D&gt;&lt;!--Media &amp; Democracy--&gt;{{cite Q|Q127839818}}&lt;/ref&gt; syndicated for the [[w:Pacifica Foundation|Pacifica Radio]]&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Pacifica Radio Network--&gt;{{cite Q|Q2045587}}&lt;/ref&gt; Network of [[w:List of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates|over 200 community radio stations]].&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--list of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates--&gt;{{cite Q|Q6593294}}&lt;/ref&gt;''

:''This articles invite others to contribute other perspectives, subject to the Wikimedia rules of [[w:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|writing from a neutral point of view]] while [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|citing credible sources]]&lt;ref name=NPOV&gt;The rules of writing from a neutral point of view citing credible sources may not be enforced on other parts of Wikiversity. However, they can facilitate dialog between people with dramatically different beliefs&lt;/ref&gt; and treating others with respect.''&lt;ref name=AGF&gt;[[Wikiversity:Assume good faith|Wikiversity asks contributors to assume good faith]], similar to Wikipedia. The rule in [[w:Wikinews|Wikinews]] is different: Contributors there are asked to [[Wikinews:Never assume|&quot;Don't assume things; be skeptical about everything.&quot;]] That's wise. However, we should still treat others with respect while being skeptical.&lt;/ref&gt;

[[File:Democratic delusions-Fix the media to fix democracy.webm|thumb|2025-07-17 interview with Natalie Fenton about her new book ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''.]]
[[File:Democratic delusions-Fix the media to fix democracy.ogg|thumb|29:00 mm:ss podcast from interview conducted 2025-07-17 of Natalie Fenton by Spencer Graves about about her new 2025 book ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''.]]

Natalie Fenton&lt;ref name=Fenton/&gt; discusses her new 2025 book, ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It'', and related work. She is interviewed by Spencer Graves.&lt;ref name=Graves&gt;&lt;!--Spencer Graves--&gt;{{cite Q|Q56452480}}&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton is a Professor of Media and Communications at [[w:Goldsmiths, University of London|Goldsmiths, University of London]]. She is author or co-author of 10 books and dozens of other academic publications and an editor of numerous other publications. Her research focuses on the relationship between media, democracy and social change.&lt;ref name=Fenton/&gt; She is also a founder, continuous member, and leading researcher with the Media Reform Coalition in the UK.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Media Reform Coalition--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135440829}}&lt;/ref&gt;

==Highlights==

===Immigrants===

Graves asked for &quot;a specific example of something really important that the public ought to know and is being suppressed.&quot; 

Fenton suggested that the coverage of the current war involving Israel, Palestine, and other countries is not balanced. And few humans have much limited understanding of international concerns. 

{{quote| 
But it's not just what's excluded. It's also how things are narrated in particular ways and across the western world now we're seeing a shift to the far right. We're seeing a rise of authoritarian politics in many instances, and some of the media representations over the last three decades have ... contributed to the place we find ourselves in, particularly ... the ways in which immigration and migrants are framed, and that has led to a kind of monstering and misrepresentation of what immigration is and what it results in to the extent that lots of migrants are now seen as entirely illegal, completely kind of unnecessary to our economies and the need for expulsion of them.}}

Graves said he, &quot;recently interviewing someone about that very issue, talking about reopening a private prison in Leavenworth, Kansas to house the people that Donald Trump wants to deport. Three Wikipedia articles I pulled up fairly quickly, basically said, both the sending country and the receiving country tends to benefit, on average, from migration.&quot; And a massive amount of research on immigration on immigrants and immigrant-friendly jurisdictions found that sancturay jurisdictions are either not different from non-sanctuary jurisdictions or have on average less crime and higher median incomes.&lt;ref&gt;Clause et al. (2025).&lt;/ref&gt;

Fenton replied that is &quot;not what we hear.&quot;

=== History and evolution of news and its impact on political economy ===

Graves asked Fenton to &quot;talk about the history and evolution of news and its impact on political economy.&quot;&lt;ref name=John&gt;This is also discussed in &quot;[[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John]]&quot; and in John (1995).&lt;/ref&gt; Fenton replied, 

{{quote|
News has, we know, a very real impact on the political economy ... and part of that impact is a result of the fact that these organizations have established hugely powerful positions in society by virtue of their size. ... Across the world, we've had an increasing concentration of ownership of the vast majority of our legacy media, and pretty much ... without exception, all of those countries have failed to prevent the escalation of that concentration of ownership. These forms of concentration obviously have an impact on the plurality of our news environment, but they also have an impact on how our politicians relate to them. They create fear in politicians: If they don't garner favor with these institutions, then they can represent them in a negative light, and therefore their re election chances will be limited. It's a very simple way in which actually, these organizations hold power over these individuals. 

What we know that goes viral is are controversial issues, ... so ... the more outrageously spoken a politician is, the more likely they are to get media pickup, because it's those clicks that will generate the advertising revenue.}}

Graves replied, &quot;Last August, I interviewed [[Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says|Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen]]. She said that 'the shortest path to a click is anger or hate.'&quot;

=== News deserts ===

Graves asked about [[w:News desert|news deserts]]. Fenton replied, &quot;News deserts are a very worrying phenomenon. ... The history of news deserts is that they have really come hot and fast on the heels of digitalization of the news industry. ... Once upon a time, many newspapers would get much of their finance from their classified advertising. As soon as we entered into the digital age, much of that classified advertising went to sites like [[w:eBay|eBay]], and so they lost all of that revenue. ... And so you saw the business model of the news industry bottom out&quot; with many news organizations either merging or closing and creating news deserts.&quot;

Graves said, &quot;There's literature that says that when a local newspaper dies, split ticket voting goes away, so people are more likely to vote a party line.&lt;ref name=newsDeserts&gt;Discussed further in [[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]] and [[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]].&lt;/ref&gt; ... The cost of local government goes up by 0.13 percent of GDP on average due to increased executive compensation, increased staffing and increased cost of borrowing, because because investors know they cannot trust their money.&lt;ref&gt;Gao et al. (2019).&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton continued, &quot;We also know people vote less.&quot;&lt;ref name=newsDeserts/&gt;

=== Postal Service Act of 1792 and implications for the future ===

Graves note that [[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John|Richard John has a 1995 book that says that the US led the world in number of independent newspaper publishers per million population because of the US Postal Service Act of 1792.]]&lt;ref name=John/&gt; Robert McChesney estimated was like cost the US taxpayers, like 0.21 percent of GDP.&lt;ref name=McCh_N2010/&gt; And he's been recommending 0.15 percent of GDP distributed to the local news nonprofits, with some kind of firewall to prevent political interference in the content.&lt;ref name=newsDeserts/&gt; 

Fenton said, {{quote|

I think there are many ways we can deal with it. ... That's one potential way. I think we need to find new mechanisms to reinvigorate local journalism, and that needs to be funded ... sustainably. I don't think you can expect that local journalism to be sustained through advertising. ... You can apply to charitable foundations to support news organizations. ... But I also think that there should be an onus on the tech giants ... who are benefiting both from the news content that is being produced, that they are circulating, and getting a share of those that clicks and the advertising from from those clicks ... . They should be taxed to a level that will put something back into that news economy that could then ... be distributed through a democratic mechanism to nonprofit journalism ... to function in the public interest.

When you're saying, have a some kind of firewall on political interference, absolutely . This has to be independent journalism of integrity that is serving the local community in particular ways and is doing so with a prioritization for the public interest, not for commercial gain. ... If you can create those sorts of mechanisms, then it is entirely possible that you can regenerate local media in critical ways that would have a massive impact on democracy.}}

=== Watchdogs protect the people who feed them === 

Graves noted that [[How news impacts democracy per USD Communications Professor Nik Usher|he had recently intereviewed Nick Usher]], who has a research report with a with a co author about &quot;How loud does the watchdog bark: a reconsideration of local news, local journalism, news nonprofits and political corruption.&quot;, They found that US Federal jurisdictions with members of the [[w:Institute for nonprofit news|Institute for nonprofit news]] had on average, 1.4 more federal prosecutions for political corruption per year than jurisdictions without such local news nonprofits not beholding to advertising.&lt;ref&gt;Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022).&lt;/ref&gt;

Fenton replied, {{quote|

I think that makes a very important point, that if you haven't got a local news organization that is not kind of dependent on local business advertising, so it's not corrupted by those commercial pressures, and it doesn't have political interference. If you don't have that, who else is going to hold these organizations to account? ... 

It's very, very difficult to then see how anybody is going to be investigated, how any local communities can really bring issues that are crucial to them and their community survival to bear. ... One of the reasons local newspapers work in that way is because local organizations are fearful of being outed and found guilty of corruption. 

So then it's not just that people are reading them. It's the very threat that they exist. ...

But the moment they become too commercialized and the moment they become too powerful, then the balance of power starts to shift, and they either start to completely just chase profit, ... or they start to actually exert their own power over politicians in what can be quite a negative way. 

One of my main points in my latest book is we have to take out the commercial incentive.}} 

Graves added, &quot;The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.&quot; 

=== The BBC and its impact on political economy ===

Graves asked, &quot;Talk about the history of the BBC and its impact on the political economy.&quot; 

Fenton replied, {{quote|

The wonderful BBC here, here is a publicly funded broadcasting system that ... makes a really valuable contribution to the news ecology in the UK. It remains one of the most trusted news sources in the UK and globally ... . It has a wide reach, and it's pretty unique in the way that it functions. 

However, it's not without problems. The BBC is in need, I think, of some quite fundamental reform to ensure that it keeps its relevance to the general public in a digital age ... . The BBC is funded by a license fee. Everybody who possesses a television has to pay the license fee. And increasingly people are refusing to do that, because they're saying, 'We don't watch the BBC. ... We're not going to pay the license fee.' So they're struggling with that. 

At the same time, the government has made huge funding cuts over the years to what it does, so the quality and standards of what it's doing are now mimicking far more commercial outlets because they're chasing viewers. ... The government of the day and all previous governments also try and interfere endlessly in what the BBC does. ... And we haven't yet found an adequate mechanism for preventing that political interference. So it is losing its sense of independence from government, which is a devastating thing to claim. ... It is deeply problematic that the government hold the purse strings over the BBC, because it will threaten it endlessly with funding cuts if it doesn't play ball. 

We need to radically reform the BBC. ... If it's going to be called a public service broadcasting, it's got to have much more connection to the public. It's got to show how its universalism is not only practiced in terms of its content, but also in terms of its structures of governance and its personnel. 

However, I would never want to see it disappear. It's always been, to some extent, struggled with this relationship with the state ... And of course, you can see that more when you're coming into situations of increased issues around security and potential war. That's you're also getting much more direct interference from government. I think we all need to have an organization that is an independent of commercial pressures and of political interference, in order to get adequate news for democracies to function.}}

=== Local multi-media centers ===

Graves asked aboutt [[Information is a public good per communications prof Pickard|local multi-media centers managed by boards selected at random like jury duty, as recommended by Victor Picard]]. 

Fenton said, {{quote|

I've got a lot of sympathy with that sort of view, but I would go further in some ways. 

We have newspapers that are managed in similar ways in the UK. An example is ''[[w:The Bristol Cable|The Bristol Cable]]'' in the UK, which is a ... newspaper cooperative. ... Local community members pay on a very minimal sliding scale to be members of the news organization. As a result, they can then have an input on their editorial decisions, their advertising policy, what sorts of investigations they think these newspapers should be doing. And these are packed meetings of hundreds of people from the local community ... because they see the importance of this newspaper. It's had phenomenal success in holding the council to account, local businesses to account, and investigating concerns that the local community has brought to them. So the community itself is setting that news agenda, rather than a handful of journalists and an editor. ... 

I would like to see those sorts of citizen juries and assemblies being very much part of the BBC. I would like to see in all regions all around the UK, a BBC citizen assembly that reports back on the sorts of things that the BBC is doing, how it's going down, ... but also directs some of the crucial issues that are happening, and also monitors controversy. 

So where controversial things do come into play, which they constantly do in the in terms of the BBC, where they've recently broadcast a documentary on Gaza, and they've come under great criticism, you know, should that, and there was a big internal report that was just released this week, by all means, have an internal investigation, but that should also have gone to citizen assemblies of BBC viewers to say, what do you think? What do you think is the outcome of this, rather than it laying on, you know, one or two elites within the organization itself. Victor's right. We need more citizen involvement in setting news agendas and responding to concerns over our news environment, not less. ...

All communities should have a news hub, something like a local library, which is a newsroom that is occupied by all manner of news organizations. It can be community radio stations like yourself. It can be newspapers, it can be, local community TV. But it's a space where the local community can come with issues they think need to be covered and investigated. They could then also be trained in how to write those stories, how to investigate it, how to do the journalism themselves. 

In Glasgow right now we have an organization and Govanhill magazine, which has done precisely that.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Greater Govanhill--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135440538}}, described in Fenton (2025, pp. 188-189).&lt;/ref&gt; It has taken over a disused shop, and it's opened it up as a news hub to the local community and said, Come in. Tell us what needs to be done. Work with us to investigate these issues. .... It's training journalists in the process, and it's ... holding power to account for that local community.}}

=== Brexit === 

Graves asked Fenton to describe [[w:Brexit|Brexit]].&lt;ref&gt;Brexit is mentioned in multiple places in Fenton (2025).&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton replied, {{quote| 

Brexit was the moment at which we had a referendum, largely triggered by internal fights within the Conservative Party over a very small group of MPs who thought that the UK should leave the European Union. ... To quell that infighting, ... the then-Prime Minister [[w:David Cameron|David Cameron]] decided to hold a referendum to put this issue to bed once and for all. He ... said he very clearly thought that the referendum would vote, &quot;No&quot;, we don't want to leave Europe. But in fact, by a narrow margin, it voted to leave Europe. So since 2016 The UK has no longer been part of Europe, and that's what we call Brexit. 

I think our newspapers had a very large part to play in that vote, because for the past three decades, [[w:Tabloid journalism|tabloid press]] had been endlessly talking about the nonsense that was the [[w:European Union|EU]] and ... all sorts of nonsense stories about how bananas had to be a certain shape, or cheeses, the name of great British cheeses had to be changed. These were all largely nonsense stories, but it was all seen feeding this idea that there's an excess of regulation that is coming from the EU. We're paying them loads of money for what they do, and we'd be better off doing it on our own, rather than talking about all the things that we were gaining from the EU. 

And of course, as soon as Brexit happened, our economy massively plummeted, and we found that all of those regulations that we thought were were hampering our economy had actually given us huge protections over employment rights and human rights. And so there's now, there's a there's a real antipathy towards that Brexit vote. ... However, it's highly unlikely that the current government will hold another referendum because of the politics that are involved.}}

=== Final words ===


Graves said, &quot;We're pretty close to out of time. Any final words for our audience?&quot; 

Fenton replied, {{quote|

There are a lot of what we haven't really spoken about is the power of [[w:Big Tech|Big Tech]], which I also cover in my book a lot. But the issues around those tech giants are huge in terms of the role they are playing in distorting and corrupting our democracy. And you've got so many examples of that in the US, I probably don't need to tell your listeners that story. 

But ... the role that we are seeing [[w:Elon Musk|Elon Musk]] play in in the political environment in the US is a kind of extension of what we've had from [[w:Rupert Murdoch|Rupert Murdoch]] in years gone by. So he is ... the new kind of oligarch on the block that is disrupting and destroying our political systems in many ways, and it's not just the tech. 

Of course, our political systems themselves need massive reform, but those big tech giants have been able to garner so much power that we now don't know how to limit that power, and that's a really dangerous place to be.}}

== The need for media reform to improve democracy == 

This article is part of [[:category:Media reform to improve democracy]]. We describe here briefly the motivation for this series.

[[Great American Paradox|One major contributor to the dominant position of the US in the international political economy]] today may have been the [[w:Postal Service Act|US Postal Service Act of 1792]]. Under that act, newspapers were delivered up to 100 miles for a penny when first class postage was between 6 and 25 cents. [[w:Alexis de Tocqueville|Alexis de Tocqueville]], who visited the relatively young United States of America in 1831, wrote, “There is scarcely a hamlet that does not have its own newspaper.”&lt;ref&gt;Tocqueville (1835, p. 93).&lt;/ref&gt; McChesney and Nichols estimated that these newspaper subsidies were roughly 0.21 percent of national income (Gross Domestic Project, GDP) in 1841.&lt;ref name=McCh_N2010&gt;McChesney and Nichols (2010, pp. 310-311, note 88).&lt;/ref&gt;

At that time, the US probably led the world by far in the number of independent newspaper publishers per capita or per million population. This encouraged literacy and limited political corruption, both of which contributed to making the US a leader in the rate of growth in average annual income (Gross Domestic Product, GDP, per capita). Corruption was also limited by the inability of a small number of publishers to dominate political discourse.

That began to change in the 1850s and 1860s with the introduction of high speed rotary presses, which increased the capital required to start a newspaper.&lt;ref&gt;John and Silberstein-Loeb (2015, p. 80).&lt;/ref&gt;

In 1887 [[w:William Randolph Hearst|William Randolph Hearst]] took over management of his father’s ''[[w:San Francisco Examiner|San Francisco Examiner]]''. His success there gave him an appetite for building a newspaper chain. His 1895 purchase of the ''[[w:New York Morning Journal|New York Morning Journal]]'' gave him a second newspaper. By the mid-1920s, he owned 28 newspapers. Consolidation of ownership of the media became easier with the introduction of broadcasting and even easier with the Internet.&lt;ref&gt;John and Silberstein-Loeb (2015). See also Wikiversity, “[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]” and “[[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]]“.&lt;/ref&gt; [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy|This consolidation seems to be increasing political polarization and violence worldwide]], threatening democracy itself.

=== The threat from loss of newspapers ===

A previous ''Media &amp; Democracy'' interview with Arizona State University accounting professor Roger White on &quot;[[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]]&quot; describes problems that increase as the quality and quantity of news declines and ownership and control of the media become more highly concentrated: Major media too often deflect the public's attention from political corruption enabled by poor media. This too often contributes to other problems like [[w:Scapegoating|scapegoating]] [[w:Immigration|immigrants]] and attacking [[w:Diversity, equity, and inclusion|Diversity, equity, and inclusion]] (DEI) while also facilitating increases in pollution, the cost of borrowing, political polarization and violence, and decreases in workplace safety. More on this is included in other interviews in this ''Media &amp; Democracy'' series available on Wikiversity under [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]].

An important quantitative analysis of the problems associated with deficiencies in news is Neff and Pickard (2024). They analyzed data on media funding and democracy in 33 countries. The US has been rated as a &quot;flawed democracy&quot; according to the [[w:Economist Democracy Index|Economist Democracy Index]] and spends substantially less per capita on media compared to the world's leading democracies in Scandinavia and Commonweath countries. They note that commercial media focus primarily on people with money, while publicly-funded media try harder to serve everyone. Public funding is more strongly correlated with democracy than private funding. This recommends increasing public funding for media as a means of strengthening democracy. See also &quot;[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]&quot;.

==Discussion ==

:''[Interested readers are invited to comment here, subject to the Wikimedia rules of [[w:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|writing from a neutral point of view]] [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|citing credible sources]]&lt;ref name=NPOV/&gt; and treating others with respect.&lt;ref name=AGF/&gt;]''

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

* &lt;!-- Bill Clause, Beverly Harvey, Skie Pearson, and Spencer Graves (2025-07-15) &quot;More on the Solidarity School and other activism&quot;--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135437631}}
* &lt;!--Natalie Fenton (2025) Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135288717}}
* &lt;!--Pengjie Gao, Chang Lee, and Dermot Murphy (2019) &quot;Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance&quot;--&gt;{{cite Q|Q55670016}}
* &lt;!--Richard R. John (1995) Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse--&gt;{{cite Q|Q54641943}}
* &lt;!--Richard R. John and Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb (eds.; 2015) Making News: The Political Economy of Journalism in Britain and America from the Glorious Revolution to the Internet (Oxford University Press)--&gt;{{cite Q|Q131468166}}
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2010). The Death and Life of American Journalism (Bold Type Books) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q104888067}}.
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2021). &quot;The Local Journalism Initiative: a proposal to protect and extend democracy&quot;. Columbia Journalism Review, 30 November 2021 --&gt;{{cite Q|Q109978060}}
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2022), To Protect and Extend Democracy, Recreate Local News Media (PDF), FreePress.net (updated 25 January 2022) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q109978337|access-date=2024-06-23}}
* &lt;!-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1835, 1840; trad. 2001) Democracy in America (trans. by Richard Heffner, 2001; New America Library) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q112166602|publication-date=unset|author=Alexis de Tocqueville (1835, 1840; trad. 2001)}}
* &lt;!--Nik Usher and Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell (2022-01) How Loud Does the Watchdog Bark? A Reconsideration of Local Journalism, News Non-profits, and Political Corruption --&gt;{{Cite Q|Q134715465}}

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      <text bytes="27125" sha1="95i8wxs6mt6btksn8bpv5yi4n9gitsa" xml:space="preserve">:''This discusses a 2025-07-17 interview with Natalie Fenton&lt;ref name=Fenton&gt;&lt;!--Natalie Fenton--&gt;{{cite Q|Q112529317}}&lt;/ref&gt; about her new book, '' Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''&lt;ref&gt;Fenton (2025).&lt;/ref&gt; and related research. A video and 29:00 mm:ss podcast excerpted from the interview will be added when available. The podcast will be released 2025-07-26 to the fortnightly &quot;Media &amp; Democracy&quot; show&lt;ref name=M&amp;D&gt;&lt;!--Media &amp; Democracy--&gt;{{cite Q|Q127839818}}&lt;/ref&gt; syndicated for the [[w:Pacifica Foundation|Pacifica Radio]]&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Pacifica Radio Network--&gt;{{cite Q|Q2045587}}&lt;/ref&gt; Network of [[w:List of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates|over 200 community radio stations]].&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--list of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates--&gt;{{cite Q|Q6593294}}&lt;/ref&gt;''

:''This articles invite others to contribute other perspectives, subject to the Wikimedia rules of [[w:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|writing from a neutral point of view]] while [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|citing credible sources]]&lt;ref name=NPOV&gt;The rules of writing from a neutral point of view citing credible sources may not be enforced on other parts of Wikiversity. However, they can facilitate dialog between people with dramatically different beliefs&lt;/ref&gt; and treating others with respect.''&lt;ref name=AGF&gt;[[Wikiversity:Assume good faith|Wikiversity asks contributors to assume good faith]], similar to Wikipedia. The rule in [[w:Wikinews|Wikinews]] is different: Contributors there are asked to [[Wikinews:Never assume|&quot;Don't assume things; be skeptical about everything.&quot;]] That's wise. However, we should still treat others with respect while being skeptical.&lt;/ref&gt;

[[File:Democratic delusions-Fix the media to fix democracy.webm|thumb|2025-07-17 interview with Natalie Fenton about her new book ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''.]]
[[File:Democratic delusions-Fix the media to fix democracy.ogg|thumb|29:00 mm:ss podcast from interview conducted 2025-07-17 of Natalie Fenton by Spencer Graves about about her new 2025 book ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It''.]]

Natalie Fenton&lt;ref name=Fenton/&gt; discusses her new 2025 book, ''Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It'', and related work. She is interviewed by Spencer Graves.&lt;ref name=Graves&gt;&lt;!--Spencer Graves--&gt;{{cite Q|Q56452480}}&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton is a Professor of Media and Communications at [[w:Goldsmiths, University of London|Goldsmiths, University of London]]. She is author or co-author of 10 books and dozens of other academic publications and an editor of numerous other publications. Her research focuses on the relationship between media, democracy and social change.&lt;ref name=Fenton/&gt; She is also a founder, continuous member, and leading researcher with the Media Reform Coalition in the UK.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Media Reform Coalition--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135440829}}&lt;/ref&gt;

==Highlights==

===Immigrants===

Graves asked for &quot;a specific example of something really important that the public ought to know and is being suppressed.&quot; 

Fenton suggested that the coverage of the current war involving Israel, Palestine, and other countries is not balanced. And few humans have much limited understanding of international concerns. 

{{quote| 
But it's not just what's excluded. It's also how things are narrated in particular ways and across the western world now we're seeing a shift to the far right. We're seeing a rise of authoritarian politics in many instances, and some of the media representations over the last three decades have ... contributed to the place we find ourselves in, particularly ... the ways in which immigration and migrants are framed, and that has led to a kind of monstering and misrepresentation of what immigration is and what it results in to the extent that lots of migrants are now seen as entirely illegal, completely kind of unnecessary to our economies and the need for expulsion of them.}}

Graves said he, &quot;recently interviewing someone about that very issue, talking about reopening a private prison in Leavenworth, Kansas to house the people that Donald Trump wants to deport. Three Wikipedia articles I pulled up fairly quickly, basically said, both the sending country and the receiving country tends to benefit, on average, from migration.&quot; And a massive amount of research on immigration on immigrants and immigrant-friendly jurisdictions found that sancturay jurisdictions are either not different from non-sanctuary jurisdictions or have on average less crime and higher median incomes.&lt;ref&gt;Clause et al. (2025).&lt;/ref&gt;

Fenton replied that is &quot;not what we hear.&quot;

=== History and evolution of news and its impact on political economy ===

Graves asked Fenton to &quot;talk about the history and evolution of news and its impact on political economy.&quot;&lt;ref name=John&gt;This is also discussed in &quot;[[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John]]&quot; and in John (1995).&lt;/ref&gt; Fenton replied, 

{{quote|
News has, we know, a very real impact on the political economy ... and part of that impact is a result of the fact that these organizations have established hugely powerful positions in society by virtue of their size. ... Across the world, we've had an increasing concentration of ownership of the vast majority of our legacy media, and pretty much ... without exception, all of those countries have failed to prevent the escalation of that concentration of ownership. These forms of concentration obviously have an impact on the plurality of our news environment, but they also have an impact on how our politicians relate to them. They create fear in politicians: If they don't garner favor with these institutions, then they can represent them in a negative light, and therefore their re election chances will be limited. It's a very simple way in which actually, these organizations hold power over these individuals. 

What we know that goes viral is are controversial issues, ... so ... the more outrageously spoken a politician is, the more likely they are to get media pickup, because it's those clicks that will generate the advertising revenue.}}

Graves replied, &quot;Last August, I interviewed [[Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says|Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen]]. She said that 'the shortest path to a click is anger or hate.'&quot;

=== News deserts ===

Graves asked about [[w:News desert|news deserts]]. Fenton replied, &quot;News deserts are a very worrying phenomenon. ... The history of news deserts is that they have really come hot and fast on the heels of digitalization of the news industry. ... Once upon a time, many newspapers would get much of their finance from their classified advertising. As soon as we entered into the digital age, much of that classified advertising went to sites like [[w:eBay|eBay]], and so they lost all of that revenue. ... And so you saw the business model of the news industry bottom out&quot; with many news organizations either merging or closing and creating news deserts.&quot;

Graves said, &quot;There's literature that says that when a local newspaper dies, split ticket voting goes away, so people are more likely to vote a party line.&lt;ref name=newsDeserts&gt;Discussed further in [[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]] and [[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]].&lt;/ref&gt; ... The cost of local government goes up by 0.13 percent of GDP on average due to increased executive compensation, increased staffing and increased cost of borrowing, because because investors know they cannot trust their money.&lt;ref&gt;Gao et al. (2019).&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton continued, &quot;We also know people vote less.&quot;&lt;ref name=newsDeserts/&gt;

=== Postal Service Act of 1792 and implications for the future ===

Graves note that [[Media concentration per Columbia History Professor Richard John|Richard John has a 1995 book that says that the US led the world in number of independent newspaper publishers per million population because of the US Postal Service Act of 1792.]]&lt;ref name=John/&gt; Robert McChesney estimated was like cost the US taxpayers, like 0.21 percent of GDP.&lt;ref name=McCh_N2010/&gt; And he's been recommending 0.15 percent of GDP distributed to the local news nonprofits, with some kind of firewall to prevent political interference in the content.&lt;ref name=newsDeserts/&gt; 

Fenton said, {{quote|

I think there are many ways we can deal with it. ... That's one potential way. I think we need to find new mechanisms to reinvigorate local journalism, and that needs to be funded ... sustainably. I don't think you can expect that local journalism to be sustained through advertising. ... You can apply to charitable foundations to support news organizations. ... But I also think that there should be an onus on the tech giants ... who are benefiting both from the news content that is being produced, that they are circulating, and getting a share of those that clicks and the advertising from from those clicks ... . They should be taxed to a level that will put something back into that news economy that could then ... be distributed through a democratic mechanism to nonprofit journalism ... to function in the public interest.

When you're saying, have a some kind of firewall on political interference, absolutely . This has to be independent journalism of integrity that is serving the local community in particular ways and is doing so with a prioritization for the public interest, not for commercial gain. ... If you can create those sorts of mechanisms, then it is entirely possible that you can regenerate local media in critical ways that would have a massive impact on democracy.}}

=== Watchdogs protect the people who feed them === 

Graves noted that [[How news impacts democracy per USD Communications Professor Nik Usher|he had recently intereviewed Nick Usher]], who has a research report with a with a co author about &quot;How loud does the watchdog bark: a reconsideration of local news, local journalism, news nonprofits and political corruption.&quot;, They found that US Federal jurisdictions with members of the [[w:Institute for nonprofit news|Institute for nonprofit news]] had on average, 1.4 more federal prosecutions for political corruption per year than jurisdictions without such local news nonprofits not beholding to advertising.&lt;ref&gt;Usher and Kim-Leffingwell (2022).&lt;/ref&gt;

Fenton replied, {{quote|

I think that makes a very important point, that if you haven't got a local news organization that is not kind of dependent on local business advertising, so it's not corrupted by those commercial pressures, and it doesn't have political interference. If you don't have that, who else is going to hold these organizations to account? ... 

It's very, very difficult to then see how anybody is going to be investigated, how any local communities can really bring issues that are crucial to them and their community survival to bear. ... One of the reasons local newspapers work in that way is because local organizations are fearful of being outed and found guilty of corruption. 

So then it's not just that people are reading them. It's the very threat that they exist. ...

But the moment they become too commercialized and the moment they become too powerful, then the balance of power starts to shift, and they either start to completely just chase profit, ... or they start to actually exert their own power over politicians in what can be quite a negative way. 

One of my main points in my latest book is we have to take out the commercial incentive.}} 

Graves added, &quot;The major media create the stage upon which politicians read their lines.&quot; 

=== The BBC and its impact on political economy ===

Graves asked, &quot;Talk about the history of the BBC and its impact on the political economy.&quot; 

Fenton replied, {{quote|

The wonderful BBC here, here is a publicly funded broadcasting system that ... makes a really valuable contribution to the news ecology in the UK. It remains one of the most trusted news sources in the UK and globally ... . It has a wide reach, and it's pretty unique in the way that it functions. 

However, it's not without problems. The BBC is in need, I think, of some quite fundamental reform to ensure that it keeps its relevance to the general public in a digital age ... . The BBC is funded by a license fee. Everybody who possesses a television has to pay the license fee. And increasingly people are refusing to do that, because they're saying, 'We don't watch the BBC. ... We're not going to pay the license fee.' So they're struggling with that. 

At the same time, the government has made huge funding cuts over the years to what it does, so the quality and standards of what it's doing are now mimicking far more commercial outlets because they're chasing viewers. ... The government of the day and all previous governments also try and interfere endlessly in what the BBC does. ... And we haven't yet found an adequate mechanism for preventing that political interference. So it is losing its sense of independence from government, which is a devastating thing to claim. ... It is deeply problematic that the government hold the purse strings over the BBC, because it will threaten it endlessly with funding cuts if it doesn't play ball. 

We need to radically reform the BBC. ... If it's going to be called a public service broadcasting, it's got to have much more connection to the public. It's got to show how its universalism is not only practiced in terms of its content, but also in terms of its structures of governance and its personnel. 

However, I would never want to see it disappear. It's always been, to some extent, struggled with this relationship with the state ... And of course, you can see that more when you're coming into situations of increased issues around security and potential war. That's you're also getting much more direct interference from government. I think we all need to have an organization that is an independent of commercial pressures and of political interference, in order to get adequate news for democracies to function.}}

=== Local multi-media centers ===

Graves asked aboutt [[Information is a public good per communications prof Pickard|local multi-media centers managed by boards selected at random like jury duty, as recommended by Victor Picard]]. 

Fenton said, {{quote|

I've got a lot of sympathy with that sort of view, but I would go further in some ways. 

We have newspapers that are managed in similar ways in the UK. An example is ''[[w:The Bristol Cable|The Bristol Cable]]'' in the UK, which is a ... newspaper cooperative. ... Local community members pay on a very minimal sliding scale to be members of the news organization. As a result, they can then have an input on their editorial decisions, their advertising policy, what sorts of investigations they think these newspapers should be doing. And these are packed meetings of hundreds of people from the local community ... because they see the importance of this newspaper. It's had phenomenal success in holding the council to account, local businesses to account, and investigating concerns that the local community has brought to them. So the community itself is setting that news agenda, rather than a handful of journalists and an editor. ... 

I would like to see those sorts of citizen juries and assemblies being very much part of the BBC. I would like to see in all regions all around the UK, a BBC citizen assembly that reports back on the sorts of things that the BBC is doing, how it's going down, ... but also directs some of the crucial issues that are happening, and also monitors controversy. 

So where controversial things do come into play, which they constantly do in the in terms of the BBC, where they've recently broadcast a documentary on Gaza, and they've come under great criticism, you know, should that, and there was a big internal report that was just released this week, by all means, have an internal investigation, but that should also have gone to citizen assemblies of BBC viewers to say, what do you think? What do you think is the outcome of this, rather than it laying on, you know, one or two elites within the organization itself. Victor's right. We need more citizen involvement in setting news agendas and responding to concerns over our news environment, not less. ...

All communities should have a news hub, something like a local library, which is a newsroom that is occupied by all manner of news organizations. It can be community radio stations like yourself. It can be newspapers, it can be, local community TV. But it's a space where the local community can come with issues they think need to be covered and investigated. They could then also be trained in how to write those stories, how to investigate it, how to do the journalism themselves. 

In Glasgow right now we have an organization and Govanhill magazine, which has done precisely that.&lt;ref&gt;&lt;!--Greater Govanhill--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135440538}}, described in Fenton (2025, pp. 188-189).&lt;/ref&gt; It has taken over a disused shop, and it's opened it up as a news hub to the local community and said, Come in. Tell us what needs to be done. Work with us to investigate these issues. .... It's training journalists in the process, and it's ... holding power to account for that local community.}}

=== Brexit === 

Graves asked Fenton to describe [[w:Brexit|Brexit]].&lt;ref&gt;Brexit is mentioned in multiple places in Fenton (2025).&lt;/ref&gt; 

Fenton replied, {{quote| 

Brexit was the moment at which we had a referendum, largely triggered by internal fights within the Conservative Party over a very small group of MPs who thought that the UK should leave the European Union. ... To quell that infighting, ... the then-Prime Minister [[w:David Cameron|David Cameron]] decided to hold a referendum to put this issue to bed once and for all. He ... said he very clearly thought that the referendum would vote, &quot;No&quot;, we don't want to leave Europe. But in fact, by a narrow margin, it voted to leave Europe. So since 2016 The UK has no longer been part of Europe, and that's what we call Brexit. 

I think our newspapers had a very large part to play in that vote, because for the past three decades, [[w:Tabloid journalism|tabloid press]] had been endlessly talking about the nonsense that was the [[w:European Union|EU]] and ... all sorts of nonsense stories about how bananas had to be a certain shape, or cheeses, the name of great British cheeses had to be changed. These were all largely nonsense stories, but it was all seen feeding this idea that there's an excess of regulation that is coming from the EU. We're paying them loads of money for what they do, and we'd be better off doing it on our own, rather than talking about all the things that we were gaining from the EU. 

And of course, as soon as Brexit happened, our economy massively plummeted, and we found that all of those regulations that we thought were were hampering our economy had actually given us huge protections over employment rights and human rights. And so there's now, there's a there's a real antipathy towards that Brexit vote. ... However, it's highly unlikely that the current government will hold another referendum because of the politics that are involved.}}

=== Final words ===


Graves said, &quot;We're pretty close to out of time. Any final words for our audience?&quot; 

Fenton replied, {{quote|

There are a lot of what we haven't really spoken about is the power of [[w:Big Tech|Big Tech]], which I also cover in my book a lot. But the issues around those tech giants are huge in terms of the role they are playing in distorting and corrupting our democracy. And you've got so many examples of that in the US, I probably don't need to tell your listeners that story. 

But ... the role that we are seeing [[w:Elon Musk|Elon Musk]] play in in the political environment in the US is a kind of extension of what we've had from [[w:Rupert Murdoch|Rupert Murdoch]] in years gone by. So he is ... the new kind of oligarch on the block that is disrupting and destroying our political systems in many ways, and it's not just the tech. 

Of course, our political systems themselves need massive reform, but those Big Tech giants have been able to garner so much power that we now don't know how to limit that power, and that's a really dangerous place to be.}}

== The need for media reform to improve democracy == 

This article is part of [[:category:Media reform to improve democracy]]. We describe here briefly the motivation for this series.

[[Great American Paradox|One major contributor to the dominant position of the US in the international political economy]] today may have been the [[w:Postal Service Act|US Postal Service Act of 1792]]. Under that act, newspapers were delivered up to 100 miles for a penny when first class postage was between 6 and 25 cents. [[w:Alexis de Tocqueville|Alexis de Tocqueville]], who visited the relatively young United States of America in 1831, wrote, “There is scarcely a hamlet that does not have its own newspaper.”&lt;ref&gt;Tocqueville (1835, p. 93).&lt;/ref&gt; McChesney and Nichols estimated that these newspaper subsidies were roughly 0.21 percent of national income (Gross Domestic Project, GDP) in 1841.&lt;ref name=McCh_N2010&gt;McChesney and Nichols (2010, pp. 310-311, note 88).&lt;/ref&gt;

At that time, the US probably led the world by far in the number of independent newspaper publishers per capita or per million population. This encouraged literacy and limited political corruption, both of which contributed to making the US a leader in the rate of growth in average annual income (Gross Domestic Product, GDP, per capita). Corruption was also limited by the inability of a small number of publishers to dominate political discourse.

That began to change in the 1850s and 1860s with the introduction of high speed rotary presses, which increased the capital required to start a newspaper.&lt;ref&gt;John and Silberstein-Loeb (2015, p. 80).&lt;/ref&gt;

In 1887 [[w:William Randolph Hearst|William Randolph Hearst]] took over management of his father’s ''[[w:San Francisco Examiner|San Francisco Examiner]]''. His success there gave him an appetite for building a newspaper chain. His 1895 purchase of the ''[[w:New York Morning Journal|New York Morning Journal]]'' gave him a second newspaper. By the mid-1920s, he owned 28 newspapers. Consolidation of ownership of the media became easier with the introduction of broadcasting and even easier with the Internet.&lt;ref&gt;John and Silberstein-Loeb (2015). See also Wikiversity, “[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]” and “[[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]]“.&lt;/ref&gt; [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy|This consolidation seems to be increasing political polarization and violence worldwide]], threatening democracy itself.

=== The threat from loss of newspapers ===

A previous ''Media &amp; Democracy'' interview with Arizona State University accounting professor Roger White on &quot;[[Local newspapers limit malfeasance]]&quot; describes problems that increase as the quality and quantity of news declines and ownership and control of the media become more highly concentrated: Major media too often deflect the public's attention from political corruption enabled by poor media. This too often contributes to other problems like [[w:Scapegoating|scapegoating]] [[w:Immigration|immigrants]] and attacking [[w:Diversity, equity, and inclusion|Diversity, equity, and inclusion]] (DEI) while also facilitating increases in pollution, the cost of borrowing, political polarization and violence, and decreases in workplace safety. More on this is included in other interviews in this ''Media &amp; Democracy'' series available on Wikiversity under [[:Category:Media reform to improve democracy]].

An important quantitative analysis of the problems associated with deficiencies in news is Neff and Pickard (2024). They analyzed data on media funding and democracy in 33 countries. The US has been rated as a &quot;flawed democracy&quot; according to the [[w:Economist Democracy Index|Economist Democracy Index]] and spends substantially less per capita on media compared to the world's leading democracies in Scandinavia and Commonweath countries. They note that commercial media focus primarily on people with money, while publicly-funded media try harder to serve everyone. Public funding is more strongly correlated with democracy than private funding. This recommends increasing public funding for media as a means of strengthening democracy. See also &quot;[[Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve government]]&quot;.

==Discussion ==

:''[Interested readers are invited to comment here, subject to the Wikimedia rules of [[w:Wikipedia:Neutral point of view|writing from a neutral point of view]] [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|citing credible sources]]&lt;ref name=NPOV/&gt; and treating others with respect.&lt;ref name=AGF/&gt;]''

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

* &lt;!-- Bill Clause, Beverly Harvey, Skie Pearson, and Spencer Graves (2025-07-15) &quot;More on the Solidarity School and other activism&quot;--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135437631}}
* &lt;!--Natalie Fenton (2025) Democratic Delusions: How the Media Hollows Out Democracy and What We Can Do About It--&gt;{{cite Q|Q135288717}}
* &lt;!--Pengjie Gao, Chang Lee, and Dermot Murphy (2019) &quot;Financing Dies in Darkness? The Impact of Newspaper Closures on Public Finance&quot;--&gt;{{cite Q|Q55670016}}
* &lt;!--Richard R. John (1995) Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse--&gt;{{cite Q|Q54641943}}
* &lt;!--Richard R. John and Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb (eds.; 2015) Making News: The Political Economy of Journalism in Britain and America from the Glorious Revolution to the Internet (Oxford University Press)--&gt;{{cite Q|Q131468166}}
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2010). The Death and Life of American Journalism (Bold Type Books) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q104888067}}.
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2021). &quot;The Local Journalism Initiative: a proposal to protect and extend democracy&quot;. Columbia Journalism Review, 30 November 2021 --&gt;{{cite Q|Q109978060}}
* &lt;!-- Robert W. McChesney; John Nichols (2022), To Protect and Extend Democracy, Recreate Local News Media (PDF), FreePress.net (updated 25 January 2022) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q109978337|access-date=2024-06-23}}
* &lt;!-- Alexis de Tocqueville (1835, 1840; trad. 2001) Democracy in America (trans. by Richard Heffner, 2001; New America Library) --&gt;{{cite Q|Q112166602|publication-date=unset|author=Alexis de Tocqueville (1835, 1840; trad. 2001)}}
* &lt;!--Nik Usher and Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell (2022-01) How Loud Does the Watchdog Bark? A Reconsideration of Local Journalism, News Non-profits, and Political Corruption --&gt;{{Cite Q|Q134715465}}

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[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Media reform to improve democracy]]
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      <text bytes="21810" sha1="dgnpclh0k2ihppmak4xaz4p1exrfy0p" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Automaticity and goal pursuit:&lt;br&gt;How do habits and environmental cues drive unconscious goal pursuit?}}
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==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also find himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependant responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficent way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognatively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidently a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticy between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substancially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explaination on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined overtime through consistent context-dependant responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process overtime.  
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

Pursuing goals in context

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;Subconscious pursuit

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
* Being able to remove thinking from the goal pursuit process would be a milestone for anyone. Making choices is mentally demanding and the goal striving process is already its own mountain. 
* Through this page we discussed how automatic habits occur, what enviromental cues have to do in relation to it, and how important they actually are in a goal orientated process.
* Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal.

==See also==
{{expand}}

==References==
Provide the references for all citations in [[w:APA style|APA style]] (7th ed.) or [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|wiki style]]. Alternatively, you can use wiki style (as used on Wikipedia), as long as the information is complete and the formatting is consistent.

APA style example:
{{Hanging indent|1=

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417


}}

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Important aspects of APA referencing style
** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces
** Year of publication in parentheses
** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop
** Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop
** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable)
** Hanging indent: Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]:
*** Use &quot;Edit source&quot;
*** &lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* The most common mistakes include:
** Incorrect capitalisation
** Incorrect italicisation
** dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks
** Citing sources that haven't been consulted
}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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      <parentid>2840029</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T12:52:50Z</timestamp>
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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also find himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependant responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficent way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognatively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidently a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticy between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substancially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explaination on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined overtime through consistent context-dependant responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process overtime.  
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

Pursuing goals in context

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;Subconscious pursuit

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
* Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing.
* Automatic habits occur after consistent context specific cues associate themselves with the behaviour.
* Habit uptake time ranges significantly (18-254 days).
* Cognitive load reduces with automaticity making behaviours easier to perform over time.
* Removal of environmental cues can cause behaviours to decay.
* Behaviours can be negatively cued by environmental factors.
* Not all goals are conscious.
* Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal.

==See also==
{{expand}}

==References==
Provide the references for all citations in [[w:APA style|APA style]] (7th ed.) or [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|wiki style]]. Alternatively, you can use wiki style (as used on Wikipedia), as long as the information is complete and the formatting is consistent.

APA style example:
{{Hanging indent|1=

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417


}}

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Important aspects of APA referencing style
** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces
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** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop
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** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable)
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* The most common mistakes include:
** Incorrect capitalisation
** Incorrect italicisation
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** Citing sources that haven't been consulted
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==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also find himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependant responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficent way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognatively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidently a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticy between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substancially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explaination on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined overtime through consistent context-dependant responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process overtime.  
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

Pursuing goals in context

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;
===Subconscious pursuit===

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
* Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing.
* Automatic habits occur after consistent context specific cues associate themselves with the behaviour.
* Habit uptake time ranges significantly (18-254 days).
* Cognitive load reduces with automaticity making behaviours easier to perform over time.
* Removal of environmental cues can cause behaviours to decay.
* Behaviours can be negatively cued by environmental factors.
* Not all goals are conscious.
* Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal.

==See also==
{{expand}}

==References==
Provide the references for all citations in [[w:APA style|APA style]] (7th ed.) or [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|wiki style]]. Alternatively, you can use wiki style (as used on Wikipedia), as long as the information is complete and the formatting is consistent.

APA style example:
{{Hanging indent|1=


Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., &amp; Trötschel, R. (2001). The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1014–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014


Gollwitzer, P. M., &amp; Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69–119). Elsevier Science &amp; Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., &amp; Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Verplanken, B., &amp; Orbell, S. (2003). Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03772-000

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Wood, W., Tam, L., &amp; Witt, M. G. (2005). Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918


}}

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Important aspects of APA referencing style
** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces
** Year of publication in parentheses
** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop
** Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop
** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable)
** Hanging indent: Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]:
*** Use &quot;Edit source&quot;
*** &lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* The most common mistakes include:
** Incorrect capitalisation
** Incorrect italicisation
** dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks
** Citing sources that haven't been consulted
}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also find himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependant responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficent way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognatively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidently a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticy between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substancially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explaination on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined overtime through consistent context-dependant responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process overtime.  
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

===Pursuing goals in context===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;
===Subconscious pursuit===

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
* Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing.
* Automatic habits occur after consistent context specific cues associate themselves with the behaviour.
* Habit uptake time ranges significantly (18-254 days).
* Cognitive load reduces with automaticity making behaviours easier to perform over time.
* Removal of environmental cues can cause behaviours to decay.
* Behaviours can be negatively cued by environmental factors.
* Not all goals are conscious.
* Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal.

==See also==
{{expand}}

==References==
Provide the references for all citations in [[w:APA style|APA style]] (7th ed.) or [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|wiki style]]. Alternatively, you can use wiki style (as used on Wikipedia), as long as the information is complete and the formatting is consistent.

APA style example:
{{Hanging indent|1=


Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., &amp; Trötschel, R. (2001). The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1014–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014


Gollwitzer, P. M., &amp; Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69–119). Elsevier Science &amp; Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., &amp; Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Verplanken, B., &amp; Orbell, S. (2003). Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03772-000

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Wood, W., Tam, L., &amp; Witt, M. G. (2005). Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918


}}

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Important aspects of APA referencing style
** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces
** Year of publication in parentheses
** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop
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** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable)
** Hanging indent: Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]:
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* The most common mistakes include:
** Incorrect capitalisation
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}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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      <text bytes="23132" sha1="t64xrxb1415n48kguk133kc31vzrk2r" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Automaticity and goal pursuit:&lt;br&gt;How do habits and environmental cues drive unconscious goal pursuit?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also find himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependant responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficent way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognatively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidently a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticy between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substancially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explaination on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined overtime through consistent context-dependant responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process overtime.  
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

===Pursuing goals in context===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;
===Subconscious pursuit===

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
* Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing.
* Automatic habits occur after consistent context specific cues associate themselves with the behaviour.
* Habit uptake time ranges significantly (18-254 days).
* Cognitive load reduces with automaticity making behaviours easier to perform over time.
* Removal of environmental cues can cause behaviours to decay.
* Behaviours can be negatively cued by environmental factors.
* Not all goals are conscious.
* Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal.

==See also==
{{expand}}

==References==
Provide the references for all citations in [[w:APA style|APA style]] (7th ed.) or [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|wiki style]]. Alternatively, you can use wiki style (as used on Wikipedia), as long as the information is complete and the formatting is consistent.

APA style example:
{{Hanging indent|1=


Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., &amp; Trötschel, R. (2001). The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1014–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014

Gollwitzer, P. M., &amp; Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69–119). Elsevier Science &amp; Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., &amp; Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Verplanken, B., &amp; Orbell, S. (2003). Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03772-000

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Wood, W., Tam, L., &amp; Witt, M. G. (2005). Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918


}}

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* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

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[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also find himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependant responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficent way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognatively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidently a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticy between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substancially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explaination on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined overtime through consistent context-dependant responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process overtime.  
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

===Pursuing goals in context===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;
===Subconscious pursuit===

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
* Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing.
* Automatic habits occur after consistent context specific cues associate themselves with the behaviour.
* Habit uptake time ranges significantly (18-254 days).
* Cognitive load reduces with automaticity making behaviours easier to perform over time.
* Removal of environmental cues can cause behaviours to decay.
* Behaviours can be negatively cued by environmental factors.
* Not all goals are conscious.
* Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal.

==See also==
{{expand}}

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=


Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., &amp; Trötschel, R. (2001). The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1014–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014

Gollwitzer, P. M., &amp; Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69–119). Elsevier Science &amp; Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., &amp; Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Verplanken, B., &amp; Orbell, S. (2003). Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03772-000

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Wood, W., Tam, L., &amp; Witt, M. G. (2005). Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918


}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also find himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependant responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficent way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognatively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidently a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticy between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substancially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explaination on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined overtime through consistent context-dependant responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process overtime.  
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

===Pursuing goals in context===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;
===Subconscious pursuit===

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing. Practical use has been discussed extensively during this book chapter providing insight into the processes we can engage in to improve our own goal seeking behaviour through context specific cueing. It is important to also be flexible with the expectations of using automaticity through environmental cues to improve goal pursuit as it can take anywhere from 18-254 days to properly form the desired automatic behaviours. One significant benefit users can hope to see is a reduction in cognitive load over time which is encouraging because it tells the user that their initial struggle to perform the task will lessen which should reinforce the behaviour. It is also important to consider when behaviours might be cued negatively (e.g. Neal and colleagues stale popcorn experiment in 2011) to avoid unwanted behavioural cuing. Loss of behavioural cues can cause behavioural decay which be used positively to remove unwanted behaviours but is important to consider when you're trying to maintain specific behaviours under environmental change. Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal. And to wrap up, not every goal is conscious. Some goals simply exist below the surface and automatically improve the tasks we engage in or inform us to behave in a way we are not consciously aware of.

==See also==
{{expand}}

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=


Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., &amp; Trötschel, R. (2001). The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1014–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014

Gollwitzer, P. M., &amp; Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69–119). Elsevier Science &amp; Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., &amp; Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Verplanken, B., &amp; Orbell, S. (2003). Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03772-000

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Wood, W., Tam, L., &amp; Witt, M. G. (2005). Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918


}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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      <id>2840078</id>
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      <timestamp>2026-10-13T21:22:30Z</timestamp>
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      <text bytes="23115" sha1="m3m1ez43mg4w9v7krkajce73rs2cdlk" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Automaticity and goal pursuit:&lt;br&gt;How do habits and environmental cues drive unconscious goal pursuit?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also find himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependant responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficent way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognatively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidently a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticy between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substancially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explaination on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined overtime through consistent context-dependant responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process overtime.  
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

===Pursuing goals in context===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;
===Subconscious pursuit===

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing. Practical use has been discussed extensively during this book chapter providing insight into the processes we can engage in to improve our own goal seeking behaviour through context specific cueing. It is important to also be flexible with the expectations of using automaticity through environmental cues to improve goal pursuit as it can take anywhere from 18-254 days to properly form the desired automatic behaviours. One significant benefit users can hope to see is a reduction in cognitive load over time which is encouraging because it tells the user that their initial struggle to perform the task will lessen which should reinforce the behaviour. It is also important to consider when behaviours might be cued negatively (e.g. Neal and colleagues stale popcorn experiment in 2011) to avoid unwanted behavioural cuing. Loss of behavioural cues can cause behavioural decay which be used positively to remove unwanted behaviours but is important to consider when you're trying to maintain specific behaviours under environmental change. Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal. And to wrap up, not every goal is conscious. Some goals simply exist below the surface and automatically improve the tasks we engage in or inform us to behave in a way we are not consciously aware of.

==See also==
Clumsy effort to effortless action - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiBn0tbzHRM YouTube]

Wendy Wood's publication page - [https://dornsife.usc.edu/wendy-wood/publication/ External Website]

How habits guide behaviour with Wendy Wood - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWiDYOjgEFI YouTube]

Implementation intentions - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbGjJpkIsWM YouTube]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=


Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., &amp; Trötschel, R. (2001). The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1014–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014

Gollwitzer, P. M., &amp; Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69–119). Elsevier Science &amp; Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., &amp; Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Verplanken, B., &amp; Orbell, S. (2003). Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03772-000

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Wood, W., Tam, L., &amp; Witt, M. G. (2005). Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918


}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
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[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also find himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependent responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficient way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognitively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidentally a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticity between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substantially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explanation on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined over time through consistent context-dependent responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process over time.
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

===Pursuing goals in context===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;
===Subconscious pursuit===

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing. Practical use has been discussed extensively during this book chapter providing insight into the processes we can engage in to improve our own goal seeking behaviour through context specific cueing. It is important to also be flexible with the expectations of using automaticity through environmental cues to improve goal pursuit as it can take anywhere from 18-254 days to properly form the desired automatic behaviours. One significant benefit users can hope to see is a reduction in cognitive load over time which is encouraging because it tells the user that their initial struggle to perform the task will lessen which should reinforce the behaviour. It is also important to consider when behaviours might be cued negatively (e.g. Neal and colleagues stale popcorn experiment in 2011) to avoid unwanted behavioural cuing. Loss of behavioural cues can cause behavioural decay which be used positively to remove unwanted behaviours but is important to consider when you're trying to maintain specific behaviours under environmental change. Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal. And to wrap up, not every goal is conscious. Some goals simply exist below the surface and automatically improve the tasks we engage in or inform us to behave in a way we are not consciously aware of.

==See also==
Clumsy effort to effortless action - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiBn0tbzHRM YouTube]

Wendy Wood's publication page - [https://dornsife.usc.edu/wendy-wood/publication/ External Website]

How habits guide behaviour with Wendy Wood - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWiDYOjgEFI YouTube]

Implementation intentions - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbGjJpkIsWM YouTube]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=


Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., &amp; Trötschel, R. (2001). The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1014–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014

Gollwitzer, P. M., &amp; Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69–119). Elsevier Science &amp; Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., &amp; Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Verplanken, B., &amp; Orbell, S. (2003). Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03772-000

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Wood, W., Tam, L., &amp; Witt, M. G. (2005). Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918


}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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      <text bytes="23120" sha1="pgjrowg8h11g3lfo8az32c0ry8om4io" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Automaticity and goal pursuit:&lt;br&gt;How do habits and environmental cues drive unconscious goal pursuit?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also finds himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and Dual Process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependent responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficient way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognitively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidentally a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticity between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substantially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explanation on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined over time through consistent context-dependent responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood et al., 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood et al. in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood et al. (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process over time.
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

===Pursuing goals in context===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;
===Subconscious pursuit===

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing. Practical use has been discussed extensively during this book chapter providing insight into the processes we can engage in to improve our own goal seeking behaviour through context specific cueing. It is important to also be flexible with the expectations of using automaticity through environmental cues to improve goal pursuit as it can take anywhere from 18-254 days to properly form the desired automatic behaviours. One significant benefit users can hope to see is a reduction in cognitive load over time which is encouraging because it tells the user that their initial struggle to perform the task will lessen which should reinforce the behaviour. It is also important to consider when behaviours might be cued negatively (e.g. Neal and colleagues stale popcorn experiment in 2011) to avoid unwanted behavioural cuing. Loss of behavioural cues can cause behavioural decay which be used positively to remove unwanted behaviours but is important to consider when you're trying to maintain specific behaviours under environmental change. Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal. And to wrap up, not every goal is conscious. Some goals simply exist below the surface and automatically improve the tasks we engage in or inform us to behave in a way we are not consciously aware of.

==See also==
Clumsy effort to effortless action - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiBn0tbzHRM YouTube]

Wendy Wood's publication page - [https://dornsife.usc.edu/wendy-wood/publication/ External Website]

How habits guide behaviour with Wendy Wood - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWiDYOjgEFI YouTube]

Implementation intentions - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbGjJpkIsWM YouTube]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=


Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., &amp; Trötschel, R. (2001). The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1014–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014

Gollwitzer, P. M., &amp; Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69–119). Elsevier Science &amp; Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., &amp; Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Verplanken, B., &amp; Orbell, S. (2003). Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03772-000

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Wood, W., Tam, L., &amp; Witt, M. G. (2005). Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918


}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Behaviour]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Goal striving]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Habit]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Unconscious]]</text>
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      <text bytes="23122" sha1="o5kfu1910c6zf2x02fy7y1964w5nxk8" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Automaticity and goal pursuit:&lt;br&gt;How do habits and environmental cues drive unconscious goal pursuit?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}
[[File:Driver, Driving the open top sports car, Rostov-on-Don, Russia.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Undercover officer in pursuit.]]

;Picture this...

James is undercover. The air is cold, the night is dark and worst of all... he's tired. James was about to make the arrest when the suspect gets jumpy and decides to book it. He wastes no time going after them, lights flaring and sirens wailing as the tyres of his unmarked police car squeal as he takes off in pursuit. James spots his radio out of the corner of his eye. He grabs it, instantly citing the car make, colour, number plate, location and relevant call signs for support all without a second thought. He's gaining on the suspect but they're still out of reach until he watches their car lurch as they hit a catastrophic downshift, costing them seconds. He can smell the clutch. As they approach the highway, the backup James called for arrives blocking the top of the on-ramp. The suspect gives up, exiting the car with their hands held above their head and their eyes aimed at the ground. A successful arrest with no casualties.

As James thinks back on the night with a sense of pride he also finds himself in awe of his performance. He focused solely on maintaining visual of the suspect, but also managed to perform skilled operation of a vehicle, navigation and detailed but brief communication all resulting in incremental advantages lending themselves to the success of the arrest with barely any thought involved. Maybe it was his training? Maybe it was the adrenaline? Regardless of what's true James just can't shake the feeling that everything just felt... automatic. &quot;I'm a machine!&quot; he thinks to himself, in a cool &quot;robocop&quot; kind of way. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Automaticity frees your brain for higher-order thinking, helping you improve your proficiency in goal areas. In fact, many behaviours we perform daily are automatic (see Figure 1). However, it can also drag you down. Many people have behaviours they're unsatisfied with but do anyway, even when it is in conflict with their goals. This is because they have formed habits, and those habits execute themselves automatically in response to stimuli. Understanding how to leverage habit formation is a strong strategy for pursuing goals and making the behaviours that drive them sustainable. Psychological science can help with specific frameworks to engineer the most effective cueing routine to increase the likelihood of taking action toward your goals, hopefully without even thinking about it.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

# How do you develop automatic behaviours?
# What do environmental cues contribute? 
# How can we utilise automaticity in goal pursuit?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Automatic behaviour formation==

Ever think your friend is weird for getting up at 5 am? Or that James, the undercover police officer is incredibly disciplined for going to the gym after work every day? Well, while those tasks might feel foreign to some people, others do them automatically. These behaviours are formed through repetition, and that with enough repetition they eventually become automatic. The individual no longer questions &quot;should I go to the gym after work?&quot;; they just go. The famous [[wikipedia:Classical_conditioning|Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning]] explains how two things, seemingly unrelated to each other can become linked to a particular outcome. Classical conditioning involves taking a neutral stimulus and transforming it within the individual to elicit a conditioned response (Sanvictores, et al. 2024).

* Neutral stimulus elicits no response (e.g. a bell).
* Unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) elicits a direct response known as the unconditioned response (e.g. salivation).
* A conditioned response (e.g. salivating to the bell) happens when the Neutral stimulus creates the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. salivating) 
===Formation factors and dual process===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) stated that through repeating context-dependent responses the behaviour strengthens into a habit. These habits become the default and most efficient way to deal with the situation. They go on to describe two factors of habit automaticity, activation by recurring context clues and insensitivity to short term goals which includes changes in response outcomes. In order for someone to change behaviours sufficient motivation is required to tailor themselves to new circumstances. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) cited dual process theory in their paper as a key theory explaining that habits are the individual engaging in Type 1 thinking. Type 1 thinking being automatic behaviour which is less cognitively demanding while Type 2 thinking is reliant on attention and mental resources to execute. These habits becoming the new default, and incidentally a Type 1 process. This could explain the identified insensitivity to short term goals. Due to the behaviour becoming a Type 1 process it reduces mental friction that would have been incurred by reducing mental resources significantly and making it more favourable in the decision making process. This could become particularly troublesome when dealing with maladaptive behaviours with high levels of automaticity as each repetition against it initially requires attention and planning. 

===Automatic behaviour formation in action===

Lally et al. (2010) ran an experiment investigating habit automaticity through volunteers selecting a habit, and a context (e.g. morning walk after breakfast). They measured this through a self-report habit index (SRHI) analysing a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity (Verplanken &amp; Orbell, 2003). Participants met 95% of their asymptote of automaticity between 18 and 254 days. The variation could be explained by a lack of consistency during the process, especially early on. Lally et al. (2010) stated that missing occasional opportunities to perform an action did not substantially affect behaviour formation, however, significant early disruption could significantly delay achieving high levels of automaticity as the highest yield improvements to automaticity occur early in the process, with subsequent actions providing less and less improvements the closer they get to the limit of automaticity. Other limiting factors could also be task complexity, personal enjoyment, social support/facilitation and how much the individual identifies with the activity they're doing.

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) provide a explanation on the presence of automaticity in behaviours, being refined over time through consistent context-dependent responses while also explaining the challenges in behaviour change by engaging with Dual Process Theory. Lally et al. (2010) expands on this providing real life evidence of behaviour change through investigating repetitive contextual behaviours and monitoring the process of increasing the automaticity of a behaviour. 

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:==== 
* Recognising initial cognitive effort and sufficient motivation are essential for setting expectations. 
* Missing opportunities to perform the behaviour is okay as long as the behaviour is consistent overall. 
* The behaviour formation timeline varies significantly.

==Function of environmental cues==

Environmental cues function similarly to classical conditioning. Environmental cues can be deliberate, such as sitting at a computer in the university library to promote thoughts of study, or inadvert, attempting to drive to the shops and accidentally starting to drive to work (Wood &amp; Neal, 2007). In that situation, the environmental cue would be the using a computer in the library environment or driving the same road you take to work. That behaviour becomes a routine that your brain programs to run automatically. Wood &amp; Neal in 2007 called this the habit-goal interface model. They claim that habits are artifacts of previous goal pursuits and that the success of that particular method is ingrained within the body so it can recall it to repeat that success. Their model had two principles:

* The power of contexts to trigger habitual responding.
* The absence goal mediation in context response associations.

Patterns arise in life, intentional or otherwise. The first principle claims that people store patterns as procedural memory, which, once stored, can be activated by the specific cues associated with that pattern. The second principle claims that goal-oriented behaviours can stick around without thinking about the outcome or if the behaviour is relevant. This is a great insight, as it shows that behaviours can be cognitively offloaded from an internal &quot;willpower&quot; system to an external system. However, it warns against and aims to explain the accidental accumulation of unhelpful behaviours and provide context for their rigidity.  

===Environmental cue evidence===  

Environmental cues can trigger in an unwanted behaviours too. Neal et al. in 2011 ran an experiment where moviegoers with strong popcorn eating habits and weak popcorn eating habits were assessed on their popcorn consumption during a movie and a campus meeting room. They were presented with both fresh and stale popcorn. Interestingly the moviegoers with strong habits would still continue to eat stale popcorn during the movie regardless of the influence of hunger, but were guided by their personal preferences more when in the meeting room resulting in very little stale popcorn being consumed. The change in location disrupted this process from occuring, but their second study revealed an even more interesting discovery. Consuming the popcorn with their non-dominant hand actually also interrupted the automatic behaviour, they did not behave habitually and reduced their consumption of stale popcorn.  

Environmental cues may also reduce neutral or even beneficial habits. Wood et al. (2005) conducted an experiment on university students transferring to a new university. They analysed exercise, TV viewing and reading as well as everyday thoughts and actions via two surveys conducted four weeks apart. They revealed that changes in the context of which the behaviours were performed decreased the likelihood they'd perform the rehearsed behaviour. To preserve these behaviours some participants developed decisions about particular behaviours, which caused them to form or retrieve intentions about those behaviours which guided their actions. They concluded that behaviours were only sustained where the context to perform remained unchanged (e.g. reading the newspaper with others) without intervention from behavioural intention. To maintain a behaviour such as going for a run in the park, if there isn't one in proximity they would need to have the intention to continue running in order to adapt the behaviour to a new context, otherwise the behaviour would become extinct.    

===Environmental cues example===    

Wood and Neal (2007) provides the framework for setting a deliberate behaviour, the context needs to be specific to the behaviour. If James, the undercover officer, plays lots of video games on his home PC and occasionally try to do paperwork, the habit to play video games will be stronger and he will find it more difficult to engage in paperwork. This results in a weak plan to change behaviour as his context is more fluid. Strong context would be going to a local library to perform that specific activity. Doing this reduces the likelihood of the issue Neal et al. (2011) studied where unwanted or unpleasant behaviours occurred because the environment triggered their automatic response. If James' moves house and no longer lives near the library he will run into the issue Wood et al. (2005) discussed where his behaviour of doing paperwork may deminish because the context cue of doing it at the library is gone.  

====Key takeaways for engaging in behaviour change involve:====

* Building patterns with intention creates a relatively effortless process over time.
*Goals-orientated behaviours can persist even once the goal has been achieved, without intentionally wanting to achieve the goal or without the goal being relevant.  
*Behaviours triggered by environmental cues can be negative in the wrong context.  
*Lack of presence in environmental cues can reduce the likelihood those behaviours will be performed or even maintained.

==Pursuing goals with automaticity==
Goal pursuit is always envisioned with a strong conscious effort. Overcoming trials and adversity requires steadfast courage and an unbreakable will. So the idea that it could be an unconscious effort seems to go against everything pursuit would stand for. However, cueing the desired behaviour removes decision-making, which is arguably where most people get stuck. Pursuing goals through automaticity aims to remove decision-making around taking action.

In the overview, James, the undercover police officer had multiple opportunities to freeze or question their actions. Because of training-specific cues, they activated lights and sirens, identified key information about the suspect, and relayed it with the appropriate callsign without hesitation. This lack of decision-making freed up mental capacity to give chase and achieve the goal of a successful arrest. Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) state that habits interface with goal pursuit in three ways: '''Exposure''', '''activation or inhibition''' and '''inference'''.
# '''Exposure''' provides context cues. During training, James, the undercover officer would practise the same behaviours in response to the same stimulus repeatedly. Eventually, the habits become linked to context cues, ready for activation or inhibition.
# '''Activation and inhibition''' allow the cue to activate or inhibit a behaviour immediately. Suspect flees --&gt; Lights and sirens go up --&gt; Radio relevant information. Behavioural activation increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour occurring, often requiring conscious thought to intervene during execution rather than before.
# '''Inference''' is observing your own behaviour and determining whether it aligns with your goals. The James would be guided by their objective to apprehend the suspect safely. Lights and sirens increase safety, radioing important information increases the chance of finding them if they escape, and calling for backup increases the odds of making an arrest. James might associate that doing all of the above makes him a good police officer because those are things a good officer would do, which is in line with his goal of being a good officer.
Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) conducted a meta-analysis to understand the effectiveness of pursuing goals with automaticity and what aids in the process. Literature they looked at previously suggested that the strength of intention was a defining factor, however, the reason for their meta-analysis was what conflicting literature said about intention. Intention was deemed insufficient by other researchers, resulting in them using the quote &quot;the road to hell is paved with good intentions&quot;. They found that independant tests showed that implementation intentions (a plan of the when, where and how) produced a medium-to-large positive effect on goal attainment. 

===Pursuing goals in context===

Wood &amp; Rünger (2016) sets up the a way to engage with Gollwitzer and Sheeran's (2006) findings in order to construct a plan to maximise success. First determine a goal, this information should aim to pair with the ideal '''inference''' about the behaviour. Next is the '''activation and inhibition''' stage, create the implementation intentions of when and where specific behaviours should occur or not occur. Finally plan out the '''exposure''' stage, this introduces the how. Here cues need to be selected to trigger the activation or inhibition of a specific behaviour in context. 

James would set a goal to be a good officer. Then determine that lights, sirens, communication and attention to detail are valuable actions he wants to perform. Then would plan for the context cue to be the suspect fleeing. This way when James starts pursuing a fleeing suspect, once rehearsed, these behaviours will activate automatically.&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Behaving in the best interest of your goal is ______:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Inference
- Activation
- Inhibition
- Exposure

{Activation and inhibition allow _________:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- You to turn a behaviour on or off at your own command.
+ Environmental cues to activate a learned behaviour.
- Priming of the brain to consider action
- Environmental cues to be maintained in the brain.
&lt;/quiz&gt;
===Subconscious pursuit===

Autonomous means something is automatic, but the discussion so far has been exclusively on controlling this automatic process which by extension starts to sound manual. However, subconscious pursuit of goals is a very real topic, lying below all assumed control listed above and otherwise. Goals do not require a conscous choice, the environment and those around can cue specific goals to be pursued. Bargh et al. (2001) conducted a series of five experiments testing whether or not they could subconsciously influence peoples goals in particular tasks. They conducted a series of priming effects over each experiment designed to subconsciously plant goals (e.g. a crossword with motivational words vs a crossword with random unrelated words). They found across each experiment that subconscious goal pursuit meaningfully influenced performance when completing the tasks laid out before them. However they also established that subconscious pursuit did not require a specific conscious goal beforehand to be performed. Task 2, a resource allocation task, was left open for interpretation for the treatment group and still produced meaningful positive change in the outcome.

Subconscious pursuit might be hard to manipulate for the sake of improving goal pursuit, it can activate goals outside of conscious choice and may influence the execution of related behaviours in context to the task. This suggests subconscious goals still, while not an entire alternative, still have a degree of strength and that conscious thinking does not paint the full picture.

==Conclusion==
Utilising current theory it is possible to manufacture meaningful and viable ways to achieve goals through environmental cueing. Practical use has been discussed extensively during this book chapter providing insight into the processes we can engage in to improve our own goal seeking behaviour through context specific cueing. It is important to also be flexible with the expectations of using automaticity through environmental cues to improve goal pursuit as it can take anywhere from 18-254 days to properly form the desired automatic behaviours. One significant benefit users can hope to see is a reduction in cognitive load over time which is encouraging because it tells the user that their initial struggle to perform the task will lessen which should reinforce the behaviour. It is also important to consider when behaviours might be cued negatively (e.g. Neal and colleagues stale popcorn experiment in 2011) to avoid unwanted behavioural cuing. Loss of behavioural cues can cause behavioural decay which be used positively to remove unwanted behaviours but is important to consider when you're trying to maintain specific behaviours under environmental change. Wood et al.'s (2016) model of exposure, activation and inhibition, and inference is a significant model that represents the ways in which habits interact with goal pursuit. These provide multiple avenues for individuals to try to prompt themselves to produce the best results they can when pursuing a goal. And to wrap up, not every goal is conscious. Some goals simply exist below the surface and automatically improve the tasks we engage in or inform us to behave in a way we are not consciously aware of.

==See also==
Clumsy effort to effortless action - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiBn0tbzHRM YouTube]

Wendy Wood's publication page - [https://dornsife.usc.edu/wendy-wood/publication/ External Website]

How habits guide behaviour with Wendy Wood - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWiDYOjgEFI YouTube]

Implementation intentions - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbGjJpkIsWM YouTube]

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=


Bargh, J. A., Gollwitzer, P. M., Lee-Chai, A., Barndollar, K., &amp; Trötschel, R. (2001). The Automated Will: Nonconscious Activation and Pursuit of Behavioral Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1014–1027. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1014

Gollwitzer, P. M., &amp; Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 38, pp. 69–119). Elsevier Science &amp; Technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1

Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., &amp; Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674

Sanvictores, T., Mahabadi, N., &amp; Rehman, C. I. (2024). Classical conditioning. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470326/

Verplanken, B., &amp; Orbell, S. (2003). Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t03772-000

Wood, W., &amp; Neal, D. T. (2007). A New Look at Habits and the Habit-Goal Interface. Psychological Review, 114(4), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.114.4.843

Wood, W., &amp; Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit. Annual Review of Psychology, 67(1), 289–314. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417

Wood, W., Tam, L., &amp; Witt, M. G. (2005). Changing Circumstances, Disrupting Habits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(6), 918–933. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.918


}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
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      <text bytes="34979" sha1="lsu630sehj8h3huvv5r6gm0f26q3ehb" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dreams and emotional problem-solving:&lt;br&gt;How do REM dreams contribute to emotional processing and adaptive coping?}}
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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are a common part of the human experience, often reflecting everyday life in strange and unexpected ways. Research suggests that [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] may support the processing of emotional experiences (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). REM sleep is also when the most vivid and emotional dreams occur (Barber et al., 2026). This raises an important question: is it the sleeping brain that does this emotional work, or do dreams themselves play a part? Some researchers propose that dreaming actively contributes to this process, whereas others argue that dreams simply reflect changes already occurring during sleep (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007; Domhoff, 2019). 

This question has practical implications for how people [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|cope]] while awake: a dream that actively changes emotion may offer a target for intervention, whereas a dream that mirrors waking concerns can provide valuable insight into how someone is already coping  (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). Psychological research can test these possibilities, from studies that track dreams to experiments that change them. This chapter focuses on emotional dreams in adults rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
* Natalie's dream keeps coming back with its emotional charge intact, which is what REM sleep is supposed to prevent. Explaining why means separating two things that are easily confused: what REM sleep does to an emotional memory, and what the dream does. Most evidence addresses REM sleep, so this section covers that briefly and then asks what is known about dreaming itself. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that REM sleep helps preserve [[w:Emotion and memory|emotional memories]] while reducing the distress they trigger (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, emotional memories are thought to be reactivated when levels of [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|norepinephrine]], a chemical involved in the stress response, is low. The model therefore predicts weaker brain and body reactions after sleep. Some research supports this prediction. In a study of 34 adults, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a brain region involved in emotional responses, decreased after sleep and increased after an equivalent period awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the relationship with REM brain activity was based on only 18 sleepers, and norepinephrine was not measured directly. The results suggest that sleep may change emotional brain responses, but do not confirm the proposed mechanism.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found that sleep did not reliably reduce physiological responses to negative images, while participants rated the images as more arousing after sleep (Lipinska et al., 2022). Although these measures differ from the brain activity examined by van der Helm et al. (2011), they challenge the prediction that sleep consistently reduces emotional reactivity. REM sleep is also difficult to study independently because experiments that interrupt it disturb other sleep stages (Pesonen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep was preserved in the few cases where it was measured (Solms, 2000). Understanding the contribution of dreams therefore requires examining dream experiences directly. Some studies have found relationships between dream emotion and overnight emotional changes. In one REM-deprivation study, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found images less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep was thus linked to intensity and the dream to unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. Similarly, another study found reduced emotional reactivity only among participants who recalled dreaming (Zhang et al., 2024). 

Nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]] and could run backwards. Someone already coping well might have calmer dreams and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is where [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories of dreaming]] divide.

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
*Each theory below can be separated in two ways: the first is the general shape of the dream, as the theories disagree about what a useful dream should look like on the inside, and the second is the next morning, because a dream that did emotional work overnight should leave a trace in waking life.
*Three of the four theories below claim the dream does something while one claims it does not, and that is the position the other three have to beat. Two of the three also predict the same next morning, so four theories make three testable predictions (see Table 1). This matters later, because one result about next-day mood can point towards two theories at once. 
*[[w:Nightmare|Nightmares]] are clearest way to test each theory, because the same dream counts as either the system working for one and failing for another.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Competing theoretical accounts of the emotional function of dreaming and their predictions''
|-
! Theory !! What the dream does to the feeling !! Next-day mood after a distressing dream !! What a nightmare is 
|-
| '''Continuity''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Threat simulation''' || Practises with it || No better or possibly worse, the payoff is preparedness || The system working as designed
|-
| '''Fear extinction''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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Peltz, J., Rogge, R. D., &amp; Zeitzer, J. M. (2026). The transactional role of rapid eye movement sleep in undergraduates' day-to-day positive and negative mood. ''Journal of Sleep Research'', e70373. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70373 

Perogamvros, L., Rochas, V., Beau, J. B., Sterpenich, V., &amp; Bayer, L. (2025). The cathartic dream: Using a large language model to study a new type of functional dream in healthy and clinical populations. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 34''(6), e70001. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70001

Pesonen, A.-K., Koskinen, M.-K., Vuorenhela, N., Halonen, R., Mäkituuri, S., Selin, M., Luokkala, S., Suutari, A., &amp; Hovatta, I. (2024). The effect of REM-sleep disruption on affective processing: A systematic review of human and animal experimental studies. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 162'', 105714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105714

Revonsuo, A. (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 877–901. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00004015

Rousseau, A., &amp; Belleville, G. (2018). The mechanisms of action underlying the efficacy of psychological nightmare treatments: A systematic review and thematic analysis of discussed hypotheses. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 39'', 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2017.08.004

Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., Gorgoni, M., &amp; De Gennaro, L. (2022). What about dreams? State of the art and open questions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 31''(4), e13609. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13609

Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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      <text bytes="35011" sha1="4ytmhidapnmhkxzr59wb7mb09u0rju4" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dreams and emotional problem-solving:&lt;br&gt;How do REM dreams contribute to emotional processing and adaptive coping?}}
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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain emotion (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
* Natalie's dream keeps coming back with its emotional charge intact, which is what REM sleep is supposed to prevent. Explaining why means separating two things that are easily confused: what REM sleep does to an emotional memory, and what the dream does. Most evidence addresses REM sleep, so this section covers that briefly and then asks what is known about dreaming itself. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that REM sleep helps preserve [[w:Emotion and memory|emotional memories]] while reducing the distress they trigger (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, emotional memories are thought to be reactivated when levels of [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|norepinephrine]], a chemical involved in the stress response, is low. The model therefore predicts weaker brain and body reactions after sleep. Some research supports this prediction. In a study of 34 adults, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a brain region involved in emotional responses, decreased after sleep and increased after an equivalent period awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the relationship with REM brain activity was based on only 18 sleepers, and norepinephrine was not measured directly. The results suggest that sleep may change emotional brain responses, but do not confirm the proposed mechanism.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found that sleep did not reliably reduce physiological responses to negative images, while participants rated the images as more arousing after sleep (Lipinska et al., 2022). Although these measures differ from the brain activity examined by van der Helm et al. (2011), they challenge the prediction that sleep consistently reduces emotional reactivity. REM sleep is also difficult to study independently because experiments that interrupt it disturb other sleep stages (Pesonen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep was preserved in the few cases where it was measured (Solms, 2000). Understanding the contribution of dreams therefore requires examining dream experiences directly. Some studies have found relationships between dream emotion and overnight emotional changes. In one REM-deprivation study, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found images less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep was thus linked to intensity and the dream to unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. Similarly, another study found reduced emotional reactivity only among participants who recalled dreaming (Zhang et al., 2024). 

Nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]] and could run backwards. Someone already coping well might have calmer dreams and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is where [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories of dreaming]] divide.

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
*Each theory below can be separated in two ways: the first is the general shape of the dream, as the theories disagree about what a useful dream should look like on the inside, and the second is the next morning, because a dream that did emotional work overnight should leave a trace in waking life.
*Three of the four theories below claim the dream does something while one claims it does not, and that is the position the other three have to beat. Two of the three also predict the same next morning, so four theories make three testable predictions (see Table 1). This matters later, because one result about next-day mood can point towards two theories at once. 
*[[w:Nightmare|Nightmares]] are clearest way to test each theory, because the same dream counts as either the system working for one and failing for another.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Competing theoretical accounts of the emotional function of dreaming and their predictions''
|-
! Theory !! What the dream does to the feeling !! Next-day mood after a distressing dream !! What a nightmare is 
|-
| '''Continuity''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Threat simulation''' || Practises with it || No better or possibly worse, the payoff is preparedness || The system working as designed
|-
| '''Fear extinction''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

Cartwright, R., Luten, A., Young, M., Mercer, P., &amp; Bears, M. (1998). Role of REM sleep and dream affect in overnight mood regulation: A study of normal volunteers. ''Psychiatry Research, 81''(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00089-4

Casement, M. D., &amp; Swanson, L. M. (2012). A meta-analysis of imagery rehearsal for post-trauma nightmares: Effects on nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and posttraumatic stress. ''Clinical Psychology Review, 32''(6), 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.002

Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

Delorme, M.-A., Lortie-Lussier, M., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2002). Stress and coping in the waking and dreaming states during an examination period. ''Dreaming, 1''2(4), 171–183.  https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021128326940 

Desjardins, S., &amp; Zadra, A. (2006). Is the threat simulation theory threatened by recurrent dreams? ''Consciousness and Cognition, 15''(2), 470–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2006.04.005

Domhoff, G. W. (2017). The invasion of the concept snatchers: The origins, distortions, and future of the continuity hypothesis. ''Dreaming, 27''(1), 14–39. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000047

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
* Natalie's dream keeps coming back with its emotional charge intact, which is what REM sleep is supposed to prevent. Explaining why means separating two things that are easily confused: what REM sleep does to an emotional memory, and what the dream does. Most evidence addresses REM sleep, so this section covers that briefly and then asks what is known about dreaming itself. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that REM sleep helps preserve [[w:Emotion and memory|emotional memories]] while reducing the distress they trigger (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, emotional memories are thought to be reactivated when levels of [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|norepinephrine]], a chemical involved in the stress response, is low. The model therefore predicts weaker brain and body reactions after sleep. Some research supports this prediction. In a study of 34 adults, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a brain region involved in emotional responses, decreased after sleep and increased after an equivalent period awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the relationship with REM brain activity was based on only 18 sleepers, and norepinephrine was not measured directly. The results suggest that sleep may change emotional brain responses, but do not confirm the proposed mechanism.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found that sleep did not reliably reduce physiological responses to negative images, while participants rated the images as more arousing after sleep (Lipinska et al., 2022). Although these measures differ from the brain activity examined by van der Helm et al. (2011), they challenge the prediction that sleep consistently reduces emotional reactivity. REM sleep is also difficult to study independently because experiments that interrupt it disturb other sleep stages (Pesonen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep was preserved in the few cases where it was measured (Solms, 2000). Understanding the contribution of dreams therefore requires examining dream experiences directly. Some studies have found relationships between dream emotion and overnight emotional changes. In one REM-deprivation study, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found images less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep was thus linked to intensity and the dream to unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. Similarly, another study found reduced emotional reactivity only among participants who recalled dreaming (Zhang et al., 2024). 

Nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]] and could run backwards. Someone already coping well might have calmer dreams and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is where [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories of dreaming]] divide.

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
*Each theory below can be separated in two ways: the first is the general shape of the dream, as the theories disagree about what a useful dream should look like on the inside, and the second is the next morning, because a dream that did emotional work overnight should leave a trace in waking life.
*Three of the four theories below claim the dream does something while one claims it does not, and that is the position the other three have to beat. Two of the three also predict the same next morning, so four theories make three testable predictions (see Table 1). This matters later, because one result about next-day mood can point towards two theories at once. 
*[[w:Nightmare|Nightmares]] are clearest way to test each theory, because the same dream counts as either the system working for one and failing for another.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Competing theoretical accounts of the emotional function of dreaming and their predictions''
|-
! Theory !! What the dream does to the feeling !! Next-day mood after a distressing dream !! What a nightmare is 
|-
| '''Continuity''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Threat simulation''' || Practises with it || No better or possibly worse, the payoff is preparedness || The system working as designed
|-
| '''Fear extinction''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

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Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

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Domhoff, G. W. (2017). The invasion of the concept snatchers: The origins, distortions, and future of the continuity hypothesis. ''Dreaming, 27''(1), 14–39. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000047

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Germain, A., Shear, M. K., Walsh, C., Buysse, D. J., Monk, T. H., Reynolds, C. F., III, Frank, E., &amp; Silowash, R. (2013). Dream content in complicated grief: A window into loss-related cognitive schemas. ''Death Studies, 37''(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2011.641138 

Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. ''Psychological Inquiry, 26''(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781

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Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

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Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

Lipinska, G., Austin, H., Moonsamy, J. R., Henry, M., Lewis, R., Baldwin, D. S., Thomas, K. G. F., &amp; Stuart, B. (2022). Preferential consolidation of emotional reactivity during sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 976047. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.976047

Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

Morgenthaler, T. I., Auerbach, S., Casey, K. R., Kristo, D., Maganti, R., Ramar, K., Zak, R., &amp; Kartje, R. (2018). Position paper for the treatment of nightmare disorder in adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position paper. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14''(6), 1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7178

Nielsen, T., &amp; Levin, R. (2007). Nightmares: A new neurocognitive model. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 11''(4), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2007.03.004

Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

Palmieri, J., Elce, V., &amp; Schönauer, M. (2025). Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams. ''Neuropsychologia, 218''(1), 109248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109248 

Peltz, J., Rogge, R. D., &amp; Zeitzer, J. M. (2026). The transactional role of rapid eye movement sleep in undergraduates' day-to-day positive and negative mood. ''Journal of Sleep Research'', e70373. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70373 

Perogamvros, L., Rochas, V., Beau, J. B., Sterpenich, V., &amp; Bayer, L. (2025). The cathartic dream: Using a large language model to study a new type of functional dream in healthy and clinical populations. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 34''(6), e70001. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70001

Pesonen, A.-K., Koskinen, M.-K., Vuorenhela, N., Halonen, R., Mäkituuri, S., Selin, M., Luokkala, S., Suutari, A., &amp; Hovatta, I. (2024). The effect of REM-sleep disruption on affective processing: A systematic review of human and animal experimental studies. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 162'', 105714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105714

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Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

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Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that REM sleep helps preserve [[w:Emotion and memory|emotional memories]] while reducing the distress they trigger (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, emotional memories are thought to be reactivated when levels of [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|norepinephrine]], a chemical involved in the stress response, is low. The model therefore predicts weaker brain and body reactions after sleep. Some research supports this prediction. In a study of 34 adults, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a brain region involved in emotional responses, decreased after sleep and increased after an equivalent period awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the relationship with REM brain activity was based on only 18 sleepers, and norepinephrine was not measured directly. The results suggest that sleep may change emotional brain responses, but do not confirm the proposed mechanism.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found that sleep did not reliably reduce physiological responses to negative images, while participants rated the images as more arousing after sleep (Lipinska et al., 2022). Although these measures differ from the brain activity examined by van der Helm et al. (2011), they challenge the prediction that sleep consistently reduces emotional reactivity. REM sleep is also difficult to study independently because experiments that interrupt it disturb other sleep stages (Pesonen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep was preserved in the few cases where it was measured (Solms, 2000). Understanding the contribution of dreams therefore requires examining dream experiences directly. Some studies have found relationships between dream emotion and overnight emotional changes. In one REM-deprivation study, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found images less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep was thus linked to intensity and the dream to unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. Similarly, another study found reduced emotional reactivity only among participants who recalled dreaming (Zhang et al., 2024). 

Nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]] and could run backwards. Someone already coping well might have calmer dreams and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is where [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories of dreaming]] divide.

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
*Each theory below can be separated in two ways: the first is the general shape of the dream, as the theories disagree about what a useful dream should look like on the inside, and the second is the next morning, because a dream that did emotional work overnight should leave a trace in waking life.
*Three of the four theories below claim the dream does something while one claims it does not, and that is the position the other three have to beat. Two of the three also predict the same next morning, so four theories make three testable predictions (see Table 1). This matters later, because one result about next-day mood can point towards two theories at once. 
*[[w:Nightmare|Nightmares]] are clearest way to test each theory, because the same dream counts as either the system working for one and failing for another.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Competing theoretical accounts of the emotional function of dreaming and their predictions''
|-
! Theory !! What the dream does to the feeling !! Next-day mood after a distressing dream !! What a nightmare is 
|-
| '''Continuity''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Threat simulation''' || Practises with it || No better or possibly worse, the payoff is preparedness || The system working as designed
|-
| '''Fear extinction''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Dreams]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Emotion]]</text>
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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep was preserved in the few cases where it was measured (Solms, 2000). Understanding the contribution of dreams therefore requires examining dream experiences directly. Some studies have found relationships between dream emotion and overnight emotional changes. In one REM-deprivation study, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found images less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep was thus linked to intensity and the dream to unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. Similarly, another study found reduced emotional reactivity only among participants who recalled dreaming (Zhang et al., 2024). 

Nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]] and could run backwards. Someone already coping well might have calmer dreams and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is where [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories of dreaming]] divide.

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
*Each theory below can be separated in two ways: the first is the general shape of the dream, as the theories disagree about what a useful dream should look like on the inside, and the second is the next morning, because a dream that did emotional work overnight should leave a trace in waking life.
*Three of the four theories below claim the dream does something while one claims it does not, and that is the position the other three have to beat. Two of the three also predict the same next morning, so four theories make three testable predictions (see Table 1). This matters later, because one result about next-day mood can point towards two theories at once. 
*[[w:Nightmare|Nightmares]] are clearest way to test each theory, because the same dream counts as either the system working for one and failing for another.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Competing theoretical accounts of the emotional function of dreaming and their predictions''
|-
! Theory !! What the dream does to the feeling !! Next-day mood after a distressing dream !! What a nightmare is 
|-
| '''Continuity''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Threat simulation''' || Practises with it || No better or possibly worse, the payoff is preparedness || The system working as designed
|-
| '''Fear extinction''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
*Each theory below can be separated in two ways: the first is the general shape of the dream, as the theories disagree about what a useful dream should look like on the inside, and the second is the next morning, because a dream that did emotional work overnight should leave a trace in waking life.
*Three of the four theories below claim the dream does something while one claims it does not, and that is the position the other three have to beat. Two of the three also predict the same next morning, so four theories make three testable predictions (see Table 1). This matters later, because one result about next-day mood can point towards two theories at once. 
*[[w:Nightmare|Nightmares]] are clearest way to test each theory, because the same dream counts as either the system working for one and failing for another.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Competing theoretical accounts of the emotional function of dreaming and their predictions''
|-
! Theory !! What the dream does to the feeling !! Next-day mood after a distressing dream !! What a nightmare is 
|-
| '''Continuity''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Threat simulation''' || Practises with it || No better or possibly worse, the payoff is preparedness || The system working as designed
|-
| '''Fear extinction''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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      <text bytes="35438" sha1="iigb80hyevc2y76wdwewwwpjn9xf6bp" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dreams and emotional problem-solving:&lt;br&gt;How do REM dreams contribute to emotional processing and adaptive coping?}}
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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
*Each theory below can be separated in two ways: the first is the general shape of the dream, as the theories disagree about what a useful dream should look like on the inside, and the second is the next morning, because a dream that did emotional work overnight should leave a trace in waking life.
*Three of the four theories below claim the dream does something while one claims it does not, and that is the position the other three have to beat. Two of the three also predict the same next morning, so four theories make three testable predictions (see Table 1). This matters later, because one result about next-day mood can point towards two theories at once. 
*[[w:Nightmare|Nightmares]] are clearest way to test each theory, because the same dream counts as either the system working for one and failing for another.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Competing theoretical accounts of the emotional function of dreaming and their predictions''
|-
! Theory !! What the dream does to the feeling !! Next-day mood after a distressing dream !! What a nightmare is 
|-
| '''Continuity''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Threat simulation''' || Practises with it || No better or possibly worse, the payoff is preparedness || The system working as designed
|-
| '''Fear extinction''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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Nielsen, T., &amp; Levin, R. (2007). Nightmares: A new neurocognitive model. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 11''(4), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2007.03.004

Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

Palmieri, J., Elce, V., &amp; Schönauer, M. (2025). Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams. ''Neuropsychologia, 218''(1), 109248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109248 

Peltz, J., Rogge, R. D., &amp; Zeitzer, J. M. (2026). The transactional role of rapid eye movement sleep in undergraduates' day-to-day positive and negative mood. ''Journal of Sleep Research'', e70373. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70373 

Perogamvros, L., Rochas, V., Beau, J. B., Sterpenich, V., &amp; Bayer, L. (2025). The cathartic dream: Using a large language model to study a new type of functional dream in healthy and clinical populations. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 34''(6), e70001. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70001

Pesonen, A.-K., Koskinen, M.-K., Vuorenhela, N., Halonen, R., Mäkituuri, S., Selin, M., Luokkala, S., Suutari, A., &amp; Hovatta, I. (2024). The effect of REM-sleep disruption on affective processing: A systematic review of human and animal experimental studies. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 162'', 105714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105714

Revonsuo, A. (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 877–901. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00004015

Rousseau, A., &amp; Belleville, G. (2018). The mechanisms of action underlying the efficacy of psychological nightmare treatments: A systematic review and thematic analysis of discussed hypotheses. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 39'', 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2017.08.004

Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., Gorgoni, M., &amp; De Gennaro, L. (2022). What about dreams? State of the art and open questions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 31''(4), e13609. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13609

Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
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&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
*Each theory below can be separated in two ways: the first is the general shape of the dream, as the theories disagree about what a useful dream should look like on the inside, and the second is the next morning, because a dream that did emotional work overnight should leave a trace in waking life.
*Three of the four theories below claim the dream does something while one claims it does not, and that is the position the other three have to beat. Two of the three also predict the same next morning, so four theories make three testable predictions (see Table 1). This matters later, because one result about next-day mood can point towards two theories at once. 
*[[w:Nightmare|Nightmares]] are clearest way to test each theory, because the same dream counts as either the system working for one and failing for another.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Competing theoretical accounts of the emotional function of dreaming and their predictions''
|-
! Theory !! What the dream does to the feeling !! Next-day mood after a distressing dream !! What a nightmare is 
|-
| '''Continuity''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Threat simulation''' || Practises with it || No better or possibly worse, the payoff is preparedness || The system working as designed
|-
| '''Fear extinction''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

Cartwright, R., Luten, A., Young, M., Mercer, P., &amp; Bears, M. (1998). Role of REM sleep and dream affect in overnight mood regulation: A study of normal volunteers. ''Psychiatry Research, 81''(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00089-4

Casement, M. D., &amp; Swanson, L. M. (2012). A meta-analysis of imagery rehearsal for post-trauma nightmares: Effects on nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and posttraumatic stress. ''Clinical Psychology Review, 32''(6), 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.002

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Morgenthaler, T. I., Auerbach, S., Casey, K. R., Kristo, D., Maganti, R., Ramar, K., Zak, R., &amp; Kartje, R. (2018). Position paper for the treatment of nightmare disorder in adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position paper. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14''(6), 1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7178

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
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&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
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== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
*Each theory below can be separated in two ways: the first is the general shape of the dream, as the theories disagree about what a useful dream should look like on the inside, and the second is the next morning, because a dream that did emotional work overnight should leave a trace in waking life.
*Three of the four theories below claim the dream does something while one claims it does not, and that is the position the other three have to beat. Two of the three also predict the same next morning, so four theories make three testable predictions (see Table 1). This matters later, because one result about next-day mood can point towards two theories at once. 
*[[w:Nightmare|Nightmares]] are clearest way to test each theory, because the same dream counts as either the system working for one and failing for another.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Competing theoretical accounts of the emotional function of dreaming and their predictions''
|-
! Theory !! What the dream does to the feeling !! Next-day mood after a distressing dream !! What a nightmare is 
|-
| '''Continuity''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Threat simulation''' || Practises with it || No better or possibly worse, the payoff is preparedness || The system working as designed
|-
| '''Fear extinction''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

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Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
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{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
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== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more 
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version 
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
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&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Nothing, it expresses the feeling || Unchanged, the dream mirrors mood without moving it || A marker of distress, and nothing more ||
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Rebuilds around it || Better if extinction succeeds, unchanged or worse if it fails, which makes the prediction hard to falsify || The replay failing to build a safe version ||
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Drains it || Better: less negative mood, weaker reactivity, easier regulation || Regulation failing to complete ||
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===

* Dreams express a person's ongoing concerns and leave them exactly as they found them, so the dream is meaningful but it is simply not doing anything (Domhoff, 2017). 
* This is the baseline the other theories have to beat, because showing that a dream is meaningful does not automatically prove that it has a function (Domhoff, 2019).
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day. Schredl (2017) replies that this reading is selective, and that day-to-day material appears in dreams more often than Domhoff allows. 
* The theory makes its own prediction: dream emotion should rise and fall with waking distress without ever predicting improvement in it. For Natalie, that means that the dream keeps returning and her mood keeps tracking it, with the dream itself contributing nothing either way. 

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
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&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction model ===

* The third theory says that the dream takes a frightening memory and replays it somewhere safe. This does not erase the fear: [[w:Extinction (psychology)|extinction]] builds a competing memory alongside it, which is why the fear returns if the safe memory is not maintained. A nightmare is the process failing: the replay stays frightening and no safe version gets built (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007).
* This model has a clinical test case to point to, since disrupted REM sleep and impaired extinction memory have been proposed to maintain [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Post-traumatic stress disorder and emotion|post-traumatic stress disorder]] (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).
* It also has some direct support: cathartic dreams, which move from danger to relief, were less common in patients with nightmare disorder than in healthy sleepers, and were the only kind of dream whose increase tracked falling depression scores during therapy (Perogamvros et al., 2025). The samples were small, so this points in the right direction without settling anything. 
* Its weakness is logical: a good dream and a nightmare are attributed to the same process, with success and failure identified afterwards by the very result they were meant to explain. As stated, no next-morning finding can count against the theory. It also has nothing to say about the roughly one third of dreams that are positive (Weiss, 2007). The theory only becomes testable once a successful dream can be recognised from its content in advance, which is what the cathartic dreams category is trying to do. 
* On this account Natalie's dream is a replay that never reaches safety. 

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

Cartwright, R., Luten, A., Young, M., Mercer, P., &amp; Bears, M. (1998). Role of REM sleep and dream affect in overnight mood regulation: A study of normal volunteers. ''Psychiatry Research, 81''(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00089-4

Casement, M. D., &amp; Swanson, L. M. (2012). A meta-analysis of imagery rehearsal for post-trauma nightmares: Effects on nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and posttraumatic stress. ''Clinical Psychology Review, 32''(6), 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.002

Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

Delorme, M.-A., Lortie-Lussier, M., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2002). Stress and coping in the waking and dreaming states during an examination period. ''Dreaming, 1''2(4), 171–183.  https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021128326940 

Desjardins, S., &amp; Zadra, A. (2006). Is the threat simulation theory threatened by recurrent dreams? ''Consciousness and Cognition, 15''(2), 470–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2006.04.005

Domhoff, G. W. (2017). The invasion of the concept snatchers: The origins, distortions, and future of the continuity hypothesis. ''Dreaming, 27''(1), 14–39. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000047

Domhoff, G. W. (2019). The neurocognitive theory of dreams at age 20: An assessment and a comparison with four other theories of dreaming. ''Dreaming, 29''(4), 265–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000119

Folkman, S., &amp; Moskowitz, J. T. (2004). Coping: Pitfalls and promise. ''Annual Review of Psychology, 55''(1), 745–774. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141456

Germain, A., Shear, M. K., Walsh, C., Buysse, D. J., Monk, T. H., Reynolds, C. F., III, Frank, E., &amp; Silowash, R. (2013). Dream content in complicated grief: A window into loss-related cognitive schemas. ''Death Studies, 37''(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2011.641138 

Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. ''Psychological Inquiry, 26''(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781

Haar Horowitz, A., Cunningham, T. J., Maes, P., &amp; Stickgold, R. (2020). Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device. ''Consciousness and Cognition, 83'', 102938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102938

Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

Kempe, S., Köpp, W., &amp; Wittmann, L. (2024). Personality functioning improvement during psychotherapy is associated with an enhanced capacity for affect regulation in dreams: A preliminary study. ''Brain Sciences, 14''(5), 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050489

Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

Lipinska, G., Austin, H., Moonsamy, J. R., Henry, M., Lewis, R., Baldwin, D. S., Thomas, K. G. F., &amp; Stuart, B. (2022). Preferential consolidation of emotional reactivity during sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 976047. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.976047

Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

Morgenthaler, T. I., Auerbach, S., Casey, K. R., Kristo, D., Maganti, R., Ramar, K., Zak, R., &amp; Kartje, R. (2018). Position paper for the treatment of nightmare disorder in adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position paper. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14''(6), 1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7178

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
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&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
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== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===

* Dream emotion is proposed to shift from negative toward positive across the night, so the memory arrives in the morning with less charge attached (Cartwright et al., 1998). This is the account closest to the everyday idea that dreams work through problems, and it makes the clearest predictions: after a negative dream, mood should be less negative, reactivity to negative material should be weaker, and emotion regulation should be easier (Sikka et al., 2022). 
* The overnight shift has been tested directly and did not appear. Waking people repeatedly throughout the night, Palmieri et al. (2025) found that emotional intensity in dreams increased as the night went on, and the increase was not driven by REM awakenings. The sample was small, but this does test the core claim instead of using a stand in for it. 
* Two findings do support the theory, and both are correlational. Dreamers who rated their dreams more positively than an independent judge reported better morning mood (Barbeau et al., 2022), and people who reported more fear in dreams showed weaker fear-related brain responses while awake (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Neither design can show which way the arrow points, since someone already coping well might dream more gently than and feel better for the same underlying reason. 
* The theory predicts that Natalie's dream should be losing intensity week by week, which it is not.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

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Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

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Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

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Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

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Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring. 

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

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Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

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Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

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Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
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&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

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Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==
* Coping is what a person does while awake to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). For dreaming to contribute to it, dream emotion has to predict something in that waking process. 
* One objection is that a sleeping person cannot be trying to cope, but emotion regulation doesn't have to be conscious or deliberate to count (Gross, 2015).
* Coping breaks into three increasingly demanding tests: does dream emotion change how a person eels, how well they manage emotion, and whether they adapt to a real stressor? The answer differs for each, which is why this literature looks more contradictory than it is.

===Next-morning mood ===

*One five day study in 40 adults tested all three mood regulation predictions at once. The first result was that more negative dream emotion predicted a more negative morning (Sikka et al., 2022). 
*The largest study agrees: across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were followed by about 7% more negative mood the next morning (Baber et al., 2026).
*But which dream is counted changes the answer. Across up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams were followed by less negative emotion the next day, and so were nightmares, against the authors own prediction. Bad dreams changed nothing, and bad dreams plus nightmares in the same night were followed by more (Tousignant et al., 2022). 
*Dreams high in both fear and joy predicted mornings with no negative mood at all, and more joy in dreams predicted more positive mood (Baber et al., 2026). Roughly a third of dreams are positive (Weiss, 2007), yet a theory about mood improving has mostly been tested by measuring only what makes mood worse. 

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|14}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., Gorgoni, M., &amp; De Gennaro, L. (2022). What about dreams? State of the art and open questions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 31''(4), e13609. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13609

Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. In Natalie's recurring dream, she calls out to someone who never turns around]]

Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, walks toward a lit doorway and wakes feeling better. That day, she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her cope? or was she already coping and the dream simply showed it? 

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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and most REM dreams contain [[w:Emotion|emotion]] (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Sleep is thought to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; for painful memories (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731), but whether dreaming itself contributes to this process remains a subject of intense debate among researchers. Some theorists propose that dreams actively rework emotional memories (Neilson &amp; Levin, 2007), while others argue that they passively reflect waking concerns (Domhoff, 2019).  

Two processes need to be kept apart. &quot;Emotional processing&quot; refers to the overnight change in how strongly a memory is felt, whereas &quot;[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|coping]]&quot; is what people consciously think and do to manage a stressful situation (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). If dreams do emotional work, they could support adaptive coping; if they only reflect it, then waking strategies matter more. This chapter asks whether REM dreams contribute to either by examining the evidence from studies that observe dreams to experiments that change them. The focus for this chapter will be on adults and everyday emotional dreams rather than symbolic interpretation or [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|nightmares]]. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

Cartwright, R., Luten, A., Young, M., Mercer, P., &amp; Bears, M. (1998). Role of REM sleep and dream affect in overnight mood regulation: A study of normal volunteers. ''Psychiatry Research, 81''(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00089-4

Casement, M. D., &amp; Swanson, L. M. (2012). A meta-analysis of imagery rehearsal for post-trauma nightmares: Effects on nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and posttraumatic stress. ''Clinical Psychology Review, 32''(6), 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.002

Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

Delorme, M.-A., Lortie-Lussier, M., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2002). Stress and coping in the waking and dreaming states during an examination period. ''Dreaming, 1''2(4), 171–183.  https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021128326940 

Desjardins, S., &amp; Zadra, A. (2006). Is the threat simulation theory threatened by recurrent dreams? ''Consciousness and Cognition, 15''(2), 470–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2006.04.005

Domhoff, G. W. (2017). The invasion of the concept snatchers: The origins, distortions, and future of the continuity hypothesis. ''Dreaming, 27''(1), 14–39. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000047

Domhoff, G. W. (2019). The neurocognitive theory of dreams at age 20: An assessment and a comparison with four other theories of dreaming. ''Dreaming, 29''(4), 265–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000119

Folkman, S., &amp; Moskowitz, J. T. (2004). Coping: Pitfalls and promise. ''Annual Review of Psychology, 55''(1), 745–774. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141456

Germain, A., Shear, M. K., Walsh, C., Buysse, D. J., Monk, T. H., Reynolds, C. F., III, Frank, E., &amp; Silowash, R. (2013). Dream content in complicated grief: A window into loss-related cognitive schemas. ''Death Studies, 37''(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2011.641138 

Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. ''Psychological Inquiry, 26''(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781

Haar Horowitz, A., Cunningham, T. J., Maes, P., &amp; Stickgold, R. (2020). Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device. ''Consciousness and Cognition, 83'', 102938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102938

Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

Kempe, S., Köpp, W., &amp; Wittmann, L. (2024). Personality functioning improvement during psychotherapy is associated with an enhanced capacity for affect regulation in dreams: A preliminary study. ''Brain Sciences, 14''(5), 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050489

Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

Lipinska, G., Austin, H., Moonsamy, J. R., Henry, M., Lewis, R., Baldwin, D. S., Thomas, K. G. F., &amp; Stuart, B. (2022). Preferential consolidation of emotional reactivity during sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 976047. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.976047

Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

Morgenthaler, T. I., Auerbach, S., Casey, K. R., Kristo, D., Maganti, R., Ramar, K., Zak, R., &amp; Kartje, R. (2018). Position paper for the treatment of nightmare disorder in adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position paper. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14''(6), 1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7178

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Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

Palmieri, J., Elce, V., &amp; Schönauer, M. (2025). Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams. ''Neuropsychologia, 218''(1), 109248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109248 

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Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, whereas dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. &quot;Processing&quot; can also mean two different things: keeping an emotional memory, or weakening the feeling attached to it. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The leading account is the ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model (Walker &amp; van den Helm, 2009). During REM sleep, the brain is thought to reactivate emotional memories while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a stress chemical, is largely absent, so the memory is kept but its emotional charge fades. If the charge remains, the model predicts repeated attempts on later nights, which could explain Natalie's recurring dream. In support, when 34 adults viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, activity in the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2014/Amygdala and emotion|amygdala]], a threat-detecting brain region, fell in those who slept in between and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al., 2011). However, the link to REM sleep rested on 18 sleepers, and noradrenaline was never measured directly.    

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] of 24 studies found that sleep had essentially no effect on physical reactions to negative pictures, which people rated as more arousing after sleep, and obtaining REM sleep made no difference (Lipinska et al., 2022). In one experiment, people who had less REM sleep showed a larger overnight drop in arousal, the opposite of the model's predictions, although only just significantly (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). Additionally, a systematic review of 14 small REM-deprivation studies concluded that the model has not been tested properly in humans, partly because removing REM sleep disturbs every other sleep stage (Personen et al., 2024). Overall, REM sleep may influence emotional processing, but the evidence does not consistently support its proposed ability to reduce distress.
===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
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===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===Separating dreaming from REM sleep  ===

Dreaming is not simply the conscious experience of REM sleep. In 111 published cases where brain damage stopped or nearly stopped dreaming, REM sleep continued wherever it was checked, and drugs acting on [[w:Dopamine|dopamine]] changed dreaming without changing REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Evidence about REM sleep therefore cannot be read as evidence about dreams. 

Studies measuring dreams directly suggest that dream emotion tracks overnight changes. In the REM-deprivation experiment, people whose last dream was less negative, especially less sad, found negative pictures less unpleasant by morning (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009). REM sleep tracked change in arousal, whereas dream emotion tracked change in unpleasantness, so the two may contribute different things. In contrast, among 122 women, only those who recalled a dream both remembered negative pictures better than neutral ones and reacted to them less the next day (J. Zhang et al., 2024), the pattern the sleep model predicts. 

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the theories disagree.    

Neither study shows that the dream did the work. Above all, nobody can be assigned to have a particular dream, so every link here is [[w:correlation does not imply causation|correlational]]: someone already adapting well might both dream more calmly and feel better. Dream emotion therefore tracks overnight change without being shown to drive it, which is a gap that [[#What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|deliberately changing dreams]] tries to address.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{After a night's sleep, does an upsetting emotional memory reliably feel less intense? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Yes, REM sleep reliably reduces its intensity.  
+ No, pooled studies found no reliable reduction in intensity. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

Cartwright, R., Luten, A., Young, M., Mercer, P., &amp; Bears, M. (1998). Role of REM sleep and dream affect in overnight mood regulation: A study of normal volunteers. ''Psychiatry Research, 81''(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00089-4

Casement, M. D., &amp; Swanson, L. M. (2012). A meta-analysis of imagery rehearsal for post-trauma nightmares: Effects on nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and posttraumatic stress. ''Clinical Psychology Review, 32''(6), 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.002

Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

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Haar Horowitz, A., Cunningham, T. J., Maes, P., &amp; Stickgold, R. (2020). Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device. ''Consciousness and Cognition, 83'', 102938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102938

Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

Kempe, S., Köpp, W., &amp; Wittmann, L. (2024). Personality functioning improvement during psychotherapy is associated with an enhanced capacity for affect regulation in dreams: A preliminary study. ''Brain Sciences, 14''(5), 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050489

Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

Lipinska, G., Austin, H., Moonsamy, J. R., Henry, M., Lewis, R., Baldwin, D. S., Thomas, K. G. F., &amp; Stuart, B. (2022). Preferential consolidation of emotional reactivity during sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 976047. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.976047

Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
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&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
The sleep model concerns the sleeping brain while dream theories concern the experience of dreaming. Three accounts agree that waking emotion shapes dream emotion but disagree about what dream emotion does next (Sikka et al., 2022). The continuity hypothesis treats the dream as a simple thermometer for emotion, while fear extinction and mood regulation theories treat it as a heater that changes it. Their different predictions make them testable (see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt; ''Three Theories Of What Dreams Do With Emotion and What Each Predicts''
|-
! Theory !! Proposed mechanism !! What a distressing dream means !! Prediction for the next morning !! If dreams are changed on purpose 
|-
| '''Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017)''' || Dreams simulate waking concerns; emotion is expressed, not processed || A sign of how the person is already coping || Morning mood tracks dream emotion; no link with regulation ||No benefit beyond the waking effort involved
|-
| '''Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)''' || Fear memories meet safe new contexts, slowly building safety memories || Extinction under strain; nightmares signal failure || Little change overnight; less waking fear over weeks ||Safe endings should reduce fear in dreams and while awake
|-
| '''Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)''' || Low mood is worked through across one night's REM dreams || Regulation still in progress || Better mood after dreams shift from negative to positive ||More positive dreams should improve morning mood 
|-
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis 
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory 
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise the dreamer's current concerns. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) generated by the brains [[w:Default mode network|default network]], which also supports daydreaming. Natalie's dream would mirror her breakup without repairing it. Domhoff judges an emotion-regulating function unlikely, partly because at least a quarter of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but absence of a function is hard to demonstrate, and Domhoff is judging his own theory. 
 
* Continuity is often misread as the idea that dreams replay yesterday. Domhoff (2017) argues the opposite: across three studies, independent judges could not match dream reports to the events or concerns participants had reported before sleep, so the dream tracks the person's current preoccupations rather than their day.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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      <text bytes="32666" sha1="5mco9v9vnknbtjl1krg5wayparhbbto" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dreams and emotional problem-solving:&lt;br&gt;How do REM dreams contribute to emotional processing and adaptive coping?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
Fear extinction theory proposes that dreams place fragments of frightening memories in new, safe contexts (Nielsen &amp; Levin, 2007). [[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] does not erase fear but instead gradually builds a competing safety memory over many nights. In the author's example, a dark alley suddenly becomes a brightly lit street, much like Natalie's lit doorway. Bad dreams show the process working under emotional load, whereas nightmares signal that it is failing. It rests on established learning principals, but success and failure are judged by outcome: recovery after a frightening dream shows extinction working and distress shows it failing, so few results could refute it.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

Cartwright, R., Luten, A., Young, M., Mercer, P., &amp; Bears, M. (1998). Role of REM sleep and dream affect in overnight mood regulation: A study of normal volunteers. ''Psychiatry Research, 81''(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00089-4

Casement, M. D., &amp; Swanson, L. M. (2012). A meta-analysis of imagery rehearsal for post-trauma nightmares: Effects on nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and posttraumatic stress. ''Clinical Psychology Review, 32''(6), 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.002

Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

Delorme, M.-A., Lortie-Lussier, M., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2002). Stress and coping in the waking and dreaming states during an examination period. ''Dreaming, 1''2(4), 171–183.  https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021128326940 

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Domhoff, G. W. (2019). The neurocognitive theory of dreams at age 20: An assessment and a comparison with four other theories of dreaming. ''Dreaming, 29''(4), 265–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000119

Folkman, S., &amp; Moskowitz, J. T. (2004). Coping: Pitfalls and promise. ''Annual Review of Psychology, 55''(1), 745–774. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141456

Germain, A., Shear, M. K., Walsh, C., Buysse, D. J., Monk, T. H., Reynolds, C. F., III, Frank, E., &amp; Silowash, R. (2013). Dream content in complicated grief: A window into loss-related cognitive schemas. ''Death Studies, 37''(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2011.641138 

Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. ''Psychological Inquiry, 26''(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781

Haar Horowitz, A., Cunningham, T. J., Maes, P., &amp; Stickgold, R. (2020). Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device. ''Consciousness and Cognition, 83'', 102938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102938

Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

Kempe, S., Köpp, W., &amp; Wittmann, L. (2024). Personality functioning improvement during psychotherapy is associated with an enhanced capacity for affect regulation in dreams: A preliminary study. ''Brain Sciences, 14''(5), 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050489

Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

Lipinska, G., Austin, H., Moonsamy, J. R., Henry, M., Lewis, R., Baldwin, D. S., Thomas, K. G. F., &amp; Stuart, B. (2022). Preferential consolidation of emotional reactivity during sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 976047. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.976047

Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

Morgenthaler, T. I., Auerbach, S., Casey, K. R., Kristo, D., Maganti, R., Ramar, K., Zak, R., &amp; Kartje, R. (2018). Position paper for the treatment of nightmare disorder in adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position paper. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14''(6), 1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7178

Nielsen, T., &amp; Levin, R. (2007). Nightmares: A new neurocognitive model. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 11''(4), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2007.03.004

Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

Palmieri, J., Elce, V., &amp; Schönauer, M. (2025). Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams. ''Neuropsychologia, 218''(1), 109248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109248 

Peltz, J., Rogge, R. D., &amp; Zeitzer, J. M. (2026). The transactional role of rapid eye movement sleep in undergraduates' day-to-day positive and negative mood. ''Journal of Sleep Research'', e70373. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70373 

Perogamvros, L., Rochas, V., Beau, J. B., Sterpenich, V., &amp; Bayer, L. (2025). The cathartic dream: Using a large language model to study a new type of functional dream in healthy and clinical populations. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 34''(6), e70001. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70001

Pesonen, A.-K., Koskinen, M.-K., Vuorenhela, N., Halonen, R., Mäkituuri, S., Selin, M., Luokkala, S., Suutari, A., &amp; Hovatta, I. (2024). The effect of REM-sleep disruption on affective processing: A systematic review of human and animal experimental studies. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 162'', 105714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105714

Revonsuo, A. (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 877–901. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00004015

Rousseau, A., &amp; Belleville, G. (2018). The mechanisms of action underlying the efficacy of psychological nightmare treatments: A systematic review and thematic analysis of discussed hypotheses. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 39'', 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2017.08.004

Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., Gorgoni, M., &amp; De Gennaro, L. (2022). What about dreams? State of the art and open questions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 31''(4), e13609. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13609

Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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      <text bytes="33467" sha1="0cerqsbgwtxfsks6si67k7gyynqj81k" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dreams and emotional problem-solving:&lt;br&gt;How do REM dreams contribute to emotional processing and adaptive coping?}}
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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that dreams work through a low mood within one night, shifting from negative to positive emotion by morning. In its key study, 60 students were woken from each REM period: the lower their mood before sleep, the more negative their first dream (Cartwright et al., 1998). The 10 lowest-mood participants had more negative dreams early and more positive ones later. However, this pattern was described rather than tested statistically, mood also improved on an uninterrupted night, and the authors suggested that reporting dreams might itself have helped. On this theory, Natalie's dream should be easing, not recurring.
{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which theory predicts that a distressing dream's mood simply carries over into the next morning?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Continuity hypothesis 
- Fear extinction theory 
- Mood regulation theory 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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      <text bytes="33660" sha1="mz5egwjbifxuzx727g7k6oqokvz56ws" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dreams and emotional problem-solving:&lt;br&gt;How do REM dreams contribute to emotional processing and adaptive coping?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) note that whether coping is adaptive depends on the situation and its outcome, and that [[w:Emotional self-regulation|emotion regulation]] is broader, including automatic and unconscious processes that do not count as coping. A dream could therefore regulate emotion without being coping, what matters instead is whether its effects reach waking life. Three increasingly demanding tests apply: next-morning mood, emotional reactivity and regulation, and adjustment to a real stressor. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

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{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
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== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation is achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
If dreams regulate mood, a negative dream should be followed by a better morning. Within-subjects, the opposite occurs. Over five mornings, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and then their mood; the more negative a night's dream, the more negative and less positive the morning (Sikka et al., 2022). Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams, as  rated by a language model, were followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Both used home dreams without sleep recording, and dream and mood were reported together, so one lingering feeling may have affected both. 

Other findings conflict. Over up to 21 mornings in 191 adults, ordinary dreams and, unexpectedly, nightmares were followed by decreases in negative emotion, whereas bad dreams plus nightmares on the same night were followed by increases (Tousignant et al., 2022). It analyzed change from the previous morning rather than mood level, and classified dreams by type rather than intensity, so it may capture recovery rather than carry-over. Dreams high in both fear and joy were also followed by 205 higher odds of a morning free of negative mood (Barber et al., 2026). On balance, mornings fit continuity better than mood regulation, but the measure shapes the answer.  

===Emotional reactivity and regulation ===

* Feeling better is not the same as coping better. Coping is about handling what comes next, so the harder test is whether dream emotion predicts how a person responds to something upsetting. 
* Tested directly, it does not. In the same five day study, dream emotion had no link to reactivity to upsetting images or to the ability to calm those reactions down, and Bayesian analysis supported both null results (Sikka et al., 2022).
* This is the strongest single result against the mood regulation account, because it is evidence for no relationship rather than a failure to find one. 
* This appears to flip when people are compared with each other instead of with themselves: those who had more frightening dreams overall regulated emotion better while awake (Baber et al., 2026). 
* These are different questions, since comparing a person with themselves asks whether last nights dream helped, and comparing people asks what sort of person has fearful dreams, so only the first tests the theory. 
* Much of the apparent disagreement in this literature comes from between-person findings being read as answers to a within-person question. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

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Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Real stressors and coping strategies ===

* Coping is defined against a stressor, so the strongest test is where there is a real one. 
* Over five months of REM awakenings in 20 depressed and 10 non-depressed adults going through a divorce, those still depressed at follow-up did dream about their ex partner, but the dreams had no emotion in them and no links to other memories. Those who recovered had emotional dreams about the same person, so it was the emotion in the dream rather than its subject that tracked recovery (Cartwright et al., 2006). 
* The same pattern appears after a death: in 77 adults with complicated grief, dreams contained far less negative emotion than published norms, 21% against 80% of dreams in women (Germain et a;. 2013). 
* The direction therefore reverses at this level. That is not a contradiction of the previous subsection, because both the outcome and the people have changed. Emotion in a dream predicts a worse morning day to day, but tracks the people who are adapting when there is a genuine loss to adapt to. 
* For Natalie, feeling the loss in the dream is a better sign than dreaming about it with no emotion, what is wrong is that the feeling is not fading. 

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the diary studies described above, a more negative dream was typically followed the next morning by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better mood, as mood regulation theory predicts
|| Not quite. This is what the theory predicts, but it is not what was found.
+ Worse mood
|| Correct. Negative dream affect predicted a more negative next-day mood (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026).
- No detectable change in mood
|| Not quite. There was a reliable effect, but it ran in the opposite direction to the theory.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
* The previous section found that dream emotion tarcks how well someone is coping without clear evidence that it drives it, which may be a real limit or only a limit of the method. 
* This section reverse the direction of the measurement, instead of recording a dream and looking forward to the morning, it changes something while the person is awake and then looks back at the dream. That is the only order that can show cause. 

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'''Case study: part 2'''

Six months on, the dream still hasn't stopped. Natalie has started staying up until she's too tired to dream, and she's tired all the time. Her psychologist suggests writing the dream down and changing what happens: this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way. She rehearses the new version of the dream for a few minutes every night. Within weeks the dream starts to come less often, and when it does, it bothers her less.     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet. 

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., Gorgoni, M., &amp; De Gennaro, L. (2022). What about dreams? State of the art and open questions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 31''(4), e13609. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13609

Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped?     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

Cartwright, R., Luten, A., Young, M., Mercer, P., &amp; Bears, M. (1998). Role of REM sleep and dream affect in overnight mood regulation: A study of normal volunteers. ''Psychiatry Research, 81''(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00089-4

Casement, M. D., &amp; Swanson, L. M. (2012). A meta-analysis of imagery rehearsal for post-trauma nightmares: Effects on nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and posttraumatic stress. ''Clinical Psychology Review, 32''(6), 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.002

Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

Delorme, M.-A., Lortie-Lussier, M., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2002). Stress and coping in the waking and dreaming states during an examination period. ''Dreaming, 1''2(4), 171–183.  https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021128326940 

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Domhoff, G. W. (2017). The invasion of the concept snatchers: The origins, distortions, and future of the continuity hypothesis. ''Dreaming, 27''(1), 14–39. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000047

Domhoff, G. W. (2019). The neurocognitive theory of dreams at age 20: An assessment and a comparison with four other theories of dreaming. ''Dreaming, 29''(4), 265–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000119

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Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. ''Psychological Inquiry, 26''(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781

Haar Horowitz, A., Cunningham, T. J., Maes, P., &amp; Stickgold, R. (2020). Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device. ''Consciousness and Cognition, 83'', 102938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102938

Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

Kempe, S., Köpp, W., &amp; Wittmann, L. (2024). Personality functioning improvement during psychotherapy is associated with an enhanced capacity for affect regulation in dreams: A preliminary study. ''Brain Sciences, 14''(5), 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050489

Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

Lipinska, G., Austin, H., Moonsamy, J. R., Henry, M., Lewis, R., Baldwin, D. S., Thomas, K. G. F., &amp; Stuart, B. (2022). Preferential consolidation of emotional reactivity during sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 976047. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.976047

Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

Morgenthaler, T. I., Auerbach, S., Casey, K. R., Kristo, D., Maganti, R., Ramar, K., Zak, R., &amp; Kartje, R. (2018). Position paper for the treatment of nightmare disorder in adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position paper. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14''(6), 1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7178

Nielsen, T., &amp; Levin, R. (2007). Nightmares: A new neurocognitive model. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 11''(4), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2007.03.004

Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

Palmieri, J., Elce, V., &amp; Schönauer, M. (2025). Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams. ''Neuropsychologia, 218''(1), 109248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109248 

Peltz, J., Rogge, R. D., &amp; Zeitzer, J. M. (2026). The transactional role of rapid eye movement sleep in undergraduates' day-to-day positive and negative mood. ''Journal of Sleep Research'', e70373. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70373 

Perogamvros, L., Rochas, V., Beau, J. B., Sterpenich, V., &amp; Bayer, L. (2025). The cathartic dream: Using a large language model to study a new type of functional dream in healthy and clinical populations. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 34''(6), e70001. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70001

Pesonen, A.-K., Koskinen, M.-K., Vuorenhela, N., Halonen, R., Mäkituuri, S., Selin, M., Luokkala, S., Suutari, A., &amp; Hovatta, I. (2024). The effect of REM-sleep disruption on affective processing: A systematic review of human and animal experimental studies. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 162'', 105714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105714

Revonsuo, A. (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 877–901. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00004015

Rousseau, A., &amp; Belleville, G. (2018). The mechanisms of action underlying the efficacy of psychological nightmare treatments: A systematic review and thematic analysis of discussed hypotheses. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 39'', 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2017.08.004

Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., Gorgoni, M., &amp; De Gennaro, L. (2022). What about dreams? State of the art and open questions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 31''(4), e13609. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13609

Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''
[[File:Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis.jpg|Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped?     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

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Germain, A., Shear, M. K., Walsh, C., Buysse, D. J., Monk, T. H., Reynolds, C. F., III, Frank, E., &amp; Silowash, R. (2013). Dream content in complicated grief: A window into loss-related cognitive schemas. ''Death Studies, 37''(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2011.641138 

Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. ''Psychological Inquiry, 26''(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781

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Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

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Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''
[[File:Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis.jpg|Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped?     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
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{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
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== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''
[[File:Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis.jpg|Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis|left|thumb|150px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped?     
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

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Haar Horowitz, A., Cunningham, T. J., Maes, P., &amp; Stickgold, R. (2020). Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device. ''Consciousness and Cognition, 83'', 102938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102938

Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

Kempe, S., Köpp, W., &amp; Wittmann, L. (2024). Personality functioning improvement during psychotherapy is associated with an enhanced capacity for affect regulation in dreams: A preliminary study. ''Brain Sciences, 14''(5), 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050489

Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

Lipinska, G., Austin, H., Moonsamy, J. R., Henry, M., Lewis, R., Baldwin, D. S., Thomas, K. G. F., &amp; Stuart, B. (2022). Preferential consolidation of emotional reactivity during sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 976047. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.976047

Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

Morgenthaler, T. I., Auerbach, S., Casey, K. R., Kristo, D., Maganti, R., Ramar, K., Zak, R., &amp; Kartje, R. (2018). Position paper for the treatment of nightmare disorder in adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position paper. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14''(6), 1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7178

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Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

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'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
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[[File:Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis.jpg|Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis|left|thumb|200px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
{{LeftRightBoxClose}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxLeft|width=70|theme=11}}

'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxRight|width=30|theme=11}}
[[File:Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis.jpg|Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis|left|thumb|150px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
{{LeftRightBoxClose}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

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'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxRight|width=50|theme=11}}
[[File:Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis.jpg|Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis|left|thumb|150px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
{{LeftRightBoxClose}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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Rousseau, A., &amp; Belleville, G. (2018). The mechanisms of action underlying the efficacy of psychological nightmare treatments: A systematic review and thematic analysis of discussed hypotheses. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 39'', 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2017.08.004

Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., Gorgoni, M., &amp; De Gennaro, L. (2022). What about dreams? State of the art and open questions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 31''(4), e13609. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13609

Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxLeft|width=65|theme=11}}

'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxRight|width=35|theme=11}}
[[File:Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis.jpg|Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis|left|thumb|150px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
{{LeftRightBoxClose}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

Barbeau, K., Turpin, C., Lafrenière, A., Campbell, E., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2022). Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 947396. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.947396

Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

Cartwright, R., Luten, A., Young, M., Mercer, P., &amp; Bears, M. (1998). Role of REM sleep and dream affect in overnight mood regulation: A study of normal volunteers. ''Psychiatry Research, 81''(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00089-4

Casement, M. D., &amp; Swanson, L. M. (2012). A meta-analysis of imagery rehearsal for post-trauma nightmares: Effects on nightmare frequency, sleep quality, and posttraumatic stress. ''Clinical Psychology Review, 32''(6), 566–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.002

Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

Delorme, M.-A., Lortie-Lussier, M., &amp; De Koninck, J. (2002). Stress and coping in the waking and dreaming states during an examination period. ''Dreaming, 1''2(4), 171–183.  https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021128326940 

Desjardins, S., &amp; Zadra, A. (2006). Is the threat simulation theory threatened by recurrent dreams? ''Consciousness and Cognition, 15''(2), 470–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2006.04.005

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Folkman, S., &amp; Moskowitz, J. T. (2004). Coping: Pitfalls and promise. ''Annual Review of Psychology, 55''(1), 745–774. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141456

Germain, A., Shear, M. K., Walsh, C., Buysse, D. J., Monk, T. H., Reynolds, C. F., III, Frank, E., &amp; Silowash, R. (2013). Dream content in complicated grief: A window into loss-related cognitive schemas. ''Death Studies, 37''(3), 269–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2011.641138 

Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. ''Psychological Inquiry, 26''(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781

Haar Horowitz, A., Cunningham, T. J., Maes, P., &amp; Stickgold, R. (2020). Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device. ''Consciousness and Cognition, 83'', 102938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102938

Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

Kempe, S., Köpp, W., &amp; Wittmann, L. (2024). Personality functioning improvement during psychotherapy is associated with an enhanced capacity for affect regulation in dreams: A preliminary study. ''Brain Sciences, 14''(5), 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050489

Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

Lipinska, G., Austin, H., Moonsamy, J. R., Henry, M., Lewis, R., Baldwin, D. S., Thomas, K. G. F., &amp; Stuart, B. (2022). Preferential consolidation of emotional reactivity during sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 976047. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.976047

Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

Morgenthaler, T. I., Auerbach, S., Casey, K. R., Kristo, D., Maganti, R., Ramar, K., Zak, R., &amp; Kartje, R. (2018). Position paper for the treatment of nightmare disorder in adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position paper. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14''(6), 1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7178

Nielsen, T., &amp; Levin, R. (2007). Nightmares: A new neurocognitive model. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 11''(4), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2007.03.004

Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

Palmieri, J., Elce, V., &amp; Schönauer, M. (2025). Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams. ''Neuropsychologia, 218''(1), 109248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109248 

Peltz, J., Rogge, R. D., &amp; Zeitzer, J. M. (2026). The transactional role of rapid eye movement sleep in undergraduates' day-to-day positive and negative mood. ''Journal of Sleep Research'', e70373. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70373 

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Pesonen, A.-K., Koskinen, M.-K., Vuorenhela, N., Halonen, R., Mäkituuri, S., Selin, M., Luokkala, S., Suutari, A., &amp; Hovatta, I. (2024). The effect of REM-sleep disruption on affective processing: A systematic review of human and animal experimental studies. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 162'', 105714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105714

Revonsuo, A. (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 877–901. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00004015

Rousseau, A., &amp; Belleville, G. (2018). The mechanisms of action underlying the efficacy of psychological nightmare treatments: A systematic review and thematic analysis of discussed hypotheses. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 39'', 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2017.08.004

Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

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Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
[[File:Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis.jpg|Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis|left|thumb|120px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
[[File:Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis.jpg|Gerard ter Borch - Woman Writing a Letter - 797 - Mauritshuis|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
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==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
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&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
[[File:Woman writing on a notebook with a pen.jpg|Woman writing on a notebook with a pen|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Baber, G. R., Hamilton, N. A., Girard, J. M., Sikka, P., Watts, A., Jun, D., Gratton, M. K. P., Cohen, J. M., Quesada, A. K., Nichols, E. C., &amp; Cunningham, T. J. (2026). Testing affect regulation theories of dreaming. ''Sleep, 49''(5). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsag046 

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Cartwright, R., Agargun, M. Y., Kirkby, J., &amp; Friedman, J. K. (2006). Relation of dreams to waking concerns. ''Psychiatry Research, 141''(3), 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.05.013

Cartwright, R., Luten, A., Young, M., Mercer, P., &amp; Bears, M. (1998). Role of REM sleep and dream affect in overnight mood regulation: A study of normal volunteers. ''Psychiatry Research, 81''(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1781(98)00089-4

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Cook, J. M., Harb, G. C., Gehrman, P. R., Cary, M. S., Gamble, G. M., Forbes, D., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2010). Imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares: A randomized controlled trial. ''Journal of Traumatic Stress, 23''(5), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20569

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Domhoff, G. W. (2019). The neurocognitive theory of dreams at age 20: An assessment and a comparison with four other theories of dreaming. ''Dreaming, 29''(4), 265–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000119

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Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. ''Psychological Inquiry, 26''(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781

Haar Horowitz, A., Cunningham, T. J., Maes, P., &amp; Stickgold, R. (2020). Dormio: A targeted dream incubation device. ''Consciousness and Cognition, 83'', 102938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102938

Harb, G. C., Cook, J. M., Phelps, A. J., Gehrman, P. R., Forbes, D., Localio, R., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Gur, R. C., &amp; Ross, R. J. (2019). Randomized controlled trial of imagery rehearsal for posttraumatic nightmares in combat veterans. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 15''(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7770

Kempe, S., Köpp, W., &amp; Wittmann, L. (2024). Personality functioning improvement during psychotherapy is associated with an enhanced capacity for affect regulation in dreams: A preliminary study. ''Brain Sciences, 14''(5), 489. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14050489

Lara-Carrasco, J., Nielsen, T. A., Solomonova, E., Levrier, K., &amp; Popova, A. (2009). Overnight emotional adaptation to negative stimuli is altered by REM sleep deprivation and is correlated with intervening dream emotions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 18''(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00709.x

Lipinska, G., Austin, H., Moonsamy, J. R., Henry, M., Lewis, R., Baldwin, D. S., Thomas, K. G. F., &amp; Stuart, B. (2022). Preferential consolidation of emotional reactivity during sleep: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 976047. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.976047

Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., &amp; Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential consolidation of emotional memory during sleep: A meta-analysis. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 10'', 1014. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

Mendoza Alvarez, M., Balthasar, Y., Verbraecken, J., Claes, L., van Someren, E., van Marle, H. J. F., Vandekerckhove, M., &amp; De Picker, L. (2024). Systematic review: REM sleep, dysphoric dreams and nightmares as transdiagnostic features of psychiatric disorders with emotion dysregulation – Clinical implications. ''Sleep Medicine, 127'', 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2024.12.037

Morgenthaler, T. I., Auerbach, S., Casey, K. R., Kristo, D., Maganti, R., Ramar, K., Zak, R., &amp; Kartje, R. (2018). Position paper for the treatment of nightmare disorder in adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position paper. ''Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 14''(6), 1041–1055. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.7178

Nielsen, T., &amp; Levin, R. (2007). Nightmares: A new neurocognitive model. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 11''(4), 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2007.03.004

Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

Palmieri, J., Elce, V., &amp; Schönauer, M. (2025). Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams. ''Neuropsychologia, 218''(1), 109248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109248 

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Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

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Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

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Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
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&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
[[File:Woman writing on a notebook with a pen.jpg|Woman writing on a notebook with a pen|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===

* Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) means writing down a recurring nightmare, deliberately changing how it ends, and rehearsing the new version while awake for 10 to 20 minutes a day (Morgenthaler et al., 2018).
* The logic follows fear extinction: rehearsing a new ending does while awake what the theory says a healthy dream does at night.
* It is the only treatment the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for nightmare disorder (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), and across 29 randomised trials it was one of the only two treatments to beat control conditions (Y. Zhang et al., 2022).
* The large effects are uncontrolled: improvements in nightmares, sleep and PTSD held at 6 and 12 months across 13 studies but shrank to a small effect in the one trial that compared it against another active treatment (Casement &amp; Swanson, 2012), and two later trials found no advantage over other sleep treatments in veterans with PTSD (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019). 
* Why IRT works remains disputed: a systematic review of the proposed mechanisms found none established (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018), and 30% of patients did not respond at all (Schwartz et al., 2022). 
* Implication: If IRT works through waking rehearsal and changed expectations, the dream is the target of treatment rather than the agent of change.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
[[File:Woman writing on a notebook with a pen.jpg|Woman writing on a notebook with a pen|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Rewriting dreams while awake ===
Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), the technique Natalie used, asks people to rewrite a recurring dream and rehearse the new version while awake. In a network meta-analysis of 29 [[w:Randomized controlled trial|randomised controlled trials]] with trauma survivors, IRT moderately reduced nightmares, although the estimate became too uncertain to rule out no effect once trails at high risk of bias were excluded (Zhang et al., 2022). 

The harder question is why. In 104 adults with nightmare disorder, three sessions of either rescripting or simply re-imagining the original nightmare reduced nightmares and distress, with gains lasting 6 months (Kunze et al., 2017). Although the trial was not designed to compare the two closely, changing the storyline did not appear essential. A growing sense of mastery is the most often proposed mechanism, yet only five of 64 reviewed studies had gathered data on any mechanism (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018). Facing the nightmare, feeling in control, and sleeping better are all plausible ingredients, and all begin while awake. IRT shows that waking practice can change dreams, not that the changed dream does the therapeutic work, and fewer nightmares is not the same as better everyday coping.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
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'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

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== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

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[[File:Woman writing on a notebook with a pen.jpg|Woman writing on a notebook with a pen|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Can dreams be changed on purpose? ===
Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), the technique Natalie used, asks people to rewrite a recurring dream and rehearse the new version while awake. Across 29 [[w:Randomized controlled trial|randomised controlled trials]] with trauma survivors, IRT moderately reduced nightmares, although the estimate became uncertain once trails at high risk of bias were excluded (Zhang et al., 2022). 

The harder question is why. In 104 adults with nightmare disorder, three sessions of either rescripting or simply re-imagining the original nightmare reduced nightmares and distress, with gains lasting 6 months (Kunze et al., 2017). Although the trial was not designed to compare the two closely, changing the storyline did not appear essential. A growing sense of mastery is the most often proposed mechanism, yet only five of 64 reviewed studies had gathered data on any mechanism (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018). Facing the nightmare, feeling in control, and sleeping better are all plausible ingredients, and all begin while awake. IRT shows that waking practice can change dreams, not that the changed dream does the therapeutic work, and fewer nightmares is not the same as better everyday coping.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
* Dreams like Natalie's recur because the emotional charge attached to a memory has not faded overnight. That is the problem this chapter set out to explain. 
* The short answer to the subtitle is that REM dreams reflect emotional processing more reliably than they perform it. Dream emotion behaves more like a thermometer than a heater: it registers how much distress someone is carrying, but there is little evidence that it is what brings the distress down. 
* Sleep and dreaming are not the same thing. Sleep makes emotional memories more likely to be remembered without reliably making them feel less bad (Lipinska et al., 2019), and dreaming continues when REM sleep is supressed (Solms, 2000). Only two studies have tested whether the dream itself adds anything (Lara-Carrasco et al., 2009; J. Zhang et al., 2024).
* Four theories disagree about what a dream is for and they can be separated by what each predicts about the following morning (see Table 1).
* The prediction that matters most for coping is the mood regulation one and it fails. Dream emotion predicts a worse next morning rather than a better one, and predicts nothing about reactivity or about the ability to regulate emotion (Sikka et al., 2022; Baber et al., 2026), so it looks more like a sign of how well someone is coping than the thing doing the coping.
* Coping itself has almost never been measured, every finding above uses mood, reactivity or clinical recovery as a stand in for what a person actually does to manage stress (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004; Delorme et al., 2002). 
* Dreams can still be changed on purpose: rewriting a recurring nightmare reduces both how often it happens and how much distress it causes (Morgenthaler et al., 2018), though whether the rewriting is the active ingredient is unresolved (Cook et al., 2010; Harb et al., 2019; Schwartz et al., 2022).
* Settling the wider question means controlling dream content rather than only recording it (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020; Schwartz et al., 2022), and measuring coping rather than nightmare frequency. 
* Natalie's dream did not repair itself, and it did not need to. What changed it was practising a new ending while awake.

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'''Take-home messages'''

* A bad dream is not a sign that emotional processing is doing its job, dream emotion tracks distress rather than relieving it. 
* Dreaming may still add something, but the evidence is thin and comes from a handful of studies that could not assign anyone to dream.  
*&quot;Sleep on it&quot; is reasonable advice for retaining a memory, but not a reliable way to feel better about it.  
  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

Sikka, P., Engelbrektsson, H., Zhang, J., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2022). Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16'', 981289. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.981289

Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 843–850. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00003988

Sterpenich, V., Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., &amp; Schwartz, S. (2020). Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis. ''Human Brain Mapping, 41''(3), 840–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24843 

Tousignant, O. H., Glass, D. J., Suvak, M. K., &amp; Fireman, G. D. (2022). Nightmares and nondisturbed dreams impact daily change in negative emotion. ''Dreaming (New York, N.Y.), 32''(3),292-313. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000213 

van der Helm, E., Yao, J., Dutt, S., Rao, V., Saletin, J. M., &amp; Walker, M. P. (2011). REM sleep depotentiates amygdala activity to previous emotional experiences. ''Current Biology, 21''(23), 2029–2032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.10.052

Walker, M. P., &amp; van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. ''Psychological Bulletin, 135''(5), 731–748. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016570

Weiss, D. S. (2007). Conundrums in a theory of disturbed dreaming: Comment on Levin and Nielsen (2007). ''Psychological Bulletin, 133''(3), 529–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.529

Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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      <text bytes="31777" sha1="4xuju7ujlq40rzlim0m0ybx7w2g8rzo" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dreams and emotional problem-solving:&lt;br&gt;How do REM dreams contribute to emotional processing and adaptive coping?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Case study: Natalie part 1 ''' [[File:Dreaming.jpg|Dreaming|right|thumb|250px|'''Figure 1'''. Natalie's recurring dream after her breakup leaves her feeling sad when she wakes]]
Since her breakup, Natalie keeps having the same dream. She's been left behind somewhere, calling out to someone who never turns around (See Figure 1). When she wakes the details are gone, but the feeling stays. Then one night, after her first good day in weeks, the dream changes: she stops calling out, notices a lit doorway, and walks through it. She wakes feeling better, and that afternoon  she finally packs away his things. Did the dream help her move on, show that she was already moving on, or give her something to work with once awake? 
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[[w:Dream|Dreams]] are reported after most awakenings from [[w:Rapid eye movement sleep|rapid eye movement (REM) sleep]] (Solms, 2000), and REM sleep has been proposed to act as a form of &quot;overnight therapy&quot; (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009, p. 731). Whether dreams do that work or merely reflect it is still debated. 

''Emotional processing'' is the overnight change in how well an emotional memory is kept or how strongly it is felt. [[w:Emotional self-regulation|''Emotion regulation'']] is any process, deliberate or automatic, that changes the course of an emotion (Gross, 2015). [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|''Coping'']] is what people think and do to manage stressful situations, which is adaptive only when it fits the situation and improves outcomes (Folkman &amp; Moskowitz, 2004). A dream could reflect processing without regulating anything, and could regulate a feeling without improving coping. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=15}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? 
* What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? 
* How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? 
* What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== How do REM sleep and dreaming each contribute to overnight emotional processing? ==
REM sleep is a brain state, marked by rapid eye movements, an active brain, and a paralysed body. Dreaming is a conscious experience. Because the two usually coincide, findings about one are easily attributed to the other. 

===REM sleep and emotional memories ===
The ''sleep to forget, sleep to remember'' model proposes that the brain replays recent emotional memories during REM sleep while [[wikipedia:Norepinephrine|noradrenaline]], a chemical messenger that drives arousal, is low (Walker &amp; van der Helm, 2009). Replay in this calm state should keep a memory's content while weakening its emotional charge, so that last month's argument is remembered clearly but no longer makes the heart race. The model makes two predictions: emotional memories should be retained better after sleep, and ''emotional reactivity'', the strength of the response when the memory returns, should fall. If the charge persists, the process repeats on later nights, which may explain recurring dreams like Natalie's. 

Early brain imaging seemed to confirm the second prediction. When 34 participants viewed emotional pictures twice, 12 hours apart, responses in the [[w:Amygdala|amygdala]], a threat-detecting region, fell in those who slept between viewings and rose in those who stayed awake (van der Helm et al, 2011). However, low noradrenaline was inferred from brain waves, not measured directly.   

Broader evidence has been less supportive. A [[w:Meta-analysis|meta-analysis]] found no reliable change in bodlily reactions to negative pictures after sleep, although its five studies were too few to rule an effect in or out. People also rated negative pictures as more arousing after sleep, the opposite of &quot;sleep to forget&quot; (Lipinska et al., 2022). Removing REM sleep would be a better test, but it requires repeatdetly waking people, which stresses them, disrupts other sleep stages, and can itself cause low mood. Research therefore supports the &quot;remember&quot; half of the model better than the &quot;forget&quot; half (Pesonen et al., 2024), leaving the emotion role of REM sleep unconfirmed rather than disproven. 

===What dreaming adds ===

Dreaming is more than REM sleep in disguise: it can stop after brain damage while REM sleep continues, and some dreams occur outside REM sleep (Solms, 2000). Only one study measured both. Lara-Carrasco et al. (2009) partly deprived some participants of REM sleep, collected their dreams, and had them rate negative pictures in the evening and next morning. Contrary to the model, less REM sleep went with a larger drop in arousal, whereas a less negative final dream went with finding the pictures less unpleasant by morning. REM sleep and emotion thus tracked different parts of the response, suggesting that dreaming contributes something of its own. A lingering negative dream could have influenced the morning ratings, although the hour that has passed made this less likely. Even so, the design cannot show whether the dream produced the overnight change or reflected it, which is exactly where the [[#What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion?|theories]] disagree.    

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which statement best summarises the evidence on REM sleep? 
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- REM sleep reliably reduces the emotional intensity of upsetting memories  
+ REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but evidence that it reduces their intensity is inconclusive
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What do competing theories propose dreams do with emotion? ==
All three leading theories accept that waking emotion shapes dream emotion, but they disagree about what dream emotion does next and, crucially, over what timescale (Sikka et al., 2022; see Table 1). 

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:100%;&quot;
|+ style=&quot;text-align:left;&quot; | '''Table 1'''&lt;br /&gt;''Three theories of what dreams do with emotion''
|-
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Continuity hypothesis (Domhoff, 2019)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Fear extinction theory (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007)
! scope=&quot;col&quot; |Mood regulation theory (Cartwright et al., 1998)
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Core claim 
|Dreams simulate current concerns 
|Dreams place fear memories in safe new contexts
|Dreams work through low mood over the full night 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Natalie's recurring dream means 
|She is still preoccupied with the loss 
|Extinction under heavy emotional load 
|Regulation not yet complete 
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Main prediction 
|Dream emotion carries into the next morning 
|Fear gradually decreases 
|Mood is better by morning, if it was low
|-
! scope=&quot;row&quot; |Timescale 
|Immediate 
|Weeks, between people 
|One night 
|}

=== Continuity hypothesis ===
The continuity hypothesis holds that dreams dramatise whatever currently concerns the dreamer. In Domhoff's (2019) neurocognitive version, dreaming is an &quot;embodied simulation&quot; (p. 265) produced by the [[w:Default mode network|default mode network]], the brain network that also supports daydreaming. According to this view, Natalie's dream portrays her loss without repairing it, much as daydreaming about an ex-partner would. Domhoff concludes that an emotion-regulating function &quot;remains highly unliklely, and at best inconclusive, after decades of research studies' (p.287), noting that a quarter or more of REM dream reports contain no emotion. The theory is parsimonious, but &quot;mirroring&quot; fits almost any link between dreams and waking life, so it can only be told apart from a functional theory when dream emotion predicts something that a waking mood alone does not.

===Fear extinction theory ===
[[w:Extinction (psychology)|Extinction]] occurs when a feared cue is met repeatedly without harm, so that a new safety memory forms and competes with the fear memory rather than erasing it. Nielson and Levin (2007) propose that dreams do this offline by recombining fragments of fear memories with safe, unrelated material. In their example, a dream of a dark alley shifts when &quot;suddenly i found myself in a brightly lit street&quot; (p.302), erasing the growing fear, much like Natalie's lit doorway. 

Two factors shape the outcome. ''Affect load'' is a state: the combined weight of recent stress on a person's capacity to regulate emotion. ''Affect distress'' is a trait: a long-standing tendency to react to emotional material with heightened distress (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007, p. 303). Bad dreams and nightmares lie on a continuum, and nightmares signal that extinction is struggling under heavy load, especially when affect distress is high. Natalie's recurring dream therefore reflects heavy load after the breakup, not a broken process. 

Because extinction is gradual, a frightening dream need not bring relief the next day, yet people whose dreams regularly engage fear should regulate better over weeks. The authors call the model &quot;highly testable&quot; (p. 304). In practice, though, recovery after a frightening dream can be read as extinction working and distress as extinction overloaded. Unless a successful dream is defined before results are known, almost any outcome can be accommodated.

===Mood regulation theory ===
Mood regulation theory proposes that successive REM dreams across one night work through low mood, shifting from negative towards positive emotion. Cartwright et al. (1998) tested this in 60 students without depression. Depressed mood fell overnight, and lower mood before sleep predicted a more negative first dream. Only the 10 students with the lowest pre-sleep mood showed the predicted sequence, with negative dreams early and more positive dreams later. The authors therefore proposed a threshold: dreams moderate mood only when unhappiness is &quot;at lest modest&quot; (p. 7). 

The threshold both protects and limits the theory. It explains why studies of contented people find little, but the core pattern rested on 10 people and was not formally tested, and Kramer's group, who first proposed the theory, once failed to replicate their own effect (Nielson &amp; Levin, 2007). Mood also improved when REM periods were interrupted, so overnight relief did not depend on undisturbed dreaming. 

In short, mood regulation predicts relief by morning, continuity immediate carry-over, and fear extinction that builds over weeks. Waking mood and coping provide the tests.

== How is dream emotion related to the way people cope while awake? ==

For Gross (2015), the defining feature of emotion regulation is &quot;the activation of a goal to influence the emotion trajectory&quot; (p. 5), a goal that can operate implicitly. A dream has no obvious goal, so any regulation it achieves must be implicit, and the coping question is whether its effects reach waking life. ''Within-person'' comparisons ask whether a persons worse negative dreams after followed by worse days, and ''between-person'' comparisons whether people who generally dream one way also cope differently. 

===Next-morning mood ===
For five days, 40 adults rated their dream emotion and morning mood, then viewed negative pictures, sometimes while trying to [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Cognitive strategies and emotion regulation|reappraise]] them (Sikka et al., 2022). After more negative dreams, mornings felt worse. Yet dream emotion predicted neither how strongly people reacted to the pictures nor how well they regulated, and [[w:Bayes factor|Bayesian analyses]] strongly favoured no relationship. Across 4,715 days from 536 adults, frightening dreams were likewise followed by about 7% more negative morning mood (Barber et al., 2026). Dreams that mixed fear with joy, however, were followed by mornings more often free of negative mood.  
===Comparing people ===
Between people, the pattern reverses. People with more fearful dreams on average reported more adaptive regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, even after accounting for [[w:Neuroticism|neuroticism]], which was also linked to fearful dreaming (Barber et al., 2026). In 89 adults who kept a week-long dream diary, more dream fear went with calmer brain responses to frightening pictures: weaker amygdala activity and stronger activity in a regulating prefrontal region (Sterpenich et al., 2020). Agreement across self-rport and brain measures makes the credible, and it fits fear extinctions slow, trait-level prediction. 

However, the direction of influence is unclear, since good regulators may simply tolerate negative material better. Morning carry-over after frightening dreams was also stronger in good regulators (Barber et al., 2026). The authors suggest that these people may be more aware of their feelings, may reappraise the dream after waking (recognising it was only a dream), or may need a brief rise in negative feeling to desensitise, as in exposure therapy. The last two, they note, place regulation after waking, with the dream supplying material and the awake person doing the work. 

===Dreaming through a real loss ===
Real loss offers the most demanding test. Cartwright et al. (2006) followed 30 adults going through a divorce, 20 of them depressed, collecting dreams from every REM period on three nights over 5 months. In those who later recovered from depression, dreams of the former spouse carried emotion, mostly negative, and were linked to other memories. Those who stayed depressed still dreamed of the spouse, but these dreams were largely flat and disconnected from other memories. recovery therefore accompanied dreams that engaged painfully with the loss rather than dreams that turned about positive, which fits fear extinction better than mood regulation. However, this comparison rested on six versus four people and was descriptive, and recovery from depression is an outcome, not a coping strategy. 

Coping itself has rarely been measured. Among 35 female undergraduates facing exams, those who dreamed about the exam reported less active problem-solving white awake, and waking reappraisal went with more problem-solving inside dreams (Delorne et al., 2002), suggesting that coping style influences dreams as much as the reverse. At every levell, dream emotion moves with feeling and adjustment, but because nobody was assigned a particular dream, none of these studies shows that dreams cause change. That requires [[#What does deliberately changing dreams dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping?|changing dreams]] on purpose.

{{Robelbox|theme={{{theme|11}}}|title=Quiz}}
&lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{In the same person, what usually follows a night with a frightening dream?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Better emotion regulation the next day.   
+ A somewhat worse morning mood. 
&lt;/quiz&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
{{Robelbox/close}}

== What does deliberately changing dreams reveal about their role in adaptive coping? ==
Experiments let researchers decide who receives an intervention. Two questions must still be kept apart: whether the dream changed, and whether the person improved because it changed.  

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[[File:Woman writing on a notebook with a pen.jpg|Woman writing on a notebook with a pen|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 2'''. Rewriting a recurring dreams ending is the core of image rehearsal therapy]]
'''Case study: Natalie part 2'''

During a stressful fortnight, the old dream returns and Natalie starts staying up late to avoid it. A psychologist suggests writing the dream down, changing the ending so that this time, the person turns around, or Natalie stops calling out and walks the other way, and rehearsing it every evening (see Figure 2). Within weeks the dream comes less often and bothers her less. Oddly, she cannot recall ever dreaming the new ending. So what helped? 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

===Can dreams be changed on purpose? ===
Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), the technique Natalie used, asks people to rewrite a recurring dream and rehearse the new version while awake. Across 29 [[w:Randomized controlled trial|randomised controlled trials]] with trauma survivors, IRT moderately reduced nightmares, although the estimate became uncertain once trails at high risk of bias were excluded (Zhang et al., 2022). 

The harder question is why. In 104 adults with nightmare disorder, three sessions of either rescripting or simply re-imagining the original nightmare reduced nightmares and distress, with gains lasting 6 months (Kunze et al., 2017). Although the trial was not designed to compare the two closely, changing the storyline did not appear essential. A growing sense of mastery is the most often proposed mechanism, yet only five of 64 reviewed studies had gathered data on any mechanism (Rousseau &amp; Belleville, 2018). Facing the nightmare, feeling in control, and sleeping better are all plausible ingredients, and all begin while awake. IRT shows that waking practice can change dreams, not that the changed dream does the therapeutic work, and fewer nightmares is not the same as better everyday coping.

=== Changing dreams during REM sleep ===

* A causal claim about dreaming requires manipulating dream content, which nothing in the previous sections does. Targeted dream incubation repeats a chosen theme at sleep onset: 67% of prompted awakenings produced dream reports containing the theme, against 3% of unprompted awakenings (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). Dream content is therefore controllable. 
* But this is a methods demonstration rather than a treatment, even successful incubation cannot show whether the experience of dreaming matters or merely accompanies the work being done (Haar Horowitz et al., 2020). 
* Working the other way, an improved capacity for affect regulation within dreams accompanied improvement in personality functioning during psychotherapy, so dream content may index progress as well as be a target of it (Kempe et al., 2024).
* What would settle the question is an experiment that manipulates dream emotion under real distress and measures waking coping rather than nightmare frequency. Nothing in this literature does that yet.

==Conclusion==
Natalie wondered whether the dream helped her move on, showed that she was moving on, or gave her something to work with. the evidence favours the last two. REM sleep may help keep emotional memories, but whether it softens them is unconfirmed. Dream emotion carries into the next morning, as continuity predicts, rather than changing it overnight, as mood regulation predicts. Fear extinction fits the slower patterns but has not passed its most direct tests, and experiments can change dreams, yet improvement has not been shown to depend on the changed dream. 

The most defensible conclusion is that dreams reflect emotional processing and supply material that people regulate and reappraise while awake. Natalie's lit doorway is most likely a sign of change already under way, and what helped was what she did with it after waking. Whether dreaming itself causes adaptive coping remains an open, testable question. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}
'''Take-home messages'''

* A nights sleep does not reliably take the sting out of an upsetting memory. 
* A distressing dream shows what someone is carrying, not whether healing is happening. 
* Dreams about a loss that carry real feeling tend to accompany recovery, even when the feelings are painful. 
* For a recurring distressing dream, working with it while awake, by facing or rewriting it, is the best supported step.  
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==See also==

* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Coping and emotion|Coping and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dreams and emotional problem-solving|Dreams and emotional problem-solving]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[w:Emotional self-regulation|Emotional self-regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Nightmare disorder|Nightmare disorder]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Nightmares and emotion|Nightmares and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020)

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{{Hanging indent|1=

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Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., &amp; Milad, M. R. (2015). Sleep and REM sleep disturbance in the pathophysiology of PTSD: The role of extinction memory. ''Biology of Mood &amp; Anxiety Disorders, 5''(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13587-015-0018-9 

Palmieri, J., Elce, V., &amp; Schönauer, M. (2025). Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams. ''Neuropsychologia, 218''(1), 109248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109248 

Peltz, J., Rogge, R. D., &amp; Zeitzer, J. M. (2026). The transactional role of rapid eye movement sleep in undergraduates' day-to-day positive and negative mood. ''Journal of Sleep Research'', e70373. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70373 

Perogamvros, L., Rochas, V., Beau, J. B., Sterpenich, V., &amp; Bayer, L. (2025). The cathartic dream: Using a large language model to study a new type of functional dream in healthy and clinical populations. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 34''(6), e70001. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70001

Pesonen, A.-K., Koskinen, M.-K., Vuorenhela, N., Halonen, R., Mäkituuri, S., Selin, M., Luokkala, S., Suutari, A., &amp; Hovatta, I. (2024). The effect of REM-sleep disruption on affective processing: A systematic review of human and animal experimental studies. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 162'', 105714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105714

Revonsuo, A. (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. ''Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23''(6), 877–901. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00004015

Rousseau, A., &amp; Belleville, G. (2018). The mechanisms of action underlying the efficacy of psychological nightmare treatments: A systematic review and thematic analysis of discussed hypotheses. ''Sleep Medicine Reviews, 39'', 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2017.08.004

Scarpelli, S. (2026). Emotional regulation or just continuity? Rethinking the emotional function of dreaming in the age of computational sleep science. ''Sleep (New York, N.Y.), 49''(5),1. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaf375 

Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., Gorgoni, M., &amp; De Gennaro, L. (2022). What about dreams? State of the art and open questions. ''Journal of Sleep Research, 31''(4), e13609. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13609

Schredl, M. (2017). Theorizing about the continuity between waking and dreaming: Comment on Domhoff (2017). ''Dreaming, 27''(4), 351–359. https://doi.org/10.1037/drm0000062

Schwartz, S., Clerget, A., &amp; Perogamvros, L. (2022). Enhancing imagery rehearsal therapy for nightmares with targeted memory reactivation. ''Current Biology, 32''(22), 4808-4816.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.09.032 

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Sikka, P., Feilhauer, D., Valli, K., &amp; Revonsuo, A. (2017). How you measure is what you get: Differences in self- and external ratings of emotional experiences in home dreams. ''The American Journal of Psychology, 130''(3), 367–384. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjpsyc.130.3.0367

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Zhang, J., Pena, A., Delano, N., Sattari, N., Shuster, A. E., Baker, F. C., Simon, K., &amp; Mednick, S. C. (2024). Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. ''Scientific Reports, 14''(1), Article 8722. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z &lt;!-- add article number --&gt;

Zhang, Y., Ren, R., Vitiello, M. V., Yang, L., Zhang, H., Shi, Y., Sanford, L. D., &amp; Tang, X. (2022). Efficacy and acceptability of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for trauma-related nightmares: A systematic review and network meta-analysis. ''Neuroscience &amp; Biobehavioral Reviews, 139'', 104717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104717

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nightmares/how-to-stop-having-nightmares How to prevent nightmares] (Sleep Foundation)
* [https://shows.acast.com/sleep-science-pod/episodes/ep12-sleep-dreams-and-mental-health Sleep, dreams and mental health] (The Sleep Science Pod)
* [https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/targeted-dream-incubation/overview/ Targeted dream incubation] (MIT Media Lab)
* [https://theconversation.com/the-science-of-dreams-and-nightmares-what-is-going-on-in-our-brains-while-were-sleeping-210901 The science of dreams and nightmares – what is going on in our brains while we're sleeping?] (The Conversation)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}'''Consider this scenario...''' 
[[File:Woman with a rough life checking herself out in the mirror (8436629921).jpg|thumb|right|'''Figure 1.''' Woman looking at herself in the mirror]]

Amanda is excitedly getting ready to go to a party with friends. Her excitement disappears when she looks in the mirror, beginning to compare her appearance to other women she knows. She focuses on what she perceives as flaws in her body, thinking about how she might be viewed by others at the event. As these thoughts become more intense, Amanda feels increasingly anxious and ashamed of her appearance. She considers making an excuse not to go as she worries she will be judged or that she does not look &quot;good enough&quot; to go out. 

Before texting the group chat to cancel, she stops. Amanda recognises how pumped she was seconds ago about this party, and how quickly this changes. She thinks, &quot;Why is it that only after I look in the mirror, I believe I'm not worthy?&quot;. She realises how much her appearance has become closely connected with her emotions how she views her self-worth. Amanda decides to change the thought process. Instead of thinking &quot;I will I look bad/good at this party&quot; she thinks &quot;I'm going to have to much fun at this party&quot;. This shifts the attention away from evaluating her appearance and more towards what her body allows her to do, such as spending time with friends, dancing, and enjoying the evening. 

Amanda also recognises that self-worth can come from many areas of her life, including her relationships, personality, interests, and achievements. She knows that negative thoughts about her appearance will still occur, but she's done with letting them determine whether she feels good about herself or whether she participates in activities she enjoys. 

Amanda does finishing touches to her hair, makeup, and outfit, before grabbing her bag and shoes. She leaves the house feeing better about herself and looking forward for the night ahead, all thanks to her discovery of a body-neutral perspective 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Body neutrality is an approach to body image which focuses on accepting the body without any particular emotion or attention to one's physical appearance. This is an important concept because body dissatisfaction is common and has negative affects on emotional well-being, self-esteem and behaviour. These affects can lead to difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and psychological issues such as disordered eating. Social media, cultural and social idealised bodies, and appearance-based social comparison are important factors that contribute to how people evaluate their bodies. Psychological research somewhat explains how body-neutral perspectives may influence emotional-wellbeing through the examination of self-esteem, social comparison, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, and appearance-based self-worth. Understanding such psychological processes helps identify whether and how body neutrality may support a healthy body image and therefore emotional well-being. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What is body neutrality, and how does it differ from other approaches to body image?
* How can body image and appearance-related thinking influence emotional well-being? 
* How do social and cultural influences shape body image and the way we experience our bodies?
* How might adopting a body-neutral perspect support emotional wellbeing?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
== Understanding body neutrality ==
=== Body image ===
The concept of body image has many interpretations. It was originally developed as a neurological concept, describing the brain's ability to detect weight, shape, size and form and incorporate these into core beliefs or mental frameworks (Lacey, 1986). This early definition of body image was known as 'the body percept' and focuses more on the accumulated sensory experience within one's body. The actual term 'body image' was coined by Paul Schilder (2013) who defined body image as &quot;the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say the way in which the body appears to ourselves.&quot; Modern definitions of the term are far more in depth, explaining body image as something that is multidimensional that encompasses an individuals thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviours regarding their physical appearance, body shape, size, weight, and how their body functions (Rodgers et al. 2023).  

Body image involves interconnected perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components. These components explain how we percieve our bodies, develop beliefs about our appearance, experience body-related emotions, and respond through behaviour (Carey &amp; Preston, 2019).   

* '''Perceptual''': How people perceive their body's size, shape, weight, and appearance. Perceptions may not always accurately reflect physical characteristics 
** Example: perceiving your stomach to be bigger than it actually is
* '''Cognitive''': Thoughts, beliefs, and evaluation individuals hold about their bodies. This includes beliefs about how attractive or important one's appearance is. 
** Example: believing you need to lose weight to be considered attractive 
* '''Emotional''': Feelings associated with body appearance including satisfaction, confidence, shame, anxiety, or embarrassment 
** Example: Feeling shame about your body when you compare to another person 
* '''Behavioural''': Actions people take in response to body image
** Example: Repeatedly checking appearance in mirrors or avoiding social situations due to being uncomfortable about appearance

These components can be considered separately but they are best understood as interacting factors. For example, someone who may perceive their appearance negatively may develop critical thoughts about their body, experience feelings of shame or anxiety, and subsequently avoiding social situations, therefore displaying all body image components. 

=== Development of body neutrality ===
The development of body neutrality is closely associated with Anne Poirier, who worked as a eating-disorder specialist and intuitive eating counsellor, helping popularise the approach through this work. Around 2015, body neutrality started to gain popularity in online spaces as a alternative way of discussing body image, with Poirer subsequently developing workshops around the concept (Nuss et al., 2026). Poirer's approach emphasised that people should not feel like they have to love their bodies. Instead, their attention should be on body functionality and recognising personal worth beyond physical appearance. Poirer's work helped bring body neutrality into wider discussions regarding body image. This includes popularity on social media such as Instagram or TikTok, which further increased visibility for the concept (Nuss et al., 2025).  

Despite its increasing popularity, there still is not an agreed-upon definition of body neutrality. The term is often used to describe reducing importance placed on physical appearance, accepting the body without required feelings, focusing on functionality, or responding to body-related thoughts without judgement. Although these ideas overlap, they do not necessarily describe the same psychological process. For example, trying to reduce the importance of appearance involves changing how much value is placed on physical attractiveness, whereas body functionality focuses on recognising what the body allows us to do. Similarly, accepting negative body related feelings does not necessarily mean that appearance has become unimportant. These differences make it difficult to establish a single definition that captures all the ways body neutrality is understood or practiced. '''*reference''' 

Body neutrality represents a promising approach to understanding body image by offering an alternative perspective that does not require feeling-focused attitudes towards appearance. Despite it's recent emergence and evolving definition, the concept is valuable because it helps navigate pressures surrounding body evaluation.  
=== From body negativity to body positivity to body neutrality ===
Body image is best understood through the varying perspectives that people have. This ranges from negative evaluations of one's appearance, positive appreciation, and neutral acceptance. Body negativity involves dissatisfaction, criticism, or negative feelings towards one's body,  often influenced by perceived flaws and societal beauty standards (Tort-Nasarre et al., 2021). Negative body image often contribute to lower self-esteem and emotional distress, including feelings of anxiety, sadness, and shame. It is also associated with disordered eating behaviours and other psychological difficulties, although these relationships are complex and do not effect everyone with body dissatisfaction (Abdoli et al., 2025). Body positivity is a opposing perspective because it involves encouragement in appreciating or accepting one's body regardless of shape, size, or appearance.  

The body positivity movement created visibility for body positive perspectives through social media, where people of all differing types of bodies challenges conventional beauty standards. The body positive movement originated with fat-acceptance activism, feminist and queer social movements, with a focused attention to the stigma and exclusion experienced by people whose bodies are marginalised because of body size, disability, gender expression, etc (Cohen et al., 2019). While this movement has messages of empowerment for many, some people have found the expectation to love and celebrate their bodies difficult to achieve. For those with a negative body image, being encouraged to replace negative feelings with positive ones may feel unrealistic or create pressure to feel confident when they simply do not. This does not mean that body positivity is ineffective, rather, it highlights that people relate to their bodies in different ways.  

This is where body neutrality comes in as a valuable alternative. For those who do not want to focus on loving their appearance, it allows them to accept their bodies without requiring positive feelings. Rather than judging body image by whether someone feels positivity or negatively about their looks, a neutral perspective allows for all feelings without them being the measure of personal worth. See table 1 for an overall comparison of these perspectives.  

{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot;
|+Table 1. Comparing and Contrasting Body-image Concepts
!
!Body negativity
!Body positivity
!Body neutrality
|-
|View of body
|Negative evaluation
|Positive appreciation
|Acceptance without requiring positivity
|-
|Role of appearance
| colspan=&quot;2&quot; |High Importance
|Reduced importance
|-
|Expected emotion
|Shame, anxiety, distress
|Pride, love, happiness
|No particular feelings required
|-
|Basis of self-worth
|May become appearance dependent
|May include body appreciation
|Broader than physical appearance
|-
|Psychological focus
|Appearance evaluation
|Appreciation and acceptance
|Flexibility and reduced appearance centrality
|-
|Example thought
|&quot;I don't like how my body looks&quot;
|&quot;I love and appreciate my body&quot;
|&quot;I accept my body and my appearance does not determine my worth&quot;
|}

== Body image and emotional wellbeing ==
=== Appearance-based self-worth and emotional distress ===
Appearance-based self-worth is when individuals base their overall self-evaluation on whether they believe their physical attractiveness meets a certain standard. When appearance is a central focus, perceived flaws or concerns about looks becomes a central source of emotional distress. Findings from Adams et al. (2017) find that appearance-contingent self-worth is associated with greater-self objectification, which is linked to higher appearance anxiety and lower self-esteem. This suggests that people who place greater importance on appearance may become more concerned about if they meet beauty standards, causing vulnerabilities to their self-esteem because of appearance-related stress. For example, someone who believes their attractiveness determines worth may experience anxiety or shame when comparing themselves with others. This thinking can extend beyond body dissatisfaction and into how individuals evaluate themselves as a person overall. 

=== Self-objectification and appearance monitoring ===
Self-objectification refers to viewing one's body from an outsider's perspective. There is great attention given to how the body looks rather than how it feels or functions. Appearance monitoring stems from this, and includes behaviours such as repeatedly checking mirrors, adjusting clothing to hide perceived flaws, or comparing one's appearance with others (Ahmed et al., 2025). Continually monitoring appearance can increase attention towards someone idea of a physical flaw and create greater concern about how other evaluate their body. This contributes to feelings body shame, appearance anxiety, and lower self-esteem, particularly for those who believe they do not meet expected standards (Sarda et al., 2025). When this behaviour continues, everyday situations may become opportunities for self-criticism and evaluation. Consequently, self-objectification and appearance monitoring negatively affects emotional well-being by making physical looks a source of worry and evaluation, reinforcing body dissatisfaction and increasing vulnerabilities to perceived physical imperfections. 

=== Effects on everyday functioning ===
These concerning behaviours and thought processes about body image can affect how people participate in everyday activities, maintain relationships, and manage daily responsibilities. When one's attention is heavily directed towards appearance, it may be difficult to concentrate on other aspects of life. This can lead to avoidance behaviours such as not attending social events, exercising in public, or having photographs taken. Overtime, this avoidance limits social participation and prevents individuals from engaging in experiences they would otherwise enjoy. The consequences on daily life due to severe body image concerns can be illustrated through Diana's case study.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=7}}
'''Case Study: Diana'''

Diana is a 25-year-old with anorexia nervosa who was examined by Di Lernia et al. (2019). Diana sought treatment at an eating disorder centre following significant weight loss. Her issues with eating started when she began a restrictive diet due to health concerns. This caused her to develop persistent thoughts about calories, weight, and particular foods. Diana also experienced distorted perceptions of her body, repeatedly body checking in mirrors, and wearing clothes that would hide her figure. During periods of high distress, she reported frequently crying while looking at herself in the mirror. {{RoundBoxBottom}}

This case study shows how body image can extend into eating behaviours, daily routines, and overall emotional wellbeing. Persistent concerns about food, weight, and body perception show how these thoughts can become a significant part of daily life and can cause severe negative emotional responses. Although this case involves anorexia nervosa and cannot represent all experiences of negative body image, it stands as a good example of how severe body image can coincide with distress and behaviours that distrupt daily functioning and therefore emotional wellbeing. 

== Social and cultural influences ==
Intro: Explaining how body image develops socially and culturally and how environments can both influence appearance-related beliefs and emotional well-being 
[[File:Woman Montage (1).jpg|thumb|'''Figure 2.''' Faces and figures of  women, showing how different groups depict beauty.  ]]

=== Appearance ideals and cultural influence ===
* Cultures and social groups have differing ideals regarding attractiveness and desirable bodies (Abdoli et al., 2024). See Figure 2. as an example of these differences.
* Thinness, muscularity, and youthfulness ideals can become internalised and used as standards for evaluating one's own body contributing to body dissatisfaction
* Internalisation of these ideals contribute to body dissatisfaction

=== Effects of social media ===
* Appearance-focused social media exposes individuals to idealised representations of bodies 
* Comparison with such representations may contribute to internalisation of appearance ideals and negative body evaluation (Fioravanti et al., 2022).
* Body-neutral content and reduced appearance focused engagement potentially proved an alternative - effectiveness of such content yet to be researched
Key Citations: 

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the Exposure to Beauty Ideals on Social Networking Sites Influences Body Image: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4&lt;/nowiki&gt;

=== Individual and social differences ===
* Body-image concerns differ according gender, age, sexuality and other social characteristics 
* Different groups experience different appearance ideals - e.g., thinness-oriented pressures versus muscularity orientated pressures (Promichter et al., 2025) (Frederick et al., 2025)
* Individual differences in vulnerability, existing body dissatisfaction and social environmetns may influence whether body neutrality affects emotional well-being 

== Existing research on body neutrality ==
Intro: evaluating whether research supports the proposed relationship between body neutrality and emotional well-being

=== Evidence for benefits ===

* Findings provide preliminary support for potential emotional benefits of body neutrality 
* Research agrees that body neutrality is an acceptable and relevant approach for people experiencing body-image concerns (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Body-neutral content produces improvements in mood, body satisfaction and hopelessness (Seekis &amp; Lawrence, 2023)
* Digital body neutral intervention produced improvements in body dissatisfaction and hopelessness (Smith et al., 2023)

=== Evidence is still mixed ===

* Research is promising but does not provide clear consensus

* Researchers have not established that body neutrality is distinct from existing body-image approaches
* Body neutrality overlaps with concepts such as body-acceptance, compassion and functionality appreciation (Mulgrew &amp; Hinz, 2024)

=== The need for future research ===

* Long term studies are needed to establish if benefits are sustained - due to concept being fairly new 
* Future research should clarify what makes body neutrality distinct from existing approaches (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Researchers should continue testing body-neutral interventions rather than relying primarily on related body-image constructs 

== Applying a body-neutral perspective ==
Intro: translating psychological principles of body neutrality into practical ways of changing body perception - how can the reader implement a body neutral perspective? 

=== Changing body-related thinking ===
* Separating physical appearance from global self-worth may reduce appearance contingent self-evaluation 
* Notice negative body thoughts without treating them as facts or acting on them 
* Replace appearance-based judgements with more neutral descriptions of the body 
* Reduce all-or-nothing thinking, such as viewing your body as &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot;
[[File:People hugging in the beach.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 3.''' Two people hugging showing an important sensory experience]]

=== From appearance to functionality ===
* Shifting attention toward health, strength, flexibility, and physical comfort
* Recognising sensory experiences - seeing, hearing, moving
* Appreciating what the body enables a person to experience and participate in
* Valuing functionality without turning physical performance into another standard for evaluating the body (Alleva et al., 2023)

=== Healthier environments ===
* Developing media literacy helps critically evaluate idealisd body representations 
* Reducing exposure to appearance-focused content and opportunities for appearance comparison 
* Curating your environment and content consumed to reduce exposure to unrealistic body ideals (Fioravanti et al., 2022)

==Conclusion==

* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing the importan

*A body-neutral perspective emphasises acceptance, functionality, and psychological flexibility, rather than requiring positivity 
* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing importance of appearance in self-worth and decreasing the emotional impact of negative body-related thoughts
* Social and cultural influences continue to shape body image, therefore, body neutrality may be most effective alongside healthier approaches to managing appearance-focused environments
* Research provides promising but preliminary evidence that body-neutral approaches can improve aspects of body and emotional well-being. However, more research is needed to establish long-term effectiveness as well as distinctiveness from other similar concepts
* Overall message: the goal is not necessarily to love or feel positive about the body, but to reduce the extent to which your appearance determines emotional well-being. 

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

==See also==
* [[wikipedia:Body_neutrality|Body neutrality]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Body neutrality and emotional well-being|Body neutrality and emotional well-being]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[wikipedia:Body_positivity|Body positivity]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abdoli, M., Scotto Rosato, M., Desousa, A., &amp; Cotrufo, P. (2024). Cultural differences in body image: A systematic review. ''Social  Sciences (Basel)'', ''13''(6), 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13060305

Adams, K. E., Tyler, J. M., Calogero, R., &amp; Lee, J. (2017). Exploring the relationship between appearance-contingent self-worth and self-esteem: The roles of self-objectification and appearance anxiety. ''Body Image'', ''23'', 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.10.004

Ahmed, U., Fatima, Z., &amp; Zulfiqar, Z. (2025). Media and body image: Analyzing self-objectification theory across different ages of women. ''SAGE Open'', ''15''(4), Article 21582440251379748. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251379748

Alleva, J. M., Atkinson, M. J., Vermeulen, W., Monpellier, V. M., &amp; Martijn, C. (2023). Beyond body size: Focusing on body functionality to improve body image among women who have undergone bariatric surgery. ''Behavior Therapy'', ''54''(1), 14–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2022.06.007

Alleva, J. M., Holmqvist Gattario, K., Martijn, C., &amp; Lunde, C. (2019). What can my body do vs. how does it look?: A qualitative analysis of young women and men’s descriptions of their body functionality or physical appearance. ''Body Image'', ''31'', 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.08.008

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the exposure to beauty ideals on social networking sites influences body image: A systematic review of experimental studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4

Frederick, D. A., Forbes, M., Gentle, B., Reynolds, T. A., &amp; Walters, T. (2012). Beauty standards. In ''Encyclopedia of human sexuality''. Wiley-Blackwell.

Frederick, D. A., Gordon, A. R., Cook-Cottone, C. P., Brady, J. P., Reynolds, T. A., Alley, J., Garcia, J. R., Brown, T. A., Compte, E. J., Convertino, L., Crerand, C. E., Malcarne, V. L., Nagata, J. M., Parent, M. C., Pennesi, J.-L., Perez, M., Pila, E., Rodgers, R. F., Schaefer, L. M., … Murray, S. B. (2022). Demographic and sociocultural predictors of sexuality-related body image and sexual frequency: The U.S. Body Project I. ''Body Image'', ''41'', 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.01.010

Grogan, S. (2016). ''Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children'' (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Leboeuf, C. (2019). What is body positivity? The path from shame to pride. ''Philosophical Topics'', ''47''(2), 113–128. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtopics201947218

Mulgrew, K. E., &amp; Hinz, A. (2024). What is body neutrality and how is it different to existing body image concepts? An analysis of experts and general community responses. ''Body Image'', ''51'', Article 101780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101780

Paterna, A., Alcaraz‐Ibáñez, M., Fuller‐Tyszkiewicz, M., &amp; Sicilia, Á. (2021). Internalization of body shape ideals and body dissatisfaction: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''54''(9), 1575–1600. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23568

Pellizzer, M. L., &amp; Wade, T. D. (2023). Developing a definition of body neutrality and strategies for an intervention. ''Body Image'', ''46'', 434–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.006

Pomichter, E., Cepeda-Benito, A., Ahmadkaraji, S., &amp; DePalma, J. P. (2025). Exploring male body image: A scoping review of measurement approaches and mental health implications. ''International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health'', ''22''(6), 834. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22060834

Saunders, J. F., Nutter, S., Waugh, R., &amp; Hayden, K. A. (2024). Testing body-related components of objectification theory: A meta-analysis of the relations between body shame, self-objectification, and body dissatisfaction. ''Body Image'', ''50'', Article 101738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101738

Seekis, V., &amp; Lawrence, R. K. (2023). How exposure to body neutrality content on TikTok affects young women’s body image and mood. ''Body Image'', ''47'', Article 101629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.101629

Shontz, F. C. (1989).  Development and structure of the body image, Vols. 1 and 2 [Rev. of ''Development and Structure of the Body Image, Volumes 1 and 2'']. ''Psychoanalytic Psychology'', ''6''(4), 503–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.503

Smith, A. C., Ahuvia, I., Ito, S., &amp; Schleider, J. L. (2023). Project Body Neutrality: Piloting a digital single‐session intervention for adolescent body image and depression. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''56''(8), 1554–1569. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23976

Tylka, T. L., &amp; Wood-Barcalow, N. L. (2015). What is and what is not positive body image? Conceptual foundations and construct definition. ''Body Image'', ''14'', 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.04.001

https://www.sciencedirect.com/sdfe/pdf/download/eid/1-s2.0-0022399986900966/first-page-pdf

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9970735/

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00635/full

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15598276261481490?casa_token=CLtVTca5fboAAAAA%3AVZXxdEaZIobOVIUNsqpuvNDYxboj26-mVH0q6wzArhtqivaE-lAE97I6k_favxKjw-E_XHvw-CpTqA

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-86318-001

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7908267/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40211-025-00544-4

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144518304595?casa_token=hdy0DS5cSAUAAAAA:kC46Z81NQanQQzq_0Muk0WbbEhXW-zrw1xPEe6MJC5UA-NPJn2Ts0k4IwkfiCs1gYaXm8i2UEaQ

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40337-025-01353-4

}}

==External links==
*[https://www.healthline.com/health/body-neutrality How to Shift from ‘Body Positivity’ to ‘Body Neutrality’ — and Why You Should] - Healthline
*[https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/5-steps-body-neutrality/ 5 Steps to Body Neutrality] - NEDA
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2nBomd-mpY TedTalk - Existing: Body Neutrality and Beauty Standards | Sophia Vimol Horng] - YouTube

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}'''Consider this scenario...''' 
[[File:Woman with a rough life checking herself out in the mirror (8436629921).jpg|thumb|right|'''Figure 1.''' Woman looking at herself in the mirror]]

Amanda is excitedly getting ready to go to a party with friends. Her excitement disappears when she looks in the mirror, beginning to compare her appearance to other women she knows. She focuses on what she perceives as flaws in her body, thinking about how she might be viewed by others at the event. As these thoughts become more intense, Amanda feels increasingly anxious and ashamed of her appearance. She considers making an excuse not to go as she worries she will be judged or that she does not look &quot;good enough&quot; to go out. 

Before texting the group chat to cancel, she stops. Amanda recognises how pumped she was seconds ago about this party, and how quickly this changes. She thinks, &quot;Why is it that only after I look in the mirror, I believe I'm not worthy?&quot;. She realises how much her appearance has become closely connected with her emotions how she views her self-worth. Amanda decides to change the thought process. Instead of thinking &quot;I will I look bad/good at this party&quot; she thinks &quot;I'm going to have to much fun at this party&quot;. This shifts the attention away from evaluating her appearance and more towards what her body allows her to do, such as spending time with friends, dancing, and enjoying the evening. 

Amanda also recognises that self-worth can come from many areas of her life, including her relationships, personality, interests, and achievements. She knows that negative thoughts about her appearance will still occur, but she's done with letting them determine whether she feels good about herself or whether she participates in activities she enjoys. 

Amanda does finishing touches to her hair, makeup, and outfit, before grabbing her bag and shoes. She leaves the house feeing better about herself and looking forward for the night ahead, all thanks to her discovery of a body-neutral perspective 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Body neutrality is an approach to body image which focuses on accepting the body without any particular emotion or attention to one's physical appearance. This is an important concept because body dissatisfaction is common and has negative affects on emotional well-being, self-esteem and behaviour. These affects can lead to difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and psychological issues such as disordered eating. Social media, cultural and social idealised bodies, and appearance-based social comparison are important factors that contribute to how people evaluate their bodies. Psychological research somewhat explains how body-neutral perspectives may influence emotional-wellbeing through the examination of self-esteem, social comparison, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, and appearance-based self-worth. Understanding such psychological processes helps identify whether and how body neutrality may support a healthy body image and therefore emotional well-being. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What is body neutrality, and how does it differ from other approaches to body image?
* How can body image and appearance-related thinking influence emotional well-being? 
* How do social and cultural influences shape body image and the way we experience our bodies?
* How might adopting a body-neutral perspect support emotional wellbeing?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
== Understanding body neutrality ==
=== Body image ===
The concept of body image has many interpretations. It was originally developed as a neurological concept, describing the brain's ability to detect weight, shape, size and form and incorporate these into core beliefs or mental frameworks (Lacey, 1986). This early definition of body image was known as 'the body percept' and focuses more on the accumulated sensory experience within one's body. The actual term 'body image' was coined by Paul Schilder (2013) who defined body image as &quot;the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say the way in which the body appears to ourselves.&quot; Modern definitions of the term are far more in depth, explaining body image as something that is multidimensional that encompasses an individuals thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviours regarding their physical appearance, body shape, size, weight, and how their body functions (Rodgers et al. 2023).  

Body image involves interconnected perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components. These components explain how we percieve our bodies, develop beliefs about our appearance, experience body-related emotions, and respond through behaviour (Carey &amp; Preston, 2019).   

* '''Perceptual''': How people perceive their body's size, shape, weight, and appearance. Perceptions may not always accurately reflect physical characteristics 
** Example: perceiving your stomach to be bigger than it actually is
* '''Cognitive''': Thoughts, beliefs, and evaluation individuals hold about their bodies. This includes beliefs about how attractive or important one's appearance is. 
** Example: believing you need to lose weight to be considered attractive 
* '''Emotional''': Feelings associated with body appearance including satisfaction, confidence, shame, anxiety, or embarrassment 
** Example: Feeling shame about your body when you compare to another person 
* '''Behavioural''': Actions people take in response to body image
** Example: Repeatedly checking appearance in mirrors or avoiding social situations due to being uncomfortable about appearance

These components can be considered separately but they are best understood as interacting factors. For example, someone who may perceive their appearance negatively may develop critical thoughts about their body, experience feelings of shame or anxiety, and subsequently avoiding social situations, therefore displaying all body image components. 

=== Development of body neutrality ===
The development of body neutrality is closely associated with Anne Poirier, who worked as a eating-disorder specialist and intuitive eating counsellor, helping popularise the approach through this work. Around 2015, body neutrality started to gain popularity in online spaces as a alternative way of discussing body image, with Poirer subsequently developing workshops around the concept (Nuss et al., 2026). Poirer's approach emphasised that people should not feel like they have to love their bodies. Instead, their attention should be on body functionality and recognising personal worth beyond physical appearance. Poirer's work helped bring body neutrality into wider discussions regarding body image. This includes popularity on social media such as Instagram or TikTok, which further increased visibility for the concept (Nuss et al., 2025).  

Despite its increasing popularity, there still is not an agreed-upon definition of body neutrality. The term is often used to describe reducing importance placed on physical appearance, accepting the body without required feelings, focusing on functionality, or responding to body-related thoughts without judgement. Although these ideas overlap, they do not necessarily describe the same psychological process. For example, trying to reduce the importance of appearance involves changing how much value is placed on physical attractiveness, whereas body functionality focuses on recognising what the body allows us to do. Similarly, accepting negative body related feelings does not necessarily mean that appearance has become unimportant. These differences make it difficult to establish a single definition that captures all the ways body neutrality is understood or practiced. '''*reference''' 

Body neutrality represents a promising approach to understanding body image by offering an alternative perspective that does not require feeling-focused attitudes towards appearance. Despite it's recent emergence and evolving definition, the concept is valuable because it helps navigate pressures surrounding body evaluation.  
=== From body negativity to body positivity to body neutrality ===
Body image is best understood through the varying perspectives that people have. This ranges from negative evaluations of one's appearance, positive appreciation, and neutral acceptance. Body negativity involves dissatisfaction, criticism, or negative feelings towards one's body,  often influenced by perceived flaws and societal beauty standards (Tort-Nasarre et al., 2021). Negative body image often contribute to lower self-esteem and emotional distress, including feelings of anxiety, sadness, and shame. It is also associated with disordered eating behaviours and other psychological difficulties, although these relationships are complex and do not effect everyone with body dissatisfaction (Abdoli et al., 2025). Body positivity is a opposing perspective because it involves encouragement in appreciating or accepting one's body regardless of shape, size, or appearance.  

The body positivity movement created visibility for body positive perspectives through social media, where people of all differing types of bodies challenges conventional beauty standards. The body positive movement originated with fat-acceptance activism, feminist and queer social movements, with a focused attention to the stigma and exclusion experienced by people whose bodies are marginalised because of body size, disability, gender expression, etc (Cohen et al., 2019). While this movement has messages of empowerment for many, some people have found the expectation to love and celebrate their bodies difficult to achieve. For those with a negative body image, being encouraged to replace negative feelings with positive ones may feel unrealistic or create pressure to feel confident when they simply do not. This does not mean that body positivity is ineffective, rather, it highlights that people relate to their bodies in different ways.  

This is where body neutrality comes in as a valuable alternative. For those who do not want to focus on loving their appearance, it allows them to accept their bodies without requiring positive feelings. Rather than judging body image by whether someone feels positivity or negatively about their looks, a neutral perspective allows for all feelings without them being the measure of personal worth. See table 1 for an overall comparison of these perspectives.  

{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot;
|+Table 1. Comparing and Contrasting Body-image Concepts
!
!Body negativity
!Body positivity
!Body neutrality
|-
|View of body
|Negative evaluation
|Positive appreciation
|Acceptance without requiring positivity
|-
|Role of appearance
| colspan=&quot;2&quot; |High Importance
|Reduced importance
|-
|Expected emotion
|Shame, anxiety, distress
|Pride, love, happiness
|No particular feelings required
|-
|Basis of self-worth
|May become appearance dependent
|May include body appreciation
|Broader than physical appearance
|-
|Psychological focus
|Appearance evaluation
|Appreciation and acceptance
|Flexibility and reduced appearance centrality
|-
|Example thought
|&quot;I don't like how my body looks&quot;
|&quot;I love and appreciate my body&quot;
|&quot;I accept my body and my appearance does not determine my worth&quot;
|}

== Body image and emotional wellbeing ==
=== Appearance-based self-worth and emotional distress ===
Appearance-based self-worth is when individuals base their overall self-evaluation on whether they believe their physical attractiveness meets a certain standard. When appearance is a central focus, perceived flaws or concerns about looks becomes a central source of emotional distress. Findings from Adams et al. (2017) find that appearance-contingent self-worth is associated with greater-self objectification, which is linked to higher appearance anxiety and lower self-esteem. This suggests that people who place greater importance on appearance may become more concerned about if they meet beauty standards, causing vulnerabilities to their self-esteem because of appearance-related stress. For example, someone who believes their attractiveness determines worth may experience anxiety or shame when comparing themselves with others. This thinking can extend beyond body dissatisfaction and into how individuals evaluate themselves as a person overall. 

=== Self-objectification and appearance monitoring ===
Self-objectification refers to viewing one's body from an outsider's perspective. There is great attention given to how the body looks rather than how it feels or functions. Appearance monitoring stems from this, and includes behaviours such as repeatedly checking mirrors, adjusting clothing to hide perceived flaws, or comparing one's appearance with others (Ahmed et al., 2025). Continually monitoring appearance can increase attention towards someone idea of a physical flaw and create greater concern about how other evaluate their body. This contributes to feelings body shame, appearance anxiety, and lower self-esteem, particularly for those who believe they do not meet expected standards (Sarda et al., 2025). When this behaviour continues, everyday situations may become opportunities for self-criticism and evaluation. Consequently, self-objectification and appearance monitoring negatively affects emotional well-being by making physical looks a source of worry and evaluation, reinforcing body dissatisfaction and increasing vulnerabilities to perceived physical imperfections. 

=== Effects on everyday functioning ===
These concerning behaviours and thought processes about body image can affect how people participate in everyday activities, maintain relationships, and manage daily responsibilities. When one's attention is heavily directed towards appearance, it may be difficult to concentrate on other aspects of life. This can lead to avoidance behaviours such as not attending social events, exercising in public, or having photographs taken. Overtime, this avoidance limits social participation and prevents individuals from engaging in experiences they would otherwise enjoy. The consequences on daily life due to severe body image concerns can be illustrated through Diana's case study.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=7}}
'''Case Study: Diana'''

Diana is a 25-year-old with anorexia nervosa who was examined by Di Lernia et al. (2019). Diana sought treatment at an eating disorder centre following significant weight loss. Her issues with eating started when she began a restrictive diet due to health concerns. This caused her to develop persistent thoughts about calories, weight, and particular foods. Diana also experienced distorted perceptions of her body, repeatedly body checking in mirrors, and wearing clothes that would hide her figure. During periods of high distress, she reported frequently crying while looking at herself in the mirror. {{RoundBoxBottom}}

This case study shows how body image can extend into eating behaviours, daily routines, and overall emotional wellbeing. Persistent concerns about food, weight, and body perception show how these thoughts can become a significant part of daily life and can cause severe negative emotional responses. Although this case involves [[wikipedia:Anorexia|anorexia nervosa]] and cannot represent all experiences of negative body image, it stands as a good example of how severe body image can coincide with distress and behaviours that distrupt daily functioning and therefore emotional wellbeing. 

== Social and cultural influences ==
Intro: Explaining how body image develops socially and culturally and how environments can both influence appearance-related beliefs and emotional well-being 
[[File:Woman Montage (1).jpg|thumb|'''Figure 2.''' Faces and figures of  women, showing how different groups depict beauty.  ]]

=== Appearance ideals and cultural influence ===
* Cultures and social groups have differing ideals regarding attractiveness and desirable bodies (Abdoli et al., 2024). See Figure 2. as an example of these differences.
* Thinness, muscularity, and youthfulness ideals can become internalised and used as standards for evaluating one's own body contributing to body dissatisfaction
* Internalisation of these ideals contribute to body dissatisfaction

=== Effects of social media ===
* Appearance-focused social media exposes individuals to idealised representations of bodies 
* Comparison with such representations may contribute to internalisation of appearance ideals and negative body evaluation (Fioravanti et al., 2022).
* Body-neutral content and reduced appearance focused engagement potentially proved an alternative - effectiveness of such content yet to be researched
Key Citations: 

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the Exposure to Beauty Ideals on Social Networking Sites Influences Body Image: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4&lt;/nowiki&gt;

=== Individual and social differences ===
* Body-image concerns differ according gender, age, sexuality and other social characteristics 
* Different groups experience different appearance ideals - e.g., thinness-oriented pressures versus muscularity orientated pressures (Promichter et al., 2025) (Frederick et al., 2025)
* Individual differences in vulnerability, existing body dissatisfaction and social environmetns may influence whether body neutrality affects emotional well-being 

== Existing research on body neutrality ==
Intro: evaluating whether research supports the proposed relationship between body neutrality and emotional well-being

=== Evidence for benefits ===

* Findings provide preliminary support for potential emotional benefits of body neutrality 
* Research agrees that body neutrality is an acceptable and relevant approach for people experiencing body-image concerns (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Body-neutral content produces improvements in mood, body satisfaction and hopelessness (Seekis &amp; Lawrence, 2023)
* Digital body neutral intervention produced improvements in body dissatisfaction and hopelessness (Smith et al., 2023)

=== Evidence is still mixed ===

* Research is promising but does not provide clear consensus

* Researchers have not established that body neutrality is distinct from existing body-image approaches
* Body neutrality overlaps with concepts such as body-acceptance, compassion and functionality appreciation (Mulgrew &amp; Hinz, 2024)

=== The need for future research ===

* Long term studies are needed to establish if benefits are sustained - due to concept being fairly new 
* Future research should clarify what makes body neutrality distinct from existing approaches (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Researchers should continue testing body-neutral interventions rather than relying primarily on related body-image constructs 

== Applying a body-neutral perspective ==
Intro: translating psychological principles of body neutrality into practical ways of changing body perception - how can the reader implement a body neutral perspective? 

=== Changing body-related thinking ===
* Separating physical appearance from global self-worth may reduce appearance contingent self-evaluation 
* Notice negative body thoughts without treating them as facts or acting on them 
* Replace appearance-based judgements with more neutral descriptions of the body 
* Reduce all-or-nothing thinking, such as viewing your body as &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot;
[[File:People hugging in the beach.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 3.''' Two people hugging showing an important sensory experience]]

=== From appearance to functionality ===
* Shifting attention toward health, strength, flexibility, and physical comfort
* Recognising sensory experiences - seeing, hearing, moving
* Appreciating what the body enables a person to experience and participate in
* Valuing functionality without turning physical performance into another standard for evaluating the body (Alleva et al., 2023)

=== Healthier environments ===
* Developing media literacy helps critically evaluate idealisd body representations 
* Reducing exposure to appearance-focused content and opportunities for appearance comparison 
* Curating your environment and content consumed to reduce exposure to unrealistic body ideals (Fioravanti et al., 2022)

==Conclusion==

* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing the importan

*A body-neutral perspective emphasises acceptance, functionality, and psychological flexibility, rather than requiring positivity 
* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing importance of appearance in self-worth and decreasing the emotional impact of negative body-related thoughts
* Social and cultural influences continue to shape body image, therefore, body neutrality may be most effective alongside healthier approaches to managing appearance-focused environments
* Research provides promising but preliminary evidence that body-neutral approaches can improve aspects of body and emotional well-being. However, more research is needed to establish long-term effectiveness as well as distinctiveness from other similar concepts
* Overall message: the goal is not necessarily to love or feel positive about the body, but to reduce the extent to which your appearance determines emotional well-being. 

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

==See also==
* [[wikipedia:Body_neutrality|Body neutrality]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Body neutrality and emotional well-being|Body neutrality and emotional well-being]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[wikipedia:Body_positivity|Body positivity]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abdoli, M., Scotto Rosato, M., Desousa, A., &amp; Cotrufo, P. (2024). Cultural differences in body image: A systematic review. ''Social  Sciences (Basel)'', ''13''(6), 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13060305

Adams, K. E., Tyler, J. M., Calogero, R., &amp; Lee, J. (2017). Exploring the relationship between appearance-contingent self-worth and self-esteem: The roles of self-objectification and appearance anxiety. ''Body Image'', ''23'', 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.10.004

Ahmed, U., Fatima, Z., &amp; Zulfiqar, Z. (2025). Media and body image: Analyzing self-objectification theory across different ages of women. ''SAGE Open'', ''15''(4), Article 21582440251379748. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251379748

Alleva, J. M., Atkinson, M. J., Vermeulen, W., Monpellier, V. M., &amp; Martijn, C. (2023). Beyond body size: Focusing on body functionality to improve body image among women who have undergone bariatric surgery. ''Behavior Therapy'', ''54''(1), 14–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2022.06.007

Alleva, J. M., Holmqvist Gattario, K., Martijn, C., &amp; Lunde, C. (2019). What can my body do vs. how does it look?: A qualitative analysis of young women and men’s descriptions of their body functionality or physical appearance. ''Body Image'', ''31'', 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.08.008

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the exposure to beauty ideals on social networking sites influences body image: A systematic review of experimental studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4

Frederick, D. A., Forbes, M., Gentle, B., Reynolds, T. A., &amp; Walters, T. (2012). Beauty standards. In ''Encyclopedia of human sexuality''. Wiley-Blackwell.

Frederick, D. A., Gordon, A. R., Cook-Cottone, C. P., Brady, J. P., Reynolds, T. A., Alley, J., Garcia, J. R., Brown, T. A., Compte, E. J., Convertino, L., Crerand, C. E., Malcarne, V. L., Nagata, J. M., Parent, M. C., Pennesi, J.-L., Perez, M., Pila, E., Rodgers, R. F., Schaefer, L. M., … Murray, S. B. (2022). Demographic and sociocultural predictors of sexuality-related body image and sexual frequency: The U.S. Body Project I. ''Body Image'', ''41'', 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.01.010

Grogan, S. (2016). ''Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children'' (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Leboeuf, C. (2019). What is body positivity? The path from shame to pride. ''Philosophical Topics'', ''47''(2), 113–128. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtopics201947218

Mulgrew, K. E., &amp; Hinz, A. (2024). What is body neutrality and how is it different to existing body image concepts? An analysis of experts and general community responses. ''Body Image'', ''51'', Article 101780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101780

Paterna, A., Alcaraz‐Ibáñez, M., Fuller‐Tyszkiewicz, M., &amp; Sicilia, Á. (2021). Internalization of body shape ideals and body dissatisfaction: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''54''(9), 1575–1600. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23568

Pellizzer, M. L., &amp; Wade, T. D. (2023). Developing a definition of body neutrality and strategies for an intervention. ''Body Image'', ''46'', 434–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.006

Pomichter, E., Cepeda-Benito, A., Ahmadkaraji, S., &amp; DePalma, J. P. (2025). Exploring male body image: A scoping review of measurement approaches and mental health implications. ''International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health'', ''22''(6), 834. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22060834

Saunders, J. F., Nutter, S., Waugh, R., &amp; Hayden, K. A. (2024). Testing body-related components of objectification theory: A meta-analysis of the relations between body shame, self-objectification, and body dissatisfaction. ''Body Image'', ''50'', Article 101738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101738

Seekis, V., &amp; Lawrence, R. K. (2023). How exposure to body neutrality content on TikTok affects young women’s body image and mood. ''Body Image'', ''47'', Article 101629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.101629

Shontz, F. C. (1989).  Development and structure of the body image, Vols. 1 and 2 [Rev. of ''Development and Structure of the Body Image, Volumes 1 and 2'']. ''Psychoanalytic Psychology'', ''6''(4), 503–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.503

Smith, A. C., Ahuvia, I., Ito, S., &amp; Schleider, J. L. (2023). Project Body Neutrality: Piloting a digital single‐session intervention for adolescent body image and depression. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''56''(8), 1554–1569. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23976

Tylka, T. L., &amp; Wood-Barcalow, N. L. (2015). What is and what is not positive body image? Conceptual foundations and construct definition. ''Body Image'', ''14'', 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.04.001

https://www.sciencedirect.com/sdfe/pdf/download/eid/1-s2.0-0022399986900966/first-page-pdf

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9970735/

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00635/full

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15598276261481490?casa_token=CLtVTca5fboAAAAA%3AVZXxdEaZIobOVIUNsqpuvNDYxboj26-mVH0q6wzArhtqivaE-lAE97I6k_favxKjw-E_XHvw-CpTqA

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-86318-001

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7908267/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40211-025-00544-4

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144518304595?casa_token=hdy0DS5cSAUAAAAA:kC46Z81NQanQQzq_0Muk0WbbEhXW-zrw1xPEe6MJC5UA-NPJn2Ts0k4IwkfiCs1gYaXm8i2UEaQ

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40337-025-01353-4

}}

==External links==
*[https://www.healthline.com/health/body-neutrality How to Shift from ‘Body Positivity’ to ‘Body Neutrality’ — and Why You Should] - Healthline
*[https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/5-steps-body-neutrality/ 5 Steps to Body Neutrality] - NEDA
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2nBomd-mpY TedTalk - Existing: Body Neutrality and Beauty Standards | Sophia Vimol Horng] - YouTube

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==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}'''Consider this scenario...''' 
[[File:Woman with a rough life checking herself out in the mirror (8436629921).jpg|thumb|right|'''Figure 1.''' Woman looking at herself in the mirror]]

Amanda is excitedly getting ready to go to a party with friends. Her excitement disappears when she looks in the mirror, beginning to compare her appearance to other women she knows. She focuses on what she perceives as flaws in her body, thinking about how she might be viewed by others at the event. As these thoughts become more intense, Amanda feels increasingly anxious and ashamed of her appearance. She considers making an excuse not to go as she worries she will be judged or that she does not look &quot;good enough&quot; to go out. 

Before texting the group chat to cancel, she stops. Amanda recognises how pumped she was seconds ago about this party, and how quickly this changes. She thinks, &quot;Why is it that only after I look in the mirror, I believe I'm not worthy?&quot;. She realises how much her appearance has become closely connected with her emotions how she views her self-worth. Amanda decides to change the thought process. Instead of thinking &quot;I will I look bad/good at this party&quot; she thinks &quot;I'm going to have to much fun at this party&quot;. This shifts the attention away from evaluating her appearance and more towards what her body allows her to do, such as spending time with friends, dancing, and enjoying the evening. 

Amanda also recognises that self-worth can come from many areas of her life, including her relationships, personality, interests, and achievements. She knows that negative thoughts about her appearance will still occur, but she's done with letting them determine whether she feels good about herself or whether she participates in activities she enjoys. 

Amanda does finishing touches to her hair, makeup, and outfit, before grabbing her bag and shoes. She leaves the house feeing better about herself and looking forward for the night ahead, all thanks to her discovery of a body-neutral perspective 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Body neutrality is an approach to body image which focuses on accepting the body without any particular emotion or attention to one's physical appearance. This is an important concept because body dissatisfaction is common and has negative affects on emotional well-being, self-esteem and behaviour. These affects can lead to difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and psychological issues such as disordered eating. Social media, cultural and social idealised bodies, and appearance-based social comparison are important factors that contribute to how people evaluate their bodies. Psychological research somewhat explains how body-neutral perspectives may influence emotional-wellbeing through the examination of self-esteem, social comparison, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, and appearance-based self-worth. Understanding such psychological processes helps identify whether and how body neutrality may support a healthy body image and therefore emotional well-being. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What is body neutrality, and how does it differ from other approaches to body image?
* How can body image and appearance-related thinking influence emotional well-being? 
* How do social and cultural influences shape body image and the way we experience our bodies?
* How might adopting a body-neutral perspect support emotional wellbeing?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
== Understanding body neutrality ==
=== Body image ===
The concept of body image has many interpretations. It was originally developed as a neurological concept, describing the brain's ability to detect weight, shape, size and form and incorporate these into core beliefs or mental frameworks (Lacey, 1986). This early definition of body image was known as 'the body percept' and focuses more on the accumulated sensory experience within one's body. The actual term 'body image' was coined by Paul Schilder (2013) who defined body image as &quot;the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say the way in which the body appears to ourselves.&quot; Modern definitions of the term are far more in depth, explaining body image as something that is multidimensional that encompasses an individuals thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviours regarding their physical appearance, body shape, size, weight, and how their body functions (Rodgers et al. 2023).  

Body image involves interconnected perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components. These components explain how we percieve our bodies, develop beliefs about our appearance, experience body-related emotions, and respond through behaviour (Carey &amp; Preston, 2019).   

* '''Perceptual''': How people perceive their body's size, shape, weight, and appearance. Perceptions may not always accurately reflect physical characteristics 
** Example: perceiving your stomach to be bigger than it actually is
* '''Cognitive''': Thoughts, beliefs, and evaluation individuals hold about their bodies. This includes beliefs about how attractive or important one's appearance is. 
** Example: believing you need to lose weight to be considered attractive 
* '''Emotional''': Feelings associated with body appearance including satisfaction, confidence, shame, anxiety, or embarrassment 
** Example: Feeling shame about your body when you compare to another person 
* '''Behavioural''': Actions people take in response to body image
** Example: Repeatedly checking appearance in mirrors or avoiding social situations due to being uncomfortable about appearance

These components can be considered separately but they are best understood as interacting factors. For example, someone who may perceive their appearance negatively may develop critical thoughts about their body, experience feelings of shame or anxiety, and subsequently avoiding social situations, therefore displaying all body image components. 

=== Development of body neutrality ===
The development of body neutrality is closely associated with Anne Poirier, who worked as a eating-disorder specialist and intuitive eating counsellor, helping popularise the approach through this work. Around 2015, body neutrality started to gain popularity in online spaces as a alternative way of discussing body image, with Poirer subsequently developing workshops around the concept (Nuss et al., 2026). Poirer's approach emphasised that people should not feel like they have to love their bodies. Instead, their attention should be on body functionality and recognising personal worth beyond physical appearance. Poirer's work helped bring body neutrality into wider discussions regarding body image. This includes popularity on social media such as Instagram or TikTok, which further increased visibility for the concept (Nuss et al., 2025).  

Despite its increasing popularity, there still is not an agreed-upon definition of body neutrality. The term is often used to describe reducing importance placed on physical appearance, accepting the body without required feelings, focusing on functionality, or responding to body-related thoughts without judgement. Although these ideas overlap, they do not necessarily describe the same psychological process. For example, trying to reduce the importance of appearance involves changing how much value is placed on physical attractiveness, whereas body functionality focuses on recognising what the body allows us to do. Similarly, accepting negative body related feelings does not necessarily mean that appearance has become unimportant. These differences make it difficult to establish a single definition that captures all the ways body neutrality is understood or practiced. '''*reference''' 

Body neutrality represents a promising approach to understanding body image by offering an alternative perspective that does not require feeling-focused attitudes towards appearance. Despite it's recent emergence and evolving definition, the concept is valuable because it helps navigate pressures surrounding body evaluation.  
=== From body negativity to body positivity to body neutrality ===
Body image is best understood through the varying perspectives that people have. This ranges from negative evaluations of one's appearance, positive appreciation, and neutral acceptance. Body negativity involves dissatisfaction, criticism, or negative feelings towards one's body,  often influenced by perceived flaws and societal beauty standards (Tort-Nasarre et al., 2021). Negative body image often contribute to lower self-esteem and emotional distress, including feelings of anxiety, sadness, and shame. It is also associated with disordered eating behaviours and other psychological difficulties, although these relationships are complex and do not effect everyone with body dissatisfaction (Abdoli et al., 2025). Body positivity is a opposing perspective because it involves encouragement in appreciating or accepting one's body regardless of shape, size, or appearance.  

The body positivity movement created visibility for body positive perspectives through social media, where people of all differing types of bodies challenges conventional beauty standards. The body positive movement originated with fat-acceptance activism, feminist and queer social movements, with a focused attention to the stigma and exclusion experienced by people whose bodies are marginalised because of body size, disability, gender expression, etc (Cohen et al., 2019). While this movement has messages of empowerment for many, some people have found the expectation to love and celebrate their bodies difficult to achieve. For those with a negative body image, being encouraged to replace negative feelings with positive ones may feel unrealistic or create pressure to feel confident when they simply do not. This does not mean that body positivity is ineffective, rather, it highlights that people relate to their bodies in different ways.  

This is where body neutrality comes in as a valuable alternative. For those who do not want to focus on loving their appearance, it allows them to accept their bodies without requiring positive feelings. Rather than judging body image by whether someone feels positivity or negatively about their looks, a neutral perspective allows for all feelings without them being the measure of personal worth. See table 1 for an overall comparison of these perspectives.  

{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot;
|+Table 1. Comparing and Contrasting Body-image Concepts
!
!Body negativity
!Body positivity
!Body neutrality
|-
|View of body
|Negative evaluation
|Positive appreciation
|Acceptance without requiring positivity
|-
|Role of appearance
| colspan=&quot;2&quot; |High Importance
|Reduced importance
|-
|Expected emotion
|Shame, anxiety, distress
|Pride, love, happiness
|No particular feelings required
|-
|Basis of self-worth
|May become appearance dependent
|May include body appreciation
|Broader than physical appearance
|-
|Psychological focus
|Appearance evaluation
|Appreciation and acceptance
|Flexibility and reduced appearance centrality
|-
|Example thought
|&quot;I don't like how my body looks&quot;
|&quot;I love and appreciate my body&quot;
|&quot;I accept my body and my appearance does not determine my worth&quot;
|}

== Body image and emotional wellbeing ==
=== Appearance-based self-worth and emotional distress ===
Appearance-based self-worth is when individuals base their overall self-evaluation on whether they believe their physical attractiveness meets a certain standard. When appearance is a central focus, perceived flaws or concerns about looks becomes a central source of emotional distress. Findings from Adams et al. (2017) find that appearance-contingent self-worth is associated with greater-self objectification, which is linked to higher appearance anxiety and lower self-esteem. This suggests that people who place greater importance on appearance may become more concerned about if they meet beauty standards, causing vulnerabilities to their self-esteem because of appearance-related stress. For example, someone who believes their attractiveness determines worth may experience anxiety or shame when comparing themselves with others. This thinking can extend beyond body dissatisfaction and into how individuals evaluate themselves as a person overall. 

=== Self-objectification and appearance monitoring ===
Self-objectification refers to viewing one's body from an outsider's perspective. There is great attention given to how the body looks rather than how it feels or functions. Appearance monitoring stems from this, and includes behaviours such as repeatedly checking mirrors, adjusting clothing to hide perceived flaws, or comparing one's appearance with others (Ahmed et al., 2025). Continually monitoring appearance can increase attention towards someone idea of a physical flaw and create greater concern about how other evaluate their body. This contributes to feelings body shame, appearance anxiety, and lower self-esteem, particularly for those who believe they do not meet expected standards (Sarda et al., 2025). When this behaviour continues, everyday situations may become opportunities for self-criticism and evaluation. Consequently, self-objectification and appearance monitoring negatively affects emotional well-being by making physical looks a source of worry and evaluation, reinforcing body dissatisfaction and increasing vulnerabilities to perceived physical imperfections. 

=== Effects on everyday functioning ===
These concerning behaviours and thought processes about body image can affect how people participate in everyday activities, maintain relationships, and manage daily responsibilities. When one's attention is heavily directed towards appearance, it may be difficult to concentrate on other aspects of life. This can lead to avoidance behaviours such as not attending social events, exercising in public, or having photographs taken. Overtime, this avoidance limits social participation and prevents individuals from engaging in experiences they would otherwise enjoy. The consequences on daily life due to severe body image concerns can be illustrated through Diana's case study.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=7}}
'''Case Study: Diana'''

Diana is a 25-year-old with anorexia nervosa who was examined by Di Lernia et al. (2019). Diana sought treatment at an eating disorder centre following significant weight loss. Her issues with eating started when she began a restrictive diet due to health concerns. This caused her to develop persistent thoughts about calories, weight, and particular foods. Diana also experienced distorted perceptions of her body, repeatedly body checking in mirrors, and wearing clothes that would hide her figure. During periods of high distress, she reported frequently crying while looking at herself in the mirror. {{RoundBoxBottom}}

This case study shows how body image can extend into eating behaviours, daily routines, and overall emotional wellbeing. Persistent concerns about food, weight, and body perception show how these thoughts can become a significant part of daily life and can cause severe negative emotional responses. Although this case involves [[wikipedia:Anorexia|anorexia nervosa]] and cannot represent all experiences of negative body image, it stands as a good example of how severe body image can coincide with distress and behaviours that distrupt daily functioning and therefore emotional wellbeing. 

== Social and cultural influences ==
Intro: Explaining how body image develops socially and culturally and how environments can both influence appearance-related beliefs and emotional well-being 
[[File:Woman Montage (1).jpg|thumb|'''Figure 2.''' Faces and figures of  women, showing how different groups depict beauty.  ]]

=== Appearance ideals and cultural influence ===
Culture is one of the most influential aspects on the formation of body image as it shaped how individuals understand attractiveness and evaluate their appearance overall (Vincent et al., 2025). Societal values, historical impacts, and cultural expectations influence which body shapes or physical characteristics are considered desirable. Beauty ideals are not universal internationally, with all countries having differing appearance ideals. 

In many Western societies, thinness has been the ideal for beauty in women. However, ideals have shifted over time to include greater emphasis on curvier or more muscular bodies (Paudel et al., 2025). In Southeast Asia, preference for lighter skin is greatly influenced by historical class associations, colourism, and contemporary beauty industries. Across African countries and cultures, ideals also vary, with bodies with fuller figures being associated 


Research involving South Asian women in the United Kingdom found that exposure to advertisements including white models reduce participants' satisfaction with their own skin colour, highlighting how culture and representation can change appearance evaluation (Craddock et al., 2025).

* Cultures and social groups have differing ideals regarding attractiveness and desirable bodies (Abdoli et al., 2024). See Figure 2. as an example of these differences.
* Thinness, muscularity, and youthfulness ideals can become internalised and used as standards for evaluating one's own body contributing to body dissatisfaction
* Internalisation of these ideals contribute to body dissatisfaction

=== Effects of social media ===
* Appearance-focused social media exposes individuals to idealised representations of bodies 
* Comparison with such representations may contribute to internalisation of appearance ideals and negative body evaluation (Fioravanti et al., 2022).
* Body-neutral content and reduced appearance focused engagement potentially proved an alternative - effectiveness of such content yet to be researched
Key Citations: 

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the Exposure to Beauty Ideals on Social Networking Sites Influences Body Image: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4&lt;/nowiki&gt;

=== Individual and social differences ===
* Body-image concerns differ according gender, age, sexuality and other social characteristics 
* Different groups experience different appearance ideals - e.g., thinness-oriented pressures versus muscularity orientated pressures (Promichter et al., 2025) (Frederick et al., 2025)
* Individual differences in vulnerability, existing body dissatisfaction and social environmetns may influence whether body neutrality affects emotional well-being 

== Existing research on body neutrality ==
Intro: evaluating whether research supports the proposed relationship between body neutrality and emotional well-being

=== Evidence for benefits ===

* Findings provide preliminary support for potential emotional benefits of body neutrality 
* Research agrees that body neutrality is an acceptable and relevant approach for people experiencing body-image concerns (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Body-neutral content produces improvements in mood, body satisfaction and hopelessness (Seekis &amp; Lawrence, 2023)
* Digital body neutral intervention produced improvements in body dissatisfaction and hopelessness (Smith et al., 2023)

=== Evidence is still mixed ===

* Research is promising but does not provide clear consensus

* Researchers have not established that body neutrality is distinct from existing body-image approaches
* Body neutrality overlaps with concepts such as body-acceptance, compassion and functionality appreciation (Mulgrew &amp; Hinz, 2024)

=== The need for future research ===

* Long term studies are needed to establish if benefits are sustained - due to concept being fairly new 
* Future research should clarify what makes body neutrality distinct from existing approaches (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Researchers should continue testing body-neutral interventions rather than relying primarily on related body-image constructs 

== Applying a body-neutral perspective ==
Intro: translating psychological principles of body neutrality into practical ways of changing body perception - how can the reader implement a body neutral perspective? 

=== Changing body-related thinking ===
* Separating physical appearance from global self-worth may reduce appearance contingent self-evaluation 
* Notice negative body thoughts without treating them as facts or acting on them 
* Replace appearance-based judgements with more neutral descriptions of the body 
* Reduce all-or-nothing thinking, such as viewing your body as &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot;
[[File:People hugging in the beach.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 3.''' Two people hugging showing an important sensory experience]]

=== From appearance to functionality ===
* Shifting attention toward health, strength, flexibility, and physical comfort
* Recognising sensory experiences - seeing, hearing, moving
* Appreciating what the body enables a person to experience and participate in
* Valuing functionality without turning physical performance into another standard for evaluating the body (Alleva et al., 2023)

=== Healthier environments ===
* Developing media literacy helps critically evaluate idealisd body representations 
* Reducing exposure to appearance-focused content and opportunities for appearance comparison 
* Curating your environment and content consumed to reduce exposure to unrealistic body ideals (Fioravanti et al., 2022)

==Conclusion==

* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing the importan

*A body-neutral perspective emphasises acceptance, functionality, and psychological flexibility, rather than requiring positivity 
* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing importance of appearance in self-worth and decreasing the emotional impact of negative body-related thoughts
* Social and cultural influences continue to shape body image, therefore, body neutrality may be most effective alongside healthier approaches to managing appearance-focused environments
* Research provides promising but preliminary evidence that body-neutral approaches can improve aspects of body and emotional well-being. However, more research is needed to establish long-term effectiveness as well as distinctiveness from other similar concepts
* Overall message: the goal is not necessarily to love or feel positive about the body, but to reduce the extent to which your appearance determines emotional well-being. 

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

==See also==
* [[wikipedia:Body_neutrality|Body neutrality]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Body neutrality and emotional well-being|Body neutrality and emotional well-being]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[wikipedia:Body_positivity|Body positivity]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abdoli, M., Scotto Rosato, M., Desousa, A., &amp; Cotrufo, P. (2024). Cultural differences in body image: A systematic review. ''Social  Sciences (Basel)'', ''13''(6), 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13060305

Adams, K. E., Tyler, J. M., Calogero, R., &amp; Lee, J. (2017). Exploring the relationship between appearance-contingent self-worth and self-esteem: The roles of self-objectification and appearance anxiety. ''Body Image'', ''23'', 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.10.004

Ahmed, U., Fatima, Z., &amp; Zulfiqar, Z. (2025). Media and body image: Analyzing self-objectification theory across different ages of women. ''SAGE Open'', ''15''(4), Article 21582440251379748. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251379748

Alleva, J. M., Atkinson, M. J., Vermeulen, W., Monpellier, V. M., &amp; Martijn, C. (2023). Beyond body size: Focusing on body functionality to improve body image among women who have undergone bariatric surgery. ''Behavior Therapy'', ''54''(1), 14–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2022.06.007

Alleva, J. M., Holmqvist Gattario, K., Martijn, C., &amp; Lunde, C. (2019). What can my body do vs. how does it look?: A qualitative analysis of young women and men’s descriptions of their body functionality or physical appearance. ''Body Image'', ''31'', 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.08.008

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the exposure to beauty ideals on social networking sites influences body image: A systematic review of experimental studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4

Frederick, D. A., Forbes, M., Gentle, B., Reynolds, T. A., &amp; Walters, T. (2012). Beauty standards. In ''Encyclopedia of human sexuality''. Wiley-Blackwell.

Frederick, D. A., Gordon, A. R., Cook-Cottone, C. P., Brady, J. P., Reynolds, T. A., Alley, J., Garcia, J. R., Brown, T. A., Compte, E. J., Convertino, L., Crerand, C. E., Malcarne, V. L., Nagata, J. M., Parent, M. C., Pennesi, J.-L., Perez, M., Pila, E., Rodgers, R. F., Schaefer, L. M., … Murray, S. B. (2022). Demographic and sociocultural predictors of sexuality-related body image and sexual frequency: The U.S. Body Project I. ''Body Image'', ''41'', 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.01.010

Grogan, S. (2016). ''Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children'' (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Leboeuf, C. (2019). What is body positivity? The path from shame to pride. ''Philosophical Topics'', ''47''(2), 113–128. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtopics201947218

Mulgrew, K. E., &amp; Hinz, A. (2024). What is body neutrality and how is it different to existing body image concepts? An analysis of experts and general community responses. ''Body Image'', ''51'', Article 101780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101780

Paterna, A., Alcaraz‐Ibáñez, M., Fuller‐Tyszkiewicz, M., &amp; Sicilia, Á. (2021). Internalization of body shape ideals and body dissatisfaction: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''54''(9), 1575–1600. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23568

Pellizzer, M. L., &amp; Wade, T. D. (2023). Developing a definition of body neutrality and strategies for an intervention. ''Body Image'', ''46'', 434–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.006

Pomichter, E., Cepeda-Benito, A., Ahmadkaraji, S., &amp; DePalma, J. P. (2025). Exploring male body image: A scoping review of measurement approaches and mental health implications. ''International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health'', ''22''(6), 834. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22060834

Saunders, J. F., Nutter, S., Waugh, R., &amp; Hayden, K. A. (2024). Testing body-related components of objectification theory: A meta-analysis of the relations between body shame, self-objectification, and body dissatisfaction. ''Body Image'', ''50'', Article 101738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101738

Seekis, V., &amp; Lawrence, R. K. (2023). How exposure to body neutrality content on TikTok affects young women’s body image and mood. ''Body Image'', ''47'', Article 101629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.101629

Shontz, F. C. (1989).  Development and structure of the body image, Vols. 1 and 2 [Rev. of ''Development and Structure of the Body Image, Volumes 1 and 2'']. ''Psychoanalytic Psychology'', ''6''(4), 503–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.503

Smith, A. C., Ahuvia, I., Ito, S., &amp; Schleider, J. L. (2023). Project Body Neutrality: Piloting a digital single‐session intervention for adolescent body image and depression. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''56''(8), 1554–1569. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23976

Tylka, T. L., &amp; Wood-Barcalow, N. L. (2015). What is and what is not positive body image? Conceptual foundations and construct definition. ''Body Image'', ''14'', 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.04.001

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https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00635/full

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https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-86318-001

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https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40211-025-00544-4

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}}

==External links==
*[https://www.healthline.com/health/body-neutrality How to Shift from ‘Body Positivity’ to ‘Body Neutrality’ — and Why You Should] - Healthline
*[https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/5-steps-body-neutrality/ 5 Steps to Body Neutrality] - NEDA
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2nBomd-mpY TedTalk - Existing: Body Neutrality and Beauty Standards | Sophia Vimol Horng] - YouTube

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}'''Consider this scenario...''' 
[[File:Woman with a rough life checking herself out in the mirror (8436629921).jpg|thumb|right|'''Figure 1.''' Woman looking at herself in the mirror]]

Amanda is excitedly getting ready to go to a party with friends. Her excitement disappears when she looks in the mirror, beginning to compare her appearance to other women she knows. She focuses on what she perceives as flaws in her body, thinking about how she might be viewed by others at the event. As these thoughts become more intense, Amanda feels increasingly anxious and ashamed of her appearance. She considers making an excuse not to go as she worries she will be judged or that she does not look &quot;good enough&quot; to go out. 

Before texting the group chat to cancel, she stops. Amanda recognises how pumped she was seconds ago about this party, and how quickly this changes. She thinks, &quot;Why is it that only after I look in the mirror, I believe I'm not worthy?&quot;. She realises how much her appearance has become closely connected with her emotions how she views her self-worth. Amanda decides to change the thought process. Instead of thinking &quot;I will I look bad/good at this party&quot; she thinks &quot;I'm going to have to much fun at this party&quot;. This shifts the attention away from evaluating her appearance and more towards what her body allows her to do, such as spending time with friends, dancing, and enjoying the evening. 

Amanda also recognises that self-worth can come from many areas of her life, including her relationships, personality, interests, and achievements. She knows that negative thoughts about her appearance will still occur, but she's done with letting them determine whether she feels good about herself or whether she participates in activities she enjoys. 

Amanda does finishing touches to her hair, makeup, and outfit, before grabbing her bag and shoes. She leaves the house feeing better about herself and looking forward for the night ahead, all thanks to her discovery of a body-neutral perspective 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Body neutrality is an approach to body image which focuses on accepting the body without any particular emotion or attention to one's physical appearance. This is an important concept because body dissatisfaction is common and has negative affects on emotional well-being, self-esteem and behaviour. These affects can lead to difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and psychological issues such as disordered eating. Social media, cultural and social idealised bodies, and appearance-based social comparison are important factors that contribute to how people evaluate their bodies. Psychological research somewhat explains how body-neutral perspectives may influence emotional-wellbeing through the examination of self-esteem, social comparison, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, and appearance-based self-worth. Understanding such psychological processes helps identify whether and how body neutrality may support a healthy body image and therefore emotional well-being. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What is body neutrality, and how does it differ from other approaches to body image?
* How can body image and appearance-related thinking influence emotional well-being? 
* How do social and cultural influences shape body image and the way we experience our bodies?
* How might adopting a body-neutral perspect support emotional wellbeing?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
== Understanding body neutrality ==
=== Body image ===
The concept of body image has many interpretations. It was originally developed as a neurological concept, describing the brain's ability to detect weight, shape, size and form and incorporate these into core beliefs or mental frameworks (Lacey, 1986). This early definition of body image was known as 'the body percept' and focuses more on the accumulated sensory experience within one's body. The actual term 'body image' was coined by Paul Schilder (2013) who defined body image as &quot;the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say the way in which the body appears to ourselves.&quot; Modern definitions of the term are far more in depth, explaining body image as something that is multidimensional that encompasses an individuals thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviours regarding their physical appearance, body shape, size, weight, and how their body functions (Rodgers et al. 2023).  

Body image involves interconnected perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components. These components explain how we percieve our bodies, develop beliefs about our appearance, experience body-related emotions, and respond through behaviour (Carey &amp; Preston, 2019).   

* '''Perceptual''': How people perceive their body's size, shape, weight, and appearance. Perceptions may not always accurately reflect physical characteristics 
** Example: perceiving your stomach to be bigger than it actually is
* '''Cognitive''': Thoughts, beliefs, and evaluation individuals hold about their bodies. This includes beliefs about how attractive or important one's appearance is. 
** Example: believing you need to lose weight to be considered attractive 
* '''Emotional''': Feelings associated with body appearance including satisfaction, confidence, shame, anxiety, or embarrassment 
** Example: Feeling shame about your body when you compare to another person 
* '''Behavioural''': Actions people take in response to body image
** Example: Repeatedly checking appearance in mirrors or avoiding social situations due to being uncomfortable about appearance

These components can be considered separately but they are best understood as interacting factors. For example, someone who may perceive their appearance negatively may develop critical thoughts about their body, experience feelings of shame or anxiety, and subsequently avoiding social situations, therefore displaying all body image components. 

=== Development of body neutrality ===
The development of body neutrality is closely associated with Anne Poirier, who worked as a eating-disorder specialist and intuitive eating counsellor, helping popularise the approach through this work. Around 2015, body neutrality started to gain popularity in online spaces as a alternative way of discussing body image, with Poirer subsequently developing workshops around the concept (Nuss et al., 2026). Poirer's approach emphasised that people should not feel like they have to love their bodies. Instead, their attention should be on body functionality and recognising personal worth beyond physical appearance. Poirer's work helped bring body neutrality into wider discussions regarding body image. This includes popularity on social media such as Instagram or TikTok, which further increased visibility for the concept (Nuss et al., 2025).  

Despite its increasing popularity, there still is not an agreed-upon definition of body neutrality. The term is often used to describe reducing importance placed on physical appearance, accepting the body without required feelings, focusing on functionality, or responding to body-related thoughts without judgement. Although these ideas overlap, they do not necessarily describe the same psychological process. For example, trying to reduce the importance of appearance involves changing how much value is placed on physical attractiveness, whereas body functionality focuses on recognising what the body allows us to do. Similarly, accepting negative body related feelings does not necessarily mean that appearance has become unimportant. These differences make it difficult to establish a single definition that captures all the ways body neutrality is understood or practiced. '''*reference''' 

Body neutrality represents a promising approach to understanding body image by offering an alternative perspective that does not require feeling-focused attitudes towards appearance. Despite it's recent emergence and evolving definition, the concept is valuable because it helps navigate pressures surrounding body evaluation.  
=== From body negativity to body positivity to body neutrality ===
Body image is best understood through the varying perspectives that people have. This ranges from negative evaluations of one's appearance, positive appreciation, and neutral acceptance. Body negativity involves dissatisfaction, criticism, or negative feelings towards one's body,  often influenced by perceived flaws and societal beauty standards (Tort-Nasarre et al., 2021). Negative body image often contribute to lower self-esteem and emotional distress, including feelings of anxiety, sadness, and shame. It is also associated with disordered eating behaviours and other psychological difficulties, although these relationships are complex and do not effect everyone with body dissatisfaction (Abdoli et al., 2025). Body positivity is a opposing perspective because it involves encouragement in appreciating or accepting one's body regardless of shape, size, or appearance.  

The body positivity movement created visibility for body positive perspectives through social media, where people of all differing types of bodies challenges conventional beauty standards. The body positive movement originated with fat-acceptance activism, feminist and queer social movements, with a focused attention to the stigma and exclusion experienced by people whose bodies are marginalised because of body size, disability, gender expression, etc (Cohen et al., 2019). While this movement has messages of empowerment for many, some people have found the expectation to love and celebrate their bodies difficult to achieve. For those with a negative body image, being encouraged to replace negative feelings with positive ones may feel unrealistic or create pressure to feel confident when they simply do not. This does not mean that body positivity is ineffective, rather, it highlights that people relate to their bodies in different ways.  

This is where body neutrality comes in as a valuable alternative. For those who do not want to focus on loving their appearance, it allows them to accept their bodies without requiring positive feelings. Rather than judging body image by whether someone feels positivity or negatively about their looks, a neutral perspective allows for all feelings without them being the measure of personal worth. See table 1 for an overall comparison of these perspectives.  

{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot;
|+Table 1. Comparing and Contrasting Body-image Concepts
!
!Body negativity
!Body positivity
!Body neutrality
|-
|View of body
|Negative evaluation
|Positive appreciation
|Acceptance without requiring positivity
|-
|Role of appearance
| colspan=&quot;2&quot; |High Importance
|Reduced importance
|-
|Expected emotion
|Shame, anxiety, distress
|Pride, love, happiness
|No particular feelings required
|-
|Basis of self-worth
|May become appearance dependent
|May include body appreciation
|Broader than physical appearance
|-
|Psychological focus
|Appearance evaluation
|Appreciation and acceptance
|Flexibility and reduced appearance centrality
|-
|Example thought
|&quot;I don't like how my body looks&quot;
|&quot;I love and appreciate my body&quot;
|&quot;I accept my body and my appearance does not determine my worth&quot;
|}

== Body image and emotional wellbeing ==
=== Appearance-based self-worth and emotional distress ===
Appearance-based self-worth is when individuals base their overall self-evaluation on whether they believe their physical attractiveness meets a certain standard. When appearance is a central focus, perceived flaws or concerns about looks becomes a central source of emotional distress. Findings from Adams et al. (2017) find that appearance-contingent self-worth is associated with greater-self objectification, which is linked to higher appearance anxiety and lower self-esteem. This suggests that people who place greater importance on appearance may become more concerned about if they meet beauty standards, causing vulnerabilities to their self-esteem because of appearance-related stress. For example, someone who believes their attractiveness determines worth may experience anxiety or shame when comparing themselves with others. This thinking can extend beyond body dissatisfaction and into how individuals evaluate themselves as a person overall. 

=== Self-objectification and appearance monitoring ===
Self-objectification refers to viewing one's body from an outsider's perspective. There is great attention given to how the body looks rather than how it feels or functions. Appearance monitoring stems from this, and includes behaviours such as repeatedly checking mirrors, adjusting clothing to hide perceived flaws, or comparing one's appearance with others (Ahmed et al., 2025). Continually monitoring appearance can increase attention towards someone idea of a physical flaw and create greater concern about how other evaluate their body. This contributes to feelings body shame, appearance anxiety, and lower self-esteem, particularly for those who believe they do not meet expected standards (Sarda et al., 2025). When this behaviour continues, everyday situations may become opportunities for self-criticism and evaluation. Consequently, self-objectification and appearance monitoring negatively affects emotional well-being by making physical looks a source of worry and evaluation, reinforcing body dissatisfaction and increasing vulnerabilities to perceived physical imperfections. 

=== Effects on everyday functioning ===
These concerning behaviours and thought processes about body image can affect how people participate in everyday activities, maintain relationships, and manage daily responsibilities. When one's attention is heavily directed towards appearance, it may be difficult to concentrate on other aspects of life. This can lead to avoidance behaviours such as not attending social events, exercising in public, or having photographs taken. Overtime, this avoidance limits social participation and prevents individuals from engaging in experiences they would otherwise enjoy. The consequences on daily life due to severe body image concerns can be illustrated through Diana's case study.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=7}}
'''Case Study: Diana'''

Diana is a 25-year-old with anorexia nervosa who was examined by Di Lernia et al. (2019). Diana sought treatment at an eating disorder centre following significant weight loss. Her issues with eating started when she began a restrictive diet due to health concerns. This caused her to develop persistent thoughts about calories, weight, and particular foods. Diana also experienced distorted perceptions of her body, repeatedly body checking in mirrors, and wearing clothes that would hide her figure. During periods of high distress, she reported frequently crying while looking at herself in the mirror. {{RoundBoxBottom}}

This case study shows how body image can extend into eating behaviours, daily routines, and overall emotional wellbeing. Persistent concerns about food, weight, and body perception show how these thoughts can become a significant part of daily life and can cause severe negative emotional responses. Although this case involves [[wikipedia:Anorexia|anorexia nervosa]] and cannot represent all experiences of negative body image, it stands as a good example of how severe body image can coincide with distress and behaviours that distrupt daily functioning and therefore emotional wellbeing. 

== Social and cultural influences ==
Intro: Explaining how body image develops socially and culturally and how environments can both influence appearance-related beliefs and emotional well-being 
[[File:Woman Montage (1).jpg|thumb|'''Figure 2.''' Faces and figures of  women, showing how different groups depict beauty.  ]]

=== Appearance ideals and cultural influence ===
Culture is one of the most influential aspects on the formation of body image as it shaped how individuals understand attractiveness and evaluate their appearance overall (Vincent et al., 2025). Societal values, historical impacts, and cultural expectations influence which body shapes or physical characteristics are considered desirable. Beauty ideals are not universal internationally, with all countries having differing appearance ideals. 

In many Western societies, thinness has been the ideal for beauty in women. However, ideals have shifted over time to include greater emphasis on curvier or more muscular bodies (Paudel et al., 2025). In Southeast Asia, preference for lighter skin is greatly influenced by historical class associations, colourism, and contemporary beauty industries (Khan &amp; Khan, 2022). Across African countries and cultures, ideals also vary, with normal to overweight bodies being associated with beauty, prosperity or fertility in some contexts, while lighter skin and Eurocentric feautres have been favoured in others (Pradeilles et al., 2022). These ideals are largely based in culture and not necessarily the geographical regions in which they are developed. An example of this is shown through research involving South Asian women in the United Kingdom found that exposure to advertisements including white models reduce participants' satisfaction with their own skin colour, highlighting how culture and representation can change appearance evaluation (Craddock et al., 2025). This suggests that appearance ideals influence body image because individuals may encounter and internalise beauty standards associated with other cultures, making cultural influences and exposure to beauty ideals have significant impact on how individuals percieve and evaluate their bodies, regardless of where they live.  
* Cultures and social groups have differing ideals regarding attractiveness and desirable bodies (Abdoli et al., 2024). See Figure 2. as an example of these differences.
* Thinness, muscularity, and youthfulness ideals can become internalised and used as standards for evaluating one's own body contributing to body dissatisfaction
* Internalisation of these ideals contribute to body dissatisfaction

=== Effects of social media ===
* Appearance-focused social media exposes individuals to idealised representations of bodies 
* Comparison with such representations may contribute to internalisation of appearance ideals and negative body evaluation (Fioravanti et al., 2022).
* Body-neutral content and reduced appearance focused engagement potentially proved an alternative - effectiveness of such content yet to be researched
Key Citations: 

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the Exposure to Beauty Ideals on Social Networking Sites Influences Body Image: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4&lt;/nowiki&gt;

=== Individual and social differences ===
* Body-image concerns differ according gender, age, sexuality and other social characteristics 
* Different groups experience different appearance ideals - e.g., thinness-oriented pressures versus muscularity orientated pressures (Promichter et al., 2025) (Frederick et al., 2025)
* Individual differences in vulnerability, existing body dissatisfaction and social environmetns may influence whether body neutrality affects emotional well-being 

== Existing research on body neutrality ==
Intro: evaluating whether research supports the proposed relationship between body neutrality and emotional well-being

=== Evidence for benefits ===

* Findings provide preliminary support for potential emotional benefits of body neutrality 
* Research agrees that body neutrality is an acceptable and relevant approach for people experiencing body-image concerns (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Body-neutral content produces improvements in mood, body satisfaction and hopelessness (Seekis &amp; Lawrence, 2023)
* Digital body neutral intervention produced improvements in body dissatisfaction and hopelessness (Smith et al., 2023)

=== Evidence is still mixed ===

* Research is promising but does not provide clear consensus

* Researchers have not established that body neutrality is distinct from existing body-image approaches
* Body neutrality overlaps with concepts such as body-acceptance, compassion and functionality appreciation (Mulgrew &amp; Hinz, 2024)

=== The need for future research ===

* Long term studies are needed to establish if benefits are sustained - due to concept being fairly new 
* Future research should clarify what makes body neutrality distinct from existing approaches (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Researchers should continue testing body-neutral interventions rather than relying primarily on related body-image constructs 

== Applying a body-neutral perspective ==
Intro: translating psychological principles of body neutrality into practical ways of changing body perception - how can the reader implement a body neutral perspective? 

=== Changing body-related thinking ===
* Separating physical appearance from global self-worth may reduce appearance contingent self-evaluation 
* Notice negative body thoughts without treating them as facts or acting on them 
* Replace appearance-based judgements with more neutral descriptions of the body 
* Reduce all-or-nothing thinking, such as viewing your body as &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot;
[[File:People hugging in the beach.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 3.''' Two people hugging showing an important sensory experience]]

=== From appearance to functionality ===
* Shifting attention toward health, strength, flexibility, and physical comfort
* Recognising sensory experiences - seeing, hearing, moving
* Appreciating what the body enables a person to experience and participate in
* Valuing functionality without turning physical performance into another standard for evaluating the body (Alleva et al., 2023)

=== Healthier environments ===
* Developing media literacy helps critically evaluate idealisd body representations 
* Reducing exposure to appearance-focused content and opportunities for appearance comparison 
* Curating your environment and content consumed to reduce exposure to unrealistic body ideals (Fioravanti et al., 2022)

==Conclusion==

* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing the importan

*A body-neutral perspective emphasises acceptance, functionality, and psychological flexibility, rather than requiring positivity 
* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing importance of appearance in self-worth and decreasing the emotional impact of negative body-related thoughts
* Social and cultural influences continue to shape body image, therefore, body neutrality may be most effective alongside healthier approaches to managing appearance-focused environments
* Research provides promising but preliminary evidence that body-neutral approaches can improve aspects of body and emotional well-being. However, more research is needed to establish long-term effectiveness as well as distinctiveness from other similar concepts
* Overall message: the goal is not necessarily to love or feel positive about the body, but to reduce the extent to which your appearance determines emotional well-being. 

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

==See also==
* [[wikipedia:Body_neutrality|Body neutrality]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Body neutrality and emotional well-being|Body neutrality and emotional well-being]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[wikipedia:Body_positivity|Body positivity]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abdoli, M., Scotto Rosato, M., Desousa, A., &amp; Cotrufo, P. (2024). Cultural differences in body image: A systematic review. ''Social  Sciences (Basel)'', ''13''(6), 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13060305

Adams, K. E., Tyler, J. M., Calogero, R., &amp; Lee, J. (2017). Exploring the relationship between appearance-contingent self-worth and self-esteem: The roles of self-objectification and appearance anxiety. ''Body Image'', ''23'', 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.10.004

Ahmed, U., Fatima, Z., &amp; Zulfiqar, Z. (2025). Media and body image: Analyzing self-objectification theory across different ages of women. ''SAGE Open'', ''15''(4), Article 21582440251379748. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251379748

Alleva, J. M., Atkinson, M. J., Vermeulen, W., Monpellier, V. M., &amp; Martijn, C. (2023). Beyond body size: Focusing on body functionality to improve body image among women who have undergone bariatric surgery. ''Behavior Therapy'', ''54''(1), 14–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2022.06.007

Alleva, J. M., Holmqvist Gattario, K., Martijn, C., &amp; Lunde, C. (2019). What can my body do vs. how does it look?: A qualitative analysis of young women and men’s descriptions of their body functionality or physical appearance. ''Body Image'', ''31'', 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.08.008

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the exposure to beauty ideals on social networking sites influences body image: A systematic review of experimental studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4

Frederick, D. A., Forbes, M., Gentle, B., Reynolds, T. A., &amp; Walters, T. (2012). Beauty standards. In ''Encyclopedia of human sexuality''. Wiley-Blackwell.

Frederick, D. A., Gordon, A. R., Cook-Cottone, C. P., Brady, J. P., Reynolds, T. A., Alley, J., Garcia, J. R., Brown, T. A., Compte, E. J., Convertino, L., Crerand, C. E., Malcarne, V. L., Nagata, J. M., Parent, M. C., Pennesi, J.-L., Perez, M., Pila, E., Rodgers, R. F., Schaefer, L. M., … Murray, S. B. (2022). Demographic and sociocultural predictors of sexuality-related body image and sexual frequency: The U.S. Body Project I. ''Body Image'', ''41'', 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.01.010

Grogan, S. (2016). ''Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children'' (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Leboeuf, C. (2019). What is body positivity? The path from shame to pride. ''Philosophical Topics'', ''47''(2), 113–128. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtopics201947218

Mulgrew, K. E., &amp; Hinz, A. (2024). What is body neutrality and how is it different to existing body image concepts? An analysis of experts and general community responses. ''Body Image'', ''51'', Article 101780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101780

Paterna, A., Alcaraz‐Ibáñez, M., Fuller‐Tyszkiewicz, M., &amp; Sicilia, Á. (2021). Internalization of body shape ideals and body dissatisfaction: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''54''(9), 1575–1600. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23568

Pellizzer, M. L., &amp; Wade, T. D. (2023). Developing a definition of body neutrality and strategies for an intervention. ''Body Image'', ''46'', 434–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.006

Pomichter, E., Cepeda-Benito, A., Ahmadkaraji, S., &amp; DePalma, J. P. (2025). Exploring male body image: A scoping review of measurement approaches and mental health implications. ''International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health'', ''22''(6), 834. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22060834

Saunders, J. F., Nutter, S., Waugh, R., &amp; Hayden, K. A. (2024). Testing body-related components of objectification theory: A meta-analysis of the relations between body shame, self-objectification, and body dissatisfaction. ''Body Image'', ''50'', Article 101738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101738

Seekis, V., &amp; Lawrence, R. K. (2023). How exposure to body neutrality content on TikTok affects young women’s body image and mood. ''Body Image'', ''47'', Article 101629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.101629

Shontz, F. C. (1989).  Development and structure of the body image, Vols. 1 and 2 [Rev. of ''Development and Structure of the Body Image, Volumes 1 and 2'']. ''Psychoanalytic Psychology'', ''6''(4), 503–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.503

Smith, A. C., Ahuvia, I., Ito, S., &amp; Schleider, J. L. (2023). Project Body Neutrality: Piloting a digital single‐session intervention for adolescent body image and depression. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''56''(8), 1554–1569. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23976

Tylka, T. L., &amp; Wood-Barcalow, N. L. (2015). What is and what is not positive body image? Conceptual foundations and construct definition. ''Body Image'', ''14'', 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.04.001

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https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00635/full

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https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-86318-001

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}}

==External links==
*[https://www.healthline.com/health/body-neutrality How to Shift from ‘Body Positivity’ to ‘Body Neutrality’ — and Why You Should] - Healthline
*[https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/5-steps-body-neutrality/ 5 Steps to Body Neutrality] - NEDA
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2nBomd-mpY TedTalk - Existing: Body Neutrality and Beauty Standards | Sophia Vimol Horng] - YouTube

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}'''Consider this scenario...''' 
[[File:Woman with a rough life checking herself out in the mirror (8436629921).jpg|thumb|right|'''Figure 1.''' Woman looking at herself in the mirror]]

Amanda is excitedly getting ready to go to a party with friends. Her excitement disappears when she looks in the mirror, beginning to compare her appearance to other women she knows. She focuses on what she perceives as flaws in her body, thinking about how she might be viewed by others at the event. As these thoughts become more intense, Amanda feels increasingly anxious and ashamed of her appearance. She considers making an excuse not to go as she worries she will be judged or that she does not look &quot;good enough&quot; to go out. 

Before texting the group chat to cancel, she stops. Amanda recognises how pumped she was seconds ago about this party, and how quickly this changes. She thinks, &quot;Why is it that only after I look in the mirror, I believe I'm not worthy?&quot;. She realises how much her appearance has become closely connected with her emotions how she views her self-worth. Amanda decides to change the thought process. Instead of thinking &quot;I will I look bad/good at this party&quot; she thinks &quot;I'm going to have to much fun at this party&quot;. This shifts the attention away from evaluating her appearance and more towards what her body allows her to do, such as spending time with friends, dancing, and enjoying the evening. 

Amanda also recognises that self-worth can come from many areas of her life, including her relationships, personality, interests, and achievements. She knows that negative thoughts about her appearance will still occur, but she's done with letting them determine whether she feels good about herself or whether she participates in activities she enjoys. 

Amanda does finishing touches to her hair, makeup, and outfit, before grabbing her bag and shoes. She leaves the house feeing better about herself and looking forward for the night ahead, all thanks to her discovery of a body-neutral perspective 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Body neutrality is an approach to body image which focuses on accepting the body without any particular emotion or attention to one's physical appearance. This is an important concept because body dissatisfaction is common and has negative affects on emotional well-being, self-esteem and behaviour. These affects can lead to difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and psychological issues such as disordered eating. Social media, cultural and social idealised bodies, and appearance-based social comparison are important factors that contribute to how people evaluate their bodies. Psychological research somewhat explains how body-neutral perspectives may influence emotional-wellbeing through the examination of self-esteem, social comparison, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, and appearance-based self-worth. Understanding such psychological processes helps identify whether and how body neutrality may support a healthy body image and therefore emotional well-being. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What is body neutrality, and how does it differ from other approaches to body image?
* How can body image and appearance-related thinking influence emotional well-being? 
* How do social and cultural influences shape body image and the way we experience our bodies?
* How might adopting a body-neutral perspect support emotional wellbeing?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
== Understanding body neutrality ==
=== Body image ===
The concept of body image has many interpretations. It was originally developed as a neurological concept, describing the brain's ability to detect weight, shape, size and form and incorporate these into core beliefs or mental frameworks (Lacey, 1986). This early definition of body image was known as 'the body percept' and focuses more on the accumulated sensory experience within one's body. The actual term 'body image' was coined by Paul Schilder (2013) who defined body image as &quot;the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say the way in which the body appears to ourselves.&quot; Modern definitions of the term are far more in depth, explaining body image as something that is multidimensional that encompasses an individuals thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviours regarding their physical appearance, body shape, size, weight, and how their body functions (Rodgers et al. 2023).  

Body image involves interconnected perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components. These components explain how we percieve our bodies, develop beliefs about our appearance, experience body-related emotions, and respond through behaviour (Carey &amp; Preston, 2019).   

* '''Perceptual''': How people perceive their body's size, shape, weight, and appearance. Perceptions may not always accurately reflect physical characteristics 
** Example: perceiving your stomach to be bigger than it actually is
* '''Cognitive''': Thoughts, beliefs, and evaluation individuals hold about their bodies. This includes beliefs about how attractive or important one's appearance is. 
** Example: believing you need to lose weight to be considered attractive 
* '''Emotional''': Feelings associated with body appearance including satisfaction, confidence, shame, anxiety, or embarrassment 
** Example: Feeling shame about your body when you compare to another person 
* '''Behavioural''': Actions people take in response to body image
** Example: Repeatedly checking appearance in mirrors or avoiding social situations due to being uncomfortable about appearance

These components can be considered separately but they are best understood as interacting factors. For example, someone who may perceive their appearance negatively may develop critical thoughts about their body, experience feelings of shame or anxiety, and subsequently avoiding social situations, therefore displaying all body image components. 

=== Development of body neutrality ===
The development of body neutrality is closely associated with Anne Poirier, who worked as a eating-disorder specialist and intuitive eating counsellor, helping popularise the approach through this work. Around 2015, body neutrality started to gain popularity in online spaces as a alternative way of discussing body image, with Poirer subsequently developing workshops around the concept (Nuss et al., 2026). Poirer's approach emphasised that people should not feel like they have to love their bodies. Instead, their attention should be on body functionality and recognising personal worth beyond physical appearance. Poirer's work helped bring body neutrality into wider discussions regarding body image. This includes popularity on social media such as Instagram or TikTok, which further increased visibility for the concept (Nuss et al., 2025).  

Despite its increasing popularity, there still is not an agreed-upon definition of body neutrality. The term is often used to describe reducing importance placed on physical appearance, accepting the body without required feelings, focusing on functionality, or responding to body-related thoughts without judgement. Although these ideas overlap, they do not necessarily describe the same psychological process. For example, trying to reduce the importance of appearance involves changing how much value is placed on physical attractiveness, whereas body functionality focuses on recognising what the body allows us to do. Similarly, accepting negative body related feelings does not necessarily mean that appearance has become unimportant. These differences make it difficult to establish a single definition that captures all the ways body neutrality is understood or practiced. '''*reference''' 

Body neutrality represents a promising approach to understanding body image by offering an alternative perspective that does not require feeling-focused attitudes towards appearance. Despite it's recent emergence and evolving definition, the concept is valuable because it helps navigate pressures surrounding body evaluation.  
=== From body negativity to body positivity to body neutrality ===
Body image is best understood through the varying perspectives that people have. This ranges from negative evaluations of one's appearance, positive appreciation, and neutral acceptance. Body negativity involves dissatisfaction, criticism, or negative feelings towards one's body,  often influenced by perceived flaws and societal beauty standards (Tort-Nasarre et al., 2021). Negative body image often contribute to lower self-esteem and emotional distress, including feelings of anxiety, sadness, and shame. It is also associated with disordered eating behaviours and other psychological difficulties, although these relationships are complex and do not effect everyone with body dissatisfaction (Abdoli et al., 2025). Body positivity is a opposing perspective because it involves encouragement in appreciating or accepting one's body regardless of shape, size, or appearance.  

The body positivity movement created visibility for body positive perspectives through social media, where people of all differing types of bodies challenges conventional beauty standards. The body positive movement originated with fat-acceptance activism, feminist and queer social movements, with a focused attention to the stigma and exclusion experienced by people whose bodies are marginalised because of body size, disability, gender expression, etc (Cohen et al., 2019). While this movement has messages of empowerment for many, some people have found the expectation to love and celebrate their bodies difficult to achieve. For those with a negative body image, being encouraged to replace negative feelings with positive ones may feel unrealistic or create pressure to feel confident when they simply do not. This does not mean that body positivity is ineffective, rather, it highlights that people relate to their bodies in different ways.  

This is where body neutrality comes in as a valuable alternative. For those who do not want to focus on loving their appearance, it allows them to accept their bodies without requiring positive feelings. Rather than judging body image by whether someone feels positivity or negatively about their looks, a neutral perspective allows for all feelings without them being the measure of personal worth. See table 1 for an overall comparison of these perspectives.  

{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot;
|+Table 1. Comparing and Contrasting Body-image Concepts
!
!Body negativity
!Body positivity
!Body neutrality
|-
|View of body
|Negative evaluation
|Positive appreciation
|Acceptance without requiring positivity
|-
|Role of appearance
| colspan=&quot;2&quot; |High Importance
|Reduced importance
|-
|Expected emotion
|Shame, anxiety, distress
|Pride, love, happiness
|No particular feelings required
|-
|Basis of self-worth
|May become appearance dependent
|May include body appreciation
|Broader than physical appearance
|-
|Psychological focus
|Appearance evaluation
|Appreciation and acceptance
|Flexibility and reduced appearance centrality
|-
|Example thought
|&quot;I don't like how my body looks&quot;
|&quot;I love and appreciate my body&quot;
|&quot;I accept my body and my appearance does not determine my worth&quot;
|}

== Body image and emotional wellbeing ==
=== Appearance-based self-worth and emotional distress ===
Appearance-based self-worth is when individuals base their overall self-evaluation on whether they believe their physical attractiveness meets a certain standard. When appearance is a central focus, perceived flaws or concerns about looks becomes a central source of emotional distress. Findings from Adams et al. (2017) find that appearance-contingent self-worth is associated with greater-self objectification, which is linked to higher appearance anxiety and lower self-esteem. This suggests that people who place greater importance on appearance may become more concerned about if they meet beauty standards, causing vulnerabilities to their self-esteem because of appearance-related stress. For example, someone who believes their attractiveness determines worth may experience anxiety or shame when comparing themselves with others. This thinking can extend beyond body dissatisfaction and into how individuals evaluate themselves as a person overall. 

=== Self-objectification and appearance monitoring ===
Self-objectification refers to viewing one's body from an outsider's perspective. There is great attention given to how the body looks rather than how it feels or functions. Appearance monitoring stems from this, and includes behaviours such as repeatedly checking mirrors, adjusting clothing to hide perceived flaws, or comparing one's appearance with others (Ahmed et al., 2025). Continually monitoring appearance can increase attention towards someone idea of a physical flaw and create greater concern about how other evaluate their body. This contributes to feelings body shame, appearance anxiety, and lower self-esteem, particularly for those who believe they do not meet expected standards (Sarda et al., 2025). When this behaviour continues, everyday situations may become opportunities for self-criticism and evaluation. Consequently, self-objectification and appearance monitoring negatively affects emotional well-being by making physical looks a source of worry and evaluation, reinforcing body dissatisfaction and increasing vulnerabilities to perceived physical imperfections. 

=== Effects on everyday functioning ===
These concerning behaviours and thought processes about body image can affect how people participate in everyday activities, maintain relationships, and manage daily responsibilities. When one's attention is heavily directed towards appearance, it may be difficult to concentrate on other aspects of life. This can lead to avoidance behaviours such as not attending social events, exercising in public, or having photographs taken. Overtime, this avoidance limits social participation and prevents individuals from engaging in experiences they would otherwise enjoy. The consequences on daily life due to severe body image concerns can be illustrated through Diana's case study.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=7}}
'''Case Study: Diana'''

Diana is a 25-year-old with anorexia nervosa who was examined by Di Lernia et al. (2019). Diana sought treatment at an eating disorder centre following significant weight loss. Her issues with eating started when she began a restrictive diet due to health concerns. This caused her to develop persistent thoughts about calories, weight, and particular foods. Diana also experienced distorted perceptions of her body, repeatedly body checking in mirrors, and wearing clothes that would hide her figure. During periods of high distress, she reported frequently crying while looking at herself in the mirror. {{RoundBoxBottom}}

This case study shows how body image can extend into eating behaviours, daily routines, and overall emotional wellbeing. Persistent concerns about food, weight, and body perception show how these thoughts can become a significant part of daily life and can cause severe negative emotional responses. Although this case involves [[wikipedia:Anorexia|anorexia nervosa]] and cannot represent all experiences of negative body image, it stands as a good example of how severe body image can coincide with distress and behaviours that distrupt daily functioning and therefore emotional wellbeing. 

== Social and cultural influences ==
Intro: Explaining how body image develops socially and culturally and how environments can both influence appearance-related beliefs and emotional well-being 
[[File:Woman Montage (1).jpg|thumb|'''Figure 2.''' Faces and figures of  women, showing how different groups depict beauty.  ]]

=== Appearance ideals and cultural influence ===
Culture is one of the most influential aspects on the formation of body image as it shaped how individuals understand attractiveness and evaluate their appearance overall (Vincent et al., 2025). Societal values, historical impacts, and cultural expectations influence which body shapes or physical characteristics are considered desirable. Beauty ideals are not universal internationally, with all countries having differing appearance ideals. 

In many Western societies, thinness has been the ideal for beauty in women. However, ideals have shifted over time to include greater emphasis on curvier or more muscular bodies (Paudel et al., 2025). In Southeast Asia, preference for lighter skin is greatly influenced by historical class associations, [[wikipedia:Colorism|colourism]], and contemporary beauty industries (Khan &amp; Khan, 2022). Across African countries and cultures, ideals also vary, with normal to overweight bodies being associated with beauty, prosperity or fertility in some contexts, while lighter skin and Eurocentric feautres have been favoured in others (Pradeilles et al., 2022). These ideals are largely based in culture and not necessarily the geographical regions in which they are developed. An example of this is shown through research involving South Asian women in the United Kingdom found that exposure to advertisements including white models reduce participants' satisfaction with their own skin colour, highlighting how culture and representation can change appearance evaluation (Craddock et al., 2025). This suggests that appearance ideals influence body image because individuals may encounter and internalise beauty standards associated with other cultures, making cultural influences and exposure to beauty ideals have significant impact on how individuals percieve and evaluate their bodies, regardless of where they live.  
* Cultures and social groups have differing ideals regarding attractiveness and desirable bodies (Abdoli et al., 2024). See Figure 2. as an example of these differences.
* Thinness, muscularity, and youthfulness ideals can become internalised and used as standards for evaluating one's own body contributing to body dissatisfaction
* Internalisation of these ideals contribute to body dissatisfaction

=== Effects of social media ===
* Appearance-focused social media exposes individuals to idealised representations of bodies 
* Comparison with such representations may contribute to internalisation of appearance ideals and negative body evaluation (Fioravanti et al., 2022).
* Body-neutral content and reduced appearance focused engagement potentially proved an alternative - effectiveness of such content yet to be researched
Key Citations: 

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the Exposure to Beauty Ideals on Social Networking Sites Influences Body Image: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4&lt;/nowiki&gt;

=== Individual and social differences ===
* Body-image concerns differ according gender, age, sexuality and other social characteristics 
* Different groups experience different appearance ideals - e.g., thinness-oriented pressures versus muscularity orientated pressures (Promichter et al., 2025) (Frederick et al., 2025)
* Individual differences in vulnerability, existing body dissatisfaction and social environmetns may influence whether body neutrality affects emotional well-being 

== Existing research on body neutrality ==
Intro: evaluating whether research supports the proposed relationship between body neutrality and emotional well-being

=== Evidence for benefits ===

* Findings provide preliminary support for potential emotional benefits of body neutrality 
* Research agrees that body neutrality is an acceptable and relevant approach for people experiencing body-image concerns (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Body-neutral content produces improvements in mood, body satisfaction and hopelessness (Seekis &amp; Lawrence, 2023)
* Digital body neutral intervention produced improvements in body dissatisfaction and hopelessness (Smith et al., 2023)

=== Evidence is still mixed ===

* Research is promising but does not provide clear consensus

* Researchers have not established that body neutrality is distinct from existing body-image approaches
* Body neutrality overlaps with concepts such as body-acceptance, compassion and functionality appreciation (Mulgrew &amp; Hinz, 2024)

=== The need for future research ===

* Long term studies are needed to establish if benefits are sustained - due to concept being fairly new 
* Future research should clarify what makes body neutrality distinct from existing approaches (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Researchers should continue testing body-neutral interventions rather than relying primarily on related body-image constructs 

== Applying a body-neutral perspective ==
Intro: translating psychological principles of body neutrality into practical ways of changing body perception - how can the reader implement a body neutral perspective? 

=== Changing body-related thinking ===
* Separating physical appearance from global self-worth may reduce appearance contingent self-evaluation 
* Notice negative body thoughts without treating them as facts or acting on them 
* Replace appearance-based judgements with more neutral descriptions of the body 
* Reduce all-or-nothing thinking, such as viewing your body as &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot;
[[File:People hugging in the beach.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 3.''' Two people hugging showing an important sensory experience]]

=== From appearance to functionality ===
* Shifting attention toward health, strength, flexibility, and physical comfort
* Recognising sensory experiences - seeing, hearing, moving
* Appreciating what the body enables a person to experience and participate in
* Valuing functionality without turning physical performance into another standard for evaluating the body (Alleva et al., 2023)

=== Healthier environments ===
* Developing media literacy helps critically evaluate idealisd body representations 
* Reducing exposure to appearance-focused content and opportunities for appearance comparison 
* Curating your environment and content consumed to reduce exposure to unrealistic body ideals (Fioravanti et al., 2022)

==Conclusion==

* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing the importan

*A body-neutral perspective emphasises acceptance, functionality, and psychological flexibility, rather than requiring positivity 
* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing importance of appearance in self-worth and decreasing the emotional impact of negative body-related thoughts
* Social and cultural influences continue to shape body image, therefore, body neutrality may be most effective alongside healthier approaches to managing appearance-focused environments
* Research provides promising but preliminary evidence that body-neutral approaches can improve aspects of body and emotional well-being. However, more research is needed to establish long-term effectiveness as well as distinctiveness from other similar concepts
* Overall message: the goal is not necessarily to love or feel positive about the body, but to reduce the extent to which your appearance determines emotional well-being. 

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

==See also==
* [[wikipedia:Body_neutrality|Body neutrality]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Body neutrality and emotional well-being|Body neutrality and emotional well-being]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[wikipedia:Body_positivity|Body positivity]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abdoli, M., Scotto Rosato, M., Desousa, A., &amp; Cotrufo, P. (2024). Cultural differences in body image: A systematic review. ''Social  Sciences (Basel)'', ''13''(6), 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13060305

Adams, K. E., Tyler, J. M., Calogero, R., &amp; Lee, J. (2017). Exploring the relationship between appearance-contingent self-worth and self-esteem: The roles of self-objectification and appearance anxiety. ''Body Image'', ''23'', 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.10.004

Ahmed, U., Fatima, Z., &amp; Zulfiqar, Z. (2025). Media and body image: Analyzing self-objectification theory across different ages of women. ''SAGE Open'', ''15''(4), Article 21582440251379748. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251379748

Alleva, J. M., Atkinson, M. J., Vermeulen, W., Monpellier, V. M., &amp; Martijn, C. (2023). Beyond body size: Focusing on body functionality to improve body image among women who have undergone bariatric surgery. ''Behavior Therapy'', ''54''(1), 14–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2022.06.007

Alleva, J. M., Holmqvist Gattario, K., Martijn, C., &amp; Lunde, C. (2019). What can my body do vs. how does it look?: A qualitative analysis of young women and men’s descriptions of their body functionality or physical appearance. ''Body Image'', ''31'', 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.08.008

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the exposure to beauty ideals on social networking sites influences body image: A systematic review of experimental studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4

Frederick, D. A., Forbes, M., Gentle, B., Reynolds, T. A., &amp; Walters, T. (2012). Beauty standards. In ''Encyclopedia of human sexuality''. Wiley-Blackwell.

Frederick, D. A., Gordon, A. R., Cook-Cottone, C. P., Brady, J. P., Reynolds, T. A., Alley, J., Garcia, J. R., Brown, T. A., Compte, E. J., Convertino, L., Crerand, C. E., Malcarne, V. L., Nagata, J. M., Parent, M. C., Pennesi, J.-L., Perez, M., Pila, E., Rodgers, R. F., Schaefer, L. M., … Murray, S. B. (2022). Demographic and sociocultural predictors of sexuality-related body image and sexual frequency: The U.S. Body Project I. ''Body Image'', ''41'', 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.01.010

Grogan, S. (2016). ''Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children'' (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Leboeuf, C. (2019). What is body positivity? The path from shame to pride. ''Philosophical Topics'', ''47''(2), 113–128. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtopics201947218

Mulgrew, K. E., &amp; Hinz, A. (2024). What is body neutrality and how is it different to existing body image concepts? An analysis of experts and general community responses. ''Body Image'', ''51'', Article 101780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101780

Paterna, A., Alcaraz‐Ibáñez, M., Fuller‐Tyszkiewicz, M., &amp; Sicilia, Á. (2021). Internalization of body shape ideals and body dissatisfaction: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''54''(9), 1575–1600. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23568

Pellizzer, M. L., &amp; Wade, T. D. (2023). Developing a definition of body neutrality and strategies for an intervention. ''Body Image'', ''46'', 434–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.006

Pomichter, E., Cepeda-Benito, A., Ahmadkaraji, S., &amp; DePalma, J. P. (2025). Exploring male body image: A scoping review of measurement approaches and mental health implications. ''International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health'', ''22''(6), 834. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22060834

Saunders, J. F., Nutter, S., Waugh, R., &amp; Hayden, K. A. (2024). Testing body-related components of objectification theory: A meta-analysis of the relations between body shame, self-objectification, and body dissatisfaction. ''Body Image'', ''50'', Article 101738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101738

Seekis, V., &amp; Lawrence, R. K. (2023). How exposure to body neutrality content on TikTok affects young women’s body image and mood. ''Body Image'', ''47'', Article 101629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.101629

Shontz, F. C. (1989).  Development and structure of the body image, Vols. 1 and 2 [Rev. of ''Development and Structure of the Body Image, Volumes 1 and 2'']. ''Psychoanalytic Psychology'', ''6''(4), 503–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.503

Smith, A. C., Ahuvia, I., Ito, S., &amp; Schleider, J. L. (2023). Project Body Neutrality: Piloting a digital single‐session intervention for adolescent body image and depression. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''56''(8), 1554–1569. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23976

Tylka, T. L., &amp; Wood-Barcalow, N. L. (2015). What is and what is not positive body image? Conceptual foundations and construct definition. ''Body Image'', ''14'', 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.04.001

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https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9970735/

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00635/full

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15598276261481490?casa_token=CLtVTca5fboAAAAA%3AVZXxdEaZIobOVIUNsqpuvNDYxboj26-mVH0q6wzArhtqivaE-lAE97I6k_favxKjw-E_XHvw-CpTqA

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-86318-001

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}}

==External links==
*[https://www.healthline.com/health/body-neutrality How to Shift from ‘Body Positivity’ to ‘Body Neutrality’ — and Why You Should] - Healthline
*[https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/5-steps-body-neutrality/ 5 Steps to Body Neutrality] - NEDA
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2nBomd-mpY TedTalk - Existing: Body Neutrality and Beauty Standards | Sophia Vimol Horng] - YouTube

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=8}}'''Consider this scenario...''' 
[[File:Woman with a rough life checking herself out in the mirror (8436629921).jpg|thumb|right|'''Figure 1.''' Woman looking at herself in the mirror]]

Amanda is excitedly getting ready to go to a party with friends. Her excitement disappears when she looks in the mirror, beginning to compare her appearance to other women she knows. She focuses on what she perceives as flaws in her body, thinking about how she might be viewed by others at the event. As these thoughts become more intense, Amanda feels increasingly anxious and ashamed of her appearance. She considers making an excuse not to go as she worries she will be judged or that she does not look &quot;good enough&quot; to go out. 

Before texting the group chat to cancel, she stops. Amanda recognises how pumped she was seconds ago about this party, and how quickly this changes. She thinks, &quot;Why is it that only after I look in the mirror, I believe I'm not worthy?&quot;. She realises how much her appearance has become closely connected with her emotions how she views her self-worth. Amanda decides to change the thought process. Instead of thinking &quot;I will I look bad/good at this party&quot; she thinks &quot;I'm going to have to much fun at this party&quot;. This shifts the attention away from evaluating her appearance and more towards what her body allows her to do, such as spending time with friends, dancing, and enjoying the evening. 

Amanda also recognises that self-worth can come from many areas of her life, including her relationships, personality, interests, and achievements. She knows that negative thoughts about her appearance will still occur, but she's done with letting them determine whether she feels good about herself or whether she participates in activities she enjoys. 

Amanda does finishing touches to her hair, makeup, and outfit, before grabbing her bag and shoes. She leaves the house feeing better about herself and looking forward for the night ahead, all thanks to her discovery of a body-neutral perspective 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Body neutrality is an approach to body image which focuses on accepting the body without any particular emotion or attention to one's physical appearance. This is an important concept because body dissatisfaction is common and has negative affects on emotional well-being, self-esteem and behaviour. These affects can lead to difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and psychological issues such as disordered eating. Social media, cultural and social idealised bodies, and appearance-based social comparison are important factors that contribute to how people evaluate their bodies. Psychological research somewhat explains how body-neutral perspectives may influence emotional-wellbeing through the examination of self-esteem, social comparison, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, and appearance-based self-worth. Understanding such psychological processes helps identify whether and how body neutrality may support a healthy body image and therefore emotional well-being. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What is body neutrality, and how does it differ from other approaches to body image?
* How can body image and appearance-related thinking influence emotional well-being? 
* How do social and cultural influences shape body image and the way we experience our bodies?
* How might adopting a body-neutral perspect support emotional wellbeing?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
== Understanding body neutrality ==
=== Body image ===
The concept of body image has many interpretations. It was originally developed as a neurological concept, describing the brain's ability to detect weight, shape, size and form and incorporate these into core beliefs or mental frameworks (Lacey, 1986). This early definition of body image was known as 'the body percept' and focuses more on the accumulated sensory experience within one's body. The actual term 'body image' was coined by Paul Schilder (2013) who defined body image as &quot;the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say the way in which the body appears to ourselves.&quot; Modern definitions of the term are far more in depth, explaining body image as something that is multidimensional that encompasses an individuals thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviours regarding their physical appearance, body shape, size, weight, and how their body functions (Rodgers et al. 2023).  

Body image involves interconnected perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components. These components explain how we percieve our bodies, develop beliefs about our appearance, experience body-related emotions, and respond through behaviour (Carey &amp; Preston, 2019).   

* '''Perceptual''': How people perceive their body's size, shape, weight, and appearance. Perceptions may not always accurately reflect physical characteristics 
** Example: perceiving your stomach to be bigger than it actually is
* '''Cognitive''': Thoughts, beliefs, and evaluation individuals hold about their bodies. This includes beliefs about how attractive or important one's appearance is. 
** Example: believing you need to lose weight to be considered attractive 
* '''Emotional''': Feelings associated with body appearance including satisfaction, confidence, shame, anxiety, or embarrassment 
** Example: Feeling shame about your body when you compare to another person 
* '''Behavioural''': Actions people take in response to body image
** Example: Repeatedly checking appearance in mirrors or avoiding social situations due to being uncomfortable about appearance

These components can be considered separately but they are best understood as interacting factors. For example, someone who may perceive their appearance negatively may develop critical thoughts about their body, experience feelings of shame or anxiety, and subsequently avoiding social situations, therefore displaying all body image components. 

=== Development of body neutrality ===
The development of body neutrality is closely associated with Anne Poirier, who worked as a eating-disorder specialist and intuitive eating counsellor, helping popularise the approach through this work. Around 2015, body neutrality started to gain popularity in online spaces as a alternative way of discussing body image, with Poirer subsequently developing workshops around the concept (Nuss et al., 2026). Poirer's approach emphasised that people should not feel like they have to love their bodies. Instead, their attention should be on body functionality and recognising personal worth beyond physical appearance. Poirer's work helped bring body neutrality into wider discussions regarding body image. This includes popularity on social media such as Instagram or TikTok, which further increased visibility for the concept (Nuss et al., 2025).  

Despite its increasing popularity, there still is not an agreed-upon definition of body neutrality. The term is often used to describe reducing importance placed on physical appearance, accepting the body without required feelings, focusing on functionality, or responding to body-related thoughts without judgement. Although these ideas overlap, they do not necessarily describe the same psychological process. For example, trying to reduce the importance of appearance involves changing how much value is placed on physical attractiveness, whereas body functionality focuses on recognising what the body allows us to do. Similarly, accepting negative body related feelings does not necessarily mean that appearance has become unimportant. These differences make it difficult to establish a single definition that captures all the ways body neutrality is understood or practiced. '''*reference''' 

Body neutrality represents a promising approach to understanding body image by offering an alternative perspective that does not require feeling-focused attitudes towards appearance. Despite it's recent emergence and evolving definition, the concept is valuable because it helps navigate pressures surrounding body evaluation.  
=== From body negativity to body positivity to body neutrality ===
Body image is best understood through the varying perspectives that people have. This ranges from negative evaluations of one's appearance, positive appreciation, and neutral acceptance. Body negativity involves dissatisfaction, criticism, or negative feelings towards one's body,  often influenced by perceived flaws and societal beauty standards (Tort-Nasarre et al., 2021). Negative body image often contribute to lower self-esteem and emotional distress, including feelings of anxiety, sadness, and shame. It is also associated with disordered eating behaviours and other psychological difficulties, although these relationships are complex and do not effect everyone with body dissatisfaction (Abdoli et al., 2025). Body positivity is a opposing perspective because it involves encouragement in appreciating or accepting one's body regardless of shape, size, or appearance.  

The body positivity movement created visibility for body positive perspectives through social media, where people of all differing types of bodies challenges conventional beauty standards. The body positive movement originated with fat-acceptance activism, feminist and queer social movements, with a focused attention to the stigma and exclusion experienced by people whose bodies are marginalised because of body size, disability, gender expression, etc (Cohen et al., 2019). While this movement has messages of empowerment for many, some people have found the expectation to love and celebrate their bodies difficult to achieve. For those with a negative body image, being encouraged to replace negative feelings with positive ones may feel unrealistic or create pressure to feel confident when they simply do not. This does not mean that body positivity is ineffective, rather, it highlights that people relate to their bodies in different ways.  

This is where body neutrality comes in as a valuable alternative. For those who do not want to focus on loving their appearance, it allows them to accept their bodies without requiring positive feelings. Rather than judging body image by whether someone feels positivity or negatively about their looks, a neutral perspective allows for all feelings without them being the measure of personal worth. See table 1 for an overall comparison of these perspectives.  

{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot;
|+Table 1. Comparing and Contrasting Body-image Concepts
!
!Body negativity
!Body positivity
!Body neutrality
|-
|View of body
|Negative evaluation
|Positive appreciation
|Acceptance without requiring positivity
|-
|Role of appearance
| colspan=&quot;2&quot; |High Importance
|Reduced importance
|-
|Expected emotion
|Shame, anxiety, distress
|Pride, love, happiness
|No particular feelings required
|-
|Basis of self-worth
|May become appearance dependent
|May include body appreciation
|Broader than physical appearance
|-
|Psychological focus
|Appearance evaluation
|Appreciation and acceptance
|Flexibility and reduced appearance centrality
|-
|Example thought
|&quot;I don't like how my body looks&quot;
|&quot;I love and appreciate my body&quot;
|&quot;I accept my body and my appearance does not determine my worth&quot;
|}

== Body image and emotional wellbeing ==
=== Appearance-based self-worth and emotional distress ===
Appearance-based self-worth is when individuals base their overall self-evaluation on whether they believe their physical attractiveness meets a certain standard. When appearance is a central focus, perceived flaws or concerns about looks becomes a central source of emotional distress. Findings from Adams et al. (2017) find that appearance-contingent self-worth is associated with greater-self objectification, which is linked to higher appearance anxiety and lower self-esteem. This suggests that people who place greater importance on appearance may become more concerned about if they meet beauty standards, causing vulnerabilities to their self-esteem because of appearance-related stress. For example, someone who believes their attractiveness determines worth may experience anxiety or shame when comparing themselves with others. This thinking can extend beyond body dissatisfaction and into how individuals evaluate themselves as a person overall. 

=== Self-objectification and appearance monitoring ===
Self-objectification refers to viewing one's body from an outsider's perspective. There is great attention given to how the body looks rather than how it feels or functions. Appearance monitoring stems from this, and includes behaviours such as repeatedly checking mirrors, adjusting clothing to hide perceived flaws, or comparing one's appearance with others (Ahmed et al., 2025). Continually monitoring appearance can increase attention towards someone idea of a physical flaw and create greater concern about how other evaluate their body. This contributes to feelings body shame, appearance anxiety, and lower self-esteem, particularly for those who believe they do not meet expected standards (Sarda et al., 2025). When this behaviour continues, everyday situations may become opportunities for self-criticism and evaluation. Consequently, self-objectification and appearance monitoring negatively affects emotional well-being by making physical looks a source of worry and evaluation, reinforcing body dissatisfaction and increasing vulnerabilities to perceived physical imperfections. 

=== Effects on everyday functioning ===
These concerning behaviours and thought processes about body image can affect how people participate in everyday activities, maintain relationships, and manage daily responsibilities. When one's attention is heavily directed towards appearance, it may be difficult to concentrate on other aspects of life. This can lead to avoidance behaviours such as not attending social events, exercising in public, or having photographs taken. Overtime, this avoidance limits social participation and prevents individuals from engaging in experiences they would otherwise enjoy. The consequences on daily life due to severe body image concerns can be illustrated through Diana's case study.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=7}}
'''Case Study: Diana'''

Diana is a 25-year-old with anorexia nervosa who was examined by Di Lernia et al. (2019). Diana sought treatment at an eating disorder centre following significant weight loss. Her issues with eating started when she began a restrictive diet due to health concerns. This caused her to develop persistent thoughts about calories, weight, and particular foods. Diana also experienced distorted perceptions of her body, repeatedly body checking in mirrors, and wearing clothes that would hide her figure. During periods of high distress, she reported frequently crying while looking at herself in the mirror. {{RoundBoxBottom}}

This case study shows how body image can extend into eating behaviours, daily routines, and overall emotional wellbeing. Persistent concerns about food, weight, and body perception show how these thoughts can become a significant part of daily life and can cause severe negative emotional responses. Although this case involves [[wikipedia:Anorexia|anorexia nervosa]] and cannot represent all experiences of negative body image, it stands as a good example of how severe body image can coincide with distress and behaviours that distrupt daily functioning and therefore emotional wellbeing. 

== Social and cultural influences ==
[[File:Woman Montage (1).jpg|thumb|'''Figure 2.''' Faces and figures of  women, showing how different groups depict beauty.  ]]

=== Appearance ideals and cultural influence ===
Culture is one of the most influential aspects on the formation of body image as it shaped how individuals understand attractiveness and evaluate their appearance overall (Vincent et al., 2025). Societal values, historical impacts, and cultural expectations influence which body shapes or physical characteristics are considered desirable. Beauty ideals are not universal internationally, with all countries having differing appearance ideals. 

In many Western societies, thinness has been the ideal for beauty in women. However, ideals have shifted over time to include greater emphasis on curvier or more muscular bodies (Paudel et al., 2025). In Southeast Asia, preference for lighter skin is greatly influenced by historical class associations, [[wikipedia:Colorism|colourism]], and contemporary beauty industries (Khan &amp; Khan, 2022). Across African countries and cultures, ideals also vary, with normal to overweight bodies being associated with beauty, prosperity or fertility in some contexts, while lighter skin and Eurocentric features have been favoured in others (Pradeilles et al., 2022). These ideals are largely based in culture and not necessarily the geographical regions in which they are developed. An example of this is shown through research involving South Asian women in the United Kingdom found that exposure to advertisements including white models reduce participants' satisfaction with their own skin colour, highlighting how culture and representation can change appearance evaluation (Craddock et al., 2025). This suggests that appearance ideals influence body image because individuals may encounter and internalise beauty standards associated with other cultures, making cultural influences and exposure to beauty ideals have significant impact on how individuals perceive and evaluate their bodies, regardless of where they live.  

The internalisation of such ideals contributes to body dissatisfaction when individuals adopt culturally prompted beauty standards as personal expectations and compare their appearance against them. An example of this is seen through research by Poloskov and Tracey (2013) that found internalisation of U.S beauty standards helped explain the relationship between [[wikipedia:Acculturation|acculturation]] towards dominant U.S culture and body dissatisfaction among Mexican American Women. Similar research by Negi et al. (2022) found that internalisation of the thin ideal accounted for the relationship between acculturation and body dissatisfaction among South and Southeast Asian women living in the United States. Such findings suggest the adoption of culturally valued appearance ideals are associated with greater dissatisfaction when individuals perceive a gap between their own appearance and standards they have internalised.   
=== Effects of social media ===
* Appearance-focused social media exposes individuals to idealised representations of bodies 
* Comparison with such representations may contribute to internalisation of appearance ideals and negative body evaluation (Fioravanti et al., 2022).
* Body-neutral content and reduced appearance focused engagement potentially proved an alternative - effectiveness of such content yet to be researched
Key Citations: 

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the Exposure to Beauty Ideals on Social Networking Sites Influences Body Image: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4&lt;/nowiki&gt;

=== Individual and social differences ===
* Body-image concerns differ according gender, age, sexuality and other social characteristics 
* Different groups experience different appearance ideals - e.g., thinness-oriented pressures versus muscularity orientated pressures (Promichter et al., 2025) (Frederick et al., 2025)
* Individual differences in vulnerability, existing body dissatisfaction and social environmetns may influence whether body neutrality affects emotional well-being 

== Existing research on body neutrality ==
Intro: evaluating whether research supports the proposed relationship between body neutrality and emotional well-being

=== Evidence for benefits ===

* Findings provide preliminary support for potential emotional benefits of body neutrality 
* Research agrees that body neutrality is an acceptable and relevant approach for people experiencing body-image concerns (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Body-neutral content produces improvements in mood, body satisfaction and hopelessness (Seekis &amp; Lawrence, 2023)
* Digital body neutral intervention produced improvements in body dissatisfaction and hopelessness (Smith et al., 2023)

=== Evidence is still mixed ===

* Research is promising but does not provide clear consensus

* Researchers have not established that body neutrality is distinct from existing body-image approaches
* Body neutrality overlaps with concepts such as body-acceptance, compassion and functionality appreciation (Mulgrew &amp; Hinz, 2024)

=== The need for future research ===

* Long term studies are needed to establish if benefits are sustained - due to concept being fairly new 
* Future research should clarify what makes body neutrality distinct from existing approaches (Pellizzer &amp; Wade, 2023)
* Researchers should continue testing body-neutral interventions rather than relying primarily on related body-image constructs 

== Applying a body-neutral perspective ==
Intro: translating psychological principles of body neutrality into practical ways of changing body perception - how can the reader implement a body neutral perspective? 

=== Changing body-related thinking ===
* Separating physical appearance from global self-worth may reduce appearance contingent self-evaluation 
* Notice negative body thoughts without treating them as facts or acting on them 
* Replace appearance-based judgements with more neutral descriptions of the body 
* Reduce all-or-nothing thinking, such as viewing your body as &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad&quot;
[[File:People hugging in the beach.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 3.''' Two people hugging showing an important sensory experience]]

=== From appearance to functionality ===
* Shifting attention toward health, strength, flexibility, and physical comfort
* Recognising sensory experiences - seeing, hearing, moving
* Appreciating what the body enables a person to experience and participate in
* Valuing functionality without turning physical performance into another standard for evaluating the body (Alleva et al., 2023)

=== Healthier environments ===
* Developing media literacy helps critically evaluate idealisd body representations 
* Reducing exposure to appearance-focused content and opportunities for appearance comparison 
* Curating your environment and content consumed to reduce exposure to unrealistic body ideals (Fioravanti et al., 2022)

==Conclusion==

* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing the importan

*A body-neutral perspective emphasises acceptance, functionality, and psychological flexibility, rather than requiring positivity 
* Body neutrality may support emotional well-being by reducing importance of appearance in self-worth and decreasing the emotional impact of negative body-related thoughts
* Social and cultural influences continue to shape body image, therefore, body neutrality may be most effective alongside healthier approaches to managing appearance-focused environments
* Research provides promising but preliminary evidence that body-neutral approaches can improve aspects of body and emotional well-being. However, more research is needed to establish long-term effectiveness as well as distinctiveness from other similar concepts
* Overall message: the goal is not necessarily to love or feel positive about the body, but to reduce the extent to which your appearance determines emotional well-being. 

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

==See also==
* [[wikipedia:Body_neutrality|Body neutrality]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Body neutrality and emotional well-being|Body neutrality and emotional well-being]] (Book chapter, 2025)
* [[wikipedia:Body_positivity|Body positivity]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abdoli, M., Scotto Rosato, M., Desousa, A., &amp; Cotrufo, P. (2024). Cultural differences in body image: A systematic review. ''Social  Sciences (Basel)'', ''13''(6), 305. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13060305

Adams, K. E., Tyler, J. M., Calogero, R., &amp; Lee, J. (2017). Exploring the relationship between appearance-contingent self-worth and self-esteem: The roles of self-objectification and appearance anxiety. ''Body Image'', ''23'', 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.10.004

Ahmed, U., Fatima, Z., &amp; Zulfiqar, Z. (2025). Media and body image: Analyzing self-objectification theory across different ages of women. ''SAGE Open'', ''15''(4), Article 21582440251379748. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251379748

Alleva, J. M., Atkinson, M. J., Vermeulen, W., Monpellier, V. M., &amp; Martijn, C. (2023). Beyond body size: Focusing on body functionality to improve body image among women who have undergone bariatric surgery. ''Behavior Therapy'', ''54''(1), 14–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2022.06.007

Alleva, J. M., Holmqvist Gattario, K., Martijn, C., &amp; Lunde, C. (2019). What can my body do vs. how does it look?: A qualitative analysis of young women and men’s descriptions of their body functionality or physical appearance. ''Body Image'', ''31'', 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.08.008

Fioravanti, G., Bocci Benucci, S., Ceragioli, G., &amp; Casale, S. (2022). How the exposure to beauty ideals on social networking sites influences body image: A systematic review of experimental studies. ''Adolescent Research Review'', ''7''(3), 419–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-022-00179-4

Frederick, D. A., Forbes, M., Gentle, B., Reynolds, T. A., &amp; Walters, T. (2012). Beauty standards. In ''Encyclopedia of human sexuality''. Wiley-Blackwell.

Frederick, D. A., Gordon, A. R., Cook-Cottone, C. P., Brady, J. P., Reynolds, T. A., Alley, J., Garcia, J. R., Brown, T. A., Compte, E. J., Convertino, L., Crerand, C. E., Malcarne, V. L., Nagata, J. M., Parent, M. C., Pennesi, J.-L., Perez, M., Pila, E., Rodgers, R. F., Schaefer, L. M., … Murray, S. B. (2022). Demographic and sociocultural predictors of sexuality-related body image and sexual frequency: The U.S. Body Project I. ''Body Image'', ''41'', 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.01.010

Grogan, S. (2016). ''Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children'' (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Leboeuf, C. (2019). What is body positivity? The path from shame to pride. ''Philosophical Topics'', ''47''(2), 113–128. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtopics201947218

Mulgrew, K. E., &amp; Hinz, A. (2024). What is body neutrality and how is it different to existing body image concepts? An analysis of experts and general community responses. ''Body Image'', ''51'', Article 101780. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101780

Paterna, A., Alcaraz‐Ibáñez, M., Fuller‐Tyszkiewicz, M., &amp; Sicilia, Á. (2021). Internalization of body shape ideals and body dissatisfaction: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''54''(9), 1575–1600. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23568

Pellizzer, M. L., &amp; Wade, T. D. (2023). Developing a definition of body neutrality and strategies for an intervention. ''Body Image'', ''46'', 434–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.07.006

Pomichter, E., Cepeda-Benito, A., Ahmadkaraji, S., &amp; DePalma, J. P. (2025). Exploring male body image: A scoping review of measurement approaches and mental health implications. ''International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health'', ''22''(6), 834. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22060834

Saunders, J. F., Nutter, S., Waugh, R., &amp; Hayden, K. A. (2024). Testing body-related components of objectification theory: A meta-analysis of the relations between body shame, self-objectification, and body dissatisfaction. ''Body Image'', ''50'', Article 101738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101738

Seekis, V., &amp; Lawrence, R. K. (2023). How exposure to body neutrality content on TikTok affects young women’s body image and mood. ''Body Image'', ''47'', Article 101629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.101629

Shontz, F. C. (1989).  Development and structure of the body image, Vols. 1 and 2 [Rev. of ''Development and Structure of the Body Image, Volumes 1 and 2'']. ''Psychoanalytic Psychology'', ''6''(4), 503–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.6.4.503

Smith, A. C., Ahuvia, I., Ito, S., &amp; Schleider, J. L. (2023). Project Body Neutrality: Piloting a digital single‐session intervention for adolescent body image and depression. ''The International Journal of Eating Disorders'', ''56''(8), 1554–1569. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23976

Tylka, T. L., &amp; Wood-Barcalow, N. L. (2015). What is and what is not positive body image? Conceptual foundations and construct definition. ''Body Image'', ''14'', 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.04.001

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}}

==External links==
*[https://www.healthline.com/health/body-neutrality How to Shift from ‘Body Positivity’ to ‘Body Neutrality’ — and Why You Should] - Healthline
*[https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/5-steps-body-neutrality/ 5 Steps to Body Neutrality] - NEDA
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2nBomd-mpY TedTalk - Existing: Body Neutrality and Beauty Standards | Sophia Vimol Horng] - YouTube

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Body image]]  
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Emotion]]</text>
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    <title>The John Snow Prediabetes Institute</title>
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      <text bytes="6431" sha1="mhbs06vtwcbr3ttqqmkq71h6s5os6tn" xml:space="preserve">The John Snow prediabetes Institute is an international research network focused on evidence based prediabetes remission, early risk identification, and lifestyle health education. (https://w.wiki/Skm7).

'''Background:''' 
Millions are at increased risk of developing metabolic syndromes with prediabetes, diabetes type 2, high blood pressure and overweight (General Research Draft). &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gau25oy5y1s57046icjt2/Research-protocol-draft.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=wat63e25ritmujwcpss8s4v0s &lt;/ref&gt; All can lower their risks by staying physical active and eating well. Early diagnosis and education of prediabetes is a cost-effective preventive strategy that can improve long-term health outcomes. The arteriosclerosis starts in the prediabetes stage. A practical strategy for prediabetes remission in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) must assume that laboratory capacity, workforce, and financing are constrained. For early identification of the risks we propose to register weight and height (BMI), the fasting blood sugar (glucometer), blood pressure, age, gender in the '''Prevalence studies''' at the schools for seafarers, nurses, medical students and the kids schools followed by giving educational materials.The 16-weeks '''intervention study''' include learnings by short video sequences and self-monitoring of blood sugar with glucometer &lt;ref&gt;https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1751991825001068 &lt;/ref&gt; and self-evaluation of diet and physical activity. Other intervention studies to be tested and developed include Digital lifestyle programs &lt;ref&gt; «Digital Lifestyle Program Cuts Diabetes Risk by 46% in Prediabetics, Study of 130k+ Adults Reveals». News-Medical, 14 de abril de 2025. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250414/Digital-lifestyle-program-cuts-diabetes-risk-by-4625-in-prediabetics-study-of-130k2b-adults-reveals.aspx.&lt;/ref&gt; Educational materials come from the international diabetes organisations e.g the ADA:&lt;ref&gt;https://professional.diabetes.org/diabetes-support-resources&lt;/ref&gt; and the Health Promoting Schools.&lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0rm7honrezbjwrcy3h3yk/Health-promoting-schools.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=673jyzcmwbfw7k9ui9nmtp0zh &lt;/ref&gt;[[File:Lifestyle Medicine Pillars.png|250px|right|&lt;big&gt;
Lifestyle Medicine Pillars.png The focus of Lifestyle Medicine is on these 6 pillars&lt;/big&gt; ]]

===== &lt;big&gt;'''Prevalence studies'''  &lt;/big&gt; =====
[[/The Maritime Health database design // |1.1 The Maritime Health database design]] 

1.2  Nursing Students Health Database &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tcznmmd2y3nona5e3h1ro/The-Nursing-students-health-database.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=onbjh4o8ko1lzdvgyi8nlrotk &lt;/ref&gt;

1.3. Medical student's Health Database &lt;ref&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f16h9b60u4gxgt56un2jf/The-Medical-students-Health-database.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=xyfqen5trdc5lniaovipl548n &lt;/ref&gt;

1.4. School childrens` Health database &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/u6u50c8bxwhte9t2t6ck8/The-School-children-s-Health-database.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=zlyz5wn673wf7owettq3nx3h5 &lt;/ref&gt;

1.5  Excel recoding (pre diabetes, hypertension etc) &lt;ref&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9qvqeccto2kbuqvx7mdkl?r=ACsntb2AuiFkJbEBLObVdo0HMD67UZBBUGCGl1RPCPy1X5Y3K3e9Lf4s7cG7i7E_iH0IK-WkynXw_FNCDWybHuCgaNl_OM8yche2w2aapJGk5BTHybbsLpLayBU8VKPPqxNa2zDaNslBdQg0MhmKTFSG&lt;/ref&gt;

'''Personal prevention''' Personal reversal of prediabetes relies on targeted lifestyle changes like eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and losing a modest amount of excess weight. (local Diabetes Associations)

&lt;span lang=&quot;en&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;small&gt;'''Core Institutional Strategies'''  Health authorities and organizations implement group-based or digital programs. The workplaces are prompted to make targeted interventions, including nutrition and exercise programs, to safeguard long-term cardiometabolic health in the workforces.&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;small&gt;16 weeks human caused Intervention studies: English 
&lt;ref&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/oi6cx6tlwwvoko3ed37tn/Invitation-to-the-course-English.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=7kzg91tqfgjskxf5aji8khicx &lt;/ref&gt; Danish
&lt;ref&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2qahc3q9hmf4skbvk77ab/Invitation-to-the-course-in-Danish.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=x63w8oqvarz284zg2btq2johv &lt;/ref&gt; Spanish &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bn71inqeeth4o4mc1fjth/Invitation-to-the-course-Spanish.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=popmr1fnodh1v951v9l7k9ezv &lt;/ref&gt;
and '''AI-Powered Lifestyle Intervention''' in the Diabetes Prevention
&lt;ref&gt;Mathioudakis, Nestoras, Benjamin Lalani, Mohammed S. Abusamaan, et al. «An AI-Powered Lifestyle Intervention vs Human Coaching in the Diabetes Prevention Program: A Randomized Clinical Trial». JAMA 334, n.º 23 (2025): 2079-89. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2025.19563.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/small&gt;

'''Organisation''' 

- [[/The John Snow Institute bylaws /]] 

- General research pr[[Category:Prediabetes ]]otoco[[Category:Prediabetes ]]l draft
&lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gau25oy5y1s57046icjt2/Research-protocol-draft.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=wat63e25ritmujwcpss8s4v0s &lt;/ref&gt;

- Health Promoting Schools &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0rm7honrezbjwrcy3h3yk/Health-promoting-schools.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=673jyzcmwbfw7k9ui9nmtp0zh &lt;/ref&gt;

'''Publications'''
&lt;ref name=&quot;:0&quot;&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mw7ft423lkkpjoxywd2bf &lt;/ref&gt;

'''The John Snow Prediabetes Institute Research Network:''' 
&lt;small&gt;Prof. Dr. Olaf Jensen, MD, MPH, PhD; Prof. Ing. MSc. Nailet Delgado Mujica; Prof. Magda Medir Mb, Tarragona Spain,  Prof. MSc.Ph.D. Bishal Gyawali SDU; MSc.PhD Vivi Just-Nørregaard; Prof. Dr. Johan Hviid Andersen MD, PhD. Århus University; Prof. MSc. Agnes Flores, UMECIT, Panama; Bruno Nørdam, Randers; Maritime Doctor. Erik Haarløv MD, Assens, Denmark; Dr. Maite Duque MD Venezuela; Dr. Indira Santos Panama MD; Med.Stud. Ashley Lezcano, Panama; Dr. Joseph Abesamis MD Filippines; Dr. Jen Mendoza, MD, Filippines; Dra.Marj Gab Huerte, MD, Filippines:&lt;/small&gt; 
&lt;small&gt;Dr. Andra Ergle MD, Latvia; Prof. MSc. Ingrid Morató, Tarragona and Cadiz, Spain; Dr. Alejandro Martinez, MD, MPH, Costa Rica; Christian Acheampong, MBA, New Jersey US; Dr. Med. Sci Finn Gyntelberg NFA.and Bispebj. Hosp. Denmark: Dr. Solomon Ching MD Filippines: Dr. Marcel Alcaraz MD Filippines;&lt;/small&gt; 
==References==</text>
      <sha1>mhbs06vtwcbr3ttqqmkq71h6s5os6tn</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840037</id>
      <parentid>2840036</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T13:09:52Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>JSINST</username>
        <id>3110286</id>
      </contributor>
      <origin>2840037</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="6431" sha1="h589xvxswuf0sq9l7a1mpnakhlbt3gd" xml:space="preserve">The John Snow prediabetes Institute is an international research network focused on evidence based prediabetes remission, early risk identification, and lifestyle health promotion. (https://w.wiki/Skm7).

'''Background:''' 
Millions are at increased risk of developing metabolic syndromes with prediabetes, diabetes type 2, high blood pressure and overweight (General Research Draft). &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gau25oy5y1s57046icjt2/Research-protocol-draft.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=wat63e25ritmujwcpss8s4v0s &lt;/ref&gt; All can lower their risks by staying physical active and eating well. Early diagnosis and education of prediabetes is a cost-effective preventive strategy that can improve long-term health outcomes. The arteriosclerosis starts in the prediabetes stage. A practical strategy for prediabetes remission in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) must assume that laboratory capacity, workforce, and financing are constrained. For early identification of the risks we propose to register weight and height (BMI), the fasting blood sugar (glucometer), blood pressure, age, gender in the '''Prevalence studies''' at the schools for seafarers, nurses, medical students and the kids schools followed by giving educational materials.The 16-weeks '''intervention study''' include learnings by short video sequences and self-monitoring of blood sugar with glucometer &lt;ref&gt;https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1751991825001068 &lt;/ref&gt; and self-evaluation of diet and physical activity. Other intervention studies to be tested and developed include Digital lifestyle programs &lt;ref&gt; «Digital Lifestyle Program Cuts Diabetes Risk by 46% in Prediabetics, Study of 130k+ Adults Reveals». News-Medical, 14 de abril de 2025. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250414/Digital-lifestyle-program-cuts-diabetes-risk-by-4625-in-prediabetics-study-of-130k2b-adults-reveals.aspx.&lt;/ref&gt; Educational materials come from the international diabetes organisations e.g the ADA:&lt;ref&gt;https://professional.diabetes.org/diabetes-support-resources&lt;/ref&gt; and the Health Promoting Schools.&lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0rm7honrezbjwrcy3h3yk/Health-promoting-schools.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=673jyzcmwbfw7k9ui9nmtp0zh &lt;/ref&gt;[[File:Lifestyle Medicine Pillars.png|250px|right|&lt;big&gt;
Lifestyle Medicine Pillars.png The focus of Lifestyle Medicine is on these 6 pillars&lt;/big&gt; ]]

===== &lt;big&gt;'''Prevalence studies'''  &lt;/big&gt; =====
[[/The Maritime Health database design // |1.1 The Maritime Health database design]] 

1.2  Nursing Students Health Database &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tcznmmd2y3nona5e3h1ro/The-Nursing-students-health-database.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=onbjh4o8ko1lzdvgyi8nlrotk &lt;/ref&gt;

1.3. Medical student's Health Database &lt;ref&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f16h9b60u4gxgt56un2jf/The-Medical-students-Health-database.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=xyfqen5trdc5lniaovipl548n &lt;/ref&gt;

1.4. School childrens` Health database &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/u6u50c8bxwhte9t2t6ck8/The-School-children-s-Health-database.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=zlyz5wn673wf7owettq3nx3h5 &lt;/ref&gt;

1.5  Excel recoding (pre diabetes, hypertension etc) &lt;ref&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9qvqeccto2kbuqvx7mdkl?r=ACsntb2AuiFkJbEBLObVdo0HMD67UZBBUGCGl1RPCPy1X5Y3K3e9Lf4s7cG7i7E_iH0IK-WkynXw_FNCDWybHuCgaNl_OM8yche2w2aapJGk5BTHybbsLpLayBU8VKPPqxNa2zDaNslBdQg0MhmKTFSG&lt;/ref&gt;

'''Personal prevention''' Personal reversal of prediabetes relies on targeted lifestyle changes like eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and losing a modest amount of excess weight. (local Diabetes Associations)

&lt;span lang=&quot;en&quot; dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;small&gt;'''Core Institutional Strategies'''  Health authorities and organizations implement group-based or digital programs. The workplaces are prompted to make targeted interventions, including nutrition and exercise programs, to safeguard long-term cardiometabolic health in the workforces.&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;small&gt;16 weeks human caused Intervention studies: English 
&lt;ref&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/oi6cx6tlwwvoko3ed37tn/Invitation-to-the-course-English.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=7kzg91tqfgjskxf5aji8khicx &lt;/ref&gt; Danish
&lt;ref&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2qahc3q9hmf4skbvk77ab/Invitation-to-the-course-in-Danish.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=x63w8oqvarz284zg2btq2johv &lt;/ref&gt; Spanish &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bn71inqeeth4o4mc1fjth/Invitation-to-the-course-Spanish.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=popmr1fnodh1v951v9l7k9ezv &lt;/ref&gt;
and '''AI-Powered Lifestyle Intervention''' in the Diabetes Prevention
&lt;ref&gt;Mathioudakis, Nestoras, Benjamin Lalani, Mohammed S. Abusamaan, et al. «An AI-Powered Lifestyle Intervention vs Human Coaching in the Diabetes Prevention Program: A Randomized Clinical Trial». JAMA 334, n.º 23 (2025): 2079-89. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2025.19563.&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;/small&gt;

'''Organisation''' 

- [[/The John Snow Institute bylaws /]] 

- General research pr[[Category:Prediabetes ]]otoco[[Category:Prediabetes ]]l draft
&lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gau25oy5y1s57046icjt2/Research-protocol-draft.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=wat63e25ritmujwcpss8s4v0s &lt;/ref&gt;

- Health Promoting Schools &lt;ref&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0rm7honrezbjwrcy3h3yk/Health-promoting-schools.docx?cloud_editor=word&amp;dl=0&amp;rlkey=673jyzcmwbfw7k9ui9nmtp0zh &lt;/ref&gt;

'''Publications'''
&lt;ref name=&quot;:0&quot;&gt; https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mw7ft423lkkpjoxywd2bf &lt;/ref&gt;

'''The John Snow Prediabetes Institute Research Network:''' 
&lt;small&gt;Prof. Dr. Olaf Jensen, MD, MPH, PhD; Prof. Ing. MSc. Nailet Delgado Mujica; Prof. Magda Medir Mb, Tarragona Spain,  Prof. MSc.Ph.D. Bishal Gyawali SDU; MSc.PhD Vivi Just-Nørregaard; Prof. Dr. Johan Hviid Andersen MD, PhD. Århus University; Prof. MSc. Agnes Flores, UMECIT, Panama; Bruno Nørdam, Randers; Maritime Doctor. Erik Haarløv MD, Assens, Denmark; Dr. Maite Duque MD Venezuela; Dr. Indira Santos Panama MD; Med.Stud. Ashley Lezcano, Panama; Dr. Joseph Abesamis MD Filippines; Dr. Jen Mendoza, MD, Filippines; Dra.Marj Gab Huerte, MD, Filippines:&lt;/small&gt; 
&lt;small&gt;Dr. Andra Ergle MD, Latvia; Prof. MSc. Ingrid Morató, Tarragona and Cadiz, Spain; Dr. Alejandro Martinez, MD, MPH, Costa Rica; Christian Acheampong, MBA, New Jersey US; Dr. Med. Sci Finn Gyntelberg NFA.and Bispebj. Hosp. Denmark: Dr. Solomon Ching MD Filippines: Dr. Marcel Alcaraz MD Filippines;&lt;/small&gt; 
==References==</text>
      <sha1>h589xvxswuf0sq9l7a1mpnakhlbt3gd</sha1>
    </revision>
  </page>
  <page>
    <title>Babylonian Tonal System</title>
    <ns>0</ns>
    <id>330631</id>
    <revision>
      <id>2840058</id>
      <parentid>2839941</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T18:47:27Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Grimes2</username>
        <id>2895877</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>/* Tuning */</comment>
      <origin>2840058</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="11205" sha1="bxuc6ecskv3l37a4f01louoqlsrbew7" xml:space="preserve">==Basic tetrachords==
The Babylonian Tonal System is based on tetrachords.

1½1, ½11, 11½
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; }
\relative c' { 
  d1 e -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup f\stopGroup g}
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; }
\relative c' { 
  e1 -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup f\stopGroup g a}
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; }
\relative c' { 
  c1 d e -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup f\stopGroup}
&lt;/score&gt;
and the tritone&lt;br&gt;
111
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; }
\relative c' { 
  f1 g a b}
&lt;/score&gt;
Two consecutive tetrachords build a heptachord.

==Heptachord linear==
1½11½1
&lt;score&gt; \new Staff \with { \consists Ambitus_engraver \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } \relative c' { 
  a1^&quot;kitmum&quot; b -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup c\stopGroup d e-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup f\stopGroup g }
&lt;/score&gt;

==Heptachord circle==
[[File:Heptachordal circle.svg|thumb|left|Heptachord circle]]
{{clear}}

==7 heptachord modes==
The 7 modal patterns for the Babylonian heptachords are: 

{| class=&quot;wikitable sortable&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;
|+ Babylonian tonal system
! Mode !! Pattern !! Center note || Semitones || Tritones
|-
| ''kitmum'' || 1½11½1 || D || 10 || 0
|-
| ''pītum'' || ½11½11 || E || 10 || 0
|-
| ''qablītum'' || 11½11½ || C || 10 || 0
|-
| ''išartum'' || 1½111½ || G || 10 || 1
|-
| ''embūbum'' || ½111½1 || A || 10 || 1
|-
| ''nīd qablim'' || 111½11 || B || 11 || 2
|-
| ''nīš tuḫrim'' || 11½111 || F || 11 || 2
|}

&lt;score&gt; \new Staff \with { \consists Ambitus_engraver \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } \relative c' { 
  a1^&quot;kitmum&quot; b -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup c\stopGroup d e-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup f\stopGroup g }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt; \new Staff \with { \consists Ambitus_engraver \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  b1^&quot;pītum&quot; -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup c\stopGroup d e-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup f\stopGroup g a}
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt; \new Staff \with { \consists Ambitus_engraver \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } \relative c' { 
  g1^&quot;qablītum&quot; a b -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup c\stopGroup d e-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup f\stopGroup }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt; \new Staff \with { \consists Ambitus_engraver \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  d1^&quot;išartum&quot; e -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup f\stopGroup g a b-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup c\stopGroup}
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt; \new Staff \with { \consists Ambitus_engraver \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c { 
  e1^&quot;embūbum&quot; -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup f\stopGroup g a b-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup c\stopGroup d}
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt; \new Staff \with { \consists Ambitus_engraver \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  f,1^&quot;nīd qablim&quot; g a b -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup c\stopGroup d e}
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt; \new Staff \with { \consists Ambitus_engraver \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  c1^&quot;nīš tuḫrim&quot; d e -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup f\stopGroup g a b}
&lt;/score&gt;

==2 consecutive heptachords==
&lt;score&gt; \new Staff \with { \consists Ambitus_engraver \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } \relative c' { 
  a1^&quot;kitmum&quot; b -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup c\stopGroup d e-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup f\stopGroup g a-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup bes\stopGroup c d-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup es\stopGroup f}
&lt;/score&gt;
Flatward shift for higher notes.

==7 consecutive heptachords==
7 consecutive heptachords build the 7 Babylonian modes:
[[File:Kitmum.svg|thumb|left|1000px]]
[[File:Pitum.svg|thumb|left|1000px]]
[[File:Qablitum.svg|thumb|left|1000px]]
[[File:Isartum.svg|thumb|left|1000px]]
[[File:Embubum.svg|thumb|left|1000px]]
[[File:Nid quablim.svg|thumb|left|1000px]]
[[File:Nis tuhrim.svg|thumb|left|1000px]]
{{clear}}

===6 cyclic consecutive heptachords===
[[File:Circle of fourths.svg|thumb|left|Circle of fourths, ''kitmum'', 36 notes, 60 semitones = Anu 𒀭]]
{{clear}}

==Tuning==
A tuning procedure ‘loosening’ (TU.LU) in Music of Mesopotamia for a 7-stringed instrument based on a transposition to D/D♭:
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; }
\relative c' { 
  d1^&quot;išartum 2-6 5-2&quot; e -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup f\stopGroup g a b-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup c\stopGroup }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; }
\relative c' { 
  d1^&quot;kitmum 6-3 2-6&quot; e -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup f\stopGroup g a-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup bes\stopGroup c }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  d1^&quot;embūbum 3-7 6-3&quot; -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup es\stopGroup f g a-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup bes\stopGroup c }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  d1^&quot;pītum 7-4 3-7&quot; -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup es\stopGroup f g -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup as\stopGroup bes c }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  des1^&quot;nīd qablim 4-1 7-4&quot; es f g-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup as\stopGroup bes c }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  des1^&quot;nīš tuḫrim 1-5 4-1&quot; es f -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup ges\stopGroup as bes c }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  des1^&quot;qablītum 5-2 1-5&quot; es f -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup ges\stopGroup as bes-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup ces\stopGroup }
&lt;/score&gt;
‘tightening’ (GÍD.I)
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; }
\relative c' { 
  d1^&quot;išartum&quot; e -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup f\stopGroup g a b-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup c\stopGroup }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  d1^&quot;qablītum&quot; e fis -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup g\stopGroup a b-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup c\stopGroup }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  d1^&quot;niš tuĥrim&quot; e fis -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup g\stopGroup a b cis }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  d1^&quot;nīd qablim&quot; e fis gis-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup a\stopGroup b cis }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  dis1^&quot;pītum&quot; -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup e\stopGroup fis gis -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup a\stopGroup b cis }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; } 
\relative c' { 
  dis1^&quot;embūbum&quot; -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup e\stopGroup fis gis ais-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup b\stopGroup cis }
&lt;/score&gt;
&lt;score&gt;
\new Staff \with { \consists Horizontal_bracket_engraver \remove &quot;Time_signature_engraver&quot; \remove &quot;Bar_engraver&quot; }
\relative c' { 
  dis1^&quot;kitmum&quot; eis -\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;  \startGroup fis\stopGroup gis ais-\tweak HorizontalBracketText.text &quot;semitone&quot;\startGroup b\stopGroup cis }
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==''kitmum'' chords==
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   &lt;dis, fis a&gt; &lt;e gis b&gt; &lt;fis a cis&gt; &lt;gis b d&gt; &lt;a cis e&gt; &lt;b d fis&gt; &lt;cis e g&gt; \break
   &lt;d, fis a&gt; &lt;e g b&gt; &lt;fis a c&gt; &lt;g b d&gt; &lt;a c e&gt; &lt;b d f&gt; &lt;c e g&gt; \break
   &lt;d, f a&gt; &lt;e g bes&gt; &lt;f a c&gt; &lt;g bes d&gt; &lt;a c es&gt; &lt;bes d f&gt; &lt;c es g&gt; \break
   &lt;d, f as&gt; &lt;es g bes&gt; &lt;f as c&gt; &lt;g bes des&gt; &lt;as c es&gt; &lt;bes d f&gt; &lt;c es ges&gt; \break
   &lt;des, f as&gt; &lt;es ges bes&gt; &lt;f as ces&gt; &lt;ges bes des&gt;
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==Further reading==
* {{cite conference | first = Leon | last = Crickmore | title = A New Light on the Babylonian Tonal System | conference = Proceedings of the International Conference of Near Eastern Archaeomusicology (ICONEA 2008), The British Museum, London, December 4–6, 2008, editors: Richard Dumbrill and Irving Finkel | publisher = Iconea Publications | url = https://musicircle.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Crickmore-Iconea20081.pdf | place = London | year = 2008 | pages = 11-22
}}
* {{cite web | title=Babylonian Tonal System | website=Allan Pettersson Fanpage | url=https://pettersson-fanpage.de/Babylon/Babylon.html | access-date=19 January 2026}}

[[Category:Music theory]]
[[Category:Musicology]]
[[Category:Mesopotamia]]</text>
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      <comment>Improved readability by changing to the word Stimulated to simulated, I reviewed the resource produced by Chien and they did not refer to them as stimulated driving tasks, also removed an &quot;and&quot; replacing it with &quot;an&quot; for better readability.</comment>
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== Overview ==
__TOC__
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}}
[[File:Passeio de Buggy no Parque das Dunas de Genipabu, RN - 2.jpg| |thumb|right|150px| '''Figure 1'''. Teenagers Dangerously Driving]]

;Scenario

It is Friday night, and 16-year-old Mia is out with a group of friends. Someone suggests taking the family car for a late-night drive. Mia knows she does not have permission to drive, and knows that driving without a licence and with multiple people in the car could be dangerous. For a moment, she considers saying no. Her friends are excited, encouraging her, making the idea of doing something spontaneous and slightly dangerous feel thrilling. The idea of consequences seems distant and Mia eventually agrees to take the car.
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[Adolescence]] is a developmental period characterised by increased  [https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/sensation-seeking sensation-seeking]  and risk-taking behaviours (Duell et al., 2018; Steinberg, 2007). Young people may be more likely to engage in behaviours that provide immediate rewards, such as experimenting with substances, risky driving (see figure 1), or seeking social approval, despite potential long-term consequences. Understanding why these behaviours increase during adolescence matters because risk-taking can contribute to negative health, social, and educational outcomes, while some exploration and novelty-seeking are also a normal part of development. One influential explanation is Steinberg's [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2396566/ Dual Systems Model], which proposes that adolescent risk-taking results from the interaction between a rapidly developing socioemotional reward system and a more gradually developing cognitive-control system (Steinberg, 2008). Similarly, the Maturational Imbalance Model suggests that reward-related regions become increasingly sensitive during adolescence before the brain systems responsible for regulating impulses and considering future consequences are fully mature (Casey et al., 2008). These theories suggest that adolescents do not lack self-control; rather, their developing reward and control systems can make immediate rewards particularly difficult to resist. Behavioural research indicates that sensation-seeking increases during adolescence, while impulse control develops more gradually (Steinberg et al., 2008). Other research has also shown that peers can increase adolescents' reward-related brain activity and risk-taking, highlighting the importance of social context (Chein et al., 2011). [[Psychological science]] therefore helps explain adolescent risk-taking by examining how reward sensitivity, cognitive control, impulsivity and social influences interact during brain development. Combining developmental theories with behavioural and neuroscience research provides a more comprehensive understanding of why adolescents may be particularly sensitive to rewarding experiences and how this can influence risky behaviours. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}}
'''💡 Focus Questions''' 

* How does the reward-circuit maturation change the way adolescents respond to rewarding experiences? 
* How does increased reward sensitivity influence sensation-seeking? 
* How does the interaction between reward sensitivity and developing cognitive control influence risky behaviour? 
* How do social and environmental factors affect adolescents' reward processing and risk-taking behaviours? 
* When can sensation-seeking support positive development, and what factors increase the likelihood of harmful risk-taking? 
* How well do psychological theories and research explain the relationship between reward-system development and adolescent risk-taking? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Adolescent risk-taking: the developmental problem ==

=== What Is Adolescent Risk-Taking? ===
Adolescent risk-taking refers to behaviour where there is some uncertainty regarding the possible outcome and the potential costs/rewards associated with an individual's physical, economic or psychological well-being (Trimpop, 2008). Adolescence, which is usually defined as the age of 10-19, represents a distinct developmental phase due to the extensive biological, psychological, and neurological changes occurring within an individual during this time (World Health Organisation, 2026). The alterations in an individual's brain sensitivity and responsiveness during adolescence can impact how they evaluate emotional responses to reward-related stimuli and the evaluation of the potential consequences of their actions (Jaworska &amp; MacQueen, 2015). Steinberg's Dual Systems Model explains that adolescent risk-taking results from the interaction of a developing socio-emotional system and a cognitive control system. As such, it is believed that adolescents are likely to be especially motivated to seek out exciting or immediately rewarding experiences, even if these experiences pose risks. For example, going on risky hikes would thrill adolescents and could pose as an opportunity for them to show off their braveness (see figure 2). Risk-taking is not necessarily negative. it can facilitate the formation of identity, independence, exploration, and the acquisition of real-world decision-making abilities. 
[[File:Gseng cliff 20200622.jpg|thumb|Figure 2. It Would Be Incredibly Risky To Stand On The Edge Of This Cliff]]
Therefore, understanding adolescent risk-taking is important so that parents, educators, and other professionals working with adolescents have the knowledge necessary to assist adolescents in pursuing constructive opportunities and reducing their exposure to behaviours that could cause harm. In Australia, adolescent well-being is also a major concern, with recent claims of increasing rates of suicidal ideation and attempts among adolescents, suggesting the need for evidence-based approaches to providing support to adolescents. Suicidal ideation and attempts are not equivalent to risk-taking and the relationship between them needs further investigation. 

Ultimately, an understanding of the developmental processes involved in risk-taking will enable us to develop healthier outcomes for adolescents while recognising adolescence as a period of both vulnerability and opportunity.

=== Why Does Reward Matter? ===
Adolescence is a time of rapid developmental change in reward processing and emotional reactivity that makes rewarding, pleasurable, and socially-relevant experiences extremely attractive to adolescents (Spear, 2011). Sensitivity to reward refers to the degree to which an individual will respond to positive outcomes. Increased sensitivity to reward can contribute to risky decision-making when the short-term benefits of a behaviour, outweigh the potential long-term costs. Research conducted by Chein et al., (2011) demonstrated that adolescents took larger risks during a simulated driving task while their peers were observing them, and also had increased activity in brain areas associated with reward. Similarly, O'Brien et al., (2011) examined how social cues affected reward preferences in late adolescents ages 18-20, and found that social observation significantly impacted preferred rewards for immediate gratification. These findings collectively support the idea that reward sensitivity interacts with social influences to determine adolescent decision-making. If adolescents perceive immediate rewards to be more appealing than delayed ones, they are likely to engage in behaviours that provide them with a quick thrill without regard to the possible negative outcomes. The fact that adolescents are capable of evaluating the potential consequences of their actions is evident, however, the extent to which immediate rewards affects adolescent decision-making, varies based upon the individual and the circumstances. 

Therefore, understanding how reward sensitivity interacts with sensation-seeking, impulsivity and social context represents a critical component of understanding adolescent risk-taking behaviour. 

== The adolescent brain and reward-circuit development ==

=== Development of The Adolescent Brain ===
Adolescents experience substantial neural maturation during adolescence, especially with respect to those areas of the brain that regulate emotions, make decisions, and control impulses. The prefrontal cortex, which aids adolescents in thinking ahead, inhibits impulses and weighs the implications of their actions, will continue to mature until they reach adulthood (Casey et al., 2008). Additionally, maturation of the reward and emotional systems may contribute to adolescents' pursuit of instant gratification. According to the Dual Systems Model, because the reward and emotional systems are developing at different rates than the prefrontal cortex, adolescents may be more inclined to pursue rewards without considering the potential negative effects on their future. 

=== Reward-Circuit Maturation ===
The brains reward system is composed of several areas, including the ventral striatum which helps to create and process rewards. The brains ability to anticipate rewards, learn new behaviours to obtain them and motivate us to seek out those rewards, are all influenced by dopamine. Adolescents have developmentally immature reward systems that allow them to find novel, exciting and immediate rewards more appealing than adults. Crone and Dahl (2016) point out that being able to respond to rewards can be beneficial for adolescents in developing their exploratory skills, learning abilities, and social skills. Thus, while there is evidence that maturation of the reward system contributes to risk-taking, the effect will depend upon the interaction between an individuals level of reward sensitivity, their ability to regulate their behaviour through cognitive controls and the environment they live in. 

=== What Does The Research Show? ===
Neuroimaging studies provide evidence that adolescents can show heightened responses to rewarding and emotionally significant cues. For example, Sommerville et al. (2010) examined developmental changes In response to appetitive and emotionally significant stimuli, highlighting how sensitivity to these cues can influence behaviour during adolescence. The results of their study indicate that adolescents' reactions to rewarding experiences can be very motivational at this stage of neural maturation. However, their reactions will depend upon the specific type of reward and the context in which it occurs. In general, this research provides a theoretical basis for why the maturation rates of reward sensitivity and behavioural control appear to differ among adolescents, which may help to explain some of the risk-taking behaviours observed in adolescence. &lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Which brain region is most closely associated with reward processing during adolescence?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ ventral striatum.
- Cerebellum.
- Medulla.
-Occipital cortex.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{What role does dopamine play in adolescent reward processing?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- It is responsible exclusively for cognitive control.
- It prevents adolescents from responding to rewards.
+ It contributes to motivation and sensitivity to rewarding experiences 
-It eliminates sensation-seeking.
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Reward sensitivity, sensation-seeking and impulsivity ==

=== Reward Sensitivity and Adolescent Sensation-Seeking ===
Sensation-seeking describes individuals' tendencies to seek out new, stimulating and exciting experiences. Impulsivity is characterised by an individuals' inability to consider the potential consequences of their actions before taking action. Adolescent development includes neurological changes in how we process rewards which may contribute to the increased appeal of novel and immediately rewarding experiences. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that has been linked to motivation, reward learning and predicting rewards. As such, adolescent developmental changes in reward-based neural circuitry can affect adolescents' behaviour (Galvan, 2010). Steinberg et al., (2008) discovered that sensation-seeking and impulsivity develop at different rates. This suggests that while adolescents may have a desire for exciting experiences, this doesn't mean that they will struggle with self-control. Crone &amp; Dahl (2016) further state that an increased sensitivity to both social and rewarding experiences may facilitate exploratory behaviours, learning and flexible goal setting. Therefore, sensation-seeking is not necessarily bad; the impacts will depend upon the type of experiences adolescents choose to participate in and the environments in which adolescents make these choices. 

=== Reward, Cognitive-Control and Impulsive Behaviour ===
Reward sensitivity develops during adolescence and is associated with the emergence of risk-taking behaviours (Steinberg, 2008). In addition, cognitive-control processes develop as adolescents age and these processes have been found to influence how they make decisions. According to Steinberg's Dual Systems Model, adolescent risk-taking can emerge from the interaction between a developing socioemotional system, which increases sensitivity to rewarding experiences and a cognitive-control system that develops more slowly. A similar idea has been proposed as the Maturational Imbalance Model (Casey et al., 2008) This model suggests that differences in the development of reward-related processes and cognitive-control may increase vulnerability to impulsive behaviour. Both models provide insight into why immediate rewards may at times outweigh consideration of long-term consequences, especially when adolescents are experiencing high levels of emotional stimulation. 

=== Social Context and Risk-Taking ===
Evidence from real-world driving is consistent with the idea that peers amplify the reward value of risky choices. In a naturalistic study that monitored novice teenage drivers, risky driving was lower when an adult was in the car and higher among teens who reported having more risk-taking friends (Simons-Morton et al., 2011). This extends laboratory findings that peer presence increases reward-related brain activity and risk-taking (Chein et al., 2011). In Australia, young Queensland learner and provisional drivers described how rewards and punishments from friends, parents and police shaped their risky driving decisions, with drivers varying in how much they resisted their friends' influence (Scott-Parker et al., 2012). Together, these findings suggest that peer approval acts as a powerful social reward that can heighten sensation-seeking and impulsive choices, although its effect depends on the norms of the peer group and on individual differences in reward sensitivity.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}}
💻 What Is The Difference Between Sensation-Seeking and Impulse? 

'''Sensation-seeking''' is the active pursuit of novelty, thrills, and high intensity experiences, whereas '''impulsivity'''  is a lack of planning, reflection, and self-control that leads to rapid, uninhibited decision-making.
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Implications for understanding adolescent risk-taking ==
=== Why Are Social Rewards Important? ===
Peer approval, social acceptance and status may become increasingly rewarding during adolescence as young people establish their identity, relationships and personal goals. The socially meaningful experiences during this period can trigger rewards that support motivation for behaviours that are socially approved by peers (Crone &amp; Dahl, 2012). 

=== Peer Influence and Reward Processing ===
Evidence suggests that adolescents take increased risks during simulated driving tasks and peer monitoring is perceived to be occurring; this also correlates with increased activation in the brain areas involved in reward processing (Chein et al., 2011). Real-world driving studies demonstrate similar results. Simons-Morton et al. (2011) showed that the amount of risky driving by novice teen drivers was reduced if an adult was present, and the number of risky driving friends a driver had, correlated positively with the level of risky driving exhibited. In addition, Scott-Parker et al. (2012) examined the impact of peer groups, parental figures and law enforcement on young QLD learners and provisional drivers' risky driving decision-making processes, demonstrating differences in how adolescents respond to various types of social influences. 

=== When Does Reward-Driven Behaviour Become Risky? ===
When an adolescent is exposed to social environments that provide high levels of emotional stimulation through immediate rewards, their tendency towards sensation-seeking and/or impulsive behaviours may be particularly dangerous. In such situations, the immediate rewards of these behaviours may take precedence over a consideration of potential negative outcomes. However, adolescents are not all alike in how they will respond to social and reward cues. There are individual differences among adolescent regarding their sensitivity to rewards, ability to control themselves, personality traits, and past social experiences that can make them more or less vulnerable to being influenced by peers (Shulman et al., 2016; Kwon &amp; Telzer, 2022). 

Therefore, it is the combination of an adolescents increased desire for social approval and their exposure to peer groups with risky norms and little regard for long-term consequences, as opposed to simply seeking peer approval, that makes reward-driven behaviour more concerning. 

=== Psychological Implications ===
It is important to note that a heightened level of reward sensitivity in teenagers does not reflect an underdeveloped brain. Romer et al. (2017) suggest that the tendency for adolescents to seek out exciting experiences may be better understood as part of a process of exploration; they have limited life experience and opportunity to learn from their experiences. Additionally, seeking out new experiences can provide teenagers with the opportunity to gain additional skills, increase their self-confidence and improve their decision-making abilities. An example would be when a teenager joins a high school football team, offers their opinion in class or creates new friendships. These can all positively affect an adolescent's well-being and growth. Duell and Steinberg (2019) emphasise the need to distinguish between risky behaviours that could potentially harm a teenager and those that create positive developmental opportunities. similarly, there is evidence that reward-related brain activity can also lead to positive outcomes. Telzer (2016) demonstrated that adolescents who demonstrated higher levels of activity in the ventral striatum while making prosocial decisions showed reduced levels of risk taking over time. In summary, reward sensitivity can lead to both positive and negative behaviours depending upon the circumstances and goals involved. 

Understanding reward sensitivity helps explain why the same adolescent may behave differently depending on the rewards, emotions, and social pressures present in a situation. Interventions can redirect reward-seeking by providing adolescents with opportunities to experience excitement, achievement, independence, and social recognition through constructive activities such as sport or creative pursuits. Yeager et al. (2018) examined how adolescent sensitivity to social status and respect could inform interventions, supporting the importance of considering adolescents' social motivations when designing approaches to behaviour change. Much research supports the Dual Systems Model, suggesting that both reward sensitivity and cognitive control develop at varying rates throughout adolescence, however, the model is not an exhaustive explanation of adolescent risk taking (Shulman et al., 2016). In conclusion, understanding the role of reward sensitivity in explaining adolescent behaviour can inform interventions that help adolescents make safer decisions while promoting healthy developmental processes.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=4}}
Quick Revision: 

🧭 Exploration: Seeking new experiences is a normal part of adolescent development 

🏗️ Development: Risk-taking can build skills, confidence and independence 

🧩 Context: Reward sensitivity can lead to positive or negative outcomes depending on the situation.

🤝 Intervention: Redirect reward-seeking towards constructive activities 

🧠 Theory: The Dual Systems Model helps explain adolescent risk-taking, but it is not a complete explanation. 
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

==Conclusion==
Adolescents take risks due to the interactions of their developing reward systems, cognitive controls, sensation-seeking and social contexts. Reward-system development may create a strong attraction to new, exciting, and immediately rewarding experiences. Cognitive-control development, on the other hand, affects how adolescents assess consequences and manage their own behaviour (Steinberg, 2008). Chein et al.,(2011) and Simons-Morton et al., (2011) have demonstrated that peer influence contributes to the risky decisions and behaviours, especially in driving situations. The Dual Systems Model offers a helpful framework for understanding adolescent risk-taking, however, it does not provide a full explanation, as individual differences, emotional states and environmental factors also influence adolescents' behaviour. Reward-circuit maturation does not cause harmful behaviour; increased reward sensitivity can support exploration, learning, independence, and social development. Understanding these interactions helps explain adolescent sensation-seeking and impulsivity while informing interventions that promote safer decisions and positive development. Ultimately, reward-circuit maturation influences adolescent sensation-seeking and impulsive behaviours by increasing the motivational value of exciting, novel and immediately rewarding experiences, including peer approval and social acceptance. 

==See also==

*[[Behaviourism]] (Wikiversity)
*[[wikipedia:Dual_systems_model|Dual systems model]] (Wikipedia)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2011/Peer influence in adolescence|Peer influence in adolescence]] (Book chapter, 2011)
*[[Influence and Persuasion|Peer pressure]]  (Wikiversity)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Adverse childhood experiences and risk-taking motivation|Risk-taking motivation]] (Book chapter, 2024)
==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2025, August 19). ''One-third of teens experience suicidal thoughts and behaviours''. Growing up in Australia. https://aifs.gov.au/growing-australia/media/one-third-teens-experience-suicidal-thoughts-and-behaviours

Casey, B. J., Jones, R. M., &amp; Hare, T. A. (2008). The adolescent brain. ''Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124''(1), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1440.010

Casey, B. J., Getz, S., &amp; Galvan, A. (2008). The adolescent brain. Developmental review : DR, 28(1), 62–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.003

Castellanos-Ryan, N., &amp; Conrod, P. J. (2013). Personality and addiction processes. ''Principles of addiction: comprehensive addictive behaviours and disorders'', 211-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-398336-7.00028-0

Chein, J., Albert, D., O'Brien, L., Uckert, K., &amp; Steinberg, L. (2011). Peers increase adolescent risk taking by enhancing activity in the brain's reward circuitry. ''Developmental Science, 14''(2), F1–F10. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01035.x

Crone, E. A., &amp; Dahl, R. E. (2012). Understanding adolescence as a period of social-affective engagement and goal flexibility. ''Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 13''(9), 636–650. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3313

Duell, N., &amp; Steinberg, L. (2019). Positive risk taking in adolescence. ''Child Development Perspectives, 13''(1), 48–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12310

Duell, N., Steinberg, L., Icenogle, G., Chein, J., Chaudhary, N., Di Giunta, L., Dodge, K. A., Fanti, K. A., Lansford, J. E., Oburu, P., Pastorelli, C., Skinner, A. T., Sorbring, E., Tapanya, S., Uribe Tirado, L. M., Peña Alampay, L., Al-Hassan, S. M., Takash, H. M. S., Bacchini, D., &amp; Chang, L. (2018). Age patterns in risk taking across the world. ''Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47''(5), 1052–1072. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0752-y

Galván A. (2010). Neural plasticity of development and learning. ''Human brain mapping, 31''(6), 879–890. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21029

Jaworska, N., &amp; MacQueen, G. (2015). Adolescence as a unique developmental period. ''Journal of psychiatry &amp; neuroscience : JPN, 40''(5), 291–293. https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.150268

Kwon, SJ., Telzer, E.H. Social contextual risk taking in adolescence. ''Nat Rev Psychol 1'', 393–406 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00060-0

Masten, S. V., Thomas, F. D., Korbelak, K. T., Peck, R. C., &amp; Blomberg, R. D. (2015). ''Meta-analysis of graduated driver licensing laws'' (Report No. DOT HS 812 211). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. https://doi.org/10.21949/1525783

O'Brien, L., Albert, D., Chein, J., &amp; Steinberg, L. (2011). Adolescents prefer more immediate rewards when in the presence of their peers. ''Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21''(4), 747–753. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2011.00738.x

Romer, D., Reyna, V. F., &amp; Satterthwaite, T. D. (2017). Beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: Placing the adolescent brain in developmental context. ''Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 27'', 19–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2017.07.007

Scott-Parker, B., Watson, B., King, M. J., &amp; Hyde, M. K. (2012). &quot;They're lunatics on the road&quot;: Exploring the normative influences of parents, friends, and police on young novices' risky driving decisions. ''Safety Science, 50''(9), 1917–1928. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2012.05.014

Shulman, E. P., Smith, A. R., Silva, K., Icenogle, G., Duell, N., Chein, J., &amp; Steinberg, L. (2016). The dual systems model: Review, reappraisal, and reaffirmation. ''Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 17'', 103–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2015.12.010

Simons-Morton, B., &amp; Ouimet, M. C. (2006). Parent involvement in novice teen driving: A review of the literature. ''Injury Prevention, 12''(Suppl 1), i30–i37. https://doi.org/10.1136/ip.2006.011569

Simons-Morton, B. G., Ouimet, M. C., Zhang, Z., Klauer, S. E., Lee, S. E., Wang, J., Chen, R., Albert, P., &amp; Dingus, T. A. (2011). The effect of passengers and risk-taking friends on risky driving and crashes/near crashes among novice teenagers. ''Journal of Adolescent Health, 49''(6), 587–593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.02.009

Somerville, L. H., Jones, R. M., &amp; Casey, B. J. (2010). A time of change: behavioral and neural correlates of adolescent sensitivity to appetitive and aversive environmental cues. ''Brain and cognition, 72''(1), 124–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2009.07.003

Spear, L. P. (2011). Rewards, aversions and affect in adolescence: Emerging convergences across laboratory animal and human data. ''Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 1''(4), 390–403.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2011.08.001

Steinberg, L. (2007). Risk taking in adolescence: New perspectives from brain and behavioral science. ''Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16''(2), 55–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00475.x

Steinberg, L. (2008). A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking. ''Developmental Review, 28''(1), 78–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.002

Telzer, E. H. (2016). Dopaminergic reward sensitivity can promote adolescent health: A new perspective on the mechanism of ventral striatum activation. ''Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 17'', 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2015.10.010

Wasserman, A. M., Mathias, C. W., Hill-Kapturczak, N., Karns-Wright, T. E., &amp; Dougherty, D. M. (2020). The Development of Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking: Associations with Substance Use among At-Risk Adolescents. ''Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence, 30''(4), 1051–1066. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12579

Yeager, D. S., Dahl, R. E., &amp; Dweck, C. S. (2018). Why interventions to influence adolescent behavior often fail but could succeed. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13''(1), 101–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617722620

}}

==External links==

*[https://youthrelationships.org/pages/adolescent-risk-behaviours Adolescent risk behaviours] (London family court clinic) 
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00BDx0bRalQ Speaking of psychology: understanding the teenage brain, with Eva Telzer, PhD] (American Psychological Association)
*[https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_pfeifer_the_surprising_science_of_adolescent_brains The surprising science of adolescent brains]   (TED talks)
*[https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/lifematters/risk-taking-in-teens-and-dylan-lewis-on-supporting-entertainers-/104340638 Risk taking in teens] (ABC listen) 
*[https://theconversation.com/of-course-parents-want-to-keep-tweens-and-teens-safe-heres-why-you-should-also-encourage-them-to-take-risks-289711 Why you should encourage teens to take risks] (The Conversation) 
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[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Adolescence]]
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      <text bytes="25177" sha1="hl5tbcl8i5dvdw11hbx6y2axrnvscac" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection:&lt;br&gt;When does self-reflection promote wellbeing and when does it contribute to psychological distress?}}
__TOC__

==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
'''Focus Question''' '''''1-''' What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought?''

Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking.

'''What is Self-Reflection?'''

Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining understanding of what the internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). 

* Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008)
* Maladaptive self-reflection may include rumination, which involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences, potentially interfering with problem-solving and supportive behaviours. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

'''Self-reflection vs insight'''
* Insight can be defined as the clarity of understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour. (Grant et al., 2002)
* While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. (Grant et al., 2002)
* Every process is different according to the form, context and individual differences. This implies that an individual may spend a considerable time reflecting but not gain any insight. (Grant et al., 2002)
* When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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__TOC__

==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking. Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining clarity and understanding of what these internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). Adaptive and maladaptive describe the likely outcomes of self-focused thought compared to specific fixed good/bad distinctions. Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008). On the other hand, maladaptive self-reflection involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences. Rumination is a central example of maladaptive processes, but not every emotionally difficult reflective episode is necessarily maladaptive. Therefore, engaging in these behaviour may potentially interfere with problem-solving and supportive behaviours that can lead to positive outcomes and reaching insight. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

'''So self-reflection differs from insight?'''
* Insight can be defined as the clarity of understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour. (Grant et al., 2002)
* While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. (Grant et al., 2002)
* Every process is different according to the form, context and individual differences. This implies that an individual may spend a considerable time reflecting but not gain any insight. (Grant et al., 2002)
* When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. in comparison to self-reflection, insight is defined as the clarity fo understanding of one's thoughts, emotons and behaviour (Grant et al,. 2002). Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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__TOC__

==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking. Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining clarity and understanding of what these internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). Adaptive and maladaptive describe the likely outcomes of self-focused thought compared to specific fixed good/bad distinctions. Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008). On the other hand, maladaptive self-reflection involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences. Rumination is a central example of maladaptive processes, but not every emotionally difficult reflective episode is necessarily maladaptive. Therefore, engaging in these behaviour may potentially interfere with problem-solving and supportive behaviours that can lead to positive outcomes and reaching insight. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}} '''So self-reflection differs from insight?''' {{RoundBoxBottom}}
* Insight can be defined as the clarity of understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour. (Grant et al., 2002)
* While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. (Grant et al., 2002)
* Every process is different according to the form, context and individual differences. This implies that an individual may spend a considerable time reflecting but not gain any insight. (Grant et al., 2002)
* When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. in comparison to self-reflection, insight is defined as the clarity fo understanding of one's thoughts, emotons and behaviour (Grant et al,. 2002). Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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      <text bytes="25705" sha1="okar414hc1mcrynx1rocqknvnjmt38c" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection:&lt;br&gt;When does self-reflection promote wellbeing and when does it contribute to psychological distress?}}
__TOC__

==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking. Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining clarity and understanding of what these internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). Adaptive and maladaptive describe the likely outcomes of self-focused thought compared to specific fixed good/bad distinctions. Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008). On the other hand, maladaptive self-reflection involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences. Rumination is a central example of maladaptive processes, but not every emotionally difficult reflective episode is necessarily maladaptive. Therefore, engaging in these behaviour may potentially interfere with problem-solving and supportive behaviours that can lead to positive outcomes and reaching insight. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;width:80%; background:#f0f8ff; border:2px solid #4a90e2;&quot;
| [[File:Question_book-new.svg|50px|left]]
| '''Student Question'''

So self-reflection differs from insight?
|}

* Insight can be defined as the clarity of understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour. (Grant et al., 2002)
* While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. (Grant et al., 2002)
* Every process is different according to the form, context and individual differences. This implies that an individual may spend a considerable time reflecting but not gain any insight. (Grant et al., 2002)
* When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. in comparison to self-reflection, insight is defined as the clarity fo understanding of one's thoughts, emotons and behaviour (Grant et al,. 2002). Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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__TOC__

==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking. Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining clarity and understanding of what these internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). Adaptive and maladaptive describe the likely outcomes of self-focused thought compared to specific fixed good/bad distinctions. Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008). On the other hand, maladaptive self-reflection involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences. Rumination is a central example of maladaptive processes, but not every emotionally difficult reflective episode is necessarily maladaptive. Therefore, engaging in these behaviour may potentially interfere with problem-solving and supportive behaviours that can lead to positive outcomes and reaching insight. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

{{cmbox
| type      = style
| image     = [[File:Emblem-question-blue.svg|40px]]
| style     = width: 400px;
| textstyle = color: black; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
| text      = Does self-reflection and insight differ?
}}

* Insight can be defined as the clarity of understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour. (Grant et al., 2002)
* While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. (Grant et al., 2002)
* Every process is different according to the form, context and individual differences. This implies that an individual may spend a considerable time reflecting but not gain any insight. (Grant et al., 2002)
* When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. in comparison to self-reflection, insight is defined as the clarity fo understanding of one's thoughts, emotons and behaviour (Grant et al,. 2002). Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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__TOC__

==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking. Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining clarity and understanding of what these internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). Adaptive and maladaptive describe the likely outcomes of self-focused thought compared to specific fixed good/bad distinctions. Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008). On the other hand, maladaptive self-reflection involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences. Rumination is a central example of maladaptive processes, but not every emotionally difficult reflective episode is necessarily maladaptive. Therefore, engaging in these behaviour may potentially interfere with problem-solving and supportive behaviours that can lead to positive outcomes and reaching insight. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

{{cmbox
| type      = style
| image     = [[File:Emblem-question-yellow.svg|40px]]
| style     = width: 400px;
| textstyle = color: black; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
| text      = Does self-reflection and insight differ?
}}

* Insight can be defined as the clarity of understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour. (Grant et al., 2002)
* While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. (Grant et al., 2002)
* Every process is different according to the form, context and individual differences. This implies that an individual may spend a considerable time reflecting but not gain any insight. (Grant et al., 2002)
* When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. in comparison to self-reflection, insight is defined as the clarity fo understanding of one's thoughts, emotons and behaviour (Grant et al,. 2002). Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Cognition]]
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__TOC__

==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking. Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining clarity and understanding of what these internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). Adaptive and maladaptive describe the likely outcomes of self-focused thought compared to specific fixed good/bad distinctions. Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008). On the other hand, maladaptive self-reflection involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences. Rumination is a central example of maladaptive processes, but not every emotionally difficult reflective episode is necessarily maladaptive. Therefore, engaging in these behaviour may potentially interfere with problem-solving and supportive behaviours that can lead to positive outcomes and reaching insight. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

{{cmbox
| type      = style
| image     = [[File:Emblem-question-yellow.svg|40px]]
| style     = width: 400px;
| textstyle = color: black; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
| text      = Isn't self-reflection and insight the same thing?
}}

* Insight can be defined as the clarity of understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour. (Grant et al., 2002)
* While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. (Grant et al., 2002)
* Every process is different according to the form, context and individual differences. This implies that an individual may spend a considerable time reflecting but not gain any insight. (Grant et al., 2002)
* When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. in comparison to self-reflection, insight is defined as the clarity fo understanding of one's thoughts, emotons and behaviour (Grant et al,. 2002). Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking. Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining clarity and understanding of what these internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). Adaptive and maladaptive describe the likely outcomes of self-focused thought compared to specific fixed good/bad distinctions. Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008). On the other hand, maladaptive self-reflection involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences. Rumination is a central example of maladaptive processes, but not every emotionally difficult reflective episode is necessarily maladaptive. Therefore, engaging in these behaviour may potentially interfere with problem-solving and supportive behaviours that can lead to positive outcomes and reaching insight. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

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| text      = Is self-reflection and insight the same thing?
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* Insight can be defined as the clarity of understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour. (Grant et al., 2002)
* While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. (Grant et al., 2002)
* Every process is different according to the form, context and individual differences. This implies that an individual may spend a considerable time reflecting but not gain any insight. (Grant et al., 2002)
* When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. in comparison to self-reflection, insight is defined as the clarity fo understanding of one's thoughts, emotons and behaviour (Grant et al,. 2002). Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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__TOC__

==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking. Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining clarity and understanding of what these internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). Adaptive and maladaptive describe the likely outcomes of self-focused thought compared to specific fixed good/bad distinctions. Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008). On the other hand, maladaptive self-reflection involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences. Rumination is a central example of maladaptive processes, but not every emotionally difficult reflective episode is necessarily maladaptive. Therefore, engaging in these behaviour may potentially interfere with problem-solving and supportive behaviours that can lead to positive outcomes and reaching insight. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

{{cmbox
| type      = style
| image     = [[File:Emblem-question-yellow.svg|40px]]
| style     = width: 400px;
| textstyle = color: black; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
| text      = Is self-reflection and insight the same thing?
}}

*

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. Moreover, insight is defined as the clarity to understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviours compared to the evaluative process of self-reflection (Grant et al,. 2002).  When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.      

Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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__TOC__

==Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}

[[File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg|Le_Penseur_in_the_Jardin_du_Musée_Rodin,_Paris_14_June_2015]|right|thumb|150px|'''Figure 1'''. Reflection may produce insight, but repeated self-focused thought may contribute to distress.]]

'''Scenario: An embarrassing encounter'''

Trevor's day at university was fairly ordinary. While walking to get his second coffee, he exchanged a brief smile with another student. Distracted, he failed to notice the uneven ground and tripped in front of her. He quickly walked away, flushed and deeply embarrassed. Trevor repeatedly replayed the incident in his mind, becoming absorbed in self-focused thought (see Figure 1). He decided that if he saw her again, he would avoid her to prevent further embarrassment. 

When Trevor told his friend Alucard what had happened, Alucard suggested that she might not have noticed. This prompted Trevor to consider whether his prediction of rejection was supported by what had actually occurred. Soon afterwards, Trevor saw the same student approaching. Although he still felt embarrassed, he reconsidered his interpretation and introduced himself. He discovered that she was happy to speak with him.

Trevor's response illustrates how reflecting on the same experience may be associated with different emotional and behavioural outcomes. Why might repeatedly replaying the event have prolonged his embarrassment, while reconsidering his interpretation helped him respond more constructively?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

[[w:Self-reflection|Self-reflection]] involves examining one’s thoughts, emotions and behaviour, but this process does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. Self-reflection and insight are related but distinguishable: reflection describes the process of self-examination, whereas insight involves developing clearer self-understanding (Grant et al., 2002). This distinction is practically important because deliberate self-analysis may appear constructive even when it maintains embarrassment, avoidance or distress.

The effects of self-focused thought may depend on how it is performed. Trapnell and Campbell (1999) distinguished curiosity-driven reflection from recurrent [[w:Rumination (psychology)|rumination]] prompted by perceived threats, losses or injustices involving the self. More broadly, repetitive thought may be relatively constructive or unconstructive depending on its content, context and level of processing (Watkins, 2008). Psychological perspective may also matter, as analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate emotional reactivity compared with self-immersed analysis (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008). Understanding these processes may help explain why reflection sometimes supports insight and constructive action but, in other circumstances, contributes to continuing distress.{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* What distinguishes adaptive self-reflection from maladaptive self-focused thought? 
* Under what conditions may self-reflection support psychological wellbeing?
* Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
* What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection? 
* How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Understanding adaptive and maladaptive self-reflection ==
Self-focused thought is not explicitly helpful or harmful. It may involve distinguishable processes which influence the overall wellbeing outcomes. Whether adaptive or maladaptive behaviours are executed may rely on motivation, processing style, capacity to generate insight and the relationship with repetitive negative thinking. Self-reflection can be defined as the inspection and evaluation of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour, along with the act of directed attention towards internal experiences and processes. However, engaging in the act of self-reflection is not the same as gaining clarity and understanding of what these internal experiences mean (Grant et al., 2002). Adaptive and maladaptive describe the likely outcomes of self-focused thought compared to specific fixed good/bad distinctions. Adaptive self-reflection may involve the flexible, purposeful processing that supports insight, problem-solving or movement towards personally relevant goals (Watkins, 2008). On the other hand, maladaptive self-reflection involves a more self-focused thought process that refers to repetitive attention to distress and its causes or consequences. Rumination is a central example of maladaptive processes, but not every emotionally difficult reflective episode is necessarily maladaptive. Therefore, engaging in these behaviour may potentially interfere with problem-solving and supportive behaviours that can lead to positive outcomes and reaching insight. (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008).

{{cmbox
| type      = style
| image     = [[File:Emblem-question-yellow.svg|40px]]
| style     = width: 400px;
| textstyle = color: black; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
| text      = Is self-reflection and insight the same thing?
}}

Grant et al. (2002) recognised self-reflection and insight as distinguishable factors. While self-reflection and insight are related, reflection involves the process of self-examination, whereas insight describes the possible outcome. Suggesting that higher levels of self-examination do not with certainty produce clear self-understanding. Moreover, insight is defined as the clarity to understanding of one's thoughts, emotions and behaviours compared to the evaluative process of self-reflection (Grant et al,. 2002).  When these theories are applied to Trevor's scenario, He replays the incident with self-focused attention, but it does not initially provide him with easing distress or more accurate understanding.      

Results found that self-reflection associated positively with anxiety and stress. Whereas, insight was negatively associated with depression, anxiety and stress, while positively associated with cognitive flexibility and self-regulation. These findings were primarily correlational and participants included a sample of undergraduate psychology students which may limit the generalisability. Therefore, these findings demonstrate association among self-reflection insight and psychological outcomes, but they do not establish causal relationships.  

'''Reflection &amp; Rumination''' 

* The &quot;self-absorption paradox&quot; highlights how self-focused attention can be associated with both self-understanding and psychological distress (Trapnell &amp; Campbell, 1999).
* Trapnell and Campbell (1999) identified two motivationally distinct forms of private self-attention. They distinguish between curiosity-driven reflection or intellectual interest in the self compared to recurrent self-rumination likely to be prompted by threats, losses or injustices regarding the self.
* This distinction suggests that the motivation and quality of self-focused attention may be more informative than the amount of reflection alone
* In relation to the Trevor scenario, the act of repeated replaying the embarrassment and anticipated rejection resembles the threat-focused rumination, whereas questioning his initial assumptions illustrates curiosity-driven reflection.
* Trapnell and Campbell's (1999) model provides a key theoretical differentiation for dispositional reflection and rumination. While their research support the distinction between the different processes of reflection. However, it does not establish causation between reflection supporting adaptive outcomes and repetitive thought causing harmful outcomes.

'''Rumination is not one uniform process'''

* According to Treynor et al. (2003), rumination may contain at least two distinguishable components: brooding and reflective pondering.
* Brooding can be defined as the passive comparison between one's current circumstance and an unattained standard. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering can be defined as purposeful attention intended to understand or address distress. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* It important to highlight these as differing constructs as they both associate differently when measured alongside depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Reflective pondering showed a different and less consistently maladaptive pattern than brooding. Moreover, it is also measured alongside depressive rumination and should not automatically be equated to adaptive self-reflection. This highlighted how different processes of rumination have different relationships with depressive symptoms. (Treynor et al., 2003).
* Important distinction - reflection and reflective pondering are from two different measures and should not be treated as identical constructs

'''Reflection and rumination overlap'''

* Takano and Tanno (2009), proposed that self-reflection and self-rumination are distinguishable but may not be entirely independent.
* A two wave longitudinal study over three weeks reported (Takano and Tanno (2009)):
** Self-reflection was associated with lower depression, whereas self-rumination was associated with higher depression
** Important to note that the estimated total effect of reflection on depression was close to zero, as reflection and rumination occurred together.
** This suggests that adaptive reflection processes may coexist with maladaptive processes that counteract positive outcomes
** The small, predominantly male undergraduate sample and brief follow-up period limit generalisability, while the observational design prevents firm causal conclusions.

'''Concluding sentence''' - research suggests that adaptive self-reflection is more likely to involve curiosity-driven and flexible examination that may facilitate insight. In contrast, maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetitions, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging. However, these processes may interact and fluctuate, so reflection should not be assumed to be beneficial merely because it is deliberate. its outcomes may depend on whether it generates clearer understanding or becomes incorporated into repetitive rumination.

== Adaptive self-reflection and wellbeing ==
'''Focus question -'''  Under what conditions may self reflection support psychological wellbeing?

'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self reflection is more likely to support wellbeing when insight is gained to facilitate constructive meaning,

'''Key points'''

* Insight was positively associated with happiness and life satisfaction, whereas self-reflection alone did not show the same relationship with subjective wellbeing (Lyke, 2009).
* Adaptive self-reflection was indirectly associated with greater resilience and wellbeing through insight when rumination was low. When rumination was high, the pattern was less favourable (Bucknell et al., 2022).
* A randomised control trial, found that self reflective writing was more effective than descriptive writing in reinforced perceived resilience. Additionally, reflection on successful coping demonstrates better maintenance of benefits than reflecting on unsuccessful coping (Bucknell et al., 2024).
* An app-based journal that targeted positive processes was associated with increased psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher baseline dispositional self-reflection, after statistically controlling for rumination (MacIsaac et al., 2023)

'''Concluding sentence''' - the evidence highlighted that the possible benefits of reflection depend on whether the action produces greater insight, constructing meaning and recognising effective coping. 

Find research potential locus of control x self-reflection as a point 

'''Limitations'''

* Lyke (2009) is correlational and does not prove insight causes wellbeing
* Bucknell et al. (2022) is a cross-sectional moderated mediation analysis, proposed indirect statistical pathway does not infer causation
* Bucknell et al. (2024) experimental outcomes were targeted to perceived resilience rather than self reflection. Participants also consisted of Australian ministry workers limiting generalisability
* MacIsaac et al. (2023), study was longitudinal but lacked experimental assignment and a control group. Participants chose how much they used the journal, and the app contained other features. Additionally, the nature of the quasi-experiment makes it difficult to confirm whether outcomes are influenced by individuals pre existing reflection intentions and behaviours. 

== Maladaptive self-reflection and psychological distress ==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]'''Focus questions -''' Under what conditions may self-focused thought contribute to psychological distress?
'''Topic sentence/introductory message -''' Self-focused thought may contribute to psychological distress when it becomes repetitive, negative and difficult to detach from, especially when interfering with constructive behaviour and problem solving.

'''Key points'''

*Response style theory proposes that repetitive focus on distress and its causes and consequences may reinforce negative thinking, impair problem solving and interfere with constructive understanding and behaviours (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008)
*A meta-analysis of effect sizes highlighted an association between self-focused attention and negative affect. The strength of this association differed by the form of self-focus, distress and samples (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
*Cross-sectional mediation models indicated that brooding statistically accounted for part of the relationship between lower self-compassion and depressive symptoms, while brooding and worry correlated with anxiety (Raes, 2010).
*Dunn &amp; Luchner (2022) researched reflection on personal mistakes and how rumination conditions effected negative affect. Results found that no significant improvement in negative emotion, which indicates that rumination may maintain psychological distress.

'''Concluding sentence''' - self-focused thought may involve distress when it maintains attention toward negative content without facilitating insight or effective problem-solving.

'''Limitations'''

* Identifies overall association, not the causality of self-focus and distress. Additionally this meta-analysis is quite dated , social norms and stressors have changed so a more recent meta-analysis may be more useful. (Mor &amp; Winquist, 2002)
* Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (2008) concluded that rumination predicted the onset of depression more consistently than the duration of the depressive episode, findings concerning duration were mixed.
* Raes (2010) cross-sectional design may limit generalisability and causality. 
* Dunn and Luchner (2022) did not find a strong implication that rumination significantly caused a decreased mood. Additionally, the study focuses on reflection of personal mistakes and not self-reflection in general.

== Factors influencing the outcomes of self-reflection ==
'''Focus question -''' What psychological processes influence the outcomes of self-reflection?

'''Topic sentence -''' The outcomes of self-reflection may be influenced by the interaction of cognitive, emotional, personal  and cultural factors rather than on the amount of maladaptive process alone.

'''Key points''' 
*A theoretical review proposed that repetitive thought may be constructive or unconstructive depending on its emotional content, situational context and level of construal, including whether processing is relatively abstract or concrete (Watkins, 2008).
*Experimental evidence suggests that analysing a negative experience from a psychologically distanced perspective may support faster cardiovascular recovery than analysing it from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*Cross-cultural studies found that Russian participants reported greater spontaneous self-distancing and less distress while reflecting on negative experiences than American participants, indicating that cultural context may influence how reflection is performed and experienced (Grossmann &amp; Kross, 2010).
*The relationship between adaptive reflection, insight and wellbeing differed according to participants’ levels of rumination, suggesting that rumination may interfere with otherwise constructive reflective processing (Bucknell et al., 2022).
*An experiment involving reflection on a significant mistake suggested that self-criticism may also influence outcomes, as reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in the “hated self” form of self-criticism (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - important influences may include processing style, psychological distance, emotional content, rumination, self-criticism, culture and the extent to which reflection generates insight or action.

'''Limitations''' 

== Developing more adaptive self-reflection ==

'''Focus question''' - How might people engage in more adaptive self-reflection?

*Adaptive self-reflection may be encouraged by giving reflection a clear structure, directing attention towards specific experiences and supporting perspective, insight and constructive action.
*Analysing a negative experience from a self-distanced perspective may reduce immediate physiological reactivity compared with analysing the experience from a self-immersed perspective (Ayduk &amp; Kross, 2008).
*In a one-month randomised trial with distressed students, both [[w:Mindfulness|mindfulness meditation]] and relaxation training reduced distress and increased positive states of mind relative to a control condition; mindfulness meditation also reduced rumination relative to the control condition (Jain et al., 2007).
*Positively focused journalling prompts concerning growth, mastery, goals and the future were associated with improved psychological wellbeing among participants with average or higher dispositional self-reflection (MacIsaac et al., 2023).
*Structured reflection on successful coping experiences may be particularly useful, as its effects on perceived resilience were maintained more effectively than reflection focused on unsuccessful coping experiences (Bucknell et al., 2024).
*in relation to recalling a significant personal mistake, reflection was associated with reduced negative emotion among participants high in hated-self criticism, whereas rumination produced no significant emotional change. (Dunn &amp; Luchner, 2022).

'''Concluding sentence''' - promising strategies include psychological distancing, mindfulness, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping; however, these approaches should not be presented as universally effective.

'''Limitations''' 
*Ayduk and Kross (2008), dated source and supports immediate self-distancing over a more universal and long term intervention.
*Jain et al. (2007), Sample included 83 distressed students limiting generalisability. Additionally, mindfulness was not significantly stronger for relaxation for distress or positive states of mind.
*Bucknell et al. (2024), study targeted perceived resilience and was a specific occupational sample.

;Quiz

Time to quiz your knowledge!

Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Self-reflection involves examining one's thoughts, emotions and behaviour:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Self-reflection is always adaptive when it is deliberate and purposeful:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
*Self-reflection does not appear to be definitively adaptive or maladaptive; its outcomes may depend on how reflection is processed and the context. 
*Adaptive self-reflection may involve curiosity, flexible thinking and movement towards insight, problem-solving or constructive action. 
*Maladaptive self-focused thought may involve threat-focused repetition, passive brooding and difficulty disengaging from distress. 
*Reflection alone does not necessarily produce insight or psychological wellbeing. 
*Factors such as psychological distance, rumination, emotional content, self-criticism and cultural context may influence reflective outcomes. 
*Strategies such as mindfulness, self-distancing, positively focused journalling and structured reflection on successful coping may encourage more adaptive reflection. 

'''Concluding sentence''' - outcomes do not rely on whether an individual reflects or not, but whether their reflection generates clearer understanding and constructive action or maintains repetitive negative attention.

==See also==
* [[w:Emotion regulation|Emotion regulation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Rumination (psychology)|Rumination]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2013/Rumination|Rumination]] (Book chapter, 2013)
* [[w:Self-awareness|Self-awareness]] (Wikipedia)

==References==

{{Hanging indent|1=

Ayduk, Ö., &amp; Kross, E. (2008). Enhancing the pace of recovery: Self-distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. ''Psychological Science, 19''(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x 

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2022). Adaptive self-reflection and resilience: The moderating effects of rumination on insight as a mediator. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 185'', 111234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111234

Bucknell, K. J., Kangas, M., Karin, E., &amp; Crane, M. F. (2024). A randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of self‐reflective writing focused on successful and unsuccessful coping experiences on resilience. ''Stress and Health, 40''(2), e3311. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3311

Dunn, N. A., &amp; Luchner, A. F. (2022). The emotional impact of self‐criticism on self‐reflection and rumination. ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95''(4), 1126–1139.  https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12422

Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., &amp; Langford, P. (2002). The self-reflection and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. ''Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 30''(8), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.8.821

Grossmann, I., &amp; Kross, E. (2010). The impact of culture on adaptive versus maladaptive self-reflection. ''Psychological Science, 21''(8), 1150–1157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376655

Jain, S., Shapiro, S. L., Swanick, S., Roesch, S. C., Mills, P. J., Bell, I., &amp; Schwartz, G. E. (2007). A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation versus relaxation training: Effects on distress, positive states of mind, rumination, and distraction. ''Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 33''(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2 

Lyke, J. A. (2009). Insight, but not self-reflection, is related to subjective well-being. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 46''(1), 66–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.09.010

MacIsaac, A., Mushquash, A. R., &amp; Wekerle, C. (2023). Writing yourself well: Dispositional self-reflection moderates the effect of a smartphone app-based journaling intervention on psychological wellbeing across time. ''Behaviour Change, 40''(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2022.24

Mor, N., &amp; Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. ''Psychological Bulletin, 128''(4), 638–662. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.638

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., &amp; Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3''(5), 400–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x

Raes, F. (2010). Rumination and worry as mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and depression and anxiety. ''Personality and Individual Differences, 48''(6), 757–761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.023

Takano, K., &amp; Tanno, Y. (2009). Self-rumination, self-reflection, and depression: Self-rumination counteracts the adaptive effect of self-reflection. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47''(3), 260–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.008

Trapnell, P. D., &amp; Campbell, J. D. (1999). Private self-consciousness and the five-factor model of personality: Distinguishing rumination from reflection. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76''(2), 284–304. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.2.284

Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., &amp; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. ''Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27''(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023910315561

Watkins, E. (2004). Adaptive and maladaptive ruminative self-focus during emotional processing. ''Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42''(9), 1037–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2004.01.009

Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. ''Psychological Bulletin, 134''(2), 163–206. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

}}

==External links==
* [https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle Breaking the cycle of rumination] (Harvard Health Publishing)
* [https://www.smilingmind.com.au/ Smiling Mind] (Smiling Mind)

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==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png | thumb | right | 250px |'''Figure 1'''. A jury is a group of sworn individuals who determine a defendant's guilt. ]]

Consider sitting on a jury. The defendant appears composed, well-dressed, and speaks clearly. Someone like this couldn't have done anything bad — that's your instinct.

Then you hear the charge: embezzlement. Over three years, they quietly transferred company funds to a personal account. Thousands of dollars were spent, and real people were harmed. You are angry. It's wrong. However, it does not make you feel sick.

Consider the same composed defendant in the same courtroom, but this time the charge is posing as a charity volunteer to gain the trust of dying hospice patients before stealing the donations intended for their care. The financial loss is the same as the embezzlement case. Same amount, same number of victims.

But something else arises in you. Not just anger, but more of a revulsion, as if something was contaminated. This doesn't simply feel like a crime. It has an unclean feeling to it.

The same defendant. Same harm. So, why does one case make you feel cold and angry, while the other makes your skin crawl? And, aside from the actual harm done, could that visceral reaction be influencing how harshly you believe they should be punished?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

It is the law that [https://www.monash.edu/law/news-and-events/news/2020/juries-why-do-we-actually-need-them-and-can-they-get-it-wrong jurors] {{ic|The law varies by jurisdiction; write for an international audience; Australians represent ~.3% of the world human population}} {{ic|Move external links to the External links section}} must base their verdicts on the facts of a case {{citation needed}}. But moral disgust, an emotional gut reaction, seems to influence how jurors assess guilt, blame and punishment, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented {{citation needed}}. A disgusted juror might unconsciously become more certain of guilt, assign more blame and suggest harsher punishment, regardless of what the facts actually establish. If disgust always biases judgements and sentences in one direction or the other, no matter how strong a case is, the implications are profound: wrongful convictions, disproportionate sentencing, and differences in the punishment of similar crimes depending on how “disgusting” the evidence seems, rather than the true seriousness of the crime {{long}}. It also raises questions for current legal practices: courts commonly admit gruesome evidence under the assumption that its evidentiary value outweighs its emotional impact, an assumption this body of research directly undermines {{citation needed}}. Psychological science provides the legal system with something it cannot produce itself: controlled empirical evidence about the nature and causes of this bias {{citation needed}}. It shows not only that jurors appear to be affected by emotion but also the processes (appraisal patterns, purity vs. harm, violations, and individual differences such as private body consciousness) that determine when and for whom the effect is strongest {{citation needed}}. 

This template provides key headings, examples, and tips for each section. Gradually remove this generic information as the chapter develops. It is OK to retain some of the template material for the topic development, but it should all be removed for the final book chapter.

Key resources:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 02]] explains about how to edit
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|Topic development guidelines]]
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter|Book chapter guidelines]]

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

*If disgust can make moral judgements more severe, even when it’s incidental to the act being judged, what does that say about the reliability of human moral reasoning?
*Can moral disgust be used by the legal system? {{ic|Use open-ended questions}}
*How might a juror's own sensitivity to physiological sensations of disgust impact how vulnerable they are to disgust-driven bias?
*How can psychological theories be used to mitigate risks of bias in the legal system?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is Moral Disgust? ==
{{ic|Include at least an introductory paragraph before branching into sub-headings}}

=== Disgust ===
[[w:Disgust|Disgust]] is one of the six universal emotions that humans experience and can be visually recognised on a person's face {{citation needed}}. The emotion of disgust is theorised to have originated from a biological protective mechanism to protect an organism from harm that may be brought on by food or poison {{citation needed}}. Disgust has evolved to become an emotion/behaviour directed at anything that may potentially cause harm or disease. For example, 

* body products 
* animals 
* hygiene 
* body violations, death or disease {{citation needed}}

Paul Ekman proposed six basic emotions in his literature based on the theories that these emotions, across research all over the world, concluded in agreement on six emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Therefore, he proposed that the universality of these findings and the facial expression alone could conclude that there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992).

=== Moral Disgust ===
Moral disgust refers to the emotional response a person feels when their social or cultural norms are transgressed, therefore resulting in a reaction {{citation needed}}. Moral disgust is complex, and there is varying evidence for and against its genuine purpose as an emotion. Researchers argue that moral disgust is a metaphorical extension of physical disgust; shared facial expression, language, etc {{citation needed}}. Other researchers argue that it's functionally unique to traditional, physical disgust {{citation needed}}. It does not reliably trigger the same physiological processes: facial muscle activation, nausea, etc. (Chapman et al., 2012). 

Moral disgust is triggered by acts that are supposedly a violation of an individual's perceived purity or dignity {{citation needed}}. For example, betraying someone's trust (cheating on a partner) or exploiting a vulnerable person (as mentioned in the scenario at the start). 

Rozin et al. (1999) proposed a theory that moral disgust specifically clusters around violations of a person's divinity or purity. This is different from anger, which generally clusters around autonomy violations, also opposed to contempt, which clusters around community violations. 

This distinction is vital when discussing emotion for jurors. If moral disgust behaves differently from physical disgust, it may influence judgement in the courtroom through a different pathway than a simple reaction to physically disgusting evidence. 

Russell &amp; {{ic|Use APA style for citations}} Giner-Sorolla (2013) discuss four competing arguments of disgust's role in moral condemnation. Firstly, the most flexible view of moral disgust that can be applied widely for many crimes is the general morality position. It claims that disgust is an all-purpose emotion which is seen through different kinds of moral disapproval, not just a narrow category. Secondly, disgust as a violation of bodily and spiritual purity is more specific. As mentioned prior, this claim is supported by Rozin's CAD (contempt, anger, disgust) triad. The third argument proposes that moral disgust is only a metaphor. The true emotion being experienced is anger, and individuals just use language as a metaphor (e.g., &quot;that's disgusting&quot;) for how condemning they feel. Finally, Russell &amp; Ginger-Sorolla's own claim for moral disgust is a middle ground for all the arguments in their research. Regardless of whether harm or justice is involved, they contend that disgust specifically tracks violations pertaining to the body and its products. Anger tends to co-occur with violations that are specifically related to justice, harm, or rights. This disgust behaves more like anger wearing the vocabulary of disgust than it does like bodily moral disgust.  

One study involved 148 participants ranking their emotions on a scale {{citation needed}}. It was found that moral disgust elicited as much as physical disgust did, which supports a claim that moral disgust is not a watered-down, metaphorical use of the feeling but a genuine, physical feeling of disgust. It was also revealed that moral disgust uniquely triggered a significantly higher feeling of mental contamination (feeling immoral) than core disgust did. This reveals an internalised feeling about your own moral state just from witnessing an immoral act, which ties back to Russell &amp; Giner-Sorolla's bodily-violation pattern and strengthens Rozin et al.'s (1999) definition of moral disgust. This empirical study is evidence that core disgust attaches to bodily violations whilst non-bodily violations.    

If people respond to contact with an immoral person in a psychologically contaminating way — wanting distance, feeling “dirtied” by proximity — then a question arises about whether jurors exposed to a defendant’s morally disgusting conduct might respond in a similar contamination mode, thus influencing their desire to symbolically “cleanse” the situation via a harsher verdict or sentence.    

 &lt;quiz display=&quot;simple&quot;&gt;

{Moral disgust and physical disgust are the same emotion:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False

&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Psychological Science in the Legal System ==
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Criminal record stigma and emotion#Relevant theories|What psychological theories are present in the legal system]] {{expand}}

=== Social Identity Theory ===
Classic social identity theory posits that groups and whole organisations that possess the same cultural and social norms will have perceive themselves as sharing something in common {{citation needed}}. This adds to their own personal self-concept as an individual and as a member of a society/societies. Bronewasser &amp; Bober (1987) argue that this theory describes a class or collective of people (people who may share traits but have no real interdependence) but not a genuine societal group. Groups depend on structure; roles, positions and relationships that require dependence from people. 

Through this theory, a jury is considered to be a genuine structured group. There are roles, a task and an interdependence through deliberation. This theory may offer a further point on why moral disgust may bias jurors. Moral disgust can function as a social categorisation cue, marking defendants as the out-group rather than in the jury's moral in-group. Bronewasser &amp; Bober claim that even arbitary group labels are enough to produce an in-group favouritism and out-group favouritism. If a defendants act triggers moral disgust, this may mark them as being in the moral &quot;outgroup&quot; in a jurors mind. Independent of the actual evidence being presented, this compounds moral disgust biases 

=== Dual-Process Theory ===
Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt;

The dual-process theory argues that the main types of thinking can be separated into two distinct types (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). Type 1 processing involves autonomous processing that is often responsible for producing intuitive responses without the need for working memory. Type 2 is often more reflective and involves more explicit cognitive processes alongside working memory. A key feature of Type 2 processing is cognitive decoupling and mental simulation. Cognitive decoupling is an ability to separate what you are assuming from what you believe to be true, and mental simulation involves creating hypothetical scenarios and outcomes within your mind (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). 

Type 1 processes of thinking can be assumed to rely heavily on predetermined values and morals which a juror will rarely think over before making a decision. It is thus assumed that Type 2 processing allows for a more deliberate consideration system when accounting for consequences and outcomes. This does not however, guarantee better judgement. to use when making heavily implicating decisions. This is due to Type 2, allowing people to consider consequences and situations before making a decision (Evans and Stanovich, 2013). 

Hypothetically, if the presence of disgust within courts were to be removed, people would be less inclined to make cognitive shortcuts (by relying on their Type 1 system) and thoroughly process emotions before making decisions, utilising their Type 2 system (Kurbanova, 2024). 

Kurbanova, S. (2024). What's the verdict: how disgust dictates jury verdict and the mitigating role of symbolic cleansing. University of Central Oklahoma.
*[[w:Appraisal_theory|appraisal theory of emotion]]
**appraisal theory of emotion is theory that specific emotions are extracted from evaluations of events which in turn impact a reaction which may differ depending on certain people.
*evolutionary theory of emotion
**this theory describes our emotions and reactions being biological reactions to stimuli. 
***for example, disgust has come from protecting oneself from poisons.

== Disgust as a Legally Relevant Emotion ==

* Disgust should not be seen as legally relevant, as that would be a personal bias. 
* How can you create a courtroom that is free from bias if you do not take into account the impact of disgust? 
* Maybe disgust shouldn't be seen as an impacting emotion but rather a factor that needs to be considered when a jury is shown pictures, footage, and witness statements in court. 

=== Arguments For ===

* Patrick Devlin's belief that we should allow some degree of the shared morality view of society through emotions {{citation needed}}
** Within society, when crimes are viewed as &quot;disgusting&quot; or cause widespread intolerance, there is an importance to the intervention of the legal system (Lacey, 2023). 
* Informing the &quot;Reasonable Person&quot; Standard 
** This is a theory that jurors will judge acts (particularly those involving negligence or abuse) based on what they believe they would have done in that situation. Or more accurately to the theory, what would a reasonably prudent person (RPP) have done (Alicke &amp; Weigel, 2021)? 

=== Arguments Against ===

* [[wikipedia:Harm_principle|harm principle limitation]] 
** Developed by John Stuart Mills, the harm principle limitation states the following: 
** &quot;The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.&quot; [[wikisource:On_Liberty/Chapter_1|(Mill, 1869).]] 
** This principle bars people within the legal system from criminalising an action because it makes most people feel moral disgust. 
* a tool for discrimination
** Historically, moral disgust has been a tool against those being charged with crimes of homosexuality and interracial marriages. 

== Moral Disgust and Juror Judgements ==
A jury is a group of 12 individuals that are carefully chosen to determine the guilt of an offender{{fact}} {{ic|Don't juries vary in size, depending on the juridstiction?}}. They are picked to be impartial, unbiased opinions that can aid in the determining of a person's guilt. Jurors are asked to make judgements based on the evidence presented to them in court. However, emotions play a large, unsuspecting role in determining the guilt of a person. Such is the reason why, in high-stakes cases, jurors are not allowed contact with the outside world or media during trials. Moral disgust in particular seems to have a large impact on the way that jurors perceive and shape jurors' judgements. Different emotions elicit different reactions based on the emotion and a person's appraisal patterns.{{fact}}

=== Emotional Response Patterns ===
Fishbein &amp; Ajzen's (1975) expectancy-value model states that a person's given attitude towards an object is a direct function of the value that a person attaches to that object's attributes or outcomes. In explicit terms, a person's value on an object will be a direct function of the value that they place on said item and the positive or negative emotions they associate with it. Furthermore, the positive or negative characteristics that they associate with the object will be a weighted decision on the direct outcome that may occur due to the object.   

In a review of the role of emotion-induced expectancies, Desteno et al. (2004) argue that positive and negative emotions have been grouped together and oversimplified, which makes distinguishing them difficult. The studies found that specificity operates through an emotion-matching process. Whilst the study did not touch on disgust specifically, it found that persuasion about a situation increased when a person's current emotional state matched the emotional framing of a message. The broader emotion-specificity principle suggests a comparable mechanism that may apply to disgust.    

Older discourse has allowed for all emotions to be pushed into one category, but not all emotions push judgement in the same direction.      

Emotional appraisal patterns are the specific mental evaluations that an individual's brain makes about an event to determine how they feel about a situation.  

INSERT TABLE HERE W/ EVIDENCE  

=== Integral versus Incidental Emotion Distinction ===
Research by Feigenson (2016) discusses the overall idea that juror emotions can affect judge responsibility, blame, guilt, punishment and damages. INSERT SOURCE ON WHY THIS IS A FOCUS. 

The core idea of the article follows the influence of integral and incidental emotions. Integral emotions are supposed to be caused by features of a particular case. Incidental emotions are emotions that arise, unrelated to the case. This foundational research posists that emotions may influence legal judgements through multiple different pathways. 


Within the research Feigenson (2016) theorises the emotional effects on information processing. It reveals that different emotions can effect how deeply a juror processes emotions. Anger is generally associated with more certainity about the evidence which leads to individuals being less likely to process information as they are confident they already know enough to address the task (Feigenson, 2016). Other emotions, for example anxiety, are generally associated with more uncertaintity which leads to more systematic information processing (Feigenson, 2016). Saddened by emotional testimony, mock jurors in a criminal reckless driving case were able to identify inconsistencies more precisely, which is a sign of systematic information processing (Semmler &amp; Brewer, 2002). 

The emotion-congruency effect is a process that casues a person to judge based in the direction of the emotion they are feeling. Although Feigenson (2016) does not explicitly research how disgust is influenced by emotion there is other empirical research that researches the impact of disgust on these emotional information processing pathways. 

Rather than claiming that the research should be generalised to consider disgust, it should be considered that further research needs to be conducted to understand the role of moral disgust in a courtroom. This leaves open whether moral disgust causes jurors to be more certain or uncertain about informatin in the courtroom. 

*
* these effects may over or under estimate the influence on cases
* this article does not beleif that moral intuitionism provides strong evidence that emotions have a greater influence on real legal decisions.
* the effects on information processing
** different emotions can affect how deeply people process information.
** this ties back to Rozin and Giner and Sorella (double check this)
** anger is generally associated with more certainty which means that people are less likely to carefully process information
*** they rely on more heuristic cues and consider fewer factors
** anxiety is generally considered with more uncertainty
** leads to more systematic information processing
** mock jurors who became sad from emotional testimony were better at identfying inconsistencies in testimonies that neutral participants
* directional processing
* emotions can cause a person to interpret information in the direction similar to the emotion
** called the emotion-congruency effect (look into this because the source only gave anger, need disgust related information)
* informational effects: people can treat their emotions as information about a thing they are judging (called the affect-as-information model)
** people can often mistakenly attribute their current emotional state to the target of their judgement
** in legal judgements research has examined how integral emotions can act as information when judging responsiblity and blame
** severity of harm: more serious injuries caused participants to feel more sympathy for the victim and blame the defendant more
** hypocritical offenders:a hypocritical offender produced greater anger
* different emotional effects can happen at the same time: one emotion can influence how information is processed while also influencing the direction of the judgement
* multiple emotions can occur: jurors may experience different emotions toward different people in the same case. multiple emotions such as anger and disgust can interact
* it is important to identify the different emotional pathways because:
** different pathways can produce different outcomes
** it helps understand the relationships between emotion, cognition and judgement
* how strong are emotional effects 
** meta analysis have found an effect of emottions on legal responsibility judgements
** this means that emotions do matter but other factors also play a role in explaining legal judgements
** lab studies may produce weaker emotions than real trials
* moral intuitionism: this argues that peoples immediate emotional reactions to morally relevant situations play a very important role in their judgements 
** jurors have the opportunity to override or reconsider their intial reactions through conscious reasoning, reframing a sitaution or talking to other people. this means that emotions dont neccessarily dominate legal judgements.

=== What is the evidence? ===

* Ghelfi et al (2020)
* research suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes 
* previous studies have found that inducing physical disgust (bad smells or bitter tastes) could lead to harsher moral judgements 
* replicated across 11 studies 
* it tested
** whether a bitter beverage leads to harsher moral judgements than a sweet beverage or water
** whether the effect is stronger among politically conservative participants than liberal participants 
* used a 3x3 between-subjects design
** beverage: bitter, sweet or neutral 
** political orientation: conservative, liberal or other 
* 1,137 participants 
* drank beverage and then rated 6 moral vignettes on how wrong they believed the behaviour to be 
* participants also rated how bitter, sweet, neutral or disgusting they found the beverage to be. 
* bitter vs sweet effect was negligible same with the bitter vs neutral
* effects sizes were signficantlly smaller than the original study 

* original Eskine et al (2011) study:
** bitter, sweet or neutral beverage before reading six moral scenarios 
** those who drank a bitter beverage judged actions more harshly than those who drank sweet or neutral 
** the study found that those who were more politically conservative were more affected by the bitter taste than liberal participants. 
** there were originally 57 participants which found a large statistically significant effect
** a replication study was considered important because of the large effects and small sample
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639:

* moralisation hypothesis 
** disgust makes something that is normally morally neutral seem morally wrong
** the manipulation worked in the experiment 
** participants were either shown disgusting or neutral pictures 
** disgust group: M=3.01
** control group: M= 0.25
** significant results (p&lt;.001)
** the researchers successfully made people feel more disgust with pictures 
** but this did not turn morally neutral actions into morally wrong actions 
** the moralisation hypothesis was not true 
* amplification hypothesis
** disgust only makes things that already morally wrong seem even worse 
** experiment used disgusting videos and neutral videos 
** the amplification hypothesis was also not supported


For the table: 

Eskine et al (2011): bitter vs neutral: ''d''=1.09 AND bitter vs sweet: ''d''=1.22 

Ghelfi E, Christopherson CD, Urry HL, et al. Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011). ''Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science''. 2020;3(1):3-23. doi:10.1177/2515245919881152: 

2nd column: average moral wrongness
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|-
|Bitter
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''70.65'''
|-
|Neutral/control
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''68.94'''
|-
|Sweet
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''71.29'''
|}
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639&lt;/nowiki&gt;


jurors emotions and legal judgements: Feigenson, N. (2016). Jurors’ Emotions and Judgments of Legal Responsibility and Blame: What Does the Experimental Research Tell Us? ''Emotion Review'', ''8''(1), 26–31. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601223&lt;/nowiki&gt;

**

== Moderating Factors ==

* private body consciousness 
** people who are more prone to experience their private bodily sensations show stronger disgust-driven bias 
*** An experiment conducted by Schnall et al. (2008) revealed that people who were more aware of their Private Body Consciousness (PBC) were more prone to feelings of disgust and expressing these feelings outwards to the situation at hand. 
* type of violation 
** purity vs harm

== Practical Implications ==

* evidentiary admissibility 
** courts allow for the admission of gruesome photographic evidence but findings suggest this may be wrong 
*** research shows that people view crimes harsher if exposed to gruesome photos 
*** Additionally, Bright &amp; Goodman-Delahunty's (2006) research discusses a person's use of their inner emotional states as a way to reason with information they are being given.
*** In their affective influences model, affect is a judgement-simplifying heuristic device. People generally consult their affective state, meaning they consult their inner emotion to infer a judgement before looking at the facts. 
* jury selection
* how evidence is presented 

==Figures==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]

* Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
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{{anchor|Feature box}}
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;Embedded links
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* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

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A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
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==Conclusion==
* What does this mean going further {{vague}}
* What would future research benefit from in this specific section?
*Moral disgust does not come with jurors' judgements, but rather it can measurably shift guilt, certainty, blame attribution and punishment severity.
*This may be stronger for certain people; it cannot just be a blanket claim for all jurors. 
*The idea that jurors decide on the basis of facts alone is not psychologically sustainable. The practice of law {{ic|The practice of law goes beyond the target topic}} needs to consider this, rather than seeing emotions as a bias. 
* The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
* Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
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==See also==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)

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==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Alicke, M. D., &amp; Weigel, S. H. (2021). The reasonable person standard: Psychological and legal perspectives. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17(1), 123–138.

Bornewasser, M., &amp; Bober, J. (1987). Individual, social group and intergroup behaviour. Some conceptual remarks on the social identity theory. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(3), 267–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1002/ejsp.2420170303

Bright, D. A., &amp; Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: Anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y

Chapman, H. A., &amp; Anderson, A. K. (2012). Understanding disgust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06369.x 

DeSteno, D., Petty, R. E., Rucker, D. D., Wegener, D. T., &amp; Braverman, J. (2004). Discrete emotions and persuasion: The role of emotion-induced expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.43

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550

Fishbein, M., &amp; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Lacey, N. (2023). Patrick Devlin, The enforcement of morals (1965). In [Book title] (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193982-5

Russell, P. S., &amp; Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 328–351. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1037/a0029319

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., &amp; Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]:
** Use &quot;Edit source&quot;
** &lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Important aspects of APA referencing style
** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces
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* The most common mistakes include:
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}}

==External links==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|external links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TmKo75gJI How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral Wrong &amp; the Political Right] (David Pizzaro)

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[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Morality]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Legal]]</text>
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      <text bytes="36364" sha1="kgm0w9p6azuic3axex3i9trti2zcv50" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Moral disgust and jury decision-making: How does moral disgust impact jurors' judgements of guilt, blame, and punishment?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png | thumb | right | 250px |'''Figure 1'''. A jury is a group of sworn individuals who determine a defendant's guilt. ]]

Consider sitting on a jury. The defendant appears composed, well-dressed, and speaks clearly. Someone like this couldn't have done anything bad — that's your instinct.

Then you hear the charge: embezzlement. Over three years, they quietly transferred company funds to a personal account. Thousands of dollars were spent, and real people were harmed. You are angry. It's wrong. However, it does not make you feel sick.

Consider the same composed defendant in the same courtroom, but this time the charge is posing as a charity volunteer to gain the trust of dying hospice patients before stealing the donations intended for their care. The financial loss is the same as the embezzlement case. Same amount, same number of victims.

But something else arises in you. Not just anger, but more of a revulsion, as if something was contaminated. This doesn't simply feel like a crime. It has an unclean feeling to it.

The same defendant. Same harm. So, why does one case make you feel cold and angry, while the other makes your skin crawl? And, aside from the actual harm done, could that visceral reaction be influencing how harshly you believe they should be punished?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

It is the law that [https://www.monash.edu/law/news-and-events/news/2020/juries-why-do-we-actually-need-them-and-can-they-get-it-wrong jurors] {{ic|The law varies by jurisdiction; write for an international audience; Australians represent ~.3% of the world human population}} {{ic|Move external links to the External links section}} must base their verdicts on the facts of a case {{citation needed}}. But moral disgust, an emotional gut reaction, seems to influence how jurors assess guilt, blame and punishment, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented {{citation needed}}. A disgusted juror might unconsciously become more certain of guilt, assign more blame and suggest harsher punishment, regardless of what the facts actually establish. If disgust always biases judgements and sentences in one direction or the other, no matter how strong a case is, the implications are profound: wrongful convictions, disproportionate sentencing, and differences in the punishment of similar crimes depending on how “disgusting” the evidence seems, rather than the true seriousness of the crime {{long}}. It also raises questions for current legal practices: courts commonly admit gruesome evidence under the assumption that its evidentiary value outweighs its emotional impact, an assumption this body of research directly undermines {{citation needed}}. Psychological science provides the legal system with something it cannot produce itself: controlled empirical evidence about the nature and causes of this bias {{citation needed}}. It shows not only that jurors appear to be affected by emotion but also the processes (appraisal patterns, purity vs. harm, violations, and individual differences such as private body consciousness) that determine when and for whom the effect is strongest {{citation needed}}. 

This template provides key headings, examples, and tips for each section. Gradually remove this generic information as the chapter develops. It is OK to retain some of the template material for the topic development, but it should all be removed for the final book chapter.

Key resources:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 02]] explains about how to edit
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{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

*If disgust can make moral judgements more severe, even when it’s incidental to the act being judged, what does that say about the reliability of human moral reasoning?
*Can moral disgust be used by the legal system? {{ic|Use open-ended questions}}
*How might a juror's own sensitivity to physiological sensations of disgust impact how vulnerable they are to disgust-driven bias?
*How can psychological theories be used to mitigate risks of bias in the legal system?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is Moral Disgust? ==
{{ic|Include at least an introductory paragraph before branching into sub-headings}}

=== Disgust ===
[[w:Disgust|Disgust]] is one of the six universal emotions that humans experience and can be visually recognised on a person's face {{citation needed}}. The emotion of disgust is theorised to have originated from a biological protective mechanism to protect an organism from harm that may be brought on by food or poison {{citation needed}}. Disgust has evolved to become an emotion/behaviour directed at anything that may potentially cause harm or disease. For example, 

* body products 
* animals 
* hygiene 
* body violations, death or disease {{citation needed}}

Paul Ekman proposed six basic emotions in his literature based on the theories that these emotions, across research all over the world, concluded in agreement on six emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Therefore, he proposed that the universality of these findings and the facial expression alone could conclude that there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992).

=== Moral Disgust ===
Moral disgust refers to the emotional response a person feels when their social or cultural norms are transgressed, therefore resulting in a reaction {{citation needed}}. Moral disgust is complex, and there is varying evidence for and against its genuine purpose as an emotion. Researchers argue that moral disgust is a metaphorical extension of physical disgust; shared facial expression, language, etc {{citation needed}}. Other researchers argue that it's functionally unique to traditional, physical disgust {{citation needed}}. It does not reliably trigger the same physiological processes: facial muscle activation, nausea, etc. (Chapman et al., 2012). 

Moral disgust is triggered by acts that are supposedly a violation of an individual's perceived purity or dignity {{citation needed}}. For example, betraying someone's trust (cheating on a partner) or exploiting a vulnerable person (as mentioned in the scenario at the start). 

Rozin et al. (1999) proposed a theory that moral disgust specifically clusters around violations of a person's divinity or purity. This is different from anger, which generally clusters around autonomy violations, also opposed to contempt, which clusters around community violations. 

This distinction is vital when discussing emotion for jurors. If moral disgust behaves differently from physical disgust, it may influence judgement in the courtroom through a different pathway than a simple reaction to physically disgusting evidence. 

Russell &amp; {{ic|Use APA style for citations}} Giner-Sorolla (2013) discuss four competing arguments of disgust's role in moral condemnation. Firstly, the most flexible view of moral disgust that can be applied widely for many crimes is the general morality position. It claims that disgust is an all-purpose emotion which is seen through different kinds of moral disapproval, not just a narrow category. Secondly, disgust as a violation of bodily and spiritual purity is more specific. As mentioned prior, this claim is supported by Rozin's CAD (contempt, anger, disgust) triad. The third argument proposes that moral disgust is only a metaphor. The true emotion being experienced is anger, and individuals just use language as a metaphor (e.g., &quot;that's disgusting&quot;) for how condemning they feel. Finally, Russell &amp; Ginger-Sorolla's own claim for moral disgust is a middle ground for all the arguments in their research. Regardless of whether harm or justice is involved, they contend that disgust specifically tracks violations pertaining to the body and its products. Anger tends to co-occur with violations that are specifically related to justice, harm, or rights. This disgust behaves more like anger wearing the vocabulary of disgust than it does like bodily moral disgust.  

One study involved 148 participants ranking their emotions on a scale {{citation needed}}. It was found that moral disgust elicited as much as physical disgust did, which supports a claim that moral disgust is not a watered-down, metaphorical use of the feeling but a genuine, physical feeling of disgust. It was also revealed that moral disgust uniquely triggered a significantly higher feeling of mental contamination (feeling immoral) than core disgust did. This reveals an internalised feeling about your own moral state just from witnessing an immoral act, which ties back to Russell &amp; Giner-Sorolla's bodily-violation pattern and strengthens Rozin et al.'s (1999) definition of moral disgust. This empirical study is evidence that core disgust attaches to bodily violations, not non-bodily violations.    

If people respond to contact with an immoral person in a psychologically contaminating way — wanting distance, feeling “dirtied” by proximity — then a question arises about whether jurors exposed to a defendant’s morally disgusting conduct might respond in a similar contamination mode, thus influencing their desire to symbolically “cleanse” the situation via a harsher verdict or sentence.    

 &lt;quiz display=&quot;simple&quot;&gt;

{Moral disgust and physical disgust are the same emotion:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False

&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Psychological Science in the Legal System ==
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Criminal record stigma and emotion#Relevant theories|What psychological theories are present in the legal system]] {{expand}}

=== Social Identity Theory ===
Classic social identity theory posits that groups and whole organisations that possess the same cultural and social norms will have perceive themselves as sharing something in common {{citation needed}}. This adds to their own personal self-concept as an individual and as a member of a society/societies. Bronewasser &amp; Bober (1987) argue that this theory describes a class or collective of people (people who may share traits but have no real interdependence) but not a genuine societal group. Groups depend on structure; roles, positions and relationships that require dependence from people. 

Through this theory, a jury is considered to be a genuine structured group. There are roles, a task and an interdependence through deliberation. This theory may offer a further point on why moral disgust may bias jurors. Moral disgust can function as a social categorisation cue, marking defendants as the out-group rather than in the jury's moral in-group. Bronewasser &amp; Bober claim that even arbitary group labels are enough to produce an in-group favouritism and out-group favouritism. If a defendants act triggers moral disgust, this may mark them as being in the moral &quot;outgroup&quot; in a jurors mind. Independent of the actual evidence being presented, this compounds moral disgust biases 

=== Dual-Process Theory ===
Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt;

The dual-process theory argues that the main types of thinking can be separated into two distinct types (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). Type 1 processing involves autonomous processing that is often responsible for producing intuitive responses without the need for working memory. Type 2 is often more reflective and involves more explicit cognitive processes alongside working memory. A key feature of Type 2 processing is cognitive decoupling and mental simulation. Cognitive decoupling is an ability to separate what you are assuming from what you believe to be true, and mental simulation involves creating hypothetical scenarios and outcomes within your mind (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). 

Type 1 processes of thinking can be assumed to rely heavily on predetermined values and morals which a juror will rarely think over before making a decision. It is thus assumed that Type 2 processing allows for a more deliberate consideration system when accounting for consequences and outcomes. This does not, however, guarantee better judgement. to use when making heavily implicating decisions. This is due to Type 2, allowing people to consider consequences and situations before making a decision (Evans and Stanovich, 2013).  

Supporting evidence suggests that disgust is a Type 1 output, automatic and arriving before deliberate reasoning can take place. Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013) describe moral disgust as an unreasoned emotion that involves a process of quickly cleansing oneself of the impurity they associate with that emotion.  

Hypothetically, if the presence of disgust within courts were to be removed, people would be less inclined to make cognitive shortcuts (by relying on their Type 1 system) and thoroughly process emotions before making decisions, utilising their Type 2 system (Kurbanova, 2024). 

Kurbanova, S. (2024). What's the verdict: how disgust dictates jury verdict and the mitigating role of symbolic cleansing. University of Central Oklahoma.
*[[w:Appraisal_theory|appraisal theory of emotion]]
**appraisal theory of emotion is theory that specific emotions are extracted from evaluations of events which in turn impact a reaction which may differ depending on certain people.
*evolutionary theory of emotion
**this theory describes our emotions and reactions being biological reactions to stimuli. 
***for example, disgust has come from protecting oneself from poisons.

== Disgust as a Legally Relevant Emotion ==

* Disgust should not be seen as legally relevant, as that would be a personal bias. 
* How can you create a courtroom that is free from bias if you do not take into account the impact of disgust? 
* Maybe disgust shouldn't be seen as an impacting emotion but rather a factor that needs to be considered when a jury is shown pictures, footage, and witness statements in court. 

=== Arguments For ===

* Patrick Devlin's belief that we should allow some degree of the shared morality view of society through emotions {{citation needed}}
** Within society, when crimes are viewed as &quot;disgusting&quot; or cause widespread intolerance, there is an importance to the intervention of the legal system (Lacey, 2023). 
* Informing the &quot;Reasonable Person&quot; Standard 
** This is a theory that jurors will judge acts (particularly those involving negligence or abuse) based on what they believe they would have done in that situation. Or more accurately to the theory, what would a reasonably prudent person (RPP) have done (Alicke &amp; Weigel, 2021)? 

=== Arguments Against ===

* [[wikipedia:Harm_principle|harm principle limitation]] 
** Developed by John Stuart Mills, the harm principle limitation states the following: 
** &quot;The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.&quot; [[wikisource:On_Liberty/Chapter_1|(Mill, 1869).]] 
** This principle bars people within the legal system from criminalising an action because it makes most people feel moral disgust. 
* a tool for discrimination
** Historically, moral disgust has been a tool against those being charged with crimes of homosexuality and interracial marriages. 

== Moral Disgust and Juror Judgements ==
A jury is a group of 12 individuals that are carefully chosen to determine the guilt of an offender{{fact}} {{ic|Don't juries vary in size, depending on the juridstiction?}}. They are picked to be impartial, unbiased opinions that can aid in the determining of a person's guilt. Jurors are asked to make judgements based on the evidence presented to them in court. However, emotions play a large, unsuspecting role in determining the guilt of a person. Such is the reason why, in high-stakes cases, jurors are not allowed contact with the outside world or media during trials. Moral disgust in particular seems to have a large impact on the way that jurors perceive and shape jurors' judgements. Different emotions elicit different reactions based on the emotion and a person's appraisal patterns.{{fact}}

=== Emotional Response Patterns ===
Fishbein &amp; Ajzen's (1975) expectancy-value model states that a person's given attitude towards an object is a direct function of the value that a person attaches to that object's attributes or outcomes. In explicit terms, a person's value on an object will be a direct function of the value that they place on said item and the positive or negative emotions they associate with it. Furthermore, the positive or negative characteristics that they associate with the object will be a weighted decision on the direct outcome that may occur due to the object.   

In a review of the role of emotion-induced expectancies, Desteno et al. (2004) argue that positive and negative emotions have been grouped together and oversimplified, which makes distinguishing them difficult. The studies found that specificity operates through an emotion-matching process. Whilst the study did not touch on disgust specifically, it found that persuasion about a situation increased when a person's current emotional state matched the emotional framing of a message. The broader emotion-specificity principle suggests a comparable mechanism that may apply to disgust.    

Older discourse has allowed for all emotions to be pushed into one category, but not all emotions push judgement in the same direction.      

Emotional appraisal patterns are the specific mental evaluations that an individual's brain makes about an event to determine how they feel about a situation.  

INSERT TABLE HERE W/ EVIDENCE  

=== Integral versus Incidental Emotion Distinction ===
Research by Feigenson (2016) discusses the overall idea that juror emotions can affect judge responsibility, blame, guilt, punishment and damages. INSERT SOURCE ON WHY THIS IS A FOCUS. 

The core idea of the article follows the influence of integral and incidental emotions. Integral emotions are supposed to be caused by features of a particular case. Incidental emotions are emotions that arise, unrelated to the case. This foundational research posists that emotions may influence legal judgements through multiple different pathways. 


Within the research Feigenson (2016) theorises the emotional effects on information processing. It reveals that different emotions can effect how deeply a juror processes emotions. Anger is generally associated with more certainity about the evidence which leads to individuals being less likely to process information as they are confident they already know enough to address the task (Feigenson, 2016). Other emotions, for example anxiety, are generally associated with more uncertaintity which leads to more systematic information processing (Feigenson, 2016). Saddened by emotional testimony, mock jurors in a criminal reckless driving case were able to identify inconsistencies more precisely, which is a sign of systematic information processing (Semmler &amp; Brewer, 2002). 

The emotion-congruency effect is a process that casues a person to judge based in the direction of the emotion they are feeling. Although Feigenson (2016) does not explicitly research how disgust is influenced by emotion there is other empirical research that researches the impact of disgust on these emotional information processing pathways. 

Rather than claiming that the research should be generalised to consider disgust, it should be considered that further research needs to be conducted to understand the role of moral disgust in a courtroom. This leaves open whether moral disgust causes jurors to be more certain or uncertain about informatin in the courtroom. 

*
* these effects may over or under estimate the influence on cases
* this article does not beleif that moral intuitionism provides strong evidence that emotions have a greater influence on real legal decisions.
* the effects on information processing
** different emotions can affect how deeply people process information.
** this ties back to Rozin and Giner and Sorella (double check this)
** anger is generally associated with more certainty which means that people are less likely to carefully process information
*** they rely on more heuristic cues and consider fewer factors
** anxiety is generally considered with more uncertainty
** leads to more systematic information processing
** mock jurors who became sad from emotional testimony were better at identfying inconsistencies in testimonies that neutral participants
* directional processing
* emotions can cause a person to interpret information in the direction similar to the emotion
** called the emotion-congruency effect (look into this because the source only gave anger, need disgust related information)
* informational effects: people can treat their emotions as information about a thing they are judging (called the affect-as-information model)
** people can often mistakenly attribute their current emotional state to the target of their judgement
** in legal judgements research has examined how integral emotions can act as information when judging responsiblity and blame
** severity of harm: more serious injuries caused participants to feel more sympathy for the victim and blame the defendant more
** hypocritical offenders:a hypocritical offender produced greater anger
* different emotional effects can happen at the same time: one emotion can influence how information is processed while also influencing the direction of the judgement
* multiple emotions can occur: jurors may experience different emotions toward different people in the same case. multiple emotions such as anger and disgust can interact
* it is important to identify the different emotional pathways because:
** different pathways can produce different outcomes
** it helps understand the relationships between emotion, cognition and judgement
* how strong are emotional effects 
** meta analysis have found an effect of emottions on legal responsibility judgements
** this means that emotions do matter but other factors also play a role in explaining legal judgements
** lab studies may produce weaker emotions than real trials
* moral intuitionism: this argues that peoples immediate emotional reactions to morally relevant situations play a very important role in their judgements 
** jurors have the opportunity to override or reconsider their intial reactions through conscious reasoning, reframing a sitaution or talking to other people. this means that emotions dont neccessarily dominate legal judgements.

=== What is the evidence? ===

* Ghelfi et al (2020)
* research suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes 
* previous studies have found that inducing physical disgust (bad smells or bitter tastes) could lead to harsher moral judgements 
* replicated across 11 studies 
* it tested
** whether a bitter beverage leads to harsher moral judgements than a sweet beverage or water
** whether the effect is stronger among politically conservative participants than liberal participants 
* used a 3x3 between-subjects design
** beverage: bitter, sweet or neutral 
** political orientation: conservative, liberal or other 
* 1,137 participants 
* drank beverage and then rated 6 moral vignettes on how wrong they believed the behaviour to be 
* participants also rated how bitter, sweet, neutral or disgusting they found the beverage to be. 
* bitter vs sweet effect was negligible same with the bitter vs neutral
* effects sizes were signficantlly smaller than the original study 

* original Eskine et al (2011) study:
** bitter, sweet or neutral beverage before reading six moral scenarios 
** those who drank a bitter beverage judged actions more harshly than those who drank sweet or neutral 
** the study found that those who were more politically conservative were more affected by the bitter taste than liberal participants. 
** there were originally 57 participants which found a large statistically significant effect
** a replication study was considered important because of the large effects and small sample
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639:

* moralisation hypothesis 
** disgust makes something that is normally morally neutral seem morally wrong
** the manipulation worked in the experiment 
** participants were either shown disgusting or neutral pictures 
** disgust group: M=3.01
** control group: M= 0.25
** significant results (p&lt;.001)
** the researchers successfully made people feel more disgust with pictures 
** but this did not turn morally neutral actions into morally wrong actions 
** the moralisation hypothesis was not true 
* amplification hypothesis
** disgust only makes things that already morally wrong seem even worse 
** experiment used disgusting videos and neutral videos 
** the amplification hypothesis was also not supported


For the table: 

Eskine et al (2011): bitter vs neutral: ''d''=1.09 AND bitter vs sweet: ''d''=1.22 

Ghelfi E, Christopherson CD, Urry HL, et al. Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011). ''Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science''. 2020;3(1):3-23. doi:10.1177/2515245919881152: 

2nd column: average moral wrongness
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|-
|Bitter
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''70.65'''
|-
|Neutral/control
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''68.94'''
|-
|Sweet
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''71.29'''
|}
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639&lt;/nowiki&gt;


jurors emotions and legal judgements: Feigenson, N. (2016). Jurors’ Emotions and Judgments of Legal Responsibility and Blame: What Does the Experimental Research Tell Us? ''Emotion Review'', ''8''(1), 26–31. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601223&lt;/nowiki&gt;

**

== Moderating Factors ==

* private body consciousness 
** people who are more prone to experience their private bodily sensations show stronger disgust-driven bias 
*** An experiment conducted by Schnall et al. (2008) revealed that people who were more aware of their Private Body Consciousness (PBC) were more prone to feelings of disgust and expressing these feelings outwards to the situation at hand. 
* type of violation 
** purity vs harm

== Practical Implications ==

* evidentiary admissibility 
** courts allow for the admission of gruesome photographic evidence but findings suggest this may be wrong 
*** research shows that people view crimes harsher if exposed to gruesome photos 
*** Additionally, Bright &amp; Goodman-Delahunty's (2006) research discusses a person's use of their inner emotional states as a way to reason with information they are being given.
*** In their affective influences model, affect is a judgement-simplifying heuristic device. People generally consult their affective state, meaning they consult their inner emotion to infer a judgement before looking at the facts. 
* jury selection
* how evidence is presented 

==Figures==
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;Embedded links
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A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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==Conclusion==
* What does this mean going further {{vague}}
* What would future research benefit from in this specific section?
*Moral disgust does not come with jurors' judgements, but rather it can measurably shift guilt, certainty, blame attribution and punishment severity.
*This may be stronger for certain people; it cannot just be a blanket claim for all jurors. 
*The idea that jurors decide on the basis of facts alone is not psychologically sustainable. The practice of law {{ic|The practice of law goes beyond the target topic}} needs to consider this, rather than seeing emotions as a bias. 
* The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
* Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
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==See also==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)

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==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Alicke, M. D., &amp; Weigel, S. H. (2021). The reasonable person standard: Psychological and legal perspectives. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17(1), 123–138.

Bornewasser, M., &amp; Bober, J. (1987). Individual, social group and intergroup behaviour. Some conceptual remarks on the social identity theory. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(3), 267–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1002/ejsp.2420170303

Bright, D. A., &amp; Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: Anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y

Chapman, H. A., &amp; Anderson, A. K. (2012). Understanding disgust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06369.x 

DeSteno, D., Petty, R. E., Rucker, D. D., Wegener, D. T., &amp; Braverman, J. (2004). Discrete emotions and persuasion: The role of emotion-induced expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.43

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550

Fishbein, M., &amp; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Lacey, N. (2023). Patrick Devlin, The enforcement of morals (1965). In [Book title] (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193982-5

Russell, P. S., &amp; Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 328–351. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1037/a0029319

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., &amp; Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]:
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* Important aspects of APA referencing style
** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces
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}}

==External links==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|external links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TmKo75gJI How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral Wrong &amp; the Political Right] (David Pizzaro)

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[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Morality]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Legal]]</text>
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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png | thumb | right | 250px |'''Figure 1'''. A jury is a group of sworn individuals who determine a defendant's guilt. ]]

Consider sitting on a jury. The defendant appears composed, well-dressed, and speaks clearly. Someone like this couldn't have done anything bad — that's your instinct.

Then you hear the charge: embezzlement. Over three years, they quietly transferred company funds to a personal account. Thousands of dollars were spent, and real people were harmed. You are angry. It's wrong. However, it does not make you feel sick.

Consider the same composed defendant in the same courtroom, but this time the charge is posing as a charity volunteer to gain the trust of dying hospice patients before stealing the donations intended for their care. The financial loss is the same as the embezzlement case. Same amount, same number of victims.

But something else arises in you. Not just anger, but more of a revulsion, as if something was contaminated. This doesn't simply feel like a crime. It has an unclean feeling to it.

The same defendant. Same harm. So, why does one case make you feel cold and angry, while the other makes your skin crawl? And, aside from the actual harm done, could that visceral reaction be influencing how harshly you believe they should be punished?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

It is the law that [https://www.monash.edu/law/news-and-events/news/2020/juries-why-do-we-actually-need-them-and-can-they-get-it-wrong jurors] {{ic|The law varies by jurisdiction; write for an international audience; Australians represent ~.3% of the world human population}} {{ic|Move external links to the External links section}} must base their verdicts on the facts of a case {{citation needed}}. But moral disgust, an emotional gut reaction, seems to influence how jurors assess guilt, blame and punishment, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented {{citation needed}}. A disgusted juror might unconsciously become more certain of guilt, assign more blame and suggest harsher punishment, regardless of what the facts actually establish. If disgust always biases judgements and sentences in one direction or the other, no matter how strong a case is, the implications are profound: wrongful convictions, disproportionate sentencing, and differences in the punishment of similar crimes depending on how “disgusting” the evidence seems, rather than the true seriousness of the crime {{long}}. It also raises questions for current legal practices: courts commonly admit gruesome evidence under the assumption that its evidentiary value outweighs its emotional impact, an assumption this body of research directly undermines {{citation needed}}. Psychological science provides the legal system with something it cannot produce itself: controlled empirical evidence about the nature and causes of this bias {{citation needed}}. It shows not only that jurors appear to be affected by emotion but also the processes (appraisal patterns, purity vs. harm, violations, and individual differences such as private body consciousness) that determine when and for whom the effect is strongest {{citation needed}}. 

This template provides key headings, examples, and tips for each section. Gradually remove this generic information as the chapter develops. It is OK to retain some of the template material for the topic development, but it should all be removed for the final book chapter.

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{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

*If disgust can make moral judgements more severe, even when it’s incidental to the act being judged, what does that say about the reliability of human moral reasoning?
*Can moral disgust be used by the legal system? {{ic|Use open-ended questions}}
*How might a juror's own sensitivity to physiological sensations of disgust impact how vulnerable they are to disgust-driven bias?
*How can psychological theories be used to mitigate risks of bias in the legal system?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is Moral Disgust? ==
{{ic|Include at least an introductory paragraph before branching into sub-headings}}

=== Disgust ===
[[w:Disgust|Disgust]] is one of the six universal emotions that humans experience and can be visually recognised on a person's face {{citation needed}}. The emotion of disgust is theorised to have originated from a biological protective mechanism to protect an organism from harm that may be brought on by food or poison {{citation needed}}. Disgust has evolved to become an emotion/behaviour directed at anything that may potentially cause harm or disease. For example, 

* body products 
* animals 
* hygiene 
* body violations, death or disease {{citation needed}}

Paul Ekman proposed six basic emotions in his literature based on the theories that these emotions, across research all over the world, concluded in agreement on six emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Therefore, he proposed that the universality of these findings and the facial expression alone could conclude that there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992).

=== Moral Disgust ===
Moral disgust refers to the emotional response a person feels when their social or cultural norms are transgressed, therefore resulting in a reaction {{citation needed}}. Moral disgust is complex, and there is varying evidence for and against its genuine purpose as an emotion. Researchers argue that moral disgust is a metaphorical extension of physical disgust; shared facial expression, language, etc {{citation needed}}. Other researchers argue that it's functionally unique to traditional, physical disgust {{citation needed}}. It does not reliably trigger the same physiological processes: facial muscle activation, nausea, etc. (Chapman et al., 2012). 

Moral disgust is triggered by acts that are supposedly a violation of an individual's perceived purity or dignity {{citation needed}}. For example, betraying someone's trust (cheating on a partner) or exploiting a vulnerable person (as mentioned in the scenario at the start). 

Rozin et al. (1999) proposed a theory that moral disgust specifically clusters around violations of a person's divinity or purity. This is different from anger, which generally clusters around autonomy violations, also opposed to contempt, which clusters around community violations. 

This distinction is vital when discussing emotion for jurors. If moral disgust behaves differently from physical disgust, it may influence judgement in the courtroom through a different pathway than a simple reaction to physically disgusting evidence. 

Russell &amp; {{ic|Use APA style for citations}} Giner-Sorolla (2013) discuss four competing arguments of disgust's role in moral condemnation. Firstly, the most flexible view of moral disgust that can be applied widely for many crimes is the general morality position. It claims that disgust is an all-purpose emotion which is seen through different kinds of moral disapproval, not just a narrow category. Secondly, disgust as a violation of bodily and spiritual purity is more specific. As mentioned prior, this claim is supported by Rozin's CAD (contempt, anger, disgust) triad. The third argument proposes that moral disgust is only a metaphor. The true emotion being experienced is anger, and individuals just use language as a metaphor (e.g., &quot;that's disgusting&quot;) for how condemning they feel. Finally, Russell &amp; Ginger-Sorolla's own claim for moral disgust is a middle ground for all the arguments in their research. Regardless of whether harm or justice is involved, they contend that disgust specifically tracks violations pertaining to the body and its products. Anger tends to co-occur with violations that are specifically related to justice, harm, or rights. This disgust behaves more like anger wearing the vocabulary of disgust than it does like bodily moral disgust.  

One study involved 148 participants ranking their emotions on a scale {{citation needed}}. It was found that moral disgust elicited as much as physical disgust did, which supports a claim that moral disgust is not a watered-down, metaphorical use of the feeling but a genuine, physical feeling of disgust. It was also revealed that moral disgust uniquely triggered a significantly higher feeling of mental contamination (feeling immoral) than core disgust did. This reveals an internalised feeling about your own moral state just from witnessing an immoral act, which ties back to Russell &amp; Giner-Sorolla's bodily-violation pattern and strengthens Rozin et al.'s (1999) definition of moral disgust. This empirical study is evidence that core disgust attaches to bodily violations, not non-bodily violations.    

If people respond to contact with an immoral person in a psychologically contaminating way — wanting distance, feeling “dirtied” by proximity — then a question arises about whether jurors exposed to a defendant’s morally disgusting conduct might respond in a similar contamination mode, thus influencing their desire to symbolically “cleanse” the situation via a harsher verdict or sentence.    

 &lt;quiz display=&quot;simple&quot;&gt;

{Moral disgust and physical disgust are the same emotion:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False

&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Psychological Science in the Legal System ==
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Criminal record stigma and emotion#Relevant theories|What psychological theories are present in the legal system]] {{expand}}

=== Social Identity Theory ===
Classic social identity theory posits that groups and whole organisations that possess the same cultural and social norms will have perceive themselves as sharing something in common {{citation needed}}. This adds to their own personal self-concept as an individual and as a member of a society/societies. Bronewasser &amp; Bober (1987) argue that this theory describes a class or collective of people (people who may share traits but have no real interdependence) but not a genuine societal group. Groups depend on structure; roles, positions and relationships that require dependence from people. 

Through this theory, a jury is considered to be a genuine structured group. There are roles, a task and an interdependence through deliberation. This theory may offer a further point on why moral disgust may bias jurors. Moral disgust can function as a social categorisation cue, marking defendants as the out-group rather than in the jury's moral in-group. Bronewasser &amp; Bober claim that even arbitary group labels are enough to produce an in-group favouritism and out-group favouritism. If a defendants act triggers moral disgust, this may mark them as being in the moral &quot;outgroup&quot; in a jurors mind. Independent of the actual evidence being presented, this compounds moral disgust biases 

=== Dual-Process Theory ===
Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt;

The dual-process theory argues that the main types of thinking can be separated into two distinct types (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). Type 1 processing involves autonomous processing that is often responsible for producing intuitive responses without the need for working memory. Type 2 is often more reflective and involves more explicit cognitive processes alongside working memory. A key feature of Type 2 processing is cognitive decoupling and mental simulation. Cognitive decoupling is an ability to separate what you are assuming from what you believe to be true, and mental simulation involves creating hypothetical scenarios and outcomes within your mind (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). 

Type 1 processes of thinking can be assumed to rely heavily on predetermined values and morals which a juror will rarely think over before making a decision. It is thus assumed that Type 2 processing allows for a more deliberate consideration system when accounting for consequences and outcomes. This does not, however, guarantee better judgement. to use when making heavily implicating decisions. This is due to Type 2, allowing people to consider consequences and situations before making a decision (Evans and Stanovich, 2013).  

Supporting evidence suggests that disgust is a Type 1 output, automatic and arriving before deliberate reasoning can take place. Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013) describe moral disgust as an unreasoned emotion that involves a process of quickly cleansing oneself of the impurity they associate with that emotion. Additionally, Feigenson's (2016) findings show that different emotions elicit different processing capabilities (anger is different from anxiety). This is supporting evidence for how much Type 2 information processing is engaged for jurors. Feigenson (2016) also notes that jurors may have the ability to override their initial reactions through discussion and reasoning.   

Hypothetically, if the presence of disgust within courts were to be removed, people would be less inclined to make cognitive shortcuts (by relying on their Type 1 system) and thoroughly process emotions before making decisions, utilising their Type 2 system (Kurbanova, 2024). 

Kurbanova, S. (2024). What's the verdict: how disgust dictates jury verdict and the mitigating role of symbolic cleansing. University of Central Oklahoma.
*[[w:Appraisal_theory|appraisal theory of emotion]]
**appraisal theory of emotion is theory that specific emotions are extracted from evaluations of events which in turn impact a reaction which may differ depending on certain people.
*evolutionary theory of emotion
**this theory describes our emotions and reactions being biological reactions to stimuli. 
***for example, disgust has come from protecting oneself from poisons.

== Disgust as a Legally Relevant Emotion ==

* Disgust should not be seen as legally relevant, as that would be a personal bias. 
* How can you create a courtroom that is free from bias if you do not take into account the impact of disgust? 
* Maybe disgust shouldn't be seen as an impacting emotion but rather a factor that needs to be considered when a jury is shown pictures, footage, and witness statements in court. 

=== Arguments For ===

* Patrick Devlin's belief that we should allow some degree of the shared morality view of society through emotions {{citation needed}}
** Within society, when crimes are viewed as &quot;disgusting&quot; or cause widespread intolerance, there is an importance to the intervention of the legal system (Lacey, 2023). 
* Informing the &quot;Reasonable Person&quot; Standard 
** This is a theory that jurors will judge acts (particularly those involving negligence or abuse) based on what they believe they would have done in that situation. Or more accurately to the theory, what would a reasonably prudent person (RPP) have done (Alicke &amp; Weigel, 2021)? 

=== Arguments Against ===

* [[wikipedia:Harm_principle|harm principle limitation]] 
** Developed by John Stuart Mills, the harm principle limitation states the following: 
** &quot;The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.&quot; [[wikisource:On_Liberty/Chapter_1|(Mill, 1869).]] 
** This principle bars people within the legal system from criminalising an action because it makes most people feel moral disgust. 
* a tool for discrimination
** Historically, moral disgust has been a tool against those being charged with crimes of homosexuality and interracial marriages. 

== Moral Disgust and Juror Judgements ==
A jury is a group of 12 individuals that are carefully chosen to determine the guilt of an offender{{fact}} {{ic|Don't juries vary in size, depending on the juridstiction?}}. They are picked to be impartial, unbiased opinions that can aid in the determining of a person's guilt. Jurors are asked to make judgements based on the evidence presented to them in court. However, emotions play a large, unsuspecting role in determining the guilt of a person. Such is the reason why, in high-stakes cases, jurors are not allowed contact with the outside world or media during trials. Moral disgust in particular seems to have a large impact on the way that jurors perceive and shape jurors' judgements. Different emotions elicit different reactions based on the emotion and a person's appraisal patterns.{{fact}}

=== Emotional Response Patterns ===
Fishbein &amp; Ajzen's (1975) expectancy-value model states that a person's given attitude towards an object is a direct function of the value that a person attaches to that object's attributes or outcomes. In explicit terms, a person's value on an object will be a direct function of the value that they place on said item and the positive or negative emotions they associate with it. Furthermore, the positive or negative characteristics that they associate with the object will be a weighted decision on the direct outcome that may occur due to the object.   

In a review of the role of emotion-induced expectancies, Desteno et al. (2004) argue that positive and negative emotions have been grouped together and oversimplified, which makes distinguishing them difficult. The studies found that specificity operates through an emotion-matching process. Whilst the study did not touch on disgust specifically, it found that persuasion about a situation increased when a person's current emotional state matched the emotional framing of a message. The broader emotion-specificity principle suggests a comparable mechanism that may apply to disgust.    

Older discourse has allowed for all emotions to be pushed into one category, but not all emotions push judgement in the same direction.      

Emotional appraisal patterns are the specific mental evaluations that an individual's brain makes about an event to determine how they feel about a situation.  

INSERT TABLE HERE W/ EVIDENCE  

=== Integral versus Incidental Emotion Distinction ===
Research by Feigenson (2016) discusses the overall idea that juror emotions can affect judge responsibility, blame, guilt, punishment and damages. INSERT SOURCE ON WHY THIS IS A FOCUS. 

The core idea of the article follows the influence of integral and incidental emotions. Integral emotions are supposed to be caused by features of a particular case. Incidental emotions are emotions that arise, unrelated to the case. This foundational research posists that emotions may influence legal judgements through multiple different pathways. 


Within the research Feigenson (2016) theorises the emotional effects on information processing. It reveals that different emotions can effect how deeply a juror processes emotions. Anger is generally associated with more certainity about the evidence which leads to individuals being less likely to process information as they are confident they already know enough to address the task (Feigenson, 2016). Other emotions, for example anxiety, are generally associated with more uncertaintity which leads to more systematic information processing (Feigenson, 2016). Saddened by emotional testimony, mock jurors in a criminal reckless driving case were able to identify inconsistencies more precisely, which is a sign of systematic information processing (Semmler &amp; Brewer, 2002). 

The emotion-congruency effect is a process that casues a person to judge based in the direction of the emotion they are feeling. Although Feigenson (2016) does not explicitly research how disgust is influenced by emotion there is other empirical research that researches the impact of disgust on these emotional information processing pathways. 

Rather than claiming that the research should be generalised to consider disgust, it should be considered that further research needs to be conducted to understand the role of moral disgust in a courtroom. This leaves open whether moral disgust causes jurors to be more certain or uncertain about informatin in the courtroom. 

*
* these effects may over or under estimate the influence on cases
* this article does not beleif that moral intuitionism provides strong evidence that emotions have a greater influence on real legal decisions.
* the effects on information processing
** different emotions can affect how deeply people process information.
** this ties back to Rozin and Giner and Sorella (double check this)
** anger is generally associated with more certainty which means that people are less likely to carefully process information
*** they rely on more heuristic cues and consider fewer factors
** anxiety is generally considered with more uncertainty
** leads to more systematic information processing
** mock jurors who became sad from emotional testimony were better at identfying inconsistencies in testimonies that neutral participants
* directional processing
* emotions can cause a person to interpret information in the direction similar to the emotion
** called the emotion-congruency effect (look into this because the source only gave anger, need disgust related information)
* informational effects: people can treat their emotions as information about a thing they are judging (called the affect-as-information model)
** people can often mistakenly attribute their current emotional state to the target of their judgement
** in legal judgements research has examined how integral emotions can act as information when judging responsiblity and blame
** severity of harm: more serious injuries caused participants to feel more sympathy for the victim and blame the defendant more
** hypocritical offenders:a hypocritical offender produced greater anger
* different emotional effects can happen at the same time: one emotion can influence how information is processed while also influencing the direction of the judgement
* multiple emotions can occur: jurors may experience different emotions toward different people in the same case. multiple emotions such as anger and disgust can interact
* it is important to identify the different emotional pathways because:
** different pathways can produce different outcomes
** it helps understand the relationships between emotion, cognition and judgement
* how strong are emotional effects 
** meta analysis have found an effect of emottions on legal responsibility judgements
** this means that emotions do matter but other factors also play a role in explaining legal judgements
** lab studies may produce weaker emotions than real trials
* moral intuitionism: this argues that peoples immediate emotional reactions to morally relevant situations play a very important role in their judgements 
** jurors have the opportunity to override or reconsider their intial reactions through conscious reasoning, reframing a sitaution or talking to other people. this means that emotions dont neccessarily dominate legal judgements.

=== What is the evidence? ===

* Ghelfi et al (2020)
* research suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes 
* previous studies have found that inducing physical disgust (bad smells or bitter tastes) could lead to harsher moral judgements 
* replicated across 11 studies 
* it tested
** whether a bitter beverage leads to harsher moral judgements than a sweet beverage or water
** whether the effect is stronger among politically conservative participants than liberal participants 
* used a 3x3 between-subjects design
** beverage: bitter, sweet or neutral 
** political orientation: conservative, liberal or other 
* 1,137 participants 
* drank beverage and then rated 6 moral vignettes on how wrong they believed the behaviour to be 
* participants also rated how bitter, sweet, neutral or disgusting they found the beverage to be. 
* bitter vs sweet effect was negligible same with the bitter vs neutral
* effects sizes were signficantlly smaller than the original study 

* original Eskine et al (2011) study:
** bitter, sweet or neutral beverage before reading six moral scenarios 
** those who drank a bitter beverage judged actions more harshly than those who drank sweet or neutral 
** the study found that those who were more politically conservative were more affected by the bitter taste than liberal participants. 
** there were originally 57 participants which found a large statistically significant effect
** a replication study was considered important because of the large effects and small sample
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639:

* moralisation hypothesis 
** disgust makes something that is normally morally neutral seem morally wrong
** the manipulation worked in the experiment 
** participants were either shown disgusting or neutral pictures 
** disgust group: M=3.01
** control group: M= 0.25
** significant results (p&lt;.001)
** the researchers successfully made people feel more disgust with pictures 
** but this did not turn morally neutral actions into morally wrong actions 
** the moralisation hypothesis was not true 
* amplification hypothesis
** disgust only makes things that already morally wrong seem even worse 
** experiment used disgusting videos and neutral videos 
** the amplification hypothesis was also not supported


For the table: 

Eskine et al (2011): bitter vs neutral: ''d''=1.09 AND bitter vs sweet: ''d''=1.22 

Ghelfi E, Christopherson CD, Urry HL, et al. Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011). ''Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science''. 2020;3(1):3-23. doi:10.1177/2515245919881152: 

2nd column: average moral wrongness
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|-
|Bitter
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''70.65'''
|-
|Neutral/control
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''68.94'''
|-
|Sweet
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''71.29'''
|}
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639&lt;/nowiki&gt;


jurors emotions and legal judgements: Feigenson, N. (2016). Jurors’ Emotions and Judgments of Legal Responsibility and Blame: What Does the Experimental Research Tell Us? ''Emotion Review'', ''8''(1), 26–31. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601223&lt;/nowiki&gt;

**

== Moderating Factors ==

* private body consciousness 
** people who are more prone to experience their private bodily sensations show stronger disgust-driven bias 
*** An experiment conducted by Schnall et al. (2008) revealed that people who were more aware of their Private Body Consciousness (PBC) were more prone to feelings of disgust and expressing these feelings outwards to the situation at hand. 
* type of violation 
** purity vs harm

== Practical Implications ==

* evidentiary admissibility 
** courts allow for the admission of gruesome photographic evidence but findings suggest this may be wrong 
*** research shows that people view crimes harsher if exposed to gruesome photos 
*** Additionally, Bright &amp; Goodman-Delahunty's (2006) research discusses a person's use of their inner emotional states as a way to reason with information they are being given.
*** In their affective influences model, affect is a judgement-simplifying heuristic device. People generally consult their affective state, meaning they consult their inner emotion to infer a judgement before looking at the facts. 
* jury selection
* how evidence is presented 

==Figures==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]

* Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
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{{anchor|Feature box}}
;Feature boxes
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** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples
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;Embedded links
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{{anchor|Tables}}
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* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
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==Conclusion==
* What does this mean going further {{vague}}
* What would future research benefit from in this specific section?
*Moral disgust does not come with jurors' judgements, but rather it can measurably shift guilt, certainty, blame attribution and punishment severity.
*This may be stronger for certain people; it cannot just be a blanket claim for all jurors. 
*The idea that jurors decide on the basis of facts alone is not psychologically sustainable. The practice of law {{ic|The practice of law goes beyond the target topic}} needs to consider this, rather than seeing emotions as a bias. 
* The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
* Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing it
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
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==See also==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)

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==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Alicke, M. D., &amp; Weigel, S. H. (2021). The reasonable person standard: Psychological and legal perspectives. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17(1), 123–138.

Bornewasser, M., &amp; Bober, J. (1987). Individual, social group and intergroup behaviour. Some conceptual remarks on the social identity theory. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(3), 267–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1002/ejsp.2420170303

Bright, D. A., &amp; Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: Anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y

Chapman, H. A., &amp; Anderson, A. K. (2012). Understanding disgust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06369.x 

DeSteno, D., Petty, R. E., Rucker, D. D., Wegener, D. T., &amp; Braverman, J. (2004). Discrete emotions and persuasion: The role of emotion-induced expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.43

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550

Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt; 

Fishbein, M., &amp; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Lacey, N. (2023). Patrick Devlin, The enforcement of morals (1965). In [Book title] (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193982-5

Russell, P. S., &amp; Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 328–351. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1037/a0029319

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., &amp; Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]:
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* Important aspects of APA referencing style
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}}

==External links==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|external links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TmKo75gJI How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral Wrong &amp; the Political Right] (David Pizzaro)

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[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust]]
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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png | thumb | right | 250px |'''Figure 1'''. A jury is a group of sworn individuals who determine a defendant's guilt. ]]

Consider sitting on a jury. The defendant appears composed, well-dressed, and speaks clearly. Someone like this couldn't have done anything bad — that's your instinct.

Then you hear the charge: embezzlement. Over three years, they quietly transferred company funds to a personal account. Thousands of dollars were spent, and real people were harmed. You are angry. It's wrong. However, it does not make you feel sick.

Consider the same composed defendant in the same courtroom, but this time the charge is posing as a charity volunteer to gain the trust of dying hospice patients before stealing the donations intended for their care. The financial loss is the same as the embezzlement case. Same amount, same number of victims.

But something else arises in you. Not just anger, but more of a revulsion, as if something was contaminated. This doesn't simply feel like a crime. It has an unclean feeling to it.

The same defendant. Same harm. So, why does one case make you feel cold and angry, while the other makes your skin crawl? And, aside from the actual harm done, could that visceral reaction be influencing how harshly you believe they should be punished?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

It is the law that [https://www.monash.edu/law/news-and-events/news/2020/juries-why-do-we-actually-need-them-and-can-they-get-it-wrong jurors] {{ic|The law varies by jurisdiction; write for an international audience; Australians represent ~.3% of the world human population}} {{ic|Move external links to the External links section}} must base their verdicts on the facts of a case {{citation needed}}. But moral disgust, an emotional gut reaction, seems to influence how jurors assess guilt, blame and punishment, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented {{citation needed}}. A disgusted juror might unconsciously become more certain of guilt, assign more blame and suggest harsher punishment, regardless of what the facts actually establish. If disgust always biases judgements and sentences in one direction or the other, no matter how strong a case is, the implications are profound: wrongful convictions, disproportionate sentencing, and differences in the punishment of similar crimes depending on how “disgusting” the evidence seems, rather than the true seriousness of the crime {{long}}. It also raises questions for current legal practices: courts commonly admit gruesome evidence under the assumption that its evidentiary value outweighs its emotional impact, an assumption this body of research directly undermines {{citation needed}}. Psychological science provides the legal system with something it cannot produce itself: controlled empirical evidence about the nature and causes of this bias {{citation needed}}. It shows not only that jurors appear to be affected by emotion but also the processes (appraisal patterns, purity vs. harm, violations, and individual differences such as private body consciousness) that determine when and for whom the effect is strongest {{citation needed}}. 

This template provides key headings, examples, and tips for each section. Gradually remove this generic information as the chapter develops. It is OK to retain some of the template material for the topic development, but it should all be removed for the final book chapter.

Key resources:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 02]] explains about how to edit
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{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

*If disgust can make moral judgements more severe, even when it’s incidental to the act being judged, what does that say about the reliability of human moral reasoning?
*Can moral disgust be used by the legal system? {{ic|Use open-ended questions}}
*How might a juror's own sensitivity to physiological sensations of disgust impact how vulnerable they are to disgust-driven bias?
*How can psychological theories be used to mitigate risks of bias in the legal system?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is Moral Disgust? ==
{{ic|Include at least an introductory paragraph before branching into sub-headings}}

=== Disgust ===
[[w:Disgust|Disgust]] is one of the six universal emotions that humans experience and can be visually recognised on a person's face {{citation needed}}. The emotion of disgust is theorised to have originated from a biological protective mechanism to protect an organism from harm that may be brought on by food or poison {{citation needed}}. Disgust has evolved to become an emotion/behaviour directed at anything that may potentially cause harm or disease. For example, 

* body products 
* animals 
* hygiene 
* body violations, death or disease {{citation needed}}

Paul Ekman proposed six basic emotions in his literature based on the theories that these emotions, across research all over the world, concluded in agreement on six emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Therefore, he proposed that the universality of these findings and the facial expression alone could conclude that there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992).

=== Moral Disgust ===
Moral disgust refers to the emotional response a person feels when their social or cultural norms are transgressed, therefore resulting in a reaction {{citation needed}}. Moral disgust is complex, and there is varying evidence for and against its genuine purpose as an emotion. Researchers argue that moral disgust is a metaphorical extension of physical disgust; shared facial expression, language, etc {{citation needed}}. Other researchers argue that it's functionally unique to traditional, physical disgust {{citation needed}}. It does not reliably trigger the same physiological processes: facial muscle activation, nausea, etc. (Chapman et al., 2012). 

Moral disgust is triggered by acts that are supposedly a violation of an individual's perceived purity or dignity {{citation needed}}. For example, betraying someone's trust (cheating on a partner) or exploiting a vulnerable person (as mentioned in the scenario at the start). 

Rozin et al. (1999) proposed a theory that moral disgust specifically clusters around violations of a person's divinity or purity. This is different from anger, which generally clusters around autonomy violations, also opposed to contempt, which clusters around community violations. 

This distinction is vital when discussing emotion for jurors. If moral disgust behaves differently from physical disgust, it may influence judgement in the courtroom through a different pathway than a simple reaction to physically disgusting evidence. 

Russell &amp; {{ic|Use APA style for citations}} Giner-Sorolla (2013) discuss four competing arguments of disgust's role in moral condemnation. Firstly, the most flexible view of moral disgust that can be applied widely for many crimes is the general morality position. It claims that disgust is an all-purpose emotion which is seen through different kinds of moral disapproval, not just a narrow category. Secondly, disgust as a violation of bodily and spiritual purity is more specific. As mentioned prior, this claim is supported by Rozin's CAD (contempt, anger, disgust) triad. The third argument proposes that moral disgust is only a metaphor. The true emotion being experienced is anger, and individuals just use language as a metaphor (e.g., &quot;that's disgusting&quot;) for how condemning they feel. Finally, Russell &amp; Ginger-Sorolla's own claim for moral disgust is a middle ground for all the arguments in their research. Regardless of whether harm or justice is involved, they contend that disgust specifically tracks violations pertaining to the body and its products. Anger tends to co-occur with violations that are specifically related to justice, harm, or rights. This disgust behaves more like anger wearing the vocabulary of disgust than it does like bodily moral disgust.  

One study involved 148 participants ranking their emotions on a scale {{citation needed}}. It was found that moral disgust elicited as much as physical disgust did, which supports a claim that moral disgust is not a watered-down, metaphorical use of the feeling but a genuine, physical feeling of disgust. It was also revealed that moral disgust uniquely triggered a significantly higher feeling of mental contamination (feeling immoral) than core disgust did. This reveals an internalised feeling about your own moral state just from witnessing an immoral act, which ties back to Russell &amp; Giner-Sorolla's bodily-violation pattern and strengthens Rozin et al.'s (1999) definition of moral disgust. This empirical study is evidence that core disgust attaches to bodily violations, not non-bodily violations.    

If people respond to contact with an immoral person in a psychologically contaminating way — wanting distance, feeling “dirtied” by proximity — then a question arises about whether jurors exposed to a defendant’s morally disgusting conduct might respond in a similar contamination mode, thus influencing their desire to symbolically “cleanse” the situation via a harsher verdict or sentence.    

 &lt;quiz display=&quot;simple&quot;&gt;

{Moral disgust and physical disgust are the same emotion:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False

&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Psychological Science in the Legal System ==
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Criminal record stigma and emotion#Relevant theories|What psychological theories are present in the legal system]] {{expand}}

=== Social Identity Theory ===
Classic social identity theory posits that groups and whole organisations that possess the same cultural and social norms will have perceive themselves as sharing something in common {{citation needed}}. This adds to their own personal self-concept as an individual and as a member of a society/societies. Bronewasser &amp; Bober (1987) argue that this theory describes a class or collective of people (people who may share traits but have no real interdependence) but not a genuine societal group. Groups depend on structure; roles, positions and relationships that require dependence from people. 

Through this theory, a jury is considered to be a genuine structured group. There are roles, a task and an interdependence through deliberation. This theory may offer a further point on why moral disgust may bias jurors. Moral disgust can function as a social categorisation cue, marking defendants as the out-group rather than in the jury's moral in-group. Bronewasser &amp; Bober claim that even arbitary group labels are enough to produce an in-group favouritism and out-group favouritism. If a defendants act triggers moral disgust, this may mark them as being in the moral &quot;outgroup&quot; in a jurors mind. Independent of the actual evidence being presented, this compounds moral disgust biases 

=== Dual-Process Theory ===
The dual-process theory argues that the main types of thinking can be separated into two distinct types (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). Type 1 processing involves autonomous processing that is often responsible for producing intuitive responses without the need for working memory. Type 2 is often more reflective and involves more explicit cognitive processes alongside working memory. A key feature of Type 2 processing is cognitive decoupling and mental simulation. Cognitive decoupling is an ability to separate what you are assuming from what you believe to be true, and mental simulation involves creating hypothetical scenarios and outcomes within your mind (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). 

Type 1 processes of thinking can be assumed to rely heavily on predetermined values and morals which a juror will rarely think over before making a decision. It is thus assumed that Type 2 processing allows for a more deliberate consideration system when accounting for consequences and outcomes. This does not, however, guarantee better judgement. to use when making heavily implicating decisions. This is due to Type 2, allowing people to consider consequences and situations before making a decision (Evans and Stanovich, 2013).  

Supporting evidence suggests that disgust is a Type 1 output, automatic and arriving before deliberate reasoning can take place. Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013) describe moral disgust as an unreasoned emotion that involves a process of quickly cleansing oneself of the impurity they associate with that emotion. Additionally, Feigenson's (2016) findings show that different emotions elicit different processing capabilities (anger is different from anxiety). This is supporting evidence for how much Type 2 information processing is engaged for jurors. Feigenson (2016) also notes that jurors may have the ability to override their initial reactions through discussion and reasoning.   

Hypothetically, if the presence of disgust within courts were to be removed, people would be less inclined to make cognitive shortcuts (by relying on their Type 1 system) and thoroughly process emotions before making decisions, utilising their Type 2 system (Kurbanova, 2024). 

Kurbanova, S. (2024). What's the verdict: how disgust dictates jury verdict and the mitigating role of symbolic cleansing. University of Central Oklahoma.

=== Culpable Control Model ===


The core idea for the culpable control model is an explanation ofr how people make judgements about blame and responsibility. Alicke (2000) argues that judgement is not always subjective as blame does not solely rely on evidence about a persons actions and control over the action, but also on individuals emotions, values and assumptions. The assumption of the culpable control model is that people form a blame judgement first, based on actions and then interpret the evidence on how it is supported second (Alicke, 2000). The main mechanism of this theory is that evidence isn't evaluted and blame placed. Emotional reactions, values, assumptions and expectations of people as humans can heavily shape how evidence is interpreted in the first place (Alicke, 2000). 
*[[w:Appraisal_theory|appraisal theory of emotion]]
**appraisal theory of emotion is theory that specific emotions are extracted from evaluations of events which in turn impact a reaction which may differ depending on certain people.
*evolutionary theory of emotion
**this theory describes our emotions and reactions being biological reactions to stimuli. 
***for example, disgust has come from protecting oneself from poisons.

== Disgust as a Legally Relevant Emotion ==

* Disgust should not be seen as legally relevant, as that would be a personal bias. 
* How can you create a courtroom that is free from bias if you do not take into account the impact of disgust? 
* Maybe disgust shouldn't be seen as an impacting emotion but rather a factor that needs to be considered when a jury is shown pictures, footage, and witness statements in court. 

=== Arguments For ===

* Patrick Devlin's belief that we should allow some degree of the shared morality view of society through emotions {{citation needed}}
** Within society, when crimes are viewed as &quot;disgusting&quot; or cause widespread intolerance, there is an importance to the intervention of the legal system (Lacey, 2023). 
* Informing the &quot;Reasonable Person&quot; Standard 
** This is a theory that jurors will judge acts (particularly those involving negligence or abuse) based on what they believe they would have done in that situation. Or more accurately to the theory, what would a reasonably prudent person (RPP) have done (Alicke &amp; Weigel, 2021)? 

=== Arguments Against ===

* [[wikipedia:Harm_principle|harm principle limitation]] 
** Developed by John Stuart Mills, the harm principle limitation states the following: 
** &quot;The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.&quot; [[wikisource:On_Liberty/Chapter_1|(Mill, 1869).]] 
** This principle bars people within the legal system from criminalising an action because it makes most people feel moral disgust. 
* a tool for discrimination
** Historically, moral disgust has been a tool against those being charged with crimes of homosexuality and interracial marriages. 

== Moral Disgust and Juror Judgements ==
A jury is a group of 12 individuals that are carefully chosen to determine the guilt of an offender{{fact}} {{ic|Don't juries vary in size, depending on the juridstiction?}}. They are picked to be impartial, unbiased opinions that can aid in the determining of a person's guilt. Jurors are asked to make judgements based on the evidence presented to them in court. However, emotions play a large, unsuspecting role in determining the guilt of a person. Such is the reason why, in high-stakes cases, jurors are not allowed contact with the outside world or media during trials. Moral disgust in particular seems to have a large impact on the way that jurors perceive and shape jurors' judgements. Different emotions elicit different reactions based on the emotion and a person's appraisal patterns.{{fact}}

=== Emotional Response Patterns ===
Fishbein &amp; Ajzen's (1975) expectancy-value model states that a person's given attitude towards an object is a direct function of the value that a person attaches to that object's attributes or outcomes. In explicit terms, a person's value on an object will be a direct function of the value that they place on said item and the positive or negative emotions they associate with it. Furthermore, the positive or negative characteristics that they associate with the object will be a weighted decision on the direct outcome that may occur due to the object.   

In a review of the role of emotion-induced expectancies, Desteno et al. (2004) argue that positive and negative emotions have been grouped together and oversimplified, which makes distinguishing them difficult. The studies found that specificity operates through an emotion-matching process. Whilst the study did not touch on disgust specifically, it found that persuasion about a situation increased when a person's current emotional state matched the emotional framing of a message. The broader emotion-specificity principle suggests a comparable mechanism that may apply to disgust.    

Older discourse has allowed for all emotions to be pushed into one category, but not all emotions push judgement in the same direction.      

Emotional appraisal patterns are the specific mental evaluations that an individual's brain makes about an event to determine how they feel about a situation.  

INSERT TABLE HERE W/ EVIDENCE  

=== Integral versus Incidental Emotion Distinction ===
Research by Feigenson (2016) discusses the overall idea that juror emotions can affect judge responsibility, blame, guilt, punishment and damages. INSERT SOURCE ON WHY THIS IS A FOCUS. 

The core idea of the article follows the influence of integral and incidental emotions. Integral emotions are supposed to be caused by features of a particular case. Incidental emotions are emotions that arise, unrelated to the case. This foundational research posists that emotions may influence legal judgements through multiple different pathways. 


Within the research Feigenson (2016) theorises the emotional effects on information processing. It reveals that different emotions can effect how deeply a juror processes emotions. Anger is generally associated with more certainity about the evidence which leads to individuals being less likely to process information as they are confident they already know enough to address the task (Feigenson, 2016). Other emotions, for example anxiety, are generally associated with more uncertaintity which leads to more systematic information processing (Feigenson, 2016). Saddened by emotional testimony, mock jurors in a criminal reckless driving case were able to identify inconsistencies more precisely, which is a sign of systematic information processing (Semmler &amp; Brewer, 2002). 

The emotion-congruency effect is a process that casues a person to judge based in the direction of the emotion they are feeling. Although Feigenson (2016) does not explicitly research how disgust is influenced by emotion there is other empirical research that researches the impact of disgust on these emotional information processing pathways. 

Rather than claiming that the research should be generalised to consider disgust, it should be considered that further research needs to be conducted to understand the role of moral disgust in a courtroom. This leaves open whether moral disgust causes jurors to be more certain or uncertain about informatin in the courtroom. 

*
* these effects may over or under estimate the influence on cases
* this article does not beleif that moral intuitionism provides strong evidence that emotions have a greater influence on real legal decisions.
* the effects on information processing
** different emotions can affect how deeply people process information.
** this ties back to Rozin and Giner and Sorella (double check this)
** anger is generally associated with more certainty which means that people are less likely to carefully process information
*** they rely on more heuristic cues and consider fewer factors
** anxiety is generally considered with more uncertainty
** leads to more systematic information processing
** mock jurors who became sad from emotional testimony were better at identfying inconsistencies in testimonies that neutral participants
* directional processing
* emotions can cause a person to interpret information in the direction similar to the emotion
** called the emotion-congruency effect (look into this because the source only gave anger, need disgust related information)
* informational effects: people can treat their emotions as information about a thing they are judging (called the affect-as-information model)
** people can often mistakenly attribute their current emotional state to the target of their judgement
** in legal judgements research has examined how integral emotions can act as information when judging responsiblity and blame
** severity of harm: more serious injuries caused participants to feel more sympathy for the victim and blame the defendant more
** hypocritical offenders:a hypocritical offender produced greater anger
* different emotional effects can happen at the same time: one emotion can influence how information is processed while also influencing the direction of the judgement
* multiple emotions can occur: jurors may experience different emotions toward different people in the same case. multiple emotions such as anger and disgust can interact
* it is important to identify the different emotional pathways because:
** different pathways can produce different outcomes
** it helps understand the relationships between emotion, cognition and judgement
* how strong are emotional effects 
** meta analysis have found an effect of emottions on legal responsibility judgements
** this means that emotions do matter but other factors also play a role in explaining legal judgements
** lab studies may produce weaker emotions than real trials
* moral intuitionism: this argues that peoples immediate emotional reactions to morally relevant situations play a very important role in their judgements 
** jurors have the opportunity to override or reconsider their intial reactions through conscious reasoning, reframing a sitaution or talking to other people. this means that emotions dont neccessarily dominate legal judgements.

=== What is the evidence? ===

* Ghelfi et al (2020)
* research suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes 
* previous studies have found that inducing physical disgust (bad smells or bitter tastes) could lead to harsher moral judgements 
* replicated across 11 studies 
* it tested
** whether a bitter beverage leads to harsher moral judgements than a sweet beverage or water
** whether the effect is stronger among politically conservative participants than liberal participants 
* used a 3x3 between-subjects design
** beverage: bitter, sweet or neutral 
** political orientation: conservative, liberal or other 
* 1,137 participants 
* drank beverage and then rated 6 moral vignettes on how wrong they believed the behaviour to be 
* participants also rated how bitter, sweet, neutral or disgusting they found the beverage to be. 
* bitter vs sweet effect was negligible same with the bitter vs neutral
* effects sizes were signficantlly smaller than the original study 

* original Eskine et al (2011) study:
** bitter, sweet or neutral beverage before reading six moral scenarios 
** those who drank a bitter beverage judged actions more harshly than those who drank sweet or neutral 
** the study found that those who were more politically conservative were more affected by the bitter taste than liberal participants. 
** there were originally 57 participants which found a large statistically significant effect
** a replication study was considered important because of the large effects and small sample
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639:

* moralisation hypothesis 
** disgust makes something that is normally morally neutral seem morally wrong
** the manipulation worked in the experiment 
** participants were either shown disgusting or neutral pictures 
** disgust group: M=3.01
** control group: M= 0.25
** significant results (p&lt;.001)
** the researchers successfully made people feel more disgust with pictures 
** but this did not turn morally neutral actions into morally wrong actions 
** the moralisation hypothesis was not true 
* amplification hypothesis
** disgust only makes things that already morally wrong seem even worse 
** experiment used disgusting videos and neutral videos 
** the amplification hypothesis was also not supported


For the table: 

Eskine et al (2011): bitter vs neutral: ''d''=1.09 AND bitter vs sweet: ''d''=1.22 

Ghelfi E, Christopherson CD, Urry HL, et al. Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011). ''Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science''. 2020;3(1):3-23. doi:10.1177/2515245919881152: 

2nd column: average moral wrongness
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|-
|Bitter
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''70.65'''
|-
|Neutral/control
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''68.94'''
|-
|Sweet
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''71.29'''
|}
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639&lt;/nowiki&gt;


jurors emotions and legal judgements: Feigenson, N. (2016). Jurors’ Emotions and Judgments of Legal Responsibility and Blame: What Does the Experimental Research Tell Us? ''Emotion Review'', ''8''(1), 26–31. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601223&lt;/nowiki&gt;

**

== Moderating Factors ==

* private body consciousness 
** people who are more prone to experience their private bodily sensations show stronger disgust-driven bias 
*** An experiment conducted by Schnall et al. (2008) revealed that people who were more aware of their Private Body Consciousness (PBC) were more prone to feelings of disgust and expressing these feelings outwards to the situation at hand. 
* type of violation 
** purity vs harm

== Practical Implications ==

* evidentiary admissibility 
** courts allow for the admission of gruesome photographic evidence but findings suggest this may be wrong 
*** research shows that people view crimes harsher if exposed to gruesome photos 
*** Additionally, Bright &amp; Goodman-Delahunty's (2006) research discusses a person's use of their inner emotional states as a way to reason with information they are being given.
*** In their affective influences model, affect is a judgement-simplifying heuristic device. People generally consult their affective state, meaning they consult their inner emotion to infer a judgement before looking at the facts. 
* jury selection
* how evidence is presented 

==Figures==
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The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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==Conclusion==
* What does this mean going further {{vague}}
* What would future research benefit from in this specific section?
*Moral disgust does not come with jurors' judgements, but rather it can measurably shift guilt, certainty, blame attribution and punishment severity.
*This may be stronger for certain people; it cannot just be a blanket claim for all jurors. 
*The idea that jurors decide on the basis of facts alone is not psychologically sustainable. The practice of law {{ic|The practice of law goes beyond the target topic}} needs to consider this, rather than seeing emotions as a bias. 
* The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
* Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing it
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Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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==References==
&lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1=&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D. (2000). Culpable Control and the Psychology of Blame. ''Psychological Bulletin'', ''126''(4), 556–574. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.4.556&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D., &amp; Weigel, S. H. (2021). The reasonable person standard: Psychological and legal perspectives. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17(1), 123–138.

Bornewasser, M., &amp; Bober, J. (1987). Individual, social group and intergroup behaviour. Some conceptual remarks on the social identity theory. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(3), 267–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1002/ejsp.2420170303

Bright, D. A., &amp; Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: Anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y

Chapman, H. A., &amp; Anderson, A. K. (2012). Understanding disgust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06369.x 

DeSteno, D., Petty, R. E., Rucker, D. D., Wegener, D. T., &amp; Braverman, J. (2004). Discrete emotions and persuasion: The role of emotion-induced expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.43

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550

Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt; 

Fishbein, M., &amp; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Lacey, N. (2023). Patrick Devlin, The enforcement of morals (1965). In [Book title] (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193982-5

Russell, P. S., &amp; Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 328–351. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1037/a0029319

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., &amp; Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

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* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TmKo75gJI How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral Wrong &amp; the Political Right] (David Pizzaro)

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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png | thumb | right | 250px |'''Figure 1'''. A jury is a group of sworn individuals who determine a defendant's guilt. ]]

Consider sitting on a jury. The defendant appears composed, well-dressed, and speaks clearly. Someone like this couldn't have done anything bad — that's your instinct.

Then you hear the charge: embezzlement. Over three years, they quietly transferred company funds to a personal account. Thousands of dollars were spent, and real people were harmed. You are angry. It's wrong. However, it does not make you feel sick.

Consider the same composed defendant in the same courtroom, but this time the charge is posing as a charity volunteer to gain the trust of dying hospice patients before stealing the donations intended for their care. The financial loss is the same as the embezzlement case. Same amount, same number of victims.

But something else arises in you. Not just anger, but more of a revulsion, as if something was contaminated. This doesn't simply feel like a crime. It has an unclean feeling to it.

The same defendant. Same harm. So, why does one case make you feel cold and angry, while the other makes your skin crawl? And, aside from the actual harm done, could that visceral reaction be influencing how harshly you believe they should be punished?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

It is the law that [https://www.monash.edu/law/news-and-events/news/2020/juries-why-do-we-actually-need-them-and-can-they-get-it-wrong jurors] {{ic|The law varies by jurisdiction; write for an international audience; Australians represent ~.3% of the world human population}} {{ic|Move external links to the External links section}} must base their verdicts on the facts of a case {{citation needed}}. But moral disgust, an emotional gut reaction, seems to influence how jurors assess guilt, blame and punishment, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented {{citation needed}}. A disgusted juror might unconsciously become more certain of guilt, assign more blame and suggest harsher punishment, regardless of what the facts actually establish. If disgust always biases judgements and sentences in one direction or the other, no matter how strong a case is, the implications are profound: wrongful convictions, disproportionate sentencing, and differences in the punishment of similar crimes depending on how “disgusting” the evidence seems, rather than the true seriousness of the crime {{long}}. It also raises questions for current legal practices: courts commonly admit gruesome evidence under the assumption that its evidentiary value outweighs its emotional impact, an assumption this body of research directly undermines {{citation needed}}. Psychological science provides the legal system with something it cannot produce itself: controlled empirical evidence about the nature and causes of this bias {{citation needed}}. It shows not only that jurors appear to be affected by emotion but also the processes (appraisal patterns, purity vs. harm, violations, and individual differences such as private body consciousness) that determine when and for whom the effect is strongest {{citation needed}}. 

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{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

*If disgust can make moral judgements more severe, even when it’s incidental to the act being judged, what does that say about the reliability of human moral reasoning?
*Can moral disgust be used by the legal system? {{ic|Use open-ended questions}}
*How might a juror's own sensitivity to physiological sensations of disgust impact how vulnerable they are to disgust-driven bias?
*How can psychological theories be used to mitigate risks of bias in the legal system?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is Moral Disgust? ==
{{ic|Include at least an introductory paragraph before branching into sub-headings}}

=== Disgust ===
[[w:Disgust|Disgust]] is one of the six universal emotions that humans experience and can be visually recognised on a person's face {{citation needed}}. The emotion of disgust is theorised to have originated from a biological protective mechanism to protect an organism from harm that may be brought on by food or poison {{citation needed}}. Disgust has evolved to become an emotion/behaviour directed at anything that may potentially cause harm or disease. For example, 

* body products 
* animals 
* hygiene 
* body violations, death or disease {{citation needed}}

Paul Ekman proposed six basic emotions in his literature based on the theories that these emotions, across research all over the world, concluded in agreement on six emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Therefore, he proposed that the universality of these findings and the facial expression alone could conclude that there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992).

=== Moral Disgust ===
Moral disgust refers to the emotional response a person feels when their social or cultural norms are transgressed, therefore resulting in a reaction {{citation needed}}. Moral disgust is complex, and there is varying evidence for and against its genuine purpose as an emotion. Researchers argue that moral disgust is a metaphorical extension of physical disgust; shared facial expression, language, etc {{citation needed}}. Other researchers argue that it's functionally unique to traditional, physical disgust {{citation needed}}. It does not reliably trigger the same physiological processes: facial muscle activation, nausea, etc. (Chapman et al., 2012). 

Moral disgust is triggered by acts that are supposedly a violation of an individual's perceived purity or dignity {{citation needed}}. For example, betraying someone's trust (cheating on a partner) or exploiting a vulnerable person (as mentioned in the scenario at the start). 

Rozin et al. (1999) proposed a theory that moral disgust specifically clusters around violations of a person's divinity or purity. This is different from anger, which generally clusters around autonomy violations, also opposed to contempt, which clusters around community violations. 

This distinction is vital when discussing emotion for jurors. If moral disgust behaves differently from physical disgust, it may influence judgement in the courtroom through a different pathway than a simple reaction to physically disgusting evidence. 

Russell &amp; {{ic|Use APA style for citations}} Giner-Sorolla (2013) discuss four competing arguments of disgust's role in moral condemnation. Firstly, the most flexible view of moral disgust that can be applied widely for many crimes is the general morality position. It claims that disgust is an all-purpose emotion which is seen through different kinds of moral disapproval, not just a narrow category. Secondly, disgust as a violation of bodily and spiritual purity is more specific. As mentioned prior, this claim is supported by Rozin's CAD (contempt, anger, disgust) triad. The third argument proposes that moral disgust is only a metaphor. The true emotion being experienced is anger, and individuals just use language as a metaphor (e.g., &quot;that's disgusting&quot;) for how condemning they feel. Finally, Russell &amp; Ginger-Sorolla's own claim for moral disgust is a middle ground for all the arguments in their research. Regardless of whether harm or justice is involved, they contend that disgust specifically tracks violations pertaining to the body and its products. Anger tends to co-occur with violations that are specifically related to justice, harm, or rights. This disgust behaves more like anger wearing the vocabulary of disgust than it does like bodily moral disgust.  

One study involved 148 participants ranking their emotions on a scale {{citation needed}}. It was found that moral disgust elicited as much as physical disgust did, which supports a claim that moral disgust is not a watered-down, metaphorical use of the feeling but a genuine, physical feeling of disgust. It was also revealed that moral disgust uniquely triggered a significantly higher feeling of mental contamination (feeling immoral) than core disgust did. This reveals an internalised feeling about your own moral state just from witnessing an immoral act, which ties back to Russell &amp; Giner-Sorolla's bodily-violation pattern and strengthens Rozin et al.'s (1999) definition of moral disgust. This empirical study is evidence that core disgust attaches to bodily violations, not non-bodily violations.    

If people respond to contact with an immoral person in a psychologically contaminating way — wanting distance, feeling “dirtied” by proximity — then a question arises about whether jurors exposed to a defendant’s morally disgusting conduct might respond in a similar contamination mode, thus influencing their desire to symbolically “cleanse” the situation via a harsher verdict or sentence.    

 &lt;quiz display=&quot;simple&quot;&gt;

{Moral disgust and physical disgust are the same emotion:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False

&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Psychological Science in the Legal System ==
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Criminal record stigma and emotion#Relevant theories|What psychological theories are present in the legal system]] {{expand}}

=== Social Identity Theory ===
Classic social identity theory posits that groups and whole organisations that possess the same cultural and social norms will have perceive themselves as sharing something in common {{citation needed}}. This adds to their own personal self-concept as an individual and as a member of a society/societies. Bronewasser &amp; Bober (1987) argue that this theory describes a class or collective of people (people who may share traits but have no real interdependence) but not a genuine societal group. Groups depend on structure; roles, positions and relationships that require dependence from people. 

Through this theory, a jury is considered to be a genuine structured group. There are roles, a task and an interdependence through deliberation. This theory may offer a further point on why moral disgust may bias jurors. Moral disgust can function as a social categorisation cue, marking defendants as the out-group rather than in the jury's moral in-group. Bronewasser &amp; Bober claim that even arbitary group labels are enough to produce an in-group favouritism and out-group favouritism. If a defendants act triggers moral disgust, this may mark them as being in the moral &quot;outgroup&quot; in a jurors mind. Independent of the actual evidence being presented, this compounds moral disgust biases 

=== Dual-Process Theory ===
The dual-process theory argues that the main types of thinking can be separated into two distinct types (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). Type 1 processing involves autonomous processing that is often responsible for producing intuitive responses without the need for working memory. Type 2 is often more reflective and involves more explicit cognitive processes alongside working memory. A key feature of Type 2 processing is cognitive decoupling and mental simulation. Cognitive decoupling is an ability to separate what you are assuming from what you believe to be true, and mental simulation involves creating hypothetical scenarios and outcomes within your mind (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). 

Type 1 processes of thinking can be assumed to rely heavily on predetermined values and morals which a juror will rarely think over before making a decision. It is thus assumed that Type 2 processing allows for a more deliberate consideration system when accounting for consequences and outcomes. This does not, however, guarantee better judgement. to use when making heavily implicating decisions. This is due to Type 2, allowing people to consider consequences and situations before making a decision (Evans and Stanovich, 2013).  

Supporting evidence suggests that disgust is a Type 1 output, automatic and arriving before deliberate reasoning can take place. Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013) describe moral disgust as an unreasoned emotion that involves a process of quickly cleansing oneself of the impurity they associate with that emotion. Additionally, Feigenson's (2016) findings show that different emotions elicit different processing capabilities (anger is different from anxiety). This is supporting evidence for how much Type 2 information processing is engaged for jurors. Feigenson (2016) also notes that jurors may have the ability to override their initial reactions through discussion and reasoning.   

Hypothetically, if the presence of disgust within courts were to be removed, people would be less inclined to make cognitive shortcuts (by relying on their Type 1 system) and thoroughly process emotions before making decisions, utilising their Type 2 system (Kurbanova, 2024). 

Kurbanova, S. (2024). What's the verdict: how disgust dictates jury verdict and the mitigating role of symbolic cleansing. University of Central Oklahoma.

=== Attribution Theory and Culpable Control Model ===
Heider, F. (2020). ''The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations'' (F. Heider, Ed.). Barakaldo Books.

According to Heider's (1958) attribution theory, individuals naturally evaluate behaviour by balancing personal casuality against situational causality to determine intentionality.In a legal setting, jurors have the expectation that they will objectively weight these factors, fairly and decide a defendants guilt and blame. However, cases that evoke intense disgust can interrput the rational assessment that jurors are expected to undertake. Instead of evaluating control before assigning blame, the process that Heider's (1958) theory outlines, jurors often invert this sequence through a phenomena introduced by Alicke (2000).  


The core idea for the Culpable Control Model (CCM) is an explanation ofr how people make judgements about blame and responsibility. Alicke (2000) argues that judgement is not always subjective as blame does not solely rely on evidence about a persons actions and control over the action, but also on individuals emotions, values and assumptions. The assumption of the CCM is that people form a blame judgement first, based on actions and then interpret the evidence on how it is supported second (Alicke, 2000). The main mechanism of this theory is that evidence isn't evaluted and blame placed. Emotional reactions, values, assumptions and expectations of people as humans can heavily shape how evidence is interpreted in the first place (Alicke, 2000). 

A juror that is disgusted will use their emotions to guide their judgement, supporting Alicke's (2000) arguement that people search for evidence to support their assumption based on their emotions. 

According to CCM, processing for a juror operates firstly with spontaneous evaluation, then blame motive then retroactive rationalisation. Disgust influences juror processing through distinct mehcanisms. Altered evidentiary standards is the impact of disgust lowering the threshold of proof required for conviction. Thus leading to a biased information search. Jurors will selectively focus on specific details that support their emotion. Finally, dehumanisation occurs. The disgust that a juror is feeling triggers the evolutionary avoidance. Disgust in the form of a social pathogen means that a juror will be unsympathtic towards a defendant, regardless of arguments that explain their actions.   
 
*evolutionary theory of emotion
**this theory describes our emotions and reactions being biological reactions to stimuli. 
***for example, disgust has come from protecting oneself from poisons.

== Disgust as a Legally Relevant Emotion (getting rid of this) ==

=== Arguments For ===

* Patrick Devlin's belief that we should allow some degree of the shared morality view of society through emotions {{citation needed}}
** Within society, when crimes are viewed as &quot;disgusting&quot; or cause widespread intolerance, there is an importance to the intervention of the legal system (Lacey, 2023). 
* Informing the &quot;Reasonable Person&quot; Standard 
** This is a theory that jurors will judge acts (particularly those involving negligence or abuse) based on what they believe they would have done in that situation. Or more accurately to the theory, what would a reasonably prudent person (RPP) have done (Alicke &amp; Weigel, 2021)? 

=== Arguments Against ===

* [[wikipedia:Harm_principle|harm principle limitation]] 
** Developed by John Stuart Mills, the harm principle limitation states the following: 
** &quot;The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.&quot; [[wikisource:On_Liberty/Chapter_1|(Mill, 1869).]] 
** This principle bars people within the legal system from criminalising an action because it makes most people feel moral disgust. 
* a tool for discrimination
** Historically, moral disgust has been a tool against those being charged with crimes of homosexuality and interracial marriages. 

== Moral Disgust and Juror Judgements ==
A jury is a group of 12 individuals that are carefully chosen to determine the guilt of an offender{{fact}} {{ic|Don't juries vary in size, depending on the juridstiction?}}. They are picked to be impartial, unbiased opinions that can aid in the determining of a person's guilt. Jurors are asked to make judgements based on the evidence presented to them in court. However, emotions play a large, unsuspecting role in determining the guilt of a person. Such is the reason why, in high-stakes cases, jurors are not allowed contact with the outside world or media during trials. Moral disgust in particular seems to have a large impact on the way that jurors perceive and shape jurors' judgements. Different emotions elicit different reactions based on the emotion and a person's appraisal patterns.{{fact}}

=== Emotional Response Patterns ===
Fishbein &amp; Ajzen's (1975) expectancy-value model states that a person's given attitude towards an object is a direct function of the value that a person attaches to that object's attributes or outcomes. In explicit terms, a person's value on an object will be a direct function of the value that they place on said item and the positive or negative emotions they associate with it. Furthermore, the positive or negative characteristics that they associate with the object will be a weighted decision on the direct outcome that may occur due to the object.   

In a review of the role of emotion-induced expectancies, Desteno et al. (2004) argue that positive and negative emotions have been grouped together and oversimplified, which makes distinguishing them difficult. The studies found that specificity operates through an emotion-matching process. Whilst the study did not touch on disgust specifically, it found that persuasion about a situation increased when a person's current emotional state matched the emotional framing of a message. The broader emotion-specificity principle suggests a comparable mechanism that may apply to disgust.    

Older discourse has allowed for all emotions to be pushed into one category, but not all emotions push judgement in the same direction.      

Emotional appraisal patterns are the specific mental evaluations that an individual's brain makes about an event to determine how they feel about a situation.  

INSERT TABLE HERE W/ EVIDENCE  

=== Integral versus Incidental Emotion Distinction ===
Research by Feigenson (2016) discusses the overall idea that juror emotions can affect judge responsibility, blame, guilt, punishment and damages. INSERT SOURCE ON WHY THIS IS A FOCUS. 

The core idea of the article follows the influence of integral and incidental emotions. Integral emotions are supposed to be caused by features of a particular case. Incidental emotions are emotions that arise, unrelated to the case. This foundational research posists that emotions may influence legal judgements through multiple different pathways. 


Within the research Feigenson (2016) theorises the emotional effects on information processing. It reveals that different emotions can effect how deeply a juror processes emotions. Anger is generally associated with more certainity about the evidence which leads to individuals being less likely to process information as they are confident they already know enough to address the task (Feigenson, 2016). Other emotions, for example anxiety, are generally associated with more uncertaintity which leads to more systematic information processing (Feigenson, 2016). Saddened by emotional testimony, mock jurors in a criminal reckless driving case were able to identify inconsistencies more precisely, which is a sign of systematic information processing (Semmler &amp; Brewer, 2002). 

The emotion-congruency effect is a process that casues a person to judge based in the direction of the emotion they are feeling. Although Feigenson (2016) does not explicitly research how disgust is influenced by emotion there is other empirical research that researches the impact of disgust on these emotional information processing pathways. 

Rather than claiming that the research should be generalised to consider disgust, it should be considered that further research needs to be conducted to understand the role of moral disgust in a courtroom. This leaves open whether moral disgust causes jurors to be more certain or uncertain about informatin in the courtroom. 

*
* these effects may over or under estimate the influence on cases
* this article does not beleif that moral intuitionism provides strong evidence that emotions have a greater influence on real legal decisions.
* the effects on information processing
** different emotions can affect how deeply people process information.
** this ties back to Rozin and Giner and Sorella (double check this)
** anger is generally associated with more certainty which means that people are less likely to carefully process information
*** they rely on more heuristic cues and consider fewer factors
** anxiety is generally considered with more uncertainty
** leads to more systematic information processing
** mock jurors who became sad from emotional testimony were better at identfying inconsistencies in testimonies that neutral participants
* directional processing
* emotions can cause a person to interpret information in the direction similar to the emotion
** called the emotion-congruency effect (look into this because the source only gave anger, need disgust related information)
* informational effects: people can treat their emotions as information about a thing they are judging (called the affect-as-information model)
** people can often mistakenly attribute their current emotional state to the target of their judgement
** in legal judgements research has examined how integral emotions can act as information when judging responsiblity and blame
** severity of harm: more serious injuries caused participants to feel more sympathy for the victim and blame the defendant more
** hypocritical offenders:a hypocritical offender produced greater anger
* different emotional effects can happen at the same time: one emotion can influence how information is processed while also influencing the direction of the judgement
* multiple emotions can occur: jurors may experience different emotions toward different people in the same case. multiple emotions such as anger and disgust can interact
* it is important to identify the different emotional pathways because:
** different pathways can produce different outcomes
** it helps understand the relationships between emotion, cognition and judgement
* how strong are emotional effects 
** meta analysis have found an effect of emottions on legal responsibility judgements
** this means that emotions do matter but other factors also play a role in explaining legal judgements
** lab studies may produce weaker emotions than real trials
* moral intuitionism: this argues that peoples immediate emotional reactions to morally relevant situations play a very important role in their judgements 
** jurors have the opportunity to override or reconsider their intial reactions through conscious reasoning, reframing a sitaution or talking to other people. this means that emotions dont neccessarily dominate legal judgements.

=== What is the evidence? ===

* Ghelfi et al (2020)
* research suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes 
* previous studies have found that inducing physical disgust (bad smells or bitter tastes) could lead to harsher moral judgements 
* replicated across 11 studies 
* it tested
** whether a bitter beverage leads to harsher moral judgements than a sweet beverage or water
** whether the effect is stronger among politically conservative participants than liberal participants 
* used a 3x3 between-subjects design
** beverage: bitter, sweet or neutral 
** political orientation: conservative, liberal or other 
* 1,137 participants 
* drank beverage and then rated 6 moral vignettes on how wrong they believed the behaviour to be 
* participants also rated how bitter, sweet, neutral or disgusting they found the beverage to be. 
* bitter vs sweet effect was negligible same with the bitter vs neutral
* effects sizes were signficantlly smaller than the original study 

* original Eskine et al (2011) study:
** bitter, sweet or neutral beverage before reading six moral scenarios 
** those who drank a bitter beverage judged actions more harshly than those who drank sweet or neutral 
** the study found that those who were more politically conservative were more affected by the bitter taste than liberal participants. 
** there were originally 57 participants which found a large statistically significant effect
** a replication study was considered important because of the large effects and small sample
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639:

* moralisation hypothesis 
** disgust makes something that is normally morally neutral seem morally wrong
** the manipulation worked in the experiment 
** participants were either shown disgusting or neutral pictures 
** disgust group: M=3.01
** control group: M= 0.25
** significant results (p&lt;.001)
** the researchers successfully made people feel more disgust with pictures 
** but this did not turn morally neutral actions into morally wrong actions 
** the moralisation hypothesis was not true 
* amplification hypothesis
** disgust only makes things that already morally wrong seem even worse 
** experiment used disgusting videos and neutral videos 
** the amplification hypothesis was also not supported


For the table: 

Eskine et al (2011): bitter vs neutral: ''d''=1.09 AND bitter vs sweet: ''d''=1.22 

Ghelfi E, Christopherson CD, Urry HL, et al. Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011). ''Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science''. 2020;3(1):3-23. doi:10.1177/2515245919881152: 

2nd column: average moral wrongness
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|-
|Bitter
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''70.65'''
|-
|Neutral/control
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''68.94'''
|-
|Sweet
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''71.29'''
|}
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639&lt;/nowiki&gt;


jurors emotions and legal judgements: Feigenson, N. (2016). Jurors’ Emotions and Judgments of Legal Responsibility and Blame: What Does the Experimental Research Tell Us? ''Emotion Review'', ''8''(1), 26–31. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601223&lt;/nowiki&gt;

**

== Moderating Factors ==

* private body consciousness 
** people who are more prone to experience their private bodily sensations show stronger disgust-driven bias 
*** An experiment conducted by Schnall et al. (2008) revealed that people who were more aware of their Private Body Consciousness (PBC) were more prone to feelings of disgust and expressing these feelings outwards to the situation at hand. 
* type of violation 
** purity vs harm

== Practical Implications ==

* evidentiary admissibility 
** courts allow for the admission of gruesome photographic evidence but findings suggest this may be wrong 
*** research shows that people view crimes harsher if exposed to gruesome photos 
*** Additionally, Bright &amp; Goodman-Delahunty's (2006) research discusses a person's use of their inner emotional states as a way to reason with information they are being given.
*** In their affective influences model, affect is a judgement-simplifying heuristic device. People generally consult their affective state, meaning they consult their inner emotion to infer a judgement before looking at the facts. 
* jury selection
* how evidence is presented 

==Figures==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]

* Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
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* Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
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==Learning features==
Interactive learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter.

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;Scenarios
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{{anchor|Feature box}}
;Feature boxes
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* Consider using feature boxes for:
** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples
** Focus questions
** Tips
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;Embedded links
* When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to:
** Wikipedia articles (e.g., &quot;An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]&quot;) or
** Related book chapters (e.g., &quot;If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]&quot;)

{{anchor|Tables}}
;Tables
* Use to tables to organise and summarise information
* Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
* Tables should be captioned
* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
* Using one or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
* Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as take-home messages
* Ask easy rather than hard questions
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Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:

==Conclusion==
* What does this mean going further {{vague}}
* What would future research benefit from in this specific section?
*Moral disgust does not come with jurors' judgements, but rather it can measurably shift guilt, certainty, blame attribution and punishment severity.
*This may be stronger for certain people; it cannot just be a blanket claim for all jurors. 
*The idea that jurors decide on the basis of facts alone is not psychologically sustainable. The practice of law {{ic|The practice of law goes beyond the target topic}} needs to consider this, rather than seeing emotions as a bias. 
* The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
* Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing it
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

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}}

==See also==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)

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==References==
&lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1=&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D. (2000). Culpable Control and the Psychology of Blame. ''Psychological Bulletin'', ''126''(4), 556–574. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.4.556&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D., &amp; Weigel, S. H. (2021). The reasonable person standard: Psychological and legal perspectives. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17(1), 123–138.

Bornewasser, M., &amp; Bober, J. (1987). Individual, social group and intergroup behaviour. Some conceptual remarks on the social identity theory. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(3), 267–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1002/ejsp.2420170303

Bright, D. A., &amp; Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: Anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y

Chapman, H. A., &amp; Anderson, A. K. (2012). Understanding disgust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06369.x 

DeSteno, D., Petty, R. E., Rucker, D. D., Wegener, D. T., &amp; Braverman, J. (2004). Discrete emotions and persuasion: The role of emotion-induced expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.43

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550

Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt; 

Fishbein, M., &amp; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Lacey, N. (2023). Patrick Devlin, The enforcement of morals (1965). In [Book title] (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193982-5

Russell, P. S., &amp; Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 328–351. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1037/a0029319

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., &amp; Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
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==External links==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|external links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TmKo75gJI How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral Wrong &amp; the Political Right] (David Pizzaro)

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      <text bytes="39473" sha1="cniegeqart5sykho1wtjw2gl0o4sedq" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Moral disgust and jury decision-making: How does moral disgust impact jurors' judgements of guilt, blame, and punishment?}}
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==Overview==
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[[File:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png | thumb | right | 250px |'''Figure 1'''. A jury is a group of sworn individuals who determine a defendant's guilt. ]]

Consider sitting on a jury. The defendant appears composed, well-dressed, and speaks clearly. Someone like this couldn't have done anything bad — that's your instinct.

Then you hear the charge: embezzlement. Over three years, they quietly transferred company funds to a personal account. Thousands of dollars were spent, and real people were harmed. You are angry. It's wrong. However, it does not make you feel sick.

Consider the same composed defendant in the same courtroom, but this time the charge is posing as a charity volunteer to gain the trust of dying hospice patients before stealing the donations intended for their care. The financial loss is the same as the embezzlement case. Same amount, same number of victims.

But something else arises in you. Not just anger, but more of a revulsion, as if something was contaminated. This doesn't simply feel like a crime. It has an unclean feeling to it.

The same defendant. Same harm. So, why does one case make you feel cold and angry, while the other makes your skin crawl? And, aside from the actual harm done, could that visceral reaction be influencing how harshly you believe they should be punished?

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It is the law that [https://www.monash.edu/law/news-and-events/news/2020/juries-why-do-we-actually-need-them-and-can-they-get-it-wrong jurors] {{ic|The law varies by jurisdiction; write for an international audience; Australians represent ~.3% of the world human population}} {{ic|Move external links to the External links section}} must base their verdicts on the facts of a case {{citation needed}}. But moral disgust, an emotional gut reaction, seems to influence how jurors assess guilt, blame and punishment, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented {{citation needed}}. A disgusted juror might unconsciously become more certain of guilt, assign more blame and suggest harsher punishment, regardless of what the facts actually establish. If disgust always biases judgements and sentences in one direction or the other, no matter how strong a case is, the implications are profound: wrongful convictions, disproportionate sentencing, and differences in the punishment of similar crimes depending on how “disgusting” the evidence seems, rather than the true seriousness of the crime {{long}}. It also raises questions for current legal practices: courts commonly admit gruesome evidence under the assumption that its evidentiary value outweighs its emotional impact, an assumption this body of research directly undermines {{citation needed}}. Psychological science provides the legal system with something it cannot produce itself: controlled empirical evidence about the nature and causes of this bias {{citation needed}}. It shows not only that jurors appear to be affected by emotion but also the processes (appraisal patterns, purity vs. harm, violations, and individual differences such as private body consciousness) that determine when and for whom the effect is strongest {{citation needed}}. 

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{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

*If disgust can make moral judgements more severe, even when it’s incidental to the act being judged, what does that say about the reliability of human moral reasoning?
*Can moral disgust be used by the legal system? {{ic|Use open-ended questions}}
*How might a juror's own sensitivity to physiological sensations of disgust impact how vulnerable they are to disgust-driven bias?
*How can psychological theories be used to mitigate risks of bias in the legal system?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is Moral Disgust? ==
{{ic|Include at least an introductory paragraph before branching into sub-headings}}

=== Disgust ===
[[w:Disgust|Disgust]] is one of the six universal emotions that humans experience and can be visually recognised on a person's face {{citation needed}}. The emotion of disgust is theorised to have originated from a biological protective mechanism to protect an organism from harm that may be brought on by food or poison {{citation needed}}. Disgust has evolved to become an emotion/behaviour directed at anything that may potentially cause harm or disease. For example, 

* body products 
* animals 
* hygiene 
* body violations, death or disease {{citation needed}}

Paul Ekman proposed six basic emotions in his literature based on the theories that these emotions, across research all over the world, concluded in agreement on six emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Therefore, he proposed that the universality of these findings and the facial expression alone could conclude that there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992).

=== Moral Disgust ===
Moral disgust refers to the emotional response a person feels when their social or cultural norms are transgressed, therefore resulting in a reaction {{citation needed}}. Moral disgust is complex, and there is varying evidence for and against its genuine purpose as an emotion. Researchers argue that moral disgust is a metaphorical extension of physical disgust; shared facial expression, language, etc {{citation needed}}. Other researchers argue that it's functionally unique to traditional, physical disgust {{citation needed}}. It does not reliably trigger the same physiological processes: facial muscle activation, nausea, etc. (Chapman et al., 2012). 

Moral disgust is triggered by acts that are supposedly a violation of an individual's perceived purity or dignity {{citation needed}}. For example, betraying someone's trust (cheating on a partner) or exploiting a vulnerable person (as mentioned in the scenario at the start). 

Rozin et al. (1999) proposed a theory that moral disgust specifically clusters around violations of a person's divinity or purity. This is different from anger, which generally clusters around autonomy violations, also opposed to contempt, which clusters around community violations. 

This distinction is vital when discussing emotion for jurors. If moral disgust behaves differently from physical disgust, it may influence judgement in the courtroom through a different pathway than a simple reaction to physically disgusting evidence. 

Russell &amp; {{ic|Use APA style for citations}} Giner-Sorolla (2013) discuss four competing arguments of disgust's role in moral condemnation. Firstly, the most flexible view of moral disgust that can be applied widely for many crimes is the general morality position. It claims that disgust is an all-purpose emotion which is seen through different kinds of moral disapproval, not just a narrow category. Secondly, disgust as a violation of bodily and spiritual purity is more specific. As mentioned prior, this claim is supported by Rozin's CAD (contempt, anger, disgust) triad. The third argument proposes that moral disgust is only a metaphor. The true emotion being experienced is anger, and individuals just use language as a metaphor (e.g., &quot;that's disgusting&quot;) for how condemning they feel. Finally, Russell &amp; Ginger-Sorolla's own claim for moral disgust is a middle ground for all the arguments in their research. Regardless of whether harm or justice is involved, they contend that disgust specifically tracks violations pertaining to the body and its products. Anger tends to co-occur with violations that are specifically related to justice, harm, or rights. This disgust behaves more like anger wearing the vocabulary of disgust than it does like bodily moral disgust.  

One study involved 148 participants ranking their emotions on a scale {{citation needed}}. It was found that moral disgust elicited as much as physical disgust did, which supports a claim that moral disgust is not a watered-down, metaphorical use of the feeling but a genuine, physical feeling of disgust. It was also revealed that moral disgust uniquely triggered a significantly higher feeling of mental contamination (feeling immoral) than core disgust did. This reveals an internalised feeling about your own moral state just from witnessing an immoral act, which ties back to Russell &amp; Giner-Sorolla's bodily-violation pattern and strengthens Rozin et al.'s (1999) definition of moral disgust. This empirical study is evidence that core disgust attaches to bodily violations, not non-bodily violations.    

If people respond to contact with an immoral person in a psychologically contaminating way — wanting distance, feeling “dirtied” by proximity — then a question arises about whether jurors exposed to a defendant’s morally disgusting conduct might respond in a similar contamination mode, thus influencing their desire to symbolically “cleanse” the situation via a harsher verdict or sentence.    

 &lt;quiz display=&quot;simple&quot;&gt;

{According to Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013), which of the following is NOT one of the arguments presented regarding the role of disgust in moral condemnation? :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- General Morality Position
- Bodily and Spirituality Position
- Metaphorical Position
+Universal Justice Position


&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Psychological Science in the Legal System ==
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Criminal record stigma and emotion#Relevant theories|What psychological theories are present in the legal system]] {{expand}}

=== Social Identity Theory ===
Classic social identity theory posits that groups and whole organisations that possess the same cultural and social norms will have perceive themselves as sharing something in common {{citation needed}}. This adds to their own personal self-concept as an individual and as a member of a society/societies. Bronewasser &amp; Bober (1987) argue that this theory describes a class or collective of people (people who may share traits but have no real interdependence) but not a genuine societal group. Groups depend on structure; roles, positions and relationships that require dependence from people. 

Through this theory, a jury is considered to be a genuine structured group. There are roles, a task and an interdependence through deliberation. This theory may offer a further point on why moral disgust may bias jurors. Moral disgust can function as a social categorisation cue, marking defendants as the out-group rather than in the jury's moral in-group. Bronewasser &amp; Bober claim that even arbitary group labels are enough to produce an in-group favouritism and out-group favouritism. If a defendants act triggers moral disgust, this may mark them as being in the moral &quot;outgroup&quot; in a jurors mind. Independent of the actual evidence being presented, this compounds moral disgust biases 

=== Dual-Process Theory ===
The dual-process theory argues that the main types of thinking can be separated into two distinct types (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). Type 1 processing involves autonomous processing that is often responsible for producing intuitive responses without the need for working memory. Type 2 is often more reflective and involves more explicit cognitive processes alongside working memory. A key feature of Type 2 processing is cognitive decoupling and mental simulation. Cognitive decoupling is an ability to separate what you are assuming from what you believe to be true, and mental simulation involves creating hypothetical scenarios and outcomes within your mind (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). 

Type 1 processes of thinking can be assumed to rely heavily on predetermined values and morals which a juror will rarely think over before making a decision. It is thus assumed that Type 2 processing allows for a more deliberate consideration system when accounting for consequences and outcomes. This does not, however, guarantee better judgement. to use when making heavily implicating decisions. This is due to Type 2, allowing people to consider consequences and situations before making a decision (Evans and Stanovich, 2013).  

Supporting evidence suggests that disgust is a Type 1 output, automatic and arriving before deliberate reasoning can take place. Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013) describe moral disgust as an unreasoned emotion that involves a process of quickly cleansing oneself of the impurity they associate with that emotion. Additionally, Feigenson's (2016) findings show that different emotions elicit different processing capabilities (anger is different from anxiety). This is supporting evidence for how much Type 2 information processing is engaged for jurors. Feigenson (2016) also notes that jurors may have the ability to override their initial reactions through discussion and reasoning.   

Hypothetically, if the presence of disgust within courts were to be removed, people would be less inclined to make cognitive shortcuts (by relying on their Type 1 system) and thoroughly process emotions before making decisions, utilising their Type 2 system (Kurbanova, 2024). 

Kurbanova, S. (2024). What's the verdict: how disgust dictates jury verdict and the mitigating role of symbolic cleansing. University of Central Oklahoma.

=== Attribution Theory and Culpable Control Model ===
Heider, F. (2020). ''The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations'' (F. Heider, Ed.). Barakaldo Books.

According to Heider's (1958) attribution theory, individuals naturally evaluate behaviour by balancing personal casuality against situational causality to determine intentionality.In a legal setting, jurors have the expectation that they will objectively weight these factors, fairly and decide a defendants guilt and blame. However, cases that evoke intense disgust can interrput the rational assessment that jurors are expected to undertake. Instead of evaluating control before assigning blame, the process that Heider's (1958) theory outlines, jurors often invert this sequence through a phenomena introduced by Alicke (2000).  


The core idea for the Culpable Control Model (CCM) is an explanation ofr how people make judgements about blame and responsibility. Alicke (2000) argues that judgement is not always subjective as blame does not solely rely on evidence about a persons actions and control over the action, but also on individuals emotions, values and assumptions. The assumption of the CCM is that people form a blame judgement first, based on actions and then interpret the evidence on how it is supported second (Alicke, 2000). The main mechanism of this theory is that evidence isn't evaluated and blame placed. Emotional reactions, values, assumptions and expectations of people as humans can heavily shape how evidence is interpreted in the first place (Alicke, 2000). 

A juror that is disgusted will use their emotions to guide their judgement, supporting Alicke's (2000) argument that people search for evidence to support their assumption based on their emotions. 

According to CCM, processing for a juror operates firstly with spontaneous evaluation, then blame motive then retroactive rationalisation. Disgust influences juror processing through distinct mechanisms. Altered evidentiary standards is the impact of disgust lowering the threshold of proof required for conviction. Thus leading to a biased information search. Jurors will selectively focus on specific details that support their emotion. Finally, dehumanisation occurs. The disgust that a juror is feeling triggers the evolutionary avoidance. Disgust in the form of a social pathogen means that a juror will be unsympathtic towards a defendant, regardless of arguments that explain their actions.   
 
*evolutionary theory of emotion
**this theory describes our emotions and reactions being biological reactions to stimuli. 
***for example, disgust has come from protecting oneself from poisons.

== Disgust as a Legally Relevant Emotion (getting rid of this) ==

=== Arguments For ===

* Patrick Devlin's belief that we should allow some degree of the shared morality view of society through emotions {{citation needed}}
** Within society, when crimes are viewed as &quot;disgusting&quot; or cause widespread intolerance, there is an importance to the intervention of the legal system (Lacey, 2023). 
* Informing the &quot;Reasonable Person&quot; Standard 
** This is a theory that jurors will judge acts (particularly those involving negligence or abuse) based on what they believe they would have done in that situation. Or more accurately to the theory, what would a reasonably prudent person (RPP) have done (Alicke &amp; Weigel, 2021)? 

=== Arguments Against ===

* [[wikipedia:Harm_principle|harm principle limitation]] 
** Developed by John Stuart Mills, the harm principle limitation states the following: 
** &quot;The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.&quot; [[wikisource:On_Liberty/Chapter_1|(Mill, 1869).]] 
** This principle bars people within the legal system from criminalising an action because it makes most people feel moral disgust. 
* a tool for discrimination
** Historically, moral disgust has been a tool against those being charged with crimes of homosexuality and interracial marriages. 

== Moral Disgust and Juror Judgements ==
A jury is a group of 12 individuals that are carefully chosen to determine the guilt of an offender{{fact}} {{ic|Don't juries vary in size, depending on the juridstiction?}}. They are picked to be impartial, unbiased opinions that can aid in the determining of a person's guilt. Jurors are asked to make judgements based on the evidence presented to them in court. However, emotions play a large, unsuspecting role in determining the guilt of a person. Such is the reason why, in high-stakes cases, jurors are not allowed contact with the outside world or media during trials. Moral disgust in particular seems to have a large impact on the way that jurors perceive and shape jurors' judgements. Different emotions elicit different reactions based on the emotion and a person's appraisal patterns.{{fact}}

=== Emotional Response Patterns ===
Fishbein &amp; Ajzen's (1975) expectancy-value model states that a person's given attitude towards an object is a direct function of the value that a person attaches to that object's attributes or outcomes. In explicit terms, a person's value on an object will be a direct function of the value that they place on said item and the positive or negative emotions they associate with it. Furthermore, the positive or negative characteristics that they associate with the object will be a weighted decision on the direct outcome that may occur due to the object.   

In a review of the role of emotion-induced expectancies, Desteno et al. (2004) argue that positive and negative emotions have been grouped together and oversimplified, which makes distinguishing them difficult. The studies found that specificity operates through an emotion-matching process. Whilst the study did not touch on disgust specifically, it found that persuasion about a situation increased when a person's current emotional state matched the emotional framing of a message. The broader emotion-specificity principle suggests a comparable mechanism that may apply to disgust.    

Older discourse has allowed for all emotions to be pushed into one category, but not all emotions push judgement in the same direction.      

Emotional appraisal patterns are the specific mental evaluations that an individual's brain makes about an event to determine how they feel about a situation.  

INSERT TABLE HERE W/ EVIDENCE  

=== Integral versus Incidental Emotion Distinction ===
Research by Feigenson (2016) discusses the overall idea that juror emotions can affect judge responsibility, blame, guilt, punishment and damages. INSERT SOURCE ON WHY THIS IS A FOCUS. 

The core idea of the article follows the influence of integral and incidental emotions. Integral emotions are supposed to be caused by features of a particular case. Incidental emotions are emotions that arise, unrelated to the case. This foundational research posists that emotions may influence legal judgements through multiple different pathways. 


Within the research Feigenson (2016) theorises the emotional effects on information processing. It reveals that different emotions can effect how deeply a juror processes emotions. Anger is generally associated with more certainity about the evidence which leads to individuals being less likely to process information as they are confident they already know enough to address the task (Feigenson, 2016). Other emotions, for example anxiety, are generally associated with more uncertaintity which leads to more systematic information processing (Feigenson, 2016). Saddened by emotional testimony, mock jurors in a criminal reckless driving case were able to identify inconsistencies more precisely, which is a sign of systematic information processing (Semmler &amp; Brewer, 2002). 

The emotion-congruency effect is a process that casues a person to judge based in the direction of the emotion they are feeling. Although Feigenson (2016) does not explicitly research how disgust is influenced by emotion there is other empirical research that researches the impact of disgust on these emotional information processing pathways. 

Rather than claiming that the research should be generalised to consider disgust, it should be considered that further research needs to be conducted to understand the role of moral disgust in a courtroom. This leaves open whether moral disgust causes jurors to be more certain or uncertain about information in the courtroom. 

*
* these effects may over or under estimate the influence on cases
* this article does not beleif that moral intuitionism provides strong evidence that emotions have a greater influence on real legal decisions.
* the effects on information processing
** different emotions can affect how deeply people process information.
** this ties back to Rozin and Giner and Sorella (double check this)
** anger is generally associated with more certainty which means that people are less likely to carefully process information
*** they rely on more heuristic cues and consider fewer factors
** anxiety is generally considered with more uncertainty
** leads to more systematic information processing
** mock jurors who became sad from emotional testimony were better at identfying inconsistencies in testimonies that neutral participants
* directional processing
* emotions can cause a person to interpret information in the direction similar to the emotion
** called the emotion-congruency effect (look into this because the source only gave anger, need disgust related information)
* informational effects: people can treat their emotions as information about a thing they are judging (called the affect-as-information model)
** people can often mistakenly attribute their current emotional state to the target of their judgement
** in legal judgements research has examined how integral emotions can act as information when judging responsiblity and blame
** severity of harm: more serious injuries caused participants to feel more sympathy for the victim and blame the defendant more
** hypocritical offenders:a hypocritical offender produced greater anger
* different emotional effects can happen at the same time: one emotion can influence how information is processed while also influencing the direction of the judgement
* multiple emotions can occur: jurors may experience different emotions toward different people in the same case. multiple emotions such as anger and disgust can interact
* it is important to identify the different emotional pathways because:
** different pathways can produce different outcomes
** it helps understand the relationships between emotion, cognition and judgement
* how strong are emotional effects 
** meta analysis have found an effect of emottions on legal responsibility judgements
** this means that emotions do matter but other factors also play a role in explaining legal judgements
** lab studies may produce weaker emotions than real trials
* moral intuitionism: this argues that peoples immediate emotional reactions to morally relevant situations play a very important role in their judgements 
** jurors have the opportunity to override or reconsider their intial reactions through conscious reasoning, reframing a situation or talking to other people. this means that emotions don't necessarily dominate legal judgements.

=== Evidence ===
Research by Ghelfi et al, (2020) suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes. Studies that have been conducted previously found that inducing physical disgust could lead to harsher moral judgements. This was then replicated across 11 different laboratories to test whether bitter beverages led to harsher moral judgements than sweet beverages or water. Ghelfi (2020) research discusses to impacts of different sensory systems on the impact of moral judgements. 
* Ghelfi et al (2020)
* research suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes
* previous studies have found that inducing physical disgust (bad smells or bitter tastes) could lead to harsher moral judgements
* replicated across 11 studies
* it tested
** whether a bitter beverage leads to harsher moral judgements than a sweet beverage or water
** whether the effect is stronger among politically conservative participants than liberal participants
* used a 3x3 between-subjects design
** beverage: bitter, sweet or neutral
** political orientation: conservative, liberal or other
* 1,137 participants
* drank beverage and then rated 6 moral vignettes on how wrong they believed the behaviour to be
* participants also rated how bitter, sweet, neutral or disgusting they found the beverage to be.
* bitter vs sweet effect was negligible same with the bitter vs neutral
* effects sizes were significantly smaller than the original study

* original Eskine et al (2011) study:
** bitter, sweet or neutral beverage before reading six moral scenarios 
** those who drank a bitter beverage judged actions more harshly than those who drank sweet or neutral 
** the study found that those who were more politically conservative were more affected by the bitter taste than liberal participants. 
** there were originally 57 participants which found a large statistically significant effect
** a replication study was considered important because of the large effects and small sample
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639:

* moralisation hypothesis 
** disgust makes something that is normally morally neutral seem morally wrong
** the manipulation worked in the experiment 
** participants were either shown disgusting or neutral pictures 
** disgust group: M=3.01
** control group: M= 0.25
** significant results (p&lt;.001)
** the researchers successfully made people feel more disgust with pictures 
** but this did not turn morally neutral actions into morally wrong actions 
** the moralisation hypothesis was not true 
* amplification hypothesis
** disgust only makes things that already morally wrong seem even worse 
** experiment used disgusting videos and neutral videos 
** the amplification hypothesis was also not supported


For the table: 

Eskine et al (2011): bitter vs neutral: ''d''=1.09 AND bitter vs sweet: ''d''=1.22 

Ghelfi E, Christopherson CD, Urry HL, et al. Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011). ''Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science''. 2020;3(1):3-23. doi:10.1177/2515245919881152: 

2nd column: average moral wrongness
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|-
|Bitter
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''70.65'''
|-
|Neutral/control
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''68.94'''
|-
|Sweet
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''71.29'''
|}
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639&lt;/nowiki&gt;


jurors emotions and legal judgements: Feigenson, N. (2016). Jurors’ Emotions and Judgments of Legal Responsibility and Blame: What Does the Experimental Research Tell Us? ''Emotion Review'', ''8''(1), 26–31. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601223&lt;/nowiki&gt;

**

== Moderating Factors ==

* private body consciousness 
** people who are more prone to experience their private bodily sensations show stronger disgust-driven bias 
*** An experiment conducted by Schnall et al. (2008) revealed that people who were more aware of their Private Body Consciousness (PBC) were more prone to feelings of disgust and expressing these feelings outwards to the situation at hand. 
* type of violation 
** purity vs harm

== Practical Implications ==

* evidentiary admissibility 
** courts allow for the admission of gruesome photographic evidence but findings suggest this may be wrong 
*** research shows that people view crimes harsher if exposed to gruesome photos 
*** Additionally, Bright &amp; Goodman-Delahunty's (2006) research discusses a person's use of their inner emotional states as a way to reason with information they are being given.
*** In their affective influences model, affect is a judgement-simplifying heuristic device. People generally consult their affective state, meaning they consult their inner emotion to infer a judgement before looking at the facts. 
* jury selection
* how evidence is presented 

==Figures==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]

* Use figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
* Figures can show photos, diagrams, graphs, video, audio, etc.
* Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
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{{anchor|Feature box}}
;Feature boxes
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** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples
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;Embedded links
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'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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==Conclusion==
* What does this mean going further {{vague}}
* What would future research benefit from in this specific section?
*Moral disgust does not come with jurors' judgements, but rather it can measurably shift guilt, certainty, blame attribution and punishment severity.
*This may be stronger for certain people; it cannot just be a blanket claim for all jurors. 
*The idea that jurors decide on the basis of facts alone is not psychologically sustainable. The practice of law {{ic|The practice of law goes beyond the target topic}} needs to consider this, rather than seeing emotions as a bias. 
* The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
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==See also==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)

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* Only select links to major internal resources about the topic
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}}

==References==
&lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1=&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D. (2000). Culpable Control and the Psychology of Blame. ''Psychological Bulletin'', ''126''(4), 556–574. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.4.556&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D., &amp; Weigel, S. H. (2021). The reasonable person standard: Psychological and legal perspectives. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17(1), 123–138.

Bornewasser, M., &amp; Bober, J. (1987). Individual, social group and intergroup behaviour. Some conceptual remarks on the social identity theory. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(3), 267–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1002/ejsp.2420170303

Bright, D. A., &amp; Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: Anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y

Chapman, H. A., &amp; Anderson, A. K. (2012). Understanding disgust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06369.x 

DeSteno, D., Petty, R. E., Rucker, D. D., Wegener, D. T., &amp; Braverman, J. (2004). Discrete emotions and persuasion: The role of emotion-induced expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.43

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550

Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt; 

Fishbein, M., &amp; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Lacey, N. (2023). Patrick Devlin, The enforcement of morals (1965). In [Book title] (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193982-5

Russell, P. S., &amp; Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 328–351. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1037/a0029319

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., &amp; Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

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[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Morality]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Legal]]</text>
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      <text bytes="39885" sha1="qexb7edueoazwh050t69x5b20lww111" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Moral disgust and jury decision-making: How does moral disgust impact jurors' judgements of guilt, blame, and punishment?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png | thumb | right | 250px |'''Figure 1'''. A jury is a group of sworn individuals who determine a defendant's guilt. ]]

Consider sitting on a jury. The defendant appears composed, well-dressed, and speaks clearly. Someone like this couldn't have done anything bad — that's your instinct.

Then you hear the charge: embezzlement. Over three years, they quietly transferred company funds to a personal account. Thousands of dollars were spent, and real people were harmed. You are angry. It's wrong. However, it does not make you feel sick.

Consider the same composed defendant in the same courtroom, but this time the charge is posing as a charity volunteer to gain the trust of dying hospice patients before stealing the donations intended for their care. The financial loss is the same as the embezzlement case. Same amount, same number of victims.

But something else arises in you. Not just anger, but more of a revulsion, as if something was contaminated. This doesn't simply feel like a crime. It has an unclean feeling to it.

The same defendant. Same harm. So, why does one case make you feel cold and angry, while the other makes your skin crawl? And, aside from the actual harm done, could that visceral reaction be influencing how harshly you believe they should be punished?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

It is the law that [https://www.monash.edu/law/news-and-events/news/2020/juries-why-do-we-actually-need-them-and-can-they-get-it-wrong jurors] {{ic|The law varies by jurisdiction; write for an international audience; Australians represent ~.3% of the world human population}} {{ic|Move external links to the External links section}} must base their verdicts on the facts of a case {{citation needed}}. But moral disgust, an emotional gut reaction, seems to influence how jurors assess guilt, blame and punishment, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented {{citation needed}}. A disgusted juror might unconsciously become more certain of guilt, assign more blame and suggest harsher punishment, regardless of what the facts actually establish. If disgust always biases judgements and sentences in one direction or the other, no matter how strong a case is, the implications are profound: wrongful convictions, disproportionate sentencing, and differences in the punishment of similar crimes depending on how “disgusting” the evidence seems, rather than the true seriousness of the crime {{long}}. It also raises questions for current legal practices: courts commonly admit gruesome evidence under the assumption that its evidentiary value outweighs its emotional impact, an assumption this body of research directly undermines {{citation needed}}. Psychological science provides the legal system with something it cannot produce itself: controlled empirical evidence about the nature and causes of this bias {{citation needed}}. It shows not only that jurors appear to be affected by emotion but also the processes (appraisal patterns, purity vs. harm, violations, and individual differences such as private body consciousness) that determine when and for whom the effect is strongest {{citation needed}}. 

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{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

*If disgust can make moral judgements more severe, even when it’s incidental to the act being judged, what does that say about the reliability of human moral reasoning?
*Can moral disgust be used by the legal system? {{ic|Use open-ended questions}}
*How might a juror's own sensitivity to physiological sensations of disgust impact how vulnerable they are to disgust-driven bias?
*How can psychological theories be used to mitigate risks of bias in the legal system?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is moral disgust? ==
{{ic|Include at least an introductory paragraph before branching into sub-headings}}

=== Disgust ===
[[w:Disgust|Disgust]] is one of the six universal emotions that humans experience and can be visually recognised on a person's face {{citation needed}}. The emotion of disgust is theorised to have originated from a biological protective mechanism to protect an organism from harm that may be brought on by food or poison {{citation needed}}. Disgust has evolved to become an emotion/behaviour directed at anything that may potentially cause harm or disease. For example, 

* body products 
* animals 
* hygiene 
* body violations, death or disease {{citation needed}}

Paul Ekman proposed six basic emotions in his literature based on the theories that these emotions, across research all over the world, concluded in agreement on six emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Therefore, he proposed that the universality of these findings and the facial expression alone could conclude that there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992).

=== Moral disgust ===
Moral disgust refers to the emotional response a person feels when their social or cultural norms are transgressed, therefore resulting in a reaction {{citation needed}}. Moral disgust is complex, and there is varying evidence for and against its genuine purpose as an emotion. Researchers argue that moral disgust is a metaphorical extension of physical disgust; shared facial expression, language, etc {{citation needed}}. Other researchers argue that it's functionally unique to traditional, physical disgust {{citation needed}}. It does not reliably trigger the same physiological processes: facial muscle activation, nausea, etc. (Chapman et al., 2012). 

Moral disgust is triggered by acts that are supposedly a violation of an individual's perceived purity or dignity {{citation needed}}. For example, betraying someone's trust (cheating on a partner) or exploiting a vulnerable person (as mentioned in the scenario at the start). 

Rozin et al. (1999) proposed a theory that moral disgust specifically clusters around violations of a person's divinity or purity. This is different from anger, which generally clusters around autonomy violations, also opposed to contempt, which clusters around community violations. 

This distinction is vital when discussing emotion for jurors. If moral disgust behaves differently from physical disgust, it may influence judgement in the courtroom through a different pathway than a simple reaction to physically disgusting evidence. 

Russell &amp; {{ic|Use APA style for citations}} Giner-Sorolla (2013) discuss four competing arguments of disgust's role in moral condemnation. Firstly, the most flexible view of moral disgust that can be applied widely for many crimes is the general morality position. It claims that disgust is an all-purpose emotion which is seen through different kinds of moral disapproval, not just a narrow category. Secondly, disgust as a violation of bodily and spiritual purity is more specific. As mentioned prior, this claim is supported by Rozin's CAD (contempt, anger, disgust) triad. The third argument proposes that moral disgust is only a metaphor. The true emotion being experienced is anger, and individuals just use language as a metaphor (e.g., &quot;that's disgusting&quot;) for how condemning they feel. Finally, Russell &amp; Ginger-Sorolla's own claim for moral disgust is a middle ground for all the arguments in their research. Regardless of whether harm or justice is involved, they contend that disgust specifically tracks violations pertaining to the body and its products. Anger tends to co-occur with violations that are specifically related to justice, harm, or rights. This disgust behaves more like anger wearing the vocabulary of disgust than it does like bodily moral disgust.  

One study involved 148 participants ranking their emotions on a scale {{citation needed}}. It was found that moral disgust elicited as much as physical disgust did, which supports a claim that moral disgust is not a watered-down, metaphorical use of the feeling but a genuine, physical feeling of disgust. It was also revealed that moral disgust uniquely triggered a significantly higher feeling of mental contamination (feeling immoral) than core disgust did. This reveals an internalised feeling about your own moral state just from witnessing an immoral act, which ties back to Russell &amp; Giner-Sorolla's bodily-violation pattern and strengthens Rozin et al.'s (1999) definition of moral disgust. This empirical study is evidence that core disgust attaches to bodily violations, not non-bodily violations.    

If people respond to contact with an immoral person in a psychologically contaminating way — wanting distance, feeling “dirtied” by proximity — then a question arises about whether jurors exposed to a defendant’s morally disgusting conduct might respond in a similar contamination mode, thus influencing their desire to symbolically “cleanse” the situation via a harsher verdict or sentence.    

 &lt;quiz display=&quot;simple&quot;&gt;

{According to Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013), which of the following is NOT one of the arguments presented regarding the role of disgust in moral condemnation? :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- General Morality Position
- Bodily and Spirituality Position
- Metaphorical Position
+Universal Justice Position


&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Psychological science in the legal system ==
Several psychological theories can help explain why a visceral reaction like moral disgust might influence jurors' decisions. Social identity theory explains how jurors categorise defendants, dual process theory explains how fast intuitive responses and slower deliberate reasoning interact, and attribution theory and the culpable control model explain how people assign blame. Together, they suggest a common idea: the emotional reaction often comes first, and the reasoning that follows may support it. This section describes each theory and discusses what it teaches us about disgust in the jury room.

=== Social identity theory ===
Classic [[w:Social_identity_theory|social identity theory]] posits that groups and whole organisations that possess the same cultural and social norms will perceive themselves as sharing something in common (Tajfel &amp; Turner, 2000). This adds to their own personal self-concept as an individual and as a member of a society/societies. Bronewasser &amp; Bober (1987) critique that this theory describes a class or collective of people (people who may share traits but have no real interdependence) but not a genuine societal group. Groups depend on structure, roles, positions and relationships that require dependence from people. 

Through this theory, a jury is considered to be a genuine structured group. There are roles, a task and an interdependence through deliberation. This theory may offer a further point on why moral disgust can bias jurors. Moral disgust may be a function of a social categorisation cue, marking defendants as the out-group rather than in the jury's moral in-group. Bronewasser &amp; Bober claim that even arbitary group labels are enough to produce an in-group favouritism and out-group favouritism. If a defendants act triggers moral disgust, this may mark them as being in the moral &quot;outgroup&quot; in a jurors' mind. Independent of the actual evidence being presented, this compounds moral disgust biases. 

=== Dual-process theory ===
The [[w:Dual_process_theory_(moral_psychology)|dual-process theory]] argues that the main types of thinking can be separated into two distinct types (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). Type 1 processing involves autonomous processing that is often responsible for producing intuitive responses without the need for working memory. Type 2 is often more reflective and involves more explicit cognitive processes alongside working memory. A key feature of Type 2 processing is cognitive decoupling and mental simulation. Cognitive decoupling is an ability to separate what you are assuming from what you believe to be true, and mental simulation involves creating hypothetical scenarios and outcomes within your mind (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). 

Type 1 processes of thinking can be assumed to rely heavily on predetermined values and morals which a juror will rarely think over before making a decision. It is thus assumed that Type 2 processing allows for a more deliberate consideration system when accounting for consequences and outcomes. This does not, however, guarantee better judgement to use when making heavily implicating decisions. This is due to Type 2, allowing people to consider consequences and situations before making a decision (Evans and Stanovich, 2013).  

Supporting evidence suggests that disgust is a Type 1 output, automatic and arriving before deliberate reasoning can take place. Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013) describe moral disgust as an unreasoned emotion that involves a process of quickly cleansing oneself of the impurity they associate with that emotion. Additionally, Feigenson's (2016) findings show that different emotions elicit different processing capabilities (anger is different from anxiety). This is supporting evidence for how much Type 2 information processing is engaged for jurors. Feigenson (2016) also notes that jurors may have the ability to override their initial reactions through discussion and reasoning.   

Hypothetically, if the presence of disgust within courts were to be removed, people would be less inclined to make cognitive shortcuts (by relying on their Type 1 system) and thoroughly process emotions before making decisions, utilising their Type 2 system. 

=== Attribution theory and culpable control model ===
According to Heider's (1958) [[w:Attribution_(psychology)|attribution theory]], individuals naturally evaluate behaviour by balancing personal casuality against situational causality to determine intentionality.In a legal setting, jurors have the expectation that they will objectively weight these factors, fairly and decide a defendants guilt and blame. However, cases that evoke intense disgust can interrput the rational assessment that jurors are expected to undertake. Instead of evaluating control before assigning blame, the process that Heider's (1958) theory outlines, jurors often invert this sequence through a phenomena introduced by Alicke (2000).  

The core idea for the Culpable Control Model (CCM) is an explanation ofr how people make judgements about blame and responsibility. Alicke (2000) argues that judgement is not always subjective as blame does not solely rely on evidence about a persons actions and control over the action, but also on individuals emotions, values and assumptions. The assumption of the CCM is that people form a blame judgement first, based on actions and then interpret the evidence on how it is supported second (Alicke, 2000). The main mechanism of this theory is that evidence isn't evaluated and blame placed. Emotional reactions, values, assumptions and expectations of people as humans can heavily shape how evidence is interpreted in the first place (Alicke, 2000). If people search for evidence to support an assumption based on their emotions, based on Alicke's (2000) claim, disgust would act in the same way.  

According to CCM, processing for a juror operates firstly with spontaneous evaluation, then blame motive then retroactive rationalisation. Disgust influences juror processing through distinct mechanisms. Altered evidentiary standards is the impact of disgust lowering the threshold of proof required for conviction. Thus leading to a biased information search. Jurors will selectively focus on specific details that support their emotion. Finally, dehumanisation occurs. The disgust that a juror is feeling triggers the evolutionary avoidance. Disgust in the form of a social pathogen means that a juror will be unsympathtic towards a defendant, regardless of arguments that explain their actions.   
== Disgust as a Legally Relevant Emotion (getting rid of this) ==

=== Arguments For ===

* Patrick Devlin's belief that we should allow some degree of the shared morality view of society through emotions {{citation needed}}
** Within society, when crimes are viewed as &quot;disgusting&quot; or cause widespread intolerance, there is an importance to the intervention of the legal system (Lacey, 2023). 
* Informing the &quot;Reasonable Person&quot; Standard 
** This is a theory that jurors will judge acts (particularly those involving negligence or abuse) based on what they believe they would have done in that situation. Or more accurately to the theory, what would a reasonably prudent person (RPP) have done (Alicke &amp; Weigel, 2021)? 

=== Arguments Against ===

* [[wikipedia:Harm_principle|harm principle limitation]] 
** Developed by John Stuart Mills, the harm principle limitation states the following: 
** &quot;The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.&quot; [[wikisource:On_Liberty/Chapter_1|(Mill, 1869).]] 
** This principle bars people within the legal system from criminalising an action because it makes most people feel moral disgust. 
* a tool for discrimination
** Historically, moral disgust has been a tool against those being charged with crimes of homosexuality and interracial marriages. 

== Moral disgust and juror judgements ==
A jury is a group of 12 individuals that are carefully chosen to determine the guilt of an offender{{fact}} {{ic|Don't juries vary in size, depending on the juridstiction?}}. They are picked to be impartial, unbiased opinions that can aid in the determining of a person's guilt. Jurors are asked to make judgements based on the evidence presented to them in court. However, emotions play a large, unsuspecting role in determining the guilt of a person. Such is the reason why, in high-stakes cases, jurors are not allowed contact with the outside world or media during trials. Moral disgust in particular seems to have a large impact on the way that jurors perceive and shape jurors' judgements. Different emotions elicit different reactions based on the emotion and a person's appraisal patterns.{{fact}}

=== Emotional response patterns ===
Fishbein &amp; Ajzen's (1975) [[w:Expectancy-value_theory|expectancy-value model]] states that a person's given attitude towards an object is a direct function of the value that a person attaches to that object's attributes or outcomes. In explicit terms, a person's value on an object will be a direct function of the value that they place on said item and the positive or negative emotions they associate with it. Furthermore, the positive or negative characteristics that they associate with the object will be a weighted decision on the direct outcome that may occur due to the object.   

In a review of the role of emotion-induced expectancies, Desteno et al. (2004) argue that positive and negative emotions have been grouped together and oversimplified, which makes distinguishing them difficult. The studies found that specificity operates through an emotion-matching process. Whilst the study did not touch on disgust specifically, it found that persuasion about a situation increased when a person's current emotional state matched the emotional framing of a message. The broader emotion-specificity principle suggests a comparable mechanism that may apply to disgust.    

Older discourse has allowed for all emotions to be pushed into one category, but not all emotions push judgement in the same direction.      

Emotional appraisal patterns are the specific mental evaluations that an individual's brain makes about an event to determine how they feel about a situation.  

INSERT TABLE HERE W/ EVIDENCE  

=== Integral versus incidental emotion distinction ===
Research by Feigenson (2016) discusses the overall idea that juror emotions can affect judge responsibility, blame, guilt, punishment and damages. INSERT SOURCE ON WHY THIS IS A FOCUS. 

The core idea of the article follows the influence of integral and incidental emotions. Integral emotions are supposed to be caused by features of a particular case. Incidental emotions are emotions that arise, unrelated to the case. This foundational research posists that emotions may influence legal judgements through multiple different pathways. 

Within the research Feigenson (2016) theorises the emotional effects on information processing. It reveals that different emotions can effect how deeply a juror processes emotions. Anger is generally associated with more certainity about the evidence which leads to individuals being less likely to process information as they are confident they already know enough to address the task (Feigenson, 2016). Other emotions, for example anxiety, are generally associated with more uncertaintity which leads to more systematic information processing (Feigenson, 2016). Saddened by emotional testimony, mock jurors in a criminal reckless driving case were able to identify inconsistencies more precisely, which is a sign of systematic information processing (Semmler &amp; Brewer, 2002). 

The emotion-congruency effect is a process that casues a person to judge based in the direction of the emotion they are feeling. Although Feigenson (2016) does not explicitly research how disgust is influenced by emotion there is other empirical research that researches the impact of disgust on these emotional information processing pathways. 

Rather than claiming that the research should be generalised to consider disgust, it should be considered that further research needs to be conducted to understand the role of moral disgust in a courtroom. This leaves open whether moral disgust causes jurors to be more certain or uncertain about information in the courtroom. 

*
* these effects may over or under estimate the influence on cases
* this article does not beleif that moral intuitionism provides strong evidence that emotions have a greater influence on real legal decisions.
* the effects on information processing
** different emotions can affect how deeply people process information.
** this ties back to Rozin and Giner and Sorella (double check this)
** anger is generally associated with more certainty which means that people are less likely to carefully process information
*** they rely on more heuristic cues and consider fewer factors
** anxiety is generally considered with more uncertainty
** leads to more systematic information processing
** mock jurors who became sad from emotional testimony were better at identfying inconsistencies in testimonies that neutral participants
* directional processing
* emotions can cause a person to interpret information in the direction similar to the emotion
** called the emotion-congruency effect (look into this because the source only gave anger, need disgust related information)
* informational effects: people can treat their emotions as information about a thing they are judging (called the affect-as-information model)
** people can often mistakenly attribute their current emotional state to the target of their judgement
** in legal judgements research has examined how integral emotions can act as information when judging responsiblity and blame
** severity of harm: more serious injuries caused participants to feel more sympathy for the victim and blame the defendant more
** hypocritical offenders:a hypocritical offender produced greater anger
* different emotional effects can happen at the same time: one emotion can influence how information is processed while also influencing the direction of the judgement
* multiple emotions can occur: jurors may experience different emotions toward different people in the same case. multiple emotions such as anger and disgust can interact
* it is important to identify the different emotional pathways because:
** different pathways can produce different outcomes
** it helps understand the relationships between emotion, cognition and judgement
* how strong are emotional effects 
** meta analysis have found an effect of emottions on legal responsibility judgements
** this means that emotions do matter but other factors also play a role in explaining legal judgements
** lab studies may produce weaker emotions than real trials
* moral intuitionism: this argues that peoples immediate emotional reactions to morally relevant situations play a very important role in their judgements 
** jurors have the opportunity to override or reconsider their intial reactions through conscious reasoning, reframing a situation or talking to other people. this means that emotions don't necessarily dominate legal judgements.

=== Evidence ===
Research by Ghelfi et al, (2020) suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes. Studies that have been conducted previously found that inducing physical disgust could lead to harsher moral judgements. This was then replicated across 11 different laboratories to test whether bitter beverages led to harsher moral judgements than sweet beverages or water. Ghelfi (2020) research discusses to impacts of different sensory systems on the impact of moral judgements. 
* Ghelfi et al (2020)
* research suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes
* previous studies have found that inducing physical disgust (bad smells or bitter tastes) could lead to harsher moral judgements
* replicated across 11 studies
* it tested
** whether a bitter beverage leads to harsher moral judgements than a sweet beverage or water
** whether the effect is stronger among politically conservative participants than liberal participants
* used a 3x3 between-subjects design
** beverage: bitter, sweet or neutral
** political orientation: conservative, liberal or other
* 1,137 participants
* drank beverage and then rated 6 moral vignettes on how wrong they believed the behaviour to be
* participants also rated how bitter, sweet, neutral or disgusting they found the beverage to be.
* bitter vs sweet effect was negligible same with the bitter vs neutral
* effects sizes were significantly smaller than the original study

* original Eskine et al (2011) study:
** bitter, sweet or neutral beverage before reading six moral scenarios 
** those who drank a bitter beverage judged actions more harshly than those who drank sweet or neutral 
** the study found that those who were more politically conservative were more affected by the bitter taste than liberal participants. 
** there were originally 57 participants which found a large statistically significant effect
** a replication study was considered important because of the large effects and small sample
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639:

* moralisation hypothesis 
** disgust makes something that is normally morally neutral seem morally wrong
** the manipulation worked in the experiment 
** participants were either shown disgusting or neutral pictures 
** disgust group: M=3.01
** control group: M= 0.25
** significant results (p&lt;.001)
** the researchers successfully made people feel more disgust with pictures 
** but this did not turn morally neutral actions into morally wrong actions 
** the moralisation hypothesis was not true 
* amplification hypothesis
** disgust only makes things that already morally wrong seem even worse 
** experiment used disgusting videos and neutral videos 
** the amplification hypothesis was also not supported


For the table: 

Eskine et al (2011): bitter vs neutral: ''d''=1.09 AND bitter vs sweet: ''d''=1.22 

Ghelfi E, Christopherson CD, Urry HL, et al. Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011). ''Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science''. 2020;3(1):3-23. doi:10.1177/2515245919881152: 

2nd column: average moral wrongness
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|-
|Bitter
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''70.65'''
|-
|Neutral/control
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''68.94'''
|-
|Sweet
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''71.29'''
|}
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639&lt;/nowiki&gt;


jurors emotions and legal judgements: Feigenson, N. (2016). Jurors’ Emotions and Judgments of Legal Responsibility and Blame: What Does the Experimental Research Tell Us? ''Emotion Review'', ''8''(1), 26–31. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601223&lt;/nowiki&gt;

**

== Moderating Factors ==

* private body consciousness 
** people who are more prone to experience their private bodily sensations show stronger disgust-driven bias 
*** An experiment conducted by Schnall et al. (2008) revealed that people who were more aware of their Private Body Consciousness (PBC) were more prone to feelings of disgust and expressing these feelings outwards to the situation at hand. 
* type of violation 
** purity vs harm

== Practical Implications ==

* evidentiary admissibility 
** courts allow for the admission of gruesome photographic evidence but findings suggest this may be wrong 
*** research shows that people view crimes harsher if exposed to gruesome photos 
*** Additionally, Bright &amp; Goodman-Delahunty's (2006) research discusses a person's use of their inner emotional states as a way to reason with information they are being given.
*** In their affective influences model, affect is a judgement-simplifying heuristic device. People generally consult their affective state, meaning they consult their inner emotion to infer a judgement before looking at the facts. 
* jury selection
* how evidence is presented 

==Figures==
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The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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==Conclusion==
* What does this mean going further {{vague}}
* What would future research benefit from in this specific section?
*Moral disgust does not come with jurors' judgements, but rather it can measurably shift guilt, certainty, blame attribution and punishment severity.
*This may be stronger for certain people; it cannot just be a blanket claim for all jurors. 
*The idea that jurors decide on the basis of facts alone is not psychologically sustainable. The practice of law {{ic|The practice of law goes beyond the target topic}} needs to consider this, rather than seeing emotions as a bias. 
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Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)

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==References==
&lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1=&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D. (2000). Culpable Control and the Psychology of Blame. ''Psychological Bulletin'', ''126''(4), 556–574. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.4.556&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D., &amp; Weigel, S. H. (2021). The reasonable person standard: Psychological and legal perspectives. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17(1), 123–138.

Bornewasser, M., &amp; Bober, J. (1987). Individual, social group and intergroup behaviour. Some conceptual remarks on the social identity theory. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(3), 267–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1002/ejsp.2420170303

Bright, D. A., &amp; Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: Anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y

Chapman, H. A., &amp; Anderson, A. K. (2012). Understanding disgust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06369.x 

DeSteno, D., Petty, R. E., Rucker, D. D., Wegener, D. T., &amp; Braverman, J. (2004). Discrete emotions and persuasion: The role of emotion-induced expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.43

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550

Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt; 

Fishbein, M., &amp; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Heider, F. (2020). ''The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations'' (F. Heider, Ed.). Barakaldo Books.

Lacey, N. (2023). Patrick Devlin, The enforcement of morals (1965). In [Book title] (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193982-5

Russell, P. S., &amp; Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 328–351. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1037/a0029319

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., &amp; Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

Tajfel, H., &amp; Turner, J. (2000). An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict. In M. J. Hatch &amp; M. Schultz (Eds.), ''Organizational Identity'' (pp. 56–65). Oxford University Press. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199269464.003.0005&lt;/nowiki&gt;

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==External links==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|external links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TmKo75gJI How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral Wrong &amp; the Political Right] (David Pizzaro)

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[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Morality]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Legal]]</text>
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      <text bytes="39851" sha1="pwib2309c3o9dza9ntz4kwtd1ttfsqx" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Moral disgust and jury decision-making: How does moral disgust impact jurors' judgements of guilt, blame, and punishment?}}
__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png | thumb | right | 250px |'''Figure 1'''. A jury is a group of sworn individuals who determine a defendant's guilt. ]]

Consider sitting on a jury. The defendant appears composed, well-dressed, and speaks clearly. Someone like this couldn't have done anything bad — that's your instinct.

Then you hear the charge: embezzlement. Over three years, they quietly transferred company funds to a personal account. Thousands of dollars were spent, and real people were harmed. You are angry. It's wrong. However, it does not make you feel sick.

Consider the same composed defendant in the same courtroom, but this time the charge is posing as a charity volunteer to gain the trust of dying hospice patients before stealing the donations intended for their care. The financial loss is the same as the embezzlement case. Same amount, same number of victims.

But something else arises in you. Not just anger, but more of a revulsion, as if something was contaminated. This doesn't simply feel like a crime. It has an unclean feeling to it.

The same defendant. Same harm. So, why does one case make you feel cold and angry, while the other makes your skin crawl? And, aside from the actual harm done, could that visceral reaction be influencing how harshly you believe they should be punished?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

It is the law that [https://www.monash.edu/law/news-and-events/news/2020/juries-why-do-we-actually-need-them-and-can-they-get-it-wrong jurors] {{ic|The law varies by jurisdiction; write for an international audience; Australians represent ~.3% of the world human population}} {{ic|Move external links to the External links section}} must base their verdicts on the facts of a case {{citation needed}}. But moral disgust, an emotional gut reaction, seems to influence how jurors assess guilt, blame and punishment, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented {{citation needed}}. A disgusted juror might unconsciously become more certain of guilt, assign more blame and suggest harsher punishment, regardless of what the facts actually establish. If disgust always biases judgements and sentences in one direction or the other, no matter how strong a case is, the implications are profound: wrongful convictions, disproportionate sentencing, and differences in the punishment of similar crimes depending on how “disgusting” the evidence seems, rather than the true seriousness of the crime {{long}}. It also raises questions for current legal practices: courts commonly admit gruesome evidence under the assumption that its evidentiary value outweighs its emotional impact, an assumption this body of research directly undermines {{citation needed}}. Psychological science provides the legal system with something it cannot produce itself: controlled empirical evidence about the nature and causes of this bias {{citation needed}}. It shows not only that jurors appear to be affected by emotion but also the processes (appraisal patterns, purity vs. harm, violations, and individual differences such as private body consciousness) that determine when and for whom the effect is strongest {{citation needed}}. 

This template provides key headings, examples, and tips for each section. Gradually remove this generic information as the chapter develops. It is OK to retain some of the template material for the topic development, but it should all be removed for the final book chapter.

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{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

*If disgust can make moral judgements more severe, even when it’s incidental to the act being judged, what does that say about the reliability of human moral reasoning?
*Can moral disgust be used by the legal system? {{ic|Use open-ended questions}}
*How might a juror's own sensitivity to physiological sensations of disgust impact how vulnerable they are to disgust-driven bias?
*How can psychological theories be used to mitigate risks of bias in the legal system?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is moral disgust? ==
{{ic|Include at least an introductory paragraph before branching into sub-headings}}

=== Disgust ===
[[w:Disgust|Disgust]] is one of the six universal emotions that humans experience and can be visually recognised on a person's face {{citation needed}}. The emotion of disgust is theorised to have originated from a biological protective mechanism to protect an organism from harm that may be brought on by food or poison {{citation needed}}. Disgust has evolved to become an emotion/behaviour directed at anything that may potentially cause harm or disease. For example, 

* body products 
* animals 
* hygiene 
* body violations, death or disease {{citation needed}}

Paul Ekman proposed six basic emotions in his literature based on the theories that these emotions, across research all over the world, concluded in agreement on six emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Therefore, he proposed that the universality of these findings and the facial expression alone could conclude that there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992).

=== Moral disgust ===
Moral disgust refers to the emotional response a person feels when their social or cultural norms are transgressed, therefore resulting in a reaction {{citation needed}}. Moral disgust is complex, and there is varying evidence for and against its genuine purpose as an emotion. Researchers argue that moral disgust is a metaphorical extension of physical disgust; shared facial expression, language, etc {{citation needed}}. Other researchers argue that it's functionally unique to traditional, physical disgust {{citation needed}}. It does not reliably trigger the same physiological processes: facial muscle activation, nausea, etc. (Chapman et al., 2012). 

Moral disgust is triggered by acts that are supposedly a violation of an individual's perceived purity or dignity {{citation needed}}. For example, betraying someone's trust (cheating on a partner) or exploiting a vulnerable person (as mentioned in the scenario at the start). 

Rozin et al. (1999) proposed a theory that moral disgust specifically clusters around violations of a person's divinity or purity. This is different from anger, which generally clusters around autonomy violations, also opposed to contempt, which clusters around community violations. 

This distinction is vital when discussing emotion for jurors. If moral disgust behaves differently from physical disgust, it may influence judgement in the courtroom through a different pathway than a simple reaction to physically disgusting evidence. 

Russell &amp; {{ic|Use APA style for citations}} Giner-Sorolla (2013) discuss four competing arguments of disgust's role in moral condemnation. Firstly, the most flexible view of moral disgust that can be applied widely for many crimes is the general morality position. It claims that disgust is an all-purpose emotion which is seen through different kinds of moral disapproval, not just a narrow category. Secondly, disgust as a violation of bodily and spiritual purity is more specific. As mentioned prior, this claim is supported by Rozin's CAD (contempt, anger, disgust) triad. The third argument proposes that moral disgust is only a metaphor. The true emotion being experienced is anger, and individuals just use language as a metaphor (e.g., &quot;that's disgusting&quot;) for how condemning they feel. Finally, Russell &amp; Ginger-Sorolla's own claim for moral disgust is a middle ground for all the arguments in their research. Regardless of whether harm or justice is involved, they contend that disgust specifically tracks violations pertaining to the body and its products. Anger tends to co-occur with violations that are specifically related to justice, harm, or rights. This disgust behaves more like anger wearing the vocabulary of disgust than it does like bodily moral disgust.  

One study involved 148 participants ranking their emotions on a scale {{citation needed}}. It was found that moral disgust elicited as much as physical disgust did, which supports a claim that moral disgust is not a watered-down, metaphorical use of the feeling but a genuine, physical feeling of disgust. It was also revealed that moral disgust uniquely triggered a significantly higher feeling of mental contamination (feeling immoral) than core disgust did. This reveals an internalised feeling about your own moral state just from witnessing an immoral act, which ties back to Russell &amp; Giner-Sorolla's bodily-violation pattern and strengthens Rozin et al.'s (1999) definition of moral disgust. This empirical study is evidence that core disgust attaches to bodily violations, not non-bodily violations.    

If people respond to contact with an immoral person in a psychologically contaminating way — wanting distance, feeling “dirtied” by proximity — then a question arises about whether jurors exposed to a defendant’s morally disgusting conduct might respond in a similar contamination mode, thus influencing their desire to symbolically “cleanse” the situation via a harsher verdict or sentence.    

 &lt;quiz display=&quot;simple&quot;&gt;

{According to Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013), which of the following is NOT one of the arguments presented regarding the role of disgust in moral condemnation? :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- General Morality Position
- Bodily and Spirituality Position
- Metaphorical Position
+Universal Justice Position


&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Psychological science in the legal system ==
Several psychological theories can help explain why a visceral reaction like moral disgust might influence jurors' decisions. Social identity theory explains how jurors categorise defendants, dual process theory explains how fast intuitive responses to emotions and slower deliberate reasoning interact, and attribution theory and the culpable control model explain how people assign blame. The emotional reaction often comes first, and the reasoning that follows may support it. This section describes each theory and discusses how it explains moral disgust for jurors. 

=== Social identity theory ===
Classic [[w:Social_identity_theory|social identity theory]] posits that groups and whole organisations that possess the same cultural and social norms will perceive themselves as sharing something in common (Tajfel &amp; Turner, 2000). This adds to their own personal self-concept as an individual and as a member of a society/societies. Bronewasser &amp; Bober (1987) critique that this theory describes a class or collective of people (people who may share traits but have no real interdependence) but not a genuine societal group. Groups depend on structure, roles, positions and relationships that require dependence from people. 

Through this theory, a jury is considered to be a genuine structured group. There are roles, a task and an interdependence through deliberation. This theory may offer a further point on why moral disgust can bias jurors. Moral disgust may be a function of a social categorisation cue, marking defendants as the out-group rather than in the jury's moral in-group. Bronewasser &amp; Bober claim that even arbitary group labels are enough to produce an in-group favouritism and out-group favouritism. If a defendants act triggers moral disgust, this may mark them as being in the moral &quot;outgroup&quot; in a jurors' mind. Independent of the actual evidence being presented, this compounds moral disgust biases. 

=== Dual-process theory ===
The [[w:Dual_process_theory_(moral_psychology)|dual-process theory]] argues that the main types of thinking can be separated into two distinct types (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). Type 1 processing involves autonomous processing that is often responsible for producing intuitive responses without the need for working memory. Type 2 is often more reflective and involves more explicit cognitive processes alongside working memory. A key feature of Type 2 processing is cognitive decoupling and mental simulation. Cognitive decoupling is an ability to separate what you are assuming from what you believe to be true, and mental simulation involves creating hypothetical scenarios and outcomes within your mind (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). 

Type 1 processes of thinking can be assumed to rely heavily on predetermined values and morals which a juror will rarely think over before making a decision. It is thus assumed that Type 2 processing allows for a more deliberate consideration system when accounting for consequences and outcomes. This does not, however, guarantee better judgement to use when making heavily implicating decisions. This is due to Type 2, allowing people to consider consequences and situations before making a decision (Evans and Stanovich, 2013).  

Supporting evidence suggests that disgust is a Type 1 output, automatic and arriving before deliberate reasoning can take place. Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013) describe moral disgust as an unreasoned emotion that involves a process of quickly cleansing oneself of the impurity they associate with that emotion. Additionally, Feigenson's (2016) findings show that different emotions elicit different processing capabilities (anger is different from anxiety). This is supporting evidence for how much Type 2 information processing is engaged for jurors. Feigenson (2016) also notes that jurors may have the ability to override their initial reactions through discussion and reasoning.   

Hypothetically, if the presence of disgust within courts were to be removed, people would be less inclined to make cognitive shortcuts (by relying on their Type 1 system) and thoroughly process emotions before making decisions, utilising their Type 2 system. 

=== Attribution theory and culpable control model ===
According to Heider's (1958) [[w:Attribution_(psychology)|attribution theory]], individuals naturally evaluate behaviour by balancing personal casuality against situational causality to determine intentionality.In a legal setting, jurors have the expectation that they will objectively weight these factors, fairly and decide a defendants guilt and blame. However, cases that evoke intense disgust can interrput the rational assessment that jurors are expected to undertake. Instead of evaluating control before assigning blame, the process that Heider's (1958) theory outlines, jurors often invert this sequence through a phenomena introduced by Alicke (2000).  

The core idea for the Culpable Control Model (CCM) is an explanation ofr how people make judgements about blame and responsibility. Alicke (2000) argues that judgement is not always subjective as blame does not solely rely on evidence about a persons actions and control over the action, but also on individuals emotions, values and assumptions. The assumption of the CCM is that people form a blame judgement first, based on actions and then interpret the evidence on how it is supported second (Alicke, 2000). The main mechanism of this theory is that evidence isn't evaluated and blame placed. Emotional reactions, values, assumptions and expectations of people as humans can heavily shape how evidence is interpreted in the first place (Alicke, 2000). If people search for evidence to support an assumption based on their emotions, based on Alicke's (2000) claim, disgust would act in the same way.  

According to CCM, processing for a juror operates firstly with spontaneous evaluation, then blame motive then retroactive rationalisation. Disgust influences juror processing through distinct mechanisms. Altered evidentiary standards is the impact of disgust lowering the threshold of proof required for conviction. Thus leading to a biased information search. Jurors will selectively focus on specific details that support their emotion. Finally, dehumanisation occurs. The disgust that a juror is feeling triggers the evolutionary avoidance. Disgust in the form of a social pathogen means that a juror will be unsympathtic towards a defendant, regardless of arguments that explain their actions.   
== Disgust as a Legally Relevant Emotion (getting rid of this) ==

=== Arguments For ===

* Patrick Devlin's belief that we should allow some degree of the shared morality view of society through emotions {{citation needed}}
** Within society, when crimes are viewed as &quot;disgusting&quot; or cause widespread intolerance, there is an importance to the intervention of the legal system (Lacey, 2023). 
* Informing the &quot;Reasonable Person&quot; Standard 
** This is a theory that jurors will judge acts (particularly those involving negligence or abuse) based on what they believe they would have done in that situation. Or more accurately to the theory, what would a reasonably prudent person (RPP) have done (Alicke &amp; Weigel, 2021)? 

=== Arguments Against ===

* [[wikipedia:Harm_principle|harm principle limitation]] 
** Developed by John Stuart Mills, the harm principle limitation states the following: 
** &quot;The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.&quot; [[wikisource:On_Liberty/Chapter_1|(Mill, 1869).]] 
** This principle bars people within the legal system from criminalising an action because it makes most people feel moral disgust. 
* a tool for discrimination
** Historically, moral disgust has been a tool against those being charged with crimes of homosexuality and interracial marriages. 

== Moral disgust and juror judgements ==
A jury is a group of 12 individuals that are carefully chosen to determine the guilt of an offender{{fact}} {{ic|Don't juries vary in size, depending on the juridstiction?}}. They are picked to be impartial, unbiased opinions that can aid in the determining of a person's guilt. Jurors are asked to make judgements based on the evidence presented to them in court. However, emotions play a large, unsuspecting role in determining the guilt of a person. Such is the reason why, in high-stakes cases, jurors are not allowed contact with the outside world or media during trials. Moral disgust in particular seems to have a large impact on the way that jurors perceive and shape jurors' judgements. Different emotions elicit different reactions based on the emotion and a person's appraisal patterns.{{fact}}

=== Emotional response patterns ===
Fishbein &amp; Ajzen's (1975) [[w:Expectancy-value_theory|expectancy-value model]] states that a person's given attitude towards an object is a direct function of the value that a person attaches to that object's attributes or outcomes. In explicit terms, a person's value on an object will be a direct function of the value that they place on said item and the positive or negative emotions they associate with it. Furthermore, the positive or negative characteristics that they associate with the object will be a weighted decision on the direct outcome that may occur due to the object.   

In a review of the role of emotion-induced expectancies, Desteno et al. (2004) argue that positive and negative emotions have been grouped together and oversimplified, which makes distinguishing them difficult. The studies found that specificity operates through an emotion-matching process. Whilst the study did not touch on disgust specifically, it found that persuasion about a situation increased when a person's current emotional state matched the emotional framing of a message. The broader emotion-specificity principle suggests a comparable mechanism that may apply to disgust.    

Older discourse has allowed for all emotions to be pushed into one category, but not all emotions push judgement in the same direction.      

Emotional appraisal patterns are the specific mental evaluations that an individual's brain makes about an event to determine how they feel about a situation.  

INSERT TABLE HERE W/ EVIDENCE  

=== Integral versus incidental emotion distinction ===
Research by Feigenson (2016) discusses the overall idea that juror emotions can affect judge responsibility, blame, guilt, punishment and damages. INSERT SOURCE ON WHY THIS IS A FOCUS. 

The core idea of the article follows the influence of integral and incidental emotions. Integral emotions are supposed to be caused by features of a particular case. Incidental emotions are emotions that arise, unrelated to the case. This foundational research posists that emotions may influence legal judgements through multiple different pathways. 

Within the research Feigenson (2016) theorises the emotional effects on information processing. It reveals that different emotions can effect how deeply a juror processes emotions. Anger is generally associated with more certainity about the evidence which leads to individuals being less likely to process information as they are confident they already know enough to address the task (Feigenson, 2016). Other emotions, for example anxiety, are generally associated with more uncertaintity which leads to more systematic information processing (Feigenson, 2016). Saddened by emotional testimony, mock jurors in a criminal reckless driving case were able to identify inconsistencies more precisely, which is a sign of systematic information processing (Semmler &amp; Brewer, 2002). 

The emotion-congruency effect is a process that casues a person to judge based in the direction of the emotion they are feeling. Although Feigenson (2016) does not explicitly research how disgust is influenced by emotion there is other empirical research that researches the impact of disgust on these emotional information processing pathways. 

Rather than claiming that the research should be generalised to consider disgust, it should be considered that further research needs to be conducted to understand the role of moral disgust in a courtroom. This leaves open whether moral disgust causes jurors to be more certain or uncertain about information in the courtroom. 

*
* these effects may over or under estimate the influence on cases
* this article does not beleif that moral intuitionism provides strong evidence that emotions have a greater influence on real legal decisions.
* the effects on information processing
** different emotions can affect how deeply people process information.
** this ties back to Rozin and Giner and Sorella (double check this)
** anger is generally associated with more certainty which means that people are less likely to carefully process information
*** they rely on more heuristic cues and consider fewer factors
** anxiety is generally considered with more uncertainty
** leads to more systematic information processing
** mock jurors who became sad from emotional testimony were better at identfying inconsistencies in testimonies that neutral participants
* directional processing
* emotions can cause a person to interpret information in the direction similar to the emotion
** called the emotion-congruency effect (look into this because the source only gave anger, need disgust related information)
* informational effects: people can treat their emotions as information about a thing they are judging (called the affect-as-information model)
** people can often mistakenly attribute their current emotional state to the target of their judgement
** in legal judgements research has examined how integral emotions can act as information when judging responsiblity and blame
** severity of harm: more serious injuries caused participants to feel more sympathy for the victim and blame the defendant more
** hypocritical offenders:a hypocritical offender produced greater anger
* different emotional effects can happen at the same time: one emotion can influence how information is processed while also influencing the direction of the judgement
* multiple emotions can occur: jurors may experience different emotions toward different people in the same case. multiple emotions such as anger and disgust can interact
* it is important to identify the different emotional pathways because:
** different pathways can produce different outcomes
** it helps understand the relationships between emotion, cognition and judgement
* how strong are emotional effects 
** meta analysis have found an effect of emottions on legal responsibility judgements
** this means that emotions do matter but other factors also play a role in explaining legal judgements
** lab studies may produce weaker emotions than real trials
* moral intuitionism: this argues that peoples immediate emotional reactions to morally relevant situations play a very important role in their judgements 
** jurors have the opportunity to override or reconsider their intial reactions through conscious reasoning, reframing a situation or talking to other people. this means that emotions don't necessarily dominate legal judgements.

=== Evidence ===
Research by Ghelfi et al, (2020) suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes. Studies that have been conducted previously found that inducing physical disgust could lead to harsher moral judgements. This was then replicated across 11 different laboratories to test whether bitter beverages led to harsher moral judgements than sweet beverages or water. Ghelfi (2020) research discusses to impacts of different sensory systems on the impact of moral judgements. 
* Ghelfi et al (2020)
* research suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes
* previous studies have found that inducing physical disgust (bad smells or bitter tastes) could lead to harsher moral judgements
* replicated across 11 studies
* it tested
** whether a bitter beverage leads to harsher moral judgements than a sweet beverage or water
** whether the effect is stronger among politically conservative participants than liberal participants
* used a 3x3 between-subjects design
** beverage: bitter, sweet or neutral
** political orientation: conservative, liberal or other
* 1,137 participants
* drank beverage and then rated 6 moral vignettes on how wrong they believed the behaviour to be
* participants also rated how bitter, sweet, neutral or disgusting they found the beverage to be.
* bitter vs sweet effect was negligible same with the bitter vs neutral
* effects sizes were significantly smaller than the original study

* original Eskine et al (2011) study:
** bitter, sweet or neutral beverage before reading six moral scenarios 
** those who drank a bitter beverage judged actions more harshly than those who drank sweet or neutral 
** the study found that those who were more politically conservative were more affected by the bitter taste than liberal participants. 
** there were originally 57 participants which found a large statistically significant effect
** a replication study was considered important because of the large effects and small sample
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639:

* moralisation hypothesis 
** disgust makes something that is normally morally neutral seem morally wrong
** the manipulation worked in the experiment 
** participants were either shown disgusting or neutral pictures 
** disgust group: M=3.01
** control group: M= 0.25
** significant results (p&lt;.001)
** the researchers successfully made people feel more disgust with pictures 
** but this did not turn morally neutral actions into morally wrong actions 
** the moralisation hypothesis was not true 
* amplification hypothesis
** disgust only makes things that already morally wrong seem even worse 
** experiment used disgusting videos and neutral videos 
** the amplification hypothesis was also not supported


For the table: 

Eskine et al (2011): bitter vs neutral: ''d''=1.09 AND bitter vs sweet: ''d''=1.22 

Ghelfi E, Christopherson CD, Urry HL, et al. Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011). ''Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science''. 2020;3(1):3-23. doi:10.1177/2515245919881152: 

2nd column: average moral wrongness
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|-
|Bitter
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''70.65'''
|-
|Neutral/control
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''68.94'''
|-
|Sweet
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''71.29'''
|}
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639&lt;/nowiki&gt;


jurors emotions and legal judgements: Feigenson, N. (2016). Jurors’ Emotions and Judgments of Legal Responsibility and Blame: What Does the Experimental Research Tell Us? ''Emotion Review'', ''8''(1), 26–31. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601223&lt;/nowiki&gt;

**

== Moderating Factors ==

* private body consciousness 
** people who are more prone to experience their private bodily sensations show stronger disgust-driven bias 
*** An experiment conducted by Schnall et al. (2008) revealed that people who were more aware of their Private Body Consciousness (PBC) were more prone to feelings of disgust and expressing these feelings outwards to the situation at hand. 
* type of violation 
** purity vs harm

== Practical Implications ==

* evidentiary admissibility 
** courts allow for the admission of gruesome photographic evidence but findings suggest this may be wrong 
*** research shows that people view crimes harsher if exposed to gruesome photos 
*** Additionally, Bright &amp; Goodman-Delahunty's (2006) research discusses a person's use of their inner emotional states as a way to reason with information they are being given.
*** In their affective influences model, affect is a judgement-simplifying heuristic device. People generally consult their affective state, meaning they consult their inner emotion to infer a judgement before looking at the facts. 
* jury selection
* how evidence is presented 

==Figures==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]

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A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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==Conclusion==
* What does this mean going further {{vague}}
* What would future research benefit from in this specific section?
*Moral disgust does not come with jurors' judgements, but rather it can measurably shift guilt, certainty, blame attribution and punishment severity.
*This may be stronger for certain people; it cannot just be a blanket claim for all jurors. 
*The idea that jurors decide on the basis of facts alone is not psychologically sustainable. The practice of law {{ic|The practice of law goes beyond the target topic}} needs to consider this, rather than seeing emotions as a bias. 
* The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
* Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing it
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Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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==References==
&lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1=&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D. (2000). Culpable Control and the Psychology of Blame. ''Psychological Bulletin'', ''126''(4), 556–574. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.4.556&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D., &amp; Weigel, S. H. (2021). The reasonable person standard: Psychological and legal perspectives. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17(1), 123–138.

Bornewasser, M., &amp; Bober, J. (1987). Individual, social group and intergroup behaviour. Some conceptual remarks on the social identity theory. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(3), 267–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1002/ejsp.2420170303

Bright, D. A., &amp; Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: Anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y

Chapman, H. A., &amp; Anderson, A. K. (2012). Understanding disgust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06369.x 

DeSteno, D., Petty, R. E., Rucker, D. D., Wegener, D. T., &amp; Braverman, J. (2004). Discrete emotions and persuasion: The role of emotion-induced expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.43

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550

Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt; 

Fishbein, M., &amp; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Heider, F. (2020). ''The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations'' (F. Heider, Ed.). Barakaldo Books.

Lacey, N. (2023). Patrick Devlin, The enforcement of morals (1965). In [Book title] (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193982-5

Russell, P. S., &amp; Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 328–351. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1037/a0029319

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., &amp; Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

Tajfel, H., &amp; Turner, J. (2000). An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict. In M. J. Hatch &amp; M. Schultz (Eds.), ''Organizational Identity'' (pp. 56–65). Oxford University Press. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199269464.003.0005&lt;/nowiki&gt;

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* Important aspects of APA referencing style
** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces
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==External links==
Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|external links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TmKo75gJI How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral Wrong &amp; the Political Right] (David Pizzaro)

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[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Disgust]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Morality]]
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__TOC__

==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Trial by Jury - Chaos in the Courtroom.png | thumb | right | 250px |'''Figure 1'''. A jury is a group of sworn individuals who determine a defendant's guilt. ]]

Consider sitting on a jury. The defendant appears composed, well-dressed, and speaks clearly. Someone like this couldn't have done anything bad — that's your instinct.

Then you hear the charge: embezzlement. Over three years, they quietly transferred company funds to a personal account. Thousands of dollars were spent, and real people were harmed. You are angry. It's wrong. However, it does not make you feel sick.

Consider the same composed defendant in the same courtroom, but this time the charge is posing as a charity volunteer to gain the trust of dying hospice patients before stealing the donations intended for their care. The financial loss is the same as the embezzlement case. Same amount, same number of victims.

But something else arises in you. Not just anger, but more of a revulsion, as if something was contaminated. This doesn't simply feel like a crime. It has an unclean feeling to it.

The same defendant. Same harm. So, why does one case make you feel cold and angry, while the other makes your skin crawl? And, aside from the actual harm done, could that visceral reaction be influencing how harshly you believe they should be punished?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

It is the law that [https://www.monash.edu/law/news-and-events/news/2020/juries-why-do-we-actually-need-them-and-can-they-get-it-wrong jurors] {{ic|The law varies by jurisdiction; write for an international audience; Australians represent ~.3% of the world human population}} {{ic|Move external links to the External links section}} must base their verdicts on the facts of a case {{citation needed}}. But moral disgust, an emotional gut reaction, seems to influence how jurors assess guilt, blame and punishment, regardless of the strength of the evidence presented {{citation needed}}. A disgusted juror might unconsciously become more certain of guilt, assign more blame and suggest harsher punishment, regardless of what the facts actually establish. If disgust always biases judgements and sentences in one direction or the other, no matter how strong a case is, the implications are profound: wrongful convictions, disproportionate sentencing, and differences in the punishment of similar crimes depending on how “disgusting” the evidence seems, rather than the true seriousness of the crime {{long}}. It also raises questions for current legal practices: courts commonly admit gruesome evidence under the assumption that its evidentiary value outweighs its emotional impact, an assumption this body of research directly undermines {{citation needed}}. Psychological science provides the legal system with something it cannot produce itself: controlled empirical evidence about the nature and causes of this bias {{citation needed}}. It shows not only that jurors appear to be affected by emotion but also the processes (appraisal patterns, purity vs. harm, violations, and individual differences such as private body consciousness) that determine when and for whom the effect is strongest {{citation needed}}. 

This template provides key headings, examples, and tips for each section. Gradually remove this generic information as the chapter develops. It is OK to retain some of the template material for the topic development, but it should all be removed for the final book chapter.

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{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

*If disgust can make moral judgements more severe, even when it’s incidental to the act being judged, what does that say about the reliability of human moral reasoning?
*Can moral disgust be used by the legal system? {{ic|Use open-ended questions}}
*How might a juror's own sensitivity to physiological sensations of disgust impact how vulnerable they are to disgust-driven bias?
*How can psychological theories be used to mitigate risks of bias in the legal system?

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is moral disgust? ==
{{ic|Include at least an introductory paragraph before branching into sub-headings}}

=== Disgust ===
[[w:Disgust|Disgust]] is one of the six universal emotions that humans experience and can be visually recognised on a person's face {{citation needed}}. The emotion of disgust is theorised to have originated from a biological protective mechanism to protect an organism from harm that may be brought on by food or poison {{citation needed}}. Disgust has evolved to become an emotion/behaviour directed at anything that may potentially cause harm or disease. For example, 

* body products 
* animals 
* hygiene 
* body violations, death or disease {{citation needed}}

Paul Ekman proposed six basic emotions in his literature based on the theories that these emotions, across research all over the world, concluded in agreement on six emotions: happiness, surprise, fear, anger, sadness and disgust. Therefore, he proposed that the universality of these findings and the facial expression alone could conclude that there are 6 basic emotions (Ekman, 1992).

=== Moral disgust ===
Moral disgust refers to the emotional response a person feels when their social or cultural norms are transgressed, therefore resulting in a reaction {{citation needed}}. Moral disgust is complex, and there is varying evidence for and against its genuine purpose as an emotion. Researchers argue that moral disgust is a metaphorical extension of physical disgust; shared facial expression, language, etc {{citation needed}}. Other researchers argue that it's functionally unique to traditional, physical disgust {{citation needed}}. It does not reliably trigger the same physiological processes: facial muscle activation, nausea, etc. (Chapman et al., 2012). 

Moral disgust is triggered by acts that are supposedly a violation of an individual's perceived purity or dignity {{citation needed}}. For example, betraying someone's trust (cheating on a partner) or exploiting a vulnerable person (as mentioned in the scenario at the start). 

Rozin et al. (1999) proposed a theory that moral disgust specifically clusters around violations of a person's divinity or purity. This is different from anger, which generally clusters around autonomy violations, also opposed to contempt, which clusters around community violations. 

This distinction is vital when discussing emotion for jurors. If moral disgust behaves differently from physical disgust, it may influence judgement in the courtroom through a different pathway than a simple reaction to physically disgusting evidence. 

Russell &amp; {{ic|Use APA style for citations}} Giner-Sorolla (2013) discuss four competing arguments of disgust's role in moral condemnation. Firstly, the most flexible view of moral disgust that can be applied widely for many crimes is the general morality position. It claims that disgust is an all-purpose emotion which is seen through different kinds of moral disapproval, not just a narrow category. Secondly, disgust as a violation of bodily and spiritual purity is more specific. As mentioned prior, this claim is supported by Rozin's CAD (contempt, anger, disgust) triad. The third argument proposes that moral disgust is only a metaphor. The true emotion being experienced is anger, and individuals just use language as a metaphor (e.g., &quot;that's disgusting&quot;) for how condemning they feel. Finally, Russell &amp; Ginger-Sorolla's own claim for moral disgust is a middle ground for all the arguments in their research. Regardless of whether harm or justice is involved, they contend that disgust specifically tracks violations pertaining to the body and its products. Anger tends to co-occur with violations that are specifically related to justice, harm, or rights. This disgust behaves more like anger wearing the vocabulary of disgust than it does like bodily moral disgust.  

One study involved 148 participants ranking their emotions on a scale {{citation needed}}. It was found that moral disgust elicited as much as physical disgust did, which supports a claim that moral disgust is not a watered-down, metaphorical use of the feeling but a genuine, physical feeling of disgust. It was also revealed that moral disgust uniquely triggered a significantly higher feeling of mental contamination (feeling immoral) than core disgust did. This reveals an internalised feeling about your own moral state just from witnessing an immoral act, which ties back to Russell &amp; Giner-Sorolla's bodily-violation pattern and strengthens Rozin et al.'s (1999) definition of moral disgust. This empirical study is evidence that core disgust attaches to bodily violations, not non-bodily violations.    

If people respond to contact with an immoral person in a psychologically contaminating way — wanting distance, feeling “dirtied” by proximity — then a question arises about whether jurors exposed to a defendant’s morally disgusting conduct might respond in a similar contamination mode, thus influencing their desire to symbolically “cleanse” the situation via a harsher verdict or sentence.    

 &lt;quiz display=&quot;simple&quot;&gt;

{According to Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013), which of the following is NOT one of the arguments presented regarding the role of disgust in moral condemnation? :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- General Morality Position
- Bodily and Spirituality Position
- Metaphorical Position
+Universal Justice Position


&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Psychological science in the legal system ==
Several psychological theories can help explain why a visceral reaction like moral disgust might influence jurors' decisions. Social identity theory explains how jurors categorise defendants, dual process theory explains how fast intuitive responses to emotions and slower deliberate reasoning interact, and attribution theory and the culpable control model explain how people assign blame. The emotional reaction often comes first, and the reasoning that follows may support it. This section describes each theory and discusses how it explains moral disgust for jurors. 

=== Social identity theory ===
Classic [[w:Social_identity_theory|social identity theory]] posits that groups and whole organisations that possess the same cultural and social norms will perceive themselves as sharing something in common (Tajfel &amp; Turner, 2000). This adds to their own personal self-concept as an individual and as a member of a society/societies. Bronewasser &amp; Bober (1987) critique that this theory describes a class or collective of people (people who may share traits but have no real interdependence) but not a genuine societal group. Groups depend on structure, roles, positions and relationships that require dependence from people. 

Through this theory, a jury is considered to be a genuine structured group. There are roles, a task and an interdependence through deliberation. This theory may offer a further point on why moral disgust can bias jurors. Moral disgust may be a function of a social categorisation cue, marking defendants as the out-group rather than in the jury's moral in-group. Bronewasser &amp; Bober claim that even arbitary group labels are enough to produce an in-group favouritism and out-group favouritism. If a defendants act triggers moral disgust, this may mark them as being in the moral &quot;outgroup&quot; in a jurors' mind. Independent of the actual evidence being presented, this compounds moral disgust biases.  

=== Attribution theory and culpable control model ===    

Disgust influences juror processing through distinct mechanisms. Altered evidentiary standards is the impact of disgust lowering the threshold of proof required for conviction. Thus leading to a biased information search. Jurors will selectively focus on specific details that support their emotion. Finally, dehumanisation occurs. The disgust that a juror is feeling triggers the evolutionary avoidance. Disgust in the form of a social pathogen means that a juror will be unsympathtic towards a defendant, regardless of arguments that explain their actions.   
== Moral disgust and juror judgements ==
A jury is a group of 12 individuals that are carefully chosen to determine the guilt of an offender{{fact}} {{ic|Don't juries vary in size, depending on the juridstiction?}}. They are picked to be impartial, unbiased opinions that can aid in the determining of a person's guilt. Jurors are asked to make judgements based on the evidence presented to them in court. However, emotions play a large, unsuspecting role in determining the guilt of a person. Such is the reason why, in high-stakes cases, jurors are not allowed contact with the outside world or media during trials. Moral disgust in particular seems to have a large impact on the way that jurors perceive and shape jurors' judgements. Different emotions elicit different reactions based on the emotion and a person's appraisal patterns.{{fact}}

=== Juror Judgements ===
ADD INTRO SECTION

==== Emotional response patterns ====
Fishbein &amp; Ajzen's (1975) [[w:Expectancy-value_theory|expectancy-value model]] states that a person's given attitude towards an object is a direct function of the value that a person attaches to that object's attributes or outcomes. In explicit terms, a person's value on an object will be a direct function of the value that they place on said item and the positive or negative emotions they associate with it. Furthermore, the positive or negative characteristics that they associate with the object will be a weighted decision on the direct outcome that may occur due to the object.   

In a review of the role of emotion-induced expectancies, Desteno et al. (2004) argue that positive and negative emotions have been grouped together and oversimplified, which makes distinguishing them difficult. The studies found that specificity operates through an emotion-matching process. Whilst the study did not touch on disgust specifically, it found that persuasion about a situation increased when a person's current emotional state matched the emotional framing of a message. The broader emotion-specificity principle suggests a comparable mechanism that may apply to disgust.    

Older discourse has allowed for all emotions to be pushed into one category, but not all emotions push judgement in the same direction.      

Emotional appraisal patterns are the specific mental evaluations that an individual's brain makes about an event to determine how they feel about a situation.  

INSERT TABLE HERE W/ EVIDENCE  

==== Integral versus incidental emotion distinction ====
Research by Feigenson (2016) discusses the overall idea that juror emotions can affect judge responsibility, blame, guilt, punishment and damages. INSERT SOURCE ON WHY THIS IS A FOCUS.  

The core idea of the article follows the influence of integral and incidental emotions. Integral emotions are supposed to be caused by features of a particular case. Incidental emotions are emotions that arise, unrelated to the case. This foundational research posists that emotions may influence legal judgements through multiple different pathways. 

Rather than claiming that the research should be generalised to consider disgust, it should be considered that further research needs to be conducted to understand the role of moral disgust in a courtroom. This leaves open whether moral disgust causes jurors to be more certain or uncertain about information in the courtroom. 

=== Guilt ===
The [[w:Dual_process_theory_(moral_psychology)|dual-process theory]] argues that the main types of thinking can be separated into two distinct types (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013). Type 1 processing involves autonomous processing that is often responsible for producing intuitive responses without the need for working memory. Type 2 is often more reflective and involves more explicit cognitive processes alongside working memory. A key feature of Type 2 processing is cognitive decoupling and mental simulation. Cognitive decoupling is an ability to separate what you are assuming from what you believe to be true, and mental simulation involves creating hypothetical scenarios and outcomes within your mind (Evans &amp; Stanovich, 2013).Supporting evidence suggests that disgust is a Type 1 output, automatic and arriving before deliberate reasoning can take place. Russell and Giner-Sorolla (2013) describe moral disgust as an unreasoned emotion that involves a process of quickly cleansing oneself of the impurity they associate with that emotion. Within the research Feigenson (2016) theorises the emotional effects on information processing. It reveals that different emotions can effect how deeply a juror processes emotions. Anger is generally associated with more certainity about the evidence which leads to individuals being less likely to process information as they are confident they already know enough to address the task (Feigenson, 2016). Other emotions, for example anxiety, are generally associated with more uncertaintity which leads to more systematic information processing (Feigenson, 2016). Saddened by emotional testimony, mock jurors in a criminal reckless driving case were able to identify inconsistencies more precisely, which is a sign of systematic information processing (Semmler &amp; Brewer, 2002). The emotion-congruency effect is a process that triggers a person to judge based in the direction of the emotion they are feeling. Although Feigenson (2016) does not explicitly research how disgust is influenced by emotion there is other empirical research that researches the impact of disgust on these emotional information processing pathways. Additionally, Bright &amp; Goodman-Delahunty's (2006) research discusses a person's use of their inner emotional states as a way to reason with information they are being given. This aligns with the effect that is being theorised. Emotional pathways generally interact simultaneously and their distinct mechanisms will be vital in understanding the relationship between cognition and judgement. Feigenson (2016) also notes that jurors may have the ability to override their initial reactions through discussion and reasoning. 

=== Blame ===
According to Heider's (1958) [[w:Attribution_(psychology)|attribution theory]], individuals naturally evaluate behaviour by balancing personal casuality against situational causality to determine intentionality.In a legal setting, jurors have the expectation that they will objectively weight these factors, fairly and decide a defendants guilt and blame. However, cases that evoke intense disgust can interrput the rational assessment that jurors are expected to undertake. Instead of evaluating control before assigning blame, the process that Heider's (1958) theory outlines, jurors often invert this sequence through a phenomena introduced by Alicke (2000). The core idea for the Culpable Control Model (CCM) is an explanation ofr how people make judgements about blame and responsibility. Alicke (2000) argues that judgement is not always subjective as blame does not solely rely on evidence about a persons actions and control over the action, but also on individuals emotions, values and assumptions. The assumption of the CCM is that people form a blame judgement first, based on actions and then interpret the evidence on how it is supported second (Alicke, 2000). The main mechanism of this theory is that evidence isn't evaluated and blame placed. Emotional reactions, values, assumptions and expectations of people as humans can heavily shape how evidence is interpreted in the first place (Alicke, 2000). According to CCM, processing for a juror operates firstly with spontaneous evaluation, then blame motive then retroactive rationalisation. If people search for evidence to support an assumption based on their emotions, based on Alicke's (2000) claim, disgust would act in the same way.


Type 1 processes of thinking can be assumed to rely heavily on predetermined values and morals which a juror will rarely think over before making a decision. It is thus assumed that Type 2 processing allows for a more deliberate consideration system when accounting for consequences and outcomes. This does not, however, guarantee better judgement to use when making heavily implicating decisions. This is due to Type 2, allowing people to consider consequences and situations before making a decision (Evans and Stanovich, 2013).  

Additionally, Feigenson's (2016) findings show that different emotions elicit different processing capabilities (anger is different from anxiety). This is supporting evidence for how much Type 2 information processing is engaged for jurors.   

Hypothetically, if the presence of disgust within courts were to be removed, people would be less inclined to make cognitive shortcuts (by relying on their Type 1 system) and thoroughly process emotions before making decisions, utilising their Type 2 system. 

*
* these effects may over or under estimate the influence on cases
* this article does not beleif that moral intuitionism provides strong evidence that emotions have a greater influence on real legal decisions.
* the effects on information processing
** different emotions can affect how deeply people process information.
** this ties back to Rozin and Giner and Sorella (double check this)
** anger is generally associated with more certainty which means that people are less likely to carefully process information
*** they rely on more heuristic cues and consider fewer factors
** anxiety is generally considered with more uncertainty
** leads to more systematic information processing
** mock jurors who became sad from emotional testimony were better at identfying inconsistencies in testimonies that neutral participants
* directional processing
* emotions can cause a person to interpret information in the direction similar to the emotion
** called the emotion-congruency effect (look into this because the source only gave anger, need disgust related information)
* informational effects: people can treat their emotions as information about a thing they are judging (called the affect-as-information model)
** people can often mistakenly attribute their current emotional state to the target of their judgement
** in legal judgements research has examined how integral emotions can act as information when judging responsiblity and blame
** severity of harm: more serious injuries caused participants to feel more sympathy for the victim and blame the defendant more
** hypocritical offenders:a hypocritical offender produced greater anger
* different emotional effects can happen at the same time: one emotion can influence how information is processed while also influencing the direction of the judgement
* multiple emotions can occur: jurors may experience different emotions toward different people in the same case. multiple emotions such as anger and disgust can interact
* it is important to identify the different emotional pathways because:
** different pathways can produce different outcomes
** it helps understand the relationships between emotion, cognition and judgement
* how strong are emotional effects 
** meta analysis have found an effect of emottions on legal responsibility judgements
** this means that emotions do matter but other factors also play a role in explaining legal judgements
** lab studies may produce weaker emotions than real trials
* moral intuitionism: this argues that peoples immediate emotional reactions to morally relevant situations play a very important role in their judgements 
** jurors have the opportunity to override or reconsider their intial reactions through conscious reasoning, reframing a situation or talking to other people. this means that emotions don't necessarily dominate legal judgements.

=== Evidence ===
Research by Ghelfi et al, (2020) suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes. Studies that have been conducted previously found that inducing physical disgust could lead to harsher moral judgements. This was then replicated across 11 different laboratories to test whether bitter beverages led to harsher moral judgements than sweet beverages or water. Ghelfi (2020) research discusses to impacts of different sensory systems on the impact of moral judgements. 
* Ghelfi et al (2020)
* research suggests that physical and moral disgust may have overlapping processes
* previous studies have found that inducing physical disgust (bad smells or bitter tastes) could lead to harsher moral judgements
* replicated across 11 studies
* it tested
** whether a bitter beverage leads to harsher moral judgements than a sweet beverage or water
** whether the effect is stronger among politically conservative participants than liberal participants
* used a 3x3 between-subjects design
** beverage: bitter, sweet or neutral
** political orientation: conservative, liberal or other
* 1,137 participants
* drank beverage and then rated 6 moral vignettes on how wrong they believed the behaviour to be
* participants also rated how bitter, sweet, neutral or disgusting they found the beverage to be.
* bitter vs sweet effect was negligible same with the bitter vs neutral
* effects sizes were significantly smaller than the original study

* original Eskine et al (2011) study:
** bitter, sweet or neutral beverage before reading six moral scenarios 
** those who drank a bitter beverage judged actions more harshly than those who drank sweet or neutral 
** the study found that those who were more politically conservative were more affected by the bitter taste than liberal participants. 
** there were originally 57 participants which found a large statistically significant effect
** a replication study was considered important because of the large effects and small sample
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639:

* moralisation hypothesis 
** disgust makes something that is normally morally neutral seem morally wrong
** the manipulation worked in the experiment 
** participants were either shown disgusting or neutral pictures 
** disgust group: M=3.01
** control group: M= 0.25
** significant results (p&lt;.001)
** the researchers successfully made people feel more disgust with pictures 
** but this did not turn morally neutral actions into morally wrong actions 
** the moralisation hypothesis was not true 
* amplification hypothesis
** disgust only makes things that already morally wrong seem even worse 
** experiment used disgusting videos and neutral videos 
** the amplification hypothesis was also not supported

For the table: 

Eskine et al (2011): bitter vs neutral: ''d''=1.09 AND bitter vs sweet: ''d''=1.22 

Ghelfi E, Christopherson CD, Urry HL, et al. Reexamining the Effect of Gustatory Disgust on Moral Judgment: A Multilab Direct Replication of Eskine, Kacinik, and Prinz (2011). ''Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science''. 2020;3(1):3-23. doi:10.1177/2515245919881152: 

2nd column: average moral wrongness
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|-
|Bitter
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''70.65'''
|-
|Neutral/control
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''68.94'''
|-
|Sweet
| align=&quot;right&quot; |'''71.29'''
|}
Jylkkä, J., Härkönen, J., &amp; Hyönä, J. (2021). Incidental disgust does not cause moral condemnation of neutral actions. ''Cognition and Emotion'', ''35''(1), 96–109. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1810639&lt;/nowiki&gt;


jurors emotions and legal judgements: Feigenson, N. (2016). Jurors’ Emotions and Judgments of Legal Responsibility and Blame: What Does the Experimental Research Tell Us? ''Emotion Review'', ''8''(1), 26–31. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601223&lt;/nowiki&gt;

**

== Moderating Factors ==

* private body consciousness 
** people who are more prone to experience their private bodily sensations show stronger disgust-driven bias 
*** An experiment conducted by Schnall et al. (2008) revealed that people who were more aware of their Private Body Consciousness (PBC) were more prone to feelings of disgust and expressing these feelings outwards to the situation at hand. 
* type of violation 
** purity vs harm

== Practical Implications ==

* evidentiary admissibility 
** courts allow for the admission of gruesome photographic evidence but findings suggest this may be wrong 
*** research shows that people view crimes harsher if exposed to gruesome photos 
***
*** In their affective influences model, affect is a judgement-simplifying heuristic device. People generally consult their affective state, meaning they consult their inner emotion to infer a judgement before looking at the facts. 
* jury selection
* how evidence is presented 

==Figures==
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A Descriptive Caption Which Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing Knowing x Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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==Conclusion==
* What does this mean going further {{vague}}
* What would future research benefit from in this specific section?
*Moral disgust does not come with jurors' judgements, but rather it can measurably shift guilt, certainty, blame attribution and punishment severity.
*This may be stronger for certain people; it cannot just be a blanket claim for all jurors. 
*The idea that jurors decide on the basis of facts alone is not psychologically sustainable. The practice of law {{ic|The practice of law goes beyond the target topic}} needs to consider this, rather than seeing emotions as a bias. 
* The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
* Draft clear take-home message(s), even at the topic development stage
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Provide [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. related [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
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==References==
&lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1=&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D. (2000). Culpable Control and the Psychology of Blame. ''Psychological Bulletin'', ''126''(4), 556–574. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.4.556&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Alicke, M. D., &amp; Weigel, S. H. (2021). The reasonable person standard: Psychological and legal perspectives. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 17(1), 123–138.

Bornewasser, M., &amp; Bober, J. (1987). Individual, social group and intergroup behaviour. Some conceptual remarks on the social identity theory. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17(3), 267–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1002/ejsp.2420170303

Bright, D. A., &amp; Goodman-Delahunty, J. (2006). Gruesome evidence and emotion: Anger, blame, and jury decision-making. Law and Human Behavior, 30(2), 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9027-y

Chapman, H. A., &amp; Anderson, A. K. (2012). Understanding disgust. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06369.x 

DeSteno, D., Petty, R. E., Rucker, D. D., Wegener, D. T., &amp; Braverman, J. (2004). Discrete emotions and persuasion: The role of emotion-induced expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.43

Ekman, P. (1992). Are there basic emotions? Psychological Review, 99(3), 550–553. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.3.550

Evans, J. St. B. T., &amp; Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-Process Theories of Higher Cognition: Advancing the Debate. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science'', ''8''(3), 223–241. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612460685&lt;/nowiki&gt; 

Fishbein, M., &amp; Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.

Heider, F. (2020). ''The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations'' (F. Heider, Ed.). Barakaldo Books.

Lacey, N. (2023). Patrick Devlin, The enforcement of morals (1965). In [Book title] (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003193982-5

Russell, P. S., &amp; Giner-Sorolla, R. (2013). Bodily moral disgust: What it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion. Psychological Bulletin, 139(2), 328–351. https://doi-org.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/10.1037/a0029319

Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., &amp; Jordan, A. H. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1096–1109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208317771

Tajfel, H., &amp; Turner, J. (2000). An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict. In M. J. Hatch &amp; M. Schultz (Eds.), ''Organizational Identity'' (pp. 56–65). Oxford University Press. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199269464.003.0005&lt;/nowiki&gt;

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* Important aspects of APA referencing style
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* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TmKo75gJI How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral Wrong &amp; the Political Right] (David Pizzaro)

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      <text bytes="25944" sha1="ch7w8vg3w2509p9tojmr62dhgzbsumq" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dark empathy:&lt;br&gt;What is dark empathy, what are its consequences, and what can be done to address it?}}
__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close team. He is charming and empathize with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. There continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

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;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark tetrad the inclusion of sadism in the elements making up dark traits in personalities]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and beahvioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind as the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on pro-social behaviour (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark individuals understanding the internal mental states of those around them help them understand how to exploit their relationships for their needs (Gojković et al., 2022). To be able to manipulate others with dark empathy, individuals need to understand their own mental state helps keep the appearance of being empathic and charming individuals. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If motivation for understanding someone’s emotions is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits can use empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits concluded these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality meaning they are less likely to be honest and fair towards others (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015).

Dark empath Is not a psychological diagnosis. It is a term how an individual differences from other diagnoses from the dark tetrad. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant and empathic (Hepper et al., 2014). Although empathizing with another person is beneficial to narcissists’ goals, they may be more likely to show empathy (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understanding emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

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;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to several emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. The fear of losing control can cause more aggression especially fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). In other research, the control and manipulation effective and after time keeping up this level of deception is exhausting (Throop et al., 2020). While dark trait individuals are more self-centre and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits indicate their anti-social behaviours and unlikely to think about the impacts of their behaviours. Their lack self-judgement which in turn could prevent them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally awareness and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

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__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close team. He is charming and empathize with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. There continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=1}}

;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark tetrad the inclusion of sadism in the elements making up dark traits in personalities]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and beahvioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind as the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on pro-social behaviour (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark individuals understanding the internal mental states of those around them help them understand how to exploit their relationships for their needs (Gojković et al., 2022). To be able to manipulate others with dark empathy, individuals need to understand their own mental state helps keep the appearance of being empathic and charming individuals. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If motivation for understanding someone’s emotions is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits can use empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits found these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). This means these people are less likely to be honest and fair towards others.

Dark empath is not a psychological diagnosis. Instead, it distinguishes itself from other dark personality traits by adding the unusual presence of empathy. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant, and empathic are dark empaths (Hepper et al., 2014). Empathising with another person is beneficial to narcissists’ goals and demonstrating empathy allows them to hide (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understanding emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to several emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. The fear of losing control can cause more aggression especially fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). In other research, the control and manipulation effective and after time keeping up this level of deception is exhausting (Throop et al., 2020). While dark trait individuals are more self-centre and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits indicate their anti-social behaviours and unlikely to think about the impacts of their behaviours. Their lack self-judgement which in turn could prevent them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally awareness and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

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__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close team. He is charming and empathize with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. There continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=1}}

;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark tetrad the inclusion of sadism in the elements making up dark traits in personalities]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and beahvioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind as the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on pro-social behaviour (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark individuals understanding the internal mental states of those around them help them understand how to exploit their relationships for their needs (Gojković et al., 2022). To be able to manipulate others with dark empathy, individuals need to understand their own mental state helps keep the appearance of being empathic and charming individuals. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If the motivation is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits use cognitive empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits found these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). This means these people are less likely to be honest and fair towards others.

Dark empath is not a psychological diagnosis. Instead, it distinguishes itself from other dark personality traits by adding the unusual presence of empathy. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant, and empathic are dark empaths (Hepper et al., 2014). '''The use of cognitive empathy is''' beneficial to narcissists’ goals and demonstrating empathy allows them to hide (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understand emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to several emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. The fear of losing control can cause more aggression especially fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). In other research, the control and manipulation effective and after time keeping up this level of deception is exhausting (Throop et al., 2020). While dark trait individuals are more self-centre and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits indicate their anti-social behaviours and unlikely to think about the impacts of their behaviours. Their lack self-judgement which in turn could prevent them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally awareness and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

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      <text bytes="25973" sha1="qk0ldp9lpkoceq5urjar4jn1ba38cub" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dark empathy:&lt;br&gt;What is dark empathy, what are its consequences, and what can be done to address it?}}
__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close-knit team. He is charming and empathises with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead role for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. Their continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=1}}

;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark tetrad the inclusion of sadism in the elements making up dark traits in personalities]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and beahvioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind as the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on pro-social behaviour (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark individuals understanding the internal mental states of those around them help them understand how to exploit their relationships for their needs (Gojković et al., 2022). To be able to manipulate others with dark empathy, individuals need to understand their own mental state helps keep the appearance of being empathic and charming individuals. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If the motivation is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits use cognitive empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits found these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). This means these people are less likely to be honest and fair towards others.

Dark empath is not a psychological diagnosis. Instead, it distinguishes itself from other dark personality traits by adding the unusual presence of empathy. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant, and empathic are dark empaths (Hepper et al., 2014). '''The use of cognitive empathy is''' beneficial to narcissists’ goals and demonstrating empathy allows them to hide (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understand emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to several emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. The fear of losing control can cause more aggression especially fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). In other research, the control and manipulation effective and after time keeping up this level of deception is exhausting (Throop et al., 2020). While dark trait individuals are more self-centre and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits indicate their anti-social behaviours and unlikely to think about the impacts of their behaviours. Their lack self-judgement which in turn could prevent them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally awareness and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

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__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close-knit team. He is charming and empathises with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead role for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. Their continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=1}}

;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark trait updated to include the fourth element of sadism. This created the dark tetrad of personality. ]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and behavioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind as the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on pro-social behaviour (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark individuals understanding the internal mental states of those around them help them understand how to exploit their relationships for their needs (Gojković et al., 2022). To be able to manipulate others with dark empathy, individuals need to understand their own mental state helps keep the appearance of being empathic and charming individuals. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If the motivation is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits use cognitive empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits found these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). This means these people are less likely to be honest and fair towards others.

Dark empath is not a psychological diagnosis. Instead, it distinguishes itself from other dark personality traits by adding the unusual presence of empathy. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant, and empathic are dark empaths (Hepper et al., 2014). '''The use of cognitive empathy is''' beneficial to narcissists’ goals and demonstrating empathy allows them to hide (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understand emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to several emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. The fear of losing control can cause more aggression especially fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). In other research, the control and manipulation effective and after time keeping up this level of deception is exhausting (Throop et al., 2020). While dark trait individuals are more self-centre and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits indicate their anti-social behaviours and unlikely to think about the impacts of their behaviours. Their lack self-judgement which in turn could prevent them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally awareness and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

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      <text bytes="25924" sha1="a15be48t4u9sv6gmder6u5mfkskmgql" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dark empathy:&lt;br&gt;What is dark empathy, what are its consequences, and what can be done to address it?}}
__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close-knit team. He is charming and empathises with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead role for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. Their continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=1}}

;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark trait updated to include the fourth element of sadism. This created the dark tetrad of personality. ]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and behavioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind '''i'''s the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on [[Prosocial behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark trait individuals use this ability to read other's mental states and exploit for their personal gain (Gojković et al., 2022). Dark empaths use ToM to understand their own mental state to maintain their charming, empathic mask while manipulating others. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If the motivation is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits use cognitive empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits found these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). This means these people are less likely to be honest and fair towards others.

Dark empath is not a psychological diagnosis. Instead, it distinguishes itself from other dark personality traits by adding the unusual presence of empathy. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant, and empathic are dark empaths (Hepper et al., 2014). '''The use of cognitive empathy is''' beneficial to narcissists’ goals and demonstrating empathy allows them to hide (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understand emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to several emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. The fear of losing control can cause more aggression especially fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). In other research, the control and manipulation effective and after time keeping up this level of deception is exhausting (Throop et al., 2020). While dark trait individuals are more self-centre and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits indicate their anti-social behaviours and unlikely to think about the impacts of their behaviours. Their lack self-judgement which in turn could prevent them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally awareness and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

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__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close-knit team. He is charming and empathises with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead role for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. Their continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=1}}

;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark trait updated to include the fourth element of sadism. This created the dark tetrad of personality. ]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and behavioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind '''i'''s the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on [[Prosocial behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark trait individuals use this ability to read other's mental states and exploit for their personal gain (Gojković et al., 2022). Dark empaths use ToM to understand their own mental state to maintain their charming, empathic mask while manipulating others. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If the motivation is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits use cognitive empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits found these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). This means these people are less likely to be honest and fair towards others.

Dark empath is not a psychological diagnosis. Instead, it distinguishes itself from other dark personality traits by adding the unusual presence of empathy. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant, and empathic are dark empaths (Hepper et al., 2014). '''The use of cognitive empathy is''' beneficial to narcissists’ goals and demonstrating empathy allows them to hide (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understand emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to severe emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. The fear of losing control can cause more aggression especially fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). In other research, the control and manipulation effective and after time keeping up this level of deception is exhausting (Throop et al., 2020). While dark trait individuals are more self-centre and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits indicate their anti-social behaviours and unlikely to think about the impacts of their behaviours. Their lack self-judgement which in turn could prevent them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally awareness and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

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__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close-knit team. He is charming and empathises with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead role for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. Their continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=1}}

;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark trait updated to include the fourth element of sadism. This created the dark tetrad of personality. ]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and behavioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind '''i'''s the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on [[Prosocial behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark trait individuals use this ability to read other's mental states and exploit for their personal gain (Gojković et al., 2022). Dark empaths use ToM to understand their own mental state to maintain their charming, empathic mask while manipulating others. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If the motivation is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits use cognitive empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits found these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). This means these people are less likely to be honest and fair towards others.

Dark empath is not a psychological diagnosis. Instead, it distinguishes itself from other dark personality traits by adding the unusual presence of empathy. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant, and empathic are dark empaths (Hepper et al., 2014). '''The use of cognitive empathy is''' beneficial to narcissists’ goals and demonstrating empathy allows them to hide (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understand emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to severe emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. Though controlling others is effective at first, keeping up the mask leads to burnout (Throop et al., 2020). The thought of losing control can cause aggressive behaviour, driven by fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). While dark trait individuals are more self-centred and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits indicate their anti-social behaviours and unlikely to think about the impacts of their behaviours. Their lack self-judgement which in turn could prevent them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally awareness and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

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__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close-knit team. He is charming and empathises with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead role for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. Their continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=1}}

;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark trait updated to include the fourth element of sadism. This created the dark tetrad of personality. ]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and behavioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind '''i'''s the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on [[Prosocial behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark trait individuals use this ability to read other's mental states and exploit for their personal gain (Gojković et al., 2022). Dark empaths use ToM to understand their own mental state to maintain their charming, empathic mask while manipulating others. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If the motivation is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits use cognitive empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits found these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). This means these people are less likely to be honest and fair towards others.

Dark empath is not a psychological diagnosis. Instead, it distinguishes itself from other dark personality traits by adding the unusual presence of empathy. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant, and empathic are dark empaths (Hepper et al., 2014). '''The use of cognitive empathy is''' beneficial to narcissists’ goals and demonstrating empathy allows them to hide (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understand emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to severe emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. Though controlling others is effective at first, keeping up the mask leads to burnout (Throop et al., 2020). The thought of losing control can cause aggressive behaviour, driven by fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). While dark trait individuals are more self-centred and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows them to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits cause anti-social behaviours and a disregard the impact of their actions. Their lack self-judgement prevents them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally awareness and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

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      <text bytes="25865" sha1="ryezbi0jb9bozz71jbar9gd07crqye3" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Dark empathy:&lt;br&gt;What is dark empathy, what are its consequences, and what can be done to address it?}}
__TOC__
==Overview==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario

In a workplace, a new colleague, Addison, joined a close-knit team. He is charming and empathises with each team member. Addison fits in the team very well and many of the colleagues to them for advice. The lead role for a project becomes available and several members of the team decide to apply. One member, Charlie, takes Addison’s offer to help them prepare for the promotion. Charlie shares her fears and her perceived weaknesses for the role. Before the interviews, Addison strategically reminds Charlie about her weaknesses with a supportive twist. 

''“Good luck, Charlie. Take a breath and pause to avoid speaking too quickly. Despite your limited leadership experience, your skills speak for themselves. You got this!”'' 

Charlie felt very nervous and stumbled in the interview. She de-briefed with another colleague who said she never heard her speak quickly when nervous. She was known for keeping a calm front under pressure. After a few weeks, the promotion is given to Addison. No one knew Addison had applied and the team was shocked since they have limited skills in this area of the work. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy can have a bright and dark side (Throop et al., 2020). The concern is when individuals with dark tetrad personality traits leverage their understanding of emotions and feels to manipulate, control, or exploit to others. 

Dark empathy is a developed skill that uses the understanding of emotion and people's vulnerabilities against them to control and manipulate for their advantage (Throop et al., 2020). To consider the use of dark empathy, we need to understanding why and how people use it. Individuals with high dark tetrads usually struggle to understand body language and emotion. The ability to understand emotion and feelings allow these individuals to go undetected for longer and have better control of those around them. 

The ability to deceive and hide makes addressing the underlying behavioural problems harder. Their continued strategic and charming manipulation destroy the psychological safety of others around them. Research indicates understanding emotional intelligence, the dark tetrad, and theory of mind could assist with understanding the use of dark empathy (Vonk et al., 2015).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=1}}

;Focus questions

*How does dark empathy develop?  
*What drives an individual to use empathy to control and manipulate other people in their life?  
*How can psychological theory develop strategies to understand and assist individuals mitigate the negative effects of empathy? 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== The development of empathy ==

[[Empathy]] is is the ability to share feelings and thoughts of others while remaining self-other determination (Håkansson Eklund &amp; Summer Meranius, 2021). Empathy is not an innate, rather learned and developed. It can be cultivated through techniques to understand other's feelings and foster [[wikipedia:Prosocial_behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Abramson, 2021). Research found adolescences developed empathy through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social context (such as group membership) (Decety, 2015), cultivation through listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013), and reading fiction (Bal &amp; Veltkamp, 2013).  
=== The dark tetrad ===
[[File:Dark-triad-dark-tetrad-1.webp|thumb|'''Figure 1.''' The dark trait updated to include the fourth element of sadism. This created the dark tetrad of personality. ]]
Dark personality traits were called the dark triad (Paulhus &amp; Williams, 2002). An expansion on these traits were to include a fourth element, sadism (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). There are four elements to the dark tetrad (see Figure 1):

* Narcissism
* Machiavellianism
* Psychopathy
* Sadism

These traits demonstrate individuals have limited ability to comprehend other’s emotions and read their mental states (Vonk et al., 2015). Individuals are self-centred, emotionally unstable, and focused on anti-social behaviour which leads to few of them demonstrating empathy (Kaufman et al., 2019). See Table 1 for the breakdown of the personality traits.

'''Table 1'''. Dark tetrad personality traits breakdown and behavioural signs
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;&quot;
|-
! Personality traits !! Definition !! Behavioural signs
|-
| '''Narcissism''' || Self-importance and constant need for admiration || Arrogance, entitlement, and bragging
|-
| '''Machiavellianism''' || Strategic manipulation, calculated world view and general distrust of motives and integrity || Deception, exploitation, and emotional detachment
|-
| '''Psychopathy''' || Lack of empathy, poor impulse control, and fearlessness || Reckless, charming, no remorse, and cruel
|-
| '''Sadism''' || Deriving pleasure or enjoyment from harming others || Bullying, shaming, and humiliating others 
|}

=== Theory of Mind (ToM) ===

Theory of Mind '''i'''s the ability to understand the internal mental states of others, including their beliefs and intentions (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004). ToM and empathy are both important influences on [[Prosocial behavior|pro-social behaviour]] (Qiu et al., 2024). Prosocial behaviour means sharing, caring, helping, donating, comforting, and cooperating with others (Guo et al., 2023). Dark trait personalities do not demonstrate prosocial behaviours (Hurezan et al., 2026). However, ToM can explain how dark personalities use dark empathy to understand others and their own motives (Qiu et al., 2024). Dark trait individuals use this ability to read other's mental states and exploit for their personal gain (Gojković et al., 2022). Dark empaths use ToM to understand their own mental state to maintain their charming, empathic mask while manipulating others. 

=== Types of empathy ===

Empathy has bright and dark sides as well two types (Throop et al., 2020): 
* Affective empathy is physical and emotional sharing of feelings
**This empathy is experiencing with the other person which is found more commonly in bright empathy
* Cognitive empathy is the intellectual understanding of another’s emotions and thoughts without feeling their pain. 
**This empathy is the understanding, yet keeping that self-other determination which makes it easier for manipulating by utilising emotions against another

Empathy relies on the individual to use it based on their morals and beliefs (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). In a study looking at parent's influence on teenagers morals, empathy was not increased in teens with narcissistic traits (Jiang et al., 2024). This shows that dark traits are strongly than external influences. Therefore, the type of empathy is matters when looking at dark trait individuals. For example, machiavellianism is the strategic manipulation and leads to deception. If the motivation is to deceive and control, then cognitive empathy allows to comprehend how someone thinks and feels without experiencing the emotion. This can explain why individual with dark traits use cognitive empathy for their own interests.  

=== Making of a dark empath ===
Dark Empathy is understanding those feelings and harnessing them against others (Breithaupt &amp; Hamilton, 2019). Empathy is not inherently good or bad. People must choose how to use their understanding of others' feelings (Throop et al., 2020). The development of dark empathy is when an individual has high levels of dark traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) and has retained high cognitive and affective empathy capacity (Gojković et al., 2022). Research assessing individuals with high levels of dark traits found these personality types do not share common societal ethics and morality (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). This means these people are less likely to be honest and fair towards others.

Dark empath is not a psychological diagnosis. Instead, it distinguishes itself from other dark personality traits by adding the unusual presence of empathy. For example, narcissists are individuals who are self-centred, arrogant, and empathic are dark empaths (Hepper et al., 2014). '''The use of cognitive empathy is''' beneficial to narcissists’ goals and demonstrating empathy allows them to hide (Hepper et al., 2014). Dark empathy is found in individuals with high levels of dark traits and cognitive empathy (Duradoni et al., 2023). Cognitive empathy rather than affective empathy allows the individual to understand emotions and thoughts without having to feel the emotions which in turn makes it easier to manipulate others. Furthermore, an individual with affective dissonance is another indicator of dark empathy. It is having twisted or contradictory emotional reactions, such as feeling happy when someone else is suffering that is present in those with high dark traits (Gojković et al., 2022). Individuals with dark traits have self-centred manipulation behaviours such as chronic lying, superficial charm and lack of remorse (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective dissonance brings joy to the individual from their deception. This means those with high dark traits may develop empathy to suit their self-centred goals. Research demonstrates that experiencing trauma as a child where you had to predict and understand other's emotions to keep safe may lead to the development of dark empathy (Bloxsom et al., 2021).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Quiz
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{Dark empath is :
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

{{RoundBoxBottom}}


== Consequences of dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

Charlie was assigned to report to Addison on the project and found herself becoming anxious at their one-on-one performance meetings. Charlie would spend over an hour preparing for the meetings despite keeping meticulous progress notes. She feels exhausted after each interaction and starts doubting her skills.

Addison finds it hard to keep up with the workload. Other team members have complained that Addison has not been running the project well. Addison’s boss reviews the work and finds Addison has not been monitoring the project. Charlie’s work had been the only compliment the boss had for the update. Addison takes credit for Charlie's work and claims he has been managing Charlie's failing performance. Addison is to provide an update on the project and Charlie's performance. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Empathy is positively linked with depression (Yan et al., 2021) and can lead to severe emotional distress and burnout (Huang et al., 2025). An individual can use affective empathy  to deceive, manipulate and exploit (Huang et al., 2025). The addition of their dark trait skills such as charm and chronic lying (Gojković et al., 2022) they can manipulate to achieve their goals while pretending to be an ally. The person using dark empathy and those they are manipulating are both impacted by the behaviour and will harm their wellbeing (Heym et al., 2021). For an individual to perceive one’s emotions, plan and consider how to react to control another takes a lot of energy. There is a physical component on controlling their body language and expression to disarm others (Throop et al., 2020). While the use of empathy may bring people together through a shared emotion and experience, dark empathy isolates from community (Throop et al., 2020).

=== Effects on victims of dark empathy ===

The immediate impacts on their relationships are startle and unlikely to be noticed. Dark empaths use their charming demeanour and their strategic understanding of other’s emotions and feelings to appear kind and empathic. The ability to gaslight and Over time an individual dealing with a dark empath will develop chronic anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, emotional dependency (Yan et al., 2021), shame, and humiliation (Throop et al., 2020).Dark traits are often linked to aggressive behaviours which increases the likelihood of intimate partner violence (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Outcome for dark empaths ===

An individual using dark empathy may find the indifference and emotional de-attachment to others useful to achieving their goals (Throop et al., 2020). The emotional distance can intervene serve as a protective factor or buffer to psychological distress for the dark empath  (Heym et al., 2021). As empathy combined with self-judgement and/or over-thinking can cause emotional distress (Heym et al., 2021). Therefore, an individual who have dark traits and cognitive empathy (understanding but not sharing emotions) does not experience the same level of distress. The ability to not feel the emotions makes them better at utilising other’s vulnerabilities without the consequences. Though controlling others is effective at first, keeping up the mask leads to burnout (Throop et al., 2020). The thought of losing control can cause aggressive behaviour, driven by fear and shame (di Giacomo et al., 2023). While dark trait individuals are more self-centred and lack the pro-social behaviours, hiding their nature can lead to depression and a loss of identity (Qiu et al., 2024).

== Addressing dark empathy ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
;Scenario continued 

After talking to another colleague, Charlie notices her mental health is declining. She reaches out to the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for support about her stress. The counsellor asks Charlie to consider when the anxiety and lower self-esteem started. She starts to realise it links back to Addison. 

Addison continues to blame Charlie for the project's failures. Addison fails to develop the deliverables in time for the boss’ deadline and a meeting is set up with him up with an EAP counsellor. Addison talks about Charlie's 'failures' and the counsellor asks Addison to consider his behaviour and input into the situation. 

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

Dark empathy is not easily recognised as it can lower the appearance of aggressive behaviours in individuals with dark personalities traits (Heym et al., 2021). For example; a narcissist or sociopath may use understanding of ToM to influence others while a dark empath uses their cognitive empathy to control and most likely enjoy other's vulnerable emotions (Heym et al., 2021). The impacts of dark empathy can be found in the relationships of the dark empath. Person-centred approach assists on recognising patterns, identifying behaviours and setting boundaries (Galán et al., 2026). 

=== Recovering from a dark empath ===
After dealing with a dark empath, an individual may find it hard to notice the patterns. Individual needs to set healthy emotional boundaries in this relationship which will be assisted by seeking therapy to identify patterns and how to address them. Person-centre framework (also known as client-centred approach) (Rogers, 1951) can assist in developing strategies and understanding the patterns they experienced (Galán et al., 2026). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be effective for unlearning the patterns of abuse and understanding their trauma (Iverson et al., 2011) from the dark empath.

=== Unravelling from dark empathy ===
For the dark empath recognising and acknowledging the pattern of behaviour of controlling those around them and the impacts on theirs and other’s wellbeing is the first step. Carl Roger’s approach of self-concept and understanding who they are and their ideal self is supported which allows them to accept their dark tendencies and focus on better strategies to connect with others to develop stronger interpersonal skills (Galán et al., 2026). Some therapies that would be appropriate and effective for dark empaths are:
*Dialectial behaviour therapy
**A therapy that allows people to talk through and accept their intense feelings (di Giacomo et al., 2023).
*[[w:Cognitive_behavioral_therapy|Cognitive Behaviour Therapy]] (CBT)
**This therapy assists in addressing anti-social behaviours and fosters pro-social behaviours (Shukla &amp; Upadhyay, 2025)
The steps to acknowledging the behaviours and traits are not easy process. The consideration around the dark traits demonstrates a small desire to participate in therapy for the benefit of others (di Giacomo et al., 2023). Their dark traits cause anti-social behaviours and a disregard the impact of their actions. Their lack self-judgement prevents them seeing themselves as part of the problem.

== Conclusion ==
Dark empathy is becoming more relevant when considering the recognition and treatment of dark trait personalities. Empathy can be developed through parental influence (Jiang et al., 2024), social experience (Decety, 2015), listening to music (Rabinowitch et al., 2013) and reading fiction (Rabinowitch et al., 2013). Dark empathy is developed through the desire to understanding another person’s feelings and emotions. While the use of ToM can help understand one’s mental states and others (Wellman &amp; Liu, 2004), dark traits individuals struggle to notice emotional reactions of other people (Jonason &amp; Kroll, 2015).  Dark empathy gives the perception of sharing the emotion rather than developing it to manipulate and exploit. Dark traits such as psychopathy and sadism are more likely to demonstrate anti-social behaviour, a lack of empathy, and joy of other’s pain (Mededovic &amp; Petrovic, 2015). The development of dark empathy provides a mask to hide the intentions behind social behaviour. These individuals are harder to recognise and with cognitive empathy providing the perception of being emotionally aware and pro-social despite the opposite.  Individuals can use their charm and social intelligence to cover their exploitation and manipulation of others. This increases the difficulty of identifying dark empaths and leaves their victims vulnerable to their gaslighting and emotional abuse. Person-centred frameworks assess the behaviours and patterns assist those effected by the exposure to dark empathy and develop boundaries to provide them with coping mechanisms (Galán et al., 2026).

==See also==
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Dark triad personality and emotion|Dark triad personality and emotion]] (Book chapter, 2020) 
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2019/Emotional intelligence and anti-social behaviour|Emotional intelligence and antisocial behaviour]] (Book chapter, 2019)
*[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Emotional intelligence and the dark triad|Emotional intelligence and the dark triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
*[[wikipedia:Machiavellianism_(psychology)|Machiavellianism]] (Wikipedia) 
*[[wikipedia:Narcissism|Narcissism]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Psychopathy|Psychopathy]] (Wikipedia)
*[[wikipedia:Dark_triad|The Dark Triad]] (Wikipedia)

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Abramson, A. (2021, November 1). Cultivating empathy. Monitor on Psychology, 52(8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/feature-cultivating-empathy

Bal, P. M., &amp; Veltkamp, M. (2013). How Does Fiction Reading Influence Empathy? An Experimental Investigation on the Role of Emotional Transportation. PloS one, 8(1), e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341 

Bloxsom, C. A. J., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Egan, V., Sumich, A. L., &amp; Heym, N. (2021). Dark shadow of the self: How the dark triad and empathy impact parental and intimate adult attachment relationships in women. Forensic Science International: Mind and Law, 2, 100045. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsiml.2021.100045 

Breithaupt, F., &amp; Hamilton, A. B. B. (2019). The dark sides of empathy (1st edition. ed.). Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735608 
Decety, J. (2015). The neural pathways, development and functions of empathy. Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 3, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2014.12.001 

di Giacomo, E., Andreini, E., Lorusso, O., &amp; Clerici, M. (2023). The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder. Front Psychiatry, 14, 1074558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1074558 

Duradoni, M., Gursesli, M. C., Fiorenza, M., Donati, A., &amp; Guazzini, A. (2023). Cognitive Empathy and the Dark Triad: A Literature Review. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education (EJIHPE), 13(11), 2642-2680. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13110184 

Galán, M., Gerber, N., Valls, L., Molina, S., &amp; Pineda, D. (2026). Dark Empaths and Intimate Partner Violence: A Latent Profile Analysis of Dark Tetrad Traits and Empathy Dimensions in Face-to-Face and Cyber Violence Perpetration. Behavioral sciences, 16(10), 1780. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs16101780 

Gojković, V., Dostanić, J. S., &amp; Đurić, V. (2022). Structure of darkness: The Dark Triad, the ‘Dark’ Empathy and the ‘Dark’ Narcissism. Primenjena psihologija (Online), 15(2), 237-268. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.v15i2.2380 

Guo, Q., Li, S., Liang, J., Yu, X., &amp; Lv, Y. (2023). Mindfulness may be associated with less prosocial engagement among high intelligence individuals. Scientific reports, 13(1), 4208. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31039-3 

Hepper, E. G., Hart, C. M., &amp; Sedikides, C. (2014). Moving Narcissus: Can Narcissists Be Empathic? Personality &amp; social psychology bulletin, 40(9), 1079-1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167214535812 

Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., &amp; Bloxsom, C. A. (2019). Empathy at the heart of darkness: Empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 95. 

Heym, N., Kibowski, F., Bloxsom, C. A. J., Blanchard, A., Harper, A., Wallace, L., Firth, J., &amp; Sumich, A. (2021). The Dark Empath: Characterising dark traits in the presence of empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, 110172-110172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110172 

Huang, C., Wu, Z., Sha, S., Liu, C., Yang, L., Jiang, P., Zhang, H., &amp; Yang, C. (2025). The Dark Side of Empathy: The Role of Excessive Affective Empathy in Mental Health Disorders. Biological psychiatry (1969), 98(5), 404-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.12.020 

Hurezan, L., Miu, A. C., Costea, A., &amp; Visu-Petra, L. (2026). Dark Personality, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Convicted Offenders. Scientific reports, 16(1), 4177-4117. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-34229-3 

Iverson, K. M., Gradus, J. L., Resick, P. A., Suvak, M. K., Smith, K. F., &amp; Monson, C. M. (2011). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for PTSD and Depression Symptoms Reduces Risk for Future Intimate Partner Violence Among Interpersonal Trauma Survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 79(2), 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022512 

Jiang, X., Liu, C., Xiao, X., &amp; Zhan, Y. (2024). Role of narcissism and empathy in the relationship between parental attachment and moral response patterns. European journal of developmental psychology, 21(3), 365-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2024.2325173 

Jonason, P. K., &amp; Kroll, C. H. (2015). A Multidimensional View of the Relationship Between Empathy and the Dark Triad. Journal of individual differences, 36(3), 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000166 

Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., &amp; Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, Volume 10 - 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 

Mededovic, J., &amp; Petrovic, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural Properties and Location in the Personality Space. Journal of individual differences, 36(4), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179 

Qiu, X., Gao, M., Zhu, H., Li, W., &amp; Jiang, R. (2024). Theory of mind, empathy, and prosocial behavior in children and adolescent: a meta-analysis. Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 43(22), 19690-19707. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05762-7 

Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., &amp; Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of music, 41(4), 484-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609 

Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy; its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin. 

Shukla, M., &amp; Upadhyay, N. (2025). Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1546917. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1546917
 
Throop, C. J., Zahavi, D., de Lucas Freitas, J., Groark, K. P., Maibom, H., Satne, G. L., Stueber, K. R., &amp; Trnka, S. (2020). Dark and Bright Empathy: Phenomenological and Anthropological Reflections. Current anthropology, 61(3), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1086/708844 

Vonk, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., Ewing, D., Mercer, S., &amp; Noser, A. E. (2015). Mindreading in the dark: Dark personality features and theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 87, 50-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.025 

Wellman, H. M., &amp; Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of Theory-of-Mind Tasks. Child development, 75(2), 523-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00691.x 

Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., &amp; Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta‐analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. PsyCh journal (Victoria, Australia), 10(5), 794-804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482 

}}
==External links==
* [https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/dark-empaths Dark Empaths] (Science Focus)
* [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dark-tetrad Dark Tetrad] (Psychology Today)
* [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/10/narcissists-only-more-devious-the-truth-about-dark-empaths 'Narcissists - only more devious': the truth about dark empaths] (the Guardian)

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Empathy]]</text>
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    <title>Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Adolescent risk-taking and reward-system development</title>
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      <id>2840073</id>
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      <comment>/* Social Context and Risk-Taking */ new section</comment>
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      <text bytes="12857" sha1="8yl117rmr1a8bll3wehnp3ngcqm3cw3" xml:space="preserve">== Discussion on chapter ==
Hey! I'm doing dopamine and sensation-seeking and id just love to say that this chapter is amazing with demonstrating young adolescents and risk-taking as I have had to dabble in that area, I think your structure is well thought out and I enjoy the emoji's in the quick revision. Super easy to read for someone seeking knowledge in risk-taking in adolescents and the reward system! The only thing id suggest is to check whether the sub-headings are meant to be capitalised because form last years chapters quite a bit of the high star ones seem to have them under cased except for the first letter   - Paige [[User:U3262868|U3262868]] ([[User talk:U3262868|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/U3262868|contribs]]) 21:33, 11 October 2026 (UTC)

==When does adolescent risk-taking peak?==
I'd be curious to know if its possible to say when risk-taking peaks in adolescence?
Sincerely, James

---- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 04:07, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

== Changes made  ==

hello, I changed the casing of your fist heading to make all the letters lower case expect for the first letter. I believe this is the format our teacher wants us to follow but just double check  [[User:Ella Kay244|Ella Kay244]] ([[User talk:Ella Kay244|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Ella Kay244|contribs]]) 04:24, 25 August 2026 (UTC)


== Discussion comment: Adolescent risk-taking ==
Hi! I really liked the example of Mia at the start, I think works really well because it shows how quickly a situation can change when friends are involved. I also think it would be interesting to see whether reward-seeking is always negative, or whether some of these behaviours could be beneficial, e.g., independence or trying new things. I hadn’t really thought about the positive side of risk-taking before, so I think that will be an interesting part of your chapter!--[[User:U3275908|U3275908]] ([[User talk:U3275908|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/U3275908|contribs]]) 11:09, 26 August 2026 (UTC)

== How is reward classified for an adolescent? ==

I'd be super interested in what classified as a reward for adolescents. It's a really cool topic you've got, you covered social rewards briefly but other more general areas you talked about weren't so clear cut. Nothing on you its just the nature of how some of these things are laid out.  
Well done!! :) [[User:Revial76|Revial76]] ([[User talk:Revial76|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Revial76|contribs]]) 15:23, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

&lt;!-- Official topic development feedback --&gt;
{{METF/2026
|1=
&lt;!-- Title --&gt;
# Title and subtitle are correctly worded and use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]]
|2=
&lt;!-- Heading structure --&gt;
&lt;!-- 2-level --&gt;
# Excellent – Well developed [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Major project/Structure|2-level heading structure]]. Meaningful headings clearly relate directly to the core topic.
# Be careful that the structure isn't overly ambitious because the word count might blow out; be prepared to concentrate on core topics only
# The subtitle in the sub-headings should probably have the first letters capitalised
&lt;!-- Alignment with focus questions --&gt;
# Insufficient alignment between sub-title, focus questions, and top-level headings
|3=
&lt;!-- Overview--&gt;
# Very good
&lt;!-- Scenario --&gt;
# A scenario or case study is presented in a feature box with an image at the start of this section
&lt;!-- Description --&gt;
# A promising description of the problem/topic is planned or presented
# Consider making this more user-friendly, shifting most or all of the citations into subsequent sections
# Move external links into the references or external links
&lt;!-- Focus questions --&gt;
# Develop closer alignment between the sub-title, focus questions, and top-level headings
|4=
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&lt;!-- Conclusion --&gt;
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|5=
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# Figure(s) are presented and captioned
&lt;!-- Cite --&gt;
# Cite each figure at least once in the main text using APA style (e.g., see Figure 1)
&lt;!-- Size --&gt;
# Consider increasing image size(s)
|6=
&lt;!-- Learning feature --&gt;
&lt;!-- Interwiki links ---&gt;
# Add in-text [[m:Help:Interwiki linking|interwiki links]] for first mention of key terms to [[w:|Wikipedia]] and/or [[Motivation and emotion/Book|book chapters]] (see [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]])
&lt;!-- Scenarios/examples/case studies --&gt;
# Consider use of more scenarios/examples/case studies 
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# Promising use of quiz question(s)
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&lt;!-- Overall --&gt;
# Very good
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# What are the most relevant systematic reviews/meta-analyses about this topic?
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# Check and correct [https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf APA referencing style]:
## capitalisation
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# Excellent – at least three different types of contributions with direct link(s) to evidence
}}
-- [[User:Jtneill|Jtneill]] - &lt;small&gt;[[User talk:Jtneill|Talk]] - [[Special:Contributions/Jtneill|c]]&lt;/small&gt; 08:37, 30 August 2026 (UTC)

== Suggestion for a related source ==
Hey there! This chapter seems to be coming along nicely, and I'm interested in how you'll expand upon it as you go. I'm doing a related chapter [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Game of dice task and decision-making|here]] about the Game of Dice Task and how it relates to risk-based decision making. I've found a source in my own research that I think could be useful for your chapter, especially to the point of how executive functions develop over adolescence and the effect this has on decision-making. [https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/09297049.2014.934216 The study by Schiebener et al. (2014)] highlights cognitive differences between executive functions and reasoning, and makes a compelling case that in situtations of explicit numerical risk, the development of executive functions, not reasoning capability, is important for advantageous choices.

Hope this is helpful and best of luck with finalising your chapter. - Ryan [[User:U3216724|U3216724]] ([[User talk:U3216724|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/U3216724|contribs]]) 03:45, 5 October 2026 (UTC)

:This may also be a useful source for addressing James' initial comment about addressing when risk-taking peaks in adolescence. :) [[User:U3216724|U3216724]] ([[User talk:U3216724|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/U3216724|contribs]]) 03:46, 5 October 2026 (UTC)

== Social contribution: suggested additions on peer influence, young drivers and interventions ==
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your chapter - it overlaps with an area I studied in my Graduate Certificate in Adolescent Health and Wellbeing (2023), where my assessment focused on adolescent risk-taking and young Australian drivers.The Mia scenario is a great hook!

'''What did I do?'''

I've added some material to the chapter for your consideration. I initially wrote them as bullet points with references but then figured it'd probably be much easier for you to review in paragraphs (given the time constraints) so you can rework it into your own structure and voice. Here's what I did, noting you can also find it in the edit summaries section:

- Overview: replaced &quot;(add citation)&quot; with Duell et al. (2018) and Steinberg (2007).

- Social context and risk-taking: added a paragraph after your bullet points on real-world driving evidence (Simons-Morton et al., 2011) and an Australian study of Queensland learner and provisional drivers (Scott-Parker et al., 2012), linking these to peer-enhanced reward processing (Chein et al., 2011).

- Psychological implications: added two paragraphs, one on positive risk-taking and reward sensitivity as a strength (Romer et al., 2017; Duell &amp; Steinberg, 2019; Telzer, 2016), and one on reward-sensitive approaches to intervention (Yeager et al., 2018; Masten et al., 2015; Simons-Morton &amp; Ouimet, 2006).

- References: added the 10 new sources in APA style. '''One small thing I noticed: World Health Organisation (2026) is cited in &quot;What is adolescent risk-taking?&quot; but doesn't appear in the reference list yet.'''

'''My recommendations, based on my earlier study and this literature, are:'''

# Link the Mia scenario back to the real-world driving evidence so it carries through the chapter
# frame interventions around status, respect and peer norms rather than warnings or adult authority
# note that parental involvement and graduated driver licensing reduce exposure to high-reward, high-risk situations while self-regulation is still developing.

I hope these are okay - it works in my favour as well for social contributions because I hadn't done them yet, while ''hopefully'' in your view I've added value to your work while trying to keep your ''voice'' in the chapter. Please feel free to revise, move or remove anything that doesn't fit your direction. 

If there's any issues (e.g., you want to remove something or go back to your original work), please send me an email (u3284454@uni.canberra.edu.au) and I'll immediately do it for you. Happy to share my number via email as well.

Good luck with the chapter.

Cheers :)

Joel [[User:Jshottt|Jshottt]] ([[User talk:Jshottt|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Jshottt|contribs]]) 23:35, 9 October 2026 (UTC)

== Social contribution: suggested adjustments to meet marking criteria ==

Hey, I think you have a great basis to work off on your chapter, and it seems like you already have some great additions from your peers. 

I have made some minor edits for spelling and sourcing in your chapter. 

A few suggestions that may help you as you fill out your chapter over today and tomorrow. 

Discussion surrounding Suicide
# the AIFS release you reference in your paragraph about suicide was published in 2025, but the data was gathered in 2018, so you might want to seek some more contemporary data on this point. 
# I would also recommend seeking some seperate evidence on your claims of healthier activities reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviours as this is not strictly explained in the AIFS data. 
# I would also consider how this paragraph could be made to answer the focus questions you have listed. 

Referencing discrepancies 
# There were some issues with the spelling of references included (particularly around accent marks on names). I have updated these where I found them 

Style suggestion 
# I agree with the above suggestion to link examples back to Mia throughout the chapter, this helps to explain concepts. 

Good luck on the rest of your chapter. 

Thanks 

--[[User:U3216851|U3216851]] ([[User talk:U3216851|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/U3216851|contribs]]) 02:22, 10 October 2026 (UTC)

== Recommendations :) ==
Hi there!

This chapter has an engaging scenario and a strong theoretical foundation through the Dual Systems and Maturational Imbalance models. I especially liked the discussion of positive risk-taking because it avoids presenting adolescent reward sensitivity solely as a deficit. Some sections still contain planning questions and bullet points, so converting these into connected paragraphs would improve the chapter’s flow and depth. It would also help to explain the difference between sensation-seeking and impulsivity, integrate the research more critically, remove the template instructions from the conclusion, and complete a final check of grammar, APA citations and the reference list. [[User:U3275909|U3275909]] ([[User talk:U3275909|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/U3275909|contribs]]) 23:48, 10 October 2026 (UTC)

== Social Context and Risk-Taking ==
Heya!
Love the book chapter and your description for figure 2. was so matter-a-fact it got a laugh out of me. I just had one question regarding the social context and risk taking section. You found risky driving changed based on who was in the car. What makes the motivation for social reward differ from conforming to social expectation? Moreso what examples could you provide to strengthen your arguement? (e.g. Driving safely when on a date might make your date feel safe improve their opinion of you during the date. Or the same driver could think driving recklessly might be more exciting and use that to chase the reward of wanting to appear more exciting to their date.) 
All in all well done!! [[User:Revial76|Revial76]] ([[User talk:Revial76|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Revial76|contribs]]) 20:52, 13 October 2026 (UTC)</text>
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== About me ==
I am '''Ben'''. I'm currently doing a ''Bachelor of Psychology'' at [https://www.canberra.edu.au/ University of Canberra] doing [[motivation and emotion]].
[[File:League of Legends 2019 vector.svg|thumb|400x400px|'''Figure 1'''. A hobby that has dominated my free time ;-;]]
Some of my hobbies include:

* [[w:Comedy|Being funny]]
* [[w:Laufey_(singer)|Singing]]
* [[w:Guy_Fieri|Cooking]]
* Gaming w my buddies
*# [[w:Battlefield_6|Battlefield 6]]
*# [[w:League_of_Legends|League of Legends]]
*# [[w:Marvel_Rivals|Marvel Rivals]]
* [[w:Riftbound|Riftbound]]
* [[w:Mike_Mentzer|Gym]]
* [[w:Harry_Kane|Soccer]]
* [[w:Frozen_(musical)|Musicals]]
* My fishtank

== Book chapter I'm working on ==
[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Automaticity and goal pursuit|Automaticity and goal pursuit]]

== Social Contributions ==
* Made comments on [https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/457412 UCLearn] about a gambling game someone wanted feedback on as part of their page
* [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3AMotivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FAdolescent_risk-taking_and_reward-system_development&amp;diff=2828465&amp;oldid=2826531 Provided feedback in the discussion section.] 
* [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FPower_motivation_in_leadership&amp;diff=2828492&amp;oldid=2828457 Attempted] to make changes on someones page but couldn't nail the code.
* Book chapter - Make recommendations on [https://uclearn.canberra.edu.au/courses/20143/discussion_topics/465466?entry_id=825294 UCLearn] about including more research synthesis. 
* Book chapter - Asked about relevant examples in the [[Talk:Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Adolescent risk-taking and reward-system development#c-Revial76-20261013205200-Social Context and Risk-Taking|discussion section]] that may strengthen their arguement against competing explainations.
* Book chapter - Changed spelling in [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=Motivation_and_emotion%2FBook%2F2026%2FAdolescent_risk-taking_and_reward-system_development&amp;diff=2840074&amp;oldid=2838078 book chapter] to better reflect the literature and improve readability.</text>
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'''Research manuscript — Draft Version 1.0'''

''This page develops a standalone research manuscript arising from the [[Probability Dilation Theory]] project. It is a work in progress and should not be regarded as a peer-reviewed publication.''

= Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry =

'''Howard Richardson'''

''Draft Version 1.0 — August 2026''

== Abstract ==

This paper develops a unified framework for normalized positive transformations of probability distributions, referred to here as '''Probability Dilation Theory (PDT)'''. The central construction consists of applying a positive transformation to a probability state and subsequently renormalizing the result.

In finite dimensions this includes diagonal reweighting,

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i'=
\frac{d_i p_i}
{\sum_j d_jp_j},
&lt;/math&gt;

and the matrix transformation

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)=
\frac{Mp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf T}Mp},
&lt;/math&gt;

for suitable nonnegative matrices &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt;.

A corresponding measure-theoretic formulation is

:&lt;math&gt;
P_D(A)=
\frac{\int_A D\,dP}
{\int_X D\,dP}.
&lt;/math&gt;

These constructions are compared explicitly with established mathematical structures including change of measure, normalized positive operators, Perron–Frobenius iteration, Markov operators, replicator-type dynamics, and normalized Feynman–Kac transformations.

The purpose of the framework is therefore not to claim these established constructions as new, but to investigate their common dilation-normalization structure and the geometry of the resulting probability trajectories.

Particular attention is given to the exponential dilation family

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}}
{\sum_j p_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Using the square-root representation of the Fisher–Rao simplex, we establish that, under finite-dimensional strict-positivity assumptions, the image of this exponential-dilation trajectory is contained in a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic, up to reparameterization, if and only if the generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; assumes at most two distinct values.

An explicit Fisher–Rao arclength parameterization is then obtained for the nondegenerate two-level case.

The framework provides a common language for normalized probability transformations while separating results inherited from established theory from geometric properties arising from the particular dilation formulation.

== 1. Introduction ==

Probability distributions are frequently transformed by operations having a common mathematical structure: nonnegative weights are modified by a positive transformation and subsequently normalized so that total probability remains unity.

Such constructions occur in numerous areas of probability, statistics, dynamical systems, numerical linear algebra, and mathematical physics.

The simplest finite-dimensional example takes a probability vector

:&lt;math&gt;
p=(p_1,\ldots,p_n)^{\mathsf T},
\qquad
p_i\geq 0,
\qquad
\sum_{i=1}^{n}p_i=1,
&lt;/math&gt;

assigns positive weights &lt;math&gt;d_i&lt;/math&gt;, and defines

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i'=
\frac{d_i p_i}
{\sum_{j=1}^{n}d_jp_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The transformation changes the relative probability assigned to individual states while normalization returns the resulting vector to the probability simplex.

This paper uses the term '''probability dilation''' for this general transformation-and-normalization structure and examines a hierarchy of related constructions.

In finite dimensions, diagonal dilation extends naturally to the action of a nonnegative matrix,

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)=
\frac{Mp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf T}Mp},
&lt;/math&gt;

whenever the denominator is positive.

At the level of probability measures, multiplication by a positive measurable function &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt; gives

:&lt;math&gt;
P_D(A)=
\frac{\displaystyle\int_A D(x)\,dP(x)}
{\displaystyle\int_X D(x)\,dP(x)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

These expressions have substantial connections with existing mathematics. Normalized matrix iteration is closely related to the power method and Perron–Frobenius theory; positive weighting of measures belongs to established change-of-measure constructions; stochastic matrices provide the familiar Markov special case; and normalized potential-weighted measures occur in Feynman–Kac models.

Accordingly, the objective of PDT as developed here is '''not''' to rename these established mathematical theories or to assert novelty for normalization itself.

Instead, the objective is to examine them through the common structural sequence

:&lt;math&gt;
\text{positive transformation}
\longrightarrow
\text{normalization}
\longrightarrow
\text{iteration}
\longrightarrow
\text{probability dynamics}
\longrightarrow
\text{geometry}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This viewpoint leads naturally to questions concerning fixed points, convergence, entropy, state-dependent transformations, and the geometry of trajectories on the probability simplex.

=== 1.1 Exponential dilation ===

A particularly useful example is obtained from exponential dilation.

Given an initial strictly positive probability vector &lt;math&gt;p^{(0)}&lt;/math&gt; and a real-valued generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt;, define

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}}
{Z(\theta)},
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
Z(\theta)=
\sum_j p_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is an exponential-family construction and therefore belongs to well-established information geometry.

The question considered here is more specific:

:''When is this exponential trajectory also a Levi-Civita geodesic of the Fisher–Rao metric?''

The Fisher–Rao geometry of a finite probability simplex admits a square-root representation on a sphere.

Under the mapping

:&lt;math&gt;
p\longmapsto
2(\sqrt{p_1},\ldots,\sqrt{p_n}),
&lt;/math&gt;

Fisher–Rao geodesics correspond to spherical great-circle arcs.

This representation permits a direct characterization of exponential dilation trajectories that are simultaneously Fisher–Rao geodesic.

=== 1.2 Principal geometric result ===

The principal geometric result developed below is that, for a strictly positive finite probability vector, an exponential dilation trajectory lies on a Fisher–Rao geodesic, up to reparameterization, precisely when its generator assumes no more than two distinct values.

The proof reduces the problem to the dimension of the linear span generated by distinct exponential rates and uses a Vandermonde argument for the converse.

The resulting two-level trajectory also admits an explicit Fisher–Rao arclength parameterization.

At the present draft stage, this characterization is treated conservatively. Its constituent mathematical ingredients are established results from information geometry and linear algebra. The exact characterization developed here remains subject to further literature review and independent mathematical scrutiny.

=== 1.3 Organization of the paper ===

The remainder of the paper is organized as follows:

* '''Section 2''' introduces the normalized-dilation framework and notation.
* '''Section 3''' develops diagonal and matrix formulations.
* '''Section 4''' develops the measure-theoretic formulation.
* '''Section 5''' compares the framework explicitly with established mathematics.
* '''Section 6''' introduces exponential dilation and its information-geometric representation.
* '''Section 7''' states and proves the Fisher–Rao geodesic characterization theorem.
* '''Section 8''' derives the two-level Fisher–Rao arclength corollary and illustrative examples.
* '''Section 9''' discusses limitations, possible extensions, and open problems.
* '''Section 10''' summarizes the principal conclusions.

== 2. Normalized-Dilation Framework ==

This section introduces the common mathematical structure used throughout the paper. The essential operation consists of applying a positive transformation to a probability state and then normalizing the transformed object so that it again represents a probability distribution.

=== 2.1 Probability simplex ===

For a finite state space with &lt;math&gt;n&lt;/math&gt; states, define the probability simplex

:&lt;math&gt;
\Delta^{n-1}
=
\left\{
p\in\mathbb{R}^{n}:
p_i\geq 0,\;
\sum_{i=1}^{n}p_i=1
\right\}.
&lt;/math&gt;

A probability state is represented by a column vector

:&lt;math&gt;
p=
(p_1,\ldots,p_n)^{\mathsf{T}}
\in\Delta^{n-1}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Its components satisfy

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i\geq 0
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}p=1,
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}
=
(1,\ldots,1)^{\mathsf{T}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The interior of the simplex is

:&lt;math&gt;
\Delta_{+}^{n-1}
=
\left\{
p\in\Delta^{n-1}:p_i&gt;0
\text{ for all }i
\right\}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The distinction between the simplex and its interior becomes important later when Fisher–Rao geometry is considered.

=== 2.2 Positive transformations ===

Let &lt;math&gt;\mathcal{L}&lt;/math&gt; denote a transformation acting on probability states such that

:&lt;math&gt;
p\geq 0
\quad\Longrightarrow\quad
\mathcal{L}(p)\geq 0.
&lt;/math&gt;

The transformed object &lt;math&gt;\mathcal{L}(p)&lt;/math&gt; need not itself be normalized.

Define its total mass by

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathcal{N}[\mathcal{L}(p)]
=
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}\mathcal{L}(p).
&lt;/math&gt;

Whenever

:&lt;math&gt;
0&lt;
\mathcal{N}[\mathcal{L}(p)]
&lt;
\infty,
&lt;/math&gt;

the normalized transformation is defined by

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathcal{T}_{\mathcal{L}}(p)
=
\frac{\mathcal{L}(p)}
{\mathcal{N}[\mathcal{L}(p)]}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently, in the finite-dimensional setting,

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathcal{T}_{\mathcal{L}}(p)
=
\frac{\mathcal{L}(p)}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}\mathcal{L}(p)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

By construction,

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}
\mathcal{T}_{\mathcal{L}}(p)
=
1,
&lt;/math&gt;

so

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathcal{T}_{\mathcal{L}}(p)
\in
\Delta^{n-1}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This positive-transformation-plus-normalization operation is the basic structure referred to in this paper as '''normalized probability dilation'''.

=== 2.3 Normalization as projectivization ===

An immediate property of the normalized transformation is invariance under multiplication by a positive scalar.

If &lt;math&gt;c&gt;0&lt;/math&gt;, then

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{c\mathcal{L}(p)}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}c\mathcal{L}(p)}
=
\frac{\mathcal{L}(p)}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}\mathcal{L}(p)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Hence

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathcal{T}_{c\mathcal{L}}(p)
=
\mathcal{T}_{\mathcal{L}}(p).
&lt;/math&gt;

The normalized transformation therefore depends on the relative components of &lt;math&gt;\mathcal{L}(p)&lt;/math&gt;, rather than on its overall positive scale.

This projective feature connects normalized dilation with established theories of positive operators and projective dynamics. No claim of novelty is attached to the normalization or projectivization operation itself.

=== 2.4 Diagonal dilation ===

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
D=
\operatorname{diag}(d_1,\ldots,d_n),
\qquad
d_i&gt;0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Applying &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt; to &lt;math&gt;p&lt;/math&gt; gives

:&lt;math&gt;
Dp=
(d_1p_1,\ldots,d_np_n)^{\mathsf{T}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Normalization produces

:&lt;math&gt;
T_D(p)
=
\frac{Dp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Dp}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Componentwise,

:&lt;math&gt;
T_D(p)_i
=
\frac{d_ip_i}
{\sum_{j=1}^{n}d_jp_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is the basic finite-dimensional dilation operation from which the broader PDT formulation developed.

The factors &lt;math&gt;d_i&lt;/math&gt; alter the relative weights of the probability states, while the denominator restores unit total probability.

=== 2.5 Matrix dilation ===

The diagonal transformation can be generalized to a nonnegative matrix

:&lt;math&gt;
M\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n},
\qquad
M_{ij}\geq 0.
&lt;/math&gt;

For any probability vector &lt;math&gt;p&lt;/math&gt; satisfying

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp&gt;0,
&lt;/math&gt;

define

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)
=
\frac{Mp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The diagonal case is recovered when

:&lt;math&gt;
M=D.
&lt;/math&gt;

Off-diagonal entries permit components of the input probability vector to contribute to different output components before normalization.

The matrix formulation therefore extends independent componentwise reweighting to coupled positive transformations.

The mathematical behavior of this construction is closely related to established positive-matrix theory, normalized power iteration, and Perron–Frobenius theory. These relationships are discussed explicitly in Section 5.

=== 2.6 Measure-theoretic dilation ===

The same normalization principle extends naturally from finite probability vectors to probability measures.

Let &lt;math&gt;(X,\mathcal{F},P)&lt;/math&gt; be a probability space, and let

:&lt;math&gt;
D:X\rightarrow[0,\infty)
&lt;/math&gt;

be measurable with

:&lt;math&gt;
0&lt;
\int_X D(x)\,dP(x)
&lt;
\infty.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define a new probability measure &lt;math&gt;P_D&lt;/math&gt; by

:&lt;math&gt;
P_D(A)
=
\frac{\displaystyle\int_A D(x)\,dP(x)}
{\displaystyle\int_X D(x)\,dP(x)},
\qquad
A\in\mathcal{F}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently, the Radon–Nikodym derivative of &lt;math&gt;P_D&lt;/math&gt; with respect to &lt;math&gt;P&lt;/math&gt; is

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dP_D}{dP}
=
\frac{D}
{\displaystyle\int_X D\,dP}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the finite-dimensional rule

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i
\longmapsto
\frac{d_ip_i}
{\sum_jd_jp_j}
&lt;/math&gt;

and the measure-theoretic rule

:&lt;math&gt;
dP
\longmapsto
\frac{D\,dP}
{\int_XD\,dP}
&lt;/math&gt;

share the same normalized positive-reweighting structure.

This construction has direct connections with established change-of-measure and weighted-measure theory. The PDT terminology is used here as an organizing framework rather than as a claim that normalized change of measure is itself new.

=== 2.7 Iterated dilation ===

A normalized dilation operator can be iterated.

Given an initial state

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(0)}\in\Delta^{n-1},
&lt;/math&gt;

define

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k+1)}
=
\mathcal{T}_{\mathcal{L}}\left(p^{(k)}\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

This generates an orbit

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(0)}
\longmapsto
p^{(1)}
\longmapsto
p^{(2)}
\longmapsto
\cdots
&lt;/math&gt;

on the probability simplex.

For a fixed matrix &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k+1)}
=
\frac{Mp^{(k)}}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp^{(k)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

When all required denominators are positive, repeated normalization gives

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k)}
=
\frac{M^k p^{(0)}}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}M^k p^{(0)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The long-term behavior of this iteration is governed in important cases by established spectral and Perron–Frobenius theory.

More general formulations may allow the transformation itself to depend on the iteration index or the current probability state, for example

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k+1)}
=
\frac{M_kp^{(k)}}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}M_kp^{(k)}}
&lt;/math&gt;

or

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k+1)}
=
\frac{M(p^{(k)})p^{(k)}}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}M(p^{(k)})p^{(k)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

These state-dependent and iteration-dependent forms are treated as possible extensions rather than necessary components of the basic framework.

=== 2.8 Hierarchy of normalized dilation ===

The constructions above can be summarized by the following hierarchy:

:'''diagonal reweighting → matrix transformation → positive operator → measure transformation'''

At each level the essential operation is:

:'''positive transformation + normalization'''

The framework is deliberately broad. Its purpose is not to imply that all normalized positive transformations constitute a new mathematical theory, but to provide a common notation and viewpoint from which their dynamics and geometry can be compared.

The following sections specialize this framework before examining its relationship to established mathematical constructions.

== 3. Finite-Dimensional and Matrix Dilation ==

This section develops the finite-dimensional forms of normalized probability dilation in greater detail. The emphasis is on the relationship between diagonal reweighting and nonnegative matrix transformations, together with the basic structural properties required later in the paper.

=== 3.1 Finite probability states ===

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
p=(p_1,\ldots,p_n)^{\mathsf{T}}
\in\Delta^{n-1}.
&lt;/math&gt;

A positive weighting vector is written

:&lt;math&gt;
d=(d_1,\ldots,d_n)^{\mathsf{T}},
\qquad
d_i&gt;0.
&lt;/math&gt;

The associated diagonal matrix is

:&lt;math&gt;
D=
\operatorname{diag}(d_1,\ldots,d_n).
&lt;/math&gt;

Applying the weighting gives

:&lt;math&gt;
Dp=
(d_1p_1,\ldots,d_np_n)^{\mathsf{T}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Its total mass is

:&lt;math&gt;
Z(p,D)
=
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Dp
=
\sum_{i=1}^{n}d_ip_i.
&lt;/math&gt;

Since &lt;math&gt;d_i&gt;0&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;p&lt;/math&gt; is a probability vector,

:&lt;math&gt;
Z(p,D)&gt;0.
&lt;/math&gt;

The normalized diagonal dilation operator is therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
T_D(p)
=
\frac{Dp}{Z(p,D)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

:&lt;math&gt;
T_D(p)_i
=
\frac{d_ip_i}
{\sum_{j=1}^{n}d_jp_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 3.2 Relative probability transformation ===

Diagonal dilation has a simple effect on probability ratios.

For any states &lt;math&gt;i&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;j&lt;/math&gt; with &lt;math&gt;p_i&gt;0&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;p_j&gt;0&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{T_D(p)_i}{T_D(p)_j}
=
\frac{d_i}{d_j}
\frac{p_i}{p_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus normalization does not alter the relative dilation introduced by the factors &lt;math&gt;d_i&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;d_j&lt;/math&gt;.

If

:&lt;math&gt;
d_i&gt;d_j,
&lt;/math&gt;

then the odds of state &lt;math&gt;i&lt;/math&gt; relative to state &lt;math&gt;j&lt;/math&gt; increase by the factor

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d_i}{d_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This ratio form makes clear that diagonal dilation is fundamentally a relative reweighting operation.

=== 3.3 Scale invariance ===

Multiplying every dilation factor by the same positive constant does not change the normalized state.

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
c&gt;0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
T_{cD}(p)
=
\frac{cDp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}cDp}
=
\frac{Dp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Dp}
=
T_D(p).
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore only the relative values of the dilation factors affect the transformed probability distribution.

This scale invariance is a basic projective property of normalized positive transformations.

=== 3.4 Repeated diagonal dilation ===

Suppose the same diagonal operator &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt; is applied repeatedly.

Starting from &lt;math&gt;p^{(0)}&lt;/math&gt;, define

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k+1)}
=
T_D(p^{(k)}).
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k)}
=
\frac{D^k p^{(0)}}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}D^k p^{(0)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Since

:&lt;math&gt;
D^k
=
\operatorname{diag}(d_1^k,\ldots,d_n^k),
&lt;/math&gt;

the individual components are

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i^{(k)}
=
\frac{d_i^k p_i^{(0)}}
{\sum_{j=1}^{n}d_j^k p_j^{(0)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Consequently, for two initially positive components,

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{p_i^{(k)}}{p_j^{(k)}}
=
\left(\frac{d_i}{d_j}\right)^k
\frac{p_i^{(0)}}{p_j^{(0)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This expression describes the concentration mechanism directly.

If one dilation factor is strictly larger than all others and its corresponding initial probability is positive, repeated dilation concentrates probability on that state.

If several states share the maximal dilation factor, probability concentrates on that maximal set while preserving the initial relative proportions within that set.

This behavior is a direct consequence of normalized repeated weighting and is not specific to PDT terminology.

=== 3.5 General nonnegative matrix transformation ===

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
M=(M_{ij})
\in\mathbb{R}^{n\times n},
\qquad
M_{ij}\geq0.
&lt;/math&gt;

For &lt;math&gt;p\in\Delta^{n-1}&lt;/math&gt;, define

:&lt;math&gt;
q=Mp.
&lt;/math&gt;

Because &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;p&lt;/math&gt; are nonnegative,

:&lt;math&gt;
q_i\geq0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Whenever

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp&gt;0,
&lt;/math&gt;

the normalized matrix dilation operator is

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)
=
\frac{Mp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Its components are

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)_i
=
\frac{\sum_{j=1}^{n}M_{ij}p_j}
{\sum_{r=1}^{n}\sum_{j=1}^{n}M_{rj}p_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

By construction,

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_{i=1}^{n}T_M(p)_i=1.
&lt;/math&gt;

Hence

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)\in\Delta^{n-1}.
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 3.6 Diagonal dilation as a special case ===

If

:&lt;math&gt;
M=D
=
\operatorname{diag}(d_1,\ldots,d_n),
&lt;/math&gt;

then

:&lt;math&gt;
Mp=Dp,
&lt;/math&gt;

and therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)=T_D(p).
&lt;/math&gt;

Diagonal dilation is thus a special case of normalized matrix dilation.

The distinction is structural.

For a diagonal matrix, each output component depends only on the corresponding input component:

:&lt;math&gt;
(Dp)_i=d_ip_i.
&lt;/math&gt;

For a general matrix,

:&lt;math&gt;
(Mp)_i
=
\sum_{j=1}^{n}M_{ij}p_j,
&lt;/math&gt;

so multiple input states may contribute to a single output state before normalization.

This permits coupled probability evolution.

=== 3.7 When normalization is unnecessary ===

There is an important special case.

Suppose &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; satisfies

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}M
=
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then for every probability vector &lt;math&gt;p&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp
=
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}p
=
1.
&lt;/math&gt;

Consequently,

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)=Mp.
&lt;/math&gt;

With the column-vector convention used in this paper, the condition

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}M
=
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}
&lt;/math&gt;

means that the columns of &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; sum to one.

Thus an ordinary probability-preserving linear transition is contained as a special case of the normalized matrix framework.

When &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; does not preserve total mass, normalization supplies the additional step required to return &lt;math&gt;Mp&lt;/math&gt; to the simplex.

=== 3.8 Fixed points and eigenvectors ===

Suppose &lt;math&gt;p^{*}&lt;/math&gt; is a fixed point of the normalized matrix operator:

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p^{*})=p^{*}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{Mp^{*}}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp^{*}}
=
p^{*}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Multiplying by the denominator gives

:&lt;math&gt;
Mp^{*}
=
\lambda p^{*},
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
\lambda
=
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp^{*}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore every fixed point of the normalized matrix transformation is a nonnegative eigenvector of &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt;, normalized to have unit total mass.

Conversely, if &lt;math&gt;v\geq0&lt;/math&gt; is a nonzero eigenvector satisfying

:&lt;math&gt;
Mv=\lambda v,
\qquad
\lambda&gt;0,
&lt;/math&gt;

then

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{*}
=
\frac{v}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}v}
&lt;/math&gt;

is a fixed point of &lt;math&gt;T_M&lt;/math&gt;.

Thus normalized fixed points and positive eigenvectors are directly related.

=== 3.9 Repeated matrix dilation ===

For a fixed nonnegative matrix &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt;, define

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k+1)}
=
T_M(p^{(k)}).
&lt;/math&gt;

Whenever the required denominators remain positive,

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k)}
=
\frac{M^k p^{(0)}}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}M^k p^{(0)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This identity follows because the scalar normalization introduced at each intermediate step cancels under the next normalization.

The iteration is therefore closely related to normalized power iteration.

Under suitable positivity or primitivity assumptions, Perron–Frobenius theory describes the dominant eigenvalue and positive eigenvector governing the long-term behavior.

Accordingly, convergence of the fixed-matrix case should be understood primarily through established positive-matrix and spectral theory rather than as a separate PDT convergence mechanism.

=== 3.10 Primitive positive matrices ===

A particularly important case occurs when &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; is primitive; that is, some positive integer power of &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; has strictly positive entries.

Perron–Frobenius theory then provides a dominant real eigenvalue

:&lt;math&gt;
\rho(M)&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

with a corresponding strictly positive eigenvector &lt;math&gt;v&lt;/math&gt;.

After normalization,

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{*}
=
\frac{v}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}v},
&lt;/math&gt;

this eigenvector gives the distinguished interior fixed point of the normalized matrix transformation.

For suitable initial probability vectors,

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M^{k}(p^{(0)})
&lt;/math&gt;

converges toward &lt;math&gt;p^{*}&lt;/math&gt;.

This convergence is an established consequence of Perron–Frobenius theory and normalized power iteration. Its role here is to locate matrix dilation within known mathematics.

=== 3.11 Interpretation of off-diagonal terms ===

The off-diagonal entries of &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; distinguish matrix dilation from independent diagonal reweighting.

For

:&lt;math&gt;
i\neq j,
&lt;/math&gt;

a term

:&lt;math&gt;
M_{ij}p_j
&lt;/math&gt;

represents a contribution from input state &lt;math&gt;j&lt;/math&gt; to output component &lt;math&gt;i&lt;/math&gt; before normalization.

The matrix therefore combines two operations:

* positive redistribution or coupling through &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt;;
* restoration of unit total probability through normalization.

This interpretation is useful for organizing the framework, but the underlying linear transformation remains standard matrix mathematics.

=== 3.12 Scope of the matrix formulation ===

The matrix formulation substantially enlarges the class of transformations expressible within the normalized-dilation notation, but that enlargement should not be confused with mathematical novelty.

For a fixed matrix &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt;, the central objects

:&lt;math&gt;
Mp,
\qquad
M^kp,
\qquad
\rho(M),
&lt;/math&gt;

and the associated eigenvectors and convergence properties belong to established linear algebra and positive-operator theory.

The role of the PDT framework is to place diagonal reweighting, matrix transformation, iteration, and later measure-theoretic and geometric constructions within a common normalized-probability notation.

This distinction between '''framework''' and '''new mathematical result''' will be maintained throughout the paper.

== 4. Measure-Theoretic Dilation ==

The finite-dimensional dilation rule extends naturally to probability measures. In this setting, componentwise multiplication by positive weights is replaced by multiplication of a probability measure by a nonnegative measurable function followed by normalization.

This formulation places finite probability dilation within the standard language of measure theory and makes its relationship to change of measure explicit.

=== 4.1 Probability-space formulation ===

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
(X,\mathcal{F},P)
&lt;/math&gt;

be a probability space.

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
D:X\rightarrow[0,\infty)
&lt;/math&gt;

be a measurable function satisfying

:&lt;math&gt;
0&lt;
\int_X D(x)\,dP(x)
&lt;
\infty.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define the normalization factor

:&lt;math&gt;
Z(P,D)
=
\int_X D(x)\,dP(x).
&lt;/math&gt;

For every measurable set

:&lt;math&gt;
A\in\mathcal{F},
&lt;/math&gt;

define

:&lt;math&gt;
P_D(A)
=
\frac{\displaystyle\int_A D(x)\,dP(x)}
{Z(P,D)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

:&lt;math&gt;
P_D(A)
=
\frac{\displaystyle\int_A D(x)\,dP(x)}
{\displaystyle\int_X D(x)\,dP(x)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The function &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt; acts as a nonnegative weighting or dilation field over the probability space.

=== 4.2 Normalization ===

The transformed measure has total mass one because

:&lt;math&gt;
P_D(X)
=
\frac{\displaystyle\int_X D(x)\,dP(x)}
{\displaystyle\int_X D(x)\,dP(x)}
=
1.
&lt;/math&gt;

Also, because &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt; is nonnegative,

:&lt;math&gt;
P_D(A)\geq0
&lt;/math&gt;

for every &lt;math&gt;A\in\mathcal{F}&lt;/math&gt;.

Countable additivity follows from the countable additivity of integration with respect to &lt;math&gt;P&lt;/math&gt;.

Therefore &lt;math&gt;P_D&lt;/math&gt; is a probability measure.

=== 4.3 Radon–Nikodym representation ===

The transformed measure &lt;math&gt;P_D&lt;/math&gt; is absolutely continuous with respect to &lt;math&gt;P&lt;/math&gt;.

Its Radon–Nikodym derivative is

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dP_D}{dP}(x)
=
\frac{D(x)}
{\displaystyle\int_X D(y)\,dP(y)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus normalized measure dilation can be written formally as

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_D(x)
=
\frac{D(x)\,dP(x)}
{\displaystyle\int_X D(y)\,dP(y)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This expression makes clear that the construction is a normalized change of measure.

The Radon–Nikodym framework is established measure theory. The terminology of dilation is used here to emphasize the common transformation-and-normalization structure shared with the finite-dimensional formulation.

=== 4.4 Scale invariance ===

As in the finite-dimensional case, multiplication of the dilation field by a positive constant does not change the normalized measure.

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
c&gt;0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
P_{cD}(A)
=
\frac{\displaystyle\int_A cD\,dP}
{\displaystyle\int_X cD\,dP}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The common factor cancels, giving

:&lt;math&gt;
P_{cD}(A)=P_D(A).
&lt;/math&gt;

Hence the transformed probability measure depends only on the relative values of the dilation field &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt;, not on its overall positive scale.

=== 4.5 Finite probability spaces as a special case ===

Consider a finite state space

:&lt;math&gt;
X=\{1,\ldots,n\}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
P(\{i\})=p_i
&lt;/math&gt;

and define

:&lt;math&gt;
D(i)=d_i.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
\int_X D\,dP
=
\sum_{j=1}^{n}d_jp_j.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the singleton event &lt;math&gt;\{i\}&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
P_D(\{i\})
=
\frac{d_ip_i}
{\sum_{j=1}^{n}d_jp_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the finite diagonal dilation rule

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i'
=
\frac{d_ip_i}
{\sum_jd_jp_j}
&lt;/math&gt;

is recovered exactly from the measure-theoretic construction.

The discrete and measure-theoretic formulations are therefore instances of the same normalized positive-reweighting operation.

=== 4.6 Expectations under dilation ===

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
f:X\rightarrow\mathbb{R}
&lt;/math&gt;

be measurable and integrable with respect to the transformed measure.

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbb{E}_{P_D}[f]
=
\int_X f(x)\,dP_D(x).
&lt;/math&gt;

Using the Radon–Nikodym representation,

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbb{E}_{P_D}[f]
=
\frac{\displaystyle\int_X f(x)D(x)\,dP(x)}
{\displaystyle\int_X D(x)\,dP(x)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbb{E}_{P_D}[f]
=
\frac{\mathbb{E}_{P}[fD]}
{\mathbb{E}_{P}[D]},
&lt;/math&gt;

provided the required expectations exist.

This identity is a standard weighted-expectation formula and will later be useful for exponential dilation.

=== 4.7 Composition of dilation fields ===

Suppose a first dilation field &lt;math&gt;D_1&lt;/math&gt; transforms &lt;math&gt;P&lt;/math&gt; into &lt;math&gt;P_{D_1}&lt;/math&gt;, and a second field &lt;math&gt;D_2&lt;/math&gt; is then applied.

The first transformation gives

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_{D_1}
=
\frac{D_1\,dP}
{\int_XD_1\,dP}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Applying &lt;math&gt;D_2&lt;/math&gt; gives

:&lt;math&gt;
d(P_{D_1})_{D_2}
=
\frac{D_2\,dP_{D_1}}
{\int_XD_2\,dP_{D_1}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Substituting the first transformation and simplifying yields

:&lt;math&gt;
d(P_{D_1})_{D_2}
=
\frac{D_1D_2\,dP}
{\int_XD_1D_2\,dP},
&lt;/math&gt;

whenever the required integrals are finite and positive.

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
(P_{D_1})_{D_2}
=
P_{D_1D_2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Sequential scalar dilation fields thus combine multiplicatively before normalization.

This composition property is the measure-theoretic analogue of repeated diagonal reweighting.

=== 4.8 Iterated fixed dilation ===

If the same dilation field &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt; is applied repeatedly, then after &lt;math&gt;k&lt;/math&gt; iterations,

:&lt;math&gt;
dP^{(k)}
=
\frac{D^k\,dP^{(0)}}
{\displaystyle\int_XD^k\,dP^{(0)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently, for any measurable event &lt;math&gt;A&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
P^{(k)}(A)
=
\frac{\displaystyle\int_A D(x)^k\,dP^{(0)}(x)}
{\displaystyle\int_X D(x)^k\,dP^{(0)}(x)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is the direct measure-theoretic counterpart of

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i^{(k)}
=
\frac{d_i^kp_i^{(0)}}
{\sum_jd_j^kp_j^{(0)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Regions where &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt; is relatively large receive increasing relative weight under repeated application.

The precise limiting behavior depends on the structure of &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt; and the initial measure.

=== 4.9 Exponential dilation fields ===

A particularly important family is obtained by choosing

:&lt;math&gt;
D_{\theta}(x)
=
e^{\theta\phi(x)},
&lt;/math&gt;

where &lt;math&gt;\phi:X\rightarrow\mathbb{R}&lt;/math&gt; is measurable and &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; is a real parameter for which the normalization integral is finite.

Define

:&lt;math&gt;
Z(\theta)
=
\int_X e^{\theta\phi(x)}\,dP_0(x).
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_{\theta}(x)
=
\frac{e^{\theta\phi(x)}}
{Z(\theta)}
dP_0(x).
&lt;/math&gt;

In a finite state space this becomes

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}}
{\sum_jp_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is a standard exponential tilting construction and is closely related to exponential families, cumulant-generating functions, and information geometry.

Its importance for the present paper is that it provides a continuous one-parameter dilation trajectory whose Fisher–Rao geometry can be studied explicitly.

=== 4.10 Infinitesimal evolution of exponential dilation ===

For the finite-dimensional exponential family,

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}}
{Z(\theta)},
&lt;/math&gt;

differentiate with respect to &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;.

The logarithmic derivative is

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d}{d\theta}\log p_i(\theta)
=
\phi_i
-
\frac{d}{d\theta}\log Z(\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

Since

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d}{d\theta}\log Z(\theta)
=
\sum_jp_j(\theta)\phi_j,
&lt;/math&gt;

define

:&lt;math&gt;
\overline{\phi}_{\theta}
=
\sum_jp_j(\theta)\phi_j.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}
=
p_i(\theta)
\left(
\phi_i-\overline{\phi}_{\theta}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

This equation has the form of a replicator-type evolution equation with a fixed state-dependent generator &lt;math&gt;\phi_i&lt;/math&gt;.

The relationship to established replicator dynamics is discussed in Section 5.

=== 4.11 Conservation of total probability ===

Summing the infinitesimal evolution equation gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_i
\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}
=
\sum_i
p_i(\theta)
\left(
\phi_i-\overline{\phi}_{\theta}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Since

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_ip_i(\theta)\phi_i
=
\overline{\phi}_{\theta}
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_ip_i(\theta)=1,
&lt;/math&gt;

it follows that

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_i
\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}
=
0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the vector field is tangent to the probability simplex.

Normalization is therefore reflected infinitesimally by conservation of total probability.

=== 4.12 Scope of the measure-theoretic formulation ===

The measure-theoretic formulation shows that normalized probability dilation is not restricted to finite vectors or matrices.

The same structural operation appears as

:'''weight → normalize → obtain a new probability measure'''

and, for exponential fields,

:'''exponential weight → normalize → continuous probability trajectory'''.

These constructions overlap directly with established change-of-measure theory, exponential tilting, weighted probability measures, and related probabilistic methods.

Their role in the present framework is to connect the finite dilation notation to continuous probability spaces and to provide the bridge to the information-geometric analysis developed later in the paper.

The next section therefore compares the normalized-dilation framework systematically with established mathematical constructions before any additional geometric results are introduced.

== 5. Relation to Established Mathematics ==

The normalized-dilation framework overlaps with several established areas of mathematics. This section identifies those relationships explicitly.

The purpose is twofold: first, to place the notation used in this paper within its appropriate mathematical context; and second, to distinguish established constructions from the particular synthesis and geometric questions developed later in the paper.

The term '''probability dilation''' is therefore used as an organizing description of a transformation-and-normalization structure, not as a claim that the underlying operations of reweighting, normalization, positive matrix iteration, or change of measure are themselves new.

=== 5.1 Weighted probability and change of measure ===

The measure-theoretic transformation

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_D
=
\frac{D\,dP}
{\int_XD\,dP}
&lt;/math&gt;

is a standard normalized change of measure.

Its Radon–Nikodym derivative with respect to &lt;math&gt;P&lt;/math&gt; is

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dP_D}{dP}
=
\frac{D}
{\int_XD\,dP}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Consequently, for an integrable observable &lt;math&gt;f&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbb{E}_{P_D}[f]
=
\frac{\mathbb{E}_{P}[fD]}
{\mathbb{E}_{P}[D]}.
&lt;/math&gt;

These expressions belong to established measure-theoretic probability.

Within the present framework, their role is to show that finite diagonal dilation and continuous weighted change of measure share the same normalized reweighting structure.

=== 5.2 Bayesian reweighting ===

A closely related normalization structure occurs in Bayesian inference.

If &lt;math&gt;\pi(x)&lt;/math&gt; is a prior density and &lt;math&gt;L(y\mid x)&lt;/math&gt; is a likelihood for observed data &lt;math&gt;y&lt;/math&gt;, Bayes' rule gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\pi(x\mid y)
=
\frac{L(y\mid x)\pi(x)}
{\int L(y\mid z)\pi(z)\,dz},
&lt;/math&gt;

when the denominator is finite and nonzero.

Structurally, this has the same form as

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_D
=
\frac{D\,dP}
{\int D\,dP},
&lt;/math&gt;

with the likelihood acting as a positive weighting function.

The statistical interpretation is different: Bayesian updating has a specific inferential meaning associated with conditioning on data. The comparison here concerns only the common mathematical normalization structure.

=== 5.3 Importance weighting and exponential tilting ===

Weighted probability measures also arise in importance sampling, exponential tilting, large-deviation methods, and related statistical constructions.

For a generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt;, exponential tilting takes the form

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_{\theta}(x)
=
\frac{e^{\theta\phi(x)}}
{Z(\theta)}
dP_0(x),
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
Z(\theta)
=
\int_Xe^{\theta\phi(x)}\,dP_0(x).
&lt;/math&gt;

This is an established exponential-family construction.

The corresponding finite-dimensional expression,

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}}
{\sum_jp_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}},
&lt;/math&gt;

will be the principal object of the Fisher–Rao analysis in Sections 6 through 8.

The geometric analysis developed later concerns this established exponential-tilt family under a particular question about coincidence of information-geometric and Fisher–Rao geodesics.

=== 5.4 Positive matrices and Perron–Frobenius theory ===

For a fixed nonnegative matrix &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt;, the normalized transformation

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)
=
\frac{Mp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp}
&lt;/math&gt;

is closely related to classical positive-matrix theory.

If &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; is primitive, Perron–Frobenius theory provides a dominant positive eigenvalue

:&lt;math&gt;
\rho(M)&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

and a corresponding strictly positive eigenvector.

Repeated normalized iteration,

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k)}
=
\frac{M^kp^{(0)}}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}M^kp^{(0)}},
&lt;/math&gt;

is therefore closely related to normalized power iteration.

Under appropriate hypotheses, its asymptotic direction is governed by the Perron eigenvector.

These spectral and convergence results are established mathematics and are not presented here as new consequences of PDT.

=== 5.5 Markov operators ===

Suppose &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; is nonnegative and satisfies

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}M
=
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

With the column-vector convention used in this paper,

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp
=
1
&lt;/math&gt;

for every probability vector &lt;math&gt;p&lt;/math&gt;.

Thus

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)=Mp.
&lt;/math&gt;

In this mass-preserving case, the normalization step is unnecessary.

Accordingly, ordinary finite-state Markov evolution is contained as a special mass-preserving case of the broader positive-transformation framework.

This observation is structural. It does not imply that normalized dilation provides a replacement for Markov-chain theory.

=== 5.6 Replicator-type dynamics ===

The exponential dilation family satisfies

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}
=
p_i
\left(
\phi_i-\overline{\phi}_{\theta}
\right),
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
\overline{\phi}_{\theta}
=
\sum_jp_j(\theta)\phi_j.
&lt;/math&gt;

The standard replicator equation has the form

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dp_i}{dt}
=
p_i
\left(
f_i(p)-\overline{f}(p)
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus exponential dilation with fixed generator values &lt;math&gt;\phi_i&lt;/math&gt; has the same algebraic structure as a replicator equation with state-independent fitness values.

The mean-subtraction term guarantees

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_i\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}=0,
&lt;/math&gt;

so the flow remains tangent to the probability simplex.

Replicator dynamics and their geometric interpretations are established subjects. The present paper uses this connection to relate normalized dilation to known simplex dynamics.

=== 5.7 Fisher–Rao and Shahshahani geometry ===

The interior of the probability simplex carries the Fisher–Rao metric.

For tangent vectors &lt;math&gt;u&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;v&lt;/math&gt; satisfying

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_i u_i
=
\sum_i v_i
=
0,
&lt;/math&gt;

the finite-dimensional Fisher–Rao metric can be written as

:&lt;math&gt;
g_p(u,v)
=
\sum_{i=1}^{n}
\frac{u_iv_i}{p_i}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Closely related forms of this metric appear in evolutionary dynamics under the name Shahshahani metric.

The square-root mapping

:&lt;math&gt;
\Psi(p)
=
2(\sqrt{p_1},\ldots,\sqrt{p_n})
&lt;/math&gt;

satisfies

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_i\Psi_i(p)^2=4.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the simplex interior is represented in the positive orthant of a sphere of radius &lt;math&gt;2&lt;/math&gt;.

Under this representation, the Fisher–Rao metric becomes the metric induced by the ambient Euclidean space, and Levi-Civita Fisher–Rao geodesics correspond locally to great-circle arcs.

This established spherical representation will be the principal geometric tool used in Section 7.

=== 5.8 Exponential families and the e-connection ===

The exponential dilation path

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}}
{Z(\theta)}
&lt;/math&gt;

is a one-parameter exponential family.

Taking logarithms gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\log p_i(\theta)
=
\log p_i^{(0)}
+
\theta\phi_i
-
\log Z(\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

The natural parameter varies linearly with &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;.

In information geometry, exponential families are naturally associated with the exponential, or '''e''', connection. A path linear in natural parameters is an e-geodesic.

This notion of geodesic is distinct from a Levi-Civita geodesic of the Fisher–Rao metric.

Consequently, an exponential dilation trajectory may be straight with respect to the e-connection while being curved with respect to the Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita connection.

This distinction is central to the geometric question investigated later in the paper.

=== 5.9 Fisher information and variance ===

For the exponential dilation family,

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d}{d\theta}
\log p_i(\theta)
=
\phi_i-\overline{\phi}_{\theta}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The Fisher information associated with the parameter &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; is therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
I(\theta)
=
\sum_i
p_i(\theta)
\left(
\phi_i-\overline{\phi}_{\theta}
\right)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Hence

:&lt;math&gt;
I(\theta)
=
\operatorname{Var}_{p(\theta)}(\phi).
&lt;/math&gt;

The Fisher–Rao speed of the trajectory is

:&lt;math&gt;
v_{\mathrm{FR}}(\theta)
=
\sqrt{I(\theta)}
=
\sqrt{\operatorname{Var}_{p(\theta)}(\phi)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This variance identity is a standard property of one-parameter exponential families.

It will be used later when deriving the arclength parameterization of the two-level case.

=== 5.10 Normalized Feynman–Kac transformations ===

Another closely related structure occurs in Feynman–Kac models.

At an abstract level, a positive measure may first be weighted by a nonnegative potential and then propagated through a positive or Markov operator, followed by normalization.

Schematically, such an evolution has the form

:'''weight → propagate → normalize'''.

The matrix expression

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)
=
\frac{Mp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp}
&lt;/math&gt;

and the measure expression

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_D
=
\frac{D\,dP}
{\int D\,dP}
&lt;/math&gt;

therefore have structural analogues within normalized Feynman–Kac theory.

The exact interpretation and assumptions differ among applications. The comparison made here is structural rather than an assertion of equivalence between PDT and Feynman–Kac theory.

=== 5.11 Projective dynamics ===

Because normalized dilation is invariant under multiplication of the unnormalized transformed state by a positive scalar, it naturally has a projective character.

For example,

:&lt;math&gt;
T_{cM}(p)
=
T_M(p)
&lt;/math&gt;

for every &lt;math&gt;c&gt;0&lt;/math&gt; for which the transformation is defined.

Thus the normalized state depends on the ray determined by &lt;math&gt;Mp&lt;/math&gt;, rather than its magnitude.

Positive projective geometry and projective metrics, including Hilbert-type metrics, are established tools in the study of positive operators and their contraction properties.

These methods provide natural mathematical machinery for analyzing normalized positive transformations, particularly in convergence problems.

=== 5.12 What the PDT framework contributes ===

The preceding comparisons show that the principal operations used in normalized probability dilation have substantial established precedents.

The proposed contribution of the framework is therefore not the isolated operation

:'''multiply or transform, then normalize'''.

Rather, the framework provides a common notation and organizational viewpoint connecting:

* finite diagonal reweighting;
* nonnegative matrix transformations;
* normalized positive iteration;
* weighted change of measure;
* exponential probability trajectories;
* simplex dynamics;
* information geometry.

This synthesis is useful only insofar as it clarifies relationships, generates mathematically precise questions, or produces results that are not merely restatements of known theory.

For that reason, the remainder of this paper concentrates on a narrower geometric problem.

=== 5.13 Transition to the geometric question ===

Every exponential dilation trajectory of the form

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}}
{Z(\theta)}
&lt;/math&gt;

is an exponential-family trajectory and hence is naturally straight with respect to the e-connection.

It does not follow that the same trajectory is a Levi-Civita geodesic of the Fisher–Rao metric.

This leads to the central question considered in the remainder of the paper:

:''Under what conditions is an exponential dilation trajectory simultaneously an e-geodesic and, up to reparameterization, a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic?''

The next section develops the geometric representation required to answer this question.

== 6. Exponential Dilation and Fisher–Rao Geometry ==

This section develops the geometric representation of exponential dilation required for the main characterization theorem.

The central object is the one-parameter exponential family

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}}
{Z(\theta)},
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
Z(\theta)
=
\sum_{j=1}^{n}p_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Throughout this section, assume

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i^{(0)}&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

for all &lt;math&gt;i&lt;/math&gt;, and let

:&lt;math&gt;
\phi=(\phi_1,\ldots,\phi_n)
&lt;/math&gt;

be a real-valued generator.

=== 6.1 Exponential dilation trajectory ===

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(0)}
\in
\Delta_{+}^{n-1}.
&lt;/math&gt;

For a real parameter &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;, define

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}}
{\sum_{j=1}^{n}p_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Since every initial component is strictly positive and the exponential function is positive,

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

for every finite &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;.

Therefore the trajectory remains in the interior of the probability simplex.

The normalization factor satisfies

:&lt;math&gt;
Z(\theta)&gt;0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Hence the trajectory is well defined for every finite &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; in the finite-dimensional setting.

=== 6.2 Logarithmic form ===

Taking logarithms gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\log p_i(\theta)
=
\log p_i^{(0)}
+
\theta\phi_i
-
\log Z(\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

Differentiating with respect to &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d}{d\theta}\log p_i(\theta)
=
\phi_i
-
\frac{d}{d\theta}\log Z(\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

Now

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dZ}{d\theta}
=
\sum_j
p_j^{(0)}
\phi_j
e^{\theta\phi_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d}{d\theta}\log Z(\theta)
=
\sum_jp_j(\theta)\phi_j.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define the expectation of the generator by

:&lt;math&gt;
\mu(\theta)
=
\mathbb{E}_{p(\theta)}[\phi]
=
\sum_jp_j(\theta)\phi_j.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d}{d\theta}\log p_i(\theta)
=
\phi_i-\mu(\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 6.3 Tangent vector ===

Multiplying the logarithmic derivative by &lt;math&gt;p_i(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}
=
p_i(\theta)
\left(
\phi_i-\mu(\theta)
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Define the centered generator

:&lt;math&gt;
h_i(\theta)
=
\phi_i-\mu(\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}
=
p_i(\theta)h_i(\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

Because

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_i
p_i(\theta)h_i(\theta)
=
0,
&lt;/math&gt;

we obtain

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_i
\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}
=
0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the velocity vector is tangent to the probability simplex.

=== 6.4 Fisher information and speed ===

The Fisher–Rao metric on the simplex interior is

:&lt;math&gt;
g_p(u,v)
=
\sum_i
\frac{u_iv_i}{p_i},
&lt;/math&gt;

for tangent vectors &lt;math&gt;u&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;v&lt;/math&gt;.

For the exponential dilation trajectory,

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}
=
p_i h_i.
&lt;/math&gt;

Its squared Fisher–Rao speed is therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
v_{\mathrm{FR}}(\theta)^2
=
\sum_i
\frac{1}{p_i}
\left(
\frac{dp_i}{d\theta}
\right)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Substitution gives

:&lt;math&gt;
v_{\mathrm{FR}}(\theta)^2
=
\sum_i
p_i(\theta)h_i(\theta)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Hence

:&lt;math&gt;
v_{\mathrm{FR}}(\theta)^2
=
\operatorname{Var}_{p(\theta)}(\phi).
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
v_{\mathrm{FR}}(\theta)
=
\sqrt{
\operatorname{Var}_{p(\theta)}(\phi)
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is the standard Fisher-information identity for a one-parameter exponential family.

=== 6.5 Square-root representation ===

Define the square-root map

:&lt;math&gt;
\Psi:
\Delta_{+}^{n-1}
\rightarrow
\mathbb{R}^{n}
&lt;/math&gt;

by

:&lt;math&gt;
\Psi(p)
=
2(\sqrt{p_1},\ldots,\sqrt{p_n}).
&lt;/math&gt;

Write

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
\Psi(p(\theta)).
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
q_i(\theta)
=
2\sqrt{p_i(\theta)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Because

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_i p_i(\theta)=1,
&lt;/math&gt;

we have

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_iq_i(\theta)^2
=
4.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
&lt;/math&gt;

lies on the positive orthant of the sphere of radius &lt;math&gt;2&lt;/math&gt; in &lt;math&gt;\mathbb{R}^{n}&lt;/math&gt;.

=== 6.6 Isometry of the square-root representation ===

Let &lt;math&gt;u&lt;/math&gt; be a tangent vector to the simplex.

Differentiating

:&lt;math&gt;
q_i=2\sqrt{p_i}
&lt;/math&gt;

gives

:&lt;math&gt;
dq_i
=
\frac{dp_i}{\sqrt{p_i}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore the Euclidean squared length of the corresponding tangent displacement on the sphere is

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_i(dq_i)^2
=
\sum_i
\frac{(dp_i)^2}{p_i}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is precisely the Fisher–Rao line element.

Thus the square-root map identifies the Fisher–Rao metric on the simplex interior with the Euclidean metric induced on the positive orthant of the radius-&lt;math&gt;2&lt;/math&gt; sphere.

Consequently, Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesics correspond locally to great-circle arcs on this sphere.

=== 6.7 Square-root form of exponential dilation ===

Substituting the exponential dilation family into the square-root representation gives

:&lt;math&gt;
q_i(\theta)
=
\frac{
2\sqrt{p_i^{(0)}}e^{\theta\phi_i/2}
}
{\sqrt{Z(\theta)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define the unnormalized square-root vector

:&lt;math&gt;
r_i(\theta)
=
\sqrt{p_i^{(0)}}e^{\theta\phi_i/2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
\frac{2r(\theta)}
{\sqrt{Z(\theta)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Also,

:&lt;math&gt;
\|r(\theta)\|^2
=
Z(\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

Hence

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
\frac{2r(\theta)}
{\|r(\theta)\|}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The normalized square-root trajectory and the unnormalized vector &lt;math&gt;r(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; therefore determine the same ray through the origin.

This observation allows the Fisher–Rao geodesic question to be reduced to a linear-subspace question in &lt;math&gt;\mathbb{R}^{n}&lt;/math&gt;.

=== 6.8 Distinct generator levels ===

Suppose the generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; assumes exactly &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt; distinct values

:&lt;math&gt;
a_1,\ldots,a_m.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define the level sets

:&lt;math&gt;
A_{\ell}
=
\{i:\phi_i=a_{\ell}\},
&lt;/math&gt;

for

:&lt;math&gt;
\ell=1,\ldots,m.
&lt;/math&gt;

For each level, define a vector &lt;math&gt;u_{\ell}&lt;/math&gt; by

:&lt;math&gt;
(u_{\ell})_i
=
\begin{cases}
\sqrt{p_i^{(0)}} &amp; \text{if } i\in A_{\ell},\\
0 &amp; \text{otherwise}.
\end{cases}
&lt;/math&gt;

Because the level sets are disjoint, the vectors

:&lt;math&gt;
u_1,\ldots,u_m
&lt;/math&gt;

have disjoint supports and are therefore mutually orthogonal.

In particular, they are linearly independent.

The unnormalized square-root trajectory can now be written as

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\sum_{\ell=1}^{m}
e^{a_{\ell}\theta/2}
u_{\ell}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This decomposition is central to the geometric characterization developed in the next section.

=== 6.9 The one-level case ===

If &lt;math&gt;m=1&lt;/math&gt;, then every component of &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; has the same value &lt;math&gt;a&lt;/math&gt;.

Thus

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
e^{a\theta/2}u_1.
&lt;/math&gt;

After normalization, the scalar exponential factor cancels.

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
p(\theta)=p^{(0)}
&lt;/math&gt;

for all &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;.

The trajectory is constant.

This is the degenerate case of exponential dilation.

=== 6.10 The two-level case ===

Suppose &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; assumes exactly two distinct values

:&lt;math&gt;
a
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
b,
&lt;/math&gt;

with &lt;math&gt;a\neq b&lt;/math&gt;.

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
e^{a\theta/2}u
+
e^{b\theta/2}v,
&lt;/math&gt;

where &lt;math&gt;u&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;v&lt;/math&gt; are nonzero orthogonal vectors associated with the two generator levels.

Consequently,

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
\in
\operatorname{span}\{u,v\}
&lt;/math&gt;

for every &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;.

Since &lt;math&gt;q(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; is obtained from &lt;math&gt;r(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; by positive scalar normalization,

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
\in
\operatorname{span}\{u,v\}
&lt;/math&gt;

as well.

The intersection of a two-dimensional linear subspace through the origin with the radius-&lt;math&gt;2&lt;/math&gt; sphere is a great circle.

Thus the two-level case naturally produces a Fisher–Rao great-circle trajectory.

The formal statement and converse are given in Section 7.

=== 6.11 Three or more generator levels ===

If the generator assumes three or more distinct values, then

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\sum_{\ell=1}^{m}
e^{a_{\ell}\theta/2}u_{\ell},
&lt;/math&gt;

with

:&lt;math&gt;
m\geq3.
&lt;/math&gt;

The vectors &lt;math&gt;u_{\ell}&lt;/math&gt; are linearly independent, but this fact alone is not sufficient to conclude that the trajectory spans all &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt; directions.

The required result follows from the linear independence of the distinct exponential rates.

In Section 7, derivatives of &lt;math&gt;r(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; are evaluated at a fixed parameter value. The resulting coefficient matrix is of Vandermonde type and is invertible when the generator levels &lt;math&gt;a_{\ell}&lt;/math&gt; are distinct.

This shows that a trajectory with &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt; distinct active generator levels spans an &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt;-dimensional linear subspace.

Consequently, when &lt;math&gt;m\geq3&lt;/math&gt;, the square-root trajectory cannot lie in a two-dimensional great-circle plane.

=== 6.12 e-geodesic versus Fisher–Rao geodesic ===

The exponential dilation trajectory is an exponential-family path.

In natural coordinates, the parameter &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; enters linearly through

:&lt;math&gt;
\theta\phi_i.
&lt;/math&gt;

Accordingly, the trajectory is naturally an e-geodesic in the exponential connection of information geometry.

The Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic condition is different.

Under the square-root representation, it requires the image of the trajectory to lie on a great-circle arc.

Thus the central geometric distinction is:

:'''e-geodesic: linearity in exponential-family natural coordinates'''

versus

:'''Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic: great-circle geometry under the square-root representation'''

The two notions coincide only under additional conditions.

=== 6.13 Geometric question in linear form ===

The original probability-geometric question can now be reformulated.

Given

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\sum_{\ell=1}^{m}
e^{a_{\ell}\theta/2}u_{\ell},
&lt;/math&gt;

when does the normalized curve

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
\frac{2r(\theta)}
{\|r(\theta)\|}
&lt;/math&gt;

remain in a fixed two-dimensional linear subspace?

If it does, its image lies on a great circle and is therefore a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic up to reparameterization.

If it does not, the exponential trajectory remains an e-geodesic but is not a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic.

The next section gives an exact finite-dimensional characterization.

== 7. Fisher–Rao Geodesic Characterization ==

This section gives the principal geometric result of the paper.

The question is whether the image of a finite-dimensional exponential dilation trajectory is contained in a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic.

The parameter &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; itself is not required to be an affine or arclength parameter for that geodesic.

=== 7.1 Setting and assumptions ===

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(0)}
=
(p_1^{(0)},\ldots,p_n^{(0)})^{\mathsf{T}}
\in
\Delta_{+}^{n-1},
&lt;/math&gt;

so that

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i^{(0)}&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

for every &lt;math&gt;i&lt;/math&gt;.

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
\phi
=
(\phi_1,\ldots,\phi_n)
\in
\mathbb{R}^{n}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define the exponential dilation trajectory

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{
p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}
}
{
\sum_{j=1}^{n}
p_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}
},
&lt;/math&gt;

for

:&lt;math&gt;
\theta\in\mathbb{R}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Let &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt; denote the number of distinct values assumed by the generator components

:&lt;math&gt;
\phi_1,\ldots,\phi_n.
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 7.2 Theorem 1: two-level Fisher–Rao characterization ===

'''Theorem 1.'''

Under the assumptions above, the image of the exponential dilation trajectory &lt;math&gt;p(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; is contained in a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic if and only if

:&lt;math&gt;
m\leq2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently, the generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; must assume at most two distinct values.

When &lt;math&gt;m=1&lt;/math&gt;, the trajectory is constant.

When &lt;math&gt;m=2&lt;/math&gt;, the trajectory is nonconstant and its square-root image lies on a great-circle arc.

=== 7.3 Proof: square-root representation ===

Define

:&lt;math&gt;
q_i(\theta)
=
2\sqrt{p_i(\theta)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

As shown in Section 6,

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
&lt;/math&gt;

lies on the sphere

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_iq_i^2=4.
&lt;/math&gt;

The square-root representation is an isometric representation of the Fisher–Rao simplex interior.

Therefore the image of &lt;math&gt;p(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; is contained in a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic if and only if the image of &lt;math&gt;q(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; is contained in a great circle of the radius-&lt;math&gt;2&lt;/math&gt; sphere.

A great circle is the intersection of the sphere with a two-dimensional linear subspace through the origin.

=== 7.4 Grouping equal generator values ===

Let the distinct values of &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; be

:&lt;math&gt;
a_1,\ldots,a_m.
&lt;/math&gt;

For each &lt;math&gt;\ell&lt;/math&gt;, define

:&lt;math&gt;
A_{\ell}
=
\{i:\phi_i=a_{\ell}\}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define &lt;math&gt;u_{\ell}\in\mathbb{R}^{n}&lt;/math&gt; by

:&lt;math&gt;
(u_{\ell})_i
=
\begin{cases}
\sqrt{p_i^{(0)}} &amp; \text{if }i\in A_{\ell},\\
0 &amp; \text{otherwise}.
\end{cases}
&lt;/math&gt;

Because the sets &lt;math&gt;A_{\ell}&lt;/math&gt; are disjoint and every initial component is strictly positive, the vectors

:&lt;math&gt;
u_1,\ldots,u_m
&lt;/math&gt;

are nonzero and mutually orthogonal.

Hence they are linearly independent.

Define the unnormalized square-root trajectory

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\sum_{\ell=1}^{m}
e^{a_{\ell}\theta/2}
u_{\ell}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
\frac{2r(\theta)}
{\|r(\theta)\|}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Since normalization multiplies &lt;math&gt;r(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; only by a positive scalar, &lt;math&gt;q(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;r(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; lie on the same ray through the origin.

=== 7.5 Sufficiency: one or two generator levels ===

Suppose first that

:&lt;math&gt;
m=1.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
e^{a_1\theta/2}u_1.
&lt;/math&gt;

Normalization removes the scalar exponential factor, so

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
&lt;/math&gt;

and therefore &lt;math&gt;p(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; are constant.

A constant trajectory is the degenerate case.

Now suppose

:&lt;math&gt;
m=2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
e^{a_1\theta/2}u_1
+
e^{a_2\theta/2}u_2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
\in
\operatorname{span}\{u_1,u_2\}
&lt;/math&gt;

for every &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;.

Since &lt;math&gt;q(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; differs from &lt;math&gt;r(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; only by scalar normalization,

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
\in
\operatorname{span}\{u_1,u_2\}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The vectors &lt;math&gt;u_1&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;u_2&lt;/math&gt; are nonzero and orthogonal, so their span is a two-dimensional linear subspace through the origin.

Its intersection with the radius-&lt;math&gt;2&lt;/math&gt; sphere is a great circle.

Thus the image of the two-level exponential dilation trajectory lies on a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic.

This proves sufficiency.

=== 7.6 Necessity: derivative span ===

Now suppose the generator assumes

:&lt;math&gt;
m\geq3
&lt;/math&gt;

distinct values.

Differentiate the unnormalized square-root trajectory:

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\sum_{\ell=1}^{m}
e^{a_{\ell}\theta/2}
u_{\ell}.
&lt;/math&gt;

For every nonnegative integer &lt;math&gt;k&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
r^{(k)}(\theta)
=
\sum_{\ell=1}^{m}
\left(
\frac{a_{\ell}}{2}
\right)^k
e^{a_{\ell}\theta/2}
u_{\ell}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Fix any

:&lt;math&gt;
\theta_0\in\mathbb{R}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Consider the vectors

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta_0),
r^{(1)}(\theta_0),
\ldots,
r^{(m-1)}(\theta_0).
&lt;/math&gt;

Their coefficients relative to the basis

:&lt;math&gt;
u_1,\ldots,u_m
&lt;/math&gt;

form the matrix

:&lt;math&gt;
C_{k\ell}
=
\left(
\frac{a_{\ell}}{2}
\right)^k
e^{a_{\ell}\theta_0/2},
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
k=0,\ldots,m-1
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
\ell=1,\ldots,m.
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 7.7 Vandermonde argument ===

Factor the nonzero quantity

:&lt;math&gt;
e^{a_{\ell}\theta_0/2}
&lt;/math&gt;

from column &lt;math&gt;\ell&lt;/math&gt; of the coefficient matrix.

The remaining matrix has entries

:&lt;math&gt;
V_{k\ell}
=
\left(
\frac{a_{\ell}}{2}
\right)^k.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is a Vandermonde matrix.

Its determinant is nonzero because

:&lt;math&gt;
a_1,\ldots,a_m
&lt;/math&gt;

are distinct.

Therefore the coefficient matrix &lt;math&gt;C&lt;/math&gt; is invertible.

It follows that

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta_0),
r^{(1)}(\theta_0),
\ldots,
r^{(m-1)}(\theta_0)
&lt;/math&gt;

are linearly independent.

Consequently, the linear span generated by the trajectory &lt;math&gt;r(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; has dimension at least &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt;.

On the other hand, the representation

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\sum_{\ell=1}^{m}
e^{a_{\ell}\theta/2}u_{\ell}
&lt;/math&gt;

shows that the trajectory is contained in

:&lt;math&gt;
\operatorname{span}
\{u_1,\ldots,u_m\},
&lt;/math&gt;

which has dimension &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt;.

Hence

:&lt;math&gt;
\dim
\operatorname{span}
\{r(\theta):\theta\in\mathbb{R}\}
=
m.
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 7.8 Exclusion of three or more levels ===

If the square-root trajectory &lt;math&gt;q(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; were contained in a great circle, then there would exist a two-dimensional linear subspace &lt;math&gt;W&lt;/math&gt; through the origin such that

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)\in W
&lt;/math&gt;

for every &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;.

Since

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\frac{\|r(\theta)\|}{2}
q(\theta),
&lt;/math&gt;

the same subspace would contain

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
&lt;/math&gt;

for every &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;.

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
\dim
\operatorname{span}
\{r(\theta):\theta\in\mathbb{R}\}
\leq2.
&lt;/math&gt;

But Section 7.7 gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\dim
\operatorname{span}
\{r(\theta):\theta\in\mathbb{R}\}
=
m.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus a great-circle trajectory requires

:&lt;math&gt;
m\leq2.
&lt;/math&gt;

For

:&lt;math&gt;
m\geq3,
&lt;/math&gt;

the exponential dilation trajectory cannot be contained in a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic.

This proves necessity.

=== 7.9 Conclusion of the proof ===

Combining Sections 7.5 and 7.8 gives

:&lt;math&gt;
m\leq2
&lt;/math&gt;

if and only if the image of the exponential dilation trajectory is contained in a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic.

Therefore the generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; must assume at most two distinct values.

This completes the proof.

=== 7.10 Corollary 1: dimension of the square-root trajectory ===

'''Corollary 1.'''

Under the assumptions of Theorem 1, if the generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; assumes exactly &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt; distinct values, then

:&lt;math&gt;
\dim
\operatorname{span}
\{r(\theta):\theta\in\mathbb{R}\}
=
m.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the number of distinct generator levels is exactly the dimension of the linear subspace generated by the unnormalized square-root exponential trajectory.

'''Proof.'''

The vectors &lt;math&gt;u_1,\ldots,u_m&lt;/math&gt; are linearly independent, and Section 7.7 shows through the Vandermonde argument that the trajectory spans all of these directions.

Therefore its span has dimension &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt;.

=== 7.11 Corollary 2: three-level obstruction ===

'''Corollary 2.'''

If a strictly positive finite exponential dilation trajectory has a generator assuming three or more distinct values, then its image is not contained in a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic.

This follows immediately from Theorem 1.

The result is exact under the stated hypotheses; it is not merely a generic non-geodesicity statement.

=== 7.12 Parameterization versus geodesic image ===

Theorem 1 concerns the image of the trajectory.

Even in the two-level case, the exponential parameter &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; is generally not proportional to Fisher–Rao arclength.

Thus

:&lt;math&gt;
p(\theta)
&lt;/math&gt;

traces a Fisher–Rao geodesic path but generally does so with nonconstant Fisher–Rao speed.

From Section 6,

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{ds}{d\theta}
=
\sqrt{
\operatorname{Var}_{p(\theta)}(\phi)
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Section 8 derives the exact change of parameter from &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; to Fisher–Rao arclength in the nondegenerate two-level case.

=== 7.13 Geometric interpretation ===

The theorem can be understood through the square-root sphere.

A generator with one distinct value produces no probability motion.

A generator with two distinct values produces two independent exponential directions,

:&lt;math&gt;
e^{a\theta/2}u
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
e^{b\theta/2}v.
&lt;/math&gt;

Their normalized sum remains in a fixed two-dimensional plane through the origin, so its spherical image follows a great circle.

With three or more distinct generator values, the trajectory necessarily spans three or more independent linear directions.

It therefore cannot remain in any two-dimensional great-circle plane.

The distinction between the two-level and multilevel cases is consequently a dimensional property of the exponential rates under the square-root representation.

=== 7.14 Relation to information-geometric straightness ===

Theorem 1 does not state that exponential trajectories with three or more levels cease to be e-geodesics.

They remain exponential-family trajectories and retain their standard information-geometric interpretation with respect to the e-connection.

Rather, the theorem characterizes when this e-geodesic image also coincides with a geodesic image of the Levi-Civita connection associated with the Fisher–Rao metric.

Thus the result concerns the coincidence of two distinct notions of geometric straightness.

=== 7.15 Status of the characterization ===

The proof above uses established ingredients:

* the exponential-family representation;
* the Fisher–Rao square-root embedding;
* the great-circle characterization of spherical geodesics;
* linear independence of vectors with disjoint support;
* the Vandermonde determinant.

The particular characterization obtained by combining these ingredients is presented here as a result of the present analysis.

At this draft stage, no claim of historical priority is made.

A complete literature review and independent mathematical scrutiny remain appropriate before describing the characterization as novel.

The next section derives an explicit Fisher–Rao arclength parameterization for the nondegenerate two-level case.

== 8. Fisher–Rao Arclength in the Two-Level Case ==

Theorem 1 shows that a nonconstant exponential dilation trajectory is contained in a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic precisely when its generator assumes exactly two distinct values.

This section derives an explicit Fisher–Rao arclength parameterization for that case.

=== 8.1 Two generator classes ===

Suppose the generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; assumes exactly two distinct values

:&lt;math&gt;
a\neq b.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define the corresponding index sets

:&lt;math&gt;
A=
\{i:\phi_i=a\}
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
B=
\{i:\phi_i=b\}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Let the initial probability masses of the two classes be

:&lt;math&gt;
r_0
=
\sum_{i\in A}p_i^{(0)}
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
1-r_0
=
\sum_{i\in B}p_i^{(0)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Because the initial probability vector is strictly positive and both classes are nonempty,

:&lt;math&gt;
0&lt;r_0&lt;1.
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 8.2 Evolution of the class probabilities ===

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\sum_{i\in A}p_i(\theta)
&lt;/math&gt;

denote the total probability assigned to class &lt;math&gt;A&lt;/math&gt;.

Since every state in &lt;math&gt;A&lt;/math&gt; has generator value &lt;math&gt;a&lt;/math&gt; and every state in &lt;math&gt;B&lt;/math&gt; has generator value &lt;math&gt;b&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\frac{
r_0e^{a\theta}
}
{
r_0e^{a\theta}
+
(1-r_0)e^{b\theta}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Similarly,

:&lt;math&gt;
1-r(\theta)
=
\frac{
(1-r_0)e^{b\theta}
}
{
r_0e^{a\theta}
+
(1-r_0)e^{b\theta}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore the class odds satisfy

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{r(\theta)}
{1-r(\theta)}
=
\frac{r_0}
{1-r_0}
e^{(a-b)\theta}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the two-level exponential dilation reduces at the class level to a logistic probability trajectory.

=== 8.3 Preservation of within-class proportions ===

For two indices &lt;math&gt;i,j\in A&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{p_i(\theta)}
{p_j(\theta)}
=
\frac{p_i^{(0)}}
{p_j^{(0)}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The same relation holds for indices within &lt;math&gt;B&lt;/math&gt;.

Therefore exponential dilation changes only the total probability assigned to the two generator classes; it does not change relative probabilities within either class.

Define normalized class vectors &lt;math&gt;\widehat{u}&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;\widehat{v}&lt;/math&gt; by

:&lt;math&gt;
\widehat{u}_i
=
\begin{cases}
\sqrt{p_i^{(0)}/r_0} &amp; \text{if }i\in A,\\
0 &amp; \text{otherwise},
\end{cases}
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
\widehat{v}_i
=
\begin{cases}
\sqrt{p_i^{(0)}/(1-r_0)} &amp; \text{if }i\in B,\\
0 &amp; \text{otherwise}.
\end{cases}
&lt;/math&gt;

These vectors satisfy

:&lt;math&gt;
\|\widehat{u}\|=1,
\qquad
\|\widehat{v}\|=1,
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
\widehat{u}^{\mathsf{T}}\widehat{v}=0.
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 8.4 Great-circle representation ===

Under the square-root map,

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
2(\sqrt{p_1(\theta)},\ldots,\sqrt{p_n(\theta)}).
&lt;/math&gt;

Using the class decomposition,

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
2
\left(
\sqrt{r(\theta)}\,\widehat{u}
+
\sqrt{1-r(\theta)}\,\widehat{v}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Introduce an angular coordinate &lt;math&gt;\alpha(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; by

:&lt;math&gt;
\sqrt{r(\theta)}
=
\cos\alpha(\theta)
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
\sqrt{1-r(\theta)}
=
\sin\alpha(\theta),
&lt;/math&gt;

with

:&lt;math&gt;
0&lt;\alpha(\theta)&lt;\frac{\pi}{2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
2
\left(
\cos\alpha(\theta)\widehat{u}
+
\sin\alpha(\theta)\widehat{v}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

This is the standard angular parameterization of a great circle on a sphere of radius &lt;math&gt;2&lt;/math&gt;.

=== 8.5 Angular coordinate ===

From the definitions above,

:&lt;math&gt;
\tan\alpha(\theta)
=
\sqrt{
\frac{1-r(\theta)}
{r(\theta)}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Using the odds relation,

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{1-r(\theta)}
{r(\theta)}
=
\frac{1-r_0}
{r_0}
e^{(b-a)\theta}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
\tan\alpha(\theta)
=
\sqrt{
\frac{1-r_0}
{r_0}
}
e^{(b-a)\theta/2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Hence

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha(\theta)
=
\arctan
\left(
\sqrt{
\frac{1-r_0}
{r_0}
}
e^{(b-a)\theta/2}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha(\theta)
=
\arccos\sqrt{r(\theta)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 8.6 Corollary 3: exact Fisher–Rao arclength parameterization ===

'''Corollary 3.'''

Under the hypotheses of Theorem 1, suppose the generator assumes exactly two distinct values &lt;math&gt;a\neq b&lt;/math&gt;.

Let

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
&lt;/math&gt;

denote the total probability assigned to the class with generator value &lt;math&gt;a&lt;/math&gt;.

Then a signed Fisher–Rao arclength coordinate along the trajectory satisfies

:&lt;math&gt;
s(\theta)-s(\theta_0)
=
2
\left(
\alpha(\theta)-\alpha(\theta_0)
\right),
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha(\theta)
=
\arccos\sqrt{r(\theta)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus

:&lt;math&gt;
s(\theta)-s(\theta_0)
=
2
\left(
\arccos\sqrt{r(\theta)}
-
\arccos\sqrt{r(\theta_0)}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

:&lt;math&gt;
s(\theta)-s(\theta_0)
=
2
\left[
\arctan
\left(
\sqrt{
\frac{1-r_0}{r_0}
}
e^{(b-a)\theta/2}
\right)
-
\arctan
\left(
\sqrt{
\frac{1-r_0}{r_0}
}
e^{(b-a)\theta_0/2}
\right)
\right].
&lt;/math&gt;

The Fisher–Rao distance traveled between the two parameter values is the absolute value

:&lt;math&gt;
d_{\mathrm{FR}}
=
|s(\theta)-s(\theta_0)|.
&lt;/math&gt;

=== 8.7 Proof of Corollary 3 ===

The square-root image is

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
2
\left(
\cos\alpha(\theta)\widehat{u}
+
\sin\alpha(\theta)\widehat{v}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Differentiate with respect to &lt;math&gt;\alpha&lt;/math&gt;:

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dq}{d\alpha}
=
2
\left(
-\sin\alpha\,\widehat{u}
+
\cos\alpha\,\widehat{v}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Because &lt;math&gt;\widehat{u}&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;\widehat{v}&lt;/math&gt; are orthonormal,

:&lt;math&gt;
\left\|
\frac{dq}{d\alpha}
\right\|
=
2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore the spherical arclength element is

:&lt;math&gt;
ds
=
2\,|d\alpha|.
&lt;/math&gt;

For a chosen orientation, signed arclength satisfies

:&lt;math&gt;
ds=2\,d\alpha.
&lt;/math&gt;

Integrating from &lt;math&gt;\theta_0&lt;/math&gt; to &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; gives

:&lt;math&gt;
s(\theta)-s(\theta_0)
=
2
\left(
\alpha(\theta)-\alpha(\theta_0)
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Substituting the expressions for &lt;math&gt;\alpha(\theta)&lt;/math&gt; gives the stated formulas.

=== 8.8 Fisher–Rao speed ===

Differentiating the angular expression gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d\alpha}{d\theta}
=
\frac{b-a}{2}
\sqrt{
r(\theta)
\left(
1-r(\theta)
\right)
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore the unsigned Fisher–Rao speed is

:&lt;math&gt;
\left|
\frac{ds}{d\theta}
\right|
=
|a-b|
\sqrt{
r(\theta)
\left(
1-r(\theta)
\right)
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This agrees with the variance formula derived in Section 6.

Indeed, because &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; takes only the values &lt;math&gt;a&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;b&lt;/math&gt;,

:&lt;math&gt;
\operatorname{Var}_{p(\theta)}(\phi)
=
(a-b)^2
r(\theta)
\left(
1-r(\theta)
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Hence

:&lt;math&gt;
v_{\mathrm{FR}}(\theta)
=
\sqrt{
\operatorname{Var}_{p(\theta)}(\phi)
}
=
|a-b|
\sqrt{
r(\theta)
\left(
1-r(\theta)
\right)
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The geometric and information-theoretic calculations therefore agree.

=== 8.9 Nonuniform speed in the exponential parameter ===

Although the trajectory lies on a Fisher–Rao geodesic, the parameter &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; does not generally move along that geodesic at constant speed.

The speed is largest when

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)=\frac{1}{2},
&lt;/math&gt;

because the product

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)(1-r(\theta))
&lt;/math&gt;

is maximal there.

As the trajectory approaches either endpoint,

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)\rightarrow0
&lt;/math&gt;

or

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)\rightarrow1,
&lt;/math&gt;

the Fisher–Rao speed with respect to &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; approaches zero.

Thus the exponential parameter stretches the ends of the geodesic trajectory.

=== 8.10 Limiting behavior ===

Assume

:&lt;math&gt;
a&gt;b.
&lt;/math&gt;

Then as

:&lt;math&gt;
\theta\rightarrow+\infty,
&lt;/math&gt;

we have

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)\rightarrow1.
&lt;/math&gt;

As

:&lt;math&gt;
\theta\rightarrow-\infty,
&lt;/math&gt;

we have

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)\rightarrow0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha(\theta)\rightarrow0
&lt;/math&gt;

as &lt;math&gt;\theta\rightarrow+\infty&lt;/math&gt;, while

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha(\theta)\rightarrow\frac{\pi}{2}
&lt;/math&gt;

as &lt;math&gt;\theta\rightarrow-\infty&lt;/math&gt;.

The full two-level trajectory therefore approaches the two boundary class distributions at opposite ends of a quarter of the radius-&lt;math&gt;2&lt;/math&gt; great circle.

The total Fisher–Rao length between these limiting boundary points is

:&lt;math&gt;
2
\left(
\frac{\pi}{2}
\right)
=
\pi.
&lt;/math&gt;

The endpoints themselves lie on the boundary of the simplex and are approached only in the infinite-parameter limit.

=== 8.11 Example ===

Consider a three-state probability vector

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(0)}
=
\left(
\frac{1}{4},
\frac{1}{4},
\frac{1}{2}
\right)^{\mathsf{T}}
&lt;/math&gt;

and generator

:&lt;math&gt;
\phi
=
(1,1,0).
&lt;/math&gt;

There are two generator classes:

:&lt;math&gt;
A=\{1,2\},
\qquad
B=\{3\}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The initial class mass is

:&lt;math&gt;
r_0
=
\frac{1}{2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The class probability evolves as

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\frac{e^{\theta}}
{e^{\theta}+1}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The individual probabilities are

:&lt;math&gt;
p_1(\theta)
=
\frac{1}{2}r(\theta),
&lt;/math&gt;

:&lt;math&gt;
p_2(\theta)
=
\frac{1}{2}r(\theta),
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
p_3(\theta)
=
1-r(\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

The angular coordinate is

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha(\theta)
=
\arctan
\left(
e^{-\theta/2}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the trajectory is an exponential-family e-geodesic whose image is simultaneously a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic.

Its exponential parameterization is nonuniform, while &lt;math&gt;2\alpha&lt;/math&gt; provides a signed Fisher–Rao arclength coordinate up to an additive constant and choice of orientation.

=== 8.12 Interpretation ===

The two-level result separates the '''path''' from the '''parameterization'''.

The exponential parameter &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; generates the probability trajectory through normalized exponential weighting.

The Fisher–Rao geometry identifies the same trajectory as a great-circle path.

The transformation

:&lt;math&gt;
\theta
\longmapsto
\alpha(\theta)
\longmapsto
s(\theta)
&lt;/math&gt;

provides the exact reparameterization needed to express that path in Fisher–Rao arclength.

This provides a concrete example in which exponential-family straightness and Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita straightness describe the same geometric image while using different natural parameters.

== 9. Discussion, Limitations, and Open Problems ==

The preceding sections developed normalized probability dilation as a common framework for positive transformation followed by normalization, and then considered a specific geometric question for exponential dilation.

This section summarizes the mathematical interpretation of those results, identifies their limitations, and outlines several directions requiring further investigation.

=== 9.1 Scope of the framework ===

The normalized-dilation framework contains the basic operation

:'''positive transformation → normalization → probability state'''.

In finite dimensions this includes

:&lt;math&gt;
p
\longmapsto
\frac{Dp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Dp}
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
p
\longmapsto
\frac{Mp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp}.
&lt;/math&gt;

For probability measures it includes

:&lt;math&gt;
dP
\longmapsto
\frac{D\,dP}
{\int_XD\,dP}.
&lt;/math&gt;

These operations overlap substantially with established mathematical constructions.

Accordingly, the value of the framework should not be judged by whether transformation followed by normalization is itself new. Rather, its usefulness depends on whether a common formulation clarifies relationships among existing constructions, suggests useful questions, or leads to additional mathematical results.

=== 9.2 Established mathematics and the PDT formulation ===

Several central components of the paper belong directly to established theory.

These include:

* normalized weighted probability measures;
* Radon–Nikodym change of measure;
* exponential tilting;
* exponential families;
* positive matrix iteration;
* Perron–Frobenius theory;
* normalized power iteration;
* Markov operators;
* replicator-type equations;
* Fisher information;
* Fisher–Rao geometry;
* the square-root representation of the probability simplex.

The PDT formulation does not replace these theories.

Instead, it organizes them around a recurring transformation-and-normalization structure.

This distinction is important when assessing both the mathematical contribution and the appropriate claims of the paper.

=== 9.3 The geometric characterization ===

The principal result developed in Section 7 concerns the exponential dilation family

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{
p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}
}
{
\sum_jp_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Under the finite-dimensional strict-positivity assumptions used in the theorem, the image of this trajectory is contained in a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic if and only if the generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt; assumes at most two distinct values.

The proof uses the square-root representation

:&lt;math&gt;
q_i(\theta)
=
2\sqrt{p_i(\theta)}
&lt;/math&gt;

and the unnormalized trajectory

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\sum_{\ell=1}^{m}
e^{a_{\ell}\theta/2}u_{\ell}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The Vandermonde argument shows that if the generator assumes exactly &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt; distinct active values, then

:&lt;math&gt;
\dim
\operatorname{span}
\{r(\theta):\theta\in\mathbb{R}\}
=
m.
&lt;/math&gt;

A Fisher–Rao geodesic requires the square-root image to lie in a two-dimensional linear subspace through the origin.

This yields the two-level characterization.

=== 9.4 What the theorem does not claim ===

Theorem 1 should be interpreted narrowly.

It does not claim that exponential trajectories with three or more generator levels are geometrically uninteresting.

It does not claim that such trajectories cease to be e-geodesics.

It does not claim that the exponential parameter &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; is an affine Fisher–Rao geodesic parameter in the two-level case.

It does not characterize arbitrary curves on the probability simplex.

It does not characterize arbitrary state-dependent dilation fields.

It does not establish an analogous result for infinite-dimensional statistical manifolds.

The theorem concerns a specific finite-dimensional exponential family and the coincidence of its trajectory image with a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic.

=== 9.5 Boundary behavior ===

The main theorem assumes

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i^{(0)}&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

for every state.

This places the trajectory in the interior of the probability simplex for every finite &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt;.

The square-root representation remains meaningful at the boundary, but the usual coordinate expression of the Fisher–Rao metric becomes singular when one or more probabilities vanish.

Boundary points therefore require separate care.

In the two-level case, the exponential trajectory approaches boundary distributions only asymptotically as

:&lt;math&gt;
|\theta|\rightarrow\infty.
&lt;/math&gt;

A systematic treatment of trajectories beginning on, reaching, or moving between lower-dimensional faces of the simplex is outside the scope of the present paper.

=== 9.6 Zero initial probabilities ===

If some initial components satisfy

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i^{(0)}=0,
&lt;/math&gt;

then exponential dilation preserves those zeros:

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)=0.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective trajectory then lies in a lower-dimensional face of the simplex.

In such a case, the number of relevant generator levels should be counted only among states with positive initial probability.

The theorem can therefore be expected to admit a support-restricted formulation, but the present statement uses strict positivity to avoid unnecessary boundary qualifications.

=== 9.7 Fixed versus state-dependent dilation ===

Much of the analysis in this paper concerns a fixed positive matrix, a fixed weighting field, or a fixed generator.

More general transformations may depend on the current probability state:

:&lt;math&gt;
p^{(k+1)}
=
\frac{
M(p^{(k)})p^{(k)}
}
{
\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}
M(p^{(k)})p^{(k)}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Similarly, a continuous generator may depend on &lt;math&gt;p&lt;/math&gt; or on the evolution parameter.

Such systems may display behavior not reducible to ordinary fixed-matrix spectral theory or fixed-generator exponential tilting.

Their study would require tools from nonlinear dynamical systems, nonlinear positive operators, differential geometry, and related fields.

No general convergence claim for state-dependent dilation is made here.

=== 9.8 Entropy ===

Normalized dilation can either increase or decrease Shannon entropy depending on the transformation and the initial state.

For

:&lt;math&gt;
H(p)
=
-\sum_i p_i\log p_i,
&lt;/math&gt;

there is no general principle requiring

:&lt;math&gt;
H(T_M(p))
\leq H(p)
&lt;/math&gt;

or the reverse inequality for arbitrary nonnegative matrices.

In repeated diagonal dilation with a unique dominant weight, probability concentration generally drives the limiting distribution toward a point mass and therefore toward zero Shannon entropy.

However, this special concentration behavior should not be generalized to arbitrary matrix or state-dependent dilation.

A useful open problem is to identify classes of dilation operators for which entropy, relative entropy, or another information functional is monotone.

=== 9.9 Projective metrics and contraction ===

Because normalized positive transformations are invariant under positive scalar multiplication, projective geometry provides a natural language for their analysis.

For positive matrices and positive operators, Hilbert-type projective metrics and contraction theorems may provide convergence estimates stronger than those obtained from elementary normalization arguments.

A systematic comparison between normalized matrix dilation and established projective contraction theory would clarify which convergence properties follow immediately from known results and which, if any, require additional hypotheses.

This is an important direction for further study.

=== 9.10 Curvature beyond the two-level case ===

Theorem 1 distinguishes exactly between the two-level geodesic case and trajectories generated by three or more distinct levels.

The next geometric question is quantitative rather than binary.

For

:&lt;math&gt;
m\geq3,
&lt;/math&gt;

one may ask how far the exponential trajectory departs from a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic.

Possible quantities include:

* geodesic curvature;
* covariant acceleration;
* deviation from the great-circle plane;
* Fisher–Rao distance from an appropriate comparison geodesic;
* integrated curvature along the trajectory.

Such quantities could provide a graded measure of geometric departure rather than the yes-or-no characterization of Theorem 1.

=== 9.11 Relation between generator levels and geometric dimension ===

Corollary 1 gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\dim
\operatorname{span}
\{r(\theta)\}
=
m,
&lt;/math&gt;

where &lt;math&gt;m&lt;/math&gt; is the number of distinct active generator values.

This suggests a direct relationship between the algebraic complexity of the generator and the linear dimension required to contain its square-root trajectory.

The two-level Fisher–Rao result is the first consequence of this dimensional relation.

Further work could investigate whether analogous dimension-counting principles arise for multiparameter exponential families or other normalized positive flows.

=== 9.12 Multiparameter exponential dilation ===

A natural extension is

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta_1,\ldots,\theta_k)
=
\frac{
p_i^{(0)}
\exp
\left(
\sum_{r=1}^{k}\theta_r\phi_i^{(r)}
\right)
}
{
Z(\theta_1,\ldots,\theta_k)
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This defines a multiparameter exponential family.

Questions then arise concerning the dimension and curvature of its square-root image and the conditions under which particular parameter curves or submanifolds are totally geodesic with respect to the Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita connection.

The one-parameter theorem in this paper does not answer these questions.

=== 9.13 Infinite-dimensional extension ===

The measure-theoretic formulation suggests possible extensions beyond finite probability simplices.

For a reference probability measure &lt;math&gt;P_0&lt;/math&gt;, consider

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_{\theta}
=
\frac{
e^{\theta\phi}
}
{
\int e^{\theta\phi}\,dP_0
}
dP_0.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is the natural measure-theoretic analogue of finite exponential dilation.

An infinite-dimensional version of the geodesic characterization would require careful specification of the statistical manifold, admissible tangent spaces, regularity conditions, and the appropriate Fisher–Rao geometry.

The finite-dimensional Vandermonde argument does not by itself establish such a result.

=== 9.14 Numerical verification ===

The analytical results in Sections 7 and 8 can be supplemented by numerical experiments.

For two generator levels, numerical calculations should verify that the square-root trajectory remains in a fixed two-dimensional plane to numerical precision.

For three or more distinct levels, rank calculations can verify the predicted increase in the dimension of the trajectory span.

Numerical differentiation can also compare

:&lt;math&gt;
\left|
\frac{ds}{d\theta}
\right|
&lt;/math&gt;

with

:&lt;math&gt;
\sqrt{
\operatorname{Var}_{p(\theta)}(\phi)
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Such computations do not replace proof, but they provide useful checks against algebraic or implementation errors.

=== 9.15 Literature and priority limitations ===

The mathematical ingredients used in this paper draw from established areas with extensive literatures.

A literature search performed during development has identified substantial prior theory surrounding exponential families, Fisher–Rao geometry, positive operators, normalized matrix iteration, replicator dynamics, and related constructions.

At the present draft stage, the exact two-level characterization proved in Section 7 has not been identified by the author in the literature in the same form.

This absence should not be interpreted as proof of novelty.

Equivalent results may exist under different terminology or as consequences of more general theorems.

Accordingly, no claim of historical priority is made.

Further literature review and expert scrutiny are required before any stronger novelty statement would be appropriate.

=== 9.16 Open problems ===

The framework suggests several specific open questions:

# Can the finite-dimensional characterization be formulated cleanly for probability vectors with restricted support?
# Is there an established information-geometric theorem equivalent to the two-level characterization?
# What is the Fisher–Rao geodesic curvature of an exponential dilation trajectory with three distinct generator levels?
# Can that curvature be expressed directly in terms of moments or cumulants of the generator &lt;math&gt;\phi&lt;/math&gt;?
# Which normalized matrix transformations are contractions in a natural projective or information-geometric metric?
# Under what conditions is Shannon entropy monotone under repeated dilation?
# What aspects of the framework survive for nonlinear state-dependent operators?
# Is there a useful infinite-dimensional analogue of the generator-level dimension result?
# How does the characterization generalize to multiparameter exponential families?

These questions provide possible directions for extending the present work while maintaining a clear distinction between established theory and additional results.

=== 9.17 Summary of the discussion ===

The normalized-dilation viewpoint provides a common structural language for several familiar probability transformations.

Its mathematical usefulness depends on what can be learned from that organization rather than on the normalization operation itself.

Within the finite-dimensional exponential setting, the Fisher–Rao analysis leads to a precise characterization: the exponential trajectory has a Fisher–Rao geodesic image exactly in the one-level or two-level cases under the stated assumptions.

The two-level case additionally admits an explicit Fisher–Rao arclength parameterization.

These results motivate further study of curvature, dimensional structure, nonlinear dilation, and measure-theoretic extensions while leaving their broader significance open to mathematical evaluation.

== 10. Conclusion ==

This paper has developed '''normalized probability dilation''' as a common framework for probability transformations having the form

:'''positive transformation → normalization → probability state'''.

In finite dimensions, the framework includes diagonal reweighting

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i'
=
\frac{d_ip_i}
{\sum_jd_jp_j},
&lt;/math&gt;

and normalized nonnegative matrix transformations

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)
=
\frac{Mp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp}.
&lt;/math&gt;

At the level of probability measures, the corresponding construction is

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_D
=
\frac{D\,dP}
{\int_XD\,dP}.
&lt;/math&gt;

These constructions have direct relationships with established mathematics, including change of measure, exponential tilting, positive matrix theory, Perron–Frobenius theory, normalized power iteration, Markov operators, replicator-type dynamics, Feynman–Kac constructions, exponential families, and Fisher–Rao information geometry.

The purpose of the PDT framework is therefore not to claim these established operations as new, but to place them within a common transformation-and-normalization language and to use that organization to formulate precise mathematical questions.

=== 10.1 Principal geometric result ===

For the finite-dimensional exponential dilation family

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{
p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}
}
{
\sum_jp_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}
},
&lt;/math&gt;

the square-root representation

:&lt;math&gt;
q_i(\theta)
=
2\sqrt{p_i(\theta)}
&lt;/math&gt;

converts the Fisher–Rao geometry of the probability simplex into spherical geometry.

Grouping equal generator values gives the unnormalized square-root trajectory

:&lt;math&gt;
r(\theta)
=
\sum_{\ell=1}^{m}
e^{a_{\ell}\theta/2}u_{\ell},
&lt;/math&gt;

where &lt;math&gt;a_1,\ldots,a_m&lt;/math&gt; are the distinct generator levels.

The Vandermonde argument developed in Section 7 gives

:&lt;math&gt;
\dim
\operatorname{span}
\{r(\theta):\theta\in\mathbb{R}\}
=
m.
&lt;/math&gt;

Because a spherical great circle lies in a two-dimensional linear subspace through the origin, the exponential dilation trajectory has a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic image if and only if

:&lt;math&gt;
m\leq2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus, under the finite-dimensional strict-positivity assumptions of the theorem, the generator must assume at most two distinct values.

=== 10.2 Two-level arclength ===

For the nondegenerate two-level case, the trajectory can be written in square-root coordinates as

:&lt;math&gt;
q(\theta)
=
2
\left(
\cos\alpha(\theta)\widehat{u}
+
\sin\alpha(\theta)\widehat{v}
\right),
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha(\theta)
=
\arctan
\left(
\sqrt{
\frac{1-r_0}{r_0}
}
e^{(b-a)\theta/2}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

A signed Fisher–Rao arclength coordinate therefore satisfies

:&lt;math&gt;
s(\theta)-s(\theta_0)
=
2
\left(
\alpha(\theta)-\alpha(\theta_0)
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

This makes explicit the distinction between the exponential parameter &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; and Fisher–Rao arclength.

The exponential trajectory may follow the correct Fisher–Rao geodesic image without moving along it at constant Fisher–Rao speed.

=== 10.3 Final perspective ===

The results illustrate a broader methodological point.

A common mathematical framework is most useful when it does more than rename existing constructions. It should clarify relationships among established theories, expose structural distinctions, or lead to questions that can be answered precisely.

For normalized probability dilation, the distinction between exponential-family straightness and Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita straightness provides one such question.

The resulting two-level characterization and arclength formula provide a concrete starting point for further investigation.

Important directions remain open, including curvature of multilevel exponential trajectories, projective contraction properties, entropy conditions, nonlinear state-dependent dilation, multiparameter families, and possible infinite-dimensional extensions.

The present manuscript should therefore be regarded as a mathematical framework and initial geometric analysis rather than a completed general theory.

The characterization developed here remains subject to further literature review, independent proof checking, and external mathematical evaluation before any claim of historical priority or novelty is made.

== 11. Historical Development and Relationship to Probability Dilation Theory ==

The mathematical framework developed in this paper arose from a broader exploratory project now called '''Probability Dilation Theory (PDT)'''.

The present paper should be understood as a mathematical development within that project rather than as a continuation of its earlier physical interpretations.

=== 11.1 Early geometric-probability motivation ===

The initial motivation arose from geometric probability, particularly the observation that geometric information can sometimes be inferred from repeated probabilistic sampling.

Buffon-type experiments provided an intuitive starting point because they connect a random sampling procedure with geometric quantities through measurable intersection probabilities.

Early exploratory work investigated whether ratios derived from such probability experiments might provide a useful language for comparing geometric or scaling effects.

These investigations were heuristic and preceded the measure-theoretic formulation developed later.

They should therefore be regarded as historical motivation rather than as mathematical evidence for the results proved in this paper.

=== 11.2 Einstein–Buffon stage ===

An early version of the project was informally described as the '''Einstein Buffon Process'''.

At that stage, the emphasis was on possible analogies between geometric probability, scaling, and physical transformations.

The terminology reflected the historical route by which the problem was approached rather than a claim of a new physical theory.

As the work developed, it became increasingly clear that the mathematically tractable object was not the proposed physical analogy itself, but the transformation of probability distributions produced by positive weighting followed by normalization.

This shift changed the central question from

:'''Can a probabilistic sampling ratio represent a physical scaling effect?'''

to the more mathematical question

:'''What properties follow from normalized positive transformations of probability measures?'''

=== 11.3 Transition to probability-measure dilation ===

The resulting abstraction led to the transformation

:&lt;math&gt;
dP_D
=
\frac{D\,dP}
{\int_XD\,dP},
&lt;/math&gt;

where &lt;math&gt;P&lt;/math&gt; is a probability measure and &lt;math&gt;D&lt;/math&gt; is a positive or nonnegative weighting field satisfying the required normalization conditions.

This formulation separated the mathematical operation from any particular physical interpretation.

It also made clear that the construction has direct relationships with established change-of-measure theory, weighted probability measures, exponential tilting, and related probabilistic methods.

The term '''Probability Dilation Theory''' was subsequently adopted for the broader research framework concerned with such normalized probability transformations and their iteration.

=== 11.4 Development of matrix dilation operators ===

The finite-dimensional version of the framework naturally suggested replacing scalar componentwise weights by matrix transformations.

For a nonnegative matrix &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt;, this gives

:&lt;math&gt;
T_M(p)
=
\frac{Mp}
{\mathbf{1}^{\mathsf{T}}Mp}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This matrix formulation made the relationship with positive linear algebra substantially clearer.

Diagonal dilation became a special case, while off-diagonal matrix elements allowed coupling among probability components.

Analysis of fixed points and repeated iteration then connected the framework with eigenvectors, Perron–Frobenius theory, normalized power iteration, and projective dynamics.

This stage was important in clarifying which properties of matrix dilation follow from established mathematics and which questions require additional analysis.

=== 11.5 Development toward information geometry ===

A further simplification occurs for exponential dilation fields.

In finite dimensions,

:&lt;math&gt;
p_i(\theta)
=
\frac{
p_i^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_i}
}
{
\sum_jp_j^{(0)}e^{\theta\phi_j}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This expression identifies the trajectory directly with a one-parameter exponential family.

The connection shifted the investigation toward information geometry.

In particular, it raised a precise question that was not apparent in the original geometric-probability formulation:

:''When is an exponential dilation trajectory simultaneously an e-geodesic and, up to reparameterization, a Fisher–Rao Levi-Civita geodesic?''

The analysis of that question led to the generator-level characterization proved in Section 7.

=== 11.6 Conceptual progression ===

The historical development of the project can therefore be summarized schematically as:

:'''geometric probability and Buffon-type sampling'''

:'''↓'''

:'''exploratory scaling and Einstein–Buffon analogies'''

:'''↓'''

:'''positive probability reweighting'''

:'''↓'''

:'''normalized probability-measure transformation'''

:'''↓'''

:'''matrix dilation operators'''

:'''↓'''

:'''exponential dilation'''

:'''↓'''

:'''Fisher–Rao and information-geometric analysis'''

This progression should not be interpreted as a derivation of the later mathematics from the earlier physical analogies.

Rather, the early investigations provided motivation from which a progressively more abstract and mathematically conventional problem emerged.

=== 11.7 Relationship to the broader PDT project ===

The present manuscript focuses on only one part of the broader Probability Dilation Theory research program.

The wider PDT project investigates normalized positive transformations of probability measures, their composition, iteration, fixed points, matrix representations, and possible geometric properties.

The present paper narrows that scope substantially.

Its primary purpose is to:

* define a unified normalized-dilation notation;
* identify its relationships with established mathematics;
* develop the exponential-dilation formulation;
* analyze its Fisher–Rao geometry;
* prove the finite-dimensional generator-level characterization;
* derive the explicit two-level Fisher–Rao arclength formula.

Other exploratory PDT topics are not required for the mathematical results of this paper.

In particular, speculative applications to physics or cosmology should be regarded as separate research questions and are not assumptions of the theorem proved here.

=== 11.8 Research provenance and status ===

The broader PDT project has been developed openly through successive research notes, computational experiments, and Wikiversity pages.

Earlier formulations document the evolution of the terminology and ideas, while the present manuscript represents an attempt to isolate a cleaner mathematical core suitable for independent examination.

Historical provenance does not establish mathematical novelty.

The results presented in this manuscript must instead be evaluated through proof checking, comparison with the existing literature, and independent mathematical review.

Accordingly, the earlier stages of the PDT project are relevant to the history of the work but are not used as authority for the mathematical claims of this paper.

=== 11.9 Relationship between the manuscript and the research project ===

The distinction between the two levels of presentation is therefore:

:'''Probability Dilation Theory (PDT)''' — the broader evolving research framework.

:'''This manuscript''' — a focused mathematical investigation of normalized dilation, exponential trajectories, and their Fisher–Rao geometry.

The broader project may continue to develop additional models and conjectures independently of this paper.

Conversely, the mathematical results of this paper can be assessed without accepting any speculative interpretation associated with earlier stages of PDT.

This separation is intended to make the principal definitions, theorem, proof, and limitations accessible to independent mathematical scrutiny.

== References ==

&lt;references /&gt;

=== General probability and statistical foundations ===

* Fisher, R. A. (1922). ''On the Mathematical Foundations of Theoretical Statistics''. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, 222, 309–368. doi:10.1098/rsta.1922.0009.

* Rao, C. R. (1945). ''Information and Accuracy Attainable in the Estimation of Statistical Parameters''. Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical Society, 37, 81–91.

=== Information geometry ===

* Amari, S. and Nagaoka, H. (2000). ''Methods of Information Geometry''. Translations of Mathematical Monographs, Vol. 191. American Mathematical Society and Oxford University Press.

* Amari, S. (2016). ''Information Geometry and Its Applications''. Applied Mathematical Sciences, Vol. 194. Springer.

=== Positive matrices, Markov chains, and projective methods ===

* Seneta, E. (2006). ''Non-negative Matrices and Markov Chains'', 2nd ed. Springer Series in Statistics. Springer. doi:10.1007/0-387-32792-4.

* Birkhoff, G. (1957). ''Extensions of Jentzsch's Theorem''. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 85, 219–227.

=== Replicator and simplex geometry ===

* Shahshahani, S. (1979). ''A New Mathematical Framework for the Study of Linkage and Selection''. Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 17, No. 211. American Mathematical Society. doi:10.1090/memo/0211.

=== Feynman–Kac and normalized positive transformations ===

* Del Moral, P. (2004). ''Feynman-Kac Formulae: Genealogical and Interacting Particle Systems with Applications''. Probability and Its Applications. Springer.

== Relationship to the Probability Dilation Theory project ==

This manuscript is part of the broader [[Probability Dilation Theory]] research project on Wikiversity.

Technical and exploratory material related to the manuscript is developed on associated PDT subpages, including:

* [[Probability Dilation Theory/Measure-Theoretic Foundations|Measure-Theoretic Foundations]]
* [[Probability Dilation Theory/Matrix Dilation Operators|Matrix Dilation Operators]]
* [[Probability Dilation Theory/Dilation Vector Field|Dilation Vector Field]]
* [[Probability Dilation Theory/Dilation Flows|Dilation Flows]]
* [[Probability Dilation Theory/Convergence and Fixed Points|Convergence and Fixed Points]]
* [[Probability Dilation Theory/Fisher Geometry and Dilation Flows|Fisher Geometry and Dilation Flows]]

The present page is intended to develop a concise, standalone manuscript rather than reproduce the complete exploratory PDT project.

== Draft status and research note ==

This manuscript is a work in progress.

Some constructions discussed in the paper have direct counterparts in established mathematical literature. These relationships are identified explicitly wherever possible.

Results developed specifically within the present formulation are being subjected to continuing literature review, proof checking, numerical verification, and independent mathematical scrutiny before any claim of novelty is made.

Readers are encouraged to identify relevant prior literature, mathematical errors, counterexamples, alternative proofs, or useful extensions.

See also:

* [[Probability Dilation Theory/PDT and Quantum Amplitude Normalization|PDT and Quantum Amplitude Normalization: Conditional Reweighting and Information Geometry]]
* [[Probability Dilation Theory/Matrix Dilation Operators|Matrix Dilation Operators]]
* [[Probability Dilation Theory/Fisher Geometry and Dilation Flows|Fisher Geometry and Dilation Flows]]
* [[Probability Dilation Theory/Measure-Theoretic Foundations|Measure-Theoretic Foundations]]
* [[PDT, Fisher--Rao Geometry, and Ruppeiner Geometry of Black Holes]] *
*  [[PDT and Quantum-State Normalization at a Reissner–Nordström Horizon]]  *

== Copyright and licensing ==

Text and original figures © Howard Richardson.

Licensed under the [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)].

Reuse permitted with attribution.</text>
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    <title>Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Scarcity versus abundance mindset</title>
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      <text bytes="33207" sha1="aa5id3vkv8g9h7shukxi0hxrenxqr3q" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Scarcity versus abundance mindset&lt;br&gt;How do scarcity and abundance mindsets develop and what are the motivational consequences?}}
&lt;div align=center&gt;Edit the wording (and [[w:Stylistic or specialised usage|casing]]) above so that it matches the [[Motivation and emotion/Book/Current|topic list]].&lt;br&gt;[[Motivation and emotion/About/Staff|Seek approval]] for any changes.&lt;br&gt;Do not add your name; authorship is shown in the [[Special:History/{{PAGENAME}}|page history]].&lt;/div&gt;
__TOC__

= Overview =
'''Case study — A crowded week'''

Alex, a fictional university student, has rent due and two approaching assessment deadlines. An extra work shift would cover the rent but leave less study time. Alex checks the bank balance repeatedly and concentrates on tomorrow's assignment, overlooking next week's assessment. Figure 1 illustrates how one urgent problem can dominate competing goals.

'''Figure 1'''

''Urgent and competing goals in Alex’s week''

[[File:U3274291.png|554x554px]]

''Note.'' Fictional illustration of attention priorities, not measured data.

Scarcity concerns the experience of having insufficient resources for important demands. It can redirect attention towards immediate needs while other goals receive less consideration (Shah et al., 2012). Understanding this process helps explain why someone can work intensely yet struggle with longer-term planning. This chapter examines how resource perceptions develop, their motivational and emotional consequences, and ways of supporting change.

'''Focus questions'''

·      What are scarcity and abundance mindsets?

·      How do these mindsets develop?

·      How do they influence motivation and emotion, and when is scarcity helpful or harmful?

·      Can scarcity-focused thinking be changed?

= Understanding scarcity and abundance mindsets =
Resource conditions and interpretations must be distinguished. A shortage can be objectively measurable, such as insufficient income for housing, or experienced relative to personal needs and expectations. Someone with a comfortable income may still face severe time constraints. The resource, comparison standard and duration therefore need specification (Hamilton et al., 2019).

== Scarcity and perceived sufficiency ==
A scarcity mindset describes attention and interpretation organized around a perceived resource shortfall. It should not be treated as a fixed personality type. Research distinguishes immediate reactions, coping efforts and adaptations to continuing financial constraints (Hamilton et al., 2019). This distinction allows the same person to respond differently across circumstances.

Here, an abundance mindset means perceived resource sufficiency: having enough usable resources to consider options beyond the immediate shortage. This working definition is narrower than popular claims about attracting success through positive thinking. Huijsmans et al. (2019) experimentally induced scarcity and abundance within participants and examined food-purchasing decisions using brain imaging. Their findings concern context-dependent decision processing, not proof that adopting an optimistic identity produces wealth or lasting wellbeing.

Most studies reviewed here concern financial scarcity, with fewer directly examining perceived abundance. Conclusions about time pressure or a lasting abundance orientation therefore need additional evidence. Absence of financial scarcity is not automatically the same as optimism, generosity or psychological wellbeing. Keeping these concepts separate prevents a useful comparison from becoming an unsupported contrast between two kinds of people.

Table 1 summarizes the distinction without dividing people into superior and inferior categories. These are possible patterns, not diagnostic traits. A person may experience financial sufficiency alongside time scarcity, or alternate between states as circumstances change. The comparison should therefore guide questions about context rather than judgements about character.

'''Table 1'''

''Interpreting scarcity and resource sufficiency''
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|'''Dimension'''
|'''Scarcity-focused state'''
|'''Resource-sufficient state'''
|-
|Perception
|Important demands exceed resources
|Resources appear adequate for current demands
|-
|Possible priority
|Resolve the urgent shortfall
|Consider a wider range of goals
|-
|Potential benefit
|Focus and careful trade-offs
|Flexibility and room for planning
|-
|Caution
|Neglected goals may carry costs
|Sufficiency does not guarantee wise choices
|}
''Note.'' Conceptual synthesis of Shah et al. (2012), Hamilton et al. (2019), and Huijsmans et al. (2019), not a validated assessment scale.

== Explanatory frameworks ==
Scarcity theory proposes that urgent shortages capture attention, producing ''tunnelling'': concentrated engagement with one problem and neglect of others. In resource-allocation experiments, Shah et al. (2012) found that having fewer resources altered attention and encouraged overborrowing. The motivational implication is selective effort rather than a simple absence of motivation. Experimental tasks establish mechanisms more clearly than they represent the complexity of everyday hardship.

Conservation of resources theory places these experiences within a broader account of stress. People seek to protect and build valued resources, and threatened or actual losses can produce distress (Hobfoll, 1989). Applied to Alex, earning money consumes time needed for study, illustrating why protecting one resource can strain another. This framework addresses loss and protection, whereas scarcity theory specifies changes in attention.

Cannon et al. (2019) propose two routes of self-regulation: reducing the shortage or restoring control elsewhere. Which route is pursued depends partly on whether the resource gap seems changeable. For example, a student who sees a workable payment arrangement may seek it, while an apparently insoluble problem may redirect effort towards another manageable task. The model generates useful predictions, but a proposed pathway still requires evidence in each setting.

The difference between these routes becomes clearer when considering what a behavior achieves. In a hypothetical example, Alex might reorganize a desk because this feels manageable, even though it does not resolve the rent shortfall. Cannon et al.'s (2019) model would invite questions about whether this restores a sense of control or helps reduce the shortage itself. Such an interpretation is a hypothesis rather than a diagnosis. It suggests that evaluating coping requires examining both its immediate emotional function and whether it helps the person address the resource problem over time.

= How scarcity and abundance mindsets develop =
Development involves current circumstances and previous experience. A temporary manipulation of resources can test immediate responses, while childhood-history research examines longer-term differences. These approaches answer different questions and should not be treated as interchangeable evidence about lifelong personality. Figure 2 brings their proposed relationships together.

'''Figure 2'''

''Proposed pathways connecting resources and motivation''

[[File:U3274291..png|630x630px]]

''Note.'' Original conceptual synthesis informed by Cannon et al. (2019), Hobfoll (1989), and Ryan and Deci (2000). Arrows indicate proposed relationships, not a validated causal model; effects depend on context.

== Current demands and uncertainty ==
Actual shortages can create repeated decisions about which needs to meet. Haushofer and Fehr (2014) describe how poverty-related stress and negative emotion may influence choices, potentially contributing to continuing hardship. This is a proposed feedback process involving circumstances and behavior. It does not imply that poverty originates in a defective mindset.

Perceived control helps explain why the same shortage may produce different responses. Mittal and Griskevicius (2014) found that uncertainty reduced perceived control more among participants reporting poorer childhood environments; control statistically mediated differences in impulsive behavior. Statistical mediation is consistent with an explanatory mechanism, but does not by itself establish the entire causal sequence. The findings suggest that expectations about whether effort will succeed deserve attention alongside resource levels.

Comparisons with previous conditions can also matter. Huijsmans et al. (2019) observed differences between scarcity and abundance in brain regions associated with valuation and goal-directed choice; effects were particularly evident when scarcity followed abundance. This suggests that a change in resources may be experienced relative to what was available before. However, activity in a brain region does not establish a single psychological process, and the experiment concerned consumer choices rather than long-term motivation.

== Earlier experiences and changing expectations ==
Drawing on life-history theory, Griskevicius et al. (2013) examined responses to economic uncertainty in three experiments. Participants from poorer childhood backgrounds showed greater impulsivity and risk-taking under threat, whereas those from wealthier backgrounds responded more cautiously. Earlier environments may influence how reliable future opportunities appear. However, retrospective childhood reports and short experimental tasks cannot establish a universal developmental pathway or predict an individual's choices.

An account of resource sufficiency should similarly consider stability, usable support and expectations of future access. Predictable help may make planning more feasible even when resources remain modest. This is an application of the resource-protection and control frameworks, rather than evidence for a distinct, permanent abundance personality (Cannon et al., 2019; Hobfoll, 1989). Longitudinal research would be needed to establish how such expectations develop and persist.

A useful developmental question is whether expectations change when circumstances improve. If Alex gains reliable support but still anticipates another shortage, following the student over several months could help distinguish continuing financial pressure from expectations carried forward from earlier experience. Researchers would need repeated measures of resources, perceived control and goal choices, rather than relying on one retrospective questionnaire. This proposed aproach follows the chapter's distinction between circumstances and interpretation. It would also allow examination of individual variation, including why similar improvements in resources might be followed by different patterns of planning.

= Motivational and emotional consequences =
Consequences depend on what is measured: effort towards an urgent goal, performance on an unrelated task, emotional experience or future-oriented choice. A finding in one domain cannot automatically explain another. The research below therefore separates selective benefits from potential costs and considers evidence that challenges broad conclusions.

== Immediate focus and cognitive costs ==
Scarcity can improve attention to trade-offs. Shah et al. (2015) found that resource constraints made some judgements of value less susceptible to irrelevant contextual information. Pressing needs supplied a more consistent comparison standard. This challenges the assumption that scarcity necessarily makes every decision less rational.

Mani et al. (2013) reported poorer cognitive performance after financial concerns were prompted among lower-income participants. They also observed the same farmers performing less well before harvest than afterwards. Within person comparisons reduce explanations based on stable individual differences, but seasonal comparisons cannot control every changing circumstance. The findings support a situational burden on performance, not the conclusion that people experiencing poverty have lower inherent intelligence.

Attention may also be affected selectively, Zhang et al. (2023) used a visual-search task and electroencephalography to distinguish target enhancement from distractor suppression. Scarcity induction was associated with poorer suppression of irrelevant information, while target enhancement remained relatively unchanged. This suggests that filtering distractions can be affected without every attentional process deteriorating, although laboratory effects require testing in everyday settings.

The broader evidence is mixed, Carvalho et al. (2016) randomly assigned low-income households to assessment before or after payday and found no corresponding differences in cognitive performance or decision quality. Before-payday participants preferred earlier monetary rewards, but not earlier rewards involving real effort. An immediate need for cash can therefore resemble impatience without demonstrating a general motivational deficit.

In a meta-analysis of 29 datasets, de Almeida et al. (2024) reported an overall negative association between financial scarcity and cognitive performance. The estimated effect became substantially smaller after accounting for education. Education may share causes with scarcity or form part of its longer-term consequences, so statistical adjustment alone does not identify the causal explanation. Combining different designs also cannot establish that every short-term scarcity manipulation has the same effect.

Szecsi and Szaszi (2024) addressed a narrower question: whether financial-scarcity cues disproportionately impair poorer participants' cognitive performance. Their Bayesian meta-analysis of 10 studies found limited, uncertain evidence and a small estimated effect. Similar study designs and incomplete moderator information restricted generalization. These findings caution against a universal claim that scarcity reduces mental capacity.

A later systematic review examined changes in actual financial resources rather than scarcity reminders. Szecsi et al. (2025) synthesized 14 studies and found inconclusive evidence for improved cognitive performance, with any positive average effect likely to be small. This distinction matters because receiving resources and thinking about shortage are different interventions. Material support can still improve living conditions even when cognitive-test gains are uncertain.

These disagreements also affect how motivation should be measured. A cognitive task assesses performance under particular conditions; it does not directly show whether someone values a goal, persists with it or experiences their effort as worthwhile. Future studies could assess these outcomes together while distinguishing temporary cash shortages from enduring disadvantage. For example, a student might maintain test performance but abandon an important activity because paid work takes priority. This hypothetical pattern would indicate a change in goal allocation, even without a measurable cognitive decline, and would require an explanation beyond test scores alone.

== Emotion and the quality of motivation ==
Emotional strain is relevant even when cognitive-test effects are absent. Haushofer and Fehr (2014) identify stress and negative affect as possible links between poverty and economic behavior. Adamkovič and Martončik (2017) integrate cognitive load, executive functioning and decision processes in a proposed model. Their synthesis makes the relationships explicit, but does not establish that every link occurs together or that emotional strain inevitably produces poor choices.

Self-determination theory asks what kind of motivation sustains behavior. Autonomy involves experiencing choice, competence involves feeling effective, and relatedness concerns connection with others (Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000). A student may expend substantial effort because of pressure while losing interest in learning. Applied here, the distinction separates the amount of effort from its psychological quality.

Deci and Ryan (2000) distinguish the content of goals from the reasons for pursuing them. Meeting rent is an external outcome, but working towards it may still be personally endorsed rather than entirely imposed. Consequently, financial goals should not automatically be labelled unhealthy or inferior. Understanding motivation requires examining whether the person experiences agency and whether important psychological needs are supported.

Evidence also challenges the idea that material deprivation eliminates intrinsic motivation. Research by van Egmond et al. (2017) found that intrinsic motivation predicted school attendance under severe resource scarcity, and basic-need satisfaction was particularly important under greater deprivation. These findings support attending to psychological needs alongside material conditions. They do not show that encouragement can replace food, transport or financial support.

Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory proposes that positive emotions can widen the range of thoughts and actions considered and help build resources over time. It offers a possible explanation for exploration when circumstances feel safer. However, positive emotion and perceived abundance are different constructs. Evidence for one should not be presented as direct validation of the other.

Self-determination theory also clarifies why receiving help need not undermine autonomy. Autonomy concerns acting with personal endorsement, rather than completing everything independently (Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000). Alex could therefore accept financial or academic assistance while retaining a meaningful role in choosing the next steps. In contrast, assistance accompanied by pressure to follow someone else's priorities might leave little room for endorsement. Applied to scarcity, this distinction suggests evaluating how support is offered as well as what resources it supplies. The proposed benefit is more sustainable engagement with valued goals, not simply greater compliance with external expectations.

== Social priorities and interpreting evidence ==
Scarcity does not determine a person's generosity. Roux et al. (2015) found that scarcity reminders encouraged a competitive orientation, which could support self-interested behavior or generosity when helping also offered personal benefits. The motivational context mattered. Such experiments cannot justify character judgements about all people with low incomes.

Laforet et al. (2024) found that focusing on motives beyond personal benefit encouraged broader thinking and other-oriented intentions under perceived scarcity. This provides a counterpoint to accounts of unavoidable self-focus. However, intentions to help are not equivalent to sustained helping, and student samples limit generalization. Both findings suggest that social goals can remain responsive to context.

The review by de Bruijn and Antonides (2022) concludes that scarcity theory is useful but does not fully match the evidence. Income, subjective shortage and experimental resource restrictions are often treated as equivalent despite measuring different things. For this chapter, the strongest interpretation is that resource conditions can redirect motivation through several pathways. The size, persistence and practical importance of each effect remain empirical questions.

These frameworks can be integrated without treating them as interchangeable. In Alex’s case, scarcity theory concerns which deadline attracts attention, conservation of resources theory concerns the strain of exchanging study time for income, and self-determination theory concerns whether study feels chosen and achievable. Their combination predicts that improving finances could ease one burden while leaving motivation affected by an unsupportive learning environment. This is a theory-informed interpretation, not a finding directly tested with Alex (Hobfoll, 1989; Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000; Shah et al., 2012). A useful evaluation would therefore examine competing goals, emotional strain and perceived agency separately.

= Can scarcity-focused thinking be changed? =
Change should address the shortage and the conditions surrounding decisions. Practical recommendations need to distinguish tested interventions from reasonable applications of theory. A positive message may feel supportive while leaving the original barrier untouched. The following approaches combine material support with opportunities for more manageable goal pursuit.

== Reduce shortages and decision burdens ==
Haushofer and Shapiro (2016) tested unconditional cash transfers in rural Kenya using random assignment. Recipients experienced improvements in economic outcomes and psychological wellbeing, although there was no overall effect on cortisol. This supports changing material conditions as a route to improvement. It does not isolate an abundance mindset as the mechanism or establish identical effects in other populations.

Ong et al. (2019) studied a debt-relief program in Singapore. Improvements in psychological functioning were associated with relief, and clearing more debt accounts mattered beyond the amount repaid. This suggests that juggling separate obligations can create burdens of its own. Because the study was quasi-experimental, its design leaves more uncertainty than random assignment about alternative explanations.

Time also deserves attention. Whillans et al. (2017) combined surveys with an experiment in which working adults reported greater happiness after a time-saving purchase than a material purchase. The result supports treating time pressure as a meaningful concern. It is not an affordable solution for everyone, so practical applications might instead consider accessible help or realistic workload adjustments; those alternatives require their own evaluation.

The intervention findings raise a further question about what counts as success. Improved living conditions, reduced distress and better cognitive performance are separate outcomes, so evidence for one should not substitute for evidence about another (Haushofer &amp; Shapiro, 2016; Szecsi et al., 2025). A program could be valuable because it makes housing more secure even if cognitive scores remain unchanged. Conversely, an improvement on a brief task would not establish that everyday financial pressures had disappeared. Evaluations should therefore specify their intended outcome and examine whether benefits persist beyond the immediate assessment period.

== Support agency and broader goals ==
Psychological support can complement practical relief. Offering meaningful choices, achievable tasks and respectful assistance follows self-determination theory, while preserving the person's involvement in decisions (Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000). For a student, this might mean choosing a study sequence with a tutor rather than receiving another demand to work harder. These are theory-informed applications, not a tested package for producing an abundance mindset.

'''Case study — A more manageable week'''

Alex contacts student support, arranges a feasible payment plan and discusses the assessment workload with a tutor. A calendar now includes the later assignment and recovery time. Financial pressure remains, but there is a clearer next step and less uncertainty. This fictional outcome illustrates possible support; it is not evidence that these actions guarantee improvement.

Reflection can help identify which resource is actually scarce and which concern is dominating attention. A useful question is whether a decision addresses an immediate need while overlooking another important goal. Another is whether practical help would make a delayed goal more feasible. These prompts apply the chapter's frameworks without assuming that reframing alone removes hardship.

For Alex, this evaluation could involve reviewing the following week rather than judging success from an immediate feeling of relief. Did the payment arrangement reduce the urgent shortfall, and was there enough time to begin the later assignment? If the arrangement required extra work shifts that displaced study again, the original conflict would remain. Revising the plan would then be a response to its practical limits. This extension of the fictional case shows why progress should be assessed across competing goals, with attention to remaining barriers rather than an assumption that a positive outlook has solved them.

'''Applying the ideas'''

Consider a person who repeatedly postpones a goal. Identify the missing resource: money, time, reliable support or something else. Separate the immediate obligation from the goal that is being overlooked, then identify one feasible source of practical assistance. Review whether the change actually improves functioning, such as starting the delayed task or protecting recovery time. This reflection is a learning exercise, not a validated intervention or a test of whether someone has the correct mindset.

= Conclusion =
Scarcity-focused thinking develops through interactions between current demands, perceived control and earlier experiences. It can strengthen immediate focus and trade-off awareness, while making competing goals harder to manage. Emotional strain and motivational quality matter alongside cognitive performance, and effects vary across methods and circumstances. Resource sufficiency is best treated here as a contextual perception, rather than a universally beneficial personality type.

Improving motivational and emotional lives therefore involves identifying actual shortages, reducing avoidable burdens and supporting agency and connection. The research gives stronger grounds for specific, evaluated forms of support than for promises attached to an abundance label. For Alex, the practical aim is sustainable progress across important goals. Success should be judged by functioning and wellbeing, not by whether someone sounds sufficiently positive.

= See also =
·      Scarcity (Wikipedia)

·      Self-determination theory (Wikipedia)

·      [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Autonomy and intrinsic motivation in self-determination theory|Autonomy and intrinsic motivation in self-determination theory]] (Wikiversity)

= References =
Adamkovič, M., &amp; Martončik, M. (2017). A review of consequences of poverty on economic decision-making: A hypothesized model of a cognitive mechanism. ''Frontiers in Psychology, 8'', Article 1784. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01784&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Cannon, C., Goldsmith, K., &amp; Roux, C. (2019). A self-regulatory model of resource scarcity. ''Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29''(1), 104–127. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1035&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Carvalho, L. S., Meier, S., &amp; Wang, S. W. (2016). Poverty and economic decision-making: Evidence from changes in financial resources at payday. ''American Economic Review, 106''(2), 260–284. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20140481&lt;/nowiki&gt;

de Almeida, F., Scott, I. J., Soro, J. C., Fernandes, D., Amaral, A. R., Catarino, M. L., Arêde, A., &amp; Ferreira, M. B. (2024). Financial scarcity and cognitive performance: A meta-analysis. ''Journal of Economic Psychology, 101'', Article 102702. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2024.102702&lt;/nowiki&gt;

de Bruijn, E.-J., &amp; Antonides, G. (2022). Poverty and economic decision making: A review of scarcity theory. ''Theory and Decision, 92''(1), 5–37. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-021-09802-7&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Deci, E. L., &amp; Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. ''Psychological Inquiry, 11''(4), 227–268. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. ''American Psychologist, 56''(3), 218–226. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Griskevicius, V., Ackerman, J. M., Cantú, S. M., Delton, A. W., Robertson, T. E., Simpson, J. A., Emery Thompson, M., &amp; Tybur, J. M. (2013). When the economy falters, do people spend or save? Responses to resource scarcity depend on childhood environments. ''Psychological Science, 24''(2), 197–205. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612451471&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Hamilton, R. W., Mittal, C., Shah, A., Thompson, D. V., &amp; Griskevicius, V. (2019). How financial constraints influence consumer behavior: An integrative framework. ''Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29''(2), 285–305. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1074&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Haushofer, J., &amp; Fehr, E. (2014). On the psychology of poverty. ''Science, 344''(6186), 862–867. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1232491&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Haushofer, J., &amp; Shapiro, J. (2016). The short-term impact of unconditional cash transfers to the poor: Experimental evidence from Kenya. ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131''(4), 1973–2042. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjw025&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. ''American Psychologist, 44''(3), 513–524. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.3.513&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Huijsmans, I., Ma, I., Micheli, L., Civai, C., Stallen, M., &amp; Sanfey, A. G. (2019). A scarcity mindset alters neural processing underlying consumer decision making. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116''(24), 11699–11704. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1818572116&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Laforet, B., Carrera, P., &amp; Caballero, A. (2024). Breaking self-focused orientation in people who perceive economic scarcity: The influence of transcendent motivation to promote an abstract mindset and prosocial behavioral intentions. ''Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 65''(4), 607–616. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.13009&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., &amp; Zhao, J. (2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. ''Science, 341''(6149), 976–980. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1238041&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Mittal, C., &amp; Griskevicius, V. (2014). Sense of control under uncertainty depends on people's childhood environment: A life history theory approach. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107''(4), 621–637. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037398&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Ong, Q., Theseira, W., &amp; Ng, I. Y. H. (2019). Reducing debt improves psychological functioning and changes decision-making in the poor. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116''(15), 7244–7249. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1810901116&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Roux, C., Goldsmith, K., &amp; Bonezzi, A. (2015). On the psychology of scarcity: When reminders of resource scarcity promote selfish (and generous) behavior. ''Journal of Consumer Research, 42''(4), 615–631. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucv048&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Ryan, R. M., &amp; Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. ''American Psychologist, 55''(1), 68–78. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Shah, A. K., Mullainathan, S., &amp; Shafir, E. (2012). Some consequences of having too little. ''Science, 338''(6107), 682–685. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1222426&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Shah, A. K., Shafir, E., &amp; Mullainathan, S. (2015). Scarcity frames value. ''Psychological Science, 26''(4), 402–412. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614563958&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Szecsi, P., Kolumban, P., Taka, A., &amp; Szaszi, B. (2025). The impact of financial resources on cognitive performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Collabra: Psychology, 11''(1), Article 147236. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.147236&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Szecsi, P., &amp; Szaszi, B. (2024). Financial-scarcity-related cues’ impact on the cognitive performance of the poor: A meta-analysis. ''Collabra: Psychology, 10''(1), Article 122943. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.122943&lt;/nowiki&gt;

van Egmond, M. C., Navarrete Berges, A., Omarshah, T., &amp; Benton, J. (2017). The role of intrinsic motivation and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs under conditions of severe resource scarcity. ''Psychological Science, 28''(6), 822–828. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617698138&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Whillans, A. V., Dunn, E. W., Smeets, P., Bekkers, R., &amp; Norton, M. I. (2017). Buying time promotes happiness. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114''(32), 8523–8527. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706541114&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Zhang, L., Xu, M., Du, X., Yang, Q., &amp; Qiao, L. (2023). Scarcity mindset impairs distractor suppression but not target enhancement in selective attention: Evidence from ERPs. ''Neuropsychologia, 191'', Article 108739. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108739&lt;/nowiki&gt;

= External links =
[[·      The psychology of scarcity (American Psychological Association)]]

[[·      Overview of self-determination theory (Center for Self-Determination Theory)]]

[[·      To promote happiness, choose time over money (Whillans and Dunn, Behavioral Scientist]]
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== Overview ==
'''Case study — A crowded week'''

Alex, a fictional university student, has rent due and two approaching assessment deadlines. An extra work shift would cover the rent but leave less study time. Alex checks the bank balance repeatedly and concentrates on tomorrow's assignment, overlooking next week's assessment. Figure 1 illustrates how one urgent problem can dominate competing goals.

'''Figure 1'''

''Urgent and competing goals in Alex’s week''

[[File:U3274291.png|554x554px]]

''Note.'' Fictional illustration of attention priorities, not measured data.

Scarcity concerns the experience of having insufficient resources for important demands. It can redirect attention towards immediate needs while other goals receive less consideration (Shah et al., 2012). Understanding this process helps explain why someone can work intensely yet struggle with longer-term planning. This chapter examines how resource perceptions develop, their motivational and emotional consequences, and ways of supporting change.

'''Focus questions'''

·      What are scarcity and abundance mindsets?

·      How do these mindsets develop?

·      How do they influence motivation and emotion, and when is scarcity helpful or harmful?

·      Can scarcity-focused thinking be changed?

= Understanding scarcity and abundance mindsets =
Resource conditions and interpretations must be distinguished. A shortage can be objectively measurable, such as insufficient income for housing, or experienced relative to personal needs and expectations. Someone with a comfortable income may still face severe time constraints. The resource, comparison standard and duration therefore need specification (Hamilton et al., 2019).

== Scarcity and perceived sufficiency ==
A scarcity mindset describes attention and interpretation organized around a perceived resource shortfall. It should not be treated as a fixed personality type. Research distinguishes immediate reactions, coping efforts and adaptations to continuing financial constraints (Hamilton et al., 2019). This distinction allows the same person to respond differently across circumstances.

Here, an abundance mindset means perceived resource sufficiency: having enough usable resources to consider options beyond the immediate shortage. This working definition is narrower than popular claims about attracting success through positive thinking. Huijsmans et al. (2019) experimentally induced scarcity and abundance within participants and examined food-purchasing decisions using brain imaging. Their findings concern context-dependent decision processing, not proof that adopting an optimistic identity produces wealth or lasting wellbeing.

Most studies reviewed here concern financial scarcity, with fewer directly examining perceived abundance. Conclusions about time pressure or a lasting abundance orientation therefore need additional evidence. Absence of financial scarcity is not automatically the same as optimism, generosity or psychological wellbeing. Keeping these concepts separate prevents a useful comparison from becoming an unsupported contrast between two kinds of people.

Table 1 summarizes the distinction without dividing people into superior and inferior categories. These are possible patterns, not diagnostic traits. A person may experience financial sufficiency alongside time scarcity, or alternate between states as circumstances change. The comparison should therefore guide questions about context rather than judgements about character.

'''Table 1'''

''Interpreting scarcity and resource sufficiency''
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|'''Dimension'''
|'''Scarcity-focused state'''
|'''Resource-sufficient state'''
|-
|Perception
|Important demands exceed resources
|Resources appear adequate for current demands
|-
|Possible priority
|Resolve the urgent shortfall
|Consider a wider range of goals
|-
|Potential benefit
|Focus and careful trade-offs
|Flexibility and room for planning
|-
|Caution
|Neglected goals may carry costs
|Sufficiency does not guarantee wise choices
|}
''Note.'' Conceptual synthesis of Shah et al. (2012), Hamilton et al. (2019), and Huijsmans et al. (2019), not a validated assessment scale.

== Explanatory frameworks ==
Scarcity theory proposes that urgent shortages capture attention, producing ''tunnelling'': concentrated engagement with one problem and neglect of others. In resource-allocation experiments, Shah et al. (2012) found that having fewer resources altered attention and encouraged overborrowing. The motivational implication is selective effort rather than a simple absence of motivation. Experimental tasks establish mechanisms more clearly than they represent the complexity of everyday hardship.

Conservation of resources theory places these experiences within a broader account of stress. People seek to protect and build valued resources, and threatened or actual losses can produce distress (Hobfoll, 1989). Applied to Alex, earning money consumes time needed for study, illustrating why protecting one resource can strain another. This framework addresses loss and protection, whereas scarcity theory specifies changes in attention.

Cannon et al. (2019) propose two routes of self-regulation: reducing the shortage or restoring control elsewhere. Which route is pursued depends partly on whether the resource gap seems changeable. For example, a student who sees a workable payment arrangement may seek it, while an apparently insoluble problem may redirect effort towards another manageable task. The model generates useful predictions, but a proposed pathway still requires evidence in each setting.

The difference between these routes becomes clearer when considering what a behavior achieves. In a hypothetical example, Alex might reorganize a desk because this feels manageable, even though it does not resolve the rent shortfall. Cannon et al.'s (2019) model would invite questions about whether this restores a sense of control or helps reduce the shortage itself. Such an interpretation is a hypothesis rather than a diagnosis. It suggests that evaluating coping requires examining both its immediate emotional function and whether it helps the person address the resource problem over time.

= How scarcity and abundance mindsets develop =
Development involves current circumstances and previous experience. A temporary manipulation of resources can test immediate responses, while childhood-history research examines longer-term differences. These approaches answer different questions and should not be treated as interchangeable evidence about lifelong personality. Figure 2 brings their proposed relationships together.

'''Figure 2'''

''Proposed pathways connecting resources and motivation''

[[File:U3274291..png|630x630px]]

''Note.'' Original conceptual synthesis informed by Cannon et al. (2019), Hobfoll (1989), and Ryan and Deci (2000). Arrows indicate proposed relationships, not a validated causal model; effects depend on context.

== Current demands and uncertainty ==
Actual shortages can create repeated decisions about which needs to meet. Haushofer and Fehr (2014) describe how poverty-related stress and negative emotion may influence choices, potentially contributing to continuing hardship. This is a proposed feedback process involving circumstances and behavior. It does not imply that poverty originates in a defective mindset.

Perceived control helps explain why the same shortage may produce different responses. Mittal and Griskevicius (2014) found that uncertainty reduced perceived control more among participants reporting poorer childhood environments; control statistically mediated differences in impulsive behavior. Statistical mediation is consistent with an explanatory mechanism, but does not by itself establish the entire causal sequence. The findings suggest that expectations about whether effort will succeed deserve attention alongside resource levels.

Comparisons with previous conditions can also matter. Huijsmans et al. (2019) observed differences between scarcity and abundance in brain regions associated with valuation and goal-directed choice; effects were particularly evident when scarcity followed abundance. This suggests that a change in resources may be experienced relative to what was available before. However, activity in a brain region does not establish a single psychological process, and the experiment concerned consumer choices rather than long-term motivation.

== Earlier experiences and changing expectations ==
Drawing on life-history theory, Griskevicius et al. (2013) examined responses to economic uncertainty in three experiments. Participants from poorer childhood backgrounds showed greater impulsivity and risk-taking under threat, whereas those from wealthier backgrounds responded more cautiously. Earlier environments may influence how reliable future opportunities appear. However, retrospective childhood reports and short experimental tasks cannot establish a universal developmental pathway or predict an individual's choices.

An account of resource sufficiency should similarly consider stability, usable support and expectations of future access. Predictable help may make planning more feasible even when resources remain modest. This is an application of the resource-protection and control frameworks, rather than evidence for a distinct, permanent abundance personality (Cannon et al., 2019; Hobfoll, 1989). Longitudinal research would be needed to establish how such expectations develop and persist.

A useful developmental question is whether expectations change when circumstances improve. If Alex gains reliable support but still anticipates another shortage, following the student over several months could help distinguish continuing financial pressure from expectations carried forward from earlier experience. Researchers would need repeated measures of resources, perceived control and goal choices, rather than relying on one retrospective questionnaire. This proposed aproach follows the chapter's distinction between circumstances and interpretation. It would also allow examination of individual variation, including why similar improvements in resources might be followed by different patterns of planning.

= Motivational and emotional consequences =
Consequences depend on what is measured: effort towards an urgent goal, performance on an unrelated task, emotional experience or future-oriented choice. A finding in one domain cannot automatically explain another. The research below therefore separates selective benefits from potential costs and considers evidence that challenges broad conclusions.

== Immediate focus and cognitive costs ==
Scarcity can improve attention to trade-offs. Shah et al. (2015) found that resource constraints made some judgements of value less susceptible to irrelevant contextual information. Pressing needs supplied a more consistent comparison standard. This challenges the assumption that scarcity necessarily makes every decision less rational.

Mani et al. (2013) reported poorer cognitive performance after financial concerns were prompted among lower-income participants. They also observed the same farmers performing less well before harvest than afterwards. Within person comparisons reduce explanations based on stable individual differences, but seasonal comparisons cannot control every changing circumstance. The findings support a situational burden on performance, not the conclusion that people experiencing poverty have lower inherent intelligence.

Attention may also be affected selectively, Zhang et al. (2023) used a visual-search task and electroencephalography to distinguish target enhancement from distractor suppression. Scarcity induction was associated with poorer suppression of irrelevant information, while target enhancement remained relatively unchanged. This suggests that filtering distractions can be affected without every attentional process deteriorating, although laboratory effects require testing in everyday settings.

The broader evidence is mixed, Carvalho et al. (2016) randomly assigned low-income households to assessment before or after payday and found no corresponding differences in cognitive performance or decision quality. Before-payday participants preferred earlier monetary rewards, but not earlier rewards involving real effort. An immediate need for cash can therefore resemble impatience without demonstrating a general motivational deficit.

In a meta-analysis of 29 datasets, de Almeida et al. (2024) reported an overall negative association between financial scarcity and cognitive performance. The estimated effect became substantially smaller after accounting for education. Education may share causes with scarcity or form part of its longer-term consequences, so statistical adjustment alone does not identify the causal explanation. Combining different designs also cannot establish that every short-term scarcity manipulation has the same effect.

Szecsi and Szaszi (2024) addressed a narrower question: whether financial-scarcity cues disproportionately impair poorer participants' cognitive performance. Their Bayesian meta-analysis of 10 studies found limited, uncertain evidence and a small estimated effect. Similar study designs and incomplete moderator information restricted generalization. These findings caution against a universal claim that scarcity reduces mental capacity.

A later systematic review examined changes in actual financial resources rather than scarcity reminders. Szecsi et al. (2025) synthesized 14 studies and found inconclusive evidence for improved cognitive performance, with any positive average effect likely to be small. This distinction matters because receiving resources and thinking about shortage are different interventions. Material support can still improve living conditions even when cognitive-test gains are uncertain.

These disagreements also affect how motivation should be measured. A cognitive task assesses performance under particular conditions; it does not directly show whether someone values a goal, persists with it or experiences their effort as worthwhile. Future studies could assess these outcomes together while distinguishing temporary cash shortages from enduring disadvantage. For example, a student might maintain test performance but abandon an important activity because paid work takes priority. This hypothetical pattern would indicate a change in goal allocation, even without a measurable cognitive decline, and would require an explanation beyond test scores alone.

== Emotion and the quality of motivation ==
Emotional strain is relevant even when cognitive-test effects are absent. Haushofer and Fehr (2014) identify stress and negative affect as possible links between poverty and economic behavior. Adamkovič and Martončik (2017) integrate cognitive load, executive functioning and decision processes in a proposed model. Their synthesis makes the relationships explicit, but does not establish that every link occurs together or that emotional strain inevitably produces poor choices.

Self-determination theory asks what kind of motivation sustains behavior. Autonomy involves experiencing choice, competence involves feeling effective, and relatedness concerns connection with others (Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000). A student may expend substantial effort because of pressure while losing interest in learning. Applied here, the distinction separates the amount of effort from its psychological quality.

Deci and Ryan (2000) distinguish the content of goals from the reasons for pursuing them. Meeting rent is an external outcome, but working towards it may still be personally endorsed rather than entirely imposed. Consequently, financial goals should not automatically be labelled unhealthy or inferior. Understanding motivation requires examining whether the person experiences agency and whether important psychological needs are supported.

Evidence also challenges the idea that material deprivation eliminates intrinsic motivation. Research by van Egmond et al. (2017) found that intrinsic motivation predicted school attendance under severe resource scarcity, and basic-need satisfaction was particularly important under greater deprivation. These findings support attending to psychological needs alongside material conditions. They do not show that encouragement can replace food, transport or financial support.

Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build theory proposes that positive emotions can widen the range of thoughts and actions considered and help build resources over time. It offers a possible explanation for exploration when circumstances feel safer. However, positive emotion and perceived abundance are different constructs. Evidence for one should not be presented as direct validation of the other.

Self-determination theory also clarifies why receiving help need not undermine autonomy. Autonomy concerns acting with personal endorsement, rather than completing everything independently (Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000). Alex could therefore accept financial or academic assistance while retaining a meaningful role in choosing the next steps. In contrast, assistance accompanied by pressure to follow someone else's priorities might leave little room for endorsement. Applied to scarcity, this distinction suggests evaluating how support is offered as well as what resources it supplies. The proposed benefit is more sustainable engagement with valued goals, not simply greater compliance with external expectations.

== Social priorities and interpreting evidence ==
Scarcity does not determine a person's generosity. Roux et al. (2015) found that scarcity reminders encouraged a competitive orientation, which could support self-interested behavior or generosity when helping also offered personal benefits. The motivational context mattered. Such experiments cannot justify character judgements about all people with low incomes.

Laforet et al. (2024) found that focusing on motives beyond personal benefit encouraged broader thinking and other-oriented intentions under perceived scarcity. This provides a counterpoint to accounts of unavoidable self-focus. However, intentions to help are not equivalent to sustained helping, and student samples limit generalization. Both findings suggest that social goals can remain responsive to context.

The review by de Bruijn and Antonides (2022) concludes that scarcity theory is useful but does not fully match the evidence. Income, subjective shortage and experimental resource restrictions are often treated as equivalent despite measuring different things. For this chapter, the strongest interpretation is that resource conditions can redirect motivation through several pathways. The size, persistence and practical importance of each effect remain empirical questions.

These frameworks can be integrated without treating them as interchangeable. In Alex’s case, scarcity theory concerns which deadline attracts attention, conservation of resources theory concerns the strain of exchanging study time for income, and self-determination theory concerns whether study feels chosen and achievable. Their combination predicts that improving finances could ease one burden while leaving motivation affected by an unsupportive learning environment. This is a theory-informed interpretation, not a finding directly tested with Alex (Hobfoll, 1989; Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000; Shah et al., 2012). A useful evaluation would therefore examine competing goals, emotional strain and perceived agency separately.

= Can scarcity-focused thinking be changed? =
Change should address the shortage and the conditions surrounding decisions. Practical recommendations need to distinguish tested interventions from reasonable applications of theory. A positive message may feel supportive while leaving the original barrier untouched. The following approaches combine material support with opportunities for more manageable goal pursuit.

== Reduce shortages and decision burdens ==
Haushofer and Shapiro (2016) tested unconditional cash transfers in rural Kenya using random assignment. Recipients experienced improvements in economic outcomes and psychological wellbeing, although there was no overall effect on cortisol. This supports changing material conditions as a route to improvement. It does not isolate an abundance mindset as the mechanism or establish identical effects in other populations.

Ong et al. (2019) studied a debt-relief program in Singapore. Improvements in psychological functioning were associated with relief, and clearing more debt accounts mattered beyond the amount repaid. This suggests that juggling separate obligations can create burdens of its own. Because the study was quasi-experimental, its design leaves more uncertainty than random assignment about alternative explanations.

Time also deserves attention. Whillans et al. (2017) combined surveys with an experiment in which working adults reported greater happiness after a time-saving purchase than a material purchase. The result supports treating time pressure as a meaningful concern. It is not an affordable solution for everyone, so practical applications might instead consider accessible help or realistic workload adjustments; those alternatives require their own evaluation.

The intervention findings raise a further question about what counts as success. Improved living conditions, reduced distress and better cognitive performance are separate outcomes, so evidence for one should not substitute for evidence about another (Haushofer &amp; Shapiro, 2016; Szecsi et al., 2025). A program could be valuable because it makes housing more secure even if cognitive scores remain unchanged. Conversely, an improvement on a brief task would not establish that everyday financial pressures had disappeared. Evaluations should therefore specify their intended outcome and examine whether benefits persist beyond the immediate assessment period.

== Support agency and broader goals ==
Psychological support can complement practical relief. Offering meaningful choices, achievable tasks and respectful assistance follows self-determination theory, while preserving the person's involvement in decisions (Ryan &amp; Deci, 2000). For a student, this might mean choosing a study sequence with a tutor rather than receiving another demand to work harder. These are theory-informed applications, not a tested package for producing an abundance mindset.

'''Case study — A more manageable week'''

Alex contacts student support, arranges a feasible payment plan and discusses the assessment workload with a tutor. A calendar now includes the later assignment and recovery time. Financial pressure remains, but there is a clearer next step and less uncertainty. This fictional outcome illustrates possible support; it is not evidence that these actions guarantee improvement.

Reflection can help identify which resource is actually scarce and which concern is dominating attention. A useful question is whether a decision addresses an immediate need while overlooking another important goal. Another is whether practical help would make a delayed goal more feasible. These prompts apply the chapter's frameworks without assuming that reframing alone removes hardship.

For Alex, this evaluation could involve reviewing the following week rather than judging success from an immediate feeling of relief. Did the payment arrangement reduce the urgent shortfall, and was there enough time to begin the later assignment? If the arrangement required extra work shifts that displaced study again, the original conflict would remain. Revising the plan would then be a response to its practical limits. This extension of the fictional case shows why progress should be assessed across competing goals, with attention to remaining barriers rather than an assumption that a positive outlook has solved them.

'''Applying the ideas'''

Consider a person who repeatedly postpones a goal. Identify the missing resource: money, time, reliable support or something else. Separate the immediate obligation from the goal that is being overlooked, then identify one feasible source of practical assistance. Review whether the change actually improves functioning, such as starting the delayed task or protecting recovery time. This reflection is a learning exercise, not a validated intervention or a test of whether someone has the correct mindset.

= Conclusion =
Scarcity-focused thinking develops through interactions between current demands, perceived control and earlier experiences. It can strengthen immediate focus and trade-off awareness, while making competing goals harder to manage. Emotional strain and motivational quality matter alongside cognitive performance, and effects vary across methods and circumstances. Resource sufficiency is best treated here as a contextual perception, rather than a universally beneficial personality type.

Improving motivational and emotional lives therefore involves identifying actual shortages, reducing avoidable burdens and supporting agency and connection. The research gives stronger grounds for specific, evaluated forms of support than for promises attached to an abundance label. For Alex, the practical aim is sustainable progress across important goals. Success should be judged by functioning and wellbeing, not by whether someone sounds sufficiently positive.

= See also =
·      Scarcity (Wikipedia)

·      Self-determination theory (Wikipedia)

·      [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Autonomy and intrinsic motivation in self-determination theory|Autonomy and intrinsic motivation in self-determination theory]] (Wikiversity)

= References =
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Cannon, C., Goldsmith, K., &amp; Roux, C. (2019). A self-regulatory model of resource scarcity. ''Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29''(1), 104–127. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1035&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Carvalho, L. S., Meier, S., &amp; Wang, S. W. (2016). Poverty and economic decision-making: Evidence from changes in financial resources at payday. ''American Economic Review, 106''(2), 260–284. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20140481&lt;/nowiki&gt;

de Almeida, F., Scott, I. J., Soro, J. C., Fernandes, D., Amaral, A. R., Catarino, M. L., Arêde, A., &amp; Ferreira, M. B. (2024). Financial scarcity and cognitive performance: A meta-analysis. ''Journal of Economic Psychology, 101'', Article 102702. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2024.102702&lt;/nowiki&gt;

de Bruijn, E.-J., &amp; Antonides, G. (2022). Poverty and economic decision making: A review of scarcity theory. ''Theory and Decision, 92''(1), 5–37. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-021-09802-7&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Deci, E. L., &amp; Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. ''Psychological Inquiry, 11''(4), 227–268. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. ''American Psychologist, 56''(3), 218–226. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Griskevicius, V., Ackerman, J. M., Cantú, S. M., Delton, A. W., Robertson, T. E., Simpson, J. A., Emery Thompson, M., &amp; Tybur, J. M. (2013). When the economy falters, do people spend or save? Responses to resource scarcity depend on childhood environments. ''Psychological Science, 24''(2), 197–205. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612451471&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Hamilton, R. W., Mittal, C., Shah, A., Thompson, D. V., &amp; Griskevicius, V. (2019). How financial constraints influence consumer behavior: An integrative framework. ''Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29''(2), 285–305. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1074&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Haushofer, J., &amp; Fehr, E. (2014). On the psychology of poverty. ''Science, 344''(6186), 862–867. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1232491&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Haushofer, J., &amp; Shapiro, J. (2016). The short-term impact of unconditional cash transfers to the poor: Experimental evidence from Kenya. ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131''(4), 1973–2042. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjw025&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. ''American Psychologist, 44''(3), 513–524. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.3.513&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Huijsmans, I., Ma, I., Micheli, L., Civai, C., Stallen, M., &amp; Sanfey, A. G. (2019). A scarcity mindset alters neural processing underlying consumer decision making. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116''(24), 11699–11704. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1818572116&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Laforet, B., Carrera, P., &amp; Caballero, A. (2024). Breaking self-focused orientation in people who perceive economic scarcity: The influence of transcendent motivation to promote an abstract mindset and prosocial behavioral intentions. ''Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 65''(4), 607–616. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.13009&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., &amp; Zhao, J. (2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. ''Science, 341''(6149), 976–980. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1238041&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Mittal, C., &amp; Griskevicius, V. (2014). Sense of control under uncertainty depends on people's childhood environment: A life history theory approach. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107''(4), 621–637. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037398&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Ong, Q., Theseira, W., &amp; Ng, I. Y. H. (2019). Reducing debt improves psychological functioning and changes decision-making in the poor. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116''(15), 7244–7249. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1810901116&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Roux, C., Goldsmith, K., &amp; Bonezzi, A. (2015). On the psychology of scarcity: When reminders of resource scarcity promote selfish (and generous) behavior. ''Journal of Consumer Research, 42''(4), 615–631. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucv048&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Ryan, R. M., &amp; Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. ''American Psychologist, 55''(1), 68–78. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Shah, A. K., Mullainathan, S., &amp; Shafir, E. (2012). Some consequences of having too little. ''Science, 338''(6107), 682–685. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1222426&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Shah, A. K., Shafir, E., &amp; Mullainathan, S. (2015). Scarcity frames value. ''Psychological Science, 26''(4), 402–412. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614563958&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Szecsi, P., Kolumban, P., Taka, A., &amp; Szaszi, B. (2025). The impact of financial resources on cognitive performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ''Collabra: Psychology, 11''(1), Article 147236. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.147236&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Szecsi, P., &amp; Szaszi, B. (2024). Financial-scarcity-related cues’ impact on the cognitive performance of the poor: A meta-analysis. ''Collabra: Psychology, 10''(1), Article 122943. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.122943&lt;/nowiki&gt;

van Egmond, M. C., Navarrete Berges, A., Omarshah, T., &amp; Benton, J. (2017). The role of intrinsic motivation and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs under conditions of severe resource scarcity. ''Psychological Science, 28''(6), 822–828. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617698138&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Whillans, A. V., Dunn, E. W., Smeets, P., Bekkers, R., &amp; Norton, M. I. (2017). Buying time promotes happiness. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114''(32), 8523–8527. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706541114&lt;/nowiki&gt;

Zhang, L., Xu, M., Du, X., Yang, Q., &amp; Qiao, L. (2023). Scarcity mindset impairs distractor suppression but not target enhancement in selective attention: Evidence from ERPs. ''Neuropsychologia, 191'', Article 108739. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108739&lt;/nowiki&gt;

= External links =
[https://The&amp;#x20;psychology&amp;#x20;of&amp;#x20;scarcity&amp;#x20;(American&amp;#x20;Psychological&amp;#x20;Association) ·      The psychology of scarcity (American Psychological Association)]

[https://Overview&amp;#x20;of&amp;#x20;self-determination&amp;#x20;theory&amp;#x20;(Center&amp;#x20;for&amp;#x20;Self-Determination&amp;#x20;Theory) ·      Overview of self-determination theory (Center for Self-Determination Theory)]

[https://To&amp;#x20;promote&amp;#x20;happiness,&amp;#x20;choose&amp;#x20;time&amp;#x20;over&amp;#x20;money&amp;#x20;(Whillans&amp;#x20;and&amp;#x20;Dunn,&amp;#x20;Behavioral&amp;#x20;Scientist ·      To promote happiness, choose time over money (Whillans and Dunn, Behavioral Scientist]
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      <text bytes="6187" sha1="4onnfnelgyj9vreekgxf6f6aw4rcema" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Surrender-Motivation:&lt;br&gt;What is the motivational state of surrender and what are its impacts?}}

== Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Delaware River Port Authority Police Department Ford Police Interceptor Utility on patrol.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Police surrender{{expand}}]]

'''Scenario - When giving up becomes the goal'''

Imagine a police negotiator is called out to a tense situation in which a person has barricaded themselves inside a building. The person is convinced that surrendering to the police officer will lead to serious consequences {{ic|consequences for who? good or bad consequences?}}. Hours pass as the negotiator tried{{g}} to establish communication and understand what might persuade the person to come out. At the same, the person inside begins to realise that staying secluded may become increasingly difficult. They are exhausted, have limited resources, {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} and are unsure what might happen next. The negotiator must consider an important question: What motivates a person to surrender when continuing to resist may seem like the better option?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

This scenario illustrates the psychological problem of '''surrender motivation''' {{g}} understanding why a person decides to stop resisting, withdraw from a conflict, or submit to another party. The decision may be influenced by the situation itself, the person's [[Emotion|perceptions and emotions]], their expectations about the consequences, and the behaviour of those attempting to persuade them. As we explore surrender motivation, we can return to this scenario to consider what might cause the person's motivation to shift from resistance toward surrender.

* A person is involved in a high-pressure conflict and initially refuses to surrender.
* They believe that continuing to resist is their best option.
* As the situation continues, they become increasingly tired, stressed, fearful, or uncertain.
* They begin to question whether resistance will achieve their original goal.
* The person considers the possible consequences of continuing to resist versus surrendering.
* Communication with authorities or another opposing party may influence how safe or trustworthy surrender appears.
* The person may start to believe that surrender offers a better outcome or reduces immediate danger.
* This creates a shift in motivation from resistance toward surrender.
* The scenario provides an opportunity to explore why people change their behaviour under pressure.
* Later sections can connect the scenario to psychological concepts such as motivation, decision-making, perceived control, emotion, stress, and social influences

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Focus questions

{{ic|Use bullet points as shown in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]}}

{{ic|Develop closer alignment between the focus questions and the top-level headings}}

What psychological factors influence a person's decision to surrender?
How do fear, stress, and emotional states affect surrender motivation?
How do situational and social factors influence the decision to stop resisting?
Why might a person change from being motivated to resist to being motivated to surrender{{g}}
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Conceptualising Surrender Motivation ==
Figure 2. A negotiator attempting to persuade an individual to peacefully surrender during a high-stakes confrontation.

* [[Anxiety]]
* Defining Surrender Motivation
* Surrender, Resistance, Compliance, and Submission
* Motivational change and Behavioural decision making (Sahu, 2020) 

== Cognitive and Motivational Processes ==

* Expectancy, Value and Goal-directed behaviour
* Risk perception and [[Decision Making|decision-making]] [https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/full/10.1002/bdm.70072 (Jiao et al, 2026)] 
* Perceived Control and learned helplessness
* Cost-Benefit Evaluation and Expected outcomes

== Emotional and Psychological Determinants ==

* Fear, [[Anxiety]] and Threat Perception
* Stress, Cognitive load and Psychological Strain
* Emotional Regulation and Strain
* Emotional regulation and coping
* Motional depletion and Fatigue (Malik et al, 2026)

== Social and Situational Influences ==

* Social Influence, Compliancy and Authority
* Trust and Communication
* Perceived Legitimacy and Procedural Justice (Liang &amp; Li, 2019)
* Environmental and Situational constraints

== Empirical Evidence, Applications and Future Directions ==

* Psychological Research on the application of Surrender Motivation to other spheres
* Applications to Crisis situations
* Ethical considerations and limitations

== Conclusion ==

== References ==
{{Hanging indent|1=

* Sahu, A. K., Padhy, R. K., &amp; Dhir, A. (2020). Envisioning the future of behavioral decision-making: A systematic literature review of behavioral reasoning theory. ''Australasian Marketing Journal'', ''28''(4), 145–159. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.05.001&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Chai, J., Weng, Z., &amp; Liu, W. (2021). Behavioral decision making in normative and descriptive views: A critical review of literature. ''Journal of Risk and Financial Management'', ''14''(10), 1–14. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14100490&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Jiao, Y., Liu, H., Liang, Y., &amp; Wei, Z. (2026). The Effects of “Time” and “Probability” Formats on Risk Perception and Decision‐Making About Long‐Term Hazards. ''Journal of Behavioral Decision Making'', ''39''(2). &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.70072&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Malik, A., Goel, S., &amp; Sinha, S. (2026). Security fatigue: manifestation of emotional exhaustion and cynicism by depletion of self-regulation capacity. ''European Journal of Information Systems'', 1–20. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2621809&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Liang, J., &amp; Li, X. (2019). Explaining the procedural justice–perceived legitimacy relationship: Relying on relational concern or instrumental concern? ''Journal of Community &amp; Applied Social Psychology'', ''29''(3), 193–206. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2394&lt;/nowiki&gt;

}}

== External links ==

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      <text bytes="15198" sha1="06kl7jrydtmwniy39ev8vswqql0kv98" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Surrender-Motivation:&lt;br&gt;What is the motivational state of surrender and what are its impacts?}}

== Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Delaware River Port Authority Police Department Ford Police Interceptor Utility on patrol.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Police surrender{{expand}}]]

'''Scenario - When giving up becomes the goal'''

Imagine a police negotiator is called out to a tense situation in which a person has barricaded themselves inside a building. The person is convinced that surrendering to the police officer will lead to serious consequences {{ic|consequences for who? good or bad consequences?}}. Hours pass as the negotiator tried{{g}} to establish communication and understand what might persuade the person to come out. At the same, the person inside begins to realise that staying secluded may become increasingly difficult. They are exhausted, have limited resources, {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} and are unsure what might happen next. The negotiator must consider an important question: What motivates a person to surrender when continuing to resist may seem like the better option?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

This scenario illustrates the psychological problem of '''surrender motivation''' {{g}} understanding why a person decides to stop resisting, withdraw from a conflict, or submit to another party. The decision may be influenced by the situation itself, the person's [[Emotion|perceptions and emotions]], their expectations about the consequences, and the behaviour of those attempting to persuade them. As we explore surrender motivation, we can return to this scenario to consider what might cause the person's motivation to shift from resistance toward surrender.

* A person is involved in a high-pressure conflict and initially refuses to surrender.
* They believe that continuing to resist is their best option.
* As the situation continues, they become increasingly tired, stressed, fearful, or uncertain.
* They begin to question whether resistance will achieve their original goal.
* The person considers the possible consequences of continuing to resist versus surrendering.
* Communication with authorities or another opposing party may influence how safe or trustworthy surrender appears.
* The person may start to believe that surrender offers a better outcome or reduces immediate danger.
* This creates a shift in motivation from resistance toward surrender.
* The scenario provides an opportunity to explore why people change their behaviour under pressure.
* Later sections can connect the scenario to psychological concepts such as motivation, decision-making, perceived control, emotion, stress, and social influences

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Focus questions

{{ic|Use bullet points as shown in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]}}

{{ic|Develop closer alignment between the focus questions and the top-level headings}}

What psychological factors influence a person's decision to surrender?
How do fear, stress, and emotional states affect surrender motivation?
How do situational and social factors influence the decision to stop resisting?
Why might a person change from being motivated to resist to being motivated to surrender{{g}}
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is surrender motivation? ==
In everyday language, surrender often implies weakness or failure. In psychological terms, however, surrender motivation describes a shift in [[w:Motivation|motivation]] that moves a person from actively resisting a threat, opponent, or demand toward deliberately stopping that resistance. The person withdraws effort from one [[w:Goal|goal]] (e.g., holding out, winning, or escaping) and redirects their behaviour toward another (e.g., safety, ending the conflict, or conserving energy). This reflects what Klinger (1975) described as disengagement from an incentive that can no longer be attained. In the opening scenario, the barricaded person has not simply &quot;given up&quot;; their goals and their expectations about what resistance can achieve have changed.

Surrender overlaps with several related concepts but is not identical to any of them (see Table 1). [[w:Compliance (psychology)|Compliance]] involves agreeing to an explicit or implicit request from another person (Cialdini &amp; Goldstein, 2004), whereas surrender can occur without any request being made. Submission describes yielding to a more dominant party and has been explained as an evolved response to losing a competitive encounter (Price et al., 1994). Goal disengagement refers to withdrawing effort and commitment from a goal that has become unattainable (Wrosch et al., 2003). Surrender sits where these processes meet: it is usually triggered by perceived defeat, is often directed toward another party, and always involves letting go of a goal.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br&gt;''Surrender and related motivational concepts''
! Concept !! Definition !! Example
|-
| Surrender || Deliberately stopping resistance and redirecting effort toward a new goal || A barricaded person walks out to end a standoff
|-
| Compliance || Agreeing to a direct or implied request from another person || Following a police officer's instruction to step back
|-
| Submission || Yielding to a more dominant party to end a contest || An athlete conceding a match against a far stronger opponent
|-
| Goal disengagement || Withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal || Abandoning a career plan after repeated rejection
|-
| [[w:Learned helplessness|Learned helplessness]] || Passivity following prolonged exposure to uncontrollable events || No longer trying to escape a situation because effort feels pointless
|}

The key question is whether surrender helps or harms the person who surrenders. Research suggests the answer depends on why surrender happens. Surrender that reflects a realistic reappraisal of an unwinnable situation, followed by commitment to new goals, is associated with better [[w:Well-being|wellbeing]] (Wrosch et al., 2003). In contrast, surrender that reflects a belief that nothing one does matters, or a sense of being defeated yet unable to escape, is associated with depression and anxiety (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016; Taylor et al., 2011). Distinguishing adaptive from maladaptive surrender is therefore central to understanding, and improving, how people respond when continuing to fight no longer makes sense.

== Theories of surrender ==
No single theory fully explains surrender motivation. Instead, three theoretical perspectives each explain a different pathway from resistance to surrender (see Table 2). Goal disengagement theory treats surrender as a strategic decision to let go of an unattainable goal. Learned helplessness theory treats surrender as the result of losing a sense of control. [[w:Social rank theory|Social rank theory]] treats surrender as an evolved response to defeat. Together, these perspectives help explain why some forms of surrender are healthy while others are harmful.

=== Goal disengagement theory ===
Klinger (1975) proposed that when a valued goal is blocked, people move through an incentive–disengagement cycle. They first increase their effort, then become frustrated or angry, then experience low mood as commitment fades, and finally recover once the goal has been released (Klinger, 1975). Wrosch et al. (2003) extended this idea by distinguishing two separate capacities: goal disengagement, which involves withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal, and goal re-engagement, which involves identifying and committing to new goals. Across several studies, people who were better able to disengage from unattainable goals reported higher subjective wellbeing, and the capacity to re-engage with new goals was also associated with wellbeing (Wrosch et al., 2003).

The standoff in the opening scenario maps closely onto this cycle. The person's initial determination to resist reflects increased effort, while their growing exhaustion and uncertainty suggest that disengagement has begun. From this perspective, a negotiator who offers a credible alternative goal, such as safety or the chance to be heard, may help the person re-engage rather than simply collapse. However, much of the supporting evidence relies on self-report questionnaires, which makes it difficult to establish whether disengagement causes better wellbeing or whether people with better wellbeing simply find it easier to disengage.

=== Learned helplessness theory ===
In early experiments, Seligman and Maier (1967) found that dogs exposed to inescapable shocks later failed to escape shocks even when escape became possible. The original theory proposed that animals learned that their behaviour had no effect on outcomes, and this learning produced passivity (Seligman &amp; Maier, 1967). Fifty years later, Maier and Seligman (2016) revised the theory based on neuroscience evidence. They concluded that passivity is the brain's default, unlearned response to prolonged uncontrollable threat, and that what is actually learned is control: detecting that one's actions matter is what overrides the passive response (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016).

Applied to surrender, this suggests that some surrender is not a choice at all, but what happens when a person no longer perceives any control. If the barricaded person comes to believe that nothing they do will change the outcome, their surrender may reflect helplessness rather than a considered decision. This distinction matters because helplessness is closely linked to depression (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016). A key limitation is that the foundational research was conducted with animals, and generalising these findings to complex human decisions made under threat should be done with caution.

=== Social rank theory ===
Social rank theory proposes that humans, like other social animals, evolved mechanisms for managing competition with others. Price et al. (1994) argued that when an animal is losing a fight, an &quot;involuntary subordinate strategy&quot; causes it to yield, signalling that it is no longer a threat and ending the conflict before serious injury occurs. Gilbert and Allan (1998) proposed that defeat becomes harmful when it is combined with entrapment, in which a strong desire to escape is blocked. They found that feelings of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). A systematic review by Taylor et al. (2011) later confirmed that defeat and entrapment are consistently associated with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

This theory explains why surrender in the opening scenario can be protective, because yielding ends a dangerous conflict, and also why the period before surrender may be the most psychologically dangerous. A person who feels defeated but sees no safe way out is experiencing exactly the combination that Gilbert and Allan (1998) identified as most harmful. However, evolutionary explanations are difficult to test directly, and most of the supporting research is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether defeat and entrapment cause distress or result from it.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 2'''&lt;br&gt;''Comparison of three theories of surrender''
! Theory !! Why surrender occurs !! Adaptive when... !! Maladaptive when...
|-
| Goal disengagement || A goal is judged unattainable || The person re-engages with new goals || No new goals replace the old one
|-
| Learned helplessness || Control is no longer perceived || Rarely adaptive || Passivity generalises to situations that are controllable
|-
| Social rank || Defeat in a conflict signals the need to yield || Yielding ends a dangerous conflict || Defeat is combined with entrapment
|}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Wrosch et al. (2003), surrender is most likely to benefit wellbeing when it is followed by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Increased effort toward the original goal
+ Re-engagement with new goals
- Compliance with an authority figure

{According to Maier and Seligman's (2016) revised theory, what is actually learned?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Helplessness
+ Control
- Submission

{According to social rank theory, defeat is most harmful when it is combined with:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Compliance
- Goal re-engagement
+ Entrapment
&lt;/quiz&gt;


== Conceptualising Surrender Motivation ==
Figure 2. A negotiator attempting to persuade an individual to peacefully surrender during a high-stakes confrontation.

* [[Anxiety]]
* Defining Surrender Motivation
* Surrender, Resistance, Compliance, and Submission
* Motivational change and Behavioural decision making (Sahu, 2020) 

== Cognitive and Motivational Processes ==

* Expectancy, Value and Goal-directed behaviour
* Risk perception and [[Decision Making|decision-making]] [https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/full/10.1002/bdm.70072 (Jiao et al, 2026)] 
* Perceived Control and learned helplessness
* Cost-Benefit Evaluation and Expected outcomes

== Emotional and Psychological Determinants ==

* Fear, [[Anxiety]] and Threat Perception
* Stress, Cognitive load and Psychological Strain
* Emotional Regulation and Strain
* Emotional regulation and coping
* Motional depletion and Fatigue (Malik et al, 2026)

== Social and Situational Influences ==

* Social Influence, Compliancy and Authority
* Trust and Communication
* Perceived Legitimacy and Procedural Justice (Liang &amp; Li, 2019)
* Environmental and Situational constraints

== Empirical Evidence, Applications and Future Directions ==

* Psychological Research on the application of Surrender Motivation to other spheres
* Applications to Crisis situations
* Ethical considerations and limitations

== Conclusion ==

== References ==
{{Hanging indent|1=

* Sahu, A. K., Padhy, R. K., &amp; Dhir, A. (2020). Envisioning the future of behavioral decision-making: A systematic literature review of behavioral reasoning theory. ''Australasian Marketing Journal'', ''28''(4), 145–159. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.05.001&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Chai, J., Weng, Z., &amp; Liu, W. (2021). Behavioral decision making in normative and descriptive views: A critical review of literature. ''Journal of Risk and Financial Management'', ''14''(10), 1–14. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14100490&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Jiao, Y., Liu, H., Liang, Y., &amp; Wei, Z. (2026). The Effects of “Time” and “Probability” Formats on Risk Perception and Decision‐Making About Long‐Term Hazards. ''Journal of Behavioral Decision Making'', ''39''(2). &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.70072&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Malik, A., Goel, S., &amp; Sinha, S. (2026). Security fatigue: manifestation of emotional exhaustion and cynicism by depletion of self-regulation capacity. ''European Journal of Information Systems'', 1–20. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2621809&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Liang, J., &amp; Li, X. (2019). Explaining the procedural justice–perceived legitimacy relationship: Relying on relational concern or instrumental concern? ''Journal of Community &amp; Applied Social Psychology'', ''29''(3), 193–206. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2394&lt;/nowiki&gt;

}}

== External links ==

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      <text bytes="20353" sha1="1f7hqej7uxrcly5qo5ob3cdam6uuh64" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Surrender-Motivation:&lt;br&gt;What is the motivational state of surrender and what are its impacts?}}

== Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Delaware River Port Authority Police Department Ford Police Interceptor Utility on patrol.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Police surrender{{expand}}]]

'''Scenario - When giving up becomes the goal'''

Imagine a police negotiator is called out to a tense situation in which a person has barricaded themselves inside a building. The person is convinced that surrendering to the police officer will lead to serious consequences {{ic|consequences for who? good or bad consequences?}}. Hours pass as the negotiator tried{{g}} to establish communication and understand what might persuade the person to come out. At the same, the person inside begins to realise that staying secluded may become increasingly difficult. They are exhausted, have limited resources, {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} and are unsure what might happen next. The negotiator must consider an important question: What motivates a person to surrender when continuing to resist may seem like the better option?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

This scenario illustrates the psychological problem of '''surrender motivation''' {{g}} understanding why a person decides to stop resisting, withdraw from a conflict, or submit to another party. The decision may be influenced by the situation itself, the person's [[Emotion|perceptions and emotions]], their expectations about the consequences, and the behaviour of those attempting to persuade them. As we explore surrender motivation, we can return to this scenario to consider what might cause the person's motivation to shift from resistance toward surrender.

* A person is involved in a high-pressure conflict and initially refuses to surrender.
* They believe that continuing to resist is their best option.
* As the situation continues, they become increasingly tired, stressed, fearful, or uncertain.
* They begin to question whether resistance will achieve their original goal.
* The person considers the possible consequences of continuing to resist versus surrendering.
* Communication with authorities or another opposing party may influence how safe or trustworthy surrender appears.
* The person may start to believe that surrender offers a better outcome or reduces immediate danger.
* This creates a shift in motivation from resistance toward surrender.
* The scenario provides an opportunity to explore why people change their behaviour under pressure.
* Later sections can connect the scenario to psychological concepts such as motivation, decision-making, perceived control, emotion, stress, and social influences

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Focus questions

{{ic|Use bullet points as shown in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]}}

{{ic|Develop closer alignment between the focus questions and the top-level headings}}

What psychological factors influence a person's decision to surrender?
How do fear, stress, and emotional states affect surrender motivation?
How do situational and social factors influence the decision to stop resisting?
Why might a person change from being motivated to resist to being motivated to surrender{{g}}
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is surrender motivation? ==
In everyday language, surrender often implies weakness or failure. In psychological terms, however, surrender motivation describes a shift in [[w:Motivation|motivation]] that moves a person from actively resisting a threat, opponent, or demand toward deliberately stopping that resistance. The person withdraws effort from one [[w:Goal|goal]] (e.g., holding out, winning, or escaping) and redirects their behaviour toward another (e.g., safety, ending the conflict, or conserving energy). This reflects what Klinger (1975) described as disengagement from an incentive that can no longer be attained. In the opening scenario, the barricaded person has not simply &quot;given up&quot;; their goals and their expectations about what resistance can achieve have changed.

Surrender overlaps with several related concepts but is not identical to any of them (see Table 1). [[w:Compliance (psychology)|Compliance]] involves agreeing to an explicit or implicit request from another person (Cialdini &amp; Goldstein, 2004), whereas surrender can occur without any request being made. Submission describes yielding to a more dominant party and has been explained as an evolved response to losing a competitive encounter (Price et al., 1994). Goal disengagement refers to withdrawing effort and commitment from a goal that has become unattainable (Wrosch et al., 2003). Surrender sits where these processes meet: it is usually triggered by perceived defeat, is often directed toward another party, and always involves letting go of a goal.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br&gt;''Surrender and related motivational concepts''
! Concept !! Definition !! Example
|-
| Surrender || Deliberately stopping resistance and redirecting effort toward a new goal || A barricaded person walks out to end a standoff
|-
| Compliance || Agreeing to a direct or implied request from another person || Following a police officer's instruction to step back
|-
| Submission || Yielding to a more dominant party to end a contest || An athlete conceding a match against a far stronger opponent
|-
| Goal disengagement || Withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal || Abandoning a career plan after repeated rejection
|-
| [[w:Learned helplessness|Learned helplessness]] || Passivity following prolonged exposure to uncontrollable events || No longer trying to escape a situation because effort feels pointless
|}

The key question is whether surrender helps or harms the person who surrenders. Research suggests the answer depends on why surrender happens. Surrender that reflects a realistic reappraisal of an unwinnable situation, followed by commitment to new goals, is associated with better [[w:Well-being|wellbeing]] (Wrosch et al., 2003). In contrast, surrender that reflects a belief that nothing one does matters, or a sense of being defeated yet unable to escape, is associated with depression and anxiety (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016; Taylor et al., 2011). Distinguishing adaptive from maladaptive surrender is therefore central to understanding, and improving, how people respond when continuing to fight no longer makes sense.

== Emotional and social influences ==
The theories outlined above explain why surrender motivation develops, but they do not fully explain when a person decides to act on it. Emotions and the social context of a conflict strongly influence whether surrender feels safe, acceptable, or even possible. Fear and stress can change how people weigh risks, while the behaviour of the opposing party can either reduce or intensify resistance. This section examines three key influences: emotional states, psychological reactance, and trust in the other party.

=== Fear, anger, and stress ===
Specific emotions shape how people judge risk. In a series of studies, Lerner and Keltner (2001) found that fearful people made more pessimistic risk estimates and preferred safer choices, whereas angry people made more optimistic risk estimates and preferred riskier choices. This suggests that the emotion a person feels during a conflict may influence whether they surrender. A person who feels mainly [[w:Fear|fear]] may be drawn toward surrender if it appears to be the safest option, whereas a person who feels mainly [[w:Anger|anger]] may underestimate the risks of continuing to resist.

Prolonged [[w:Stress (biology)|stress]] also changes how decisions are made. A review by Starcke and Brand (2012) concluded that stress tends to shift decision making away from careful deliberation and toward quicker, more habitual responses. In a long standoff, exhaustion and stress may therefore narrow a person's options to whatever response feels most immediate, which may be either continued resistance or sudden surrender. However, most of this research involves laboratory tasks with student samples and hypothetical choices, which differ substantially from real, life-threatening conflicts.

=== Psychological reactance ===
[[w:Reactance (psychology)|Psychological reactance]] is the motivational state that arises when a person feels their freedom is being threatened, which drives them to restore that freedom (Steindl et al., 2015). Reactance can explain why direct pressure to surrender may backfire. When people feel pushed toward a particular behaviour, they may resist more strongly simply to reassert their independence (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018). A review of 50 years of reactance research found that controlling language and forceful demands consistently increase reactance, whereas messages that acknowledge the person's choice tend to reduce it (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018).

This has a clear link to learned helplessness theory. Both theories suggest that a sense of control matters, but in different ways: reactance explains why removing a person's freedom can increase resistance, while learned helplessness explains why a complete loss of control can produce passive, unhealthy surrender. Surrender is therefore most likely to be healthy when a person feels they are choosing to surrender rather than being forced to.

=== Trust, legitimacy, and negotiation ===
Whether surrender appears safe depends heavily on how much the person trusts the opposing party. Research on [[w:Procedural justice|procedural justice]] shows that people are more willing to cooperate with authorities they perceive as fair and legitimate (Tyler, 2003). Liang and Li (2019) found that perceived procedural justice predicted perceived legitimacy of authorities, through people's concern about being treated with respect as well as their concern about outcomes. A person who expects to be treated fairly is therefore more likely to see surrender as a safe option.

Crisis negotiators apply these principles directly. The Behavioural Change Stairway Model describes a sequence of steps that negotiators move through: active listening, empathy, rapport, influence, and finally behavioural change (Vecchi et al., 2005). The model proposes that influence is only possible once trust and rapport have been established, which aligns with research on both procedural justice and reactance. A key limitation is that evidence for crisis negotiation models comes mainly from case studies and practitioner reports, because controlled experiments in real crises are neither practical nor ethical.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Scenario update'''

Hours into the standoff, the negotiator changes approach. Instead of repeating demands to come out, they ask the person what has happened to them and listen without interrupting. They acknowledge the person's fear and explain exactly what will happen if they choose to come out, and that the decision is theirs to make.

The person begins to feel heard. Their anger gives way to fear and exhaustion, and surrender starts to look less like defeat and more like a safe way out. What psychological processes do you think are at work here?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Lerner and Keltner (2001), which emotion is associated with preferring safer choices?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Fear
- Anger
- Pride

{Why might repeated demands to surrender increase resistance?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- They increase learned helplessness
+ They threaten the person's sense of freedom, triggering reactance
- They increase goal re-engagement
&lt;/quiz&gt;


== Theories of surrender ==
No single theory fully explains surrender motivation. Instead, three theoretical perspectives each explain a different pathway from resistance to surrender (see Table 2). Goal disengagement theory treats surrender as a strategic decision to let go of an unattainable goal. Learned helplessness theory treats surrender as the result of losing a sense of control. [[w:Social rank theory|Social rank theory]] treats surrender as an evolved response to defeat. Together, these perspectives help explain why some forms of surrender are healthy while others are harmful.

=== Goal disengagement theory ===
Klinger (1975) proposed that when a valued goal is blocked, people move through an incentive–disengagement cycle. They first increase their effort, then become frustrated or angry, then experience low mood as commitment fades, and finally recover once the goal has been released (Klinger, 1975). Wrosch et al. (2003) extended this idea by distinguishing two separate capacities: goal disengagement, which involves withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal, and goal re-engagement, which involves identifying and committing to new goals. Across several studies, people who were better able to disengage from unattainable goals reported higher subjective wellbeing, and the capacity to re-engage with new goals was also associated with wellbeing (Wrosch et al., 2003).

The standoff in the opening scenario maps closely onto this cycle. The person's initial determination to resist reflects increased effort, while their growing exhaustion and uncertainty suggest that disengagement has begun. From this perspective, a negotiator who offers a credible alternative goal, such as safety or the chance to be heard, may help the person re-engage rather than simply collapse. However, much of the supporting evidence relies on self-report questionnaires, which makes it difficult to establish whether disengagement causes better wellbeing or whether people with better wellbeing simply find it easier to disengage.

=== Learned helplessness theory ===
In early experiments, Seligman and Maier (1967) found that dogs exposed to inescapable shocks later failed to escape shocks even when escape became possible. The original theory proposed that animals learned that their behaviour had no effect on outcomes, and this learning produced passivity (Seligman &amp; Maier, 1967). Fifty years later, Maier and Seligman (2016) revised the theory based on neuroscience evidence. They concluded that passivity is the brain's default, unlearned response to prolonged uncontrollable threat, and that what is actually learned is control: detecting that one's actions matter is what overrides the passive response (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016).

Applied to surrender, this suggests that some surrender is not a choice at all, but what happens when a person no longer perceives any control. If the barricaded person comes to believe that nothing they do will change the outcome, their surrender may reflect helplessness rather than a considered decision. This distinction matters because helplessness is closely linked to depression (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016). A key limitation is that the foundational research was conducted with animals, and generalising these findings to complex human decisions made under threat should be done with caution.

=== Social rank theory ===
Social rank theory proposes that humans, like other social animals, evolved mechanisms for managing competition with others. Price et al. (1994) argued that when an animal is losing a fight, an &quot;involuntary subordinate strategy&quot; causes it to yield, signalling that it is no longer a threat and ending the conflict before serious injury occurs. Gilbert and Allan (1998) proposed that defeat becomes harmful when it is combined with entrapment, in which a strong desire to escape is blocked. They found that feelings of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). A systematic review by Taylor et al. (2011) later confirmed that defeat and entrapment are consistently associated with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

This theory explains why surrender in the opening scenario can be protective, because yielding ends a dangerous conflict, and also why the period before surrender may be the most psychologically dangerous. A person who feels defeated but sees no safe way out is experiencing exactly the combination that Gilbert and Allan (1998) identified as most harmful. However, evolutionary explanations are difficult to test directly, and most of the supporting research is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether defeat and entrapment cause distress or result from it.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 2'''&lt;br&gt;''Comparison of three theories of surrender''
! Theory !! Why surrender occurs !! Adaptive when... !! Maladaptive when...
|-
| Goal disengagement || A goal is judged unattainable || The person re-engages with new goals || No new goals replace the old one
|-
| Learned helplessness || Control is no longer perceived || Rarely adaptive || Passivity generalises to situations that are controllable
|-
| Social rank || Defeat in a conflict signals the need to yield || Yielding ends a dangerous conflict || Defeat is combined with entrapment
|}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Wrosch et al. (2003), surrender is most likely to benefit wellbeing when it is followed by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Increased effort toward the original goal
+ Re-engagement with new goals
- Compliance with an authority figure

{According to Maier and Seligman's (2016) revised theory, what is actually learned?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Helplessness
+ Control
- Submission

{According to social rank theory, defeat is most harmful when it is combined with:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Compliance
- Goal re-engagement
+ Entrapment
&lt;/quiz&gt;


== Conceptualising Surrender Motivation ==
Figure 2. A negotiator attempting to persuade an individual to peacefully surrender during a high-stakes confrontation.

* [[Anxiety]]
* Defining Surrender Motivation
* Surrender, Resistance, Compliance, and Submission
* Motivational change and Behavioural decision making (Sahu, 2020) 

== Cognitive and Motivational Processes ==

* Expectancy, Value and Goal-directed behaviour
* Risk perception and [[Decision Making|decision-making]] [https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/full/10.1002/bdm.70072 (Jiao et al, 2026)] 
* Perceived Control and learned helplessness
* Cost-Benefit Evaluation and Expected outcomes

== Emotional and Psychological Determinants ==

* Fear, [[Anxiety]] and Threat Perception
* Stress, Cognitive load and Psychological Strain
* Emotional Regulation and Strain
* Emotional regulation and coping
* Motional depletion and Fatigue (Malik et al, 2026)

== Social and Situational Influences ==

* Social Influence, Compliancy and Authority
* Trust and Communication
* Perceived Legitimacy and Procedural Justice (Liang &amp; Li, 2019)
* Environmental and Situational constraints

== Empirical Evidence, Applications and Future Directions ==

* Psychological Research on the application of Surrender Motivation to other spheres
* Applications to Crisis situations
* Ethical considerations and limitations

== Conclusion ==

== References ==
{{Hanging indent|1=

* Sahu, A. K., Padhy, R. K., &amp; Dhir, A. (2020). Envisioning the future of behavioral decision-making: A systematic literature review of behavioral reasoning theory. ''Australasian Marketing Journal'', ''28''(4), 145–159. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.05.001&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Chai, J., Weng, Z., &amp; Liu, W. (2021). Behavioral decision making in normative and descriptive views: A critical review of literature. ''Journal of Risk and Financial Management'', ''14''(10), 1–14. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14100490&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Jiao, Y., Liu, H., Liang, Y., &amp; Wei, Z. (2026). The Effects of “Time” and “Probability” Formats on Risk Perception and Decision‐Making About Long‐Term Hazards. ''Journal of Behavioral Decision Making'', ''39''(2). &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.70072&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Malik, A., Goel, S., &amp; Sinha, S. (2026). Security fatigue: manifestation of emotional exhaustion and cynicism by depletion of self-regulation capacity. ''European Journal of Information Systems'', 1–20. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2621809&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Liang, J., &amp; Li, X. (2019). Explaining the procedural justice–perceived legitimacy relationship: Relying on relational concern or instrumental concern? ''Journal of Community &amp; Applied Social Psychology'', ''29''(3), 193–206. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2394&lt;/nowiki&gt;

}}

== External links ==

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]]</text>
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    <revision>
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        <username>Chloebateup</username>
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      <text bytes="25387" sha1="foh9kkevchctxos1arop8df9a1hlfpg" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Surrender-Motivation:&lt;br&gt;What is the motivational state of surrender and what are its impacts?}}

== Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Delaware River Port Authority Police Department Ford Police Interceptor Utility on patrol.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Police surrender{{expand}}]]

'''Scenario - When giving up becomes the goal'''

Imagine a police negotiator is called out to a tense situation in which a person has barricaded themselves inside a building. The person is convinced that surrendering to the police officer will lead to serious consequences {{ic|consequences for who? good or bad consequences?}}. Hours pass as the negotiator tried{{g}} to establish communication and understand what might persuade the person to come out. At the same, the person inside begins to realise that staying secluded may become increasingly difficult. They are exhausted, have limited resources, {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} and are unsure what might happen next. The negotiator must consider an important question: What motivates a person to surrender when continuing to resist may seem like the better option?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

This scenario illustrates the psychological problem of '''surrender motivation''' {{g}} understanding why a person decides to stop resisting, withdraw from a conflict, or submit to another party. The decision may be influenced by the situation itself, the person's [[Emotion|perceptions and emotions]], their expectations about the consequences, and the behaviour of those attempting to persuade them. As we explore surrender motivation, we can return to this scenario to consider what might cause the person's motivation to shift from resistance toward surrender.

* A person is involved in a high-pressure conflict and initially refuses to surrender.
* They believe that continuing to resist is their best option.
* As the situation continues, they become increasingly tired, stressed, fearful, or uncertain.
* They begin to question whether resistance will achieve their original goal.
* The person considers the possible consequences of continuing to resist versus surrendering.
* Communication with authorities or another opposing party may influence how safe or trustworthy surrender appears.
* The person may start to believe that surrender offers a better outcome or reduces immediate danger.
* This creates a shift in motivation from resistance toward surrender.
* The scenario provides an opportunity to explore why people change their behaviour under pressure.
* Later sections can connect the scenario to psychological concepts such as motivation, decision-making, perceived control, emotion, stress, and social influences

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Focus questions

{{ic|Use bullet points as shown in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]}}

{{ic|Develop closer alignment between the focus questions and the top-level headings}}

What psychological factors influence a person's decision to surrender?
How do fear, stress, and emotional states affect surrender motivation?
How do situational and social factors influence the decision to stop resisting?
Why might a person change from being motivated to resist to being motivated to surrender{{g}}
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is surrender motivation? ==
In everyday language, surrender often implies weakness or failure. In psychological terms, however, surrender motivation describes a shift in [[w:Motivation|motivation]] that moves a person from actively resisting a threat, opponent, or demand toward deliberately stopping that resistance. The person withdraws effort from one [[w:Goal|goal]] (e.g., holding out, winning, or escaping) and redirects their behaviour toward another (e.g., safety, ending the conflict, or conserving energy). This reflects what Klinger (1975) described as disengagement from an incentive that can no longer be attained. In the opening scenario, the barricaded person has not simply &quot;given up&quot;; their goals and their expectations about what resistance can achieve have changed.

Surrender overlaps with several related concepts but is not identical to any of them (see Table 1). [[w:Compliance (psychology)|Compliance]] involves agreeing to an explicit or implicit request from another person (Cialdini &amp; Goldstein, 2004), whereas surrender can occur without any request being made. Submission describes yielding to a more dominant party and has been explained as an evolved response to losing a competitive encounter (Price et al., 1994). Goal disengagement refers to withdrawing effort and commitment from a goal that has become unattainable (Wrosch et al., 2003). Surrender sits where these processes meet: it is usually triggered by perceived defeat, is often directed toward another party, and always involves letting go of a goal.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br&gt;''Surrender and related motivational concepts''
! Concept !! Definition !! Example
|-
| Surrender || Deliberately stopping resistance and redirecting effort toward a new goal || A barricaded person walks out to end a standoff
|-
| Compliance || Agreeing to a direct or implied request from another person || Following a police officer's instruction to step back
|-
| Submission || Yielding to a more dominant party to end a contest || An athlete conceding a match against a far stronger opponent
|-
| Goal disengagement || Withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal || Abandoning a career plan after repeated rejection
|-
| [[w:Learned helplessness|Learned helplessness]] || Passivity following prolonged exposure to uncontrollable events || No longer trying to escape a situation because effort feels pointless
|}

The key question is whether surrender helps or harms the person who surrenders. Research suggests the answer depends on why surrender happens. Surrender that reflects a realistic reappraisal of an unwinnable situation, followed by commitment to new goals, is associated with better [[w:Well-being|wellbeing]] (Wrosch et al., 2003). In contrast, surrender that reflects a belief that nothing one does matters, or a sense of being defeated yet unable to escape, is associated with depression and anxiety (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016; Taylor et al., 2011). Distinguishing adaptive from maladaptive surrender is therefore central to understanding, and improving, how people respond when continuing to fight no longer makes sense.

== Emotional and social influences ==
The theories outlined above explain why surrender motivation develops, but they do not fully explain when a person decides to act on it. Emotions and the social context of a conflict strongly influence whether surrender feels safe, acceptable, or even possible. Fear and stress can change how people weigh risks, while the behaviour of the opposing party can either reduce or intensify resistance. This section examines three key influences: emotional states, psychological reactance, and trust in the other party.

=== Fear, anger, and stress ===
Specific emotions shape how people judge risk. In a series of studies, Lerner and Keltner (2001) found that fearful people made more pessimistic risk estimates and preferred safer choices, whereas angry people made more optimistic risk estimates and preferred riskier choices. This suggests that the emotion a person feels during a conflict may influence whether they surrender. A person who feels mainly [[w:Fear|fear]] may be drawn toward surrender if it appears to be the safest option, whereas a person who feels mainly [[w:Anger|anger]] may underestimate the risks of continuing to resist.

Prolonged [[w:Stress (biology)|stress]] also changes how decisions are made. A review by Starcke and Brand (2012) concluded that stress tends to shift decision making away from careful deliberation and toward quicker, more habitual responses. In a long standoff, exhaustion and stress may therefore narrow a person's options to whatever response feels most immediate, which may be either continued resistance or sudden surrender. However, most of this research involves laboratory tasks with student samples and hypothetical choices, which differ substantially from real, life-threatening conflicts.

=== Psychological reactance ===
[[w:Reactance (psychology)|Psychological reactance]] is the motivational state that arises when a person feels their freedom is being threatened, which drives them to restore that freedom (Steindl et al., 2015). Reactance can explain why direct pressure to surrender may backfire. When people feel pushed toward a particular behaviour, they may resist more strongly simply to reassert their independence (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018). A review of 50 years of reactance research found that controlling language and forceful demands consistently increase reactance, whereas messages that acknowledge the person's choice tend to reduce it (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018).

This has a clear link to learned helplessness theory. Both theories suggest that a sense of control matters, but in different ways: reactance explains why removing a person's freedom can increase resistance, while learned helplessness explains why a complete loss of control can produce passive, unhealthy surrender. Surrender is therefore most likely to be healthy when a person feels they are choosing to surrender rather than being forced to.

=== Trust, legitimacy, and negotiation ===
Whether surrender appears safe depends heavily on how much the person trusts the opposing party. Research on [[w:Procedural justice|procedural justice]] shows that people are more willing to cooperate with authorities they perceive as fair and legitimate (Tyler, 2003). Liang and Li (2019) found that perceived procedural justice predicted perceived legitimacy of authorities, through people's concern about being treated with respect as well as their concern about outcomes. A person who expects to be treated fairly is therefore more likely to see surrender as a safe option.

Crisis negotiators apply these principles directly. The Behavioural Change Stairway Model describes a sequence of steps that negotiators move through: active listening, empathy, rapport, influence, and finally behavioural change (Vecchi et al., 2005). The model proposes that influence is only possible once trust and rapport have been established, which aligns with research on both procedural justice and reactance. A key limitation is that evidence for crisis negotiation models comes mainly from case studies and practitioner reports, because controlled experiments in real crises are neither practical nor ethical.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Scenario update'''

Hours into the standoff, the negotiator changes approach. Instead of repeating demands to come out, they ask the person what has happened to them and listen without interrupting. They acknowledge the person's fear and explain exactly what will happen if they choose to come out, and that the decision is theirs to make.

The person begins to feel heard. Their anger gives way to fear and exhaustion, and surrender starts to look less like defeat and more like a safe way out. What psychological processes do you think are at work here?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Lerner and Keltner (2001), which emotion is associated with preferring safer choices?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Fear
- Anger
- Pride

{Why might repeated demands to surrender increase resistance?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- They increase learned helplessness
+ They threaten the person's sense of freedom, triggering reactance
- They increase goal re-engagement
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Impacts of surrender ==
Research on goal disengagement, defeat, and coerced compliance suggests that the impact of surrender depends less on the act itself than on the psychological state behind it. When surrender involves a realistic decision to let go of an unattainable goal, it tends to benefit both mental and physical health. When it involves helplessness, entrapment, or pressure from others, it tends to cause harm. Table 3 summarises key research findings.

=== When surrender helps ===
A meta-analysis by Barlow et al. (2020) found that people with a stronger capacity to disengage from unattainable goals, and to re-engage with new ones, reported better quality of life. Importantly, the benefits of surrender are not limited to self-reported wellbeing. In a year-long longitudinal study, Miller and Wrosch (2007) found that adolescents who had difficulty disengaging from unattainable goals showed increasing levels of systemic [[w:Inflammation|inflammation]], a biological marker linked to later physical illness. Because this study measured a biological outcome over time, it partly addresses the limitation that most goal disengagement research relies on self-report at a single time point.

These findings support goal disengagement theory's claim that knowing when to give up is an important self-regulation skill (Wrosch et al., 2003). However, they raise a difficult practical question: how can a person tell whether a goal is truly unattainable? Persistence is also valuable, and giving up too early may mean abandoning goals that could have been achieved. The research does not yet offer clear guidance on where this line falls, and most studies have been conducted with Western samples, so it is unclear whether the benefits of disengagement apply equally across cultures.

=== When surrender harms ===
Surrender becomes harmful when it reflects defeat combined with entrapment. A meta-analysis by Siddaway et al. (2015) found that perceptions of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and suicidality. This is consistent with social rank theory's proposal that yielding is only protective when it actually ends the conflict (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). However, because the studies included were mostly cross-sectional, they cannot establish whether defeat and entrapment cause these problems or result from them.

Surrender under pressure can also be harmful when it is coerced. A review by Kassin et al. (2010) found that factors such as lengthy interrogations, exhaustion, and isolation increase the risk of people giving [[w:False confession|false confessions]], effectively surrendering to an authority's version of events to escape an unbearable situation. This finding links the emotional and social influences discussed earlier to real-world harm, because the same stress and fatigue that can encourage surrender can also distort decision making. It also raises an important ethical point: psychological knowledge about surrender should be used to support people's choices, not to override them.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 3'''&lt;br&gt;''Key research findings on the impacts of surrender''
! Study !! Design !! Key finding !! Limitation
|-
| Barlow et al. (2020) || Meta-analysis || Disengagement and re-engagement linked to better quality of life || Mostly self-report, correlational studies
|-
| Miller &amp; Wrosch (2007) || Longitudinal || Poor disengagement linked to rising inflammation || Adolescent sample only
|-
| Siddaway et al. (2015) || Meta-analysis || Defeat and entrapment linked to depression, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidality || Mostly cross-sectional
|-
| Kassin et al. (2010) || Review || Stress and exhaustion increase risk of false confessions || Relies partly on case studies of known false confessions
|}

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Applying this to your life: Healthy surrender'''

Research suggests several questions you can ask when deciding whether to keep fighting or let go:
* '''Is the goal still achievable?''' If repeated effort is not bringing you closer, disengaging may protect your wellbeing.
* '''What will replace it?''' Letting go works best when you commit to a new, meaningful goal.
* '''Does this feel like a choice or a trap?''' Choosing to let go is linked to better outcomes than feeling defeated with no way out.
* '''Am I deciding under pressure?''' Stress and exhaustion distort decisions, so wait until you are rested before making major choices if you can.

If you feel defeated and trapped with no way out, talk to someone you trust or contact a local crisis support service.
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{What did Miller and Wrosch (2007) find in adolescents who struggled to let go of unattainable goals?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Lower stress hormones
+ Increasing levels of inflammation
- Higher quality of life

{Which combination of factors does research most consistently link to harmful outcomes?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Disengagement and re-engagement
+ Defeat and entrapment
- Fear and trust
&lt;/quiz&gt;


== Theories of surrender ==
No single theory fully explains surrender motivation. Instead, three theoretical perspectives each explain a different pathway from resistance to surrender (see Table 2). Goal disengagement theory treats surrender as a strategic decision to let go of an unattainable goal. Learned helplessness theory treats surrender as the result of losing a sense of control. [[w:Social rank theory|Social rank theory]] treats surrender as an evolved response to defeat. Together, these perspectives help explain why some forms of surrender are healthy while others are harmful.

=== Goal disengagement theory ===
Klinger (1975) proposed that when a valued goal is blocked, people move through an incentive–disengagement cycle. They first increase their effort, then become frustrated or angry, then experience low mood as commitment fades, and finally recover once the goal has been released (Klinger, 1975). Wrosch et al. (2003) extended this idea by distinguishing two separate capacities: goal disengagement, which involves withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal, and goal re-engagement, which involves identifying and committing to new goals. Across several studies, people who were better able to disengage from unattainable goals reported higher subjective wellbeing, and the capacity to re-engage with new goals was also associated with wellbeing (Wrosch et al., 2003).

The standoff in the opening scenario maps closely onto this cycle. The person's initial determination to resist reflects increased effort, while their growing exhaustion and uncertainty suggest that disengagement has begun. From this perspective, a negotiator who offers a credible alternative goal, such as safety or the chance to be heard, may help the person re-engage rather than simply collapse. However, much of the supporting evidence relies on self-report questionnaires, which makes it difficult to establish whether disengagement causes better wellbeing or whether people with better wellbeing simply find it easier to disengage.

=== Learned helplessness theory ===
In early experiments, Seligman and Maier (1967) found that dogs exposed to inescapable shocks later failed to escape shocks even when escape became possible. The original theory proposed that animals learned that their behaviour had no effect on outcomes, and this learning produced passivity (Seligman &amp; Maier, 1967). Fifty years later, Maier and Seligman (2016) revised the theory based on neuroscience evidence. They concluded that passivity is the brain's default, unlearned response to prolonged uncontrollable threat, and that what is actually learned is control: detecting that one's actions matter is what overrides the passive response (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016).

Applied to surrender, this suggests that some surrender is not a choice at all, but what happens when a person no longer perceives any control. If the barricaded person comes to believe that nothing they do will change the outcome, their surrender may reflect helplessness rather than a considered decision. This distinction matters because helplessness is closely linked to depression (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016). A key limitation is that the foundational research was conducted with animals, and generalising these findings to complex human decisions made under threat should be done with caution.

=== Social rank theory ===
Social rank theory proposes that humans, like other social animals, evolved mechanisms for managing competition with others. Price et al. (1994) argued that when an animal is losing a fight, an &quot;involuntary subordinate strategy&quot; causes it to yield, signalling that it is no longer a threat and ending the conflict before serious injury occurs. Gilbert and Allan (1998) proposed that defeat becomes harmful when it is combined with entrapment, in which a strong desire to escape is blocked. They found that feelings of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). A systematic review by Taylor et al. (2011) later confirmed that defeat and entrapment are consistently associated with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

This theory explains why surrender in the opening scenario can be protective, because yielding ends a dangerous conflict, and also why the period before surrender may be the most psychologically dangerous. A person who feels defeated but sees no safe way out is experiencing exactly the combination that Gilbert and Allan (1998) identified as most harmful. However, evolutionary explanations are difficult to test directly, and most of the supporting research is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether defeat and entrapment cause distress or result from it.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 2'''&lt;br&gt;''Comparison of three theories of surrender''
! Theory !! Why surrender occurs !! Adaptive when... !! Maladaptive when...
|-
| Goal disengagement || A goal is judged unattainable || The person re-engages with new goals || No new goals replace the old one
|-
| Learned helplessness || Control is no longer perceived || Rarely adaptive || Passivity generalises to situations that are controllable
|-
| Social rank || Defeat in a conflict signals the need to yield || Yielding ends a dangerous conflict || Defeat is combined with entrapment
|}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Wrosch et al. (2003), surrender is most likely to benefit wellbeing when it is followed by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Increased effort toward the original goal
+ Re-engagement with new goals
- Compliance with an authority figure

{According to Maier and Seligman's (2016) revised theory, what is actually learned?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Helplessness
+ Control
- Submission

{According to social rank theory, defeat is most harmful when it is combined with:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Compliance
- Goal re-engagement
+ Entrapment
&lt;/quiz&gt;


== Conceptualising Surrender Motivation ==
Figure 2. A negotiator attempting to persuade an individual to peacefully surrender during a high-stakes confrontation.

* [[Anxiety]]
* Defining Surrender Motivation
* Surrender, Resistance, Compliance, and Submission
* Motivational change and Behavioural decision making (Sahu, 2020) 

== Cognitive and Motivational Processes ==

* Expectancy, Value and Goal-directed behaviour
* Risk perception and [[Decision Making|decision-making]] [https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/doi/full/10.1002/bdm.70072 (Jiao et al, 2026)] 
* Perceived Control and learned helplessness
* Cost-Benefit Evaluation and Expected outcomes

== Emotional and Psychological Determinants ==

* Fear, [[Anxiety]] and Threat Perception
* Stress, Cognitive load and Psychological Strain
* Emotional Regulation and Strain
* Emotional regulation and coping
* Motional depletion and Fatigue (Malik et al, 2026)

== Social and Situational Influences ==

* Social Influence, Compliancy and Authority
* Trust and Communication
* Perceived Legitimacy and Procedural Justice (Liang &amp; Li, 2019)
* Environmental and Situational constraints

== Empirical Evidence, Applications and Future Directions ==

* Psychological Research on the application of Surrender Motivation to other spheres
* Applications to Crisis situations
* Ethical considerations and limitations

== Conclusion ==

== References ==
{{Hanging indent|1=

* Sahu, A. K., Padhy, R. K., &amp; Dhir, A. (2020). Envisioning the future of behavioral decision-making: A systematic literature review of behavioral reasoning theory. ''Australasian Marketing Journal'', ''28''(4), 145–159. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.05.001&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Chai, J., Weng, Z., &amp; Liu, W. (2021). Behavioral decision making in normative and descriptive views: A critical review of literature. ''Journal of Risk and Financial Management'', ''14''(10), 1–14. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14100490&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Jiao, Y., Liu, H., Liang, Y., &amp; Wei, Z. (2026). The Effects of “Time” and “Probability” Formats on Risk Perception and Decision‐Making About Long‐Term Hazards. ''Journal of Behavioral Decision Making'', ''39''(2). &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.70072&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Malik, A., Goel, S., &amp; Sinha, S. (2026). Security fatigue: manifestation of emotional exhaustion and cynicism by depletion of self-regulation capacity. ''European Journal of Information Systems'', 1–20. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2621809&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Liang, J., &amp; Li, X. (2019). Explaining the procedural justice–perceived legitimacy relationship: Relying on relational concern or instrumental concern? ''Journal of Community &amp; Applied Social Psychology'', ''29''(3), 193–206. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2394&lt;/nowiki&gt;

}}

== External links ==

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      <text bytes="23996" sha1="i9lngmgektvvawnpeanrrl0nus7srk6" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Surrender-Motivation:&lt;br&gt;What is the motivational state of surrender and what are its impacts?}}

== Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Delaware River Port Authority Police Department Ford Police Interceptor Utility on patrol.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Police surrender{{expand}}]]

'''Scenario - When giving up becomes the goal'''

Imagine a police negotiator is called out to a tense situation in which a person has barricaded themselves inside a building. The person is convinced that surrendering to the police officer will lead to serious consequences {{ic|consequences for who? good or bad consequences?}}. Hours pass as the negotiator tried{{g}} to establish communication and understand what might persuade the person to come out. At the same, the person inside begins to realise that staying secluded may become increasingly difficult. They are exhausted, have limited resources, {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} and are unsure what might happen next. The negotiator must consider an important question: What motivates a person to surrender when continuing to resist may seem like the better option?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

This scenario illustrates the psychological problem of '''surrender motivation''' {{g}} understanding why a person decides to stop resisting, withdraw from a conflict, or submit to another party. The decision may be influenced by the situation itself, the person's [[Emotion|perceptions and emotions]], their expectations about the consequences, and the behaviour of those attempting to persuade them. As we explore surrender motivation, we can return to this scenario to consider what might cause the person's motivation to shift from resistance toward surrender.

* A person is involved in a high-pressure conflict and initially refuses to surrender.
* They believe that continuing to resist is their best option.
* As the situation continues, they become increasingly tired, stressed, fearful, or uncertain.
* They begin to question whether resistance will achieve their original goal.
* The person considers the possible consequences of continuing to resist versus surrendering.
* Communication with authorities or another opposing party may influence how safe or trustworthy surrender appears.
* The person may start to believe that surrender offers a better outcome or reduces immediate danger.
* This creates a shift in motivation from resistance toward surrender.
* The scenario provides an opportunity to explore why people change their behaviour under pressure.
* Later sections can connect the scenario to psychological concepts such as motivation, decision-making, perceived control, emotion, stress, and social influences

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Focus questions

{{ic|Use bullet points as shown in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]}}

{{ic|Develop closer alignment between the focus questions and the top-level headings}}

What psychological factors influence a person's decision to surrender?
How do fear, stress, and emotional states affect surrender motivation?
How do situational and social factors influence the decision to stop resisting?
Why might a person change from being motivated to resist to being motivated to surrender{{g}}
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is surrender motivation? ==
In everyday language, surrender often implies weakness or failure. In psychological terms, however, surrender motivation describes a shift in [[w:Motivation|motivation]] that moves a person from actively resisting a threat, opponent, or demand toward deliberately stopping that resistance. The person withdraws effort from one [[w:Goal|goal]] (e.g., holding out, winning, or escaping) and redirects their behaviour toward another (e.g., safety, ending the conflict, or conserving energy). This reflects what Klinger (1975) described as disengagement from an incentive that can no longer be attained. In the opening scenario, the barricaded person has not simply &quot;given up&quot;; their goals and their expectations about what resistance can achieve have changed.

Surrender overlaps with several related concepts but is not identical to any of them (see Table 1). [[w:Compliance (psychology)|Compliance]] involves agreeing to an explicit or implicit request from another person (Cialdini &amp; Goldstein, 2004), whereas surrender can occur without any request being made. Submission describes yielding to a more dominant party and has been explained as an evolved response to losing a competitive encounter (Price et al., 1994). Goal disengagement refers to withdrawing effort and commitment from a goal that has become unattainable (Wrosch et al., 2003). Surrender sits where these processes meet: it is usually triggered by perceived defeat, is often directed toward another party, and always involves letting go of a goal.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br&gt;''Surrender and related motivational concepts''
! Concept !! Definition !! Example
|-
| Surrender || Deliberately stopping resistance and redirecting effort toward a new goal || A barricaded person walks out to end a standoff
|-
| Compliance || Agreeing to a direct or implied request from another person || Following a police officer's instruction to step back
|-
| Submission || Yielding to a more dominant party to end a contest || An athlete conceding a match against a far stronger opponent
|-
| Goal disengagement || Withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal || Abandoning a career plan after repeated rejection
|-
| [[w:Learned helplessness|Learned helplessness]] || Passivity following prolonged exposure to uncontrollable events || No longer trying to escape a situation because effort feels pointless
|}

The key question is whether surrender helps or harms the person who surrenders. Research suggests the answer depends on why surrender happens. Surrender that reflects a realistic reappraisal of an unwinnable situation, followed by commitment to new goals, is associated with better [[w:Well-being|wellbeing]] (Wrosch et al., 2003). In contrast, surrender that reflects a belief that nothing one does matters, or a sense of being defeated yet unable to escape, is associated with depression and anxiety (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016; Taylor et al., 2011). Distinguishing adaptive from maladaptive surrender is therefore central to understanding, and improving, how people respond when continuing to fight no longer makes sense.

== Emotional and social influences ==
The theories outlined above explain why surrender motivation develops, but they do not fully explain when a person decides to act on it. Emotions and the social context of a conflict strongly influence whether surrender feels safe, acceptable, or even possible. Fear and stress can change how people weigh risks, while the behaviour of the opposing party can either reduce or intensify resistance. This section examines three key influences: emotional states, psychological reactance, and trust in the other party.

=== Fear, anger, and stress ===
Specific emotions shape how people judge risk. In a series of studies, Lerner and Keltner (2001) found that fearful people made more pessimistic risk estimates and preferred safer choices, whereas angry people made more optimistic risk estimates and preferred riskier choices. This suggests that the emotion a person feels during a conflict may influence whether they surrender. A person who feels mainly [[w:Fear|fear]] may be drawn toward surrender if it appears to be the safest option, whereas a person who feels mainly [[w:Anger|anger]] may underestimate the risks of continuing to resist.

Prolonged [[w:Stress (biology)|stress]] also changes how decisions are made. A review by Starcke and Brand (2012) concluded that stress tends to shift decision making away from careful deliberation and toward quicker, more habitual responses. In a long standoff, exhaustion and stress may therefore narrow a person's options to whatever response feels most immediate, which may be either continued resistance or sudden surrender. However, most of this research involves laboratory tasks with student samples and hypothetical choices, which differ substantially from real, life-threatening conflicts.

=== Psychological reactance ===
[[w:Reactance (psychology)|Psychological reactance]] is the motivational state that arises when a person feels their freedom is being threatened, which drives them to restore that freedom (Steindl et al., 2015). Reactance can explain why direct pressure to surrender may backfire. When people feel pushed toward a particular behaviour, they may resist more strongly simply to reassert their independence (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018). A review of 50 years of reactance research found that controlling language and forceful demands consistently increase reactance, whereas messages that acknowledge the person's choice tend to reduce it (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018).

This has a clear link to learned helplessness theory. Both theories suggest that a sense of control matters, but in different ways: reactance explains why removing a person's freedom can increase resistance, while learned helplessness explains why a complete loss of control can produce passive, unhealthy surrender. Surrender is therefore most likely to be healthy when a person feels they are choosing to surrender rather than being forced to.

=== Trust, legitimacy, and negotiation ===
Whether surrender appears safe depends heavily on how much the person trusts the opposing party. Research on [[w:Procedural justice|procedural justice]] shows that people are more willing to cooperate with authorities they perceive as fair and legitimate (Tyler, 2003). Liang and Li (2019) found that perceived procedural justice predicted perceived legitimacy of authorities, through people's concern about being treated with respect as well as their concern about outcomes. A person who expects to be treated fairly is therefore more likely to see surrender as a safe option.

Crisis negotiators apply these principles directly. The Behavioural Change Stairway Model describes a sequence of steps that negotiators move through: active listening, empathy, rapport, influence, and finally behavioural change (Vecchi et al., 2005). The model proposes that influence is only possible once trust and rapport have been established, which aligns with research on both procedural justice and reactance. A key limitation is that evidence for crisis negotiation models comes mainly from case studies and practitioner reports, because controlled experiments in real crises are neither practical nor ethical.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Scenario update'''

Hours into the standoff, the negotiator changes approach. Instead of repeating demands to come out, they ask the person what has happened to them and listen without interrupting. They acknowledge the person's fear and explain exactly what will happen if they choose to come out, and that the decision is theirs to make.

The person begins to feel heard. Their anger gives way to fear and exhaustion, and surrender starts to look less like defeat and more like a safe way out. What psychological processes do you think are at work here?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Lerner and Keltner (2001), which emotion is associated with preferring safer choices?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Fear
- Anger
- Pride

{Why might repeated demands to surrender increase resistance?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- They increase learned helplessness
+ They threaten the person's sense of freedom, triggering reactance
- They increase goal re-engagement
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Impacts of surrender ==
Research on goal disengagement, defeat, and coerced compliance suggests that the impact of surrender depends less on the act itself than on the psychological state behind it. When surrender involves a realistic decision to let go of an unattainable goal, it tends to benefit both mental and physical health. When it involves helplessness, entrapment, or pressure from others, it tends to cause harm. Table 3 summarises key research findings.

=== When surrender helps ===
A meta-analysis by Barlow et al. (2020) found that people with a stronger capacity to disengage from unattainable goals, and to re-engage with new ones, reported better quality of life. Importantly, the benefits of surrender are not limited to self-reported wellbeing. In a year-long longitudinal study, Miller and Wrosch (2007) found that adolescents who had difficulty disengaging from unattainable goals showed increasing levels of systemic [[w:Inflammation|inflammation]], a biological marker linked to later physical illness. Because this study measured a biological outcome over time, it partly addresses the limitation that most goal disengagement research relies on self-report at a single time point.

These findings support goal disengagement theory's claim that knowing when to give up is an important self-regulation skill (Wrosch et al., 2003). However, they raise a difficult practical question: how can a person tell whether a goal is truly unattainable? Persistence is also valuable, and giving up too early may mean abandoning goals that could have been achieved. The research does not yet offer clear guidance on where this line falls, and most studies have been conducted with Western samples, so it is unclear whether the benefits of disengagement apply equally across cultures.

=== When surrender harms ===
Surrender becomes harmful when it reflects defeat combined with entrapment. A meta-analysis by Siddaway et al. (2015) found that perceptions of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and suicidality. This is consistent with social rank theory's proposal that yielding is only protective when it actually ends the conflict (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). However, because the studies included were mostly cross-sectional, they cannot establish whether defeat and entrapment cause these problems or result from them.

Surrender under pressure can also be harmful when it is coerced. A review by Kassin et al. (2010) found that factors such as lengthy interrogations, exhaustion, and isolation increase the risk of people giving [[w:False confession|false confessions]], effectively surrendering to an authority's version of events to escape an unbearable situation. This finding links the emotional and social influences discussed earlier to real-world harm, because the same stress and fatigue that can encourage surrender can also distort decision making. It also raises an important ethical point: psychological knowledge about surrender should be used to support people's choices, not to override them.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 3'''&lt;br&gt;''Key research findings on the impacts of surrender''
! Study !! Design !! Key finding !! Limitation
|-
| Barlow et al. (2020) || Meta-analysis || Disengagement and re-engagement linked to better quality of life || Mostly self-report, correlational studies
|-
| Miller &amp; Wrosch (2007) || Longitudinal || Poor disengagement linked to rising inflammation || Adolescent sample only
|-
| Siddaway et al. (2015) || Meta-analysis || Defeat and entrapment linked to depression, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidality || Mostly cross-sectional
|-
| Kassin et al. (2010) || Review || Stress and exhaustion increase risk of false confessions || Relies partly on case studies of known false confessions
|}

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Applying this to your life: Healthy surrender'''

Research suggests several questions you can ask when deciding whether to keep fighting or let go:
* '''Is the goal still achievable?''' If repeated effort is not bringing you closer, disengaging may protect your wellbeing.
* '''What will replace it?''' Letting go works best when you commit to a new, meaningful goal.
* '''Does this feel like a choice or a trap?''' Choosing to let go is linked to better outcomes than feeling defeated with no way out.
* '''Am I deciding under pressure?''' Stress and exhaustion distort decisions, so wait until you are rested before making major choices if you can.

If you feel defeated and trapped with no way out, talk to someone you trust or contact a local crisis support service.
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{What did Miller and Wrosch (2007) find in adolescents who struggled to let go of unattainable goals?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Lower stress hormones
+ Increasing levels of inflammation
- Higher quality of life

{Which combination of factors does research most consistently link to harmful outcomes?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Disengagement and re-engagement
+ Defeat and entrapment
- Fear and trust
&lt;/quiz&gt;


== Theories of surrender ==
No single theory fully explains surrender motivation. Instead, three theoretical perspectives each explain a different pathway from resistance to surrender (see Table 2). Goal disengagement theory treats surrender as a strategic decision to let go of an unattainable goal. Learned helplessness theory treats surrender as the result of losing a sense of control. [[w:Social rank theory|Social rank theory]] treats surrender as an evolved response to defeat. Together, these perspectives help explain why some forms of surrender are healthy while others are harmful.

=== Goal disengagement theory ===
Klinger (1975) proposed that when a valued goal is blocked, people move through an incentive–disengagement cycle. They first increase their effort, then become frustrated or angry, then experience low mood as commitment fades, and finally recover once the goal has been released (Klinger, 1975). Wrosch et al. (2003) extended this idea by distinguishing two separate capacities: goal disengagement, which involves withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal, and goal re-engagement, which involves identifying and committing to new goals. Across several studies, people who were better able to disengage from unattainable goals reported higher subjective wellbeing, and the capacity to re-engage with new goals was also associated with wellbeing (Wrosch et al., 2003).

The standoff in the opening scenario maps closely onto this cycle. The person's initial determination to resist reflects increased effort, while their growing exhaustion and uncertainty suggest that disengagement has begun. From this perspective, a negotiator who offers a credible alternative goal, such as safety or the chance to be heard, may help the person re-engage rather than simply collapse. However, much of the supporting evidence relies on self-report questionnaires, which makes it difficult to establish whether disengagement causes better wellbeing or whether people with better wellbeing simply find it easier to disengage.

=== Learned helplessness theory ===
In early experiments, Seligman and Maier (1967) found that dogs exposed to inescapable shocks later failed to escape shocks even when escape became possible. The original theory proposed that animals learned that their behaviour had no effect on outcomes, and this learning produced passivity (Seligman &amp; Maier, 1967). Fifty years later, Maier and Seligman (2016) revised the theory based on neuroscience evidence. They concluded that passivity is the brain's default, unlearned response to prolonged uncontrollable threat, and that what is actually learned is control: detecting that one's actions matter is what overrides the passive response (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016).

Applied to surrender, this suggests that some surrender is not a choice at all, but what happens when a person no longer perceives any control. If the barricaded person comes to believe that nothing they do will change the outcome, their surrender may reflect helplessness rather than a considered decision. This distinction matters because helplessness is closely linked to depression (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016). A key limitation is that the foundational research was conducted with animals, and generalising these findings to complex human decisions made under threat should be done with caution.

=== Social rank theory ===
Social rank theory proposes that humans, like other social animals, evolved mechanisms for managing competition with others. Price et al. (1994) argued that when an animal is losing a fight, an &quot;involuntary subordinate strategy&quot; causes it to yield, signalling that it is no longer a threat and ending the conflict before serious injury occurs. Gilbert and Allan (1998) proposed that defeat becomes harmful when it is combined with entrapment, in which a strong desire to escape is blocked. They found that feelings of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). A systematic review by Taylor et al. (2011) later confirmed that defeat and entrapment are consistently associated with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

This theory explains why surrender in the opening scenario can be protective, because yielding ends a dangerous conflict, and also why the period before surrender may be the most psychologically dangerous. A person who feels defeated but sees no safe way out is experiencing exactly the combination that Gilbert and Allan (1998) identified as most harmful. However, evolutionary explanations are difficult to test directly, and most of the supporting research is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether defeat and entrapment cause distress or result from it.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 2'''&lt;br&gt;''Comparison of three theories of surrender''
! Theory !! Why surrender occurs !! Adaptive when... !! Maladaptive when...
|-
| Goal disengagement || A goal is judged unattainable || The person re-engages with new goals || No new goals replace the old one
|-
| Learned helplessness || Control is no longer perceived || Rarely adaptive || Passivity generalises to situations that are controllable
|-
| Social rank || Defeat in a conflict signals the need to yield || Yielding ends a dangerous conflict || Defeat is combined with entrapment
|}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Wrosch et al. (2003), surrender is most likely to benefit wellbeing when it is followed by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Increased effort toward the original goal
+ Re-engagement with new goals
- Compliance with an authority figure

{According to Maier and Seligman's (2016) revised theory, what is actually learned?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Helplessness
+ Control
- Submission

{According to social rank theory, defeat is most harmful when it is combined with:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Compliance
- Goal re-engagement
+ Entrapment
&lt;/quiz&gt;
== Conclusion ==

== References ==
{{Hanging indent|1=

* Sahu, A. K., Padhy, R. K., &amp; Dhir, A. (2020). Envisioning the future of behavioral decision-making: A systematic literature review of behavioral reasoning theory. ''Australasian Marketing Journal'', ''28''(4), 145–159. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.05.001&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Chai, J., Weng, Z., &amp; Liu, W. (2021). Behavioral decision making in normative and descriptive views: A critical review of literature. ''Journal of Risk and Financial Management'', ''14''(10), 1–14. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14100490&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Jiao, Y., Liu, H., Liang, Y., &amp; Wei, Z. (2026). The Effects of “Time” and “Probability” Formats on Risk Perception and Decision‐Making About Long‐Term Hazards. ''Journal of Behavioral Decision Making'', ''39''(2). &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.70072&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Malik, A., Goel, S., &amp; Sinha, S. (2026). Security fatigue: manifestation of emotional exhaustion and cynicism by depletion of self-regulation capacity. ''European Journal of Information Systems'', 1–20. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2621809&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Liang, J., &amp; Li, X. (2019). Explaining the procedural justice–perceived legitimacy relationship: Relying on relational concern or instrumental concern? ''Journal of Community &amp; Applied Social Psychology'', ''29''(3), 193–206. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2394&lt;/nowiki&gt;

}}

== External links ==

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]]</text>
      <sha1>i9lngmgektvvawnpeanrrl0nus7srk6</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840185</id>
      <parentid>2840184</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T06:42:46Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Chloebateup</username>
        <id>3109816</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>conclusion</comment>
      <origin>2840185</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="26740" sha1="e1jk8iwe9g39lv8zs8rlud2opqnbmvb" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Surrender-Motivation:&lt;br&gt;What is the motivational state of surrender and what are its impacts?}}

== Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Delaware River Port Authority Police Department Ford Police Interceptor Utility on patrol.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Police surrender{{expand}}]]

'''Scenario - When giving up becomes the goal'''

Imagine a police negotiator is called out to a tense situation in which a person has barricaded themselves inside a building. The person is convinced that surrendering to the police officer will lead to serious consequences {{ic|consequences for who? good or bad consequences?}}. Hours pass as the negotiator tried{{g}} to establish communication and understand what might persuade the person to come out. At the same, the person inside begins to realise that staying secluded may become increasingly difficult. They are exhausted, have limited resources, {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} and are unsure what might happen next. The negotiator must consider an important question: What motivates a person to surrender when continuing to resist may seem like the better option?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

This scenario illustrates the psychological problem of '''surrender motivation''' {{g}} understanding why a person decides to stop resisting, withdraw from a conflict, or submit to another party. The decision may be influenced by the situation itself, the person's [[Emotion|perceptions and emotions]], their expectations about the consequences, and the behaviour of those attempting to persuade them. As we explore surrender motivation, we can return to this scenario to consider what might cause the person's motivation to shift from resistance toward surrender.

* A person is involved in a high-pressure conflict and initially refuses to surrender.
* They believe that continuing to resist is their best option.
* As the situation continues, they become increasingly tired, stressed, fearful, or uncertain.
* They begin to question whether resistance will achieve their original goal.
* The person considers the possible consequences of continuing to resist versus surrendering.
* Communication with authorities or another opposing party may influence how safe or trustworthy surrender appears.
* The person may start to believe that surrender offers a better outcome or reduces immediate danger.
* This creates a shift in motivation from resistance toward surrender.
* The scenario provides an opportunity to explore why people change their behaviour under pressure.
* Later sections can connect the scenario to psychological concepts such as motivation, decision-making, perceived control, emotion, stress, and social influences

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Focus questions

{{ic|Use bullet points as shown in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]}}

{{ic|Develop closer alignment between the focus questions and the top-level headings}}

What psychological factors influence a person's decision to surrender?
How do fear, stress, and emotional states affect surrender motivation?
How do situational and social factors influence the decision to stop resisting?
Why might a person change from being motivated to resist to being motivated to surrender{{g}}
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is surrender motivation? ==
In everyday language, surrender often implies weakness or failure. In psychological terms, however, surrender motivation describes a shift in [[w:Motivation|motivation]] that moves a person from actively resisting a threat, opponent, or demand toward deliberately stopping that resistance. The person withdraws effort from one [[w:Goal|goal]] (e.g., holding out, winning, or escaping) and redirects their behaviour toward another (e.g., safety, ending the conflict, or conserving energy). This reflects what Klinger (1975) described as disengagement from an incentive that can no longer be attained. In the opening scenario, the barricaded person has not simply &quot;given up&quot;; their goals and their expectations about what resistance can achieve have changed.

Surrender overlaps with several related concepts but is not identical to any of them (see Table 1). [[w:Compliance (psychology)|Compliance]] involves agreeing to an explicit or implicit request from another person (Cialdini &amp; Goldstein, 2004), whereas surrender can occur without any request being made. Submission describes yielding to a more dominant party and has been explained as an evolved response to losing a competitive encounter (Price et al., 1994). Goal disengagement refers to withdrawing effort and commitment from a goal that has become unattainable (Wrosch et al., 2003). Surrender sits where these processes meet: it is usually triggered by perceived defeat, is often directed toward another party, and always involves letting go of a goal.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br&gt;''Surrender and related motivational concepts''
! Concept !! Definition !! Example
|-
| Surrender || Deliberately stopping resistance and redirecting effort toward a new goal || A barricaded person walks out to end a standoff
|-
| Compliance || Agreeing to a direct or implied request from another person || Following a police officer's instruction to step back
|-
| Submission || Yielding to a more dominant party to end a contest || An athlete conceding a match against a far stronger opponent
|-
| Goal disengagement || Withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal || Abandoning a career plan after repeated rejection
|-
| [[w:Learned helplessness|Learned helplessness]] || Passivity following prolonged exposure to uncontrollable events || No longer trying to escape a situation because effort feels pointless
|}

The key question is whether surrender helps or harms the person who surrenders. Research suggests the answer depends on why surrender happens. Surrender that reflects a realistic reappraisal of an unwinnable situation, followed by commitment to new goals, is associated with better [[w:Well-being|wellbeing]] (Wrosch et al., 2003). In contrast, surrender that reflects a belief that nothing one does matters, or a sense of being defeated yet unable to escape, is associated with depression and anxiety (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016; Taylor et al., 2011). Distinguishing adaptive from maladaptive surrender is therefore central to understanding, and improving, how people respond when continuing to fight no longer makes sense.

== Emotional and social influences ==
The theories outlined above explain why surrender motivation develops, but they do not fully explain when a person decides to act on it. Emotions and the social context of a conflict strongly influence whether surrender feels safe, acceptable, or even possible. Fear and stress can change how people weigh risks, while the behaviour of the opposing party can either reduce or intensify resistance. This section examines three key influences: emotional states, psychological reactance, and trust in the other party.

=== Fear, anger, and stress ===
Specific emotions shape how people judge risk. In a series of studies, Lerner and Keltner (2001) found that fearful people made more pessimistic risk estimates and preferred safer choices, whereas angry people made more optimistic risk estimates and preferred riskier choices. This suggests that the emotion a person feels during a conflict may influence whether they surrender. A person who feels mainly [[w:Fear|fear]] may be drawn toward surrender if it appears to be the safest option, whereas a person who feels mainly [[w:Anger|anger]] may underestimate the risks of continuing to resist.

Prolonged [[w:Stress (biology)|stress]] also changes how decisions are made. A review by Starcke and Brand (2012) concluded that stress tends to shift decision making away from careful deliberation and toward quicker, more habitual responses. In a long standoff, exhaustion and stress may therefore narrow a person's options to whatever response feels most immediate, which may be either continued resistance or sudden surrender. However, most of this research involves laboratory tasks with student samples and hypothetical choices, which differ substantially from real, life-threatening conflicts.

=== Psychological reactance ===
[[w:Reactance (psychology)|Psychological reactance]] is the motivational state that arises when a person feels their freedom is being threatened, which drives them to restore that freedom (Steindl et al., 2015). Reactance can explain why direct pressure to surrender may backfire. When people feel pushed toward a particular behaviour, they may resist more strongly simply to reassert their independence (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018). A review of 50 years of reactance research found that controlling language and forceful demands consistently increase reactance, whereas messages that acknowledge the person's choice tend to reduce it (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018).

This has a clear link to learned helplessness theory. Both theories suggest that a sense of control matters, but in different ways: reactance explains why removing a person's freedom can increase resistance, while learned helplessness explains why a complete loss of control can produce passive, unhealthy surrender. Surrender is therefore most likely to be healthy when a person feels they are choosing to surrender rather than being forced to.

=== Trust, legitimacy, and negotiation ===
Whether surrender appears safe depends heavily on how much the person trusts the opposing party. Research on [[w:Procedural justice|procedural justice]] shows that people are more willing to cooperate with authorities they perceive as fair and legitimate (Tyler, 2003). Liang and Li (2019) found that perceived procedural justice predicted perceived legitimacy of authorities, through people's concern about being treated with respect as well as their concern about outcomes. A person who expects to be treated fairly is therefore more likely to see surrender as a safe option.

Crisis negotiators apply these principles directly. The Behavioural Change Stairway Model describes a sequence of steps that negotiators move through: active listening, empathy, rapport, influence, and finally behavioural change (Vecchi et al., 2005). The model proposes that influence is only possible once trust and rapport have been established, which aligns with research on both procedural justice and reactance. A key limitation is that evidence for crisis negotiation models comes mainly from case studies and practitioner reports, because controlled experiments in real crises are neither practical nor ethical.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Scenario update'''

Hours into the standoff, the negotiator changes approach. Instead of repeating demands to come out, they ask the person what has happened to them and listen without interrupting. They acknowledge the person's fear and explain exactly what will happen if they choose to come out, and that the decision is theirs to make.

The person begins to feel heard. Their anger gives way to fear and exhaustion, and surrender starts to look less like defeat and more like a safe way out. What psychological processes do you think are at work here?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Lerner and Keltner (2001), which emotion is associated with preferring safer choices?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Fear
- Anger
- Pride

{Why might repeated demands to surrender increase resistance?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- They increase learned helplessness
+ They threaten the person's sense of freedom, triggering reactance
- They increase goal re-engagement
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Impacts of surrender ==
Research on goal disengagement, defeat, and coerced compliance suggests that the impact of surrender depends less on the act itself than on the psychological state behind it. When surrender involves a realistic decision to let go of an unattainable goal, it tends to benefit both mental and physical health. When it involves helplessness, entrapment, or pressure from others, it tends to cause harm. Table 3 summarises key research findings.

=== When surrender helps ===
A meta-analysis by Barlow et al. (2020) found that people with a stronger capacity to disengage from unattainable goals, and to re-engage with new ones, reported better quality of life. Importantly, the benefits of surrender are not limited to self-reported wellbeing. In a year-long longitudinal study, Miller and Wrosch (2007) found that adolescents who had difficulty disengaging from unattainable goals showed increasing levels of systemic [[w:Inflammation|inflammation]], a biological marker linked to later physical illness. Because this study measured a biological outcome over time, it partly addresses the limitation that most goal disengagement research relies on self-report at a single time point.

These findings support goal disengagement theory's claim that knowing when to give up is an important self-regulation skill (Wrosch et al., 2003). However, they raise a difficult practical question: how can a person tell whether a goal is truly unattainable? Persistence is also valuable, and giving up too early may mean abandoning goals that could have been achieved. The research does not yet offer clear guidance on where this line falls, and most studies have been conducted with Western samples, so it is unclear whether the benefits of disengagement apply equally across cultures.

=== When surrender harms ===
Surrender becomes harmful when it reflects defeat combined with entrapment. A meta-analysis by Siddaway et al. (2015) found that perceptions of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and suicidality. This is consistent with social rank theory's proposal that yielding is only protective when it actually ends the conflict (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). However, because the studies included were mostly cross-sectional, they cannot establish whether defeat and entrapment cause these problems or result from them.

Surrender under pressure can also be harmful when it is coerced. A review by Kassin et al. (2010) found that factors such as lengthy interrogations, exhaustion, and isolation increase the risk of people giving [[w:False confession|false confessions]], effectively surrendering to an authority's version of events to escape an unbearable situation. This finding links the emotional and social influences discussed earlier to real-world harm, because the same stress and fatigue that can encourage surrender can also distort decision making. It also raises an important ethical point: psychological knowledge about surrender should be used to support people's choices, not to override them.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 3'''&lt;br&gt;''Key research findings on the impacts of surrender''
! Study !! Design !! Key finding !! Limitation
|-
| Barlow et al. (2020) || Meta-analysis || Disengagement and re-engagement linked to better quality of life || Mostly self-report, correlational studies
|-
| Miller &amp; Wrosch (2007) || Longitudinal || Poor disengagement linked to rising inflammation || Adolescent sample only
|-
| Siddaway et al. (2015) || Meta-analysis || Defeat and entrapment linked to depression, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidality || Mostly cross-sectional
|-
| Kassin et al. (2010) || Review || Stress and exhaustion increase risk of false confessions || Relies partly on case studies of known false confessions
|}

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Applying this to your life: Healthy surrender'''

Research suggests several questions you can ask when deciding whether to keep fighting or let go:
* '''Is the goal still achievable?''' If repeated effort is not bringing you closer, disengaging may protect your wellbeing.
* '''What will replace it?''' Letting go works best when you commit to a new, meaningful goal.
* '''Does this feel like a choice or a trap?''' Choosing to let go is linked to better outcomes than feeling defeated with no way out.
* '''Am I deciding under pressure?''' Stress and exhaustion distort decisions, so wait until you are rested before making major choices if you can.

If you feel defeated and trapped with no way out, talk to someone you trust or contact a local crisis support service.
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{What did Miller and Wrosch (2007) find in adolescents who struggled to let go of unattainable goals?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Lower stress hormones
+ Increasing levels of inflammation
- Higher quality of life

{Which combination of factors does research most consistently link to harmful outcomes?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Disengagement and re-engagement
+ Defeat and entrapment
- Fear and trust
&lt;/quiz&gt;


== Theories of surrender ==
No single theory fully explains surrender motivation. Instead, three theoretical perspectives each explain a different pathway from resistance to surrender (see Table 2). Goal disengagement theory treats surrender as a strategic decision to let go of an unattainable goal. Learned helplessness theory treats surrender as the result of losing a sense of control. [[w:Social rank theory|Social rank theory]] treats surrender as an evolved response to defeat. Together, these perspectives help explain why some forms of surrender are healthy while others are harmful.

=== Goal disengagement theory ===
Klinger (1975) proposed that when a valued goal is blocked, people move through an incentive–disengagement cycle. They first increase their effort, then become frustrated or angry, then experience low mood as commitment fades, and finally recover once the goal has been released (Klinger, 1975). Wrosch et al. (2003) extended this idea by distinguishing two separate capacities: goal disengagement, which involves withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal, and goal re-engagement, which involves identifying and committing to new goals. Across several studies, people who were better able to disengage from unattainable goals reported higher subjective wellbeing, and the capacity to re-engage with new goals was also associated with wellbeing (Wrosch et al., 2003).

The standoff in the opening scenario maps closely onto this cycle. The person's initial determination to resist reflects increased effort, while their growing exhaustion and uncertainty suggest that disengagement has begun. From this perspective, a negotiator who offers a credible alternative goal, such as safety or the chance to be heard, may help the person re-engage rather than simply collapse. However, much of the supporting evidence relies on self-report questionnaires, which makes it difficult to establish whether disengagement causes better wellbeing or whether people with better wellbeing simply find it easier to disengage.

=== Learned helplessness theory ===
In early experiments, Seligman and Maier (1967) found that dogs exposed to inescapable shocks later failed to escape shocks even when escape became possible. The original theory proposed that animals learned that their behaviour had no effect on outcomes, and this learning produced passivity (Seligman &amp; Maier, 1967). Fifty years later, Maier and Seligman (2016) revised the theory based on neuroscience evidence. They concluded that passivity is the brain's default, unlearned response to prolonged uncontrollable threat, and that what is actually learned is control: detecting that one's actions matter is what overrides the passive response (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016).

Applied to surrender, this suggests that some surrender is not a choice at all, but what happens when a person no longer perceives any control. If the barricaded person comes to believe that nothing they do will change the outcome, their surrender may reflect helplessness rather than a considered decision. This distinction matters because helplessness is closely linked to depression (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016). A key limitation is that the foundational research was conducted with animals, and generalising these findings to complex human decisions made under threat should be done with caution.

=== Social rank theory ===
Social rank theory proposes that humans, like other social animals, evolved mechanisms for managing competition with others. Price et al. (1994) argued that when an animal is losing a fight, an &quot;involuntary subordinate strategy&quot; causes it to yield, signalling that it is no longer a threat and ending the conflict before serious injury occurs. Gilbert and Allan (1998) proposed that defeat becomes harmful when it is combined with entrapment, in which a strong desire to escape is blocked. They found that feelings of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). A systematic review by Taylor et al. (2011) later confirmed that defeat and entrapment are consistently associated with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

This theory explains why surrender in the opening scenario can be protective, because yielding ends a dangerous conflict, and also why the period before surrender may be the most psychologically dangerous. A person who feels defeated but sees no safe way out is experiencing exactly the combination that Gilbert and Allan (1998) identified as most harmful. However, evolutionary explanations are difficult to test directly, and most of the supporting research is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether defeat and entrapment cause distress or result from it.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 2'''&lt;br&gt;''Comparison of three theories of surrender''
! Theory !! Why surrender occurs !! Adaptive when... !! Maladaptive when...
|-
| Goal disengagement || A goal is judged unattainable || The person re-engages with new goals || No new goals replace the old one
|-
| Learned helplessness || Control is no longer perceived || Rarely adaptive || Passivity generalises to situations that are controllable
|-
| Social rank || Defeat in a conflict signals the need to yield || Yielding ends a dangerous conflict || Defeat is combined with entrapment
|}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Wrosch et al. (2003), surrender is most likely to benefit wellbeing when it is followed by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Increased effort toward the original goal
+ Re-engagement with new goals
- Compliance with an authority figure

{According to Maier and Seligman's (2016) revised theory, what is actually learned?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Helplessness
+ Control
- Submission

{According to social rank theory, defeat is most harmful when it is combined with:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Compliance
- Goal re-engagement
+ Entrapment
&lt;/quiz&gt;
== Conclusion ==

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Scenario resolution'''

After several more hours of talking, the person tells the negotiator they want to see their family again. The negotiator confirms that they will be safe and explains each step of what will happen next. Shortly afterwards, the person opens the door and walks out.

Looking back, several processes contributed to this outcome. The person disengaged from the goal of holding out and re-engaged with a new goal: safety and reconnecting with family. The negotiator's respectful approach built trust and reduced reactance, and because the person felt they were choosing to come out, their surrender was less likely to be experienced as defeat.
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Conclusion ==
Surrender motivation is the shift from actively resisting toward deliberately stopping resistance, usually involving the release of one goal and the adoption of another. Rather than being a single process, surrender can follow different pathways. Goal disengagement theory explains surrender as a strategic decision to let go of an unattainable goal, learned helplessness theory explains it as a response to lost control, and social rank theory explains it as an evolved response to defeat (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998; Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016; Wrosch et al., 2003).

Emotions and social context strongly influence whether people act on surrender motivation. Fear and stress change how people weigh risks, while direct pressure can trigger reactance and increase resistance (Lerner &amp; Keltner, 2001; Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018). Trust in the other party and a sense of being treated fairly make surrender feel safer, which is why effective crisis negotiation focuses on listening and rapport before influence (Tyler, 2003; Vecchi et al., 2005).

The impact of surrender depends on the state behind it. Surrender that involves realistic disengagement and re-engagement with new goals is linked to better quality of life and physical health, whereas surrender involving defeat, entrapment, or coercion is linked to depression, anxiety, and false confessions (Barlow et al., 2020; Kassin et al., 2010; Siddaway et al., 2015). Much of this evidence is correlational, relies on self-report, and comes from Western samples, so further longitudinal and cross-cultural research is needed. The key take-home message is that knowing when and how to let go is a valuable skill: surrender is healthiest when it is chosen, realistic, and followed by commitment to something new.

== See also ==
* [[w:Learned helplessness|Learned helplessness]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Reactance (psychology)|Psychological reactance]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Crisis negotiation|Crisis negotiation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Social rank theory|Social rank theory]] (Wikipedia)

== References ==
{{Hanging indent|1=

* Sahu, A. K., Padhy, R. K., &amp; Dhir, A. (2020). Envisioning the future of behavioral decision-making: A systematic literature review of behavioral reasoning theory. ''Australasian Marketing Journal'', ''28''(4), 145–159. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.05.001&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Chai, J., Weng, Z., &amp; Liu, W. (2021). Behavioral decision making in normative and descriptive views: A critical review of literature. ''Journal of Risk and Financial Management'', ''14''(10), 1–14. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14100490&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Jiao, Y., Liu, H., Liang, Y., &amp; Wei, Z. (2026). The Effects of “Time” and “Probability” Formats on Risk Perception and Decision‐Making About Long‐Term Hazards. ''Journal of Behavioral Decision Making'', ''39''(2). &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.70072&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Malik, A., Goel, S., &amp; Sinha, S. (2026). Security fatigue: manifestation of emotional exhaustion and cynicism by depletion of self-regulation capacity. ''European Journal of Information Systems'', 1–20. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2621809&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Liang, J., &amp; Li, X. (2019). Explaining the procedural justice–perceived legitimacy relationship: Relying on relational concern or instrumental concern? ''Journal of Community &amp; Applied Social Psychology'', ''29''(3), 193–206. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2394&lt;/nowiki&gt;

}}

== External links ==

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]]</text>
      <sha1>e1jk8iwe9g39lv8zs8rlud2opqnbmvb</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840186</id>
      <parentid>2840185</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-14T06:43:14Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Chloebateup</username>
        <id>3109816</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>/* Conclusion */</comment>
      <origin>2840186</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="26721" sha1="16e3qsvhi068gr6ne7djgv9pmsqa0tw" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Surrender-Motivation:&lt;br&gt;What is the motivational state of surrender and what are its impacts?}}

== Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:Delaware River Port Authority Police Department Ford Police Interceptor Utility on patrol.jpg|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Police surrender{{expand}}]]

'''Scenario - When giving up becomes the goal'''

Imagine a police negotiator is called out to a tense situation in which a person has barricaded themselves inside a building. The person is convinced that surrendering to the police officer will lead to serious consequences {{ic|consequences for who? good or bad consequences?}}. Hours pass as the negotiator tried{{g}} to establish communication and understand what might persuade the person to come out. At the same, the person inside begins to realise that staying secluded may become increasingly difficult. They are exhausted, have limited resources, {{ic|APA style uses serial commas}} and are unsure what might happen next. The negotiator must consider an important question: What motivates a person to surrender when continuing to resist may seem like the better option?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

This scenario illustrates the psychological problem of '''surrender motivation''' {{g}} understanding why a person decides to stop resisting, withdraw from a conflict, or submit to another party. The decision may be influenced by the situation itself, the person's [[Emotion|perceptions and emotions]], their expectations about the consequences, and the behaviour of those attempting to persuade them. As we explore surrender motivation, we can return to this scenario to consider what might cause the person's motivation to shift from resistance toward surrender.

* A person is involved in a high-pressure conflict and initially refuses to surrender.
* They believe that continuing to resist is their best option.
* As the situation continues, they become increasingly tired, stressed, fearful, or uncertain.
* They begin to question whether resistance will achieve their original goal.
* The person considers the possible consequences of continuing to resist versus surrendering.
* Communication with authorities or another opposing party may influence how safe or trustworthy surrender appears.
* The person may start to believe that surrender offers a better outcome or reduces immediate danger.
* This creates a shift in motivation from resistance toward surrender.
* The scenario provides an opportunity to explore why people change their behaviour under pressure.
* Later sections can connect the scenario to psychological concepts such as motivation, decision-making, perceived control, emotion, stress, and social influences

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
;Focus questions

{{ic|Use bullet points as shown in [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]]}}

{{ic|Develop closer alignment between the focus questions and the top-level headings}}

What psychological factors influence a person's decision to surrender?
How do fear, stress, and emotional states affect surrender motivation?
How do situational and social factors influence the decision to stop resisting?
Why might a person change from being motivated to resist to being motivated to surrender{{g}}
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== What is surrender motivation? ==
In everyday language, surrender often implies weakness or failure. In psychological terms, however, surrender motivation describes a shift in [[w:Motivation|motivation]] that moves a person from actively resisting a threat, opponent, or demand toward deliberately stopping that resistance. The person withdraws effort from one [[w:Goal|goal]] (e.g., holding out, winning, or escaping) and redirects their behaviour toward another (e.g., safety, ending the conflict, or conserving energy). This reflects what Klinger (1975) described as disengagement from an incentive that can no longer be attained. In the opening scenario, the barricaded person has not simply &quot;given up&quot;; their goals and their expectations about what resistance can achieve have changed.

Surrender overlaps with several related concepts but is not identical to any of them (see Table 1). [[w:Compliance (psychology)|Compliance]] involves agreeing to an explicit or implicit request from another person (Cialdini &amp; Goldstein, 2004), whereas surrender can occur without any request being made. Submission describes yielding to a more dominant party and has been explained as an evolved response to losing a competitive encounter (Price et al., 1994). Goal disengagement refers to withdrawing effort and commitment from a goal that has become unattainable (Wrosch et al., 2003). Surrender sits where these processes meet: it is usually triggered by perceived defeat, is often directed toward another party, and always involves letting go of a goal.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 1'''&lt;br&gt;''Surrender and related motivational concepts''
! Concept !! Definition !! Example
|-
| Surrender || Deliberately stopping resistance and redirecting effort toward a new goal || A barricaded person walks out to end a standoff
|-
| Compliance || Agreeing to a direct or implied request from another person || Following a police officer's instruction to step back
|-
| Submission || Yielding to a more dominant party to end a contest || An athlete conceding a match against a far stronger opponent
|-
| Goal disengagement || Withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal || Abandoning a career plan after repeated rejection
|-
| [[w:Learned helplessness|Learned helplessness]] || Passivity following prolonged exposure to uncontrollable events || No longer trying to escape a situation because effort feels pointless
|}

The key question is whether surrender helps or harms the person who surrenders. Research suggests the answer depends on why surrender happens. Surrender that reflects a realistic reappraisal of an unwinnable situation, followed by commitment to new goals, is associated with better [[w:Well-being|wellbeing]] (Wrosch et al., 2003). In contrast, surrender that reflects a belief that nothing one does matters, or a sense of being defeated yet unable to escape, is associated with depression and anxiety (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016; Taylor et al., 2011). Distinguishing adaptive from maladaptive surrender is therefore central to understanding, and improving, how people respond when continuing to fight no longer makes sense.

== Emotional and social influences ==
The theories outlined above explain why surrender motivation develops, but they do not fully explain when a person decides to act on it. Emotions and the social context of a conflict strongly influence whether surrender feels safe, acceptable, or even possible. Fear and stress can change how people weigh risks, while the behaviour of the opposing party can either reduce or intensify resistance. This section examines three key influences: emotional states, psychological reactance, and trust in the other party.

=== Fear, anger, and stress ===
Specific emotions shape how people judge risk. In a series of studies, Lerner and Keltner (2001) found that fearful people made more pessimistic risk estimates and preferred safer choices, whereas angry people made more optimistic risk estimates and preferred riskier choices. This suggests that the emotion a person feels during a conflict may influence whether they surrender. A person who feels mainly [[w:Fear|fear]] may be drawn toward surrender if it appears to be the safest option, whereas a person who feels mainly [[w:Anger|anger]] may underestimate the risks of continuing to resist.

Prolonged [[w:Stress (biology)|stress]] also changes how decisions are made. A review by Starcke and Brand (2012) concluded that stress tends to shift decision making away from careful deliberation and toward quicker, more habitual responses. In a long standoff, exhaustion and stress may therefore narrow a person's options to whatever response feels most immediate, which may be either continued resistance or sudden surrender. However, most of this research involves laboratory tasks with student samples and hypothetical choices, which differ substantially from real, life-threatening conflicts.

=== Psychological reactance ===
[[w:Reactance (psychology)|Psychological reactance]] is the motivational state that arises when a person feels their freedom is being threatened, which drives them to restore that freedom (Steindl et al., 2015). Reactance can explain why direct pressure to surrender may backfire. When people feel pushed toward a particular behaviour, they may resist more strongly simply to reassert their independence (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018). A review of 50 years of reactance research found that controlling language and forceful demands consistently increase reactance, whereas messages that acknowledge the person's choice tend to reduce it (Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018).

This has a clear link to learned helplessness theory. Both theories suggest that a sense of control matters, but in different ways: reactance explains why removing a person's freedom can increase resistance, while learned helplessness explains why a complete loss of control can produce passive, unhealthy surrender. Surrender is therefore most likely to be healthy when a person feels they are choosing to surrender rather than being forced to.

=== Trust, legitimacy, and negotiation ===
Whether surrender appears safe depends heavily on how much the person trusts the opposing party. Research on [[w:Procedural justice|procedural justice]] shows that people are more willing to cooperate with authorities they perceive as fair and legitimate (Tyler, 2003). Liang and Li (2019) found that perceived procedural justice predicted perceived legitimacy of authorities, through people's concern about being treated with respect as well as their concern about outcomes. A person who expects to be treated fairly is therefore more likely to see surrender as a safe option.

Crisis negotiators apply these principles directly. The Behavioural Change Stairway Model describes a sequence of steps that negotiators move through: active listening, empathy, rapport, influence, and finally behavioural change (Vecchi et al., 2005). The model proposes that influence is only possible once trust and rapport have been established, which aligns with research on both procedural justice and reactance. A key limitation is that evidence for crisis negotiation models comes mainly from case studies and practitioner reports, because controlled experiments in real crises are neither practical nor ethical.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Scenario update'''

Hours into the standoff, the negotiator changes approach. Instead of repeating demands to come out, they ask the person what has happened to them and listen without interrupting. They acknowledge the person's fear and explain exactly what will happen if they choose to come out, and that the decision is theirs to make.

The person begins to feel heard. Their anger gives way to fear and exhaustion, and surrender starts to look less like defeat and more like a safe way out. What psychological processes do you think are at work here?
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Lerner and Keltner (2001), which emotion is associated with preferring safer choices?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ Fear
- Anger
- Pride

{Why might repeated demands to surrender increase resistance?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- They increase learned helplessness
+ They threaten the person's sense of freedom, triggering reactance
- They increase goal re-engagement
&lt;/quiz&gt;

== Impacts of surrender ==
Research on goal disengagement, defeat, and coerced compliance suggests that the impact of surrender depends less on the act itself than on the psychological state behind it. When surrender involves a realistic decision to let go of an unattainable goal, it tends to benefit both mental and physical health. When it involves helplessness, entrapment, or pressure from others, it tends to cause harm. Table 3 summarises key research findings.

=== When surrender helps ===
A meta-analysis by Barlow et al. (2020) found that people with a stronger capacity to disengage from unattainable goals, and to re-engage with new ones, reported better quality of life. Importantly, the benefits of surrender are not limited to self-reported wellbeing. In a year-long longitudinal study, Miller and Wrosch (2007) found that adolescents who had difficulty disengaging from unattainable goals showed increasing levels of systemic [[w:Inflammation|inflammation]], a biological marker linked to later physical illness. Because this study measured a biological outcome over time, it partly addresses the limitation that most goal disengagement research relies on self-report at a single time point.

These findings support goal disengagement theory's claim that knowing when to give up is an important self-regulation skill (Wrosch et al., 2003). However, they raise a difficult practical question: how can a person tell whether a goal is truly unattainable? Persistence is also valuable, and giving up too early may mean abandoning goals that could have been achieved. The research does not yet offer clear guidance on where this line falls, and most studies have been conducted with Western samples, so it is unclear whether the benefits of disengagement apply equally across cultures.

=== When surrender harms ===
Surrender becomes harmful when it reflects defeat combined with entrapment. A meta-analysis by Siddaway et al. (2015) found that perceptions of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and suicidality. This is consistent with social rank theory's proposal that yielding is only protective when it actually ends the conflict (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). However, because the studies included were mostly cross-sectional, they cannot establish whether defeat and entrapment cause these problems or result from them.

Surrender under pressure can also be harmful when it is coerced. A review by Kassin et al. (2010) found that factors such as lengthy interrogations, exhaustion, and isolation increase the risk of people giving [[w:False confession|false confessions]], effectively surrendering to an authority's version of events to escape an unbearable situation. This finding links the emotional and social influences discussed earlier to real-world harm, because the same stress and fatigue that can encourage surrender can also distort decision making. It also raises an important ethical point: psychological knowledge about surrender should be used to support people's choices, not to override them.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 3'''&lt;br&gt;''Key research findings on the impacts of surrender''
! Study !! Design !! Key finding !! Limitation
|-
| Barlow et al. (2020) || Meta-analysis || Disengagement and re-engagement linked to better quality of life || Mostly self-report, correlational studies
|-
| Miller &amp; Wrosch (2007) || Longitudinal || Poor disengagement linked to rising inflammation || Adolescent sample only
|-
| Siddaway et al. (2015) || Meta-analysis || Defeat and entrapment linked to depression, anxiety, PTSD, and suicidality || Mostly cross-sectional
|-
| Kassin et al. (2010) || Review || Stress and exhaustion increase risk of false confessions || Relies partly on case studies of known false confessions
|}

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=2}}
'''Applying this to your life: Healthy surrender'''

Research suggests several questions you can ask when deciding whether to keep fighting or let go:
* '''Is the goal still achievable?''' If repeated effort is not bringing you closer, disengaging may protect your wellbeing.
* '''What will replace it?''' Letting go works best when you commit to a new, meaningful goal.
* '''Does this feel like a choice or a trap?''' Choosing to let go is linked to better outcomes than feeling defeated with no way out.
* '''Am I deciding under pressure?''' Stress and exhaustion distort decisions, so wait until you are rested before making major choices if you can.

If you feel defeated and trapped with no way out, talk to someone you trust or contact a local crisis support service.
{{RoundBoxBottom}}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{What did Miller and Wrosch (2007) find in adolescents who struggled to let go of unattainable goals?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Lower stress hormones
+ Increasing levels of inflammation
- Higher quality of life

{Which combination of factors does research most consistently link to harmful outcomes?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Disengagement and re-engagement
+ Defeat and entrapment
- Fear and trust
&lt;/quiz&gt;


== Theories of surrender ==
No single theory fully explains surrender motivation. Instead, three theoretical perspectives each explain a different pathway from resistance to surrender (see Table 2). Goal disengagement theory treats surrender as a strategic decision to let go of an unattainable goal. Learned helplessness theory treats surrender as the result of losing a sense of control. [[w:Social rank theory|Social rank theory]] treats surrender as an evolved response to defeat. Together, these perspectives help explain why some forms of surrender are healthy while others are harmful.

=== Goal disengagement theory ===
Klinger (1975) proposed that when a valued goal is blocked, people move through an incentive–disengagement cycle. They first increase their effort, then become frustrated or angry, then experience low mood as commitment fades, and finally recover once the goal has been released (Klinger, 1975). Wrosch et al. (2003) extended this idea by distinguishing two separate capacities: goal disengagement, which involves withdrawing effort and commitment from an unattainable goal, and goal re-engagement, which involves identifying and committing to new goals. Across several studies, people who were better able to disengage from unattainable goals reported higher subjective wellbeing, and the capacity to re-engage with new goals was also associated with wellbeing (Wrosch et al., 2003).

The standoff in the opening scenario maps closely onto this cycle. The person's initial determination to resist reflects increased effort, while their growing exhaustion and uncertainty suggest that disengagement has begun. From this perspective, a negotiator who offers a credible alternative goal, such as safety or the chance to be heard, may help the person re-engage rather than simply collapse. However, much of the supporting evidence relies on self-report questionnaires, which makes it difficult to establish whether disengagement causes better wellbeing or whether people with better wellbeing simply find it easier to disengage.

=== Learned helplessness theory ===
In early experiments, Seligman and Maier (1967) found that dogs exposed to inescapable shocks later failed to escape shocks even when escape became possible. The original theory proposed that animals learned that their behaviour had no effect on outcomes, and this learning produced passivity (Seligman &amp; Maier, 1967). Fifty years later, Maier and Seligman (2016) revised the theory based on neuroscience evidence. They concluded that passivity is the brain's default, unlearned response to prolonged uncontrollable threat, and that what is actually learned is control: detecting that one's actions matter is what overrides the passive response (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016).

Applied to surrender, this suggests that some surrender is not a choice at all, but what happens when a person no longer perceives any control. If the barricaded person comes to believe that nothing they do will change the outcome, their surrender may reflect helplessness rather than a considered decision. This distinction matters because helplessness is closely linked to depression (Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016). A key limitation is that the foundational research was conducted with animals, and generalising these findings to complex human decisions made under threat should be done with caution.

=== Social rank theory ===
Social rank theory proposes that humans, like other social animals, evolved mechanisms for managing competition with others. Price et al. (1994) argued that when an animal is losing a fight, an &quot;involuntary subordinate strategy&quot; causes it to yield, signalling that it is no longer a threat and ending the conflict before serious injury occurs. Gilbert and Allan (1998) proposed that defeat becomes harmful when it is combined with entrapment, in which a strong desire to escape is blocked. They found that feelings of defeat and entrapment were strongly associated with depression (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998). A systematic review by Taylor et al. (2011) later confirmed that defeat and entrapment are consistently associated with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviour.

This theory explains why surrender in the opening scenario can be protective, because yielding ends a dangerous conflict, and also why the period before surrender may be the most psychologically dangerous. A person who feels defeated but sees no safe way out is experiencing exactly the combination that Gilbert and Allan (1998) identified as most harmful. However, evolutionary explanations are difficult to test directly, and most of the supporting research is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether defeat and entrapment cause distress or result from it.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+ '''Table 2'''&lt;br&gt;''Comparison of three theories of surrender''
! Theory !! Why surrender occurs !! Adaptive when... !! Maladaptive when...
|-
| Goal disengagement || A goal is judged unattainable || The person re-engages with new goals || No new goals replace the old one
|-
| Learned helplessness || Control is no longer perceived || Rarely adaptive || Passivity generalises to situations that are controllable
|-
| Social rank || Defeat in a conflict signals the need to yield || Yielding ends a dangerous conflict || Defeat is combined with entrapment
|}

&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{According to Wrosch et al. (2003), surrender is most likely to benefit wellbeing when it is followed by:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Increased effort toward the original goal
+ Re-engagement with new goals
- Compliance with an authority figure

{According to Maier and Seligman's (2016) revised theory, what is actually learned?
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Helplessness
+ Control
- Submission

{According to social rank theory, defeat is most harmful when it is combined with:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- Compliance
- Goal re-engagement
+ Entrapment
&lt;/quiz&gt;
== Conclusion ==

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Scenario resolution'''

After several more hours of talking, the person tells the negotiator they want to see their family again. The negotiator confirms that they will be safe and explains each step of what will happen next. Shortly afterwards, the person opens the door and walks out.

Looking back, several processes contributed to this outcome. The person disengaged from the goal of holding out and re-engaged with a new goal: safety and reconnecting with family. The negotiator's respectful approach built trust and reduced reactance, and because the person felt they were choosing to come out, their surrender was less likely to be experienced as defeat.
{{RoundBoxBottom}}Surrender motivation is the shift from actively resisting toward deliberately stopping resistance, usually involving the release of one goal and the adoption of another. Rather than being a single process, surrender can follow different pathways. Goal disengagement theory explains surrender as a strategic decision to let go of an unattainable goal, learned helplessness theory explains it as a response to lost control, and social rank theory explains it as an evolved response to defeat (Gilbert &amp; Allan, 1998; Maier &amp; Seligman, 2016; Wrosch et al., 2003).

Emotions and social context strongly influence whether people act on surrender motivation. Fear and stress change how people weigh risks, while direct pressure can trigger reactance and increase resistance (Lerner &amp; Keltner, 2001; Rosenberg &amp; Siegel, 2018). Trust in the other party and a sense of being treated fairly make surrender feel safer, which is why effective crisis negotiation focuses on listening and rapport before influence (Tyler, 2003; Vecchi et al., 2005).

The impact of surrender depends on the state behind it. Surrender that involves realistic disengagement and re-engagement with new goals is linked to better quality of life and physical health, whereas surrender involving defeat, entrapment, or coercion is linked to depression, anxiety, and false confessions (Barlow et al., 2020; Kassin et al., 2010; Siddaway et al., 2015). Much of this evidence is correlational, relies on self-report, and comes from Western samples, so further longitudinal and cross-cultural research is needed. The key take-home message is that knowing when and how to let go is a valuable skill: surrender is healthiest when it is chosen, realistic, and followed by commitment to something new.

== See also ==
* [[w:Learned helplessness|Learned helplessness]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Reactance (psychology)|Psychological reactance]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Crisis negotiation|Crisis negotiation]] (Wikipedia)
* [[w:Social rank theory|Social rank theory]] (Wikipedia)

== References ==
{{Hanging indent|1=

* Sahu, A. K., Padhy, R. K., &amp; Dhir, A. (2020). Envisioning the future of behavioral decision-making: A systematic literature review of behavioral reasoning theory. ''Australasian Marketing Journal'', ''28''(4), 145–159. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2020.05.001&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Chai, J., Weng, Z., &amp; Liu, W. (2021). Behavioral decision making in normative and descriptive views: A critical review of literature. ''Journal of Risk and Financial Management'', ''14''(10), 1–14. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14100490&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Jiao, Y., Liu, H., Liang, Y., &amp; Wei, Z. (2026). The Effects of “Time” and “Probability” Formats on Risk Perception and Decision‐Making About Long‐Term Hazards. ''Journal of Behavioral Decision Making'', ''39''(2). &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.70072&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Malik, A., Goel, S., &amp; Sinha, S. (2026). Security fatigue: manifestation of emotional exhaustion and cynicism by depletion of self-regulation capacity. ''European Journal of Information Systems'', 1–20. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2621809&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* Liang, J., &amp; Li, X. (2019). Explaining the procedural justice–perceived legitimacy relationship: Relying on relational concern or instrumental concern? ''Journal of Community &amp; Applied Social Psychology'', ''29''(3), 193–206. &lt;nowiki&gt;https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2394&lt;/nowiki&gt;

}}

== External links ==

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Motivation]]</text>
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      <text bytes="5080" sha1="epl3x7b9tjoa6kwxo9valv8txkfcsi9" xml:space="preserve">{{10% done}}
Welcome to the pages about '''David Ricardo'''.

David Ricardo (1772–1823) was an English stockbroker, economist and politician. He made particularly significant contributions to the development of economic science and is often mentioned in the same breath as the &quot;founder of economics&quot;, [[Adam Smith]].

He maintained close contact with contemporaries such as Malthus and the Mills, father and son.

He was born in London. His father, a Sephardic Jew of Portuguese origin, was a successful stockbroker. David Ricardo received little formal education. He started working with his father at the age of 14. 

(...)

== Works ==
After his (early) retirement Ricardo developed an interest in economic theory. He read Adam Smith's ''Wealth of Nations'' and subsequently published some articles in newspapers and pamphlets:
* ''The High Price of Bullion, a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes'' (1810)&lt;ref name=bul&gt;{{cite book
| last = Ricardo | first = David | authorlink = David Ricardo
| date = 1810
| title = The High Price of Bullion, a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes
| location = London
| publisher = John Murray
}} [[:s:en:The High Price of Bullion | Third edition (&quot;with additions&quot;, 1810)]] on [[Image:wikisource-logo.svg|16x16px]] WikiSource.
&lt;/ref&gt;
* ''[[David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits|An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock]]'' (1815, often shortly named ''(An) Essay on Profits'').
A few years later his Magnum Opus was first published:
* ''On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation'' (1817)

His collected works were first published in 1852 by John Ramsay McCulloch:
* {{cite book
|last=Ricardo|first=David|editor-last = McCulloch | editor-first = J.R.|editor-link=:w:en:John Ramsay McCulloch
|title=The Works of David Ricardo : with a Notice of the Life and Writings of the Author
|url=https://preserver.beic.it:443/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE6470169
|year=1852|publisher=John Murray|location=London}}&lt;ref name=works18868&gt;[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100340294 1886] and [https://archive.org/details/worksofdavidrica01rica 1888] editions of McCulloch's ''The Works of David Ricardo''.&lt;/ref&gt;

His works and writings were collected from 1951 onwards by Piero Sraffa, with the collaboration of Maurice Dobb:
* {{Cite book 
|last=Ricardo|first=David| editor1-last = Sraffa | editor1-first = Piero | editor1-link = :w:en:Piero Sraffa |editor2-last = Dobb |editor2-first = Maurice Herbert | editor2-link = :w:en:Maurice Dobb
|title=The Works and Correspondence of David  Ricardo 
|date=1981|origyear=1951 
|location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521285054 |oclc=10251383}} (first paperback edition, in 11 volumes)
This is the collection, that is mostly used nowadays:

=== ''The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo'' ===
''The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo,''  in 11 volumes (1951-1973) was edited by [[w:en:Piero Sraffa|Piero Sraffa]], with the cooperation of [[w:en:Maurice Dobb|Maurice Dobb]]. It was published for the Royal Economic Society, by Cambridge University Press.

* The first volume (1951)&lt;ref name=Works01&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0001rica_n2f1/page/n3/mode/1up Works etc. vol. 1] online available after free registration at [[:w:en:Internet Archive|Internet Archive]].&lt;/ref&gt; holds:
** An &quot;'Introduction&quot; by Sraffa (p. xiii – lxii + 2 tables) 
** ''The Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation'' (the edition follows the 3rd edition of 1821)&lt;ref name=principlesed&gt;For other editions of the ''Principles'' see: …..e.g. first edition in ws…&lt;/ref&gt;

* vol. 2 (1957): Notes on Malthus&lt;ref name=Works02&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0000rica/page/n8/mode/1up Works vol. 2] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 3 : Pamphlets and Papers, 1809–1811&lt;ref name=Works03&gt;vol. 3 online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 4 (1962): Pamphlets and Papers, 1815-1823&lt;ref name=Works04&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0004rica Works vol. 4] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 5 (1962): Speeches and Evidence&lt;ref name=Works05&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0000rica_c0y0/page/n8/mode/1up Works vol. 5] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 6 (1962):Letters 1810–1815&lt;ref name=Works06&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0000rica_v5n8/page/n6/mode/1up Works vol. 6] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 7
* vol. 8
* vol. 9 (1962): Letters, July 1821-1823&lt;ref name=Works09&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0009unse Works vol. 9] online. See also [https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0009rica this copy of Works vol. 9] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 10
* vol. 11 (1973): General Index&lt;ref name=Works11&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0011rica Works vol. 11 (Index)] online.&lt;/ref&gt;

== Method ==

== Additional resources ==
* [[:w:en:David Ricardo|David Ricardo]] at English [[File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg|16px|alt=16 px Wikipedia logo]] Wikipedia
* [[:s:en:Author:David Ricardo|David Ricardo]] at English [[Image:wikisource-logo.svg|16x16px]] Wikisource


== Sources and further reading ==

== References ==
{{references}}</text>
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    <revision>
      <id>2840194</id>
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      <comment>deductive method</comment>
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      <text bytes="6039" sha1="nxmlc6oj7gqj8ulpbjk41xq37mo3xeh" xml:space="preserve">{{10% done}}
Welcome to the pages about '''David Ricardo'''.

David Ricardo (1772–1823) was an English stockbroker, economist and politician. He made particularly significant contributions to the development of economic science and is often mentioned in the same breath as the &quot;founder of economics&quot;, [[Adam Smith]].

He maintained close contact with contemporaries such as Malthus and the Mills, father and son.

He was born in London. His father, a Sephardic Jew of Portuguese origin, was a successful stockbroker. David Ricardo received little formal education. He started working with his father at the age of 14. 

(...)

== Works ==
After his (early) retirement Ricardo developed an interest in economic theory. He read Adam Smith's ''Wealth of Nations'' and subsequently published some articles in newspapers and pamphlets:
* ''The High Price of Bullion, a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes'' (1810)&lt;ref name=bul&gt;{{cite book
| last = Ricardo | first = David | authorlink = David Ricardo
| date = 1810
| title = The High Price of Bullion, a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes
| location = London
| publisher = John Murray
}} [[:s:en:The High Price of Bullion | Third edition (&quot;with additions&quot;, 1810)]] on [[Image:wikisource-logo.svg|16x16px]] WikiSource.
&lt;/ref&gt;
* ''[[David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits|An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock]]'' (1815, often shortly named ''(An) Essay on Profits'').
A few years later his Magnum Opus was first published:
* ''On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation'' (1817)

His collected works were first published in 1852 by John Ramsay McCulloch:
* {{cite book
|last=Ricardo|first=David|editor-last = McCulloch | editor-first = J.R.|editor-link=:w:en:John Ramsay McCulloch
|title=The Works of David Ricardo : with a Notice of the Life and Writings of the Author
|url=https://preserver.beic.it:443/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE6470169
|year=1852|publisher=John Murray|location=London}}&lt;ref name=works18868&gt;[https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100340294 1886] and [https://archive.org/details/worksofdavidrica01rica 1888] editions of McCulloch's ''The Works of David Ricardo''.&lt;/ref&gt;

His works and writings were collected from 1951 onwards by Piero Sraffa, with the collaboration of Maurice Dobb:
* {{Cite book 
|last=Ricardo|first=David| editor1-last = Sraffa | editor1-first = Piero | editor1-link = :w:en:Piero Sraffa |editor2-last = Dobb |editor2-first = Maurice Herbert | editor2-link = :w:en:Maurice Dobb
|title=The Works and Correspondence of David  Ricardo 
|date=1981|origyear=1951 
|location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521285054 |oclc=10251383}} (first paperback edition, in 11 volumes)
This is the collection, that is mostly used nowadays:

=== ''The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo'' ===
''The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo,''  in 11 volumes (1951-1973) was edited by [[w:en:Piero Sraffa|Piero Sraffa]], with the cooperation of [[w:en:Maurice Dobb|Maurice Dobb]]. It was published for the Royal Economic Society, by Cambridge University Press.

* The first volume (1951)&lt;ref name=Works01&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0001rica_n2f1/page/n3/mode/1up Works etc. vol. 1] online available after free registration at [[:w:en:Internet Archive|Internet Archive]].&lt;/ref&gt; holds:
** An &quot;'Introduction&quot; by Sraffa (p. xiii – lxii + 2 tables) 
** ''The Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation'' (the edition follows the 3rd edition of 1821)&lt;ref name=principlesed&gt;For other editions of the ''Principles'' see: …..e.g. first edition in ws…&lt;/ref&gt;

* vol. 2 (1957): Notes on Malthus&lt;ref name=Works02&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0000rica/page/n8/mode/1up Works vol. 2] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 3 : Pamphlets and Papers, 1809–1811&lt;ref name=Works03&gt;vol. 3 online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 4 (1962): Pamphlets and Papers, 1815-1823&lt;ref name=Works04&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0004rica Works vol. 4] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 5 (1962): Speeches and Evidence&lt;ref name=Works05&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0000rica_c0y0/page/n8/mode/1up Works vol. 5] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 6 (1962):Letters 1810–1815&lt;ref name=Works06&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0000rica_v5n8/page/n6/mode/1up Works vol. 6] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 7
* vol. 8
* vol. 9 (1962): Letters, July 1821-1823&lt;ref name=Works09&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0009unse Works vol. 9] online. See also [https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0009rica this copy of Works vol. 9] online.&lt;/ref&gt;
* vol. 10
* vol. 11 (1973): General Index&lt;ref name=Works11&gt;[https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0011rica Works vol. 11 (Index)] online.&lt;/ref&gt;

== Method ==
The first thing that must be mentioned, concerning Ricardo's method is his strong deductive approach. It has led many scholars to what is sometimes called the &quot;Ricardian vice,&quot; or &quot;Ricardo's dream.&quot;

Writing about the ''Principles'' Huf&lt;ref name=Huf2017&gt;{{cite web
| url = https://history.cass.anu.edu.au/news/rents-profits-wages-bicentenary-ricardos-principles-and-making-economics 
| date = 2017-04-03
| title = &quot;Rents, Profits, Wages&quot;: The Bicentenary of Ricardo's Principles and the making of economics
| website = Australian National University / School of History
}}&lt;/ref&gt; says: &quot;The book was notable for its brevity and theoretical, ‘deductive method’, contrasting greatly with Smith’s broad sociological-historical analysis (only aspects of which Ricardo saw himself refining), and to the prophetic appeal of Marx’s Capital or philosophical breadth of J.S. Mill’s Principles, both of which were deeply indebted to Ricardo’s framework.&quot;


== Additional resources ==
* [[:w:en:David Ricardo|David Ricardo]] at English [[File:Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg|16px|alt=16 px Wikipedia logo]] Wikipedia
* [[:s:en:Author:David Ricardo|David Ricardo]] at English [[Image:wikisource-logo.svg|16x16px]] Wikisource


== Sources and further reading ==

== References ==
{{references}}</text>
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{{Right|&quot;It is doubtful whether it is possible&lt;br /&gt;to understand the Principles without&lt;br /&gt;knowledge of the contents of the Essay.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;({{harvp|O'Brien|1975|p=139}}).
}}
&lt;div style=&quot;line-height:8em;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
This resource gives information on '''[[David Ricardo]]'s''' '''''An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock''''' (often abridged to '''''(An) Essay on Profits''''').

Two years before the publication of the first edition of his Magnum Opus, ''On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation'' (often abridged to ''(The) Principles''), in 1815, Ricardo published a pamphlet entitled ''An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock''.

Full title:
:::''An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock; Shewing the Inexpediency of Restrictions on Importation; With Remarks on Mr. Malthus' Two Last Publications: &quot;An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent;&quot; and &quot;The Grounds of an Opinion on the Policy of Restricting the Importation of Foreign Corn.&quot;''&lt;ref name=Essay1&gt;We will use the following edition of ''The Essay on Profits'':
* 1815: 2nd edition, online available at (English) [[Image:wikisource-logo.svg|16x16px]] Wikisource: [[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock|An Essay on Profits (2nd ed.)]] (We will quote from this edition).&lt;br /&gt;
Another edition, is the one published in the ''Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo'' in 1962, edited by Piero Sraffa, with the collaboration of Maurice Dobb, volume 4 (Pamphlets and Papers, 1815-1823), pp. 9-41. With note by P. Sraffa (p. 1-8). Available to borrow at [https://archive.org/details/workscorresponde0004rica The Internet Archive] after (free) subscription.&lt;/ref&gt;

Opinions among Ricardo scholars differ as to the precise significance of this “Essay on Profits”. Among other things, there are subtle differences regarding the interpretation of the main variable under investigation,&lt;ref&gt;According to Hollander 1973, p. 273, “the main variable under investigation in the Essay (…) is the general rate of profit”.&lt;br /&gt;According to Stigler 1952, pp. 201–202, the Essay contains “two main elements of the Ricardian system: the theory of rent and the dominant influence of diminishing returns in agriculture upon the rate of profit.”&lt;br /&gt;According to Eatwell 1975, p. 186, the Essay is “the first complete statement of a theory of distribution based on the concept of surplus; that is to say, of a deductive relationship between wages and profits”.&lt;/ref&gt; and there are disagreements about the relationship between the “Essay” and the “Principles”.&lt;ref&gt;Compare, for example, the discussion between Hollander and Eatwell on the significance of the &quot;corn model&quot; in Hollander 1973 and 1975, and Eatwell 1975.&lt;/ref&gt;

In the ''Essay on Profits'' Ricardo presents a comprehensive theory of ground rent within the context of a &quot;corn model&quot;.&lt;ref&gt;This model is set out on pages 10 to 18 of the ''Essay on Profits.'' From page 18 onwards, the grain is (suddenly) assigned a price.&lt;/ref&gt; Ricardo examines economic relationships, which are aggregated in terms of quantities of corn. He employs a single-output model, in which corn is produced through the application of labour to land. Inputs, outputs and income shares are measured in quantities of corn. &lt;br /&gt;
This so-called &quot;corn model&quot; must be viewed against the background of Ricardo’s deductive method.&lt;ref&gt;For an analysis of the importance of the deductive method of Ricardo see e.g. {{harvp|O'Brien|1975|p=42f., 68f.}}&lt;/ref&gt; &lt;br /&gt;
The model has very limited validity.&lt;ref name=valid&gt;{{harvp|Hollander|1973|p=275}}: Even in the event that an adequate relationship is defined between the agricultural and general rates of profit the model would be unsuitable for the treatment of the income shares, and in fact Ricardo nowhere states the belief that there is a parallel movement between the ''aggregate'' income shares and the shares in ''agricultural output'' as yielded by the model.&quot;&lt;/ref&gt;

This resource will be followed by some pages, in which aspects of some issues in the ''Essay on Profits'' will be examined a bit deeper:
* [[David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits/Graphical|Graphical interpretation]] of the Ricardian theory of rent
* [[David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits/Mathematical|Mathematical interpretation]] of the Ricardian theory of rent
* [[David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits/Nature|Some remarks]] concerning the role of &quot;nature&quot; in the Ricardian theory


== Rent ==
To start with, Ricardo uses a definition of rent that is taken directly from [[:w:en:Thomas Robert Malthus|Thomas Robert Malthus]]:
{{Bq|Mr. Malthus very correctly defines, &quot;the rent of land to be that portion of the value of the whole produce which remains to the owner, after all the outgoings belonging to its cultivation, of whatever kind, have been paid, including the profits of the capital employed, estimated according to the usual and ordinary rate of the profits of agricultural stock at the time being.&quot;&lt;ref name=rent1&gt;{{harvp|Ricardo|1815}}, [[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock#3|p. 3]]. Ricardo quotes: {{harvp|Malthus|1815|p=1–2}}.&lt;/ref&gt;}}

When land is first brought into cultivation, and land is freely available, the total output will consist of costs and profits, without ground rent. As long as there is sufficient land of equal fertility available, and that land is always equally well situated, this will remain the case. The net product (‘neat produce’) will consist entirely of profit.
If we now assume that no improvements take place in agriculture, and that capital and population grow at the same rate – and thus that real wages remain constant – and if, moreover, it is assumed that the rate of profit in agriculture, commerce and industry is the same, it is possible to ascertain what particular effects occur as capital accumulation takes place, the population grows and more land is brought into use, particularly land situated further away and/or less fertile land.
Where land is equally fertile but situated further away, more capital and labour will have to be employed to produce the same quantity of goods available for consumption from the same area. Consequently, less profit will be made on this newly cultivated land. And because profits are determined by the profit made on the ‘marginal’ land, a lower profit will also be realised on the land that was cultivated earlier. The portion of the net product that thereby becomes available on this land – and which was previously appropriated as profit by the entrepreneurs or tenants – will now constitute ground rent.
This process will occur each time new land of poorer quality, or less favourably situated, is brought into use: &quot;Thus by bringing successively land of a worse quality, or less favourably situated into cultivation, rent would rise on the land previously cultivated, and precisely in the same degree would profits fall; and if the smallness of profits do not check accumulation, there are hardly any limits to the rise of rent, and the fall of profit.&quot; (p. [[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock#9|9]]–10)

== The table in the ''Essay on Profits'' ==
To illustrate his line of reasoning and clarify how the process he describes works, Ricardo uses a table: the &quot;Table, shewing the Progress of Rent and Profit under an assumed Augmentation of Capital&quot;.&lt;ref name=tablerem&gt;The table can be found on p. [[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock#14|14]]. Two remarks on this table:
* 1 quarter = 8 bushel = about 291 litre.
* Although the “Essay” refers to wheat, in line with the common usage amongst economists who specialise in Ricardo, the term “corn” will be used throughout this resource.&lt;/ref&gt; This ‘model’ demonstrates how the economy might develop as new land is brought into use in succession.

The table is constructed as follows: it is assumed that, when only the first plot of land is brought into use, a profit of one hundred quarters is
made on a capital of two hundred quarters; when a second plot of land is brought into use, a capital of 210 quarters must be invested in it to achieve a profit of 90 q., and so on. The total output from each plot is therefore always 300 q. of wheat.
The ‘net produce’ (total output minus production costs) amounts to 100 q. for the first plot; 90 for the second; 80 for the third; and so on.

{| style=&quot;border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; margin: auto; text-align: center;&quot;
|+ '''''TABLE, showing the Progress of Rent and Profit under an assumed Augmentation of Capital.'''''
|- style=&quot;border: 1px solid; font-size: 70%; hyphens: auto; text-align: center;&quot;
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Capital estimated in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Profit per cent.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Neat produce in quarters of wheat, after paying the cost of production on each capital.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Profit of 1st portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Rent of 1st portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Profit of 2d portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Rent of 2d portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Profit of 3d portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Rent of 3d portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Profit of 4th portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Rent of 4th portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Profit of 5th portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Rent of 5th portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Profit of 6th portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Rent of 6th portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Profit of 7th portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Rent of 7th portion of land in quarters of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid;&quot; | Profit of 8th portion of land in quarters of wheat.
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 200
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 50
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 100
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 100
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | none.
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 210
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 43
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 90
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 86
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 14
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 90
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | none.
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 220
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 36
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 80
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 72
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 28
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 76
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 14
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 80
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | none.
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
|- 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 230
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 30
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 70
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 60
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 40
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 63
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 27
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 66
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 14
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 70
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | none.
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 240
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 25
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 60
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 50
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 50
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 52½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 37½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 55
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 25
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 57½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 12½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 60
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | none.
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 250
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 20
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 50
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 40
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 60
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 42
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 48
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 44
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 36
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 46
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 24
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 48
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 12
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 50
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | none.
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 260
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 15
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 40
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 30
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 70
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 31½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 58½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 33
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 47
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 34½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 35½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 36
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 24
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 37½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 12½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 40
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | none.
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 270
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 11
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 30
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 22
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 78
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 23
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 67
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 24
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 56
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 25.3
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 44.7
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 26.4
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 33.6
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 27½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 22½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 27.6
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 12.4
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 29.7
|}


{| style=&quot;border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; margin: auto; text-align: center; width:90%;&quot;
|- style=&quot;border: 1px solid; font-size: 70%; hyphens: auto; text-align: center;&quot;
! style=&quot;width: 50px;&quot; |
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid; width: 40px;&quot; | When the whole capital employed is
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid; width: 40px;&quot; | Whole amount of rent received by landlords in quarter of wheat.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid; width: 40px;&quot; | Whole amount of profits in quarters received by owners of stock.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid; width: 40px;&quot; | Profit per cent. on the whole capital.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid; width: 40px;&quot; | Rent per cent, on the whole capital.
! style=&quot;border: 1px solid; width: 40px;&quot; | Total produce in quarters of wheat, after paying the cost of production.
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 1st&amp;nbsp;Period
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 200
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | none.
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 100
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 50
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 100
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 2d Ditto
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 410
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 14
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 176
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 43
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 3½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 190
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 3d Ditto
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 630
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 42
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 228
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 36
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 6½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 270
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 4th Ditto
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 860
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 81
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 259
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 30
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 9½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 340
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 5th Ditto
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 1100
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 125
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 275
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 25
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 11½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 400
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 6th Ditto
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 1350
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 180
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 270
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 20
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 13½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 450
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 7th Ditto
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 1610
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 248½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 241½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 15
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 15½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 490
|-
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 8th Ditto
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 1880
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 314½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 205½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 11
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 16½
| style=&quot;border-left: 1px solid; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | 520
|}

Ricardo emphasises the illustrative nature of the figures in the table: &quot;It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the data on which this table is constructed are assumed, and are probably very far from the truth. They were fixed on as tending to illustrate the principle,—which would be the same, whether the first profits were fifty per cent. or five,—or, whether an additional capital of ten quarters, or of one hundred, were required to obtain the same produce from the cultivation of new land.&quot;([[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock#11|p. 11]], footnote).

The table shows, according to Ricardo that &quot;during the progress of a country the whole produce raised on its land, will increase, and for a certain time that part of the produce which belongs to the profits of stock, as well as that part which belongs to rent will increase; but that at a later period, every accumulation of capital will be attended with an absolute, as well as a proportionate diminution of profits,—though rents will uniformly increase.

This is a view of the effects of accumulation which is exceedingly curious, and has, I believe, never before been noticed.

It will be seen by the table, that, in a progressive country, rent is not only absolutely increasing, but that it is also increasing in its ratio to the capital employed on the land; thus when four hundred and ten was the whole capital employed, the landlord obtained three and a half per cent.; when one thousand one hundred—thirteen and a quarter per cent.; and when one thousand eight hundred and eighty—sixteen and a half per cent. The landlord not only obtains a greater produce, but a larger share.(p. [[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock#12|12]]- 13).

This is the essence of Ricardo’s theory of ground rent in the context of a growing economy: as the economy grows – that is, as population growth and capital accumulation take place – the rate of profit will fall, whilst the income accruing to landowners will rise both in absolute and relative terms. The bringing into use of inferior land leads, through competition amongst capitalists – who are repeatedly forced to settle for a lower rate of profit – to the continuous absolute and relative enrichment of landowners.

== Rent: a ‘pure surplus’ ==
{| 
| 
| {{pad|700px}}
|&quot;Corn is not high because a rente is paid, but a rent is paid because corn is high.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;({{harvp|Ricardo|1817|p=38}}).
|}

Having drawn his central conclusion regarding the development of income distribution in his model of economic growth, Ricardo observes: “Rent (...) is in all cases a portion of the profits previously obtained on the land. It is never a new creation of revenue, but always part of a revenue already created.” ({{harvp|Ricardo|1815}}, [[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock#15|p. 15]])

Various authors emphasise this treatment of rent as a ‘pure surplus’.&lt;ref name=pure&gt;See for instance {{harvp|Howard|King|1975|page = 77}} (second edition 1985:{{harvp|Howard|King|1985|page = 76}}); and see {{harvp|Hollander|1973|page=273}} for an explanation of the significance of Ricardo’s analysis of ‘interest as a transfer payment’ in contrast to Malthus’s concept of rent.&lt;/ref&gt;

For Ricardo, rent is price-determined rather than price-determining: rent does not form part of the value of production, which is, after all, determined by the conditions of production on marginal land. For Adam Smith, however, rent does constitute a constituent part of the price of production.

Benetti points out that, in Ricardo’s view, rent is certainly not an original surplus: &quot;it is never a newly created revenue&quot;. On the contrary: the &quot;surplus product&quot; originally takes the form of profit, but is increasingly ''redistributed'' in favour of landowners in the course of economic development {{sfnp|Benetti|1975|page = 12}}. Consequently, in Ricardo’s theory, the formation of rent does not depend on private ownership of land. Its appropriation by landowners, however, does. Benetti draws the conclusion from this that the treatment of rent (in the theory) must in fact follow the treatment of the determination of the rate of profit.

A curious phenomenon arises in this context: in Ricardo’s approach, good-quality land is initially freely available, so there is no rent, and the entire ‘net product’ is appropriated by the capitalist farmers. At a certain point, land of poorer quality is brought into use and the ‘first settlers’ (those who have settled on the best land), as owners of that best land, will receive rent. In this approach, therefore, the first settlers are initially merely entrepreneurs, but at a certain point become both entrepreneurs and landowners.&lt;br /&gt;In the view presented by Ricardo, there are initially only the classes of the ‘labouring poor’ and capitalists. It is only when land of inferior quality is brought into use that a class of landowners emerges, who appropriate the rent. It might be said that the (socio-)logical and historical analyses do not correspond at all in this respect.&lt;ref name=Veen82&gt;This observation was made by Robert J. v.d. Veen in his lecture at University of Amsterdam, 1982-10-04-10-82 (lecture notes db, pp. 6–7).&lt;/ref&gt;

Blaug points out that Ricardo’s interpretation of rent as ‘pure surplus’ implies the assumption that land has no alternative uses other than those for which it is actually being used at any given time. {{sfnp|Blaug|1985|page=82}}&lt;br /&gt;&quot;From the notion that ‘rent does not enter into price’, that rent is not payment for the using up of resources, the classical economists drew the practical corollary that it would make no difference if landlords were thrown to the wolves.&quot;{{sfnp|Blaug|1985|page=82}} The expropriation (or taxation) of rent by the state would not affect the scale of production.

== &quot;The share of landlords&quot; ==
{| 
| 
| {{pad|700px}}
|&quot;The landlord not only obtains a greater produce, but a larger share.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;({{harvp|Ricardo|1815}}, [[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock#13|p. 13]]).
|}
In the second paragraph, above, it was stated that, according to Ricardo, the trends in the figures in the table show:
* that total output rises in the course of the process of economic development;
* that the share of output accruing to the capitalists as profit also increases for a time, but subsequently falls both in absolute and proportional terms;
* that the rate of profit falls continuously;
* that the sum of rent rises continuously;
* that rent rises in relation to the capital invested: &quot;the landowner receives not only a greater product, but also a greater share&quot;.

Hollander points out that Ricardo &quot;did not emphasise the behaviour of the rental and profit shares in the net or gross product.&quot;{{sfnp|Hollander|1973|p=274}} Indeed, apart from a highly ambiguous passage regarding &quot;a larger share&quot; in the ''Essay,'' there is no statement on the development of the share of rent in total (gross) production. From the context, one might infer that Ricardo has in mind here the ratio to the capital invested. The table does contain a column labelled &quot;Rent per cent. on the whole capital&quot;&lt;ref name=whole&gt;Compare the statement in {{harvp|Hollander|1973|p=274}} that Ricardo &quot;is in fact mistaken&quot; in that &quot;beyond the eighth period the fraction (rent to agricultural capital) actually falls&quot;. {{harvp|Eatwell|1975|p=187}} (footnote) replies to this.&lt;/ref&gt; (denoted in the next table as:  R&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt; / K&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;), but no column in which the share of rent in total production is calculated.

However, the numerical example has apparently been chosen in such a way that the share of rent in total production rises continuously – as can be seen from the next table in the R&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt; / K&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt; column.


{| style=&quot;border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid; text-align: center; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;&quot;
|+'''''Table, showing the part of rent in total production'''''
|- style=&quot;border: 1px solid; font-size: 70%; hyphens: auto; text-align: center;&quot;
| rowspan=2 style=&quot;vertical-align: top; border-collapse: collapse; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | period
| colspan=3 style=&quot;align: center; border-collapse: collapse; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | in quarters wheat
| rowspan=2 style=&quot;align: center; border-collapse: collapse; border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | &quot;rent&lt;br /&gt; &amp;nbsp; per cent.&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;on the&lt;br /&gt;whole&lt;br /&gt;capital&quot;
| rowspan=2 style=&quot;align: center; border-collapse: collapse;&quot; | part&lt;br /&gt;of rent&lt;br /&gt;in&lt;br /&gt;total&lt;br /&gt; &amp;nbsp; production &amp;nbsp;
|- style=&quot;border: 1px solid; font-size: 70%; hyphens: auto; text-align: center;&quot;
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| total&lt;br /&gt; &amp;nbsp; production &amp;nbsp;
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| &quot;whole&lt;br /&gt;capital&lt;br /&gt;employed&quot; &amp;nbsp;
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| &quot;whole&lt;br /&gt; &amp;nbsp; amount &amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;of rent&quot;
|- style=&quot;border: 1px solid; font-size: 100%; hyphens: auto; text-align: center;&quot;
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot; | t
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| X&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| K&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| R&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| R&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt; / K&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;
| R&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt; / X&lt;sub&gt;t&lt;/sub&gt;
|-
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 1
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 300
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 200
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| {{-}}
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| {{-}}
| {{-}}
|-
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 2
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 600
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 410
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 14
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 3,41
| 2,33
|-
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 3
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 900
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 630
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 42
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 6,67
| 4,67
|-
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 4
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 1200
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 860
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 81
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 9,42
| 6,75
|-
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 5
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 1500
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 1100
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 125
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 11,36
| 8,33
|-
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 6
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 1800
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 1350
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 180
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 13,33
| 10,00
|-
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 7
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 2100
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 1610
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 248,5
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 15,43
| 11,83
|-
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 8
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 2400
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 1880
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 314,5
| style=&quot;border-right: 1px solid;&quot;| 16,73
| 13,10
|}

A number of authors are quite adamant in their view that, according to Ricardo, the share of rent in total output will rise, at the expense of the combined share of wages and profits. However, in general, the various authors do not appear to be particularly careful in citing the source for this view.

O’Brien, for example, notes: “Ricardo made very clear predictions regarding the direction of change for all three shares” {{sfnp|O’Brien|1975|p=132}}. He argues that this can be clearly seen in the table in the “Essay”. He then immediately moves on to the question of whether Ricardo was justified in drawing the general conclusion from the table that rent rises as a proportion of output – an issue that will be discussed at length further in this resource. The fact that such a conclusion is not explicitly present in Ricardo’s work–at least in the ''Essay on Profits''–has already been noted above, but is not mentioned by O’Brien.

Barkai speaks of &quot;the definite conclusion&quot; which Ricardo draws, &quot;that in proportion to the progress of wealth and the difficulty of producing food, although the value of the labourer's portion will be increased, his real share will be diminished, whilst that of the landlord will not only be raised in value but will also be increased in quantity. The remaining quantity of the produce of the land constitutes the profit of stock . . . as society advances, this proportion of the whole produce will be diminished.&lt;ref name=Barkai1&gt;Barkai here points to {{harvp|Ricardo|1817}}, page 112.&lt;/ref&gt; The proof of this theorem consists of an arithmetical example spread over three chapters of his Principles.”{{sfnp|Barkai|1959|p= 245}}

Hollander’s statement at the beginning of this paragraph – that Ricardo places little emphasis on the behaviour of the shares of rent and profit in the net and/or gross product – is, in any case, difficult to refute.

It may be concluded here that there is certainly reason to assume that Ricardo believed that the share of rent (as a proportion of total income or as a proportion of ‘the whole capital employed’, i.e. R/X or R/K) would rise in the course of the process of accumulation, and that this is certainly the case in the numerical example he gives in the ''Essay'' (and, incidentally, also in the numerical example in the ''Principles''), but that it is premature to assert this assumption with absolute certainty, and that the various authors who do so generally provide little or no evidence to support it.&lt;br /&gt;
It can equally be argued that Ricardo is not very categorical in his conclusions regarding the development of rent, profit and wages as a proportion of total income.

What will be set out in the page &quot;on the mathematical interpretation of the ''Essay'',&quot; following this resource should be read against this background.

A further difficulty that arises in this context – and to which the final paragraphs of the page &quot;on the mathematical interpretation of the ''Essay''&quot; are devoted – is that, if Ricardo believed he could conclude that the share of ground rent would rise in the course of economic development, this conclusion cannot possibly be derived consistently from the assumptions on which Ricardo based his model.&lt;br /&gt;
It will become apparent that additional restrictions (particularly regarding the form of the production function used) are necessary to conclude that the share of ground rent will always rise when capital accumulation takes place under conditions of &quot;diminishing returns&quot;.

It is worth noting that [[:w:en:Edward West (economist and judge)|Edward West]], in his exposition of the &quot;law of diminishing returns,&quot; as evidence for this law, argues, amongst other things, that the share of ground rent as a proportion of total agricultural output has fallen over the course of history. Stigler demonstrates that his reasoning in this regard is incorrect.{{sfnp|Stigler|1952|p=197}}

== See also: ==
This resource will be followed by some pages, in which aspects of some issues in the ''Essay on Profits'' will be examined a bit deeper:
* [[David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits/Graphical|Graphical interpretation]] of the Ricardian theory of rent
* [[David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits/Mathematical|Mathematical interpretation]] of the Ricardian theory of rent
* [[David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits/Nature|Some remarks]] concerning the role of &quot;nature&quot; in the Ricardian theory


== Footnotes ==
{{references}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite journal
| last = Barkai | first = H. | author-link = :w:de:Haim Barkai
| date = 1959
| title = Ricardo on Factor Prices and Income Distribution in a Growing Economy
| journal = Economica
| volume = 26
| issue = 103
| pp = 240–250
| doi = 10.2307/2550483
| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/2550483
| ref = harv
}} {{small|(access via [[File:Wikipedia Library owl.svg|12px|alt=12 px Wikipedia Library Owl]]  [[:w:en:Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library|The Wikipedia Library (TWL)]])}}
* {{cite book
| last = Benetti | first = C.
| date = 1975
| title = Valeur et répartition
| lang = fr
| location = Grenoble
| publisher = Maspero
| id = {{OCLC|461493533}}
| ref = harv
}} (2nd ed.)
* {{cite book
| last = Blaug | first = Mark
| date = 1985
| title = Economic Theory in Retrospect (fourth ed.)
| location = Cambridge etc.
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| ISBN = 0 521 30354 0
| ref = harv
| url = http://digamo.free.fr/blaug62.pdf
}}
* {{cite journal
| last = Eatwell | first = John | author-link = w:en:John Eatwell
| date = 1975
| title = The Interpretation of Ricardo's Essay on Profits
| journal = Economica
| volume = 42
| issue = 166
| pp = 182–187
| doi = 10.2307/2553593
| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/2553593
| ref = harv
}}&lt;br /&gt;{{small|(access via [[File:Wikipedia Library owl.svg|12px|alt=12 px Wikipedia Library Owl]]  [[:w:en:Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library|The Wikipedia Library (TWL)]])}}
* {{cite journal
| last = Hollander | first = Samuel | author-link = :w:en:Samuel Hollander 
| date = 1973
| title =  Ricardo’s Analysis of the Profit Rate, 1813-15
| journal = Economica
| volume = 40
| issue = 159
| pages =  260–282
| doi = 10.2307/2552797
| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/2552797
| ref = harv
}}&lt;br /&gt;{{small|(access via [[File:Wikipedia Library owl.svg|12px|alt=12 px Wikipedia Library Owl]]  [[:w:en:Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library|The Wikipedia Library (TWL)]])}}
* Hollander 1975
* {{cite book
| last1 = Howard | first1 = M.C.
| last2 = King | first2 = J.E.
| date = 1975
| title = The political economy of Marx
| location = London
| publisher = Longman
| url = https://archive.org/details/politicaleconomy0000howa 
| url-access = restricted
| ref = harv
}}
* {{cite book
| last1 = Howard | first1 = M.C.
| last2 = King | first2 = J.E.
| date = 1985
| title = The political economy of Marx (2nd ed.)
| location = London
| publisher = Longman
| id = {{OCLC|10483279}}
| ref = harv
}}
* {{cite book 
| last = Malthus | first = T.R. | author-link = :w:en:Thomas Robert Malthus
| date = 1815
| title = An Inquiry Into the Nature and Progress of Rent
| location = London
| publisher = John Murray
| ref = harv
| url = https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Inquiry_Into_the_Nature_and_Progress_of_Rent
}}
* {{cite book
| last = O'Brien | first = D.P. | author-link = :w:en:Denis Patrick O'Brien
| date = 1975
| title = The Classical Economists
| location = Oxford
| publisher = Clarendon Press
| ISBN = 0 19 877015 4
| url = https://archive.org/details/classicaleconomi0000obri
| url-access = restricted
| ref = harv
}}
* {{cite book 
| last = Ricardo | first = David | author-link = David Ricardo
| date = 1815
| title =  An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock
| location = London
| publisher = John Murray
| ref = harv
| url = https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Influence_of_a_Low_Price_of_Corn_on_the_Profits_of_Stock
}}
* {{cite book 
| last = Ricardo | first = David | author-link = David Ricardo
| date = 1817
| title =  On the Principles of Political Economy; And Taxation
| location = London
| publisher = John Murray
| ref = harv
| url = 
}}
* {{cite journal
| last = Stigler | first = George J. | author-link = :w:en:George Stigler
| date = 1952
| title = The Ricardian Theory of Value and Distribution
| journal = Journal of Political Economy
| volume = 60
| issue = 3
| pp = 187–207
| ref = harv
| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/1826451
}}&lt;br /&gt;{{small|(access via [[File:Wikipedia Library owl.svg|12px|alt=12 px Wikipedia Library Owl]]  [[:w:en:Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library|The Wikipedia Library (TWL)]])}}</text>
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== Banner links must be accessible on smartphones ==

On smartphones, the banners are hard to tap/click on, especially the Preprint one. I have difficulty changing the banners' format. [[User:George Ho|George Ho]] ([[User talk:George Ho|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/George Ho|contribs]]) 12:31, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

:@[[User:George Ho|George Ho]]: Sorry for mising this earlier! Do you know if you were using the 'mobile view' or 'desktop view' on your smartphone? I've tried to make the tabs re-flow into a grid when on a mobie device, bit I think it only works in 'mobile view'. [[User:Evolution and evolvability|T.Shafee(Evo&amp;#65120;Evo)]]&lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Evolution and evolvability|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 02:06, 21 July 2022 (UTC)
:: @[[User:Evolution and evolvability|Shafee]]: Using 'mobile view' on Android, the Preprint banner is hard to tap, yet I can access that journal via tapping the icon on the left of the banner. Others are still clickable, yet larger text is annoying on mobile view. --[[User:George Ho|George Ho]] ([[User talk:George Ho|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/George Ho|contribs]]) 06:27, 21 July 2022 (UTC)
:::@[[User:George Ho|George Ho]]: Aha, now I see it. Thanks. I was looking at the top banner in grey rather than the list of journals. I'm also getting some of the text overlapping too. I'll aim to fix it up next week. [[User:Evolution and evolvability|T.Shafee(Evo&amp;#65120;Evo)]]&lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Evolution and evolvability|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 23:13, 21 July 2022 (UTC)
::::Three months have passed; have you fixed the issue yet? [[User:George Ho|George Ho]] ([[User talk:George Ho|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/George Ho|contribs]]) 08:39, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
:::::@[[User:George Ho|George Ho]] Our recent redesign of the banners, courtesy of {{u|Infogiraffic}}, should have fixed this issue. Can you confirm if this works on your end? [[User:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #0000FF;&quot;&gt;OhanaUnited&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: green;&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Talk page&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]] 19:37, 22 May 2025 (UTC)
::::::The newer layout works on an iphone. [[User:George Ho|George Ho]] ([[User talk:George Ho|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/George Ho|contribs]]) 15:57, 23 May 2025 (UTC)

== How should unsubmitted preprints be handled? ==

I've noticed that there are a number of old, incomplete articles under the WikiJournal Preprints namespace, many of which are unlikely to be suitable for publication even if they were finished and submitted. A couple of examples are:

* [[WikiJournal Preprints/COVID-19 ELIMINATION AND CELLDIFFERENTIATION]]
* [[WikiJournal Preprints/Cultural Computational Publishing: A Sprint]]
* [[WikiJournal Preprints/Medical gallery of Aria Rad]]
* [[WikiJournal Preprints/Parts of a Book]]
* [[WikiJournal Preprints/Zoosemiotics]]

Does the WikiJournal project have any standing policies to reject these drafts automatically after some point, or do they just stay in the &quot;unpublished pre-print&quot; state indefinitely? (Is it possible that some of these pages have slipped under the radar, e.g. by not being in the appropriate categories?) Do all of them (especially the ones that never got beyond writing an abstract) need to be preserved for posterity, or can they be deleted after some period of time? [[User:Omphalographer|Omphalographer]] ([[User talk:Omphalographer|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Omphalographer|contribs]]) 22:13, 12 December 2022 (UTC)

:Ping? I'm also curious about the status of the following two articles:
:* [[WikiJournal Preprints/Cryometeors]]
:* [[WikiJournal Preprints/Sunflower Trypsin Inhibitor]]
:These two display a message claiming that they are &quot;an editorial article and [are] published without peer review&quot;, which I don't think is intended. [[User:Omphalographer|Omphalographer]] ([[User talk:Omphalographer|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Omphalographer|contribs]]) 03:26, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

== Question regarding WikiJournal and duplicate content ==

Hi! 

I have two questions. I searched around a bit and didn't find anything.

# When a stable WikiJournal article is the basis of a separate living page, say on Wikipedia or Wikiversity, do you know if it's possible to use a [[w:canonical link element]] to indicate the canonical version of the article for search engines? 
# If so, do you know if the WikiJournal User Group has a policy regarding which version is canonical?

Thank you so much! [[User:Greg at Higher Math Help|Greg at Higher Math Help]] ([[User talk:Greg at Higher Math Help|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Greg at Higher Math Help|contribs]]) 22:34, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

:@[[User:Greg at Higher Math Help|Greg at Higher Math Help]] I don't think canonical link element is supported by MediaWiki. It's limited by the software itself. The canonical version of the page is the WikiJournal PDF, which is linked on the wiki page and on Wikidata. [[User:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #0000FF;&quot;&gt;OhanaUnited&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: green;&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Talk page&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]] 04:24, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
::Thank you! [[User:Greg at Higher Math Help|Greg at Higher Math Help]] ([[User talk:Greg at Higher Math Help|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Greg at Higher Math Help|contribs]]) 02:24, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

== Preprint Quality ==

I recently had an article accepted at the WIkiJournal of Medicine and was very disappointed with the PDF preprint quality/process (with no insult towards the editors).  I know very little about how things work behind the scenes, but my understanding is that the PDF preprints are manually produced using MS Word. Though WikiJournal requires svgs, there is (to my knowledge) no way to retain the vector-ness of the svg files in Word and it generally results in poor quality rasterization. This can even be seen in the header images.  I've made a little process to produce a preprint from the wikipedia page that relies on [https://mediawiki2latex.wmflabs.org/ mediawiki2latex], and the editors have [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiversity/en/2/24/Alternative_androgen_pathways.pdf uploaded] my preprint.  You can see I tried to mimic the existing preprint as best as I could given my fairly shallow latex knowledge and the constraints associated with trying to make this as automatic as possible.

I don't have any stats on how much people use preprint PDFs, but I suspect many people rely on them. It is essential that the print quality is up to par any other academic journal. The existing method, I think, it probably too manual and results in an obviously poor quality print that will limit author interest. I've put my basic process here:

https://github.com/mittimithai/wjlatexpreprint

and suggest it that it be used as a basis for coming up with a standard, essentially automated process across all WikiJournals for high quality pdf preprints.

WikiJournals should provide a baseline preprint and authors can then be responsible for custom typesetting. Using latex in this context is a bit different than writing one's own papers, mediawiki2latex output has to be transformed as reliably into PDF as possible. I tried to apply as much appropriate substitution as I could in the perl script but I am sure there can be some improvements made. [[User:Maneesh|Maneesh]] ([[User talk:Maneesh|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Maneesh|contribs]]) 18:48, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

:Please consider using the Century Schoolbook font as a &quot;serif&quot; for the paragraph regular text, and Franklin Gothic font as a &quot;sans-serif&quot; font for the headers (titles). Or use any appropriate font set for the text and headers that the journal adopted, but the fonts have to fit each other. [[User:Maxim Masiutin|Maxim Masiutin]] ([[User talk:Maxim Masiutin|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Maxim Masiutin|contribs]]) 20:05, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

::I am not terribly partial to any font, wikimedia2latex makes use of KOMA which does things in certain ways that are partial to the author's views. There does seem to be a lot of &quot;religion&quot; in typesetting with very little of it empirically justified.  Feel free to add in a free font to the github repo, I think all one needs to do is change the two lines in maininc.tex. The current lines I think implicitly depend on font locations in an ubntu install. [[User:Maneesh|Maneesh]] ([[User talk:Maneesh|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Maneesh|contribs]]) 20:55, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

== Recent articles without reference deposits ==

Hello! I just wanted to flag that a few recent articles have not yet [[WikiJournal User Group/Editorial guidelines#Submitting reference metadata|had their references deposited into Crossref]]:
* &quot;[[WikiJournal of Science/Multiple object tracking|Multiple object tracking]]&quot; (''WJS'')
* &quot;[[WikiJournal of Science/Non-canonical base pairing|Non-canonical base pairing]]&quot; (''WJS'')
* &lt;s&gt;&quot;[[WikiJournal of Medicine/Alternative androgens pathways|Alternative androgens pathways]]&quot; (''WJM'')&lt;/s&gt;
* &quot;[[WikiJournal Preprints/Impact of xenogenic mesenchimal stem cells secretome on a humoral component of the immune system|Impact of xenogenic mesenchimal stem cells secretome on a humoral component of the immune system]]&quot; (''WJM'')
* &quot;[[WikiJournal of Humanities/Loveday, 1458|Loveday, 1458]]&quot; (''WJH'')
Thanks! Kindly —[[User:Bobamnertiopsis|Collin]] (Bobamnertiopsis)&lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Bobamnertiopsis|t]] [[Special:Contributions/Bobamnertiopsis|c]]&lt;/sup&gt; 22:07, 18 July 2023 (UTC)

:Thanks {{u|Bobamnertiopsis}}. I'm tagging {{u|Silver Dovelet}} who's responsible for this task. [[User:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #0000FF;&quot;&gt;OhanaUnited&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: green;&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Talk page&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]] 14:17, 1 August 2023 (UTC)
::{{re|Bobamnertiopsis}} Can you check if the references for these publications have been deposited? [[User:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #0000FF;&quot;&gt;OhanaUnited&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: green;&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Talk page&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]] 03:36, 10 December 2023 (UTC)
:::{{re|OhanaUnited}} yes, thanks for pinging me about this! It looks like &quot;[[WikiJournal of Medicine/Alternative androgens pathways|Alternative androgens pathways]]&quot;'s refs have been deposited (see https://api.crossref.org/works/10.15347/WJM/2023.003) but the other four have not yet been deposited (compare with https://api.crossref.org/works/10.15347/WJH/2023.001 e.g.; you can always swap out the DOI at the back of this link to see the metadata registered for a particular article). Thanks! —[[User:Bobamnertiopsis|Collin]] (Bobamnertiopsis)&lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Bobamnertiopsis|t]] [[Special:Contributions/Bobamnertiopsis|c]]&lt;/sup&gt; 15:24, 10 December 2023 (UTC)
::::The remaining 4 should be deposited now. Thank you. [[User:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #0000FF;&quot;&gt;OhanaUnited&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: green;&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Talk page&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]] 04:47, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

== Rejection rates ==

What are the rejection rates of WikiJournals? [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 13:19, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

:@[[User:Juandev|Juandev]] Very good questions. We have not tallied the overall rejection rate (or individual rejection rate within each journal). Using 2023's data, my estimation is about 60-75% rejection rate in the medicine and science journals. But the overall % does not reflect the amount of work performed behind the scenes. Just over half of the rejected articles are &quot;desk reject&quot; or author filled out the submission form but never submitted the text. The rest are due to author abandoning submission partway (stale submission), rejection after peer review or author no longer has time to complete revision. [[User:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #0000FF;&quot;&gt;OhanaUnited&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: green;&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Talk page&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]] 03:06, 19 September 2023 (UTC)
::OK. I see. Thx. [[User:Juandev|Juandev]] ([[User talk:Juandev|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Juandev|contribs]]) 10:17, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

== Peer Reviews ==

As per my understanding off [[WikiJournal of Humanities/Peer reviewers]] only qualified external professionals are allowed to formally peer-review articles.

Which seems a bit unnecessary considering anyone can write articles, also Nupedia vibes, this seriously hurts the journal's growth due to lack of volunteers.

I believe that editors on wikipedia who've written extensively on related topics, should also be invited to peer-review articles, this would add a lot more volunteers (thus making the whole process faster and smoother), and get qualified people from wikipedia over to wikiversity. [[User:Crainsaw|Crainsaw]] ([[User talk:Crainsaw|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Crainsaw|contribs]]) 11:55, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

== Current status of WikiJournals ==

I hate to say this, but so far, I've yet to see WikiJournal revolutionize academic journals in the way that Wikipedia affected encyclopedias severely. Furthermore, WikiJournals have been kinda slow to publish articles. Also, there have been many other open-access journals, especially ones using CC-BY-NC-ND. Also, many published articles happen to be adapted from Wikipedia articles and then copied (if not adapted) into Wikipedia articles, especially same ones. Maybe these are reasons for WMF to be reluctant to approve further development of WikiJournals.

I did have high hopes for this project, yet my interests in the semi-project has.... waned. [[User:George Ho|George Ho]] ([[User talk:George Ho|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/George Ho|contribs]]) 23:54, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

:I appreciate all the work that went into the publication of an article I worked on last year, without insulting the editors, I was overall disappointed (though they editorial team was able to get outstanding reviewers that were very patient with a very deficient initial draft).  I proposed a mostly automated pdf workflow (see above) with no uptake/feedback.  Good quality PDFs, I think, are a very very high priority. The current quality is very low and suffers from (what seems to be) a fairly manual process and immediately obvious rasterization artifacts which look unprofessional. Automation to bring the journal to a professional standard is essential before greater aspirations. [[User:Maneesh|Maneesh]] ([[User talk:Maneesh|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Maneesh|contribs]]) 18:35, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
::I should also add that WIkiJournal of Medicine articles don't appear properly indexed by Google Scholar, they don't look like proper journal articles.  When I search for the title of my article:
::[PDF] [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiversity/en/a/a7/Alternative_androgens_pathways.pdf Alternative androgen pathways]
::[https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9gJaSxcAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=sra MG Masiutin], MK Yadav - upload.wikimedia.org
::Steroidogenic routes to androgens have been discovered and characterized over the last two
::decades that fall outside the Δ4 and Δ5&quot; classical androgen pathways&quot; to testosterone and …
::Save Cite [[scholar:related:x2717efivtkJ:scholar.google.com/&amp;scioq=&quot;alternative+androgen+pathways&quot;&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0,5|Related articles]] [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=15690227637562994375&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0,5 All 2 versions] 
::[[WikiJournal of Medicine/Alternative androgens pathways|'''[HTML]''' wikiversity.org]]
::[HTML] [[WikiJournal of Medicine/Alternative androgens pathways]]
::[https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9gJaSxcAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=sra MG Masiutin], MK Yadav - History - en.wikiversity.org
::… This expository review uses &quot;'''alternative''' '''androgen''' '''pathways'''&quot; to include what has been …
::lack of clear and consistent knowledge of '''alternative''' '''androgen''' '''pathways'''; the authors hope this …
::Save Cite [[scholar:related:J-L2yz0dY10J:scholar.google.com/&amp;scioq=&quot;alternative+androgen+pathways&quot;&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0,5|Related articles]] 
::[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiversity/en/archive/2/24/20230503121130%21Alternative_androgen_pathways.pdf '''&lt;nowiki&gt;[PDF]&lt;/nowiki&gt;''' wikimedia.org]
::[PDF] [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiversity/en/archive/2/24/20230503121130%21Alternative_androgen_pathways.pdf WikiJournal Preprints/Alternative Androgen Pathways]
::MG Masiutin, MK Yadav - upload.wikimedia.org
::… This expository review uses &quot;'''alternative''' '''androgen''' '''pathways'''&quot; to include what has been …
::lack of clear and consistent knowledge of '''alternative''' '''androgen''' '''pathways'''; the authors hope this …
::Save Cite [[scholar:related:wfMK5FH57gsJ:scholar.google.com/&amp;scioq=&quot;alternative+androgen+pathways&quot;&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0,5|Related articles]] [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=859898708987933633&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0,5 All 2 versions] 
::Ensuring that the wikijournal articles don't look like some sort of second rate article in google scholar is very important.
::[[User:Maneesh|Maneesh]] ([[User talk:Maneesh|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Maneesh|contribs]]) 07:30, 5 January 2024 (UTC)
:::I think the ''quality of the journals'' is fine ...IMO, what I have noticed is that the process[https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/WikiJournal_of_Medicine/Potential_upcoming_articles] is a little slow--[[User:Ozzie10aaaa|Ozzie10aaaa]] ([[User talk:Ozzie10aaaa|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Ozzie10aaaa|contribs]]) 13:50, 14 January 2024 (UTC)

== Notice about proposed deletion ==
It has been proposed to delete some unused files at [[Wikiversity:Requests_for_Deletion#Unused_files_uploaded_by_PCano]]. Someone suggested that WikiJournal might be interessted in the discussion so I made this notice. Feel free to join the discussion. --[[User:MGA73|MGA73]] ([[User talk:MGA73|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/MGA73|contribs]]) 17:21, 27 February 2024 (UTC)
:It might help if I put forth two questions. There is no need for answers to both, since an answer to one of them would allow us to delete a large number of image files:
#Are the files at [[:Category:Files uploaded by PCano - unused]] of any use to the WikiJournals?
#I vaguely remember an issue with Wikiversity image files that involved the WikiJournals and files that are imbedded in WikiJournal pdf files, but don't remember the details. The question is this: If a file is not used by any WikiJournal page, is it OK to delete it? --[[User:Guy vandegrift|Guy vandegrift]] ([[User talk:Guy vandegrift|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Guy vandegrift|contribs]]) 19:13, 27 February 2024 (UTC)

== Reporting and affiliate expiration ==

Please see: [[meta:Talk:Proposal:_WikiJournal_as_a_sister_project#(Second_Reminder)_Notification_of_Affiliate_Expiration_-_Renewal_pending_submission_of_reporting_2]]. [[User:Mu301|mikeu]] &lt;sup&gt;[[User talk:Mu301|talk]]&lt;/sup&gt; 04:15, 4 April 2024 (UTC)

== Requested move ==

I propose we move this page / rename this page to WikiJournal (not to be confused with [[Wiki Journal]]), since [[m:WikiJournal User Group|WikiJournal User Group]] already has its own page. Can we gather enough votes to agree on this? [[User:Infogiraffic|Infogiraffic]] ([[User talk:Infogiraffic|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Infogiraffic|contribs]]) 18:51, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

:I've made up my mind. I think we should rebrand WikiJournal. '''Wikiversity Press''' would become the new name. I recently created this [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Proposal:_WikiJournal_as_a_sister_project#Rebranding_WikiJournal_into_Wikiversity_Press logo], so people can start to distinguish between Wikiversity Press and the [[m:WikiJournal User Group|WikiJournal User Group]] and its [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiJournal_logo.svg logo] more easily. [[User:Infogiraffic|Infogiraffic]] ([[User talk:Infogiraffic|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Infogiraffic|contribs]]) 14:19, 18 April 2025 (UTC)
::@[[User:Infogiraffic|Infogiraffic]] Respectfully, the change was unilaterally proposed by you. The 3 journal names were also changed by you without discussion. Your [https://en.wikiversity.org/w/index.php?title=WikiJournal_User_Group&amp;diff=2713504&amp;oldid=2705342 changes] to the main page also made it more difficult to access the journals because the journal titles are no longer clickable. Did someone from user group asked you to make these changes? [[User:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #0000FF;&quot;&gt;OhanaUnited&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: green;&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Talk page&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]] 20:24, 18 April 2025 (UTC)
:::Hi, @[[User:OhanaUnited|OhanaUnited]]. Great feedback. The visitor message has now been edited to include the conditional status of the proposal. This is just me believing in the potential of WikiJournal and trying to gather support for a rebrand and revamp. I work independently from the WikiJournal User Group to improve things that I like to see thriving. I've listened to your advise regarding the titles; they are clickable now:) If you got more, feel free to share. [[User:Infogiraffic|Infogiraffic]] ([[User talk:Infogiraffic|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Infogiraffic|contribs]]) 07:05, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
::::Oh, and no journal names were changed. I simply copy pasted the existing ones. If you prefer so, we can opt to display the shorter variants instead of the longer ones. [[User:Infogiraffic|Infogiraffic]] ([[User talk:Infogiraffic|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Infogiraffic|contribs]]) 07:17, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
:::::Thanks for responding to my question. Please note that the WikiJournal User Group has not discussed any rebranding initiatives and any changes to the name (such as changing to Wikiversity Press) risk diluting the brand recognition that we made and built up over the last 10 years with the Wikimedia movement, open access community, WikiJournal editorial board members, and external reviewers. I appreciate your approach to be bold in the redesign for the main page, which has display issues on mobile. I made some changes to the display title to clarify any confusion around the journal titles. I have reached out to the editorial boards and at this point nobody knew about your rebranding proposal. Some also raised questions why revamping would require a name change without any consultation (especially when it was brought up during the final exam period and week of Easter holiday). At this point I am '''opposing''' the requested move and politely ask you seek adequate consensus from the community before making more references to Wikiversity Press or rebranding. [[User:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #0000FF;&quot;&gt;OhanaUnited&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: green;&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Talk page&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]] 23:26, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
::::::Thank you greatly for your effort(s) in representing the board, providing context, and defending the integrity of the WikiJournal community. I understand your perspective and hesitancy toward my boldness. However, as an outsider, WikiJournal seems to have fared quite under the radar with almost no publicity among notable news channels. So to me, there does not seem to be much dilutable brand recognition to begin with as of now. Furthermore, it is out in the open that the community has ignored offers to buy / rent the eerily eponymous domain name [https://en.wikijournal.org/wiki/Main_Page wikijournal.org], as can be read [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Talk:WikiJournal_User_Group/Archive_2019#Selling_wikijournal.org here] and [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Proposal:_WikiJournal_as_a_sister_project#Wikijournal.org here]. Not the ideal vantage point from which to brand a broadly appealing publishing house without confusing at least some unfamiliar people about its connection, if you ask me. Wikiversity Press aims to alleviate this imbroglio, by starting anew while conforming to the conventional naming procedure that is used at a variety of prestigious universities. Also, the logo conveys stature instead of playful lambency, which is, in my eyes, exactly what we would need to try and close the &quot;Academia-Wikipedia gap&quot; that is so elegantly expressed on the WikiJournal homepage. I am not here to take credit for anything. Take the name or renounce it; no strings attached. If no consensus is gathered, I will rest my case. But otherwise, I would happily assist in further developing the platform by introducing new UI and UX related improvements, as well as streamlining pagination, submissions, and peer-review. Sincerely, [[User:Infogiraffic|Infogiraffic]] ([[User talk:Infogiraffic|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Infogiraffic|contribs]]) 18:16, 20 April 2025 (UTC)
:::::::Hello [[User:Infogiraffic|Infogiraffic]]. First of all, I'd like to give you a big thank you for your improvements to the wiki page! Also, I appreciate the effort in coming up with an alternative name and logo. However, I'd also like to point out several factors that led us to having the brand and logo as we have. The project actually started out in 2014 as &quot;Wikiversity Journal&quot;, which is somewhat more similar to &quot;Wikiversity Press&quot;, but then had a big discussion with multiple alternative names, of which WikiJournal came out as the winner - [[Talk:WikiJournal_User_Group/Archive_2016_naming_vote#Name_election]]. Reasons for changing from Wikiversity Press to WikiJournal included making it shorter. Also, we do not necessarily want to associate with Wikiversity, and are hoping to have a separate wiki as a Sister Project in the future, and if we for some reason went back to a &quot;Wikiversity&quot;-containing name then we would likely need to change it again if we became a separate wiki. While &quot;Wikiversity Press&quot; was not among the choices in the past election, and I agree it has some good points as you mentioned, I think it is less specific than &quot;journal&quot;, and may be mistaken as a news, books or magazine publisher. Similarly for the logo, if you see the upload history of the WikiJournal logo [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiJournal_logo.svg] it actually started out as something more Wikiversity-like, but then we've strived to make it something more unique. So thanks again for the proposal, but with everything taken together I have to say '''oppose''' to this newly suggested project name and logo. [[User:Mikael Häggström|Mikael Häggström]] ([[User talk:Mikael Häggström|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Mikael Häggström|contribs]]) 21:49, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

==Deletion of preprint on Commons==
See 
*[[Commons:Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Dravidian_Arc_-_Reframing_Ancient_India’s_Civilisational_Origins.pdf]]
Wikimedia Commons reviewers deleted someone's preprint submission because 1) preprints out of scope for Commons and 2) someone thought it seemed like AI.

The author there insists that the work is their original creation without AI. 

My question for WikiJournal: how welcome are preprints here? Is this the kind of case that I can generally invite for submission here? [[User:Bluerasberry|&lt;span style=&quot;background:#cedff2;color:#11e&quot;&gt;''' Blue Rasberry '''&lt;/span&gt;]][[User talk:Bluerasberry|&lt;span style=&quot;cursor:help&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background:#cedff2;color:#11e&quot;&gt;(talk)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;]] 15:52, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

:Hey Lane. As I [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons_talk:Project_scope&amp;diff=prev&amp;oldid=1114944379 responded on Commons], we welcome preprints but it needs to follow the specific instructions on [[WikiJournal Preprints]] to store their content as a wiki page. Since the file is already deleted, it is difficult for me to assess the contents or the merits of the PDF. In theory, a standalone PDF preprint can be uploaded locally in Wikiversity but subject to Wikiversity's local policies around project scope on files. This is another example why it's importantly to have WikiJournal as a standalone sister project because we can develop our local rules and policies that are not restricted by Wikiversity or Commons. [[User:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #0000FF;&quot;&gt;OhanaUnited&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]][[User talk:OhanaUnited|&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: green;&quot;&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Talk page&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;]] 04:32, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

==Proposal - offer optional presubmission review==
I do not want to make an additional workload for WikiJournal editors, but I want to share a story, and I have an idea that I want to workshop with others.

The idea is presubmission review. Optionally but recommended, for people who are new to WikiJournal and who want to save themselves time and save our reviewers time, they pre-submit their work. In the presubmission, they do this:
#Submit work citation metadata, including title, author names, institutional affiliation
#Does the work contain any of the following:
##AI-generated text or images
##Any ideas which university and scholarly consensus view as pseudoscience
##Text or images which do not have open access, Wikimedia-compatible, Creative Commons licensing
#Please provide a citation to any existing, published, peer reviewed work which explores a similar topic as this submission, and which this paper will cite

I have talked with some other wiki editors and it seems there is the idea that the Wikimedia platform attracts submissions which are 1) authorless or a person's first published work 2) AI/pseudoscience/non compatible content 3) essays or other writing formats which do not build onto or cite existing scholarship.

By having a presubmissiom process, I think we could improve sentiment about WikiJournal in these ways -
#Wikimedia Commons and others would be more confident that we have a screening process for incompatible content
#Authors could minimize their time and labor submitting if their content is not a fit
#Authors also demonstrate that they can navigate the Wikimedia platform, including making an account, posting some content, and becoming oriented before trying to make a full submission
#WikiJournal Reviewers have another way to connect with people early in the process, and a place to tell people to begin

I am hoping that a pre-submission process should take 5 minutes for a beginner Wikipedian and not more than 15 minutes for someone totally new to the Wikimedia platform.

Thoughts? [[User:Bluerasberry|&lt;span style=&quot;background:#cedff2;color:#11e&quot;&gt;''' Blue Rasberry '''&lt;/span&gt;]][[User talk:Bluerasberry|&lt;span style=&quot;cursor:help&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background:#cedff2;color:#11e&quot;&gt;(talk)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;]] 16:13, 15 December 2025 (UTC)</text>
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    <title>Cortext/Projects/Refactor Network Mapping</title>
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      <text bytes="5896" sha1="nswz6q5r64n2r0yu6xvtn3hh3fzlvhw" xml:space="preserve">This page documents the refactoring of the '''Network Mapping''' method of the Cortext platform: what the work aims to achieve, how the method's behavior is preserved, and how the impact of the changes is measured.

== Context ==
Open Science seeks to make scientific production more transparent, accessible and reproducible, and this includes the software used at each stage of research. Publishing software under a free license, however, is not enough: code that cannot be executed, tested or understood by others remains closed in practice.

Cortext is a computational document analysis environment for the humanities and social sciences, created in 2008 and used by more than a thousand researchers per year in over 50 countries. Its methods are licensed as free software, but many were written as monolithic scripts, without automated tests and without documentation, which restricts the knowledge needed to modify them to the maintainer team.

This work continues the modernization of other methods of the platform and applies to Network Mapping the same protocol already consolidated in previous methods.

== Objectives ==
* '''Apply refactorings''' that improve the internal structure of the code (readability, modularity and maintainability) without changing the results produced by the method.
* '''Create automated tests''' that ensure the method's behavior is preserved during refactoring and that verify the new code units.
* '''Create documentation''' at two levels: code documentation (API, installation and execution), aimed at contributors, and functional documentation of the method (purpose, parameters, usage and output files), aimed at both users and contributors.
* '''Align the method with the common architecture''' of the Cortext Methods, based on the &lt;code&gt;cortextlib&lt;/code&gt; library.

== Methodology ==

=== Software engineering practices ===
'''1. Tests before refactoring:''' By definition, a change is only a refactoring if behavior preservation can be demonstrated. Since the method has no tests, the first step is to write functional regression tests. These tests run the method as a black box on corpus and different parameter combinations, and compare its outputs with the current results. The corpus and parameter combinations are defined together with the Cortext team, who hold the knowledge about the method's expected behavior. Besides protecting the refactoring, the tests act as an investigation tool: by specifying the behavior, they reveal silent failures and atypical behaviors in the original code.

'''2. Iterative refactoring:''' Interventions follow Fowler's refactoring catalog and design patterns, including function and class extraction, renaming, dead code removal and logic simplification. Changes are made in short cycles, verified by the tests and reviewed through merge requests. When refactoring reveals a behavior whose intent is unclear, it is discussed with the team and, if confirmed as a defect, reported as an issue in the official repository. After decomposition, unit and integration tests are written for the new classes and functions.

'''Common architecture.''' The method exposes a &lt;code&gt;Method&lt;/code&gt; class that extends the abstract class &lt;code&gt;CortextMethod&lt;/code&gt; from &lt;code&gt;cortextlib&lt;/code&gt; (''Template Method'' pattern). The library handles the common steps (parameters, logging, corpus reading), and the method implements only its core logic.

'''Standardized infrastructure and automation.''' The repository adopts the same structure as the other refactored methods: &lt;code&gt;Makefile&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Dockerfile&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;pyproject.toml&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;README&lt;/code&gt; and API documentation with docstrings. As a result, commands such as &lt;code&gt;make docker-build&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;make tests&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;make coverage&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;make docs&lt;/code&gt; work the same way across all methods.

'''Continuous integration.''' The repository includes the shared GitLab CI pipeline, which on every change runs the tests, measures coverage, collects quality metrics, comments the results on the merge request and applies automatic style fixes.

=== Collection and analysis of quality metrics ===
The impact of refactoring is measured by comparing static metrics between the initial state (''baseline'') and the final state of the method, as well as on every contribution:

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Tool !! What it measures
|-
| Radon || cyclomatic complexity, Halstead metrics, lines of code (LOC, LLOC, SLOC) and maintainability index
|-
| Pylint || code smells, potential defects and convention violations, with an overall score
|-
| pytest-cov || unit and integration test coverage
|}

These metrics are complementary. Radon indicates whether the method became more or less complex in aggregate terms, while Pylint points to where, specifically, the problems are. Collection is performed by the &lt;code&gt;metrics&lt;/code&gt; pipeline, which rebuilds the repository at a given Git reference inside a container with pinned tool versions, so any comparison can be reproduced and audited. Test files are excluded from the measured scope, to isolate the effect of refactoring on the method's code.

Metrics do not directly measure functional correctness, which is the role of the tests. For this reason they are read together: the maintainability index, for instance, is sensitive to how the code is split into files and must be interpreted alongside the complexity distribution.

Each intervention is also recorded in the '''refactoring catalog''', with the code before and after, the technique applied, the motivation, and links to the commit and merge request. The catalog makes it possible to compare the Network Mapping interventions with those of the other methods.

== Contents ==
# [[/About Network Mapping/]]
# [[/Pre-refactoring test cases/]]
# [[/Refactoring/]]
# [[/Metrics/]]

[[Category:Software engineering]]
[[Category:Open science]]</text>
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      <text bytes="5905" sha1="tdtghxe46ys0rsup8wfpr4yopwepogr" xml:space="preserve">This page documents the refactoring of the '''Network Mapping''' method of the Cortext platform: what the work aims to achieve, how the method's behavior is preserved, and how the impact of the changes is measured.

== Context ==
Open Science seeks to make scientific production more transparent, accessible and reproducible, and this includes the software used at each stage of research. Publishing software under a free license, however, is not enough: code that cannot be executed, tested or understood by others remains closed in practice.

Cortext is a computational document analysis environment for the humanities and social sciences, created in 2008 and used by more than a thousand researchers per year in over 50 countries. Its methods are licensed as free software, but many were written as monolithic scripts, without automated tests and without documentation, which restricts the knowledge needed to modify them to the maintainer team.

This work continues the modernization of other methods of the platform and applies to Network Mapping the same protocol already consolidated in previous methods.

== Objectives ==
* '''Apply refactorings''' that improve the internal structure of the code (readability, modularity and maintainability) without changing the results produced by the method.
* '''Create automated tests''' that ensure the method's behavior is preserved during refactoring and that verify the new code units.
* '''Create documentation''' at two levels: code documentation (API, installation and execution), aimed at contributors, and functional documentation of the method (purpose, parameters, usage and output files), aimed at both users and contributors.
* '''Align the method with the common architecture''' of the Cortext Methods, based on the &lt;code&gt;cortextlib&lt;/code&gt; library.

== Methodology ==

=== Software engineering practices ===
'''1. Tests before refactoring:''' By definition, a change is only a refactoring if behavior preservation can be demonstrated. Since the method has no tests, the first step is to write functional regression tests. These tests run the method as a black box on corpus and different parameter combinations, and compare its outputs with the current results. The corpus and parameter combinations are defined together with the Cortext team, who hold the knowledge about the method's expected behavior. Besides protecting the refactoring, the tests act as an investigation tool: by specifying the behavior, they reveal silent failures and atypical behaviors in the original code.

'''2. Iterative refactoring:''' Interventions follow Fowler's refactoring catalog and design patterns, including function and class extraction, renaming, dead code removal and logic simplification. Changes are made in short cycles, verified by the tests and reviewed through merge requests. When refactoring reveals a behavior whose intent is unclear, it is discussed with the team and, if confirmed as a defect, reported as an issue in the official repository. After decomposition, unit and integration tests are written for the new classes and functions.

'''3. Common architecture:''' The method exposes a &lt;code&gt;Method&lt;/code&gt; class that extends the abstract class &lt;code&gt;CortextMethod&lt;/code&gt; from &lt;code&gt;cortextlib&lt;/code&gt; (''Template Method'' pattern). The library handles the common steps (parameters, logging, corpus reading), and the method implements only its core logic.

'''4. Standardized infrastructure and automation:''' The repository adopts the same structure as the other refactored methods: &lt;code&gt;Makefile&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Dockerfile&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;pyproject.toml&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;README&lt;/code&gt; and API documentation with docstrings. As a result, commands such as &lt;code&gt;make docker-build&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;make tests&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;make coverage&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;make docs&lt;/code&gt; work the same way across all methods.

'''5. Continuous integration:''' The repository includes the shared GitLab CI pipeline, which on every change runs the tests, measures coverage, collects quality metrics, comments the results on the merge request and applies automatic style fixes.

=== Collection and analysis of quality metrics ===
The impact of refactoring is measured by comparing static metrics between the initial state (''baseline'') and the final state of the method, as well as on every contribution:

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Tool !! What it measures
|-
| Radon || cyclomatic complexity, Halstead metrics, lines of code (LOC, LLOC, SLOC) and maintainability index
|-
| Pylint || code smells, potential defects and convention violations, with an overall score
|-
| pytest-cov || unit and integration test coverage
|}

These metrics are complementary. Radon indicates whether the method became more or less complex in aggregate terms, while Pylint points to where, specifically, the problems are. Collection is performed by the &lt;code&gt;metrics&lt;/code&gt; pipeline, which rebuilds the repository at a given Git reference inside a container with pinned tool versions, so any comparison can be reproduced and audited. Test files are excluded from the measured scope, to isolate the effect of refactoring on the method's code.

Metrics do not directly measure functional correctness, which is the role of the tests. For this reason they are read together: the maintainability index, for instance, is sensitive to how the code is split into files and must be interpreted alongside the complexity distribution.

Each intervention is also recorded in the '''refactoring catalog''', with the code before and after, the technique applied, the motivation, and links to the commit and merge request. The catalog makes it possible to compare the Network Mapping interventions with those of the other methods.

== Contents ==
# [[/About Network Mapping/]]
# [[/Pre-refactoring test cases/]]
# [[/Refactoring/]]
# [[/Metrics/]]

[[Category:Software engineering]]
[[Category:Open science]]</text>
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      <text bytes="24739" sha1="oy2fvsu6eps2k93plgd9vjxac3mltvi" xml:space="preserve">{{title|Romantic rejection and emotional response&lt;br&gt;What emotional responses does romantic rejection evoke and how can they be regulated?}}
__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

; Introduce the topic with a scenario

Begin with an engaging scenario, example, or case study that illustrates the topic and gives readers a reason to care about it.

The scenario should:
* Start with a lead in bold, such as '''Scenario, Case study, Imagine this ...''', or another another phrase that suits the scenario.
* Describe a '''realistic problem, situation, or question''' related to the topic.
* Be engaging and accessible to a reader who is new to the topic.
* Provide a context that can be revisited when explaining the psychological concepts and research later in the chapter.
* Avoid explaining theory or research in detail— the purpose is to illustrate the problem, not solve it.
* Be presented in a [[#Feature box|feature box]].
* Include a relevant image, with a figure caption, to help illustrate the scenario. Cite the figure (e.g., see Figure 1) within the scenario.

For the [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|topic development]], the scenario can be planned using bullet-points.

;Feature box colour
To change the feature-box colour:
# Select Edit source
# Find theme=3
# Change 3 to another theme number

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

The Overview section should consist of three parts:
# '''Scenario''': A short, engaging case study or real-world example in a feature box, with an accompanying image (see above)
# '''Explanation of the problem, issue, or topic''': Brief explanation of the problem, why it is important, and an outline of how psychological science can help

Recommended length: 180 to 330 words.

Key resources:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]] explains how to edit
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|Topic development guidelines]]
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter|Book chapter guidelines]]
'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Headings''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
'''&lt;u&gt;''MAKE SURE TO CHECK APA7 HEADING RULES BEFORE SUBMITTING:''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Each chapter should use this standard heading structure:
* [[#Overview|Overview]]
* 3 to 6 major headings tailored to the topic; can have sub-headings:
** avoid sections with only one sub-heading (use 0 or 2+ sub-headings)
** provide an introductory paragraph before breaking into sub-sections
* [[#Conclusion|Conclusion]]
* [[#See also|See also]]
* [[#References|References]]
* [[#External links|External links]]

==How do romantic attachments develop?==
'''&lt;u&gt;''[insert intro para]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

'''Origins of attachments - Evolutionary Safety'''

Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

'''Biological basis'''&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005). 

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).

'''&lt;u&gt;''[insert image]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''', which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

''&lt;u&gt;'''[insert section summarising answer to the focus question itself]'''&lt;/u&gt;''

==What happens when an attachment bond is threatened and/or lost==
'''&lt;u&gt;''Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to attachment disruption, …''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system'''

Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

'''Heartbreak and physical pain'''

Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
'''&lt;u&gt;''[intro para]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''&lt;u&gt;''[psychological and interpersonal costs of the two strategies]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''&lt;u&gt;''[individual differences re attachment styles]''&lt;/u&gt;''' 

'''Emotional responses''' 

A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).

'''Individual differences'''

Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity, resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or ow self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
* mindfulness
* acceptance
* reducing negative thinking
* managing exposure to rejection
* social support, belonging, self-compassion, self-esteem improvements
* new rewards/breaking reward systems
* adaptive and maladaptive regulation

==Figures==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]

* For the topic development, use at least one figure (even if not ideal) to show that you know how to embed, caption, and cite a figure; this can be the figure in the scenario
* For the book chapter, use several figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
* Images must be embedded from [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] which hosts free-to-use media such as photos, diagrams, graphs, video, and audio
* Images can be uploaded to [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] if they are openly licensed
* Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
* Provide descriptive figure captions (use '''Figure #''' and explain the relevance of the image to the text)
* Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)

==Learning features==
Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:

{{anchor|Scenarios}}
;Scenarios
* Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action
* Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]]; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
* Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s)

{{anchor|Feature box}}
;Feature boxes
* Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
* Consider using feature boxes for:
** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples
** Focus questions
** Tips
** Quiz questions
** Take-home messages

;Embedded links
* When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to:
** Wikipedia articles (e.g., &quot;An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]&quot;) or
** Related book chapters (e.g., &quot;If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]&quot;)

{{anchor|Tables}}
;Tables
* Use tables to organise and summarise information
* Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
* Tables should be captioned
* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
* One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
* Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages
* Ask easy rather than hard questions
* Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]]

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

==See also==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant internal resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses
}}

==References==
Provide the references for all citations in [[w:APA style|APA style]] (7th ed.) or [[w:Wikipedia:Citing sources|wiki style]]. Alternatively, you can use wiki style (as used on Wikipedia), as long as the information is complete and the formatting is consistent.

APA style example:
{{Hanging indent|1=

Rosenberg, B. D., &amp; Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. ''Motivation Science'', ''4''(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091

Sacks, O. (1985). ''The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales''. Harper &amp; Row.

}}

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Important aspects of APA referencing style
** Author surname, followed by a comma, then the author initials separated by full stops and spaces
** Year of publication in parentheses
** Title of work in lower case (except first letter and proper names), ending in a full-stop
** Journal title in italics, volume number in italics, issue number in parentheses, first and last page numbers separated by an en-dash(–), followed by a full-stop
** doi as a URL which is a working hyperlink (i.e., clickable)
** Hanging indent: Wrap the set of references in the [[Template:Hanging indent|hanging indent template]]:
*** Use &quot;Edit source&quot;
*** &lt;nowiki&gt;{{Hanging indent|1= the full list of references}}&lt;/nowiki&gt;
* The most common mistakes include:
** Incorrect capitalisation
** Incorrect italicisation
** dois which aren't clickable as working hyperlinks
** Citing sources that haven't been consulted
}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Relationships]]</text>
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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

; Introduce the topic with a scenario

Begin with an engaging scenario, example, or case study that illustrates the topic and gives readers a reason to care about it.

The scenario should:
* Start with a lead in bold, such as '''Scenario, Case study, Imagine this ...''', or another another phrase that suits the scenario.
* Describe a '''realistic problem, situation, or question''' related to the topic.
* Be engaging and accessible to a reader who is new to the topic.
* Provide a context that can be revisited when explaining the psychological concepts and research later in the chapter.
* Avoid explaining theory or research in detail— the purpose is to illustrate the problem, not solve it.
* Be presented in a [[#Feature box|feature box]].
* Include a relevant image, with a figure caption, to help illustrate the scenario. Cite the figure (e.g., see Figure 1) within the scenario.

For the [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|topic development]], the scenario can be planned using bullet-points.

;Feature box colour
To change the feature-box colour:
# Select Edit source
# Find theme=3
# Change 3 to another theme number

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

The Overview section should consist of three parts:
# '''Scenario''': A short, engaging case study or real-world example in a feature box, with an accompanying image (see above)
# '''Explanation of the problem, issue, or topic''': Brief explanation of the problem, why it is important, and an outline of how psychological science can help

Recommended length: 180 to 330 words.

Key resources:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]] explains how to edit
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|Topic development guidelines]]
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter|Book chapter guidelines]]
'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Headings''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
'''&lt;u&gt;''MAKE SURE TO CHECK APA7 HEADING RULES BEFORE SUBMITTING:''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Each chapter should use this standard heading structure:
* [[#Overview|Overview]]
* 3 to 6 major headings tailored to the topic; can have sub-headings:
** avoid sections with only one sub-heading (use 0 or 2+ sub-headings)
** provide an introductory paragraph before breaking into sub-sections
* [[#Conclusion|Conclusion]]
* [[#See also|See also]]
* [[#References|References]]
* [[#External links|External links]]

==How do romantic attachments develop?==
'''&lt;u&gt;''[insert intro para]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

'''Origins of attachments - Evolutionary Safety'''

Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

'''Biological basis'''&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).

'''&lt;u&gt;''[insert image]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''', which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

''&lt;u&gt;'''[insert section summarising answer to the focus question itself]'''&lt;/u&gt;''

==What happens when an attachment bond is threatened and/or lost==
'''&lt;u&gt;''Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to attachment disruption, …''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system'''

Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

'''Heartbreak and physical pain'''

Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
'''&lt;u&gt;''[intro para]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''&lt;u&gt;''[psychological and interpersonal costs of the two strategies]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''&lt;u&gt;''[individual differences re attachment styles]''&lt;/u&gt;''' 

'''Emotional responses''' 

A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).

'''Individual differences'''

Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity, resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or ow self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===
'''Cognitive reappraisal'''

'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

'''Mindfulness'''

Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

'''Emotion suppression'''

Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

'''Limitations'''

Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

==Figures==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]

* For the topic development, use at least one figure (even if not ideal) to show that you know how to embed, caption, and cite a figure; this can be the figure in the scenario
* For the book chapter, use several figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
* Images must be embedded from [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] which hosts free-to-use media such as photos, diagrams, graphs, video, and audio
* Images can be uploaded to [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] if they are openly licensed
* Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
* Provide descriptive figure captions (use '''Figure #''' and explain the relevance of the image to the text)
* Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)

==Learning features==
Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:

{{anchor|Scenarios}}
;Scenarios
* Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action
* Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]]; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
* Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s)

{{anchor|Feature box}}
;Feature boxes
* Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
* Consider using feature boxes for:
** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples
** Focus questions
** Tips
** Quiz questions
** Take-home messages

;Embedded links
* When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to:
** Wikipedia articles (e.g., &quot;An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]&quot;) or
** Related book chapters (e.g., &quot;If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]&quot;)

{{anchor|Tables}}
;Tables
* Use tables to organise and summarise information
* Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
* Tables should be captioned
* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
* One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
* Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages
* Ask easy rather than hard questions
* Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]]

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

==Conclusion==
* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

==See also==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant internal resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses
}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Rosenberg, B. D., &amp; Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. ''Motivation Science'', ''4''(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091

Sacks, O. (1985). ''The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales''. Harper &amp; Row.

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

==External links==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

; Introduce the topic with a scenario

Begin with an engaging scenario, example, or case study that illustrates the topic and gives readers a reason to care about it.

The scenario should:
* Start with a lead in bold, such as '''Scenario, Case study, Imagine this ...''', or another another phrase that suits the scenario.
* Describe a '''realistic problem, situation, or question''' related to the topic.
* Be engaging and accessible to a reader who is new to the topic.
* Provide a context that can be revisited when explaining the psychological concepts and research later in the chapter.
* Avoid explaining theory or research in detail— the purpose is to illustrate the problem, not solve it.
* Be presented in a [[#Feature box|feature box]].
* Include a relevant image, with a figure caption, to help illustrate the scenario. Cite the figure (e.g., see Figure 1) within the scenario.

For the [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|topic development]], the scenario can be planned using bullet-points.

;Feature box colour
To change the feature-box colour:
# Select Edit source
# Find theme=3
# Change 3 to another theme number

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

The Overview section should consist of three parts:
# '''Scenario''': A short, engaging case study or real-world example in a feature box, with an accompanying image (see above)
# '''Explanation of the problem, issue, or topic''': Brief explanation of the problem, why it is important, and an outline of how psychological science can help

Recommended length: 180 to 330 words.

Key resources:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]] explains how to edit
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|Topic development guidelines]]
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter|Book chapter guidelines]]
'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Headings''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
'''&lt;u&gt;''MAKE SURE TO CHECK APA7 HEADING RULES BEFORE SUBMITTING:''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Each chapter should use this standard heading structure:
* [[#Overview|Overview]]
* 3 to 6 major headings tailored to the topic; can have sub-headings:
** avoid sections with only one sub-heading (use 0 or 2+ sub-headings)
** provide an introductory paragraph before breaking into sub-sections
* [[#Conclusion|Conclusion]]
* [[#See also|See also]]
* [[#References|References]]
* [[#External links|External links]]

==How do romantic attachments develop?==
'''&lt;u&gt;''[insert intro para]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

'''Origins of attachments - Evolutionary Safety'''

Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

'''Biological basis'''&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).

'''&lt;u&gt;''[insert image]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''', which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

''&lt;u&gt;'''[insert section summarising answer to the focus question itself]'''&lt;/u&gt;''

==What happens when an attachment bond is threatened and/or lost==
'''&lt;u&gt;''Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to attachment disruption, …''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system'''

Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

'''Heartbreak and physical pain'''

Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
'''&lt;u&gt;''[intro para]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''&lt;u&gt;''[psychological and interpersonal costs of the two strategies]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''&lt;u&gt;''[individual differences re attachment styles]''&lt;/u&gt;''' 

'''Emotional responses''' 

A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).

'''Individual differences'''

Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity, resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or ow self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===
'''Cognitive reappraisal'''

'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

'''Mindfulness'''

Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

'''Emotion suppression'''

Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

'''Limitations'''

Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Figures''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]

* For the topic development, use at least one figure (even if not ideal) to show that you know how to embed, caption, and cite a figure; this can be the figure in the scenario
* For the book chapter, use several figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
* Images must be embedded from [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] which hosts free-to-use media such as photos, diagrams, graphs, video, and audio
* Images can be uploaded to [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] if they are openly licensed
* Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
* Provide descriptive figure captions (use '''Figure #''' and explain the relevance of the image to the text)
* Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Learning features''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:

{{anchor|Scenarios}}
;Scenarios
* Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action
* Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]]; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
* Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s)

{{anchor|Feature box}}
;Feature boxes
* Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
* Consider using feature boxes for:
** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples
** Focus questions
** Tips
** Quiz questions
** Take-home messages

;Embedded links
* When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to:
** Wikipedia articles (e.g., &quot;An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]&quot;) or
** Related book chapters (e.g., &quot;If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]&quot;)

{{anchor|Tables}}
;Tables
* Use tables to organise and summarise information
* Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
* Tables should be captioned
* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
* One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
* Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages
* Ask easy rather than hard questions
* Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]]

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant internal resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses
}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Rosenberg, B. D., &amp; Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. ''Motivation Science'', ''4''(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091

Sacks, O. (1985). ''The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales''. Harper &amp; Row.

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

; Introduce the topic with a scenario

Begin with an engaging scenario, example, or case study that illustrates the topic and gives readers a reason to care about it.

The scenario should:
* Start with a lead in bold, such as '''Scenario, Case study, Imagine this ...''', or another another phrase that suits the scenario.
* Describe a '''realistic problem, situation, or question''' related to the topic.
* Be engaging and accessible to a reader who is new to the topic.
* Provide a context that can be revisited when explaining the psychological concepts and research later in the chapter.
* Avoid explaining theory or research in detail— the purpose is to illustrate the problem, not solve it.
* Be presented in a [[#Feature box|feature box]].
* Include a relevant image, with a figure caption, to help illustrate the scenario. Cite the figure (e.g., see Figure 1) within the scenario.

For the [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|topic development]], the scenario can be planned using bullet-points.

;Feature box colour
To change the feature-box colour:
# Select Edit source
# Find theme=3
# Change 3 to another theme number

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

The Overview section should consist of three parts:
# '''Scenario''': A short, engaging case study or real-world example in a feature box, with an accompanying image (see above)
# '''Explanation of the problem, issue, or topic''': Brief explanation of the problem, why it is important, and an outline of how psychological science can help

Recommended length: 180 to 330 words.

Key resources:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Tutorials/Wiki editing|Tutorial 2]] explains how to edit
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|Topic development guidelines]]
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter|Book chapter guidelines]]
'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Headings''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
'''&lt;u&gt;''MAKE SURE TO CHECK APA7 HEADING RULES BEFORE SUBMITTING:''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Each chapter should use this standard heading structure:
* [[#Overview|Overview]]
* 3 to 6 major headings tailored to the topic; can have sub-headings:
** avoid sections with only one sub-heading (use 0 or 2+ sub-headings)
** provide an introductory paragraph before breaking into sub-sections
* [[#Conclusion|Conclusion]]
* [[#See also|See also]]
* [[#References|References]]
* [[#External links|External links]]

==Romantic attachments==
'''&lt;u&gt;''[insert intro para]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

'''Origins of attachments - Evolutionary Safety'''

Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

'''Biological basis'''&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).

'''&lt;u&gt;''[insert image]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''', which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

''&lt;u&gt;'''[insert section summarising answer to the focus question itself]'''&lt;/u&gt;''

==Effects of rejection==
'''&lt;u&gt;''Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to attachment disruption, …''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system'''

Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

'''Heartbreak and physical pain'''

Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
'''&lt;u&gt;''[intro para]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''&lt;u&gt;''[psychological and interpersonal costs of the two strategies]''&lt;/u&gt;'''

'''&lt;u&gt;''[individual differences re attachment styles]''&lt;/u&gt;''' 

'''Emotional responses''' 

A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).

'''Individual differences'''

Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity, resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or ow self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===
'''Cognitive reappraisal'''

'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

'''Mindfulness'''

Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

'''Emotion suppression'''

Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

'''Limitations'''

Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Figures''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[File:Thought bubble.svg|right|140px|thumb|'''Figure 2'''. Example of an image with a descriptive caption.]]

* For the topic development, use at least one figure (even if not ideal) to show that you know how to embed, caption, and cite a figure; this can be the figure in the scenario
* For the book chapter, use several figures to illustrate concepts, add interest, and to serve as examples
* Images must be embedded from [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] which hosts free-to-use media such as photos, diagrams, graphs, video, and audio
* Images can be uploaded to [[commons:|Wikimedia Commons]] if they are openly licensed
* Embed figures throughout the chapter, starting with the scenario in the Overview section
* Provide descriptive figure captions (use '''Figure #''' and explain the relevance of the image to the text)
* Cite each figure at least once in the main text (e.g., see Figure 2)

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Learning features''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:

{{anchor|Scenarios}}
;Scenarios
* Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action
* Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]]; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
* Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s)

{{anchor|Feature box}}
;Feature boxes
* Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
* Consider using feature boxes for:
** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples
** Focus questions
** Tips
** Quiz questions
** Take-home messages

;Embedded links
* When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to:
** Wikipedia articles (e.g., &quot;An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]&quot;) or
** Related book chapters (e.g., &quot;If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]&quot;)

{{anchor|Tables}}
;Tables
* Use tables to organise and summarise information
* Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
* Tables should be captioned
* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
* One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
* Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages
* Ask easy rather than hard questions
* Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]]

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant internal resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses
}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Rosenberg, B. D., &amp; Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. ''Motivation Science'', ''4''(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091

Sacks, O. (1985). ''The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales''. Harper &amp; Row.

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

; Introduce the topic with a scenario

Begin with an engaging scenario, example, or case study that illustrates the topic and gives readers a reason to care about it.

The scenario should:
* Start with a lead in bold, such as '''Scenario, Case study, Imagine this ...''', or another another phrase that suits the scenario.
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* Be engaging and accessible to a reader who is new to the topic.
* Provide a context that can be revisited when explaining the psychological concepts and research later in the chapter.
* Avoid explaining theory or research in detail— the purpose is to illustrate the problem, not solve it.
* Be presented in a [[#Feature box|feature box]].
* Include a relevant image, with a figure caption, to help illustrate the scenario. Cite the figure (e.g., see Figure 1) within the scenario.

For the [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|topic development]], the scenario can be planned using bullet-points.

;Feature box colour
To change the feature-box colour:
# Select Edit source
# Find theme=3
# Change 3 to another theme number

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

'''Romantic rejection''' is a common yet extremely emotionally challenging experience that can lead to intense feelings of sadness, longing, loneliness, and difficulties in regulating '''emotions'''. Understanding how and why people respond strongly to rejection is important as attachment has consequences on psychological, physiological, and biological systems associated with security, reward, emotions and motivation. Using attachment theories, neuroscience, and emotional regulation techniques can help explain how romantic bonds develop, why their loss produces distress, the ways in which individual differences can affect responses, and which strategies may help regulate or support emotional responses.

'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
*

==Romantic attachments==
Romantic attachments are a fundamental part of human connection. It influences motivation, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. These attachments have developed over time through both evolutionary and biological bases, in attempts to increase survival and happiness, respectively. Understanding these perspectives can help explain why romantic attachments form to begin with and why the loss of an attachment is so emotionally significant.

=== Attachment ===
'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

==== '''Origins of attachments - evolutionary safety''' ====
Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

==== '''Origins of attachment - biological basis''' ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).
[[File:Parts_of_brain_that_are_activated_when_a_person_falls_in_love.jpg|thumb|457x457px|'''Figure 1.''' Parts of brain activated when a person falls in love. Source: (Novotney, 2023)]]
Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''' (See Figure 1), which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

Romantic attachments ultimately develop through both evolutionary, physiological, and psychological methods. Attachment theory explains how and why emotional bonds are formed, to promote security and influence relationship patterns. Whilst reward systems highlight the neurophysiological component that strengthens romantic connections, suggesting romantic attachment fulfills the basic human needs for connection. 

==Effects of rejection==
Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to a disruption in a person's pre-determined romantic attachment. Romantic partners work as sources of emotional security and safety, so when a person is rejected, their established attachment bond and securities become threatened (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Sometimes a rejection does not always deter the individual and can instead further motivate them to attempt to restore the lost connection, even if the relationship is no longer reciprocated (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system''' ===
Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003) (See Figure 2).
[[File:Quadrants_of_the_four_major_attachment_styles.png|thumb|370x370px|'''Figure 2.''' Diagram of the four major attachment styles categorised by attachment anxiety and avoidance strength. Source: (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). ]]
Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Heartbreak and physical pain''' ===
Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Overall, romantic rejection disrupts the security an attachment bond brings, whilst also still motivating an individual to pursue a person romantically. This helps further explain why an individual may experience emotional, and even physical, pain and still remain motivated to restore what was lost, whether literal or imagined.

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
Romantic rejection can evoke a multitude of emotions in everyone. However, the intensity, duration, and expression of these emotions will differ amongst individuals. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity, and individual differences would all play key parts in the expression of one's emotions.

=== '''Emotional responses''' ===
A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).
However, people do not necessarily experience all of these emotions or to the same extent, as a person's individual differences affect their expression.

=== '''Rejection sensitivity''' ===
Rejection sensitivity, the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overwhelmingly respond to rejection (Shin et al., 2024). Rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to anxiously expect rejection and therefore perceive others' ambiguous behaviours as an intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Similarly, those that enter romantic relationships with anxious expectations of rejection will recognise insensitive behaviours of the new partners as intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Consequently, individuals with a higher rejection sensitivity are more likely to interpret romantic rejection as a confirmation of their feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, anger or negative '''self-concept''' (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996; London et al., 2007). It also affects their quality of their relationships as rejection-sensitive men's jealousy and rejection-sensitive women's hostility results in feelings of diminished support and explain their partners' relationship dissatisfaction (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Rejection sensitivity can also be heightened by attachment styles as anxious or ambivalent attachment styles, that involve a fear of abandonment and need for validation, are more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity (Shin et al., 2024).

=== '''Individual differences''' ===
Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity, resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or low self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+Table 1.  The relationship between social and physical pain
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; |Type of Pain
|-
|Social
|Physical
|-
| rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |'''Type of manipulation'''
|Increase pain
|↑ Physical pain
|↑ Social pain
|-
|Decrease pain
|↓ Physical pain
|↓ Social pain
|}
Ultimately, romantic rejection can produce diverse emotional responses. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and individual differences may all affect the duration and intensity of an emotional reaction following rejection.

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===

==== '''Cognitive reappraisal''' ====
'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

==== '''Mindfulness''' ====
Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

=== '''Emotion suppression''' ===
Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

=== '''Limitations of emotional regulation techniques''' ===
Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

Effective emotional regulation following romantic rejection likely requires a combination of strategies to address immediate distress, regulate attachment, and elicit long-term adjustments. Whilst these strategies are useful in providing support and assisting with recovery, it may just be that emotional responses to rejection are inevitable. Although there are several approaches to manage rejection, the research on overall and immediate recovery remains limited. Strategies should instead be adapted to a person's individual emotional needs rather than using a 'universal' treatment. 

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Learning features''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:

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A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
* Arguably the most important section
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* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
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}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

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}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Rosenberg, B. D., &amp; Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. ''Motivation Science'', ''4''(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091

Sacks, O. (1985). ''The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales''. Harper &amp; Row.

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

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'''Romantic rejection''' is a common yet extremely emotionally challenging experience that can lead to intense feelings of sadness, longing, loneliness, and difficulties in regulating '''emotions'''. Understanding how and why people respond strongly to rejection is important as attachment has consequences on psychological, physiological, and biological systems associated with security, reward, emotions and motivation. Using attachment theories, neuroscience, and emotional regulation techniques can help explain how romantic bonds develop, why their loss produces distress, the ways in which individual differences can affect responses, and which strategies may help regulate or support emotional responses.

'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
*

==Romantic attachments==
Romantic attachments are a fundamental part of human connection. It influences motivation, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. These attachments have developed over time through both evolutionary and biological bases, in attempts to increase survival and happiness, respectively. Understanding these perspectives can help explain why romantic attachments form to begin with and why the loss of an attachment is so emotionally significant.

=== Attachment ===
'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

==== '''Origins of attachments - evolutionary safety''' ====
Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

==== '''Origins of attachment - biological basis''' ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).
[[File:Parts_of_brain_that_are_activated_when_a_person_falls_in_love.jpg|thumb|457x457px|'''Figure 1.''' ''Parts of brain activated when a person falls in love.'' 

Source: (Novotney, 2023)]]
Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''' (See Figure 1), which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

Romantic attachments ultimately develop through both evolutionary, physiological, and psychological methods. Attachment theory explains how and why emotional bonds are formed, to promote security and influence relationship patterns. Whilst reward systems highlight the neurophysiological component that strengthens romantic connections, suggesting romantic attachment fulfills the basic human needs for connection. 

==Effects of rejection==
Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to a disruption in a person's pre-determined romantic attachment. Romantic partners work as sources of emotional security and safety, so when a person is rejected, their established attachment bond and securities become threatened (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Sometimes a rejection does not always deter the individual and can instead further motivate them to attempt to restore the lost connection, even if the relationship is no longer reciprocated (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system''' ===
Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003) (See Figure 2).
[[File:Quadrants_of_the_four_major_attachment_styles.png|thumb|370x370px|'''Figure 2.''' ''Diagram of the four major attachment styles categorised by attachment anxiety and avoidance strength.'' 

Source: (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). ]]
Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Heartbreak and physical pain''' ===
Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Overall, romantic rejection disrupts the security an attachment bond brings, whilst also still motivating an individual to pursue a person romantically. This helps further explain why an individual may experience emotional, and even physical, pain and still remain motivated to restore what was lost, whether literal or imagined.

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
Romantic rejection can evoke a multitude of emotions in everyone. However, the intensity, duration, and expression of these emotions will differ amongst individuals. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity, and individual differences would all play key parts in the expression of one's emotions.

=== '''Emotional responses''' ===
A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).
However, people do not necessarily experience all of these emotions or to the same extent, as a person's individual differences affect their expression.

=== '''Rejection sensitivity''' ===
Rejection sensitivity, the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overwhelmingly respond to rejection (Shin et al., 2024). Rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to anxiously expect rejection and therefore perceive others' ambiguous behaviours as an intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Similarly, those that enter romantic relationships with anxious expectations of rejection will recognise insensitive behaviours of the new partners as intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Consequently, individuals with a higher rejection sensitivity are more likely to interpret romantic rejection as a confirmation of their feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, anger or negative '''self-concept''' (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996; London et al., 2007). It also affects their quality of their relationships as rejection-sensitive men's jealousy and rejection-sensitive women's hostility results in feelings of diminished support and explain their partners' relationship dissatisfaction (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Rejection sensitivity can also be heightened by attachment styles as anxious or ambivalent attachment styles, that involve a fear of abandonment and need for validation, are more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity (Shin et al., 2024).

=== '''Individual differences''' ===
Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity, resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or low self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+Table 1.  ''T'''he relationship between social and physical pain'''''
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; |Type of Pain
|-
|Social
|Physical
|-
| rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |'''Type of manipulation'''
|Increase pain
|↑ Physical pain
|↑ Social pain
|-
|Decrease pain
|↓ Physical pain
|↓ Social pain
|}
Ultimately, romantic rejection can produce diverse emotional responses. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and individual differences may all affect the duration and intensity of an emotional reaction following rejection.

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===

==== '''Cognitive reappraisal''' ====
'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

==== '''Mindfulness''' ====
Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

=== '''Emotion suppression''' ===
Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

=== '''Limitations of emotional regulation techniques''' ===
Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

Effective emotional regulation following romantic rejection likely requires a combination of strategies to address immediate distress, regulate attachment, and elicit long-term adjustments. Whilst these strategies are useful in providing support and assisting with recovery, it may just be that emotional responses to rejection are inevitable. Although there are several approaches to manage rejection, the research on overall and immediate recovery remains limited. Strategies should instead be adapted to a person's individual emotional needs rather than using a 'universal' treatment. 

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Learning features''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
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| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
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}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

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}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Rosenberg, B. D., &amp; Siegel, J. T. (2018). A 50-year review of psychological reactance theory: Do not read this article. ''Motivation Science'', ''4''(4), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/mot0000091

Sacks, O. (1985). ''The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales''. Harper &amp; Row.

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

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'''Romantic rejection''' is a common yet extremely emotionally challenging experience that can lead to intense feelings of sadness, longing, loneliness, and difficulties in regulating '''emotions'''. Understanding how and why people respond strongly to rejection is important as attachment has consequences on psychological, physiological, and biological systems associated with security, reward, emotions and motivation. Using attachment theories, neuroscience, and emotional regulation techniques can help explain how romantic bonds develop, why their loss produces distress, the ways in which individual differences can affect responses, and which strategies may help regulate or support emotional responses.

'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
*

==Romantic attachments==
Romantic attachments are a fundamental part of human connection. It influences motivation, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. These attachments have developed over time through both evolutionary and biological bases, in attempts to increase survival and happiness, respectively. Understanding these perspectives can help explain why romantic attachments form to begin with and why the loss of an attachment is so emotionally significant.

=== Attachment ===
'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

==== '''Origins of attachments - evolutionary safety''' ====
Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

==== '''Origins of attachment - biological basis''' ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).
[[File:Parts_of_brain_that_are_activated_when_a_person_falls_in_love.jpg|thumb|457x457px|'''Figure 1.''' ''Parts of brain activated when a person falls in love.'' 

Source: (Novotney, 2023)]]
Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''' (See Figure 1), which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

Romantic attachments ultimately develop through both evolutionary, physiological, and psychological methods. Attachment theory explains how and why emotional bonds are formed, to promote security and influence relationship patterns. Whilst reward systems highlight the neurophysiological component that strengthens romantic connections, suggesting romantic attachment fulfills the basic human needs for connection. 

==Effects of rejection==
Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to a disruption in a person's pre-determined romantic attachment. Romantic partners work as sources of emotional security and safety, so when a person is rejected, their established attachment bond and securities become threatened (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Sometimes a rejection does not always deter the individual and can instead further motivate them to attempt to restore the lost connection, even if the relationship is no longer reciprocated (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system''' ===
Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003) (See Figure 2).
[[File:Quadrants_of_the_four_major_attachment_styles.png|thumb|370x370px|'''Figure 2.''' ''Diagram of the four major attachment styles categorised by attachment anxiety and avoidance strength.'' 

Source: (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). ]]
Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Heartbreak and physical pain''' ===
Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Overall, romantic rejection disrupts the security an attachment bond brings, whilst also still motivating an individual to pursue a person romantically. This helps further explain why an individual may experience emotional, and even physical, pain and still remain motivated to restore what was lost, whether literal or imagined.

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
Romantic rejection can evoke a multitude of emotions in everyone. However, the intensity, duration, and expression of these emotions will differ amongst individuals. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity, and individual differences would all play key parts in the expression of one's emotions.

=== '''Emotional responses''' ===
A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).
However, people do not necessarily experience all of these emotions or to the same extent, as a person's individual differences affect their expression.

=== '''Rejection sensitivity''' ===
Rejection sensitivity, the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overwhelmingly respond to rejection (Shin et al., 2024). Rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to anxiously expect rejection and therefore perceive others' ambiguous behaviours as an intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Similarly, those that enter romantic relationships with anxious expectations of rejection will recognise insensitive behaviours of the new partners as intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Consequently, individuals with a higher rejection sensitivity are more likely to interpret romantic rejection as a confirmation of their feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, anger or negative '''self-concept''' (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996; London et al., 2007). It also affects their quality of their relationships as rejection-sensitive men's jealousy and rejection-sensitive women's hostility results in feelings of diminished support and explain their partners' relationship dissatisfaction (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Rejection sensitivity can also be heightened by attachment styles as anxious or ambivalent attachment styles, that involve a fear of abandonment and need for validation, are more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity (Shin et al., 2024).

=== '''Individual differences''' ===
Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity, resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or low self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+Table 1.  ''T'''he relationship between social and physical pain'''''
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; |Type of Pain
|-
|Social
|Physical
|-
| rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |'''Type of manipulation'''
|Increase pain
|↑ Physical pain
|↑ Social pain
|-
|Decrease pain
|↓ Physical pain
|↓ Social pain
|}
Ultimately, romantic rejection can produce diverse emotional responses. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and individual differences may all affect the duration and intensity of an emotional reaction following rejection.

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===

==== '''Cognitive reappraisal''' ====
'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

==== '''Mindfulness''' ====
Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

=== '''Emotion suppression''' ===
Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

=== '''Limitations of emotional regulation techniques''' ===
Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

Effective emotional regulation following romantic rejection likely requires a combination of strategies to address immediate distress, regulate attachment, and elicit long-term adjustments. Whilst these strategies are useful in providing support and assisting with recovery, it may just be that emotional responses to rejection are inevitable. Although there are several approaches to manage rejection, the research on overall and immediate recovery remains limited. Strategies should instead be adapted to a person's individual emotional needs rather than using a 'universal' treatment. 

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Learning features''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
* Arguably the most important section
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* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
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}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

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==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Downey, G., &amp; Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''70''(6), 1327–1343. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1327

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

London, B., Downey, G., Bonica, C., &amp; Paltin, I. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. ''Journal of Research on Adolescence'', ''17''(3), 481–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00531.x

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Shin, J., Han, K. S., &amp; Shin, H. J. (2024). Rejection sensitivity: A concept analysis. ''Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing'', ''33''(3), 253–261. https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2024.33.3.253

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

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'''Romantic rejection''' is a common yet extremely emotionally challenging experience that can lead to intense feelings of sadness, longing, loneliness, and difficulties in regulating '''emotions'''. Understanding how and why people respond strongly to rejection is important as attachment has consequences on psychological, physiological, and biological systems associated with security, reward, emotions and motivation. Using attachment theories, neuroscience, and emotional regulation techniques can help explain how romantic bonds develop, why their loss produces distress, the ways in which individual differences can affect responses, and which strategies may help regulate or support emotional responses.

'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
*

==Romantic attachments==
Romantic attachments are a fundamental part of human connection. It influences motivation, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. These attachments have developed over time through both evolutionary and biological bases, in attempts to increase survival and happiness, respectively. Understanding these perspectives can help explain why romantic attachments form to begin with and why the loss of an attachment is so emotionally significant.

=== Attachment ===
'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

==== '''Origins of attachments - evolutionary safety''' ====
Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

==== '''Origins of attachment - biological basis''' ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).
[[File:Parts_of_brain_that_are_activated_when_a_person_falls_in_love.jpg|thumb|457x457px|'''Figure 1.''' ''Parts of brain activated when a person falls in love.'' 

Source: (Novotney, 2023)]]
Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''' (See Figure 1), which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

Romantic attachments ultimately develop through both evolutionary, physiological, and psychological methods. Attachment theory explains how and why emotional bonds are formed, to promote security and influence relationship patterns. Whilst reward systems highlight the neurophysiological component that strengthens romantic connections, suggesting romantic attachment fulfills the basic human needs for connection. 

==Effects of rejection==
Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to a disruption in a person's pre-determined romantic attachment. Romantic partners work as sources of emotional security and safety, so when a person is rejected, their established attachment bond and securities become threatened (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Sometimes a rejection does not always deter the individual and can instead further motivate them to attempt to restore the lost connection, even if the relationship is no longer reciprocated (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system''' ===
Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003) (See Figure 2).
[[File:Quadrants_of_the_four_major_attachment_styles.png|thumb|370x370px|'''Figure 2.''' ''Diagram of the four major attachment styles categorised by attachment anxiety and avoidance strength.'' 

Source: (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). ]]
Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Heartbreak and physical pain''' ===
Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Overall, romantic rejection disrupts the security an attachment bond brings, whilst also still motivating an individual to pursue a person romantically. This helps further explain why an individual may experience emotional, and even physical, pain and still remain motivated to restore what was lost, whether literal or imagined.

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
Romantic rejection can evoke a multitude of emotions in everyone. However, the intensity, duration, and expression of these emotions will differ amongst individuals. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity, and individual differences would all play key parts in the expression of one's emotions.

=== '''Emotional responses''' ===
A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).
However, people do not necessarily experience all of these emotions or to the same extent, as a person's individual differences affect their expression.

=== '''Rejection sensitivity''' ===
Rejection sensitivity, the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overwhelmingly respond to rejection (Shin et al., 2024). Rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to anxiously expect rejection and therefore perceive others' ambiguous behaviours as an intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Similarly, those that enter romantic relationships with anxious expectations of rejection will recognise insensitive behaviours of the new partners as intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Consequently, individuals with a higher rejection sensitivity are more likely to interpret romantic rejection as a confirmation of their feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, anger or negative '''self-concept''' (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996; London et al., 2007). It also affects their quality of their relationships as rejection-sensitive men's jealousy and rejection-sensitive women's hostility results in feelings of diminished support and explain their partners' relationship dissatisfaction (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Rejection sensitivity can also be heightened by attachment styles as anxious or ambivalent attachment styles, that involve a fear of abandonment and need for validation, are more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity (Shin et al., 2024).

=== '''Individual differences''' ===
Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity (see Table 1), resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or low self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
|+Table 1.  ''T'''he relationship between social and physical pain'''''
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; |Type of Pain
|-
|Social
|Physical
|-
| rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |'''Type of manipulation'''
|Increase pain
|↑ Physical pain
|↑ Social pain
|-
|Decrease pain
|↓ Physical pain
|↓ Social pain
|}
Ultimately, romantic rejection can produce diverse emotional responses. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and individual differences may all affect the duration and intensity of an emotional reaction following rejection.

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===

==== '''Cognitive reappraisal''' ====
'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

==== '''Mindfulness''' ====
Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

=== '''Emotion suppression''' ===
Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

=== '''Limitations of emotional regulation techniques''' ===
Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

Effective emotional regulation following romantic rejection likely requires a combination of strategies to address immediate distress, regulate attachment, and elicit long-term adjustments. Whilst these strategies are useful in providing support and assisting with recovery, it may just be that emotional responses to rejection are inevitable. Although there are several approaches to manage rejection, the research on overall and immediate recovery remains limited. Strategies should instead be adapted to a person's individual emotional needs rather than using a 'universal' treatment. 

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Learning features''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:

{{anchor|Scenarios}}
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* Use tables to organise and summarise information
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* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
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=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
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{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
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}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

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}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Downey, G., &amp; Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''70''(6), 1327–1343. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1327

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

London, B., Downey, G., Bonica, C., &amp; Paltin, I. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. ''Journal of Research on Adolescence'', ''17''(3), 481–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00531.x

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Shin, J., Han, K. S., &amp; Shin, H. J. (2024). Rejection sensitivity: A concept analysis. ''Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing'', ''33''(3), 253–261. https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2024.33.3.253

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

; Introduce the topic with a scenario

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'''Romantic rejection''' is a common yet extremely emotionally challenging experience that can lead to intense feelings of sadness, longing, loneliness, and difficulties in regulating '''emotions'''. Understanding how and why people respond strongly to rejection is important as attachment has consequences on psychological, physiological, and biological systems associated with security, reward, emotions and motivation. Using attachment theories, neuroscience, and emotional regulation techniques can help explain how romantic bonds develop, why their loss produces distress, the ways in which individual differences can affect responses, and which strategies may help regulate or support emotional responses.

'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

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'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
*

==Romantic attachments==
Romantic attachments are a fundamental part of human connection. It influences motivation, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. These attachments have developed over time through both evolutionary and biological bases, in attempts to increase survival and happiness, respectively. Understanding these perspectives can help explain why romantic attachments form to begin with and why the loss of an attachment is so emotionally significant.

=== Attachment ===
'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

==== '''Origins of attachments - evolutionary safety''' ====
Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

==== '''Origins of attachment - biological basis''' ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).
[[File:Parts_of_brain_that_are_activated_when_a_person_falls_in_love.jpg|thumb|457x457px|'''Figure 1.''' ''Parts of brain activated when a person falls in love.'' 

Source: (Novotney, 2023)]]
Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''' (See Figure 1), which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

Romantic attachments ultimately develop through both evolutionary, physiological, and psychological methods. Attachment theory explains how and why emotional bonds are formed, to promote security and influence relationship patterns. Whilst reward systems highlight the neurophysiological component that strengthens romantic connections, suggesting romantic attachment fulfills the basic human needs for connection. 

==Effects of rejection==
Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to a disruption in a person's pre-determined romantic attachment. Romantic partners work as sources of emotional security and safety, so when a person is rejected, their established attachment bond and securities become threatened (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Sometimes a rejection does not always deter the individual and can instead further motivate them to attempt to restore the lost connection, even if the relationship is no longer reciprocated (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system''' ===
Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003) (See Figure 2).
[[File:Quadrants_of_the_four_major_attachment_styles.png|thumb|370x370px|'''Figure 2.''' ''Diagram of the four major attachment styles categorised by attachment anxiety and avoidance strength.'' 

Source: (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). ]]
Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Heartbreak and physical pain''' ===
Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Overall, romantic rejection disrupts the security an attachment bond brings, whilst also still motivating an individual to pursue a person romantically. This helps further explain why an individual may experience emotional, and even physical, pain and still remain motivated to restore what was lost, whether literal or imagined.

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
Romantic rejection can evoke a multitude of emotions in everyone. However, the intensity, duration, and expression of these emotions will differ amongst individuals. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity, and individual differences would all play key parts in the expression of one's emotions.

=== '''Emotional responses''' ===
A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).
However, people do not necessarily experience all of these emotions or to the same extent, as a person's individual differences affect their expression.

=== '''Rejection sensitivity''' ===
Rejection sensitivity, the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overwhelmingly respond to rejection (Shin et al., 2024). Rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to anxiously expect rejection and therefore perceive others' ambiguous behaviours as an intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Similarly, those that enter romantic relationships with anxious expectations of rejection will recognise insensitive behaviours of the new partners as intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Consequently, individuals with a higher rejection sensitivity are more likely to interpret romantic rejection as a confirmation of their feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, anger or negative '''self-concept''' (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996; London et al., 2007). It also affects their quality of their relationships as rejection-sensitive men's jealousy and rejection-sensitive women's hostility results in feelings of diminished support and explain their partners' relationship dissatisfaction (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Rejection sensitivity can also be heightened by attachment styles as anxious or ambivalent attachment styles, that involve a fear of abandonment and need for validation, are more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity (Shin et al., 2024).

=== '''Individual differences''' ===
Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity (see Table 1), resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or low self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).

'''Table 1'''

''The Relationship Between Social and Physical Pain''
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; |Type of Pain
|-
|Social
|Physical
|-
| rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |'''Type of manipulation'''
|Increase pain
|↑ Physical pain
|↑ Social pain
|-
|Decrease pain
|↓ Physical pain
|↓ Social pain
|}
Ultimately, romantic rejection can produce diverse emotional responses. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and individual differences may all affect the duration and intensity of an emotional reaction following rejection.

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===

==== '''Cognitive reappraisal''' ====
'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

==== '''Mindfulness''' ====
Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

=== '''Emotion suppression''' ===
Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

=== '''Limitations of emotional regulation techniques''' ===
Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

Effective emotional regulation following romantic rejection likely requires a combination of strategies to address immediate distress, regulate attachment, and elicit long-term adjustments. Whilst these strategies are useful in providing support and assisting with recovery, it may just be that emotional responses to rejection are inevitable. Although there are several approaches to manage rejection, the research on overall and immediate recovery remains limited. Strategies should instead be adapted to a person's individual emotional needs rather than using a 'universal' treatment. 

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Learning features''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:

{{anchor|Scenarios}}
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;Embedded links
* When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to:
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** Related book chapters (e.g., &quot;If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]&quot;)

{{anchor|Tables}}
;Tables
* Use tables to organise and summarise information
* Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
* Tables should be captioned
* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
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|type=&quot;()&quot;}
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&lt;/quiz&gt;

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
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}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant internal resources about the topic
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}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Downey, G., &amp; Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''70''(6), 1327–1343. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1327

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

London, B., Downey, G., Bonica, C., &amp; Paltin, I. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. ''Journal of Research on Adolescence'', ''17''(3), 481–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00531.x

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Shin, J., Han, K. S., &amp; Shin, H. J. (2024). Rejection sensitivity: A concept analysis. ''Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing'', ''33''(3), 253–261. https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2024.33.3.253

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
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}}

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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

; Introduce the topic with a scenario

Begin with an engaging scenario, example, or case study that illustrates the topic and gives readers a reason to care about it.

The scenario should:
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;Feature box colour
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# Select Edit source
# Find theme=3
# Change 3 to another theme number

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

'''Romantic rejection''' is a common yet extremely emotionally challenging experience that can lead to intense feelings of sadness, longing, loneliness, and difficulties in regulating '''emotions'''. Understanding how and why people respond strongly to rejection is important as attachment has consequences on psychological, physiological, and biological systems associated with security, reward, emotions and motivation. Using attachment theories, neuroscience, and emotional regulation techniques can help explain how romantic bonds develop, why their loss produces distress, the ways in which individual differences can affect responses, and which strategies may help regulate or support emotional responses.

'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
*

==Romantic attachments==
Romantic attachments are a fundamental part of human connection. It influences motivation, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. These attachments have developed over time through both evolutionary and biological bases, in attempts to increase survival and happiness, respectively. Understanding these perspectives can help explain why romantic attachments form to begin with and why the loss of an attachment is so emotionally significant.

=== Attachment ===
'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

==== '''Origins of attachments - evolutionary safety''' ====
Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

==== '''Origins of attachment - biological basis''' ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).
[[File:Parts_of_brain_that_are_activated_when_a_person_falls_in_love.jpg|thumb|457x457px|'''Figure 1.''' ''Parts of brain activated when a person falls in love.'' 

Source: (Novotney, 2023)]]
Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''' (See Figure 1), which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

Romantic attachments ultimately develop through both evolutionary, physiological, and psychological methods. Attachment theory explains how and why emotional bonds are formed, to promote security and influence relationship patterns. Whilst reward systems highlight the neurophysiological component that strengthens romantic connections, suggesting romantic attachment fulfills the basic human needs for connection. 

==Effects of rejection==
Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to a disruption in a person's pre-determined romantic attachment. Romantic partners work as sources of emotional security and safety, so when a person is rejected, their established attachment bond and securities become threatened (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Sometimes a rejection does not always deter the individual and can instead further motivate them to attempt to restore the lost connection, even if the relationship is no longer reciprocated (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system''' ===
Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003) (See Figure 2).
[[File:Quadrants_of_the_four_major_attachment_styles.png|thumb|370x370px|'''Figure 2.''' ''Diagram of the four major attachment styles categorised by attachment anxiety and avoidance strength.'' 

Source: (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). ]]
Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Heartbreak and physical pain''' ===
Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Overall, romantic rejection disrupts the security an attachment bond brings, whilst also still motivating an individual to pursue a person romantically. This helps further explain why an individual may experience emotional, and even physical, pain and still remain motivated to restore what was lost, whether literal or imagined.

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
Romantic rejection can evoke a multitude of emotions in everyone. However, the intensity, duration, and expression of these emotions will differ amongst individuals. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity, and individual differences would all play key parts in the expression of one's emotions.

=== '''Emotional responses''' ===
A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).
However, people do not necessarily experience all of these emotions or to the same extent, as a person's individual differences affect their expression.

=== '''Rejection sensitivity''' ===
Rejection sensitivity, the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overwhelmingly respond to rejection (Shin et al., 2024). Rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to anxiously expect rejection and therefore perceive others' ambiguous behaviours as an intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Similarly, those that enter romantic relationships with anxious expectations of rejection will recognise insensitive behaviours of the new partners as intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Consequently, individuals with a higher rejection sensitivity are more likely to interpret romantic rejection as a confirmation of their feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, anger or negative '''self-concept''' (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996; London et al., 2007). It also affects their quality of their relationships as rejection-sensitive men's jealousy and rejection-sensitive women's hostility results in feelings of diminished support and explain their partners' relationship dissatisfaction (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Rejection sensitivity can also be heightened by attachment styles as anxious or ambivalent attachment styles, that involve a fear of abandonment and need for validation, are more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity (Shin et al., 2024).

=== '''Individual differences''' ===
Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity (see Table 1), resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or low self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).

'''Table 1'''

''The Relationship Between Social and Physical Pain''
{{center top}} {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; |Type of Pain
|-
|Social
|Physical
|-
| rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |'''Type of manipulation'''
|Increase pain
|↑ Physical pain
|↑ Social pain
|-
|Decrease pain
|↓ Physical pain
|↓ Social pain
|} {{center bottom}}
Ultimately, romantic rejection can produce diverse emotional responses. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and individual differences may all affect the duration and intensity of an emotional reaction following rejection.

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===

==== '''Cognitive reappraisal''' ====
'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

==== '''Mindfulness''' ====
Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

=== '''Emotion suppression''' ===
Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

=== '''Limitations of emotional regulation techniques''' ===
Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

Effective emotional regulation following romantic rejection likely requires a combination of strategies to address immediate distress, regulate attachment, and elicit long-term adjustments. Whilst these strategies are useful in providing support and assisting with recovery, it may just be that emotional responses to rejection are inevitable. Although there are several approaches to manage rejection, the research on overall and immediate recovery remains limited. Strategies should instead be adapted to a person's individual emotional needs rather than using a 'universal' treatment. 

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Learning features''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:

{{anchor|Scenarios}}
;Scenarios
* Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action
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{{anchor|Feature box}}
;Feature boxes
* Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
* Consider using feature boxes for:
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;Embedded links
* When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to:
** Wikipedia articles (e.g., &quot;An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]&quot;) or
** Related book chapters (e.g., &quot;If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]&quot;)

{{anchor|Tables}}
;Tables
* Use tables to organise and summarise information
* Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
* Tables should be captioned
* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
* One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
* Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages
* Ask easy rather than hard questions
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{The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
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|type=&quot;()&quot;}
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&lt;/quiz&gt;

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant internal resources about the topic
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}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Downey, G., &amp; Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''70''(6), 1327–1343. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1327

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

London, B., Downey, G., Bonica, C., &amp; Paltin, I. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. ''Journal of Research on Adolescence'', ''17''(3), 481–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00531.x

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Shin, J., Han, K. S., &amp; Shin, H. J. (2024). Rejection sensitivity: A concept analysis. ''Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing'', ''33''(3), 253–261. https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2024.33.3.253

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

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__TOC__
=='''&lt;u&gt;''Overview''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
[[File:A picture is worth a thousand words.jpg|right|thumb|200px|'''Figure 1'''. Use a captioned image to illustrate the scenario]]

; Introduce the topic with a scenario

Begin with an engaging scenario, example, or case study that illustrates the topic and gives readers a reason to care about it.

The scenario should:
* Start with a lead in bold, such as '''Scenario, Case study, Imagine this ...''', or another another phrase that suits the scenario.
* Describe a '''realistic problem, situation, or question''' related to the topic.
* Be engaging and accessible to a reader who is new to the topic.
* Provide a context that can be revisited when explaining the psychological concepts and research later in the chapter.
* Avoid explaining theory or research in detail— the purpose is to illustrate the problem, not solve it.
* Be presented in a [[#Feature box|feature box]].
* Include a relevant image, with a figure caption, to help illustrate the scenario. Cite the figure (e.g., see Figure 1) within the scenario.

For the [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic|topic development]], the scenario can be planned using bullet-points.

;Feature box colour
To change the feature-box colour:
# Select Edit source
# Find theme=3
# Change 3 to another theme number

{{RoundBoxBottom}}

'''Romantic rejection''' is a common yet extremely emotionally challenging experience that can lead to intense feelings of sadness, longing, loneliness, and difficulties in regulating '''emotions'''. Understanding how and why people respond strongly to rejection is important as attachment has consequences on psychological, physiological, and biological systems associated with security, reward, emotions and motivation. Using attachment theories, neuroscience, and emotional regulation techniques can help explain how romantic bonds develop, why their loss produces distress, the ways in which individual differences can affect responses, and which strategies may help regulate or support emotional responses.

'''&lt;u&gt;''Format focus questions''&lt;/u&gt;'''

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=3}}
'''Focus questions'''

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?{{RoundBoxBottom}}
*

==Romantic attachments==
Romantic attachments are a fundamental part of human connection. It influences motivation, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. These attachments have developed over time through both evolutionary and biological bases, in attempts to increase survival and happiness, respectively. Understanding these perspectives can help explain why romantic attachments form to begin with and why the loss of an attachment is so emotionally significant.

=== Attachment ===
'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

==== '''Origins of attachments - evolutionary safety''' ====
Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

==== '''Origins of attachment - biological basis''' ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).
[[File:Parts_of_brain_that_are_activated_when_a_person_falls_in_love.jpg|thumb|589x589px|'''Figure 1.''' ''Parts of brain activated when a person falls in love.'' 

Source: (Novotney, 2023)|center]]
Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''' (See Figure 1), which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

Romantic attachments ultimately develop through both evolutionary, physiological, and psychological methods. Attachment theory explains how and why emotional bonds are formed, to promote security and influence relationship patterns. Whilst reward systems highlight the neurophysiological component that strengthens romantic connections, suggesting romantic attachment fulfills the basic human needs for connection. 

==Effects of rejection==
Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to a disruption in a person's pre-determined romantic attachment. Romantic partners work as sources of emotional security and safety, so when a person is rejected, their established attachment bond and securities become threatened (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Sometimes a rejection does not always deter the individual and can instead further motivate them to attempt to restore the lost connection, even if the relationship is no longer reciprocated (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system''' ===
Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003) (See Figure 2).
[[File:Quadrants_of_the_four_major_attachment_styles.png|thumb|370x370px|'''Figure 2.''' ''Diagram of the four major attachment styles categorised by attachment anxiety and avoidance strength.'' 

Source: (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). ]]
Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Heartbreak and physical pain''' ===
Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Overall, romantic rejection disrupts the security an attachment bond brings, whilst also still motivating an individual to pursue a person romantically. This helps further explain why an individual may experience emotional, and even physical, pain and still remain motivated to restore what was lost, whether literal or imagined.

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
Romantic rejection can evoke a multitude of emotions in everyone. However, the intensity, duration, and expression of these emotions will differ amongst individuals. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity, and individual differences would all play key parts in the expression of one's emotions.

=== '''Emotional responses''' ===
A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).
However, people do not necessarily experience all of these emotions or to the same extent, as a person's individual differences affect their expression.

=== '''Rejection sensitivity''' ===
Rejection sensitivity, the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overwhelmingly respond to rejection (Shin et al., 2024). Rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to anxiously expect rejection and therefore perceive others' ambiguous behaviours as an intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Similarly, those that enter romantic relationships with anxious expectations of rejection will recognise insensitive behaviours of the new partners as intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Consequently, individuals with a higher rejection sensitivity are more likely to interpret romantic rejection as a confirmation of their feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, anger or negative '''self-concept''' (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996; London et al., 2007). It also affects their quality of their relationships as rejection-sensitive men's jealousy and rejection-sensitive women's hostility results in feelings of diminished support and explain their partners' relationship dissatisfaction (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Rejection sensitivity can also be heightened by attachment styles as anxious or ambivalent attachment styles, that involve a fear of abandonment and need for validation, are more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity (Shin et al., 2024).

=== '''Individual differences''' ===
Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity (see Table 1), resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or low self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).

'''Table 1'''

''The Relationship Between Social and Physical Pain''
{{center top}} {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; |Type of Pain
|-
|Social
|Physical
|-
| rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |'''Type of manipulation'''
|Increase pain
|↑ Physical pain
|↑ Social pain
|-
|Decrease pain
|↓ Physical pain
|↓ Social pain
|} {{center bottom}}
Ultimately, romantic rejection can produce diverse emotional responses. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and individual differences may all affect the duration and intensity of an emotional reaction following rejection.

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===

==== '''Cognitive reappraisal''' ====
'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

==== '''Mindfulness''' ====
Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

=== '''Emotion suppression''' ===
Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

=== '''Limitations of emotional regulation techniques''' ===
Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

Effective emotional regulation following romantic rejection likely requires a combination of strategies to address immediate distress, regulate attachment, and elicit long-term adjustments. Whilst these strategies are useful in providing support and assisting with recovery, it may just be that emotional responses to rejection are inevitable. Although there are several approaches to manage rejection, the research on overall and immediate recovery remains limited. Strategies should instead be adapted to a person's individual emotional needs rather than using a 'universal' treatment. 

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Learning features''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
Learning features help to bring book chapters to life and can be embedded throughout the chapter. Here are some options:

{{anchor|Scenarios}}
;Scenarios
* Scenarios, case studies, or examples that illustrate concepts in action
* Present using [[#Feature boxes|feature boxes]]; can be split into multiple boxes throughout a chapter (e.g., to illustrate different theories or stages)
* Can be real or fictional; if real, provide citation(s)

{{anchor|Feature box}}
;Feature boxes
* Highlight key content using [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Feature box|feature boxes]], but don't overuse, otherwise they lose their effect
* Consider using feature boxes for:
** [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]], case studies, or examples
** Focus questions
** Tips
** Quiz questions
** Take-home messages

;Embedded links
* When key words are introduced, use [[Help:Links|interwiki links]] to:
** Wikipedia articles (e.g., &quot;An early psychological view [[w:Dreams|dreams]]) of dreams was provided by [[w:Sigmund Freud|Sigmund Freud]]&quot;) or
** Related book chapters (e.g., &quot;If you're feeling stuck, check out the chapter about [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2020/Writer's block|writer's block]]&quot;)

{{anchor|Tables}}
;Tables
* Use tables to organise and summarise information
* Cite each table at least once in the main text (e.g., see Table 1)
* Tables should be captioned
* [[Motivation and emotion/Wikiversity/Tables|More example tables]] which can be adapted

'''Table 1''' 

A Descriptive Caption Explains The Table Contents and its Relevance to the Text e.g., 

The 2 x 2 Johari Window Model Showing the Relationship Between Known/Unknown and Self/Other

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

;Quizzes
* One or two quiz questions for each main section is better than a long quiz at the end
* Quiz ''conceptual'' understanding, rather than trivia. Ask about important information such as the take-home messages
* Ask easy rather than hard questions
* Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]]

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant internal resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses
}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Downey, G., &amp; Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''70''(6), 1327–1343. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1327

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

London, B., Downey, G., Bonica, C., &amp; Paltin, I. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. ''Journal of Research on Adolescence'', ''17''(3), 481–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00531.x

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Shin, J., Han, K. S., &amp; Shin, H. J. (2024). Rejection sensitivity: A concept analysis. ''Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing'', ''33''(3), 253–261. https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2024.33.3.253

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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== Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

Maggie grew up with parents that were loving and attentive, giving her everything she needed. Yet, sometimes she found it difficult to form a deeper emotional connection with her parents or share her vulnerable feelings, as they would often keep conversations light or surface-level, and did not have personal conversations with their daughter. As a result, Maggie sometimes worried and questioned if they actually loved her, despite always having provided for her.

'' '''What attachment style do you think Maggie is likely to be predisposed to?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

'''Romantic rejection''' is a common yet extremely emotionally challenging experience that can lead to intense feelings of sadness, longing, loneliness, and difficulties in regulating '''emotions'''. Understanding how and why people respond strongly to rejection is important as attachment has consequences on psychological, physiological, and biological systems associated with security, reward, emotions and motivation. Using attachment theories, neuroscience, and emotional regulation techniques can help explain how romantic bonds develop, why their loss produces distress, the ways in which individual differences can affect responses, and which strategies may help regulate or support emotional responses.

{{robelbox|theme=13|title=Focus questions}}
  &lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?
  &lt;/div&gt;
  {{Robelbox/close}}
*

==Romantic attachments==
Romantic attachments are a fundamental part of human connection. It influences motivation, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. These attachments have developed over time through both evolutionary and biological bases, in attempts to increase survival and happiness, respectively. Understanding these perspectives can help explain why romantic attachments form to begin with and why the loss of an attachment is so emotionally significant.

=== Attachment ===
'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

==== '''Origins of attachments - evolutionary safety''' ====
Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

==== '''Origins of attachment - biological basis''' ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).
[[File:Parts_of_brain_that_are_activated_when_a_person_falls_in_love.jpg|thumb|589x589px|'''Figure 1.''' ''Parts of brain activated when a person falls in love.'' 

Source: (Novotney, 2023)|center]]
Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''' (See Figure 1), which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

Romantic attachments ultimately develop through both evolutionary, physiological, and psychological methods. Attachment theory explains how and why emotional bonds are formed, to promote security and influence relationship patterns. Whilst reward systems highlight the neurophysiological component that strengthens romantic connections, suggesting romantic attachment fulfills the basic human needs for connection. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

As Maggie grew older, in year 11 she later met Daniel and things seemed to change. Over their time finishing school and then later entering university Daniel became one of Maggie's closest friends, even entering the same university together after graduation. They were always together. Daniel made Maggie happy, was attentive, and slowly became someone Maggie could imagine building a future with. 

'' '''What type of attachment role do you think Daniel plays in Maggie's life?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Effects of rejection ==
Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to a disruption in a person's pre-determined romantic attachment. Romantic partners work as sources of emotional security and safety, so when a person is rejected, their established attachment bond and securities become threatened (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Sometimes a rejection does not always deter the individual and can instead further motivate them to attempt to restore the lost connection, even if the relationship is no longer reciprocated (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system''' ===
Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003) (See Figure 2).
[[File:Quadrants_of_the_four_major_attachment_styles.png|thumb|370x370px|'''Figure 2.''' ''Diagram of the four major attachment styles categorised by attachment anxiety and avoidance strength.'' 

Source: (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). ]]
Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

One day, Maggie had a panic attack while Daniel was at soccer practice, and as she was messaging and calling him to come help her, Daniel was not responding. This cause Maggie to become increasingly anxious, escalating her panic attack. Daniel's phone had died at practice, so had not seen Maggie's calls or messages until a few hours after practice. 

'' '''How do you think this would affect Maggie and Daniel's relationship?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=== '''Heartbreak and physical pain''' ===
Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Overall, romantic rejection disrupts the security an attachment bond brings, whilst also still motivating an individual to pursue a person romantically. This helps further explain why an individual may experience emotional, and even physical, pain and still remain motivated to restore what was lost, whether literal or imagined.

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
Romantic rejection can evoke a multitude of emotions in everyone. However, the intensity, duration, and expression of these emotions will differ amongst individuals. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity, and individual differences would all play key parts in the expression of one's emotions.

=== '''Emotional responses''' ===
A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).
However, people do not necessarily experience all of these emotions or to the same extent, as a person's individual differences affect their expression.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

Maggie was really upset, as she needed Daniel in a time of need and she spiralled further, believing he was distancing himself, and got into a big fight with Daniel afterwards. Daniel suggested maybe they need some time apart to reevaluate themselves and their relationship.

'' '''What effects do you think this will have on Maggie?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=== '''Rejection sensitivity''' ===
Rejection sensitivity, the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overwhelmingly respond to rejection (Shin et al., 2024). Rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to anxiously expect rejection and therefore perceive others' ambiguous behaviours as an intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Similarly, those that enter romantic relationships with anxious expectations of rejection will recognise insensitive behaviours of the new partners as intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Consequently, individuals with a higher rejection sensitivity are more likely to interpret romantic rejection as a confirmation of their feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, anger or negative '''self-concept''' (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996; London et al., 2007). It also affects their quality of their relationships as rejection-sensitive men's jealousy and rejection-sensitive women's hostility results in feelings of diminished support and explain their partners' relationship dissatisfaction (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Rejection sensitivity can also be heightened by attachment styles as anxious or ambivalent attachment styles, that involve a fear of abandonment and need for validation, are more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity (Shin et al., 2024).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

As weeks passed, Maggie kept asking mutual friends about Daniel, checking his social media accounts, and trying to see him around university. Maggie became increasingly sensitive to even small rejections, interpreting friends saying they were too busy to hang out, or delayed responses to her messages as evidence that even her friends might abandon her. Her feelings of sadness and anxiety increased.

'' '''How might this affect the nature and intensity of her emotions?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=== '''Individual differences''' ===
Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity (see Table 1), resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or low self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).

'''Table 1'''

''The Relationship Between Social and Physical Pain''
{{center top}} {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; |Type of Pain
|-
|Social
|Physical
|-
| rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |'''Type of manipulation'''
|Increase pain
|↑ Physical pain
|↑ Social pain
|-
|Decrease pain
|↓ Physical pain
|↓ Social pain
|} {{center bottom}}
Ultimately, romantic rejection can produce diverse emotional responses. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and individual differences may all affect the duration and intensity of an emotional reaction following rejection.

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

Eventually, after speaking with a trusted friend, Maggie begins to recognise that her constant feelings of anxiety would only prolong the distress. Although her heartbreak had not disappeared, she decided to explore other healthier options of managing her emotions, and rediscovering herself outside of her relationship with Daniel.

'' '''What techniques might Maggie use to overcome her anxiety and feelings of distress at missing Daniel?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===

==== '''Cognitive reappraisal''' ====
'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

==== '''Mindfulness''' ====
Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

=== '''Emotion suppression''' ===
Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

=== '''Limitations of emotional regulation techniques''' ===
Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

Effective emotional regulation following romantic rejection likely requires a combination of strategies to address immediate distress, regulate attachment, and elicit long-term adjustments. Whilst these strategies are useful in providing support and assisting with recovery, it may just be that emotional responses to rejection are inevitable. Although there are several approaches to manage rejection, the research on overall and immediate recovery remains limited. Strategies should instead be adapted to a person's individual emotional needs rather than using a 'universal' treatment. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

After seeing a psychologist, who recommended Maggie surround herself with her friends to build her confidence and individual interest again, encouraging she stay fit and pick up a new sport, and showing her techniques of mindfulness, Maggie was able to work through her heartbreak. She also begun using cognitive reappraisal techniques to reframe the small rejections that were increasing her anxiety, and began relying on her own regulation techniques to overcome challenges.

After some time had passed and Maggie was feeling confident in herself, she reached out to Daniel to try to rekindle their relationship, now that she was feeling secure and was not dependent on another person for her own safety and happiness.{{RoundBoxBottom}}

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{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot; style=&quot;margin: auto;
|-
! !! Known to self !! Not known to self
|-
| '''Known to others''' || Open area || Blind spot
|-
| '''Not known to others''' || Hidden area || Unknown
|}

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* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
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==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Downey, G., &amp; Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''70''(6), 1327–1343. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1327

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

London, B., Downey, G., Bonica, C., &amp; Paltin, I. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. ''Journal of Research on Adolescence'', ''17''(3), 481–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00531.x

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Shin, J., Han, K. S., &amp; Shin, H. J. (2024). Rejection sensitivity: A concept analysis. ''Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing'', ''33''(3), 253–261. https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2024.33.3.253

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
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== Overview ==
{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

Maggie grew up with parents that were loving and attentive, giving her everything she needed. Yet, sometimes she found it difficult to form a deeper emotional connection with her parents or share her vulnerable feelings, as they would often keep conversations light or surface-level, and did not have personal conversations with their daughter. As a result, Maggie sometimes worried and questioned if they actually loved her, despite always having provided for her.

'' '''What attachment style do you think Maggie is likely to be predisposed to?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

'''Romantic rejection''' is a common yet extremely emotionally challenging experience that can lead to intense feelings of sadness, longing, loneliness, and difficulties in regulating '''emotions'''. Understanding how and why people respond strongly to rejection is important as attachment has consequences on psychological, physiological, and biological systems associated with security, reward, emotions and motivation. Using attachment theories, neuroscience, and emotional regulation techniques can help explain how romantic bonds develop, why their loss produces distress, the ways in which individual differences can affect responses, and which strategies may help regulate or support emotional responses.

{{robelbox|theme=11|title=Focus questions}}
  &lt;div style=&quot;{{Robelbox/pad}}&quot;&gt;

* How do romantic attachments develop?
* How does romantic rejection affect attachment and motivational systems?
* What determines the nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection?
* How can rejection-related distress be reduced or managed?
  &lt;/div&gt;
  {{Robelbox/close}}
*

==Romantic attachments==
Romantic attachments are a fundamental part of human connection. It influences motivation, emotional wellbeing and behaviour. These attachments have developed over time through both evolutionary and biological bases, in attempts to increase survival and happiness, respectively. Understanding these perspectives can help explain why romantic attachments form to begin with and why the loss of an attachment is so emotionally significant.

=== Attachment ===
'''Attachment theory''' outlines the  main &quot;'''attachment styles'''&quot;, otherwise known as ways in which people perceive and respond to '''intimacy''' in '''relationships''', and are parallel to those found in children throughout development stages (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). The theory designates three main styles:

# Secure
# Anxious
# Avoidant

People who are usually warm loving, and comfortable with intimacy tend to be ''secure.'' Whereas ''anxious'' people are often distracted with their relationships and crave intimacy, with constant worry about their partner's ability to love them back. Finally, people who tend to constantly try to minimize closeness and associate intimacy with a loss of their independence are considered ''avoidant'' (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

A person's attachment style can not only affect their view of intimacy, but also include affect their:

* way of dealing with conflict
* attitude towards sex
* ability to communicate wants and needs; or
* expectations of a partner and the relationship (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). 

Levine and Heller (2010) claims all people fall, regardless of the stage at which their relationship is in, fall into one or a combination of these three categories, although a combination of anxious and avoidant is rare (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). This fourth, rare, category is termed the 'disorganised', of which only 5% of people fall into (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

==== '''Origins of attachments - evolutionary safety''' ====
Adult attachment styles were initially hypothesised to be based primarily on a person's childhood and upbringing. '''John Bowlby''' and '''Mary Ainsworth''', building on their separate and joined research on ethology and developmental psychology, developed the initial theories on which attachment theory has evolved. They proposed that infants possess a biological or evolutionary drive to form emotional attachments with others, primarily caregivers, as a mechanism for survival (Bretherton, 1992). From the ages of as young as six months to two years, children with consistent caregivers, who become their attachment figures, develop a mental representation or an &quot;'''internal working model'''&quot;, influencing views of themselves, expectations, and methods of interacting and building relationships with others as they get older (Bergen, 2022). As the attachments develop throughout childhood, attachment figures can become a &quot;secure base&quot; they can return to for comfort, support, and safety, if caregivers were sensitive, responsible, and available, in which infants develop a &quot;secure&quot; attachment style (Bergen, 2022; Bowlby, 1988). Alternatively, avoidant or resistant attachment styles can develop if they were distant, unresponsive, and rigid; or an anxious attachment style if they were inconsistently responsive (Bergen, 2022; Levine &amp; Heller, 2010). However, more recent development have found that attachment styles in adulthood are more likely influenced by a variety of factors, including genetics, and life experiences, rather than being limited to the way in which parents cared for a person through infancy (Levine &amp; Heller, 2010).

Ultimately, attachment systems exist as a biological function of protecting a person from danger, especially during infancy, by ensuring their remain in close proximity to the care and support of others (their attachment figures), as a method of increasing the likelihood of survival and eventual reproduction (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). 

==== '''Origins of attachment - biological basis''' ====
&lt;blockquote&gt;“Love is a biological necessity—it’s as needed for our well-being as exercise, water, and food, […] And from a neuroscientific viewpoint, we can really say that love blossoms in the brain.” (Cacioppo, as cited in Novotney, 2023, para.3).&lt;/blockquote&gt;Aside from the evolutionary basis, romantic attraction is also based in neuroendocrinology. Early-stage romantic love, or being ''''lovestruck'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;', is often attributed to a primitive part of the brain's reward system (Novotney, 2023). In these early stages a person normally experiences sympathetic nervous system reactions, such as sweaty palms or a pounding heart when they are with their loved one, and often feeling '''separation anxiety''' when apart from them (Fisher et al., 2005). The lovers tend to express emotional dependence, heightened romantic passion, extreme empathy toward the beloved, sexual desires and possessiveness, the craving for emotional union, and obsessive thinking, reaching extremes where they change their habits to impress or remain in contact, or are even willing to die for the individual (Fisher et al., 2005). In cases were the lover experiences rejection, they often will protest the rejection and work to try to win the beloved individual back, expressing rage at the abandonment and despair (Fisher et al., 2005).

Fisher et al. (2005) conducted a study on courtship attraction that used functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) to determine the neural mechanisms associated with romantic love, by studying 17 people intensely &quot;in love&quot;. The study found that a photograph of the beloved was an effective stimulus for eliciting feelings of intense romantic love, producing group activation in several regions of the brain, including the right ventral tegmental area (VTA) amidst '''dopamine ('happy' hormone)''' cells (Aron et al., 2005; Fisher et al., 2005). The VTA is a main component of the brain's &quot;reward system&quot;,  as it is associated with focused attention, arousal, pleasure and the motivation to pursue and acquire rewards (Fisher at al., 2005). The VTA then activates various brain regions, including the caudate nucleus which contributes to reward detection and expectation (Fisher at al., 2005; Schultz, 2000). This suggest romantic love may be a primary motivation system, or a fundamental human drive to mate, suggesting romantic love is the effects of a reward system as all drives are associated with the activation of dopamine (Fisher et al., 2005; Pfaff, 1999). 

Similarly, humans have been shown to respond to monetary rewards, demonstrating the neuronal activations of financial reinforcement overlap with regions that respond to human's primary reinforcers (Elliott et al., 2003). This can be applied twice as sex is a primary biological enforcer, and even abstract rewards can be used to effectively elicit neuronal responses (Elliott et al., 2003; Jozefowiez &amp; Staddon, 2008).
[[File:Parts_of_brain_that_are_activated_when_a_person_falls_in_love.jpg|thumb|589x589px|'''Figure 1.''' ''Parts of brain activated when a person falls in love.'' 

Source: (Novotney, 2023)|center]]
Additionally, Ortigue et al. (2010) conducted further '''meta-analysis''' of published fMRI studies of love and their illustration of brain regions associated with the different forms of love. Ortigue et al. (2010) confirmed that all fMRI studies of love found the '''subcortical dopaminergic''' reward-related brain systems, which uses dopamine and '''oxytocin ('love hormone')''' receptors, responsible for motivating individuals to bond with another person. The review also further demonstrated that different types of love may involve different '''cerebral''' pathways which includes pathways associated with higher cognitive functions such as '''bodily self-representation''' and '''social cognition''' (Ortigue et al., 2010). The study highlighted a total of 12 areas in the brain that work together to release dopamine, oxytocin, and '''adrenaline''', indicating the '''amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex''' (See Figure 1), which is very sensitive to pleasure-inducing behaviours, are all activated in the brain scans when talking about a loved one (Novotney, 2023; Ortigue et al., 2010).

Romantic attachments ultimately develop through both evolutionary, physiological, and psychological methods. Attachment theory explains how and why emotional bonds are formed, to promote security and influence relationship patterns. Whilst reward systems highlight the neurophysiological component that strengthens romantic connections, suggesting romantic attachment fulfills the basic human needs for connection. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

As Maggie grew older, in year 11 she later met Daniel and things seemed to change. Over their time finishing school and then later entering university Daniel became one of Maggie's closest friends, even entering the same university together after graduation. They were always together. Daniel made Maggie happy, was attentive, and slowly became someone Maggie could imagine building a future with. 

'' '''What type of attachment role do you think Daniel plays in Maggie's life?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

== Effects of rejection ==
Romantic rejection can trigger physiological, psychological and neurological responses due to a disruption in a person's pre-determined romantic attachment. Romantic partners work as sources of emotional security and safety, so when a person is rejected, their established attachment bond and securities become threatened (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Sometimes a rejection does not always deter the individual and can instead further motivate them to attempt to restore the lost connection, even if the relationship is no longer reciprocated (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

=== '''Behavioural responses to a threatened attachment system''' ===
Functioning of an attachment system can be affected by the availability of one, or more, attachment figures in times of need, and their sensitivity and responsiveness to the individual's proximity-seeking behaviours (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). So, whilst nearly all children will become attached, including in situations where they experience abuse from their mothers, not all attachments are secure attachments, as attachment theory poses that the quality of the interactions with attachment figures is the main reason for individual differences in the functioning of an attachment system (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003) (See Figure 2).
[[File:Quadrants_of_the_four_major_attachment_styles.png|thumb|370x370px|'''Figure 2.''' ''Diagram of the four major attachment styles categorised by attachment anxiety and avoidance strength.'' 

Source: (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). ]]
Applying the theory of attachment styles to experiences of romantic rejection, when an attachment figure (the beloved) is not physically or emotionally available to the lover in times of need or distress, is not sensitive or responsive to the lover's attempts at seeking proximity, the attachment system is then disrupted (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). In that case, the feelings of distress, lack of proximity, or lack of safety are not alleviated. Instead, the initial distress felt is instead amalgamated by further doubts they can attain safety, trust, or the resources necessary for stress management (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Once this occurs, attachment theorists have determined two methods of secondary attachment strategies of either ''hyperactivation'' or ''deactivation'' of the system; where hyperactivating individuals do not give up on their attachment attempts and instead intensify them in order to coerce the attachment figure's support and love (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). Alternatively, a deactivating individual gives up on their attachment attempts, attempting to deal with the dangers alone (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003). This is a strategy to try and down-regulate their attachment system in an attempt to avoid the distress and pain caused by the attachment figure's unavailability (Mikulincer &amp; Shaver, 2003).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

One day, Maggie had a panic attack while Daniel was at soccer practice, and as she was messaging and calling him to come help her, Daniel was not responding. This cause Maggie to become increasingly anxious, escalating her panic attack. Daniel's phone had died at practice, so had not seen Maggie's calls or messages until a few hours after practice. 

'' '''How do you think this would affect Maggie and Daniel's relationship?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=== '''Heartbreak and physical pain''' ===
Physical pain words are often used to describe experiences of social rejection or loss, such as a 'broken heart' or 'hurt feelings', which may be due to the similarities associated with '''physical''' and ''''social pain'''&lt;nowiki/&gt;' (Eisenberger, 2012; Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Negative social evaluations, including rejection from a romantic partner, activates areas in the '''dorsal anterior cingulate cortex''' (dACC) and '''anterior insula''' (AI), which are brain regions associated with the distressful experiences of physical pain (Eisenberger, 2012). Understanding this overlap between physical and social pain provides further insights into both the intensity of emotional responses, and methods in which the pain can be alleviated '''&lt;u&gt;''(see below sections)''&lt;/u&gt;&lt;u&gt;''.''&lt;/u&gt;'''

Overall, romantic rejection disrupts the security an attachment bond brings, whilst also still motivating an individual to pursue a person romantically. This helps further explain why an individual may experience emotional, and even physical, pain and still remain motivated to restore what was lost, whether literal or imagined.

==Nature and intensity of emotional responses to rejection==
Romantic rejection can evoke a multitude of emotions in everyone. However, the intensity, duration, and expression of these emotions will differ amongst individuals. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity, and individual differences would all play key parts in the expression of one's emotions.

=== '''Emotional responses''' ===
A wide variety of human emotions arise in response to rejection by other people, whether the rejection was real, anticipated, imagined, or merely remembered (Leary, 2015). Acceptance by other people developed '''biopsychological''' and emotional mechanisms for humans to recognise and cope with threats to acceptance and belonging (Leary, 2015). So, when an individual's sense of belonging or acceptance is threatened it can elicit emotions the following emotions in attempts to manage the rejection:

* '''Hurt feelings''' - where the other person does not regard their relationship with the individual as valuable or important as they believe, leading them to feel rejected;
* '''Jealousy''' - where the individual believes the other person values their relationship with them less that desired because of the presence of another third party;
* '''Loneliness''' - where the individual believes the person who greatly values their relationship are not available for support or social interaction;
* '''Guilt''' - where the individual believes they have done something that would lead the other to relationally devalue them, motivating them to repair the damage that their undesired behaviour has caused;
* '''Shame''' - where the individual believes others' judgement as a person may lead to relation devaluation and possible rejection, leading to a desire to withdraw from social interactions because nothing can be immediately done to repair the damage to their image or value;
* '''Social anxiety''' - feelings of nervousness in social interactions in anticipation to the possibility of conveying an undesired impression of themselves that will lower their value in another person's eyes;
* '''Embarrassment''' - where the individual is concerned with how they are perceived by another when they think they have already conveyed an undesired impression of themselves to others;
* '''Sadness''' - which arises from perceived loss, or when their affection for the other person is not returned or accepted; and
* '''Anger''' - which arises when the individual perceives the other has unjustifiably behaved in a way that threatens their desire, wellbeing, or is considered an unjustifiable harm (Leary, 2015).
However, people do not necessarily experience all of these emotions or to the same extent, as a person's individual differences affect their expression.

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

Maggie was really upset, as she needed Daniel in a time of need and she spiralled further, believing he was distancing himself, and got into a big fight with Daniel afterwards. Daniel suggested maybe they need some time apart to reevaluate themselves and their relationship.

'' '''What effects do you think this will have on Maggie?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=== '''Rejection sensitivity''' ===
Rejection sensitivity, the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overwhelmingly respond to rejection (Shin et al., 2024). Rejection-sensitive individuals are more likely to anxiously expect rejection and therefore perceive others' ambiguous behaviours as an intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Similarly, those that enter romantic relationships with anxious expectations of rejection will recognise insensitive behaviours of the new partners as intentional rejection (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Consequently, individuals with a higher rejection sensitivity are more likely to interpret romantic rejection as a confirmation of their feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, anger or negative '''self-concept''' (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996; London et al., 2007). It also affects their quality of their relationships as rejection-sensitive men's jealousy and rejection-sensitive women's hostility results in feelings of diminished support and explain their partners' relationship dissatisfaction (Downey &amp; Feldman, 1996). Rejection sensitivity can also be heightened by attachment styles as anxious or ambivalent attachment styles, that involve a fear of abandonment and need for validation, are more likely to exhibit rejection sensitivity (Shin et al., 2024).

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

As weeks passed, Maggie kept asking mutual friends about Daniel, checking his social media accounts, and trying to see him around university. Maggie became increasingly sensitive to even small rejections, interpreting friends saying they were too busy to hang out, or delayed responses to her messages as evidence that even her friends might abandon her. Her feelings of sadness and anxiety increased.

'' '''How might this affect the nature and intensity of her emotions?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=== '''Individual differences''' ===
Since physical and social pain are associated with the same neural circuitries '''&lt;u&gt;''(see above section on physical heartbreak)''&lt;/u&gt;''' individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain, whether physical or social, are therefore more sensitive to the other, meaning experiencing greater sensitivity to physical pain would likely result in greater social pain sensitivity (see Table 1), resulting in higher rejection sensitivity and/or a stronger anxious attachment style (Eisenberger, 2012). Higher rejection sensitivity, anxious attachment, or low self-esteem show greater dACC and/or AI activity when experiencing social pain (Tchalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Positive relationships throughout adolescence may also contribute to individuals being less sensitive to any negative social situations experienced later in their lives (Masten et al., 2012).

'''Table 1'''

''The Relationship Between Social and Physical Pain''
{{center top}} {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |
! colspan=&quot;2&quot; |Type of Pain
|-
|Social
|Physical
|-
| rowspan=&quot;2&quot; |'''Type of manipulation'''
|Increase pain
|↑ Physical pain
|↑ Social pain
|-
|Decrease pain
|↓ Physical pain
|↓ Social pain
|} {{center bottom}}
Ultimately, romantic rejection can produce diverse emotional responses. Attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and individual differences may all affect the duration and intensity of an emotional reaction following rejection.

==Reducing or managing rejection-induced distress==
As previously noted, romantic rejection can trigger a variety of emotional responses, including separation distress, social pain, threats to attachment style, and behavioural responses in adjusting to the loss of an attachment. However, there are psychological strategies that may help individuals in regulating the responses and facilitate recovery. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

Eventually, after speaking with a trusted friend, Maggie begins to recognise that her constant feelings of anxiety would only prolong the distress. Although her heartbreak had not disappeared, she decided to explore other healthier options of managing her emotions, and rediscovering herself outside of her relationship with Daniel.

'' '''What techniques might Maggie use to overcome her anxiety and feelings of distress at missing Daniel?''' ''{{RoundBoxBottom}}

=== '''Adaptive emotional regulation''' ===

==== '''Cognitive reappraisal''' ====
'''Cognitive reappraisal''', an '''adaptive''' strategy of emotion regulation works by encouraging a person to change how a situation feels by reframing the way they interpret it (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023; Zilverstand et al., 2017). Following romantic rejection, an individual may interpret their romantic loss as evidence of their personal inadequacy, however, reframing the rejection from a personal failure and instead to a result of incompatibility may be beneficial in reducing emotional distress and correct maladaptive thoughts (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). 

==== '''Mindfulness''' ====
Mindfulness has also been proposed as an adaptive strategy for emotional regulation (Chambers et al., 2009). It involves paying deliberate attention to the present moment and remaining accepting and non-judgemental of the situation (Brockman et al., 2023). Whilst reappraisal works on changing one's thinking, mindfulness works on the person's relationship to their thinking (Brockman et al., 2023).

Due to the overlap of physical and social pain (see above section), the factors that alter one type of pain are likely to have a similar effect on the other (Eisenberger, 2012). Using this principle, '''paracetamol''' or '''ibuprofen''', which are known to reduce physical pains, may also reduce the social pain associated with rejection (Eisenberger, 2012).

=== '''Emotion suppression''' ===
Alternatively, '''expressive suppression''', a '''maladaptive''' behavioural strategy that works towards inhibiting the behaviours associated with emotional responses, such as facial expressions, gestures, and verbal phrases (Goldin et al., 2008). 

=== '''Limitations of emotional regulation techniques''' ===
Reappraisal is likely more beneficial in reducing immediate neural activity and decreasing negative emotional experiences, however, suppression produced later neural emotional responses, decreased emotional behaviours, experiences and facial expressions, yet, increased neural responses (Goldin et al., 2008). However, whilst cognitive reappraisal is an effective technique in clinical practice, it may not always translate to the individual's life due to a lack of practice, and is likely more effective and replicable across experiences closely linked to the individual's real-life experiences (Wang &amp; Yin, 2023). Despite this, the efficacy of each strategy would depend on the individual, context, environment, age, purpose of the strategy, and other individual differences (Brockman et al., 2023).

=== '''Social support''' ===
Social support is a widely known method used to mitigate both emotional and social distress, and is associated with reduced activity in the dACC and AI where increased activity is associated with pain processing (Eisenberger, 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). Therefore spending time with friends and in an individual's daily support network indicates reduced activity in the dACC and AI, allowing the individual to reduce both the social and physical pains associated with romantic rejection (Masten et al., 2012; Tcahalova &amp; Eisenberger, 2015). 

Effective emotional regulation following romantic rejection likely requires a combination of strategies to address immediate distress, regulate attachment, and elicit long-term adjustments. Whilst these strategies are useful in providing support and assisting with recovery, it may just be that emotional responses to rejection are inevitable. Although there are several approaches to manage rejection, the research on overall and immediate recovery remains limited. Strategies should instead be adapted to a person's individual emotional needs rather than using a 'universal' treatment. 

{{RoundBoxTop|theme=11}}'''Case Study'''

After seeing a psychologist, who recommended Maggie surround herself with her friends to build her confidence and individual interest again, encouraging she stay fit and pick up a new sport, and showing her techniques of mindfulness, Maggie was able to work through her heartbreak. She also begun using cognitive reappraisal techniques to reframe the small rejections that were increasing her anxiety, and began relying on her own regulation techniques to overcome challenges.

After some time had passed and Maggie was feeling confident in herself, she reached out to Daniel to try to rekindle their relationship, now that she was feeling secure and was not dependent on another person for her own safety and happiness.{{RoundBoxBottom}}

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* Ask easy rather than hard questions
* Different types of quiz questions are possible; see [[Help:Quiz|Quiz]]

Example simple quiz questions. Choose your answers and click &quot;Submit&quot;:
&lt;quiz display=simple&gt;
{The purpose of quizzes is to provide an interactive learning feature:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
+ True
- False

{Long and complex quiz questions are recommended:
|type=&quot;()&quot;}
- True
+ False
&lt;/quiz&gt;

=='''&lt;u&gt;''Conclusion''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
* Arguably the most important section
* Provide at least three bullet-points for this section even at the topic development stage, based on preliminary thinking
* For the book chapter, develop clear take-home message(s) that address the focus questions based on psychological theory and research
* Together, the [[#Overview|Overview]] and Conclusion should summarise the problem, its significance, and how psychological science contributes to understanding and addressing this problem
* Recommended length: 150 to 330 words

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research?
* What are the answers to the focus questions?
* What are the practical, take-home messages?
}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''See also''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
List [[Help:Contents/Links#Interwiki_links|internal (wiki) links]] to the most relevant Wikiversity pages (esp. [[Motivation and emotion/Book|motivation and emotion book chapters]]) and [[w:|Wikipedia articles]]. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/About/Collaborative authoring using wiki|Collaborative authoring using wiki]] (Wikiversity)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Light triad|Light triad]] (Book chapter, 2021)
* [[w:Self determination theory|Self determination theory]] (Wikipedia)
* [[Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Topic/Checklist|Topic development - Checklist]] (Wikiversity)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant internal resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses
}}

==References==
{{Hanging indent|1=

Aron, A., Fisher, H., Mashek, D. J., Strong, G., Li, H., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Reward, motivation, and emotion systems associated with early-stage intense romantic love. ''Journal of Neurophysiology'', ''94''(1), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00838.2004

Bergen, D. (2022). Developing attachment. In ''Theories of Early Childhood Education'' (pp. 118–127). Routledge.

Bowlby, J. (1988). ''A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory''. Routledge.

Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''28''(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759

Brockman, R., Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P., &amp; Kashdan, T. B. (2023). Behaving versus thinking positively: When the benefits of cognitive reappraisal are contingent on satisfying basic psychological needs. ''Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science'', ''27'', 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.005

Chambers, R., Gullone, E., &amp; Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review. ''Clinical Psychology Review'', ''29''(6), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.06.005

Downey, G., &amp; Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''70''(6), 1327–1343. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1327

Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: Examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''13'', 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3231

Elliott, R., Newman, J. L., Longe, O. A., &amp; Deakin, J. F. W. (2003). Differential response patterns in the striatum and orbitofrontal cortex to financial reward in humans: A parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging study. ''The Journal of Neuroscience'', ''23''(1), 303–307. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-01-00303.2003

Fisher, H., Aron, A., &amp; Brown, L. L. (2005). Romantic love: An fMRI study of a neural mechanism for mate choice. ''Journal of Comparative Neurology'', ''493''(1), 58–62. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.20772

Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., &amp; Gross, J. J. (2008). The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. ''Biological Psychiatry'', ''63''(6), 577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

Jozefowiez, J., &amp; Staddon, J. E. R. (2008). 1.06 - Operant behaviour. In ''Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference'' (pp. 75–101). Academic Press.

Leary, M. R. (2015). Emotional responses to interpersonal rejection. ''Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience'', ''17''(4). https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2015.17.4/mleary

Levine, A., &amp; Heller, R. (2010). ''Attached''. Tarcher.

London, B., Downey, G., Bonica, C., &amp; Paltin, I. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. ''Journal of Research on Adolescence'', ''17''(3), 481–506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00531.x

Masten, C. L., Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). Time spent with friends in adolescence relates to less neural sensitivity to later peer rejection. ''Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience'', ''7''(1), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsq098

Mikulincer, M., &amp; Shaver, P. R. (2003). The attachment behavioural system in adulthood: Activation, psychodynamics, and interpersonal processes. In ''Advances in Experimental Social Psychology'' (pp. 53–152). Elsevier Science.

Novotney, A. (2023). What happens in your brain when you’re in love? ''American Psychological Association.'' https://www.apa.org/topics/marriage-relationships/brain-on-love

Ortigue, S., Bianchi-Demicheli, F., Patel, N., Frum, C., &amp; Lewis, J. W. (2010). Neuroimaging of love: fMRI meta-analysis evidence toward new perspectives in sexual medicine. ''The Journal of Sexual Medicine'', ''7''(11), 3541–3552. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01999.x

Pfaff, D. (1999). ''Drive: Neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of sexual motivation.'' MIT Press.

Schultz, W. (2000). Multiple reward signals in the brain. ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', ''1''(3), 199–207.

Shin, J., Han, K. S., &amp; Shin, H. J. (2024). Rejection sensitivity: A concept analysis. ''Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing'', ''33''(3), 253–261. https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2024.33.3.253

Tchalova, K., &amp; Eisenberger, N. I. (2015). How the brain feels the hurt of heartbreak: Examining the neurobiological overlap between social and physical pain. In A. W. Toga (Ed.), ''Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference'' (pp. 15–20). Academic Press: Elsevier.

Wang, Y.-X., &amp; Yin, B. (2023). A new understanding of the cognitive reappraisal technique: An extension based on the schema theory. ''Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience'', ''17''. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1174585

Zilverstand, A., Parvaz, M. A., &amp; Goldstein, R. Z. (2017). Neuroimaging cognitive reappraisal in clinical populations to define neural targets for enhancing emotion regulation. a systematic review. ''NeuroImage'', ''151'', 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.06.009

}}

=='''&lt;u&gt;''External links''&lt;/u&gt;'''==
[[Help:Contents/Links#External_links|External links]] to highly relevant resources such as podcasts and videos, news articles, and professional sites. Use [[w:Letter case#Sentence casing|sentence casing]] and alphabetical order. For example:
* [https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/essay-writing/six-top-tips-for-writing-a-great-essay Six top tips for writing a great essay] (University of Melbourne)
* [http://www.skillsyouneed.com/write/structure.html The importance of structure] (skillsyouneed.com)

{{tip|Suggestions for this section:
* Link to the most relevant external resources about the topic
* Include the source in parentheses after the link
}}

[[Category:{{#titleparts:{{PAGENAME}}|3}}]]
[[Category:Motivation and emotion/Book/Relationships]]</text>
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  <page>
    <title>A-level Computer Science AQA Paper 1 Skeleton program 2027</title>
    <ns>0</ns>
    <id>332272</id>
    <revision>
      <id>2840047</id>
      <parentid>2836569</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T14:34:52Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>MrBerard</username>
        <id>3111808</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>Amended title to remove ref to prel. mat.</comment>
      <origin>2840047</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="9643" sha1="7zvhglbqt9elwz8kwl4br7oyfimqai4" xml:space="preserve">&lt;blockquote&gt;This year Skeleton Program is called &quot;Pile O' Tiles&quot;, a two player (arguably multiplayer, see below) version of the classic match-2 memory game.&lt;/blockquote&gt;

== Description: ==
&lt;blockquote&gt;Piles O’ Tiles is a tile matching memory game.  The board consists of a two-dimensional grid containing piles of tiles.  The tiles are face-down so 

players cannot see what is on the tiles.  Each tile has a symbol (an uppercase letter) and a points value.  Players take it in turn to choose two piles.  The top tile of those two piles is turned over so that all 

players can see what is on those tiles.    If the two tiles have the same symbol on them then they are removed from the piles and the points 

for the two tiles are added to the player’s score.  The two tiles are then added to a discard.  If the two tiles do not have the same symbol on them then they are turned face-down again and put 

back on the piles they came from.  When the game ends the player with the highest score is the winner.  In the Skeleton Program the board is shown as a two-dimensional grid with x and y coordinates.  

Each pile is shown as an integer value that denotes the number of tiles currently in the pile.&lt;/blockquote&gt;
Then a diagram showing the game's display, with a 6x6 board, rendered as a grid with the origin in the bottom left, row numbers on the left, and column numbers on the bottom&lt;blockquote&gt;In the Skeleton Program there is a default version of the game that uses a 6×6 grid.  It is also 

possible to load a game from a file.  The Data File game1.txt contains a game that can be loaded 

instead of using the default game.   &lt;/blockquote&gt;The AQA doc has the content of game1.txt, but we can do better.

== Annotated game1.txt ==
 16 # Grid size in Nsquares - the grid is the a square of side sqrt of that
 2,A,1,E,1,H,3,J,2  # Those are piles (of tiles) 
 0,E,1,Q,4,K,4,J,2,J,2 # arranged linearly (here, 16 of them)
 0,O,1,E,1,H,3 # the first element is the bonus for the tile,
 0,O,1,E,1,H,3 # then pairs of letters, score
 0,A,1,E,1,H,3
 0,A,1,H,1,H,3
 0,E,1,E,1,H,3
 0,A,1,Q,4,F,3
 0,U,1,E,1,H,3
 0,A,1,E,1,H,3
 4,U,5,E,1,K,4
 2,A,1,K,4,H,3
 0,A,1,E,1,K,1
 0,R,1,K,3,H,3
 0,R,1,F,3,K,7
 0,A,1,E,1,H,3
 2                 # Number of players
 Boris,0     # player name, score
 Poppy,0
                 # Discard, in pairs of letters, score - here it's empty
 15           # max score
 0            # whose turn it is (0 is player 1, Boris)
 0            # turns since the the last winning move (matching tiles) by any player
 # Gamefiles are saves of the gamestate, but here this is the start of a game.
== Section D mark distribution comparison ==
Mark distribution for this year:
'''- TK''' (please fill in if you have the EAD)

These marks include the screen capture(s), so the marks for the coding will be 1-2 marks lower.

* The 2026 paper 1 contained 4 questions: a 5 mark, an 8 mark and two 12 mark questions.

* The 2025 paper 1 contained 4 questions: a 5 mark, a 6 mark and two 14 mark questions.
* The 2024 paper 1 contained 4 questions: a 5 mark, a 6 mark and two 14 mark questions.
* The 2023 paper 1 contained 4 questions: a 5 mark, a 9 mark, a 10 mark and one 13 mark question.
* The 2022 paper 1 contained 4 questions: a 5 mark, a 9 mark, a 11 mark and one 13 mark question.
* The 2021 paper 1 contained 4 questions: a 6 mark, an 8 mark, a 9 mark and one 14 mark question.
* The 2020 paper 1 contained 4 questions: a 6 mark, an 8 mark, a 11 mark and one 12 mark question.
* The 2019 paper 1 contained 4 questions: a 5 mark, an 8 mark, a 9 mark and one 13 mark question.
* The 2018 paper 1 contained 5 questions: a 2 mark, a 5 mark, two 9 mark and one 12 mark question.
* The 2017 paper 1 contained 5 questions: a 5 mark, three 6 mark and one 12 mark question.

== Section D practice / predicted tasks ==
=== Input validation [high confidence] ===
Currently the player can enter data in response to __ChoosePile() (real exam question tell you where to intervene) that will break the game. 

🌶️ - VALUES - Assume the user will enter an int, but keep on asking the coordinate until it is within the bounds. 

🌶️🌶️ - TYPE - the user can't be trusted to not drool on the keyboard or smth. also check it's an int. If it isn't you should display an error message - feel free to make it very sarcastic, before asking the coordinate again

==== Test ====
VALUES: Press return for default game, then
 Player 1, enter your choice: T
 Enter x coordinate: -1
 Enter x coordinate: 0
 Enter x coordinate: 7
 Enter x coordinate: 5
 Enter y coordinate: 0 
 Enter y coordinate: 6
 Enter x coordinate: 4
 Enter y coordinate: 7
 Enter y coordinate: 6
TYPE:
 Enter filename to load or just press Enter to play the default game: 
 MENU
 B. Display the board
 D. Display the discard
 T. Take turn
 S. Display scores
 Player 1, enter your choice: T
 Enter x coordinate: foo
 an integer, please
 Enter x coordinate: 1
 Enter y coordinate: bar
 an integer, please
 Enter y coordinate: 1
 Enter x coordinate: 1
 Enter y coordinate: 2
 Player 1, you had two matching A tiles; your score has increased by 2

=== The one that explains `from math import sqrt` [high confidence] ===
⚠️The fact we go in with N piles, then need to import mths sqrt may indicate a task using sqrt. Given the setup, this has got to be distance between two piles. Hence:

🌶️🌶️🌶️Change the scoring of a matching pair by adding to the tile scores the distance between the two matched piles, rounded to the nearest integer.
 
'''TESTING'''

* [Return] for default game
* T
* 1
* 1
* 4
* 4
* Player 1 should score 6: 2 for the tiles, 4 for the distance (sqrt(9+9))
* T
* 2
* 1
* 2 
* 2
* Player 2 should score 5: 3 for the tiles, 1 for the distance (vertical only)


=== Pile clear bonus [high confidence] ===
The game supports ''almost'' everything so that when a player match empties a pile, they get a bonus score. The one thing that's missing is in the scoring. 

🌶️🌶️ Change the scoring so that if a match empties a pile, the bonus for the pile is awarded to the player. You'll need to add a getter for Pile._Bonus.

==== Test ====
Two cases, as it's possible to empty one or both piles with a match. 

-game1.txt tells you which piles have the same sequence, that will give you a match that should score both bonus

- there's a test sequence to be found that will have one of the player score a single match.

=== Saving [med-high confidence] ===
If you've read the code closely, you'll have noticed the game1.txt is not just a description of  game ''configuration'' - it is in fact a game ''save.'' If you've just run the game, you won't have noticed, because game1 is a save at the very start of the game. So they've given you a ''load'' function. Do you see what's coming over the horizon? 

==== 👉Add a new menu item &quot;S Save game&quot;. This should then call a new method on the Game class, which asks the user for a savename, and writes the game to a file, appending .txt, in the format of game1.txt - here too, you'll need a Pile.GetBonus(). ====

=== Making the game both more and less boring [low, but good practice] ===
At the moment -certainly in the early game, the default game can be a bit boring, because every pile is the same: an A-tile, for one point a B tile for 2, another A,1. We can make the game less boring, but also longer, and long-term excitement turns out quite boring:

👉 Instead of the default game have all the same piles, keep the same proportion (that's 72 A,1, 36 B,2), but build the pile at random. Basic: If you use a random draw, the game might end up not being endable by zero tiles, but no one gets that far anyway. 

Fancy: actually draw 72 A1 and 36 B2, as if from a pile of tile, to randomly make the board

=== Party mode [low-mid confidence] ===
The architecture of the game, and what's visible in game1.txt means the game can support an arbitrary number of players. 

It is just that both the hard-coded default mode and the save file happen to have two players

It's lucky, because although any player can hit the maximum score at which the game ends, the winner is always whoever between player 1 and 2 has the highest score, which is enough to run a 6-player AQA skeleton code gaming night like many Y13 enjoy. So you'll need to fix that.

🌶️🌶️🌶️ When starting a default game, it should default to a 6x6 board, and whatever basic pile o' tiles layout we're running (see 'making the game both more and less boring'), but then ask for number of players (validate for an int &gt;0), then, for each, their names (no validation). 

You will need to fix the scoring bug, although testing that would require engineering a three-way game that ends with a win of the third one.

=== Streak ===
Add an attribute to the Player class storing the number of consecutive wins initalising at zero , with a getter, as well as an increment() and reset() method. 

Add the value of the streak to the player score when scoring, we should increment if it was a win.

If the turn was not a match, call reset() the streak counter to zero.

=== PSYCH! ===

* extend the Player class to store last_move, a [(x,y) (x,y)] list of tuples, and a WasMatch boolean, initialising to False
* Also getters and setters for both
* On every move, set the last_move record and the boolean accordingly.
* Here's the psych: if the last move was a miss, AND in the current move the player has selected one of the same piles has their last failed move, ''swap the tiles'' of the last move, before turning them over, with a 10% chance, maybe 50% to test it - you'll need to import random either way.</text>
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  <page>
    <title>User:Bobiversity</title>
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    <revision>
      <id>2840062</id>
      <parentid>2838256</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T19:27:26Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>~2026-55041-97</username>
        <id>3112624</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>/* Writing conventions */</comment>
      <origin>2840062</origin>
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      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="6095" sha1="4rm84crjli6y2hyqxkucn7wvu00fmfk" xml:space="preserve">= Bobz Langguaze =
'''Bobz Langguaze''' is an informal linguistic style associated with a community of Roblox developers and content creators. The style is characterized by deliberate spelling changes, phonetic representations, abbreviations, and recurring expressions used primarily in informal online communication.

Bobz Langguaze is associated with Bob, also known as Bobbifiy, a Roblox developer and animator. Community accounts attribute the creation and early use of the style to Bob.

=== Background ===
Bobz Langguaze developed within online communities centered around Roblox development. Roblox provides a platform where developers, animators, artists, and other creators communicate through services such as chat platforms, development communities, and social media.

The style developed as an informal form of communication within this environment. Rather than introducing a separate grammatical system, users modify existing English words and expressions to create distinctive spellings and terminology.

Its use is primarily associated with informal conversations rather than formal writing.

== Vocabulary ==
Several expressions have been associated with Bobz Langguaze:

* '''coowl''' — a stylized spelling of &quot;cool&quot;.
* '''auraz''' — an expression associated with the meaning &quot;cool&quot;.
* '''zigmaw''' — an expression used to indicate that a person or thing is cool.
* '''BBg''' — an expression associated with humorous or amusing content.
* '''Bobzian''' — a term referring to a person who uses Bobz Langguaze.
* '''Bobzie''' — a term associated with Bob, who is credited with creating the style.
* '''tacow''' — a term associated with the developer identity taco_developz. 

The vocabulary is informal and is not governed by a centralized authority. New expressions may appear through community usage, while existing expressions may change in meaning over time.

=== Usage ===
Bobz Langguaze is primarily used in informal online communication related to Roblox development and creator communities.

Its uses include casual conversation, jokes, community interactions, and references to people or activities within the associated developer community. The style is not intended as a replacement for standard English in formal communication.

The extent of its use outside the communities in which it originated is not established.

==== Writing conventions ====
A recurring convention in Bobz Langguaze is the use of '''z''' in positions where standard English would normally use '''s'''. This convention is reflected in the name &quot;Bobz Langguaze&quot; itself.

Other words may be modified according to pronunciation or for humorous effect. These modifications generally preserve enough of the original word for readers familiar with the community to recognize its intended meaning.

The style therefore relies heavily on shared context. Readers unfamiliar with the community may interpret some expressions differently from users familiar with the terminology.

== Classification ==
Bobz Langguaze is generally described as an informal linguistic style rather than a natural language.

It also differs from a fully developed constructed language. Constructed languages typically have intentionally developed linguistic systems that may include grammar, vocabulary, phonology, and writing conventions. Bobz Langguaze primarily consists of informal vocabulary and spelling conventions applied to existing language.

It can therefore be considered a form of community slang or internet-based linguistic style.

== Community ==
The style is associated with online communities surrounding Roblox development. These communities include developers, animators, artists, and other creators who communicate through online platforms.

Within such communities, distinctive terminology can develop through repeated use. Bobz Langguaze represents one example of this type of community-specific language variation.

== Development ==
The vocabulary of Bobz Langguaze has developed through informal usage rather than through a formal process of language planning.

As with other forms of internet slang, expressions may become established through repetition and community adoption. The lack of a formal authority means that there is no fixed process for determining which words belong to the style.

Consequently, descriptions of the vocabulary may change as the community develops.

== See also ==

* Roblox&lt;ref&gt;{{Citation |last=Coutinho|first=Christopher|title=Roblox Services|date=2023|work=Roblox Lua Scripting Essentials|pages=179–224|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-0026-9_7|access-date=2026-10-03|place=Berkeley, CA|publisher=Apress|isbn=979-8-8688-0025-2}}&lt;/ref&gt;
* Internet slang&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://meaningspot.com/blog/internet-slang-meanings-online-words-their-fun-meanings/|title=Internet Slang Meanings: Online Words &amp; Their Fun Meanings Meaningspot|last=Tumvine|first=Richord|date=2025-10-29|website=Meaningspot|language=en-US|access-date=2026-10-03}}&lt;/ref&gt;
* Online community&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://skoolprep.com/what-is-an-online-community|title=What Is an Online Community? Definition &amp; How to Start (2026)|last=SkoolPrep|website=Skool Prep|language=en|access-date=2026-10-03}}&lt;/ref&gt;
* Constructed language&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/constructed-language|title=CONSTRUCTED LANGUAGE definition and meaning {{!}} Collins English Dictionary|date=2026-10-01|website=www.collinsdictionary.com|language=en|access-date=2026-10-03}}&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;!--Inline citations added to your article will automatically display here. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:REFB for instructions on how to add citations.--&gt;
&lt;references responsive=&quot;1&quot;&gt;&lt;/references&gt;

== References ==
Sources discussing Bobz Langguaze should be added here. References should preferably consist of reliable, independent sources that provide substantial coverage of the subject.

Sources directly affiliated with the creator or community may be useful for verifying basic facts about the subject, but independent sources are generally needed to establish notability.</text>
      <sha1>4rm84crjli6y2hyqxkucn7wvu00fmfk</sha1>
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  </page>
  <page>
    <title>Cortext/Projects/Distributed computing</title>
    <ns>0</ns>
    <id>332389</id>
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      <id>2840050</id>
      <parentid>2836859</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T15:23:35Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>~2026-54862-35</username>
        <id>3112611</id>
      </contributor>
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      <text bytes="1593" sha1="bqkqr5nzwagcxiko9941sku8yyzu5mn" xml:space="preserve">= Distributed computing: Integrating Bacalhau into Cortext Manager =

== Context ==
I am working on integrating Bacalhau, an open-source distributed computing framework, into Cortext Manager, the web application of the Cortext. The goal is to move Cortext Manager away from running analysis tasks on a single server and toward distributed job orchestration. My current focus is adapting Cortext Manager jobs so they can be submitted to and executed by Bacalhau, while preserving the behavior of the original Cortext methods.

== Links ==
Repositories: [https://gitlab.com/cortext/cortext-services/cortext-bacalhau-experience], [https://gitlab.com/cortext/cortext-services/bacalhau-test]

Internship Report: [https://www.overleaf.com/read/jdjfqgbrjyzh#499f23]

Notion: [https://app.notion.com/p/Tremplin-Recherche-2b9e92dcab83814fa1d4e55fa5717b92?source=copy_link]

== Journal ==

=== October 1st ===

Today's meeting was held to resume the project where we had left off: the adaptation phase, which consists of converting a Cortext Manager job into a Bacalhau job. In practice, this means taking a task as it is currently defined and executed in Cortext Manager and reshaping it so it can be submitted to and run by Bacalhau, including how it receives its inputs, how it executes, and how it returns its outputs.

To carry out this adaptation correctly, we first need a clearer understanding of how Cortext's methods work internally. The next step is therefore to schedule a meeting with Julia to go over Cortext's methods, so we can identify what needs to change when moving them to Bacalhau.</text>
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      <timestamp>2026-10-13T16:25:34Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>AnaBeaSO</username>
        <id>3112320</id>
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      <text bytes="1589" sha1="4gw3huhxqh86ul19xvawywy62txwr3v" xml:space="preserve">= Distributed computing: Integrating Bacalhau into Cortext Manager =

== Context ==
I am working on integrating Bacalhau, an open-source distributed computing framework, into Cortext Manager, the web application of the Cortext. The goal is to move Cortext Manager away from running analysis tasks on a single server and toward distributed orchestration. My current focus is adapting Cortext Manager jobs so they can be submitted to and executed by Bacalhau, while preserving the behavior of the original Cortext methods.

== Links ==
Repositories: [https://gitlab.com/cortext/cortext-services/cortext-bacalhau-experience], [https://gitlab.com/cortext/cortext-services/bacalhau-test]

Internship Report: [https://www.overleaf.com/read/jdjfqgbrjyzh#499f23]

Notion: [https://app.notion.com/p/Tremplin-Recherche-2b9e92dcab83814fa1d4e55fa5717b92?source=copy_link]

== Journal ==

=== October 1st ===

Today's meeting was held to resume the project where we had left off: the adaptation phase, which consists of converting a Cortext Manager job into a Bacalhau job. In practice, this means taking a task as it is currently defined and executed in Cortext Manager and reshaping it so it can be submitted to and run by Bacalhau, including how it receives its inputs, how it executes, and how it returns its outputs.

To carry out this adaptation correctly, we first need a clearer understanding of how Cortext's methods work internally. The next step is therefore to schedule a meeting with Julia to go over Cortext's methods, so we can identify what needs to change when moving them to Bacalhau.</text>
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  <page>
    <title>Communication Law in Belgium</title>
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      <id>2840083</id>
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      <timestamp>2026-10-13T21:53:44Z</timestamp>
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        <username>HednersonLM</username>
        <id>3112403</id>
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      <text bytes="34534" sha1="hytrz68ywych3v7fue79xyn3pjqtkg0" xml:space="preserve">== Belgium's Legal System ==

=== Sources of Belgian Communication Law ===
Belgian legal authority is split among several bodies whose powers often overlap: the communities, the regions, the federal state, the European Union, and other sources of international law.&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.belgium.be/en/about_belgium/government/communities/competence|title=The Powers of the Communities|date=Accessed: 09/30/2026|website=Belgium.be}}&lt;/ref&gt; Due to this unique division of power, communications are typically regulated with split authorities: the federal government regulating networks and services, and the communities regulating culture and audio-visual content.&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt; The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT) regulates much of the telecommunications sector for the federal government and the Brussels-Capital region, while separate regulatory bodies have been established by each community.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/operators/media/media-regulator|title=Media regulator {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt;

=== Structure of the Belgian Government and Key Bodies ===
The Belgian Federal Parliament is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, with executive authority laid to the federal government.&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt; Because of the structure of the Belgian government, communications regulation is not concentrated to one governmental institution but spread throughout the federal government and the three communities.&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt; Each of the three communities, the Flemish, the French, and the German, all have independent regulatory and legislative authority over cultural and audio-visual matters within their regions&lt;ref name=&quot;:1&quot; /&gt;

The BIPT is the independent federal regulator for postal and telecommunications sectors, regulating electronic networks.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://merlin.obs.coe.int/article/4992|title=Article|website=merlin.obs.coe.int|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt; This includes market regulation, numbering, the spectrum, consumer protection, and enforcement of rules and regulations.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/operators/bipt/the-regulator/bipt|title=BIPT {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt; In order for most operators to enter the Belgian market, they must notify the BIPT and pay associated fees in accordance with the Electronic Communications Act (ECA) of 13 June 2005 and the Royal Decree of 7 March 2007.&lt;ref name=&quot;:2&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/operators/telecommunications/being-an-operator-in-belgium/notifying-the-bipt?|title=Notifying the BIPT {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt;

=== Regulatory Sources of Belgian Communications Law ===
The BIPT has been tasked with ensuring compliance with the ECA.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/operators/telecommunications/being-an-operator-in-belgium/basic-information|title=Basic information {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt; The Act requires that operators comply with security obligations such as conducting risk assessment and implementing appropriate measures to protect networks and key services.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/operators/telecommunications/security/access-to-emergency-services|title=Access to emergency services and public warning system {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt; &lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/operators/telecommunications/security/security-of-networks-and-information-systems|title=Security of networks and information systems {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt;In this context, the BIPT as a federal institution, acts as the regulator in the sector of audiovisual media services on the territory of the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region as regards audiovisual media services and video-sharing platform services.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/consumers/bipt/the-regulator/bipt|title=BIPT {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt;

The Data Protection Authority (Autorité de protection des données/Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit''')''' is Belgium's independent data-protection regulator. It was established by the Act of 3 December 2017 and succeeded the former Privacy Commission.&lt;ref name=&quot;:3&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://dataprotectionauthority.be/jaarverslag/autoriteit?|title=De Autoriteit {{!}} Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit|website=dataprotectionauthority.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt; Its responsibilities extend beyond The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to Belgian legislation governing the processing of personal data.&lt;ref name=&quot;:3&quot; /&gt;

Media Regulation is divided among the three community regulators; the Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (VRM) in the Flemish Community, the Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) in the French Community, and the Medienrat in the German Community. &lt;ref name=&quot;:4&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.vlaamseregulatormedia.be/en|title=Flemish Regulator for the Media {{!}} Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media|website=www.vlaamseregulatormedia.be|language=en|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:5&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.csa.be/faq/|title=FAQ {{!}} CSA Belgique|language=fr-FR|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt; &lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.medienrat.be/en/|title=Home - EN|website=Medienrat der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft|language=de|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt;These regulators also cooperate on implementation and enforcement when their jurisdictions overlap.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/operators/digital/digital-services-act/digital-service-act|title=Digital Service Act {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt;

=== Federal Sources of Belgian Communications Law ===
Article 19 of the Belgian Constitution guarantees freedom to manifest opinions, Article 22 protects the right to respect for private and family life, and Article 25 provides constitutional protections for the freedom of the press. &lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Belgium_1831|title=Belgium 1831 Constitution - Constitute|website=www.constituteproject.org|language=en|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt; These provisions account for the fundamental rights which concern communications law in Belgium.

Federal statutes include the 13 June 2005 Act on Electronic Communications, which is the cornerstone of federal communications law within Belgium. This act created the framework for electronic communications and regulation of operators, networks, services, consumer rights, security, numbering, and regulatory oversight.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibpt.be/operateurs/telecoms/reglementation-applicable/cadre-national|title=Cadre national {{!}} IBPT|website=www.ibpt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt; The Act requires operators to notify BIPT before operating in Belgium, and imposes transparency requirements including service information, prices, contract information, provision of customer support, and complaint procedures.&lt;ref name=&quot;:2&quot; /&gt;

Each Community has its own independent legislation regarding media and communications. Each has passed legislation creating and informing their regulatory bodies of the rules they are to enforce and the bodies they are supposed to regulate.&lt;ref name=&quot;:3&quot; /&gt; &lt;ref name=&quot;:4&quot; /&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:5&quot; /&gt;These community bodies implement EU audiovisual-media requirements while conforming to the constitutional/institutional structure of Belgium.&lt;ref name=&quot;:3&quot; /&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:4&quot; /&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:5&quot; /&gt;

=== European Union Sources of Law Impacting Belgian Law ===
The European Union is a major source of Belgian communications law. The European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) established by Directive (EU) 2018/1972, provides the EU framework for electronic networks and services.&lt;ref name=&quot;:6&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/4bb873d0-01d2-11e9-adde-01aa75ed71a1/language-en|title=Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code|website=op.europa.eu|access-date=10/9/2026}}&lt;/ref&gt; It regulates market access, competition, consumer protection, the spectrum, universal service, and end-user rights. Belgium has incorporated much of the code into its national framework through amendments to the Electronic Communications Act.&lt;ref name=&quot;:6&quot; /&gt;&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi/article.pl?language=fr&amp;sum_date=2021-12-31&amp;lg_txt=f&amp;pd_search=2021-12-31&amp;numac_search=2021043554|title=21 DECEMBER 2021. - Law transposing the European Electronic Communications Code and amending various provisions relating to electronic communications|website=ejustice.just.fgov.be|access-date=10/9/2026}}&lt;/ref&gt;

Unlike an EU directive, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is directly applicable in Belgium and establishes rules governing the processing of personal data and provides individuals with rights concerning their personal information.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/|title=What is GDPR, the EU’s new data protection law?|last=Wolford|first=Ben|date=2018-11-07|website=GDPR.eu|language=en-US|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:7&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.dlapiperdataprotection.com/index.html?t=law&amp;c=BE|title=Data protection laws in Belgium - Data Protection Laws of the World|website=www.dlapiperdataprotection.com|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt; The Belgian Data Protection Authority is responsible for supervising compliance with the rules established by the GDPR, which has been supplemented in Belgium through national legislation.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://dataprotectionauthority.be/jaarverslag/autoriteit?|title=De Autoriteit {{!}} Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit|website=dataprotectionauthority.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:7&quot; /&gt;

The Digital Services Act (DSA) Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, is another important international law that has taken force in Belgium. The DSA established obligations for internet-access providers, hosting services, online platforms, and online marketplaces which encourage transparency, protect fundamental rights, and foster a safer online environment.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/consumers/digital/the-digital-services-act-dsa/digital-service-act-in-a-nutshell|title=Digital Service Act in a nutshell {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-09}}&lt;/ref&gt;

== The Media and the Law ==

=== The European Convention on Human Rights ===
As a member of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Belgium is bound by the convention and its enforcement by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). &lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/what-is-the-echr-and-why-does-it-matter/|title=What is the ECHR and why does it matter?|website=Liberty|language=en-GB|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; The ECtHR has broad authority over member states to ensure compliance with the convention and try cases involving non-compliance. &lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org.uk/knowledge-hub/all-resources/what-is-the-european-convention-on-human-rights/|title=What is the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)?|date=2025-07-02|website=Amnesty International UK|language=en-gb|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt;

The ECHR ensures many of the same rights as the Belgian Constitution, such as respect for human rights, privacy and family life, the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and many others. &lt;ref name=&quot;:8&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/d/echr/convention_ENG|title=European Convention on Human Rights}}&lt;/ref&gt;

=== The Federal Institute for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights ===
The FIRM/IFDH is a Belgian federal agency aimed at promoting and protecting human rights within Belgium.&lt;ref name=&quot;:9&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://federaalinstituutmensenrechten.be/en/uw-rechten/themes/press-freedom-and-human-rights|title=Press Freedom and Human Rights|website=Federal Institute for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights|access-date=10/9/2026}}&lt;/ref&gt; One of their stated goals is to ensure that the freedom of the press is maintained and advise the federal parliament on how this freedom can best be maintained. &lt;ref name=&quot;:9&quot; /&gt; FIRM/IFDH holds themselves as a unique federal power which can oversee the implementation of international standards and serve as a sounding board for whistle blowers. &lt;ref name=&quot;:9&quot; /&gt; While the organization is not authorized to receive and act upon individual complaints of human rights violations in the media, they serve as an important resource for ensuring the protection of the whole nation and advising upon changes that need to be implemented to best serve those goals. &lt;ref name=&quot;:9&quot; /&gt;

=== Protection of Journalists' Sources ===
Belgian law provides liberal protections for confidential sources in the media. The Law of 27 March 2005 established the framework for this protection, naming journalists and editorial staff as the protected class in the statute. &lt;ref name=&quot;:10&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://merlin.obs.coe.int/article/3446|title=Article|website=merlin.obs.coe.int|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; The statute lays out that journalists and editorial staff may refuse to turn over documents if there is a belief that such documents may: reveal the identity of the source, reveal the nature or origin of the information obtained, identify the author or creator of a writing or audiovisual creation, or reveal any information that may aid in the identification of the informant. &lt;ref name=&quot;:10&quot; /&gt; In order for documents which do meet this criteria to be disclosed by judicial grant, the information within the documents must relate to crimes which pose a serious threat to one or more persons, must be of importance to preventing such a crime, and can only be obtained from the requested documents. &lt;ref name=&quot;:10&quot; /&gt; This strict requirement for the judicial compulsion of confidential sources underscores the importance that Belgian Legislators have given to the right of journalists to keep their sources anonymous.

The ECtHR has also applied Article 10 of the ECHR to staunchly protect journalists and the confidentiality of their sources. In the 2003 case of ''Ernst and others v. Belgium'' in the ECtHR, the court weighed Belgian authorities’ searches of homes and offices in an attempt to identify sources who had leaked confidential information to Belgian journalists. &lt;ref name=&quot;:11&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-65779%22%5D%7D|title=HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights|website=hudoc.echr.coe.int|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; The question before the court was whether these actions by the Belgian authorities was a justified interference with the right to freedom of expression guaranteed to the journalists under Article 10 of the ECHR. &lt;ref name=&quot;:11&quot; /&gt; The court found that Belgium did in fact have a legitimate interest in the interference. However, they also found that the interest was not strong enough saying that the government’s interference must be “necessary in a democratic society.” &lt;ref name=&quot;:11&quot; /&gt; The court ultimately held that the Belgian government did not meet the standard required to permit these searches under Article 10 of the ECHR, and that the considerations of the Convention inherently tip the balance of competing interests towards that which defends freedom of the press. &lt;ref name=&quot;:11&quot; /&gt; As such, the ECtHR sets very strong protections for the freedom of the press and in turn their right to confidentiality with sources.

=== National and Community Regulators ===
The BIPT strives to ensure national compliance with Belgian and EU law as well as fair access to media markets while providing reliable, sustainable coverage. &lt;ref name=&quot;:12&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/consumers/bipt/the-regulator/bipt|title=BIPT {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; They also serve as a resource for citizens who are experiencing issues with their service or who believe their rights regarding media service have been violated. &lt;ref name=&quot;:12&quot; /&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:13&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/operators/bipt/missions|title=Missions {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt;As technology has changed and expanded the spectrum, BIPT has taken steps to promote connection to internet sources and protect the resources that make up both traditional and the expansive online broadband spectrums. &lt;ref name=&quot;:13&quot; /&gt; 

The CSA has similar aims as the BIPT and strives to ensure compliance with the laws and regulations over media providers in the French community within Belgium. &lt;ref name=&quot;:14&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.csa.be/le-csa/|title=Le CSA {{!}} CSA Belgique|language=fr-FR|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; Their powers include the censorship of material following its original release or broadcast should that release or broadcast violate the laws of Belgium and the French community, though the CSA only resorts to sanctioning broadcasters if it has exhausted all other regulatory options first. &lt;ref name=&quot;:14&quot; /&gt; Meanwhile, the Flemish VRM has the same broad goals and highlights their protection of minors in the media. &lt;ref name=&quot;:15&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.vlaamseregulatormedia.be/en|title=Flemish Regulator for the Media {{!}} Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media|website=www.vlaamseregulatormedia.be|language=en|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; The VRM has a separate chamber comprised of experts in issues relating to children which passes on recommendations to the Flemish regulator to ensure children are not being exposed to harmful content. &lt;ref name=&quot;:15&quot; /&gt; The German Medirnrat prioritized collaboration with their other regional regulatory partners and EU regulatory bodies to further their goals of fair access and protection of all citizenries. &lt;ref name=&quot;:16&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.medienrat.be/en/|title=Home - EN|website=Medienrat der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft|language=de|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; This collaboration helps to ensure the spectrum is used in a reasonable manner and that the content pushed through both the traditional spectrum and the modern broadband spectrum is safe for the consumption of all Belgian society. &lt;ref name=&quot;:16&quot; /&gt;

== Censorship and Violent Content ==

=== Freedom of Expression ===
Articles 19 and 25 of the Belgian Constitution protect the freedom to express opinions on all matters subject only to punishment of abuses defined by law and protect the press from censorship, bringing about cascade liability starting with the author.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Belgium_2014|title=Belgium 1831 (rev. 2014) Constitution - Constitute|website=www.constituteproject.org|language=en|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; Regulators such as CSA or VRM may only act after the publication of a work, not prior to its publication. &lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.vlaamseregulatormedia.be/nl/over-vrm/over-ons/veelgestelde-vragen-over-de-vrm|title=Veelgestelde vragen over de VRM {{!}} Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media|website=www.vlaamseregulatormedia.be|language=nl|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; This prevents the government from making a determination before publication, but leaves an avenue of punishment open after publication.

Belgian law is also governed by Article 10 of the ECHR which protects the freedom to hold opinions and receive and impart information and ideas, while also permitting some restrictions where appropriate.&lt;ref name=&quot;:8&quot; /&gt; Such situations include those which deal with national security, public safety, preventing disorder or crime, and protecting the rights and reputations of others. &lt;ref name=&quot;:8&quot; /&gt;This requires a balance from the courts between freedom of expression and restrictions based on public interests. The European Court of Human Rights has weighed in on this balance in cases involving Belgium directly.

In ''Feret v. Belgium,'' the Chairman of the Belgian political party Front National had been convicted for publicly inciting discrimination or hate through leaflets and other means of publication.&lt;ref name=&quot;:17&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22002-1407%22%5D%7D|title=HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights|website=hudoc.echr.coe.int|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; In this case, the European Court held that Belgium had not violated Article 10 as the restriction on speech furthered a legitimate public interest. &lt;ref name=&quot;:17&quot; /&gt;The court did hold, however, that any restriction such as this must be based upon legitimate interest and that no other legal basis would permit regulation of speech in this way.&lt;ref name=&quot;:17&quot; /&gt;

=== Regulation of Violent and Hateful Content ===
Rather than restricting violent expression generally, Belgian law focuses on specific forms and categories of violent expression.&lt;ref name=&quot;:18&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.unia.be/en/understanding-discrimination/discrimination-under-law|title=Discrimination under the law|website=Unia|language=en|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; Using separate regulatory schemes, expressions inciting violence or hatred for minority groups and women, or inciting terrorism have been barred by both the Belgian government and by the European Union through regulations made law by Belgian authorities.&lt;ref name=&quot;:18&quot; /&gt;

The Law of 30 July 1981was passed by the federal government of Belgium, restricting speech that targets individuals or groups based on their nationality, race, skin color, descent, and national or ethnic origin. &lt;ref name=&quot;:18&quot; /&gt; In conjunction with the Law of 30 July 1981 are the Anti-Discrimination and the Gender Laws of 10 May 2007.&lt;ref name=&quot;:19&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://equal.belgium.be/en/useful-links/legislation|title=Legislation {{!}} Equal Opportunities|website=equal.belgium.be|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; These two laws restrict speech which targets age, sexual orientation, civil status, birth, wealth, religious or philosophical convictions, political views, language, health, disability, and gender. &lt;ref name=&quot;:19&quot; /&gt;Violations of any of these laws can be reported to UNIA who will then investigate the report and take the appropriate steps to address the issue. &lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.unia.be/nl/over-unia|title=Over Unia|website=Unia|language=nl|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt;

=== Media Regulation and Censorship ===
Due to the unique structure of the Belgian government, most media regulation does not come from a central, federal entity. Rather, each of the three communities has a separate regulatory body which performs these duties. This leads to some variation in the policies and regulatory schemes in each of the three communities.

The Flemish and French Community regulators, VRM for the Flemish and CSA for the French, both practice post-broadcast enforcement of hateful or inciteful content. &lt;ref name=&quot;:20&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.csa.be/faq_csa/le-csa-intervient-il-dans-la-programmation-des-televisions-et-des-radios/|title=Le CSA censure-t-il? {{!}} CSA Belgique|language=fr-FR|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt;Neither will pre-screen and prohibit content from reaching the market, but both will enforce the law and hold bad actors accountable if they do publish such content.&lt;ref name=&quot;:20&quot; /&gt;

The German regulatory body, the Medienrat, is much smaller in size and largely focuses on commercial media violations and ensuring minors are protected, rather than actively policing hate speech in the media.&lt;ref name=&quot;:21&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.medienrat.be/regulierung/|title=Regulierung|website=Medienrat der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft|language=de|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; Much of this policing is left to the federal body that exists in Belgium.&lt;ref name=&quot;:21&quot; /&gt;

=== Protection for Minors ===
The CSA has recently implemented a robust system for classifying media available to children in order to inform parents of what the child is watching, what age group(s) that media is deemed fit for, and what in particular the program contains that may be harmful to children. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.csa.be/protection-des-mineurs/|title=Protection des mineurs {{!}} CSA Belgique|language=fr-FR|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; This system is similar on its face to the system in the US where an age rating and description of the content appears in the beginning of a show, however in the French communities, the age rating must be visible for the entire show and the descriptors are separate pictorials showing the particular descriptions. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt; The descriptors must also reappear after any ads. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt; There are some exceptions to this classification system, such as sports, news programs, music concerts, and live programs and their replays. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt; If any of these programs do contain anything that may be sensitive for children, broadcasters are required to broadcast an audio or written warning before the broadcast of such material. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt; The CSA also implemented a parental control system which requires a code to access any broadcast that is rated for audiences 18+.&lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt; As these programs are locked behind a code, some of the above restrictions are eased for broadcasters. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt;

Along with these restrictions are those promulgated by the EU through the Digital Services Act (DSA). This legislation requires companies to ensure that minors are not being exposed to pornography, cyberbullying, unwanted contacts, or content that incites dangerous behavior. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt; It also implements certain design criteria such as the avoidance of infinite scrolling (doom scrolling), limiting access to adult content, and restricting messaging capabilities to safe environments. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt; The European Commission also recommends the use of age verification to restrict the access of minors to certain content areas, with websites such as gambling or adult content centered sites requiring strict age verification, and social media sites requiring a more privacy respecting verification system. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt; These recommendations from the European Commission are not legally binding but serve as a strong piece of guidance when it comes to handling children and the expanding social media influences today. &lt;ref name=&quot;:22&quot; /&gt;

== Truth, Tolerance, and Unprotected Speech ==

=== Defamation by Statute ===
Defamation law in Belgium can be categorized under insult, defamation, and slander under Articles 443 and 448 of the Belgian Criminal Code. &lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=http://legaldb.freemedia.at/legal-database/belgium/|title=Belgium {{!}} Defamation Laws|language=en-US|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; Slander and defamation share a common origin, that being that a person must maliciously impute upon a specific person something that is likely to harm his honor. &lt;ref name=&quot;:23&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_loi/article.pl?language=fr&amp;numac_search=1867060850|title=Banque de données Justel|website=www.ejustice.just.fgov.be|language=en|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; The difference between slander and defamation is that in slander proceedings, the law admits proof of the act imputed and in defamation the law does not. &lt;ref name=&quot;:23&quot; /&gt; The punishment for either crime is imprisonment between eight days to one year and a fine of 26 to 200 euros. &lt;ref name=&quot;:23&quot; /&gt; Insult is also punishable by imprisonment for eight days to two months and a fine of 26 to 500 Euros, or only one of those penalties. &lt;ref name=&quot;:23&quot; /&gt;

Article 150 of the Belgian Constitution establishes that political and press offenses shall fall within jurisdiction of the jury save for offenses motivated by racism or xenophobia. &lt;ref name=&quot;:23&quot; /&gt; This makes criminal prosecution of press offenses procedurally difficult, and as a result, defamatory statements published through the press have been subject to a distinctive constitutional regime.&lt;ref name=&quot;:24&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.unia.be/fr/discours-de-haine/d%C3%A9lit-de-presse|title=Qu'est-ce qu'un délit de presse ?|website=Unia|language=fr|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; Due to the constraints the constitution and statutory law have emplaced, the circumstances where criminal law can be used against the press are limited. &lt;ref name=&quot;:24&quot; /&gt;

=== Cases Exploring Belgian Defamation Law ===
In De Haes and Gijsels v. Belgium in the ECHR, examination of civil liability was imposed on journalists for publishing information critical of judges.&lt;ref name=&quot;:25&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-58015%22%5D%7D|title=HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights|website=hudoc.echr.coe.int|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; In this case, two journalists published a total of five articles, which criticized judges for awarding custody of a child to a father who had been accused of incest and child abuse. &lt;ref name=&quot;:25&quot; /&gt; The judges then filed an action against the journalists, seeking damages for defamation. &lt;ref name=&quot;:25&quot; /&gt; The European Court of Human rights ultimately found that journalists had a right under Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights and that the lower courts holding in favor of the judges was a violation of those rights. &lt;ref name=&quot;:25&quot; /&gt; Freedom of expression includes information and ideas that offend, shock, or disturb, but wrongful attacks on another person’s honor may impose civil liability. &lt;ref name=&quot;:25&quot; /&gt; Facts and opinions are treated differently under Article 10. As such, courts must consider the nature of the statement, factual basis, context, and contribution as a matter of public interest.&lt;ref name=&quot;:25&quot; /&gt;

''Hurbain v. Belgium'' was heard by the ECtHR in 2023, which ultimately found no violation of Article 10 when a Belgian court required the anonymization of digital archives belonging to a Belgian publication.&lt;ref name=&quot;:26&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22002-14115%22%5D%7D|title=HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights|website=hudoc.echr.coe.int|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; In this case, the Belgian source had published an article about a fatal car crash, naming the driver. After serving his sentence and reentering society, the driver had become a practicing doctor.&lt;ref name=&quot;:26&quot; /&gt; In 2008, the publication made available an online archive of their articles from 1989 onward, including the article naming the doctor. Upon his request, Belgian courts required the archive be anonymized to protect the reputation of those such as the doctor, which the ECtHR found to be a proportionate and fair measure to protect his identity and therefore did not violate Article 10 of the ECHR.&lt;ref name=&quot;:26&quot; /&gt;

=== The Broadcast or Incitement of Terror Attacks ===
Both Belgian law and EU Regulations bar the sharing of content that may incite or inspire others to commit an act of terror. &lt;ref name=&quot;:27&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/operators/digital/terrorist-content-online/what-is-the-tco-regulation|title=What is the TCO Regulation? {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; BIPT explains that under Belgian law terrorist content includes content which calls for a terror attack, glorifies terror attacks, any content that shows how to create weapons or explosives to carry out an attack, or the encouraging of anyone to join a terror group. &lt;ref name=&quot;:28&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.bipt.be/consumers/digital/terrorist-content-online-tco/what-is-terrorist-content|title=What is terrorist content? {{!}} BIPT|website=www.bipt.be|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt; As further explained by BIPT, the EU regulations impose similar restrictions on content; barring the sharing of content that directly or indirectly advocated for terrorism, solicits the commission, instruction on creation or use of weapons (explosive, conventional, or chemical), or threatens an act of terror.&lt;ref name=&quot;:27&quot; /&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:28&quot; /&gt;

Both the EU and Belgian regulations, however, exempt any information used for educational, journalistic, artistic, or research purposed even when that information is controversial. &lt;ref name=&quot;:27&quot; /&gt; &lt;ref name=&quot;:28&quot; /&gt; However, materials containing these classes of information that is disseminated to the public is subject to assessment by BIPT to evaluate the content and its purpose before holding that the content is exempt under the public information exemption. &lt;ref name=&quot;:27&quot; /&gt; The EU regulation especially focuses on online service providers such as social media companies, as many terror movements are shared online and grown through that medium. &lt;ref name=&quot;:26&quot; /&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:27&quot; /&gt; As such, any service provider that is established primarily in a third-party country, is subject to such regulations at the inception of their service provision within any EU member state. &lt;ref name=&quot;:26&quot; /&gt;&lt;ref name=&quot;:27&quot; /&gt;

Community regulators within Belgium, such as the VRM, also specifically regulate the broadcast and dissemination of information regarding terror attacks. The VRM has established that public provocation to commit a terror attack shall be a criminal attack as also mentioned in articles 137 and 140bis of the Penal code. &lt;ref name=&quot;:29&quot;&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.vlaamseregulatormedia.be/sites/default/files/act_on_radio_and_television_broadcasting_updated_01122022.pdf|title=Act on Radio and Television Broadcasting|website=VRM|access-date=10/9/2026}}&lt;/ref&gt; This same Act on Radio and Television Broadcasting also bars broadcasts that incite the commission of a terror attack, under the same provisions of the penal code. &lt;ref name=&quot;:29&quot; /&gt; Article 140bis of the Penal code imposes the punishment of five to ten years of imprisonment and a fine of 100-5,000 Euros for any who are found guilty of disseminating to the public a message intended to incite a terror attack; Article 137 establishes the recognized definition of a terror attack, including attacks against the public and other offenses commonly thought of as terror attacks.&lt;ref&gt;{{Cite web|url=https://www.jurion.fanc.fgov.be/jurdb-consult/plainWettekstServlet?lang=nl&amp;wettekstId=4373|title=08/06/1867 Strafwetboek - uittreksel; Artikel 137|website=www.jurion.fanc.fgov.be|access-date=2026-10-10}}&lt;/ref&gt;

== References ==
&lt;references /&gt;

[[Category:Belgium]]
[[Category:Communication in Europe|Law in Belgium]]
[[Category:Law in Europe]]</text>
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    <title>David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits/Nature</title>
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      <text bytes="4908" sha1="sb0yqdoi9sq41wwrp0avvy2u4xrallv" xml:space="preserve">This page follows a [[David Ricardo/An Essay on Profits|resource on David Ricardo's ''Essay on Profit'']] (first published 1815). On this page we will make some remarks concerning the relation between the Ricardian theory of rent (first exposed in the ''Essay on Profits'') and the role of &quot;nature&quot;.

{{Right|&quot;Rent is that portion of the produce of the earth which is paid to the landlord&lt;br /&gt;for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;({{harvp|Ricardo|1817|p=67}})
}}
{{clear}}

Immediately following his conclusions from the table in the ''Essay on Profits,'' Ricardo states in a footnote that by &quot;rent&quot; he always means: &quot;the remuneration given to the landowner for the use of the original and inherent power of the land.&quot; ({{harvp|Ricardo|1815}}, [[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock#15|p. 15]])

This, and similar formulations–including those in the ''Principles''–arouse curiosity as to the significance Ricardo attaches to natural conditions and factors in the process of economic development.

In Ricardo’s exposition, the so-called &quot;law of diminishing returns&quot;&lt;ref name=diminish1&gt;See for an in depth explanation of the position of this law of diminishing returns in the ''Essay'' the paragraph in the subpage on the mathematical interpretation of the Ricardian theory of rent.&lt;/ref&gt; plays a central role, although it is never explicitly referred to as such.&lt;ref name=diminish2&gt;See {{harvp|Stigler|1952|p=195f}} and {{harvp|Blaug|1985|p=78f}}.&lt;/ref&gt; Production conditions on newly cultivated agricultural land are said to deteriorate progressively. As a result, the physical yields from the same investment in labour and means of production on a given area of land (due to declining fertility or rising transport costs).&lt;br /&gt;
The explanation for the origin of rent, the development of the magnitude of rent, and the development of the magnitude of profits ultimately rests on a central assumption concerning the limited availability of natural resources.&lt;ref name=profitsfall&gt;Compare {{harvp|Ricardo|1815}}, [[:s:en:An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock#15|p. 15]] (footnote): &quot;Profits of stock fall because land equally fertile cannot be obtained, and through the whole progress of society, profits are regulated by the difficulty or facility of procuring food. This is a principle of great importance, and has been almost overlooked in the writings of Political Economists. They appear to think that profits of stock can be raised by commercial causes, independently of the supply of food.&quot;&lt;/ref&gt;

Van der Pol, in particular, has pointed out that, for Ricardo, natural constraints play a decisive role in the course of the process of economic development.&lt;ref name=Pol&gt;{{harvp|van der Pol|1981}}, e.g. p. 250.&lt;/ref&gt; Nentjes also highlights the significance of Ricardo’s theory in the light of (at the time) contemporary issues concerning the depletion of natural resources and the &quot;energy crisis.&quot;{{sfnp|Nentjes|1971| page = 32–3}}


== Footnotes ==
{{references}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite book
| last = Blaug | first = Mark
| date = 1985
| title = Economic Theory in Retrospect (fourth ed.)
| location = Cambridge etc.
| publisher = Cambridge University Press
| ISBN = 0 521 30354 0
| ref = harv
| url = http://digamo.free.fr/blaug62.pdf
}}
* {{cite book 
| last = Ricardo | first = David | author-link = David Ricardo
| date = 1815
| title =  An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock
| location = London
| publisher = John Murray
| ref = harv
| url = https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Influence_of_a_Low_Price_of_Corn_on_the_Profits_of_Stock
}}
* {{cite book 
| last = Ricardo | first = David | author-link = David Ricardo
| date = 1817
| title =  On the Principles of Political Economy; And Taxation
| location = London
| publisher = John Murray
| ref = harv
| url = 
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Nentjes | first = Andries
| date = 1971
| title = De ontwikkeling van de economische theorie
| language = nl
| location = Groningen
| publisher = Tjeenk Willink
| ISBN = 9001625207
| ref = harv
}} (second impression 1975)
* {{cite book
| last = van der Pol | first = Kick
| date = 1981
| title = Marx contra Ricardo : De wet van de dalende winstvoet
| language = nl
| location = Groningen
| publisher = Wolters-Noordhoff
| ISBN = 90 01 71290 8
| ref = harv
}}
* {{cite journal
| last = Stigler | first = George J. | author-link = :w:en:George Stigler
| date = 1952
| title = The Ricardian Theory of Value and Distribution
| journal = Journal of Political Economy
| volume = 60
| issue = 3
| pp = 187–207
| ref = harv
| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/1826451
}}&lt;br /&gt;{{small|(access via [[File:Wikipedia Library owl.svg|12px|alt=12 px Wikipedia Library Owl]]  [[:w:en:Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library|The Wikipedia Library (TWL)]])}}</text>
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== Overview ==

== Book chapter that i'm working on ==</text>
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== Overview ==

== Book chapter that i'm working on ==

== Social Contribution ==</text>
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== Book chapter that I'm working on ==
[[Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Time perception in mood disorders]]

== Social Contribution ==</text>
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    <title>PDT, Fisher--Rao Geometry, and Ruppeiner Geometry of Black Holes</title>
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      <text bytes="31041" sha1="eizkx0etngngq6u88e5nuow2nm4r3mv" xml:space="preserve">= PDT, Fisher--Rao Geometry, and Ruppeiner Geometry of Black Holes =

'''Research status: Exploratory mathematical investigation'''

This page investigates a possible relationship between the Fisher--Rao geometry of probability distributions, as used in Probability Dilation Theory (PDT), and the Ruppeiner geometry used in black-hole thermodynamics.

The purpose is to formulate a precise mathematical research question, establish the relevant definitions, and identify conditions under which a meaningful relationship between these geometries might exist.

No equivalence between the two metrics is assumed.

== 1. Research Question ==

'''Central question:'''

Can the Fisher--Rao metric of a suitably defined probability distribution reproduce or relate mathematically to the Ruppeiner metric of a black hole?

The investigation begins with two established geometric constructions:

# The Fisher--Rao metric on a statistical manifold of probability distributions.
# The Ruppeiner metric on a thermodynamic state space.

The research question is whether a suitably defined probability model associated with a black-hole thermodynamic system can provide a mathematically justified relationship between these two metrics.

Possible outcomes include an exact correspondence under specified assumptions, a proportionality or other transformation between the metrics, a relationship limited to a particular black-hole model, or a demonstration that no useful correspondence exists under the proposed assumptions.

The investigation does not presume a positive result.

== 2. Scope and Research Strategy ==

The investigation proceeds in stages.

# Define the Fisher--Rao metric for a parameterized probability distribution.
# Define the Ruppeiner metric for a thermodynamic state space.
# Identify a specific black-hole thermodynamic model.
# Construct, if possible, a probability distribution associated with that model.
# Calculate the Fisher--Rao metric of the proposed distribution.
# Calculate or obtain the corresponding Ruppeiner metric.
# Determine whether a well-defined mathematical relationship exists between the two metrics.
# Examine whether PDT dilation contributes a useful additional result beyond the established geometry.

The initial investigation concerns black-hole thermodynamics, not the full Lorentzian geometry of black-hole spacetime.

These are distinct mathematical settings and must not be identified without an explicit mapping and supporting argument.

== 3. Fisher--Rao Geometry ==

=== 3.1 Statistical manifolds ===

A statistical manifold is a smooth family of probability distributions parameterized by coordinates

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\theta=(\theta^1,\theta^2,\ldots,\theta^m).
&lt;/math&gt;

Let the probability distribution be written as

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
p(x;\theta).
&lt;/math&gt;

For a discrete state space, the probabilities satisfy

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
p_i(\theta)&gt;0,
\qquad
\sum_i p_i(\theta)=1.
&lt;/math&gt;

The parameters &lt;math&gt;\theta^a&lt;/math&gt; identify points in the statistical model.

Under suitable regularity conditions, the Fisher information matrix defines a Riemannian metric on this parameterized family.

=== 3.2 Fisher--Rao metric ===

For a discrete probability model, the Fisher--Rao metric is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}_{ab}(\theta)
=
\sum_i
\frac{1}{p_i(\theta)}
\frac{\partial p_i(\theta)}{\partial\theta^a}
\frac{\partial p_i(\theta)}{\partial\theta^b}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}_{ab}(\theta)
=
\sum_i p_i(\theta)
\frac{\partial\log p_i(\theta)}{\partial\theta^a}
\frac{\partial\log p_i(\theta)}{\partial\theta^b}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The metric describes the local statistical distinguishability of nearby probability distributions.

It depends on the chosen probability model and its parameterization, although the metric transforms appropriately under regular changes of coordinates.

For a continuous probability density &lt;math&gt;p(x;\theta)&lt;/math&gt;, the corresponding expression is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}_{ab}(\theta)
=
\int
p(x;\theta)
\frac{\partial\log p(x;\theta)}{\partial\theta^a}
\frac{\partial\log p(x;\theta)}{\partial\theta^b}
\,dx,
&lt;/math&gt;

provided the integral and the relevant derivatives are well defined.

The Fisher--Rao metric is an established construction in information geometry.

== 4. Ruppeiner Geometry ==

=== 4.1 Thermodynamic state space ===

In thermodynamic geometry, a thermodynamic state can be represented by coordinates such as entropy, energy, volume, particle number, angular momentum, or electric charge, depending on the physical system and thermodynamic representation.

A family of equilibrium states can be treated as a manifold.

The Ruppeiner metric is a thermodynamic metric associated with entropy fluctuations.

In a common entropy representation using suitable extensive coordinates &lt;math&gt;X^i&lt;/math&gt;, its components are written as

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{R}}_{ij}
=
-\frac{\partial^2 S}
{\partial X^i\partial X^j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Here &lt;math&gt;S&lt;/math&gt; is the thermodynamic entropy.

The exact variables, signs, and thermodynamic interpretation depend on the chosen representation and conventions.

The Ruppeiner metric is used to investigate thermodynamic fluctuations, stability, and geometric properties of thermodynamic state spaces.

=== 4.2 Ruppeiner geometry in black-hole thermodynamics ===

Black holes possess thermodynamic properties, including entropy and temperature. Depending on the black-hole model, additional thermodynamic variables may include angular momentum, electric charge, or a cosmological-pressure variable.

Researchers have applied thermodynamic geometry to different black-hole families.

The resulting geometries are model-dependent. For example, published studies report different curvature behavior for Reissner--Nordström and Kerr black holes.

These established results provide a starting point for selecting a concrete model against which a proposed PDT relationship can be tested.

They do not, by themselves, establish a connection to PDT.

=== 4.3. First worked model: Reissner--Nordström black hole ===

The first worked model is the Reissner--Nordström black hole, a non-rotating black hole characterized by mass &lt;math&gt;M&lt;/math&gt; and electric charge &lt;math&gt;Q&lt;/math&gt;.

This model is useful because its thermodynamic geometry has been studied explicitly in the literature. The calculation below follows the thermodynamic conventions and coordinate transformations used by Aman and Pidokrajt.

==== 4.3.1. Entropy and fundamental thermodynamic relation ====

We use natural units in which &lt;math&gt;G=c=\hbar=k_B=1&lt;/math&gt;.

The outer horizon radius is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
r_+=M+\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

To match the entropy convention used in the reference calculation, define

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
S=r_+^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

This variable differs by a constant factor of &lt;math&gt;\pi&lt;/math&gt; from the usual Bekenstein--Hawking entropy &lt;math&gt;S_{\mathrm{BH}}=\pi r_+^2&lt;/math&gt; in these units.

Solving for the mass gives the fundamental thermodynamic relation

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
M(S,Q)=\frac{\sqrt S}{2}
\left(1+\frac{Q^2}{S}\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
M(S,Q)=\frac12
\left(\sqrt S+\frac{Q^2}{\sqrt S}\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

We consider the non-extremal region

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
S&gt;Q^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

==== 4.3.2. Temperature ====

The temperature is obtained by differentiating the mass with respect to entropy while holding charge fixed:

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
T=\left(\frac{\partial M}{\partial S}\right)_Q.
&lt;/math&gt;

Differentiation yields

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
T=\frac{1}{4\sqrt S}
\left(1-\frac{Q^2}{S}\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

For &lt;math&gt;S&gt;Q^2&lt;/math&gt;, the temperature is positive.

==== 4.3.3. Weinhold metric ====

The Weinhold metric is the Hessian of the mass function in the coordinates &lt;math&gt;(S,Q)&lt;/math&gt;:

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm W}_{ij}
=
\frac{\partial^2 M}{\partial X^i\partial X^j},
\qquad
(X^1,X^2)=(S,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

The first diagonal component is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm W}_{SS}
=
\frac{\partial^2 M}{\partial S^2}
=
-\frac{1}{8S^{3/2}}
\left(1-\frac{3Q^2}{S}\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

The mixed component is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm W}_{SQ}
=
g^{\mathrm W}_{QS}
=
\frac{\partial^2 M}{\partial S\partial Q}
=
-\frac{Q}{2S^{3/2}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The second diagonal component is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm W}_{QQ}
=
\frac{\partial^2 M}{\partial Q^2}
=
\frac{1}{\sqrt S}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm W}
=
\begin{pmatrix}
-\dfrac{1-3Q^2/S}{8S^{3/2}}
&amp;
-\dfrac{Q}{2S^{3/2}}
\\
-\dfrac{Q}{2S^{3/2}}
&amp;
\dfrac{1}{\sqrt S}
\end{pmatrix}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The corresponding line element is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
ds_{\mathrm W}^2
=
-\frac{1-3Q^2/S}{8S^{3/2}}\,dS^2
-\frac{Q}{S^{3/2}}\,dS\,dQ
+\frac{1}{\sqrt S}\,dQ^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

This agrees with the Weinhold metric obtained from the fundamental relation in the published Reissner--Nordström calculation.

==== 4.3.4. Ruppeiner metric ====

The Ruppeiner and Weinhold metrics are conformally related. In the thermodynamic coordinates used here, the relation is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
ds_{\mathrm R}^2
=
\frac{1}{T}ds_{\mathrm W}^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Introduce the dimensionless coordinate

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
u=\frac{Q}{\sqrt S}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The Ruppeiner line element becomes

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
ds_{\mathrm R}^2
=
-\frac{dS^2}{2S}
+
\frac{4S}{1-u^2}\,du^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

This expression is the Ruppeiner metric in the transformed coordinates &lt;math&gt;(S,u)&lt;/math&gt;.

==== 4.3.5. Demonstrating flatness ====

Introduce the coordinate

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\tau=\sqrt{2S}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Also define &lt;math&gt;\chi&lt;/math&gt; by

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\sin\left(\frac{\chi}{\sqrt2}\right)=u.
&lt;/math&gt;

Using these transformations, the Ruppeiner line element becomes

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
ds_{\mathrm R}^2
=
-d\tau^2+\tau^2d\chi^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is the flat two-dimensional metric in Rindler-type coordinates.

Consequently, the scalar curvature vanishes throughout the regular non-extremal region:

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\mathcal R_{\mathrm R}=0.
&lt;/math&gt;

The result agrees with the published analysis by Aman and Pidokrajt, which finds flat Ruppeiner geometry for Reissner--Nordström black holes.

==== 4.3.6. Interpretation and research boundary ====

The calculation establishes the thermodynamic geometry of the selected black-hole model using a published thermodynamic convention.

The result concerns the geometry of the black hole's thermodynamic state space. It does not imply that the spacetime surrounding the black hole is flat.

It also does not yet establish a relationship with PDT or Fisher--Rao geometry.

The next research step is to identify a justified probability distribution associated with this thermodynamic model, calculate its Fisher--Rao metric, and compare the resulting metric with the Ruppeiner metric.

Any proposed correspondence must be derived explicitly rather than inferred from the fact that both constructions involve geometric descriptions of thermodynamic or statistical information.

==== Reference for this calculation ====

Aman, J. E., and Pidokrajt, N. (2008). ''Ruppeiner Geometry of Black Hole Thermodynamics''.

[https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.0016 arXiv:0801.0016].

== 5. The Two Geometric Structures ==

The Fisher--Rao metric and the Ruppeiner metric arise from different constructions.

The Fisher--Rao metric is obtained from a probability model:

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}_{ab}
=
\sum_i
\frac{1}{p_i}
\frac{\partial p_i}{\partial\theta^a}
\frac{\partial p_i}{\partial\theta^b}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The Ruppeiner metric is obtained from a thermodynamic entropy function in an appropriate thermodynamic representation:

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{R}}_{ij}
=
-\frac{\partial^2 S}
{\partial X^i\partial X^j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Although both are metric tensors associated with information or thermodynamic structure, their definitions alone do not establish that they are equal.

The Fisher--Rao metric depends on a specified statistical model. The Ruppeiner metric depends on a specified thermodynamic state space and entropy representation.

A relationship between them therefore requires additional mathematical structure.

== 6. Introducing Probability Dilation Theory ==

PDT studies transformations of probability distributions through positive reweighting followed by normalization.

For a discrete probability vector

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
P=(p_1,p_2,\ldots,p_n),
\qquad
\sum_i p_i=1,
&lt;/math&gt;

a diagonal dilation with positive factors &lt;math&gt;d_i&lt;/math&gt; is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
p_i'
=
\frac{d_i p_i}
{\sum_j d_j p_j}.
&lt;/math&gt;

For a continuous probability density &lt;math&gt;\rho(x)&lt;/math&gt;, the corresponding transformation is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\rho'(x)
=
\frac{D(x)\rho(x)}
{\int D(y)\rho(y)\,dy},
&lt;/math&gt;

provided the denominator is finite and strictly positive.

These transformations define new probability distributions.

If the distributions belong to a suitable smooth parameterized family, their Fisher--Rao metric can be calculated.

This provides the mathematical point of entry for investigating PDT in relation to thermodynamic geometry.

However, PDT normalization alone does not determine a black-hole probability model, a thermodynamic entropy function, or a relationship between the resulting metrics.

Those elements must be specified independently.

== 7. Candidate Probability Model: Thermodynamic Fluctuations ==

=== 7.1. Motivation ===

A probability distribution used to investigate the relationship between Fisher--Rao geometry and Ruppeiner geometry should have a defensible physical interpretation.

One possible starting point is the statistical description of thermodynamic fluctuations around an equilibrium state.

Ruppeiner's work on thermodynamic black holes develops a fluctuation framework in which a black hole exchanges conserved quantities, such as energy and charge, with an environment.

This provides a potential starting point for the present investigation.

=== 7.2. Fluctuations of mass and charge ===

For a Reissner--Nordström black hole, consider the thermodynamic variables

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
X=(M,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

Let the equilibrium state be

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
X_0=(M_0,Q_0).
&lt;/math&gt;

Small deviations from equilibrium are

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\Delta M=M-M_0,
&lt;/math&gt;

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\Delta Q=Q-Q_0.
&lt;/math&gt;

If the black hole exchanges energy and charge with its environment, these quantities may fluctuate around equilibrium.

The probability of a fluctuation is related to the change in the total entropy of the system and its environment:

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
P(\Delta M,\Delta Q)
\propto
\exp\left(
\frac{\Delta S_{\mathrm{tot}}}{k_B}
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

Near a stable equilibrium, the first-order variation of the total entropy vanishes. A second-order expansion may then yield a local Gaussian approximation.

=== 7.3. Local Gaussian approximation ===

Write the second-order approximation as

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\Delta S_{\mathrm{tot}}
\simeq
-\frac{k_B}{2}
G_{ij}\Delta X^i\Delta X^j,
&lt;/math&gt;

where &lt;math&gt;G_{ij}&lt;/math&gt; is determined by the entropy Hessian and the chosen thermodynamic ensemble.

The corresponding local fluctuation distribution is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
P(\Delta X)
\propto
\exp\left(
-\frac12 G_{ij}\Delta X^i\Delta X^j
\right).
&lt;/math&gt;

For this expression to define a normalizable Gaussian distribution over the allowed fluctuation directions, the quadratic form must be positive definite on those directions.

This condition must be checked for the selected ensemble and equilibrium state. It cannot be assumed from the existence of a Ruppeiner metric alone.

=== 7.4. The role of the environment ===

The fluctuation distribution depends on the physical constraints imposed by the environment.

For example, the environment may allow energy and charge to fluctuate, or it may constrain one of these quantities.

Different constraints can produce different allowed fluctuation directions and different stability conditions.

Therefore, the probability model must specify which variables fluctuate and which are held fixed.

The choice of ensemble is part of the physical model, not an arbitrary mathematical convenience.

=== 7.5. Fisher--Rao geometry of the fluctuation model ===

If a normalizable probability distribution has been established, its Fisher--Rao metric can be calculated.

For a parameterized probability density &lt;math&gt;p(x;\theta)&lt;/math&gt;, the metric is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}_{ab}
=
\int
p(x;\theta)
\frac{\partial\log p(x;\theta)}{\partial\theta^a}
\frac{\partial\log p(x;\theta)}{\partial\theta^b}
\,dx.
&lt;/math&gt;

The parameters &lt;math&gt;\theta&lt;/math&gt; must be specified explicitly. They might describe the equilibrium state, the environment, or other parameters of the probability model.

The Fisher--Rao metric describes the statistical distinguishability of nearby probability distributions in this family.

Its relationship to the Ruppeiner metric must be calculated rather than assumed.

=== 7.6. A signature constraint ===

The Ruppeiner metric obtained for the Reissner--Nordström black hole in the formulation used above has Lorentzian signature.

An ordinary Fisher--Rao metric for a regular, identifiable probability model is positive definite.

Consequently, the two metrics cannot be identified directly on the full two-dimensional state space without addressing this signature difference.

Possible research directions include restricting the comparison to appropriate stable fluctuation directions, studying a lower-dimensional statistical model, or investigating a different construction.

Each possibility requires an explicit mathematical derivation.

=== 7.7. Introducing PDT ===

Once a physically justified probability model has been specified, PDT may be applied through normalized reweighting.

For a discrete distribution,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
p_i'=
\frac{d_i p_i}{\sum_jd_jp_j},
\qquad d_i&gt;0.
&lt;/math&gt;

For a continuous density,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\rho'(x)=
\frac{D(x)\rho(x)}
{\int D(y)\rho(y)\,dy},
&lt;/math&gt;

provided the denominator is finite and strictly positive.

The research task is to calculate the Fisher--Rao geometry before and after this transformation and compare the resulting structures with the appropriate thermodynamic metric.

The investigation must determine whether PDT contributes a meaningful mathematical result beyond the geometry already implied by the selected probability model.

=== 7.8. Research status ===

The fluctuation framework is an established approach in thermodynamic information geometry.

The probability model proposed here is a candidate for further investigation, not yet a completed model for the Reissner--Nordström black hole.

A valid Fisher--Rao calculation requires a specified ensemble, a normalizable probability distribution, and clearly defined parameters.

No equivalence between PDT, Fisher--Rao geometry, and the full Ruppeiner geometry is claimed at this stage.

=== 7.9. Canonical ensemble and Fisher--Rao metric ===

==== 7.9.1. Ensemble specification ====

Consider a Reissner--Nordström black hole inside a finite spherical cavity of fixed radius &lt;math&gt;R&lt;/math&gt;.

The electric charge &lt;math&gt;Q&lt;/math&gt;, cavity radius &lt;math&gt;R&lt;/math&gt;, and boundary temperature &lt;math&gt;T&lt;/math&gt; are fixed, while the energy is allowed to fluctuate.

Define the inverse temperature by

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\beta=\frac{1}{k_B T}.
&lt;/math&gt;

A canonical ensemble in a finite cavity provides a framework for investigating equilibrium and thermodynamic stability. The stability conditions must be checked for the particular parameters and thermodynamic branch being studied.

==== 7.9.2. Canonical probability distribution ====

Let &lt;math&gt;\Omega(E;Q,R)&lt;/math&gt; denote a density of states for the specified system.

The canonical partition function is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
Z(\beta,Q,R)
=
\int \Omega(E;Q,R)e^{-\beta E}\,dE.
&lt;/math&gt;

The normalized energy probability density is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
p(E\mid\beta,Q,R)
=
\frac{\Omega(E;Q,R)e^{-\beta E}}
{Z(\beta,Q,R)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This distribution is defined when the partition function is finite and positive.

For a concrete black-hole calculation, the density of states or an appropriate semiclassical partition function must be specified. The classical Reissner--Nordström solution alone does not provide a complete microscopic density of states.

==== 7.9.3. Fisher--Rao metric ====

Hold &lt;math&gt;Q&lt;/math&gt; and &lt;math&gt;R&lt;/math&gt; fixed and use &lt;math&gt;\beta&lt;/math&gt; as the statistical parameter.

The one-dimensional Fisher--Rao metric is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}_{\beta\beta}
=
\int p(E\mid\beta)
\left(
\frac{\partial\ln p(E\mid\beta)}
{\partial\beta}
\right)^2dE.
&lt;/math&gt;

From the canonical distribution,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\frac{\partial\ln p}{\partial\beta}
=
-E+\langle E\rangle.
&lt;/math&gt;

Consequently,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}_{\beta\beta}
=
\langle E^2\rangle-\langle E\rangle^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}_{\beta\beta}
=
\operatorname{Var}_{\beta}(E).
&lt;/math&gt;

This is an exact identity for a regular canonical probability model with finite energy variance.

The local statistical line element is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
ds_{\mathrm{FR}}^2
=
\operatorname{Var}_{\beta}(E)\,d\beta^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

==== 7.9.4. Relation to heat capacity ====

For the same canonical ensemble,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\frac{\partial\langle E\rangle}{\partial\beta}
=
-\operatorname{Var}_{\beta}(E).
&lt;/math&gt;

The heat capacity at fixed charge and cavity radius is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
C_{Q,R}
=
\frac{\partial\langle E\rangle}{\partial T}
=
\frac{\operatorname{Var}_{\beta}(E)}{k_B T^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus,

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}_{\beta\beta}
=
k_B T^2 C_{Q,R}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The energy in these expressions must be the energy appropriate to the chosen cavity ensemble.

This relationship connects the Fisher information about inverse temperature to the energy fluctuations and heat capacity of the canonical system.

==== 7.9.5. A candidate PDT transformation ====

A positive PDT weighting function &lt;math&gt;D(E)&lt;/math&gt; transforms the canonical distribution according to

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
p_D(E)
=
\frac{D(E)p(E)}
{\int D(E')p(E')\,dE'}.
&lt;/math&gt;

As a mathematical example, consider

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
D_{\lambda}(E)=e^{\lambda E}.
&lt;/math&gt;

When the required partition functions exist, the transformed density is

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
p_{\lambda}(E)
=
\frac{\Omega(E)e^{-(\beta-\lambda)E}}
{Z(\beta-\lambda)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is another member of the canonical family, with inverse-temperature parameter &lt;math&gt;\beta-\lambda&lt;/math&gt;.

Consequently, this particular transformation is a reparameterization of the canonical distribution rather than evidence of a new physical effect.

Further investigation must determine whether other justified PDT transformations yield additional mathematical or physical consequences.

==== 7.9.6. Research limitations ====

The Fisher--Rao identity derived here is standard statistical mechanics and information geometry.

A numerical metric for a specific Reissner--Nordström black hole requires an explicit partition function, a specified energy convention, and a selected stable thermodynamic branch.

The calculation is one-dimensional because only inverse temperature varies while charge and cavity radius remain fixed. It does not establish equivalence with the full two-dimensional Ruppeiner metric.

A relationship between the resulting Fisher--Rao metric and the Ruppeiner metric must be derived separately.

No new physical law or equivalence between PDT and black-hole thermodynamic geometry is claimed.

== 7. A Possible Mathematical Correspondence ==

Suppose a black-hole thermodynamic model has a state space &lt;math&gt;\mathcal{T}&lt;/math&gt; with Ruppeiner metric

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{R}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Suppose a probability model associated with that system defines a statistical manifold &lt;math&gt;\mathcal{P}&lt;/math&gt; with Fisher--Rao metric

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{FR}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

A proposed relationship would require a well-defined mapping

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
F:\mathcal{T}\longrightarrow\mathcal{P}
&lt;/math&gt;

or a mapping in the opposite direction, depending on how the probability model is constructed.

If &lt;math&gt;F&lt;/math&gt; maps thermodynamic states to probability distributions, it may be possible to compare the Ruppeiner metric with the pullback of the Fisher--Rao metric.

The pullback metric is written

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
F^*g^{\mathrm{FR}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

A candidate exact correspondence would take the form

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{R}}=F^*g^{\mathrm{FR}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This equation is a proposed research criterion, not an established result.

Other possible relationships could include

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
g^{\mathrm{R}}=cF^*g^{\mathrm{FR}},
&lt;/math&gt;

where &lt;math&gt;c&lt;/math&gt; is a constant, or a more general coordinate-dependent relation.

Any such relationship would need to be derived and checked for mathematical consistency.

The dimensions of the manifolds, the rank of the metrics, the coordinate transformations, and the physical meaning of the probability model would all need to be examined.

== 8. Research Questions ==

The investigation raises several specific questions.

# What probability distribution, if any, naturally represents the thermodynamic states of a selected black-hole model?
# Is that probability distribution derived from an established statistical-mechanical ensemble, or is it an additional modeling assumption?
# Can its Fisher--Rao metric be calculated explicitly?
# Which thermodynamic variables define the Ruppeiner metric for the same model?
# Do the two metrics have the same dimension and compatible domains?
# Can a mapping between the two spaces be defined without arbitrary choices?
# Do the metrics agree, differ by a constant factor, or have some other invariant relationship?
# Does PDT dilation produce a meaningful geometric property not already implied by the underlying probability model?
# Are any resulting conclusions robust under legitimate changes of coordinates or parameterization?

These questions should be investigated in sequence rather than assuming that the desired correspondence exists.

== 9. Important Distinctions and Limitations ==

=== 9.1 Thermodynamic geometry is not spacetime geometry ===

The Ruppeiner metric describes a thermodynamic state space.

The spacetime metric of general relativity describes the geometry of spacetime.

They are different geometric objects, even when both are used to study the same black hole.

A relationship between Fisher--Rao and Ruppeiner geometry would not automatically establish a relationship between PDT and the Lorentzian spacetime metric.

=== 9.2 A probability model must be justified ===

A probability distribution cannot be selected solely because its Fisher--Rao metric resembles a desired thermodynamic metric.

The probability model must have a defensible interpretation, and its assumptions must be stated.

Where several probability models are possible, the dependence of the result on the model choice must be investigated.

=== 9.3 Similar formulas do not establish equivalence ===

Both Fisher--Rao and Ruppeiner geometry involve derivatives of functions associated with probability or entropy.

This formal similarity is a reason to investigate a connection, but it is not proof that the metrics are equivalent.

A valid result requires an explicit mapping and a derivation of the proposed relationship.

=== 9.4 Research status ===

The definitions of Fisher--Rao and Ruppeiner geometry are established mathematical constructions.

PDT provides a normalized probability-transformation framework.

The proposed relationship between PDT-based Fisher--Rao geometry and black-hole Ruppeiner geometry remains an open research question within this investigation.

No new physical law, black-hole mechanism, or equivalence of geometries is claimed.

== 10. Proposed Research Sequence ==

The next stage should focus on a specific black-hole thermodynamic model.

A possible sequence is:

# Select a model with a well-defined thermodynamic state space and established Ruppeiner metric.
# Record its thermodynamic variables, entropy function, and metric conventions.
# Identify a physically justified probability distribution associated with the model.
# Calculate the Fisher--Rao metric of that distribution.
# Compare the two metrics using explicit coordinate mappings and invariant properties.
# Determine whether PDT dilation contributes a new result or simply reproduces an established statistical construction.

The simplest model is not necessarily the most physically rich, but a model with fewer independent thermodynamic parameters may make the initial calculations easier to verify.

The choice of model should be made before attempting to establish a metric correspondence.

== 11. Preliminary Conclusion ==

This page formulates an exploratory research program connecting three mathematical structures:

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\text{PDT probability transformations}
&lt;/math&gt;

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\text{Fisher--Rao information geometry}
&lt;/math&gt;

&lt;math display=&quot;block&quot;&gt;
\text{Ruppeiner thermodynamic geometry}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The central question is whether a suitably justified probability model for a black-hole thermodynamic system can induce a Fisher--Rao metric that is related in a precise mathematical way to its Ruppeiner metric.

The first two geometric constructions are established in their respective fields. Their relationship through a PDT probability model has not been demonstrated here.

The next task is to choose a specific black-hole model and carry out the comparison explicitly.

== References and Further Reading ==

* Aman, J. E., and Pidokrajt, N. (2008). ''Ruppeiner Geometry of Black Hole Thermodynamics.'' [https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.0016 arXiv:0801.0016].

* Aman, J., Bengtsson, I., and Pidokrajt, N. (2003). ''Geometry of Black Hole Thermodynamics.'' [https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0304015 arXiv:gr-qc/0304015].

* Ruppeiner, G. (2013). ''Thermodynamic Curvature and Black Holes.'' [https://arxiv.org/abs/1309.0901 arXiv:1309.0901].

* Rao, C. R. (2009). ''Fisher--Rao Metric.'' Scholarpedia, 4(2):7085. [https://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Fisher-Rao_metric Scholarpedia article].

* Probability Dilation Theory. [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Probability_Dilation_Theory Wikiversity project].

* Probability Dilation Theory: Normalized Probability Dilation Paper. [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Probability_Dilation_Theory/Normalized_Probability_Dilation_Paper Main manuscript].

== Research Status ==

This page is an exploratory research notebook associated with Probability Dilation Theory.

The proposed relationship between Fisher--Rao geometry and Ruppeiner geometry is a research question, not an established result of PDT.

Any future claim of equivalence or novelty will require explicit mathematical derivation, comparison with existing literature, and independent scrutiny.

[[Category:Geometry]]
[[Category:Black holes]]</text>
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  <page>
    <title>Fungi Phyla</title>
    <ns>0</ns>
    <id>332470</id>
    <revision>
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        <username>The Citer</username>
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      <text bytes="1880" sha1="936bqo0ytpshs7tc19z7tz0k5o3msuq" xml:space="preserve">[[File:Fungi_collage.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Diversity of fungi.]]
Fungi is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes yeasts, molds, and mushrooms. These organisms are classified in the biological kingdom, '''Fungi'''. &lt;br&gt; The fungi kingdom has 61515+ species.
This list tries to give the following information on each Division:

*Division Name
*A link to a subpage discussing that Phylum in more detail (if it yet exists)
*Name Meaning (in English)
*An English Common Name, where one is in regular use
*Distinguishing characteristics of fungi within the Division/phylum
*An approximate number of species described within that Division.&lt;br &gt;
Since mycology does not stand still, this number can change.
You can also see [[Introduction to Taxonomy]] for more on that topic.
==Ascomycota==
[[File:Scarlet_elf_cap_cadnant_dingle.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]
[[/Ascomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Bladder fungus

English Common Name: Ascomycetes, sac fungi

Major distinguishing characteristics: Tend to have fruiting bodies (ascocarp). Filamentous, producing hyphae separated by septa. Can reproduce asexually.

Approximate number of species described: 30,000
==Basidiomycota==
[[File:Haeckel_Basimycetes.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]
[[/Basidiomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Small base fungus

English Common Name: Basidiomycetes, club fungi

Major distinguishing characteristics: Bracket fungi, toadstools, smuts and rust. Sexual reproduction.

Approximate number of species described: 31,515
==Blastocladiomycota==
[[File:WJD103_6-16-11.jpg|100px|right]]
[[/Blastocladiomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Offshoot branch fungus

English Common Name: Blastoclads

Major distinguishing characteristics:

Approximate number of species described: &lt;200
==References==
[[Wikipedia:Phylum]]&lt;br&gt;
[[Wikipedia:Fungus]]
[[Category:Fungi]]
[[Category:Mycology]]
[[Category:Fungus phyla]]
[[Category:Biology]]</text>
      <sha1>936bqo0ytpshs7tc19z7tz0k5o3msuq</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840061</id>
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      <timestamp>2026-10-13T19:09:43Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>The Citer</username>
        <id>3110681</id>
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      <text bytes="1880" sha1="rs75wu2gfzao74n6xlsg9w8y8xym9qw" xml:space="preserve">[[File:Fungi_collage.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Diversity of fungi.]]
Fungi is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes yeasts, molds, and mushrooms. These organisms are classified in the biological kingdom, '''Fungi'''. &lt;br&gt; The fungi kingdom has 61715+ species.
This list tries to give the following information on each Division:

*Division Name
*A link to a subpage discussing that Phylum in more detail (if it yet exists)
*Name Meaning (in English)
*An English Common Name, where one is in regular use
*Distinguishing characteristics of fungi within the Division/phylum
*An approximate number of species described within that Division.&lt;br &gt;
Since mycology does not stand still, this number can change.
You can also see [[Introduction to Taxonomy]] for more on that topic.
==Ascomycota==
[[File:Scarlet_elf_cap_cadnant_dingle.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]
[[/Ascomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Bladder fungus

English Common Name: Ascomycetes, sac fungi

Major distinguishing characteristics: Tend to have fruiting bodies (ascocarp). Filamentous, producing hyphae separated by septa. Can reproduce asexually.

Approximate number of species described: 30,000
==Basidiomycota==
[[File:Haeckel_Basimycetes.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]
[[/Basidiomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Small base fungus

English Common Name: Basidiomycetes, club fungi

Major distinguishing characteristics: Bracket fungi, toadstools, smuts and rust. Sexual reproduction.

Approximate number of species described: 31,515
==Blastocladiomycota==
[[File:WJD103_6-16-11.jpg|100px|right]]
[[/Blastocladiomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Offshoot branch fungus

English Common Name: Blastoclads

Major distinguishing characteristics:

Approximate number of species described: &lt;200
==References==
[[Wikipedia:Phylum]]&lt;br&gt;
[[Wikipedia:Fungus]]
[[Category:Fungi]]
[[Category:Mycology]]
[[Category:Fungus phyla]]
[[Category:Biology]]</text>
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    <revision>
      <id>2840077</id>
      <parentid>2840061</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T21:18:19Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>The Citer</username>
        <id>3110681</id>
      </contributor>
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      <text bytes="2254" sha1="2c5dg8zmyoxpwfq2hkmb3pvnzamu1z8" xml:space="preserve">[[File:Fungi_collage.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Diversity of fungi.]]
Fungi is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes yeasts, molds, and mushrooms. These organisms are classified in the biological kingdom, '''Fungi'''. &lt;br&gt; The fungi kingdom has 62715+ species.
This list tries to give the following information on each Division:

*Division Name
*A link to a subpage discussing that Phylum in more detail (if it yet exists)
*Name Meaning (in English)
*An English Common Name, where one is in regular use
*Distinguishing characteristics of fungi within the Division/phylum
*An approximate number of species described within that Division.&lt;br &gt;
Since mycology does not stand still, this number can change.
You can also see [[Introduction to Taxonomy]] for more on that topic.
==Ascomycota==
[[File:Scarlet_elf_cap_cadnant_dingle.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]
[[/Ascomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Bladder fungus

English Common Name: Ascomycetes, sac fungi

Major distinguishing characteristics: Tend to have fruiting bodies (ascocarp). Filamentous, producing hyphae separated by septa. Can reproduce asexually.

Approximate number of species described: 30,000
==Basidiomycota==
[[File:Haeckel_Basimycetes.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]
[[/Basidiomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Small base fungus

English Common Name: Basidiomycetes, club fungi

Major distinguishing characteristics: Bracket fungi, toadstools, smuts and rust. Sexual reproduction.

Approximate number of species described: 31,515
==Blastocladiomycota==
[[File:WJD103_6-16-11.jpg|100px|right]]
[[/Blastocladiomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Offshoot branch fungus

English Common Name: Blastoclads

Major distinguishing characteristics:

Approximate number of species described: &lt;200
==Chytridiomycota==
[[File:Spizellomycete.jpg|100px|right]]
[[/Chytridiomycota/]]

Name Meaning: Little cooking pot fungus

English Common Name: Chytrids

Major distinguishing characteristics: Predominantly Aquatic saprotrophic or parasitic. Have a posterior flagellum. Tend to be single celled but can also be multicellular.

Approximate number of species described: 1000+
==References==
[[Wikipedia:Phylum]]&lt;br&gt;
[[Wikipedia:Fungus]]
[[Category:Fungi]]
[[Category:Mycology]]
[[Category:Fungus phyla]]
[[Category:Biology]]</text>
      <sha1>2c5dg8zmyoxpwfq2hkmb3pvnzamu1z8</sha1>
    </revision>
  </page>
  <page>
    <title>User:Theologiministry89</title>
    <ns>2</ns>
    <id>332474</id>
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        <id>3112580</id>
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      <minor />
      <comment>/* */ Greek language interpretation of theology</comment>
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      <text bytes="952" sha1="65mxc53kvmfnollxbimmw13xqazc1cp" xml:space="preserve">Theologia ministry organization TMO is the project of theologia for theological studies and theological ministry as the theological organization for advanced studies, projects, teaching, learning, publications globally for open source, open studies, open knowledge, open access, open science, open education, open culture, open school, STEM education, STEM science applications in the real world problems concerning the theological aspects of life and faith in the global theological communities for faith and practice in real life and the role of ministry in the life of an organized systematic community and organization for development.The word theology is of two parts one means theos which is the Greek language word meaning God and logos means the studies so The meaning in English language will be the study of God as well as the supernatural being the creator of the universe and life origin by the intelligent design experiment of The Lord God</text>
      <sha1>65mxc53kvmfnollxbimmw13xqazc1cp</sha1>
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  </page>
  <page>
    <title>Cortext/Projects/Refactor Network Mapping/About Network Mapping</title>
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      <contributor>
        <username>Calixto Rosa</username>
        <id>3111607</id>
      </contributor>
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      <text bytes="23779" sha1="1isqy6tgo7shwlzzcbdzqk8vrx0oyg3" xml:space="preserve">
&lt;blockquote&gt;Documentation page for the [https://gitlab.com/cortext/cortext-methods/network-mapping '''Network Mapping'''] method, written during the refactoring of the legacy code (work carried out in the [https://gitlab.com/cortext-usp/network-mapping &lt;code&gt;cortext-usp&lt;/code&gt;] fork).

Sources: the official [https://docs.cortext.net/analysis-mapping-heterogeneous-networks/ Cortext Manager] documentation (the '''Node selection''', '''Edges definition''', '''Edges: metrics definitions''', '''Dynamical settings''' and '''Network analysis &amp; layout''' pages, plus the description of the output files shared by a member of the Cortext team), a reading of the code (&lt;code&gt;network_mapping/analysis.py&lt;/code&gt; and the internal library [https://gitlab.com/cortext/cortext-methods/librarypy &lt;code&gt;librarypy&lt;/code&gt;]) and the runs performed to build the tests.&lt;/blockquote&gt;

== 1. What it is for ==
Network Mapping builds '''network maps''' from a corpus of documents (for example, scientific articles, newspaper articles, posts). The central idea is '''co-occurrence''': two items that appear in the '''same document''' are related in some way. By counting how many times this happens across the whole corpus and turning those counts into a proximity measure, the method builds a network. It then finds the groups of items most strongly linked to each other (the '''clusters''') and, if there are several time periods, tracks how these groups emerge, merge, split and disappear.

Items do not have to be words only: any corpus field can become a node, such as terms extracted from the text, authors, keywords, journals, cited references and countries.

'''Research questions the method helps answer:'''

* What are the main themes of a corpus, and which terms make up each theme? (terms × terms network)

* Who collaborates with whom? (co-authorship: authors × authors)

* Which works are cited together, that is, what are the intellectual foundations of a field? (co-citation: references × references)

* Which authors, journals or countries are associated with which themes? (heterogeneous networks, for example authors × terms)

* How do themes evolve over time? (several periods and the tube diagram)

'''Background.''' The proximity measures come from statistics and corpus linguistics (chi-square, mutual information, cosine, distributional measures). Community detection uses classic algorithms (Louvain, Infomap, clique percolation). The temporal analysis follows Rule, Cointet and Bearman (2015). The automatic choice of the proximity threshold is a heuristic discussed in Jean-Philippe Cointet's HDR (2017). Full references are at the end of the page.

== 2. Basic concepts ==
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
!Concept
!What it is
!Example
|-
|'''Corpus'''
|the set of documents analyzed, stored in an SQLite database in which each field (author, term, date...) is a table
|394 Web of Science articles; 821 articles from French newspapers
|-
|'''Field'''
|a type of information in the documents; the method takes two: &lt;code&gt;field1&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;field2&lt;/code&gt;
|&lt;code&gt;Terms&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Author&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Journal&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;Cited References&lt;/code&gt;
|-
|'''Co-occurrence'''
|two items present in the same document; the count becomes the raw weight of the link
|the terms &quot;depression&quot; and &quot;loneliness&quot; appear together in 12 documents
|-
|'''Homogeneous network'''
|&lt;code&gt;field1 = field2&lt;/code&gt;: all nodes are of the same type
|terms × terms (semantic network), authors × authors (co-authorship)
|-
|'''Heterogeneous network'''
|&lt;code&gt;field1 ≠ field2&lt;/code&gt;: two node types, linked when they appear in the same documents
|authors × terms: an author is close to the terms they use
|-
|'''Affiliation network'''
|with the &lt;code&gt;\_het&lt;/code&gt; measures, two different fields produce a network '''with only the nodes of the first field''', close when they have similar profiles in the second
|authors linked because they share the same themes
|-
|'''Proximity measure'''
|turns the raw count into an edge weight that takes the frequency of each item into account
|chi-square, mutual information, cosine
|-
|'''Cluster''' (community)
|group of nodes more strongly linked to each other than to the rest of the network; it is a '''mesoscopic''' reading of the corpus (the themes)
|a cluster with &quot;vaccine&quot;, &quot;immunity&quot;, &quot;dose&quot;
|-
|'''Period'''
|time slice of the corpus; each period has its own network and its own clusters
|1982–2005, 2006–2016, 2017–2023
|-
|'''Phylogeny / tubes'''
|links between clusters of consecutive periods, showing the continuity of themes
|the 2020 &quot;vaccine&quot; theme descends from two 2019 themes
|-
|'''Projection'''
|each document is associated with the clusters whose content is most similar to its own
|article X belongs to the &quot;vaccine&quot; theme
|}
'''Proximity and clustering are different things.''' The proximity measure is '''local''': it tells how strongly two items are linked by looking at their co-occurrences. It is an arithmetic, deterministic computation made from the database. Clustering is '''structural''': it looks at the whole network and searches for dense regions, revealing how sets of items are organized. That is why the same network can produce different partitions with different algorithms or resolutions. With the form's default algorithm (&lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt;), the partition may even change between two runs with the same parameters.

== 3. Preparing the corpus ==
The method reads the corpus from SQLite: each field is a table with the document id (&lt;code&gt;id&lt;/code&gt;), the position of the item in the document (&lt;code&gt;rank&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;parserank&lt;/code&gt;) and the value (&lt;code&gt;data&lt;/code&gt;). A few precautions determine whether the analysis makes sense:

* '''Extracted terms.''' To analyze textual content, the corpus needs a terms table (for example &lt;code&gt;Terms&lt;/code&gt;), produced beforehand by a term extraction and indexing method such as [https://docs.cortext.net/lexical-extraction/ '''Terms Extraction''']. Without it, only metadata (authors, journals, keywords) can become nodes. The quality of the terms defines the quality of the semantic network.

* '''Sentence position.''' The &quot;short-range&quot; co-occurrence option (&lt;code&gt;localcooc&lt;/code&gt;) needs to know which sentence each term is in (&lt;code&gt;parserank&lt;/code&gt;). Only terms indexed with this information support this option.

* '''Dates.''' The temporal analysis uses the corpus date table (&lt;code&gt;ISIpubdate&lt;/code&gt;) or a table of custom periods. Monthly (format &lt;code&gt;202001&lt;/code&gt;) and yearly dates both work.

* '''Fields with one value per document.''' Fields such as &lt;code&gt;Journal&lt;/code&gt; have a single value per document. In a homogeneous network (&lt;code&gt;Journal × Journal&lt;/code&gt;), two journals never appear in the same document, and the network is empty. These fields make sense in heterogeneous networks (&lt;code&gt;Journal × Terms&lt;/code&gt;).

* '''The method modifies the corpus.''' It creates new tables in the database itself (&lt;code&gt;clusters&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;phylogeny&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;projection&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;cluster&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;PC\_&lt;field1&gt;\_&lt;field2&gt;&lt;/code&gt;). The &lt;code&gt;PC\_*&lt;/code&gt; table works as a new field and can be used by other methods, for example to cross the clusters with another variable. This makes it a '''public contract''' of the method.

== 4. How the method works, step by step ==
&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;text&quot;&gt;

corpus (SQLite)

  │ 1. node selection: the N most frequent items of each field, per period

  │ 2. co-occurrence counting (with optional sentence window and weighting)

  │ 3. proximity measure: co-occurrence → edge weight

  │ 4. edge filtering: optimal or fixed threshold, top edges, top neighbors

  │ 5. split into periods (one network per period)

  │ 6. community detection in each period

  │ 7. phylogeny: linking clusters across periods (tubes)

  │ 8. projection of documents onto clusters (tables in the database)

  │ 9. drawing and export: PDF/SVG/PNG, GEXF, JSON, tubes HTML

  ▼

maps, new tables in the corpus, network files and log

&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
!Step
!Deterministic?
!Note
|-
|1 to 4: selection, co-occurrence, measure, filter
|'''yes'''
|the network structure (nodes, edges and weights) is always the same for the same input
|-
|5: periods
|'''yes''' with the &lt;code&gt;regular&lt;/code&gt; cut; '''no''' with the &lt;code&gt;homogeneous&lt;/code&gt; cut and more than one period
|the homogeneous cut draws the period boundaries at random ('''simulated annealing''' without a seed), and this changes even the network
|-
|6: communities
|'''yes''' with &lt;code&gt;louvain&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;clique percolation&lt;/code&gt;; '''no''' with &lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt; (the form's default) and with &lt;code&gt;weighted_graph&lt;/code&gt;
|Louvain with resolution shuffles the nodes with an unseeded random generator
|-
|7 and 8: phylogeny and projection
|follow step 6
|if the partition varies, they vary too
|-
|9: drawing
|'''no'''
|layouts use random draws; the shape of the image may change
|}
This split is the basis of the whole strategy for creating the [test cases]().

== 5. Parameters and how they affect the result ==
The form has about 70 parameters in four sections. This section does not describe them one by one: it explains '''what each group changes in the result'''.

=== 5.1 Section 1: node selection ===
Defines '''which items exist in the network''' and the '''weight''' of each one.

* '''Fields''' (&lt;code&gt;field1&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;field2&lt;/code&gt;): the most important decision, because they define the research question and whether the network is homogeneous or heterogeneous.

* '''Number of nodes''' (&lt;code&gt;top&lt;/code&gt;, up to 500): the N most frequent items '''in each period'''. Few nodes give a readable network that only shows the &quot;core&quot; of the corpus; many nodes reveal smaller themes, at the cost of dense maps. &lt;code&gt;top2&lt;/code&gt; allows a different N for the second field.

* '''Same nodes in all periods''' (&lt;code&gt;fixed&lt;/code&gt;): without this option, each period has its own top N, and the maps only partially overlap. With it, the N most frequent items in the whole corpus appear in every period, which makes periods easier to compare.

* '''Node weight''' (&lt;code&gt;size_node&lt;/code&gt;): sum of co-occurrences (default) or frequency. Changes the size of the nodes and the weight used in the projection.

* '''Lowercase''' (&lt;code&gt;lowering&lt;/code&gt;): merges labels that differ only in case, useful for cited journals.

=== 5.2 Section 2: edges ===
Defines '''how co-occurrences become links''' and '''which links survive'''.

* '''Proximity measure.''' This is the numerical core of the method:

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
!Type
!Measures
!Purpose
!Range
|-
|Direct
|&lt;code&gt;raw&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;chi2&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;mutual information&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;cramer&lt;/code&gt;
|only look at the co-occurrence between the two items; recommended for '''heterogeneous''' networks (the automatic default is &lt;code&gt;chi2&lt;/code&gt;); &lt;code&gt;raw&lt;/code&gt; keeps the counts, useful in collaboration networks
|≥ 0, no upper bound (&lt;code&gt;cramer&lt;/code&gt; ≤ 1)
|-
|Indirect
|&lt;code&gt;cosine&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;distributional&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;distributional (l-l r)&lt;/code&gt;
|two items are close when they co-occur with the '''same other items''', even if they do not co-occur with each other; only for '''homogeneous''' networks (the automatic default is &lt;code&gt;distributional&lt;/code&gt;)
|between 0 and 1
|-
|Affiliation
|&lt;code&gt;cosine_het&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;dot_product_het&lt;/code&gt; (the &lt;code&gt;bipartweighting&lt;/code&gt; option reduces the weight of very frequent items of the 2nd field)
|network with only the nodes of the 1st field, compared by their profile in the 2nd; require different fields
|&lt;code&gt;cosine_het&lt;/code&gt; between 0 and 1; &lt;code&gt;dot_product_het&lt;/code&gt; no upper bound
|}

* '''Filtering.''' Without a filter, the network has too many links to be read. There are three strategies, which can be combined:

  * '''optimal threshold''' (default): the method searches for the threshold at which the network is about to break into pieces and stays just below it. The result has the smallest number of links that still keeps the clusters connected to each other;

  * '''fixed threshold''' (&lt;code&gt;distance_thres&lt;/code&gt;): requires knowing the range of the chosen measure;

  * '''top edges''' (&lt;code&gt;top_edges&lt;/code&gt;) and '''top neighbors''' (&lt;code&gt;k_nearest&lt;/code&gt;): the documentation suggests top neighbors with indirect measures, and a threshold or top edges with direct measures.

* '''Heterogeneous edges''' (&lt;code&gt;type_biparti&lt;/code&gt;): in a heterogeneous network, also links items of the same field.

* '''Short-range co-occurrence''' (&lt;code&gt;localcooc&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;localcoocrange&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;contextdecay&lt;/code&gt;): only counts co-occurrences up to N sentences apart, with a weight that can decay with distance. It matters in long documents, where &quot;appearing in the same document&quot; says little.

* '''Democratic''' (&lt;code&gt;democratic&lt;/code&gt;, experimental): each document contributes equally, no matter how many items it has. It prevents an article with 200 authors from dominating a co-authorship network.

=== 5.3 Section 3: dynamics ===
Defines '''how time is sliced'''. Each period has its own network and its own clusters.

* '''Number of periods''' (&lt;code&gt;nb_period&lt;/code&gt;): with more than one, the phylogeny and the tubes appear.

* '''Distribution''' (&lt;code&gt;time_cut_type&lt;/code&gt;): &lt;code&gt;regular&lt;/code&gt; (slices with the same number of years) or &lt;code&gt;homogeneous&lt;/code&gt; (slices with similar numbers of documents). '''Warning:''' the homogeneous cut is random, so two identical runs may produce different periods.

* '''Overlap''' (&lt;code&gt;overlap&lt;/code&gt;): neighboring periods share half of their time span or documents, which smooths the evolution and strengthens the links between periods.

* '''Sequence''' (&lt;code&gt;sequence_type&lt;/code&gt;): &lt;code&gt;snapshot&lt;/code&gt; (successive periods) or &lt;code&gt;growing&lt;/code&gt; (each period starts at the beginning of the corpus and grows).

=== 5.4 Section 4: network analysis and layout ===
Defines '''the partition''', '''the temporal evolution''', '''the projection''' and '''the drawing'''.

* '''Community algorithm:'''

  * &lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt; (default and recommended by the documentation): the &lt;code&gt;resolution&lt;/code&gt; parameter controls cluster size (a smaller value yields more, smaller clusters);

  * &lt;code&gt;louvain&lt;/code&gt;: the classic version;

  * &lt;code&gt;infomap&lt;/code&gt;: tends to produce finer clusters;

  * &lt;code&gt;clique percolation&lt;/code&gt;: overlapping clusters that exclude poorly connected nodes.

* '''Minimum cluster size''' (&lt;code&gt;size_community_threshold&lt;/code&gt;): discards small, &quot;noisy&quot; clusters.

* '''Inter-temporal threshold''' (automatic, minimum and maximum): only links between clusters of neighboring periods with a similarity ('''strength''', derived from the Hellinger distance) above the threshold become tubes. Values close to 1 indicate strong continuity; close to 0, a break.

* '''Projection''' (&lt;code&gt;compute_projection&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;univoque_mapping&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;projectionalias&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;oldschool&lt;/code&gt;): associates each document with the most similar clusters (TF-IDF similarity). With &lt;code&gt;univoque_mapping&lt;/code&gt;, each document gets at most one cluster. The result is the &lt;code&gt;PC\_*&lt;/code&gt; table (or &lt;code&gt;projection_cluster\_&lt;alias&gt;&lt;/code&gt;).

* '''Tagging and heatmap:''' label the clusters with a third field (for example, the most specific journals of each theme) or color the map according to a value of that field. In the tests, they changed only the drawings and the file names, not the tables or the exported networks.

* '''Historical map:''' fixes the horizontal position of each node by its date (or by the moment it reaches 20% of its frequency). It is a way of '''drawing''': it does not change the network.

* '''Drawing-only options:''' labels, alpha-shapes, label overlap, crossing minimization in the tubes, font. They change the PDF and the positions, not the data.

== 6. Combinations to avoid ==
Combinations the form accepts but that produce an empty or misleading result, or an error. Those marked with a finding identifier (for example, B13) were found by the tests.
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
!Combination
!What happens
!Recommendation
|-
|Indirect measure (&lt;code&gt;cosine&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;distributional&lt;/code&gt;) with different fields
|the documentation states they were designed only for homogeneous networks
|use &lt;code&gt;chi2&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;code&gt;mutual information&lt;/code&gt; in heterogeneous networks
|-
|&lt;code&gt;\_het&lt;/code&gt; measure with identical fields
|there is no &quot;second field&quot; to compare profiles
|use only with &lt;code&gt;field1 ≠ field2&lt;/code&gt;
|-
|Single-value field in a homogeneous network (&lt;code&gt;Journal × Journal&lt;/code&gt;) or very small &lt;code&gt;top&lt;/code&gt;
|empty network, and the script crashes at the end (B13)
|use the field in a heterogeneous network; &lt;code&gt;top&lt;/code&gt; ≥ 10
|-
|&lt;code&gt;democratic&lt;/code&gt; with different fields and no heterogeneous edges
|division by zero when a document has a single item in the 2nd field (B9)
|use with homogeneous networks
|-
|&lt;code&gt;keep_scaled&lt;/code&gt; without projection
|&lt;code&gt;int(None)&lt;/code&gt; error (B12)
|enable the projection
|-
|&lt;code&gt;dot_product_het&lt;/code&gt; without normalization and with the optimal threshold
|the threshold search finds no cut-off point, runs about 10 thousand steps and returns the upper bound (99.98); it can take tens of minutes (B26)
|use a fixed threshold or &lt;code&gt;bipartweighting&lt;/code&gt;
|-
|&lt;code&gt;clique percolation&lt;/code&gt; with several periods
|may break the phylogeny, depending on the data (B25)
|prefer Louvain for temporal analyses
|-
|&lt;code&gt;homogeneous&lt;/code&gt; cut or &lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt; when reproducibility matters
|periods or partition change between runs (B17)
|for reproducible results: &lt;code&gt;regular&lt;/code&gt; cut and &lt;code&gt;louvain&lt;/code&gt;
|-
|&lt;code&gt;robustness&lt;/code&gt;
|crashes during drawing (B10) and is overridden by multiprocessing (B5)
|avoid
|-
|&lt;code&gt;infomap&lt;/code&gt; outside the production server
|the binary is not found and the result has 0 clusters, with no warning (B14)
|check the log
|}

== 7. Output files ==
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
!File or table
!What it represents
!What it is for
|-
|&lt;code&gt;maps/&lt;/code&gt; (PDF, SVG or PNG)
|the maps of each period, with colored clusters
|visual reading; the SVG can be edited in the '''Label editor'''
|-
|&lt;code&gt;maps_output.zip&lt;/code&gt; → &lt;code&gt;gexf/''hn''.gexf&lt;/code&gt;
|the '''node''' network: nodes with weight, degrees and betweenness; edges with source, target and weight
|open in Gephi or Retina; per-node metrics
|-
|&lt;code&gt;gexf/''hhn''.gexf&lt;/code&gt;
|the '''cluster''' network: each cluster becomes a node (weight, density), and the links add up the links between their nodes
|macro reading: central and peripheral clusters
|-
|&lt;code&gt;json/*.json&lt;/code&gt;
|the same graphs in JSON, with the effective parameters (&lt;code&gt;meta&lt;/code&gt;)
|programmatic use
|-
|&lt;code&gt;clusters&lt;/code&gt; (table and &lt;code&gt;clusters.csv&lt;/code&gt;)
|each node in its cluster, with normalized weight (sums to 1 within the cluster), density, '''stream''' and supertheme
|composition and cohesion of each cluster
|-
|&lt;code&gt;PC\_&lt;field1&gt;\_&lt;field2&gt;&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;code&gt;projection_cluster\_&lt;alias&gt;&lt;/code&gt;
|cluster(s) of each document
|'''new corpus field''', used by other methods
|-
|&lt;code&gt;projection&lt;/code&gt;
|similarity of each document to each cluster
|choosing the most representative documents of each cluster
|-
|&lt;code&gt;cluster&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;phylogeny&lt;/code&gt;
|cluster label per document; links between clusters of neighboring periods
|support for the tubes
|-
|&lt;code&gt;tubes/&lt;/code&gt; (interactive HTML, &lt;code&gt;energy.json&lt;/code&gt;)
|the alluvial diagram of cluster evolution
|reading the emergence, merging, splitting and death of themes
|-
|&lt;code&gt;.user.log&lt;/code&gt;
|measure used, items per period, optimal and final threshold, nodes and edges of each network, modularity
|checking what the method decided on its own (for example, the threshold)
|}
'''Two node metrics deserve attention:'''

* '''degrees''' (&lt;code&gt;in-degree&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;out-degree&lt;/code&gt;): sum of link weights; they point to highly connected nodes;

* '''betweenness''': fraction of shortest paths that go through the node; it points to nodes that act as '''bridges''' between regions and clusters.

== Notes ==
This initial functional documentation was proposed and developed by contributor [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/User:Calixto_Rosa Júlia Calixto] as part of the refactoring of the Network Mapping method. The initiative builds on her previous contributions to the refactoring of other Cortext methods and the development of supporting artifacts, within a broader effort to modernize legacy research software and align it with the principles of Free Software and Open Science.

When beginning work on Network Mapping, a method with a more complex implementation and a larger number of parameters and methodological details, the contributor identified the need for an initial, functional overview of the method, complementing the existing user-oriented documentation in [https://docs.cortext.net/analysis-mapping-heterogeneous-networks/ Cortext Manager]. Although the existing documentation describes how to use the method, some of its particularities and implementation-related details were not sufficiently explicit, and knowledge about its behavior remained concentrated among a small number of maintainers.

This situation creates barriers not only for contributors seeking to understand, refactor, or extend the code, but also for users who need to understand the methodological assumptions, parameter choices, limitations, and outputs of their analyses. Making this knowledge explicit and accessible is consistent with the principles of Open Science: understanding how a method works should not depend exclusively on access to the people who maintain it.

The documentation was developed from the available Cortext Manager documentation, a document describing the output files, an examination of the existing code, and discussions with the method's maintainers. It therefore represents an initial overview rather than an exhaustive or definitive specification. Some information may be incomplete or require correction, and the documentation is intended to be reviewed and improved by the maintaining team.

Beyond documenting Network Mapping, this initiative is intended to provide an initial model for the documentation of other Cortext methods that still require refactoring and remain in a legacy state. Establishing a minimum functional understanding of these methods can support future refactoring work, facilitate knowledge transfer, lower barriers to contribution, and improve the accessibility and reproducibility of the research conducted using the platform.

== References ==

* Blondel, V. D.; Guillaume, J.-L.; Lambiotte, R.; Lefebvre, E. Fast unfolding of communities in large networks. '''J. Stat. Mech.''', 2008.

* Cohen, M. B.; Gibbons, P. B.; Mugridge, W. B.; Colbourn, C. J. Constructing test suites for interaction testing. '''ICSE''', 2003.

* Cointet, J.-P. '''La cartographie des traces textuelles comme méthodologie d'enquête en sciences sociales'''. HDR, École normale supérieure, 2017.

* Cortext Manager Documentation: '''Node selection''', '''Edges definition''', '''Edges: metrics definitions''', '''Dynamical settings''', '''Network analysis &amp; layout'''. https://docs.cortext.net/

* Palla, G.; Derényi, I.; Farkas, I.; Vicsek, T. Uncovering the overlapping community structure of complex networks in nature and society. '''Nature''', 435, 2005.

* Rosvall, M.; Bergstrom, C. T. Maps of random walks on complex networks reveal community structure. '''PNAS''', 105(4), 2008.

* Rule, A.; Cointet, J.-P.; Bearman, P. S. Lexical shifts, substantive changes, and continuity in State of the Union discourse, 1790–2014. '''PNAS''', 112(35), 2015.</text>
      <sha1>1isqy6tgo7shwlzzcbdzqk8vrx0oyg3</sha1>
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  </page>
  <page>
    <title>User talk:Theologiministry89</title>
    <ns>3</ns>
    <id>332480</id>
    <revision>
      <id>2840026</id>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T12:18:22Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>MathXplore</username>
        <id>2888076</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>Created page with &quot;== [[:Category:Page flag templates]] == [[:Category:Page flag templates]] is a page for the category definition. It is not a page for biblical theology. ~~~~  {{subst:welcome}}&quot;</comment>
      <origin>2840026</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="2645" sha1="hqbwqqvfnjh78eqjliuzu16zrspph30" xml:space="preserve">== [[:Category:Page flag templates]] ==
[[:Category:Page flag templates]] is a page for the category definition. It is not a page for biblical theology. [[User:MathXplore|MathXplore]] ([[User talk:MathXplore|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/MathXplore|contribs]]) 12:18, 13 October 2026 (UTC)

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      <text bytes="3286" sha1="26x4md9j5vnj1glizjiwx9s11bgcv0r" xml:space="preserve">== [[:Category:Page flag templates]] ==
[[:Category:Page flag templates]] is a page for the category definition. It is not a page for biblical theology. [[User:MathXplore|MathXplore]] ([[User talk:MathXplore|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/MathXplore|contribs]]) 12:18, 13 October 2026 (UTC)

:The God has written the universe in the language of mathematics which describes the relationship with the nature of the universe by mathematical models, structures, objects, equations, manifold dimensions of the infinite dimensions of the universe and the creator of the universe 95% of the hidden universe and the secrets of the celestial objects hierarchy and the celestial mechanics points towards the mathematical models we live in a mathematical world 🌍 [[User:Theologiministry89|Theologiministry89]] ([[User talk:Theologiministry89|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Theologiministry89|contribs]]) 03:05, 14 October 2026 (UTC)

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      <text bytes="4305" sha1="7u4l82ki3l526f2a7rpfj082clmvzdk" xml:space="preserve">== [[:Category:Page flag templates]] ==
[[:Category:Page flag templates]] is a page for the category definition. It is not a page for biblical theology. [[User:MathXplore|MathXplore]] ([[User talk:MathXplore|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/MathXplore|contribs]]) 12:18, 13 October 2026 (UTC)

:The God has written the universe in the language of mathematics which describes the relationship with the nature of the universe by mathematical models, structures, objects, equations, manifold dimensions of the infinite dimensions of the universe and the creator of the universe 95% of the hidden universe and the secrets of the celestial objects hierarchy and the celestial mechanics points towards the mathematical models we live in a mathematical world 🌍 [[User:Theologiministry89|Theologiministry89]] ([[User talk:Theologiministry89|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Theologiministry89|contribs]]) 03:05, 14 October 2026 (UTC)

==Welcome==
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== Mathematical universe  ==
The structures, objects, equations reveal the story of the universe and the origin of the universe and the order of the universe in the grand unification model for the cosmos and the hosts of the universe which follow the laws of nature of the universe and the eternal laws of nature which are mysterious and unchangeable and complex systems of equations manifold dimensions of the universe from microcosm world 🌍 to the macrocosm reality and existence of life on earth 🌎 and the hosts of heavens declare the glory of God in everything from ⚛️ atom scale design of the universe to the large scale design of the universe composition of earth, heaven and existence of life on earth 🌎 and everything that has breath living organisms in dynamics of the systems, states and surroundings of the universe  [[User:Theologiministry89|Theologiministry89]] ([[User talk:Theologiministry89|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/Theologiministry89|contribs]]) 03:12, 14 October 2026 (UTC)</text>
      <sha1>7u4l82ki3l526f2a7rpfj082clmvzdk</sha1>
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    <title>Cortext/Projects/Refactor Network Mapping/Pre-refactoring test cases</title>
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        <username>Calixto Rosa</username>
        <id>3111607</id>
      </contributor>
      <comment>Created page with &quot;This page explains how the behavior of the legacy '''Network Mapping''' method was recorded by characterization tests before the refactoring: why this kind of test was used, how the roughly 70 parameters were split into equivalence classes and combined into 62 cases, what the golden master stores, how the suite is generated and reproduced, how much of the code it covers and which possible bugs were found along the way.  To understand the method itself (concepts, steps, p...&quot;</comment>
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      <text bytes="14694" sha1="gpzzeqg9afv38iq6olaevmel3a0lanh" xml:space="preserve">This page explains how the behavior of the legacy '''Network Mapping''' method was recorded by characterization tests before the refactoring: why this kind of test was used, how the roughly 70 parameters were split into equivalence classes and combined into 62 cases, what the golden master stores, how the suite is generated and reproduced, how much of the code it covers and which possible bugs were found along the way.

To understand the method itself (concepts, steps, parameters and output files), see the page [[https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Cortext/Projects/Refactor_Network_Mapping/About_Network_Mapping About Network Mapping]].

== Why characterization tests ==
The legacy code has about 5,200 lines in a single script, in Python 2, with no tests. Before migrating to Python 3 and reorganizing the code, we need a safety net that says: '''&quot;the refactored method does exactly what the legacy one did&quot;'''.

A '''characterization test''' (Feathers, 2004) does not check whether the result is correct. It records what the code does today, the reference output or '''golden master''', and flags any change. If the legacy code has a bug, the test records the bug. Fixing it becomes an explicit decision, made later, and not a side effect of the refactoring.

Rules we follow:
* '''Observable behavior is preserved.''' Any difference from the golden stops the work and is analyzed before moving on.
* '''The golden only changes with internal validation by the team''', never to &quot;make the test pass&quot;.
* '''Input and output formats do not change:''' file, table and column names are a contract.

== Equivalence classes ==
'''Definition.''' An equivalence class is a set of input values that takes the code down the '''same path''': the values do not give the same result, but they exercise the same behavior (Myers et al., 2011). Testing one representative of each class gives almost the same confidence as testing every value, with far fewer cases. '''Boundary values''' (the border between classes) get their own cases, because that is where errors tend to appear.

'''How it applies to Network Mapping.''' The method has about 70 parameters. Testing every combination is impossible; even one value per parameter yields thousands of cases. The classes were derived from reading the code (the &lt;code&gt;if&lt;/code&gt; statements each value triggers) and from the documentation:

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Parameter !! Classes !! Why
|-
| &lt;code&gt;top&lt;/code&gt; || 20 (small), 150 (default), 500 (cap) + boundary case 501 || the code caps it at 500; behavior changes above the cap
|-
| measure || automatic + each of the 10 measures || each measure is a different formula in the code
|-
| fields || classes by '''data structure''': terms × terms, field with several values per document, ranked field (cited references), one value × many, two single-value fields || co-occurrence counting follows different paths depending on the field; the concrete fields come from each corpus
|-
| &lt;code&gt;nb_period&lt;/code&gt; || one, few (2–3), many (10) || with one period there is no phylogeny; with many, more edge cases show up
|-
| communities || &lt;code&gt;louvain&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;clique percolation&lt;/code&gt; (+ &lt;code&gt;infomap&lt;/code&gt; separately) || different algorithms, with different determinism properties
|-
| child parameters (&lt;code&gt;resolution&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;bipartweighting&lt;/code&gt;, inter-temporal...) || &lt;code&gt;absent&lt;/code&gt; class when the parent is off || the code only reads them when the parent enables them
|}

'''What was not varied, and why.'''
* Parameters that only change the drawing (labels, colors, fonts, alpha-shapes, crossing minimization) stay at their defaults: they only change the PDF and the positions, which are not compared.
* Tagging, heatmap and historical map have ''smoke'' cases: the probes showed that they only change the drawings and the file names.

'''Important finding about the starting point.''' Cortext Manager sends '''all''' form parameters, including those in collapsed sections, with the '''form's''' default value. When a parameter is missing, the code uses another default: the '''code's''' own. The two disagree on 21 parameters (for example, the optimal threshold is on in the form and off in the code; the default algorithm is &lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt; in the form and &lt;code&gt;louvain&lt;/code&gt; in the code). That is why every case starts from the complete form, as the Manager sends it. Two cases (&lt;code&gt;code-defaults-*&lt;/code&gt;) characterize the code's defaults, for those who write &lt;code&gt;job.yaml&lt;/code&gt; by hand.

== Test cases and how they were combined ==
'''62 cases''' over two corpora:
* &lt;code&gt;test-wos&lt;/code&gt;: 394 Web of Science articles, 1982–2023, with indexed terms;
* &lt;code&gt;chloro-presse-fr&lt;/code&gt;: 821 articles from French newspapers in 2020, with monthly dates and non-ASCII text.

These are the same corpora used in real runs on Cortext Manager.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Family !! Cases !! How they were chosen
|-
| Combinatorial (&lt;code&gt;cov-*&lt;/code&gt;) || 34 || '''covering array''' (below)
|-
| Directed (&lt;code&gt;bva-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;int-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;smoke-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;rnd-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;code-defaults-*&lt;/code&gt;) || 19 || boundary values, known interactions, visual-only features, random sources and code defaults
|-
| Manager replays (&lt;code&gt;replay-*&lt;/code&gt;) || 9 || the same parameters as real runs on Cortext Manager
|}

=== Covering array by interaction groups ===
To combine the parameters, we used a ''variable-strength covering array'' (Cohen et al., 2003):
* '''every class''' of every parameter appears in at least one case;
* '''every pair of classes''' appears in at least one case, but only between parameters that '''meet in the same part of the code'''.

The 8 groups (node selection, measure, filter, co-occurrence, time, communities, projection, inter-temporal) were defined by reading the code. Parameters that never meet, such as &lt;code&gt;lowering&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;keep_scaled&lt;/code&gt;, do not need to be combined with each other.

=== Constraints ===
Combinations that make no sense, or that break the legacy code for an already known reason, are excluded by rule, each one with its evidence:
* indirect measures only in homogeneous networks;
* &lt;code&gt;_het&lt;/code&gt; measures only in heterogeneous networks;
* several periods only with the &lt;code&gt;regular&lt;/code&gt; cut (the homogeneous cut is tested separately);
* top 500 only with one period (huge networks with no coverage gain);
* &lt;code&gt;democratic&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;keep_scaled&lt;/code&gt; only under the conditions in which they work.

A case that only records a crash or an empty network does not protect the refactoring: the defect becomes a finding, and the combination leaves the suite.

=== Replays ===
The 9 replays were compared with the outputs of Cortext Manager itself: '''the same network''' (nodes, edges, weights, degrees, betweenness and log metrics) in all of them. This shows that the local legacy environment reproduces production.

== What the golden master stores, and why ==

=== The three layers ===
Outputs were separated by their degree of determinism (see §4 of the method page):

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Layer !! What it is !! How it is compared
|-
| '''A: network structure''' || nodes, edges and weights (from the GEXF), log metrics, file names || always, with numerical tolerance
|-
| '''B: partition and derivatives''' || clusters, projection (&lt;code&gt;PC_*&lt;/code&gt;), phylogeny, tubes, cluster network || in full when the algorithm is deterministic; reduced to '''contract''' and '''invariants''' when it is random
|-
| '''C: drawing''' || positions, sizes, colors, images || never compared (only the file names)
|}

=== What is extracted from each run ===
* '''GEXF edges''', with source and target identified by label and category. The JSON loses the edge endpoints in some cases.
* '''JSON nodes:''' label, category, weight, degrees, betweenness, cluster.
* '''Tables created in the database:''' &lt;code&gt;clusters&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;PC_*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;projection&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;cluster&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;phylogeny&lt;/code&gt;.
* '''Tubes''' (&lt;code&gt;energy.json&lt;/code&gt;).
* '''Log metrics:''' measure used, items per period, optimal and final threshold, nodes and edges, modularity.
* '''List of produced files:''' the names contain the fields, the measure and the threshold.
* '''Contract:''' tables, columns and types; node and edge fields. It guarantees the format that other methods read, even when the content is random.
* '''Partition invariants:''' properties that hold for any random draw. For example:
** each node is in a single cluster per period;
** node weights sum to 1 within each cluster (as the documentation states);
** the projected clusters exist;
** with &lt;code&gt;univoque_mapping&lt;/code&gt;, there is at most one cluster per document and period;
** the ids in &lt;code&gt;PC_*&lt;/code&gt; are documents of the corpus.

=== Numerical tolerance ===
Floating-point numbers are compared with a relative tolerance of &lt;code&gt;1e-6&lt;/code&gt; (and an absolute one of &lt;code&gt;1e-9&lt;/code&gt;); integers, strings and booleans, exactly. The migration to Python 3 and the change of numpy and networkx versions alter the order of sums and how numbers are printed in the last digits. An exact comparison would break with no real change, whereas a genuine computation error changes the result as early as the 2nd or 3rd decimal place.

=== Randomness ===
The known random sources (Louvain with resolution, homogeneous cut, drawing) are handled '''by rule''', based on the code. After that, each case runs '''3 times''', and the golden only keeps what was repeated. Whatever varied is recorded along with the reason (&lt;code&gt;volatile.json&lt;/code&gt;). An unexpected variation stops the work and is investigated before becoming a rule. That is how we found out, for example, that the legacy code only writes degrees and betweenness for nodes that ended up in a cluster: the value is deterministic, but '''which nodes get the metric''' changes with the random draw.

== The test generator and reproducibility ==
The cases were not written by hand: a generator (&lt;code&gt;tests/generator/&lt;/code&gt;) produces them from a model, and anyone can regenerate them.

# '''Parameter model''' (&lt;code&gt;param_model.yaml&lt;/code&gt;): factors, classes, groups, constraints and directed cases. A &lt;code&gt;job_plan.yaml&lt;/code&gt; per corpus translates the abstract classes into concrete values (which fields count as &quot;terms × terms&quot; in that corpus, how many periods count as &quot;many&quot;). To add a new corpus, it is enough to write a &lt;code&gt;job_plan.yaml&lt;/code&gt;.
# '''Combination:''' the covering array is built by a greedy algorithm with a '''fixed seed''', so the same seed always yields the same suite. A test checks that the versioned manifest (&lt;code&gt;cases.yaml&lt;/code&gt;) is exactly what the generator produces.
# '''Writing the jobs:''' one &lt;code&gt;job.yaml&lt;/code&gt; per case, organized by the form's sections.
# '''Execution:''' each case runs 3 times in the legacy container (Python 2), always on fresh copies of the corpus, because the method modifies the database. Success is measured by three signals (progress at 100%, end message in the log and no ''traceback''), because the legacy code swallows exceptions and the exit code is not enough.
# '''Snapshot and golden:''' the output is extracted, normalized and compared across runs; what is stable goes into &lt;code&gt;expected/&lt;/code&gt;. The raw snapshots are kept, so the golden can be rebuilt without rerunning the legacy code when a rule changes. An existing golden is never overwritten without &lt;code&gt;--force&lt;/code&gt;.

&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;bash&quot;&gt;
cd network-mapping/tests
python -m pytest generator/tests -q             # generator and snapshot tests
python -m generator generate                     # writes the job.yaml files and the manifest
python -m generator run --workers 4 --repeat 3   # runs the legacy code and writes expected/
python -m generator replay                       # compares the replays with the Manager
python -m generator coverage                     # line coverage of the legacy code
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;

== Code coverage and safety for the refactoring ==
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Measure !! Value
|-
| Statements of &lt;code&gt;analysis.py&lt;/code&gt; executed by the suite || '''67.9%''' (2,207 of 3,252)
|-
| Relative to what the form and the data can reach || '''83.4%''' (2,207 of 2,645)
|-
| Failing cases || 0 of 62
|-
| Raw runs that match the golden (self-check) || 186 of 186
|}

'''What is not executed:'''
* '''Unreachable from the form''' (576 lines): contingency analysis, pickle cache, optimal number of communities, branches of hidden parameters. Only a hand-written &lt;code&gt;job.yaml&lt;/code&gt; gets here.
* '''Truly dead code:''' a first definition of &lt;code&gt;filter_phylogeny&lt;/code&gt;, overridden by a second one, and the &lt;code&gt;rank = None&lt;/code&gt; branches, which never happens. These parts can be removed without changing behavior.
* '''Not varied by decision:''' drawing options, dynamic heatmap, &lt;code&gt;robustness&lt;/code&gt;.
* '''Lack of data:''' geolocation.
* '''Error branches''' (&lt;code&gt;except:&lt;/code&gt;).

'''Where the refactoring is protected:'''
* the network structure (layer A), in all cases;
* the partition and the projection, in the deterministic cases;
* the format of tables and graphs (contract), always;
* degrees and betweenness, including in the random cases.

'''Where it is not protected''' (known limitations):
* in the random cases, a '''different but valid''' partition passes the invariants;
* relative differences smaller than &lt;code&gt;1e-6&lt;/code&gt;;
* interactions between parameters of different groups;
* the drawings.

'''Changes already expected in the Python 3 migration''', with their handling decided before migrating:
* dictionary ordering changes some ids and the order of the saved parameters;
* &lt;code&gt;str(float)&lt;/code&gt; changes the number of digits in file names;
* integer division in the &lt;code&gt;regular&lt;/code&gt; cut becomes true division;
* the Louvain partition may be numbered differently.

== Possible bugs and notes on the code ==
&lt;!-- Seção a ser escrita --&gt;

== References ==
* Cohen, M. B.; Gibbons, P. B.; Mugridge, W. B.; Colbourn, C. J. Constructing test suites for interaction testing. ''ICSE'', 2003.
* Cortext Manager Documentation: ''Node selection'', ''Edges definition'', ''Edges: metrics definitions'', ''Dynamical settings'', ''Network analysis &amp; layout''. https://docs.cortext.net/
* Feathers, M. ''Working Effectively with Legacy Code''. Prentice Hall, 2004.
* Kuhn, D. R.; Kacker, R. N.; Lei, Y. ''Introduction to Combinatorial Testing''. CRC Press, 2013.
* Myers, G. J.; Sandler, C.; Badgett, T. ''The Art of Software Testing'', 3rd ed. Wiley, 2011.

[[Category:Software engineering]]
[[Category:Software testing]]</text>
      <sha1>gpzzeqg9afv38iq6olaevmel3a0lanh</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840042</id>
      <parentid>2840039</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T13:58:40Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Calixto Rosa</username>
        <id>3111607</id>
      </contributor>
      <origin>2840042</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="14691" sha1="1e1cvhsgo4p8u07x8cwjxhxu6xnnmjq" xml:space="preserve">This page explains how the behavior of the legacy '''Network Mapping''' method was recorded by characterization tests before the refactoring: why this kind of test was used, how the roughly 70 parameters were split into equivalence classes and combined into 62 cases, what the golden master stores, how the suite is generated and reproduced, how much of the code it covers and which possible bugs were found along the way.

To understand the method itself (concepts, steps, parameters and output files), see the page[https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Cortext/Projects/Refactor_Network_Mapping/About_Network_Mapping About Network Mapping].

== Why characterization tests ==
The legacy code has about 5,200 lines in a single script, in Python 2, with no tests. Before migrating to Python 3 and reorganizing the code, we need a safety net that says: '''&quot;the refactored method does exactly what the legacy one did&quot;'''.

A '''characterization test''' (Feathers, 2004) does not check whether the result is correct. It records what the code does today, the reference output or '''golden master''', and flags any change. If the legacy code has a bug, the test records the bug. Fixing it becomes an explicit decision, made later, and not a side effect of the refactoring.

Rules we follow:
* '''Observable behavior is preserved.''' Any difference from the golden stops the work and is analyzed before moving on.
* '''The golden only changes with internal validation by the team''', never to &quot;make the test pass&quot;.
* '''Input and output formats do not change:''' file, table and column names are a contract.

== Equivalence classes ==
'''Definition.''' An equivalence class is a set of input values that takes the code down the '''same path''': the values do not give the same result, but they exercise the same behavior (Myers et al., 2011). Testing one representative of each class gives almost the same confidence as testing every value, with far fewer cases. '''Boundary values''' (the border between classes) get their own cases, because that is where errors tend to appear.

'''How it applies to Network Mapping.''' The method has about 70 parameters. Testing every combination is impossible; even one value per parameter yields thousands of cases. The classes were derived from reading the code (the &lt;code&gt;if&lt;/code&gt; statements each value triggers) and from the documentation:

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Parameter !! Classes !! Why
|-
| &lt;code&gt;top&lt;/code&gt; || 20 (small), 150 (default), 500 (cap) + boundary case 501 || the code caps it at 500; behavior changes above the cap
|-
| measure || automatic + each of the 10 measures || each measure is a different formula in the code
|-
| fields || classes by '''data structure''': terms × terms, field with several values per document, ranked field (cited references), one value × many, two single-value fields || co-occurrence counting follows different paths depending on the field; the concrete fields come from each corpus
|-
| &lt;code&gt;nb_period&lt;/code&gt; || one, few (2–3), many (10) || with one period there is no phylogeny; with many, more edge cases show up
|-
| communities || &lt;code&gt;louvain&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;clique percolation&lt;/code&gt; (+ &lt;code&gt;infomap&lt;/code&gt; separately) || different algorithms, with different determinism properties
|-
| child parameters (&lt;code&gt;resolution&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;bipartweighting&lt;/code&gt;, inter-temporal...) || &lt;code&gt;absent&lt;/code&gt; class when the parent is off || the code only reads them when the parent enables them
|}

'''What was not varied, and why.'''
* Parameters that only change the drawing (labels, colors, fonts, alpha-shapes, crossing minimization) stay at their defaults: they only change the PDF and the positions, which are not compared.
* Tagging, heatmap and historical map have ''smoke'' cases: the probes showed that they only change the drawings and the file names.

'''Important finding about the starting point.''' Cortext Manager sends '''all''' form parameters, including those in collapsed sections, with the '''form's''' default value. When a parameter is missing, the code uses another default: the '''code's''' own. The two disagree on 21 parameters (for example, the optimal threshold is on in the form and off in the code; the default algorithm is &lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt; in the form and &lt;code&gt;louvain&lt;/code&gt; in the code). That is why every case starts from the complete form, as the Manager sends it. Two cases (&lt;code&gt;code-defaults-*&lt;/code&gt;) characterize the code's defaults, for those who write &lt;code&gt;job.yaml&lt;/code&gt; by hand.

== Test cases and how they were combined ==
'''62 cases''' over two corpora:
* &lt;code&gt;test-wos&lt;/code&gt;: 394 Web of Science articles, 1982–2023, with indexed terms;
* &lt;code&gt;chloro-presse-fr&lt;/code&gt;: 821 articles from French newspapers in 2020, with monthly dates and non-ASCII text.

These are the same corpora used in real runs on Cortext Manager.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Family !! Cases !! How they were chosen
|-
| Combinatorial (&lt;code&gt;cov-*&lt;/code&gt;) || 34 || '''covering array''' (below)
|-
| Directed (&lt;code&gt;bva-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;int-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;smoke-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;rnd-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;code-defaults-*&lt;/code&gt;) || 19 || boundary values, known interactions, visual-only features, random sources and code defaults
|-
| Manager replays (&lt;code&gt;replay-*&lt;/code&gt;) || 9 || the same parameters as real runs on Cortext Manager
|}

=== Covering array by interaction groups ===
To combine the parameters, we used a ''variable-strength covering array'' (Cohen et al., 2003):
* '''every class''' of every parameter appears in at least one case;
* '''every pair of classes''' appears in at least one case, but only between parameters that '''meet in the same part of the code'''.

The 8 groups (node selection, measure, filter, co-occurrence, time, communities, projection, inter-temporal) were defined by reading the code. Parameters that never meet, such as &lt;code&gt;lowering&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;keep_scaled&lt;/code&gt;, do not need to be combined with each other.

=== Constraints ===
Combinations that make no sense, or that break the legacy code for an already known reason, are excluded by rule, each one with its evidence:
* indirect measures only in homogeneous networks;
* &lt;code&gt;_het&lt;/code&gt; measures only in heterogeneous networks;
* several periods only with the &lt;code&gt;regular&lt;/code&gt; cut (the homogeneous cut is tested separately);
* top 500 only with one period (huge networks with no coverage gain);
* &lt;code&gt;democratic&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;keep_scaled&lt;/code&gt; only under the conditions in which they work.

A case that only records a crash or an empty network does not protect the refactoring: the defect becomes a finding, and the combination leaves the suite.

=== Replays ===
The 9 replays were compared with the outputs of Cortext Manager itself: '''the same network''' (nodes, edges, weights, degrees, betweenness and log metrics) in all of them. This shows that the local legacy environment reproduces production.

== What the golden master stores, and why ==

=== The three layers ===
Outputs were separated by their degree of determinism (see §4 of the method page):

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Layer !! What it is !! How it is compared
|-
| '''A: network structure''' || nodes, edges and weights (from the GEXF), log metrics, file names || always, with numerical tolerance
|-
| '''B: partition and derivatives''' || clusters, projection (&lt;code&gt;PC_*&lt;/code&gt;), phylogeny, tubes, cluster network || in full when the algorithm is deterministic; reduced to '''contract''' and '''invariants''' when it is random
|-
| '''C: drawing''' || positions, sizes, colors, images || never compared (only the file names)
|}

=== What is extracted from each run ===
* '''GEXF edges''', with source and target identified by label and category. The JSON loses the edge endpoints in some cases.
* '''JSON nodes:''' label, category, weight, degrees, betweenness, cluster.
* '''Tables created in the database:''' &lt;code&gt;clusters&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;PC_*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;projection&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;cluster&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;phylogeny&lt;/code&gt;.
* '''Tubes''' (&lt;code&gt;energy.json&lt;/code&gt;).
* '''Log metrics:''' measure used, items per period, optimal and final threshold, nodes and edges, modularity.
* '''List of produced files:''' the names contain the fields, the measure and the threshold.
* '''Contract:''' tables, columns and types; node and edge fields. It guarantees the format that other methods read, even when the content is random.
* '''Partition invariants:''' properties that hold for any random draw. For example:
** each node is in a single cluster per period;
** node weights sum to 1 within each cluster (as the documentation states);
** the projected clusters exist;
** with &lt;code&gt;univoque_mapping&lt;/code&gt;, there is at most one cluster per document and period;
** the ids in &lt;code&gt;PC_*&lt;/code&gt; are documents of the corpus.

=== Numerical tolerance ===
Floating-point numbers are compared with a relative tolerance of &lt;code&gt;1e-6&lt;/code&gt; (and an absolute one of &lt;code&gt;1e-9&lt;/code&gt;); integers, strings and booleans, exactly. The migration to Python 3 and the change of numpy and networkx versions alter the order of sums and how numbers are printed in the last digits. An exact comparison would break with no real change, whereas a genuine computation error changes the result as early as the 2nd or 3rd decimal place.

=== Randomness ===
The known random sources (Louvain with resolution, homogeneous cut, drawing) are handled '''by rule''', based on the code. After that, each case runs '''3 times''', and the golden only keeps what was repeated. Whatever varied is recorded along with the reason (&lt;code&gt;volatile.json&lt;/code&gt;). An unexpected variation stops the work and is investigated before becoming a rule. That is how we found out, for example, that the legacy code only writes degrees and betweenness for nodes that ended up in a cluster: the value is deterministic, but '''which nodes get the metric''' changes with the random draw.

== The test generator and reproducibility ==
The cases were not written by hand: a generator (&lt;code&gt;tests/generator/&lt;/code&gt;) produces them from a model, and anyone can regenerate them.

# '''Parameter model''' (&lt;code&gt;param_model.yaml&lt;/code&gt;): factors, classes, groups, constraints and directed cases. A &lt;code&gt;job_plan.yaml&lt;/code&gt; per corpus translates the abstract classes into concrete values (which fields count as &quot;terms × terms&quot; in that corpus, how many periods count as &quot;many&quot;). To add a new corpus, it is enough to write a &lt;code&gt;job_plan.yaml&lt;/code&gt;.
# '''Combination:''' the covering array is built by a greedy algorithm with a '''fixed seed''', so the same seed always yields the same suite. A test checks that the versioned manifest (&lt;code&gt;cases.yaml&lt;/code&gt;) is exactly what the generator produces.
# '''Writing the jobs:''' one &lt;code&gt;job.yaml&lt;/code&gt; per case, organized by the form's sections.
# '''Execution:''' each case runs 3 times in the legacy container (Python 2), always on fresh copies of the corpus, because the method modifies the database. Success is measured by three signals (progress at 100%, end message in the log and no ''traceback''), because the legacy code swallows exceptions and the exit code is not enough.
# '''Snapshot and golden:''' the output is extracted, normalized and compared across runs; what is stable goes into &lt;code&gt;expected/&lt;/code&gt;. The raw snapshots are kept, so the golden can be rebuilt without rerunning the legacy code when a rule changes. An existing golden is never overwritten without &lt;code&gt;--force&lt;/code&gt;.

&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;bash&quot;&gt;
cd network-mapping/tests
python -m pytest generator/tests -q             # generator and snapshot tests
python -m generator generate                     # writes the job.yaml files and the manifest
python -m generator run --workers 4 --repeat 3   # runs the legacy code and writes expected/
python -m generator replay                       # compares the replays with the Manager
python -m generator coverage                     # line coverage of the legacy code
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;

== Code coverage and safety for the refactoring ==
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Measure !! Value
|-
| Statements of &lt;code&gt;analysis.py&lt;/code&gt; executed by the suite || '''67.9%''' (2,207 of 3,252)
|-
| Relative to what the form and the data can reach || '''83.4%''' (2,207 of 2,645)
|-
| Failing cases || 0 of 62
|-
| Raw runs that match the golden (self-check) || 186 of 186
|}

'''What is not executed:'''
* '''Unreachable from the form''' (576 lines): contingency analysis, pickle cache, optimal number of communities, branches of hidden parameters. Only a hand-written &lt;code&gt;job.yaml&lt;/code&gt; gets here.
* '''Truly dead code:''' a first definition of &lt;code&gt;filter_phylogeny&lt;/code&gt;, overridden by a second one, and the &lt;code&gt;rank = None&lt;/code&gt; branches, which never happens. These parts can be removed without changing behavior.
* '''Not varied by decision:''' drawing options, dynamic heatmap, &lt;code&gt;robustness&lt;/code&gt;.
* '''Lack of data:''' geolocation.
* '''Error branches''' (&lt;code&gt;except:&lt;/code&gt;).

'''Where the refactoring is protected:'''
* the network structure (layer A), in all cases;
* the partition and the projection, in the deterministic cases;
* the format of tables and graphs (contract), always;
* degrees and betweenness, including in the random cases.

'''Where it is not protected''' (known limitations):
* in the random cases, a '''different but valid''' partition passes the invariants;
* relative differences smaller than &lt;code&gt;1e-6&lt;/code&gt;;
* interactions between parameters of different groups;
* the drawings.

'''Changes already expected in the Python 3 migration''', with their handling decided before migrating:
* dictionary ordering changes some ids and the order of the saved parameters;
* &lt;code&gt;str(float)&lt;/code&gt; changes the number of digits in file names;
* integer division in the &lt;code&gt;regular&lt;/code&gt; cut becomes true division;
* the Louvain partition may be numbered differently.

== Possible bugs and notes on the code ==
&lt;!-- Seção a ser escrita --&gt;

== References ==
* Cohen, M. B.; Gibbons, P. B.; Mugridge, W. B.; Colbourn, C. J. Constructing test suites for interaction testing. ''ICSE'', 2003.
* Cortext Manager Documentation: ''Node selection'', ''Edges definition'', ''Edges: metrics definitions'', ''Dynamical settings'', ''Network analysis &amp; layout''. https://docs.cortext.net/
* Feathers, M. ''Working Effectively with Legacy Code''. Prentice Hall, 2004.
* Kuhn, D. R.; Kacker, R. N.; Lei, Y. ''Introduction to Combinatorial Testing''. CRC Press, 2013.
* Myers, G. J.; Sandler, C.; Badgett, T. ''The Art of Software Testing'', 3rd ed. Wiley, 2011.

[[Category:Software engineering]]
[[Category:Software testing]]</text>
      <sha1>1e1cvhsgo4p8u07x8cwjxhxu6xnnmjq</sha1>
    </revision>
    <revision>
      <id>2840043</id>
      <parentid>2840042</parentid>
      <timestamp>2026-10-13T13:58:51Z</timestamp>
      <contributor>
        <username>Calixto Rosa</username>
        <id>3111607</id>
      </contributor>
      <origin>2840043</origin>
      <model>wikitext</model>
      <format>text/x-wiki</format>
      <text bytes="14692" sha1="6om0kkqps1clmbtycwnbmrbj5alrjt3" xml:space="preserve">This page explains how the behavior of the legacy '''Network Mapping''' method was recorded by characterization tests before the refactoring: why this kind of test was used, how the roughly 70 parameters were split into equivalence classes and combined into 62 cases, what the golden master stores, how the suite is generated and reproduced, how much of the code it covers and which possible bugs were found along the way.

To understand the method itself (concepts, steps, parameters and output files), see the page [https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Cortext/Projects/Refactor_Network_Mapping/About_Network_Mapping About Network Mapping].

== Why characterization tests ==
The legacy code has about 5,200 lines in a single script, in Python 2, with no tests. Before migrating to Python 3 and reorganizing the code, we need a safety net that says: '''&quot;the refactored method does exactly what the legacy one did&quot;'''.

A '''characterization test''' (Feathers, 2004) does not check whether the result is correct. It records what the code does today, the reference output or '''golden master''', and flags any change. If the legacy code has a bug, the test records the bug. Fixing it becomes an explicit decision, made later, and not a side effect of the refactoring.

Rules we follow:
* '''Observable behavior is preserved.''' Any difference from the golden stops the work and is analyzed before moving on.
* '''The golden only changes with internal validation by the team''', never to &quot;make the test pass&quot;.
* '''Input and output formats do not change:''' file, table and column names are a contract.

== Equivalence classes ==
'''Definition.''' An equivalence class is a set of input values that takes the code down the '''same path''': the values do not give the same result, but they exercise the same behavior (Myers et al., 2011). Testing one representative of each class gives almost the same confidence as testing every value, with far fewer cases. '''Boundary values''' (the border between classes) get their own cases, because that is where errors tend to appear.

'''How it applies to Network Mapping.''' The method has about 70 parameters. Testing every combination is impossible; even one value per parameter yields thousands of cases. The classes were derived from reading the code (the &lt;code&gt;if&lt;/code&gt; statements each value triggers) and from the documentation:

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Parameter !! Classes !! Why
|-
| &lt;code&gt;top&lt;/code&gt; || 20 (small), 150 (default), 500 (cap) + boundary case 501 || the code caps it at 500; behavior changes above the cap
|-
| measure || automatic + each of the 10 measures || each measure is a different formula in the code
|-
| fields || classes by '''data structure''': terms × terms, field with several values per document, ranked field (cited references), one value × many, two single-value fields || co-occurrence counting follows different paths depending on the field; the concrete fields come from each corpus
|-
| &lt;code&gt;nb_period&lt;/code&gt; || one, few (2–3), many (10) || with one period there is no phylogeny; with many, more edge cases show up
|-
| communities || &lt;code&gt;louvain&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;clique percolation&lt;/code&gt; (+ &lt;code&gt;infomap&lt;/code&gt; separately) || different algorithms, with different determinism properties
|-
| child parameters (&lt;code&gt;resolution&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;bipartweighting&lt;/code&gt;, inter-temporal...) || &lt;code&gt;absent&lt;/code&gt; class when the parent is off || the code only reads them when the parent enables them
|}

'''What was not varied, and why.'''
* Parameters that only change the drawing (labels, colors, fonts, alpha-shapes, crossing minimization) stay at their defaults: they only change the PDF and the positions, which are not compared.
* Tagging, heatmap and historical map have ''smoke'' cases: the probes showed that they only change the drawings and the file names.

'''Important finding about the starting point.''' Cortext Manager sends '''all''' form parameters, including those in collapsed sections, with the '''form's''' default value. When a parameter is missing, the code uses another default: the '''code's''' own. The two disagree on 21 parameters (for example, the optimal threshold is on in the form and off in the code; the default algorithm is &lt;code&gt;louvain resolution&lt;/code&gt; in the form and &lt;code&gt;louvain&lt;/code&gt; in the code). That is why every case starts from the complete form, as the Manager sends it. Two cases (&lt;code&gt;code-defaults-*&lt;/code&gt;) characterize the code's defaults, for those who write &lt;code&gt;job.yaml&lt;/code&gt; by hand.

== Test cases and how they were combined ==
'''62 cases''' over two corpora:
* &lt;code&gt;test-wos&lt;/code&gt;: 394 Web of Science articles, 1982–2023, with indexed terms;
* &lt;code&gt;chloro-presse-fr&lt;/code&gt;: 821 articles from French newspapers in 2020, with monthly dates and non-ASCII text.

These are the same corpora used in real runs on Cortext Manager.

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Family !! Cases !! How they were chosen
|-
| Combinatorial (&lt;code&gt;cov-*&lt;/code&gt;) || 34 || '''covering array''' (below)
|-
| Directed (&lt;code&gt;bva-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;int-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;smoke-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;rnd-*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;code-defaults-*&lt;/code&gt;) || 19 || boundary values, known interactions, visual-only features, random sources and code defaults
|-
| Manager replays (&lt;code&gt;replay-*&lt;/code&gt;) || 9 || the same parameters as real runs on Cortext Manager
|}

=== Covering array by interaction groups ===
To combine the parameters, we used a ''variable-strength covering array'' (Cohen et al., 2003):
* '''every class''' of every parameter appears in at least one case;
* '''every pair of classes''' appears in at least one case, but only between parameters that '''meet in the same part of the code'''.

The 8 groups (node selection, measure, filter, co-occurrence, time, communities, projection, inter-temporal) were defined by reading the code. Parameters that never meet, such as &lt;code&gt;lowering&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;keep_scaled&lt;/code&gt;, do not need to be combined with each other.

=== Constraints ===
Combinations that make no sense, or that break the legacy code for an already known reason, are excluded by rule, each one with its evidence:
* indirect measures only in homogeneous networks;
* &lt;code&gt;_het&lt;/code&gt; measures only in heterogeneous networks;
* several periods only with the &lt;code&gt;regular&lt;/code&gt; cut (the homogeneous cut is tested separately);
* top 500 only with one period (huge networks with no coverage gain);
* &lt;code&gt;democratic&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;keep_scaled&lt;/code&gt; only under the conditions in which they work.

A case that only records a crash or an empty network does not protect the refactoring: the defect becomes a finding, and the combination leaves the suite.

=== Replays ===
The 9 replays were compared with the outputs of Cortext Manager itself: '''the same network''' (nodes, edges, weights, degrees, betweenness and log metrics) in all of them. This shows that the local legacy environment reproduces production.

== What the golden master stores, and why ==

=== The three layers ===
Outputs were separated by their degree of determinism (see §4 of the method page):

{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Layer !! What it is !! How it is compared
|-
| '''A: network structure''' || nodes, edges and weights (from the GEXF), log metrics, file names || always, with numerical tolerance
|-
| '''B: partition and derivatives''' || clusters, projection (&lt;code&gt;PC_*&lt;/code&gt;), phylogeny, tubes, cluster network || in full when the algorithm is deterministic; reduced to '''contract''' and '''invariants''' when it is random
|-
| '''C: drawing''' || positions, sizes, colors, images || never compared (only the file names)
|}

=== What is extracted from each run ===
* '''GEXF edges''', with source and target identified by label and category. The JSON loses the edge endpoints in some cases.
* '''JSON nodes:''' label, category, weight, degrees, betweenness, cluster.
* '''Tables created in the database:''' &lt;code&gt;clusters&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;PC_*&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;projection&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;cluster&lt;/code&gt;, &lt;code&gt;phylogeny&lt;/code&gt;.
* '''Tubes''' (&lt;code&gt;energy.json&lt;/code&gt;).
* '''Log metrics:''' measure used, items per period, optimal and final threshold, nodes and edges, modularity.
* '''List of produced files:''' the names contain the fields, the measure and the threshold.
* '''Contract:''' tables, columns and types; node and edge fields. It guarantees the format that other methods read, even when the content is random.
* '''Partition invariants:''' properties that hold for any random draw. For example:
** each node is in a single cluster per period;
** node weights sum to 1 within each cluster (as the documentation states);
** the projected clusters exist;
** with &lt;code&gt;univoque_mapping&lt;/code&gt;, there is at most one cluster per document and period;
** the ids in &lt;code&gt;PC_*&lt;/code&gt; are documents of the corpus.

=== Numerical tolerance ===
Floating-point numbers are compared with a relative tolerance of &lt;code&gt;1e-6&lt;/code&gt; (and an absolute one of &lt;code&gt;1e-9&lt;/code&gt;); integers, strings and booleans, exactly. The migration to Python 3 and the change of numpy and networkx versions alter the order of sums and how numbers are printed in the last digits. An exact comparison would break with no real change, whereas a genuine computation error changes the result as early as the 2nd or 3rd decimal place.

=== Randomness ===
The known random sources (Louvain with resolution, homogeneous cut, drawing) are handled '''by rule''', based on the code. After that, each case runs '''3 times''', and the golden only keeps what was repeated. Whatever varied is recorded along with the reason (&lt;code&gt;volatile.json&lt;/code&gt;). An unexpected variation stops the work and is investigated before becoming a rule. That is how we found out, for example, that the legacy code only writes degrees and betweenness for nodes that ended up in a cluster: the value is deterministic, but '''which nodes get the metric''' changes with the random draw.

== The test generator and reproducibility ==
The cases were not written by hand: a generator (&lt;code&gt;tests/generator/&lt;/code&gt;) produces them from a model, and anyone can regenerate them.

# '''Parameter model''' (&lt;code&gt;param_model.yaml&lt;/code&gt;): factors, classes, groups, constraints and directed cases. A &lt;code&gt;job_plan.yaml&lt;/code&gt; per corpus translates the abstract classes into concrete values (which fields count as &quot;terms × terms&quot; in that corpus, how many periods count as &quot;many&quot;). To add a new corpus, it is enough to write a &lt;code&gt;job_plan.yaml&lt;/code&gt;.
# '''Combination:''' the covering array is built by a greedy algorithm with a '''fixed seed''', so the same seed always yields the same suite. A test checks that the versioned manifest (&lt;code&gt;cases.yaml&lt;/code&gt;) is exactly what the generator produces.
# '''Writing the jobs:''' one &lt;code&gt;job.yaml&lt;/code&gt; per case, organized by the form's sections.
# '''Execution:''' each case runs 3 times in the legacy container (Python 2), always on fresh copies of the corpus, because the method modifies the database. Success is measured by three signals (progress at 100%, end message in the log and no ''traceback''), because the legacy code swallows exceptions and the exit code is not enough.
# '''Snapshot and golden:''' the output is extracted, normalized and compared across runs; what is stable goes into &lt;code&gt;expected/&lt;/code&gt;. The raw snapshots are kept, so the golden can be rebuilt without rerunning the legacy code when a rule changes. An existing golden is never overwritten without &lt;code&gt;--force&lt;/code&gt;.

&lt;syntaxhighlight lang=&quot;bash&quot;&gt;
cd network-mapping/tests
python -m pytest generator/tests -q             # generator and snapshot tests
python -m generator generate                     # writes the job.yaml files and the manifest
python -m generator run --workers 4 --repeat 3   # runs the legacy code and writes expected/
python -m generator replay                       # compares the replays with the Manager
python -m generator coverage                     # line coverage of the legacy code
&lt;/syntaxhighlight&gt;

== Code coverage and safety for the refactoring ==
{| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;
! Measure !! Value
|-
| Statements of &lt;code&gt;analysis.py&lt;/code&gt; executed by the suite || '''67.9%''' (2,207 of 3,252)
|-
| Relative to what the form and the data can reach || '''83.4%''' (2,207 of 2,645)
|-
| Failing cases || 0 of 62
|-
| Raw runs that match the golden (self-check) || 186 of 186
|}

'''What is not executed:'''
* '''Unreachable from the form''' (576 lines): contingency analysis, pickle cache, optimal number of communities, branches of hidden parameters. Only a hand-written &lt;code&gt;job.yaml&lt;/code&gt; gets here.
* '''Truly dead code:''' a first definition of &lt;code&gt;filter_phylogeny&lt;/code&gt;, overridden by a second one, and the &lt;code&gt;rank = None&lt;/code&gt; branches, which never happens. These parts can be removed without changing behavior.
* '''Not varied by decision:''' drawing options, dynamic heatmap, &lt;code&gt;robustness&lt;/code&gt;.
* '''Lack of data:''' geolocation.
* '''Error branches''' (&lt;code&gt;except:&lt;/code&gt;).

'''Where the refactoring is protected:'''
* the network structure (layer A), in all cases;
* the partition and the projection, in the deterministic cases;
* the format of tables and graphs (contract), always;
* degrees and betweenness, including in the random cases.

'''Where it is not protected''' (known limitations):
* in the random cases, a '''different but valid''' partition passes the invariants;
* relative differences smaller than &lt;code&gt;1e-6&lt;/code&gt;;
* interactions between parameters of different groups;
* the drawings.

'''Changes already expected in the Python 3 migration''', with their handling decided before migrating:
* dictionary ordering changes some ids and the order of the saved parameters;
* &lt;code&gt;str(float)&lt;/code&gt; changes the number of digits in file names;
* integer division in the &lt;code&gt;regular&lt;/code&gt; cut becomes true division;
* the Louvain partition may be numbered differently.

== Possible bugs and notes on the code ==
&lt;!-- Seção a ser escrita --&gt;

== References ==
* Cohen, M. B.; Gibbons, P. B.; Mugridge, W. B.; Colbourn, C. J. Constructing test suites for interaction testing. ''ICSE'', 2003.
* Cortext Manager Documentation: ''Node selection'', ''Edges definition'', ''Edges: metrics definitions'', ''Dynamical settings'', ''Network analysis &amp; layout''. https://docs.cortext.net/
* Feathers, M. ''Working Effectively with Legacy Code''. Prentice Hall, 2004.
* Kuhn, D. R.; Kacker, R. N.; Lei, Y. ''Introduction to Combinatorial Testing''. CRC Press, 2013.
* Myers, G. J.; Sandler, C.; Badgett, T. ''The Art of Software Testing'', 3rd ed. Wiley, 2011.

[[Category:Software engineering]]
[[Category:Software testing]]</text>
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= PDT and Quantum-State Normalization at a Reissner–Nordström Horizon =

''Research extension of [[Probability Dilation Theory/Normalized Probability Dilation Paper|Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry]]''

'''Research manuscript — Draft Version 1.0 extension'''

''This page is part of the Probability Dilation Theory research project at Wikiversity. It records an exploratory mathematical and computational investigation connecting PDT normalization with black-hole entropy and quantum emission. It is a work in progress and is not a peer-reviewed publication.''

== Abstract ==

This research branch investigates whether the dilation field of Probability Dilation Theory (PDT) can be connected to a physically motivated gravitational quantity rather than being chosen arbitrarily.

The proposed quantity is the finite change in Bekenstein–Hawking entropy associated with an emission from a Reissner–Nordström (RN) black hole:

:&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
\exp\left(
\frac{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}{k_B}
\right),
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
=
S_{\rm BH}(M-\omega,Q-q)
-
S_{\rm BH}(M,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

In natural units, this becomes

:&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}=e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The investigation then asks whether applying these entropy-derived dilation weights through PDT normalization generates a state-dependent nonlinear evolution of the black-hole charge-to-mass ratio.

The central dynamical quantity is

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle},
&lt;/math&gt;

and the central condition is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac QM.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

This condition represents a stationary charge-to-energy trajectory. The research asks whether such a trajectory is absent, stable, unstable, or otherwise structurally significant when increasingly physical emission models are introduced.

The present work does not claim that PDT has established a new physical mechanism for Hawking radiation or black-hole evaporation. Its purpose is to determine whether the proposed mathematical construction produces a distinctive and reproducible structure worthy of further investigation.

== 1. Research question ==

The original PDT framework permits positive dilation weights

:&lt;math&gt;
D_n&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

to transform a probability distribution according to

:&lt;math&gt;
p_n'
=
\frac{D_n p_n}
{\sum_m D_m p_m}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The present research asks a more discriminating question:

:''Can a physically derived gravitational quantity determine the PDT dilation field &lt;math&gt;D_n&lt;/math&gt;, rather than the dilation field being selected arbitrarily?''

A Reissner–Nordström black hole provides a useful test system because it possesses:

* a well-defined horizon;
* a calculable Bekenstein–Hawking entropy;
* mass and electric charge;
* a Hawking temperature;
* an electromagnetic horizon potential;
* and a quantum-field emission problem with calculable greybody factors.

The proposed chain is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
(M,Q)
\rightarrow
S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
D_{\omega,q}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}
\rightarrow
\alpha_{\rm eff}
\rightarrow
(M,Q)\text{ trajectory}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

== 2. RN geometry ==

For a four-dimensional Reissner–Nordström black hole in geometrized units,

:&lt;math&gt;
r_\pm
=
M\pm\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The outer horizon is

:&lt;math&gt;
r_+
=
M+\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The Bekenstein–Hawking entropy is

:&lt;math&gt;
S_{\rm BH}
=
\frac{A}{4}
=
\pi r_+^2
&lt;/math&gt;

in Planck units.

Thus

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
S_{\rm BH}(M,Q)
=
\pi
\left(
M+\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}
\right)^2.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The nonextremal condition is

:&lt;math&gt;
M&gt;|Q|.
&lt;/math&gt;

The extremal boundary is

:&lt;math&gt;
|Q|=M.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the principal numerical control system used in this research,

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
M_0=10,\qquad Q_0=6.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{Q_0}{M_0}=0.6,
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
r_+=18,\qquad r_-=2.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 3. Entropy-derived PDT dilation ==

Consider an emission carrying energy &lt;math&gt;\omega&lt;/math&gt; and charge &lt;math&gt;q&lt;/math&gt;:

:&lt;math&gt;
(M,Q)
\longrightarrow
(M-\omega,Q-q).
&lt;/math&gt;

The exact finite entropy change is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
=
\pi
\left[
M-\omega+
\sqrt{(M-\omega)^2-(Q-q)^2}
\right]^2
-
\pi
\left[
M+
\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}
\right]^2.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The proposed gravitational dilation field is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
D_{\omega,q}
=
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}/k_B}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

In natural units,

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
D_{\omega,q}=e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

This is a proposed PDT construction and is not being presented as an established law of black-hole physics.

== 4. Semiclassical Hawking limit ==

The RN first law is

:&lt;math&gt;
dM
=
T_H\,dS_{\rm BH}
+
\Phi_H\,dQ.
&lt;/math&gt;

For an emission,

:&lt;math&gt;
dM=-\omega,
\qquad
dQ=-q.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore, to first order,

:&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\simeq
-\frac{\omega-\Phi_Hq}{T_H}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Consequently,

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
D_{\omega,q}
\simeq
e^{-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the proposed entropy-derived PDT dilation reduces in the small-emission limit to the ordinary charged Hawking/Boltzmann factor.

This is a consistency check rather than a claim that PDT has independently derived Hawking radiation.

== 5. Finite-emission correction ==

For finite emissions,

:&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\neq
-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)
&lt;/math&gt;

in general.

The exact PDT weight may therefore be written schematically as

:&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
e^{-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)}
e^{\mathcal C_{\rm RN}(\omega,q)},
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
\mathcal C_{\rm RN}
=
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
+
\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq).
&lt;/math&gt;

The nonlinear correction arises because the black-hole geometry itself changes during the emission.

Entropy-change corrections of this general kind occur in established black-hole thermodynamic and tunnelling treatments. The possible PDT contribution is therefore not the existence of the entropy correction itself, but the use of that physically determined quantity as the dilation field within an iterated normalized probability transformation.

== 6. PDT normalization ==

For possible emission channels,

:&lt;math&gt;
p_n^{\rm PDT}
=
\frac{
p_n e^{\Delta S_n/k_B}
}{
\sum_m p_m e^{\Delta S_m/k_B}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define

:&lt;math&gt;
Z_{\rm PDT}
=
\sum_m
p_m e^{\Delta S_m/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The normalization guarantees

:&lt;math&gt;
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}=1.
&lt;/math&gt;

An important observation is that the normalization denominator does not itself alter relative odds:

:&lt;math&gt;
\frac{p_i^{\rm PDT}}{p_j^{\rm PDT}}
=
\frac{p_i}{p_j}
e^{(\Delta S_i-\Delta S_j)/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore any distinctive dynamical structure must arise from the state dependence of the dilation field and its repeated application, not from normalization alone.

== 7. From probability normalization to black-hole dynamics ==

At each step, define

:&lt;math&gt;
\langle\omega\rangle
=
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}\omega_n
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
\langle q\rangle
=
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}q_n.
&lt;/math&gt;

The expected black-hole evolution is then

:&lt;math&gt;
M_{k+1}
=
M_k-\langle\omega\rangle_k,
&lt;/math&gt;

:&lt;math&gt;
Q_{k+1}
=
Q_k-\langle q\rangle_k.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define

:&lt;math&gt;
x=\frac QM.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective charge-to-energy ratio is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

For sufficiently small changes,

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\frac{dx}{dM}
=
\frac{\alpha_{\rm eff}-x}{M}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the stationary condition is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac QM.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

This converts the PDT–black-hole problem into a nonlinear dynamical-system question.

== 8. The minimal two-channel control model ==

The first numerical model deliberately used only two possible channels:

:&lt;math&gt;
(\omega,0)
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
(\omega,\alpha\omega).
&lt;/math&gt;

The entropy factors were

:&lt;math&gt;
D_A=e^{\Delta S_A},
\qquad
D_B=e^{\Delta S_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

With equal prior weights,

:&lt;math&gt;
P_B
=
\frac{e^{\Delta S_B}}
{e^{\Delta S_A}+e^{\Delta S_B}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Since both channels had the same energy,

:&lt;math&gt;
\langle\omega\rangle=\omega,
&lt;/math&gt;

while

:&lt;math&gt;
\langle q\rangle=P_B\alpha\omega.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\alpha P_B.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

This was important because it showed that the effective charge-to-energy ratio need not equal the microscopic channel parameter.

For the illustrative state

:&lt;math&gt;
M=10,\qquad Q=6,
&lt;/math&gt;

with

:&lt;math&gt;
\omega=0.1,
&lt;/math&gt;

the entropy weighting produced a stationary solution near

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm crit}\approx0.60365,
&lt;/math&gt;

rather than exactly &lt;math&gt;0.6&lt;/math&gt;.

The stationary trajectory therefore satisfied

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\frac QM
&lt;/math&gt;

only after entropy weighting was taken into account.

Linearization of the discrete model indicated that the stationary trajectory was unstable.

It therefore behaved as a '''separatrix''' rather than a stable attractor.

== 9. Continuous energy model ==

The discrete energy assumption was then removed.

A minimal continuous phase-space measure was taken as

:&lt;math&gt;
\mu(\omega)\propto\omega^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The corresponding entropy-weighted distribution was

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
p(\omega,q)
\propto
\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective ratio becomes

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{
\displaystyle
\int q\,\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}
\,d\omega\,dq
}{
\displaystyle
\int \omega\,\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}
\,d\omega\,dq
}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The stationary condition remained

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\frac QM.
&lt;/math&gt;

A stationary solution continued to occur in the simplified continuous control model, and its local behaviour remained consistent with an unstable separatrix rather than a stable attractor.

This was an important robustness test because the structure did not depend simply on selecting two discrete energy values.

== 10. Neutral and charged continuous sectors ==

The next extension allowed both neutral and charged emissions.

For the neutral sector,

:&lt;math&gt;
q=0.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the charged sector, a fixed charge quantum &lt;math&gt;q&lt;/math&gt; was considered while the energy remained continuous.

Define

:&lt;math&gt;
Z_0
=
\int
\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_0(\omega)}
d\omega
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
Z_q
=
\int
\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_q(\omega)}
d\omega.
&lt;/math&gt;

The charged-sector probability is

:&lt;math&gt;
P_q
=
\frac{Z_q}{Z_0+Z_q}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective ratio is then

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

In the simplified control model a stationary solution satisfying

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=Q/M
&lt;/math&gt;

continued to exist.

The resulting stationary trajectory again behaved as an unstable separatrix.

This was stronger evidence that the structure was not merely an artifact of the original two-channel construction.

== 11. Introduction of greybody physics ==

A greybody factor represents the transmission probability of a quantum field through the black-hole curvature potential.

The entropy-weighted PDT distribution must therefore be modified from

:&lt;math&gt;
\omega^2e^{\Delta S}
&lt;/math&gt;

to

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\omega^2
\Gamma(\omega,q;M,Q)
e^{\Delta S}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

However, &lt;math&gt;\Gamma&lt;/math&gt; is not a universal function. It depends on the field species, mass, charge, spin, angular momentum mode, and black-hole background.

Consequently, an arbitrary greybody function should not be inserted merely to produce a desired result.

The first controlled physical choice was therefore a massless scalar field in the lowest angular mode.

== 12. Neutral massless scalar, &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; control test ==

For a neutral massless scalar, the low-frequency RN &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; transmission probability has the familiar behaviour

:&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_0(\omega)
\simeq
4(\omega r_+)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

This approximation was used only as a controlled low-frequency comparison.

The PDT weighting becomes

:&lt;math&gt;
W(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_0(\omega)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

At low frequency this gives

:&lt;math&gt;
W(\omega)
\propto
\omega^4e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the greybody factor suppresses low-energy modes relative to the original phase-space-only model.

For the control state

:&lt;math&gt;
M=10,\qquad Q=6,
&lt;/math&gt;

the greybody weighting materially shifted the mean emitted energy upward relative to the phase-space-only distribution.

The numerical value obtained in the exploratory calculation should not be regarded as a publication-final coefficient because the low-frequency approximation is not uniformly valid across the entire integration range.

The principal result is qualitative:

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\text{Greybody weighting materially changes the PDT-weighted spectrum.}
}
&lt;/math&gt;

== 13. Charged scalar on RN ==

The charged scalar field obeys the minimally coupled Klein–Gordon equation

:&lt;math&gt;
D_\mu D^\mu\Phi=0,
\qquad
D_\mu=\nabla_\mu-iqA_\mu.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the RN background, the separated radial equation for the &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; mode can be written in Schrödinger form as

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\frac{d^2X}{dr_*^2}
+
\left[
\left(\omega-\frac{qQ}{r}\right)^2
-
\frac{ff'}r
\right]X=0,
}
&lt;/math&gt;

where

:&lt;math&gt;
f(r)
=
\frac{(r-r_+)(r-r_-)}{r^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

At the horizon,

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\tilde{\omega}
=
\omega-q\Phi_H.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

For the control black hole,

:&lt;math&gt;
\Phi_H=\frac Q{r_+}=\frac13,
&lt;/math&gt;

so

:&lt;math&gt;
\tilde{\omega}
=
\omega-\frac q3.
&lt;/math&gt;

The condition

:&lt;math&gt;
\omega&lt;q\Phi_H
&lt;/math&gt;

defines the charged superradiant regime.

The ordinary emission branch must therefore be distinguished from the superradiant scattering regime.

== 14. Charged greybody factor ==

The charged-sector PDT weight is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
W_q(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M,Q)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective charge-to-energy ratio for a neutral-plus-charged spectrum is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{
\displaystyle
\sum_q
\int
q\,W_q(\omega)\,d\omega
}{
\displaystyle
\sum_q
\int
\omega\,W_q(\omega)\,d\omega
}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

This formulation is important because &lt;math&gt;\alpha&lt;/math&gt; is no longer externally imposed.

Instead, the entropy-derived PDT weighting and the physical transmission coefficients determine the effective value.

The conceptual chain is therefore

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\text{RN geometry}
\rightarrow
\text{charged wave equation}
\rightarrow
\Gamma_{0,q}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}
\rightarrow
\alpha_{\rm eff}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

== 15. Numerical greybody calculation: current status ==

A numerical solution of the charged &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; radial equation provides a route to calculating

:&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M=10,Q=6).
&lt;/math&gt;

The transmission probability is obtained from the asymptotic scattering amplitudes and the corresponding fluxes.

The exploratory numerical calculation indicates that incorporating the charged RN potential barrier does not trivially destroy the stationary structure found in the simpler models.

However, the present charged-greybody numerical values remain '''provisional'''.

Before numerical values are promoted to publication status, the calculation should be independently reproduced with convergence tests involving:

* radial integration range;
* frequency resolution;
* asymptotic matching;
* flux normalization;
* Coulomb-phase treatment;
* superradiant modes;
* and the physically allowed emission interval.

Accordingly, the numerical greybody calculation is presently evidence for robustness, not a publication-final quantitative prediction.

== 16. Central dynamical equation ==

The research can now be expressed as a state-dependent nonlinear dynamical system.

Define

:&lt;math&gt;
x=\frac QM
&lt;/math&gt;

and

:&lt;math&gt;
F(M,Q)
=
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)-\frac QM.
&lt;/math&gt;

The central equation is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
F(M,Q)=0.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac QM.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The possible outcomes are:

* no stationary trajectory;
* an unstable separatrix;
* a stable attractor;
* or another invariant or dynamical structure.

In the simplified models examined so far, the stationary solution behaves as an '''unstable separatrix''' rather than a stable attractor.

This result should not yet be generalized to all physical Hawking emission spectra.

== 17. The proposed nonlinear feedback mechanism ==

The complete proposed feedback structure is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
(M,Q)
\rightarrow
S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
D_{\omega,q}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}(\omega,q)
\rightarrow
(\langle\omega\rangle,\langle q\rangle)
\rightarrow
(M',Q').
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The corresponding effective charge-to-energy ratio is

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}
{\langle\omega\rangle}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The possible distinctive mathematical contribution of PDT would therefore not be the entropy factor alone. It would be the behaviour of the resulting state-dependent normalized iteration.

The central question becomes:

:''Does the coupled entropy–dilation–normalization iteration possess a fixed point, separatrix, attractor, invariant, or other mathematical structure that is not already contained in the ordinary one-step microcanonical description?''

== 18. What has been mathematically established ==

The following statements are mathematical results within the stated models:

* Positive PDT weights can be normalized provided the weighted sum is finite and nonzero.
* A finite entropy difference can be used mathematically as a positive dilation exponent.
* The small-emission expansion of the RN entropy change reproduces the standard charged Hawking/Boltzmann exponent.
* The entropy-derived PDT distribution produces an effective charge-to-energy ratio determined by the weighted emission distribution.
* The condition &lt;math&gt;\alpha_{\rm eff}=Q/M&lt;/math&gt; is the stationary condition for the corresponding small-step RN charge-to-mass evolution.
* The simplified discrete and continuous control models possess stationary solutions.
* Those stationary solutions are unstable in the control models examined.

== 19. What has been numerically demonstrated ==

The exploratory calculations indicate that:

* replacing arbitrary dilation parameters with RN entropy-derived weights produces a state-dependent emission distribution;
* continuous energy distributions preserve the basic stationary structure found in the discrete model;
* inclusion of neutral and charged sectors does not immediately eliminate that structure;
* inclusion of an RN greybody weighting materially changes the emission spectrum;
* the stationary structure is not trivially destroyed by the curvature transmission barrier in the present control calculation.

These numerical findings remain subject to further independent reproduction and convergence testing.

== 20. What is standard black-hole physics ==

The following ingredients are established external physics rather than new PDT results:

* Reissner–Nordström geometry;
* Bekenstein–Hawking horizon entropy;
* RN Hawking temperature;
* RN horizon electrostatic potential;
* the RN first law;
* charged scalar propagation on RN;
* greybody transmission;
* charged-scalar superradiance;
* and entropy-change descriptions of finite black-hole emission.

PDT should not claim these results as original discoveries.

== 21. What remains a PDT hypothesis ==

The principal hypothesis being investigated is:

&gt; A gravitational entropy change can serve as a physically motivated PDT dilation field, and repeated normalized application of that field may generate a nonlinear dynamical structure that provides mathematically useful information beyond the corresponding one-step thermodynamic description.

At present, there is no established evidence that this construction constitutes a new physical mechanism for Hawking radiation, black-hole evaporation, or quantum gravity.

The appropriate status is therefore exploratory.

== 22. Research limitations ==

The present work deliberately does not yet include the complete complexity of quantum-field Hawking radiation.

In particular, it does not yet constitute a full treatment of:

* all particle species;
* arbitrary spin;
* all angular momentum modes;
* massive fields;
* complete greybody spectra;
* quantum backreaction;
* interacting quantum fields;
* rotating black holes;
* or a complete semiclassical evaporation calculation.

The purpose of the staged approach is to determine whether the proposed PDT structure survives progressively more physically realistic inputs without introducing unnecessary assumptions.

== 23. Next decisive calculation ==

The next calculation should use a fully specified charged scalar emission model and independently reproduce

:&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

That result should then be inserted into

:&lt;math&gt;
W_q(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The resulting

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)
&lt;/math&gt;

can then be used to determine whether

:&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}-Q/M
&lt;/math&gt;

has a zero and whether that zero is stable or unstable under the evaporation flow.

If the structure survives a physically complete emission measure, it would provide substantially stronger evidence that the nonlinear structure is not an artifact of the simplified control models.

If the structure disappears, that result is equally useful because it would identify which physical ingredient destroys the proposed PDT behaviour.

== 24. Scientific status of the result ==

The present research should therefore be summarized as follows:

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\textbf{Promising mathematical framework; physical novelty not yet established.}
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The investigation has moved beyond an arbitrary choice of PDT dilation weights and has constructed a physically motivated candidate based on black-hole entropy.

The simplified calculations suggest the emergence of a stationary charge-to-energy trajectory that behaves as a separatrix.

The persistence of this structure under increasingly realistic emission models remains the decisive test.

== 25. Relationship to the separate Einstein–Maxwell heat-kernel audit ==

The Einstein–Maxwell heat-kernel investigation conducted separately in this research project is deliberately '''not used to justify the present PDT results'''.

That audit identified an unresolved apparent discrepancy in the displayed quadratic Einstein–Maxwell action used in the comparison. The issue concerns the consistency of the quadratic Hessian, including the metric–metric sector and fluctuation conventions.

The responsible status of that investigation remains:

* unresolved apparent omission/discrepancy in the displayed quadratic action;
* not a confirmed source error;
* no modification of the existing curvature potential &lt;math&gt;V&lt;/math&gt;;
* no promotion of the provisional &lt;math&gt;\operatorname{tr}E^2&lt;/math&gt; or related heat-kernel quantities;
* no publication-final &lt;math&gt;a_2&lt;/math&gt; coefficient.

That technical branch is independent of the present entropy-normalization investigation.

== 26. References and source materials ==

=== Einstein–Maxwell and heat-kernel reference ===

* S. Karan and B. Panda, ''Generalized Einstein-Maxwell theory: Seeley-DeWitt coefficients and logarithmic corrections to the entropy of extremal and nonextremal black holes'', ''Physical Review D'' '''104''', 046010 (2021), DOI 10.1103/PhysRevD.104.046010.

This reference provides the Einstein–Maxwell action, background equations, quadratic fluctuation treatment, gauge fixing, and Seeley–DeWitt framework used in the separate Einstein–Maxwell audit.

=== Charged scalar and RN superradiance ===

* L. Di Menza and J.-P. Nicolas, ''Superradiance on the Reissner–Nordström metric'' (2014), arXiv:1411.3988.

This work provides an independent treatment of charged scalar propagation and superradiance on the RN geometry.

=== Reissner–Nordström and black-hole thermodynamics ===

The RN geometry, Bekenstein–Hawking entropy, Hawking temperature, and horizon potential used in this section are standard results of general relativity and black-hole thermodynamics.

=== PDT source material ===

* Howard Richardson, ''Probability Dilation Theory'', Wikiversity.
* Howard Richardson, ''Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry'', Draft Version 1.0.
* Associated PDT Wikiversity subpages and revision history.
* Associated OSF preprint and version history.
* ''PDT and Fundamental Physics: Information Geometry, Symmetry, and Emergent Spacetime'', separate research notebook/project.

The present page extends the PDT framework into an exploratory black-hole and quantum-state-normalization application.

== 27. Attribution and copyright ==

'''Original PDT material, analysis, formulations, numerical experiments, interpretations, and research questions: © Howard Richardson.'''

Unless otherwise stated, original material on this page is made available under the '''Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)'''.

Reuse, modification, and redistribution of original material are permitted provided appropriate attribution is given to Howard Richardson and the applicable license is retained.

External equations, scientific results, papers, figures, quotations, and other third-party materials remain subject to the copyright and licensing conditions of their respective authors and publishers. Their inclusion or citation on this research page does not transfer ownership or copyright to Howard Richardson.

=== Suggested attribution ===

''Richardson, Howard. &quot;PDT and Quantum-State Normalization at a Reissner–Nordström Horizon.&quot; Probability Dilation Theory research project, Wikiversity, Draft Version 1.0 extension.''

== 28. Final research statement ==

The purpose of this page is not to claim that PDT has solved a problem in black-hole physics.

Its purpose is to document a testable mathematical proposal:

:&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\text{gravitational entropy}
\rightarrow
\text{PDT dilation}
\rightarrow
\text{normalized quantum-state weighting}
\rightarrow
\text{effective emission}
\rightarrow
\text{black-hole evolution}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The research question is whether this feedback structure contains a reproducible mathematical invariant, fixed point, separatrix, attractor, or other feature that is not merely a restatement of established black-hole thermodynamics.

At the present stage, an unstable stationary trajectory has appeared in progressively less artificial control models.

That result is sufficiently interesting to justify further investigation, but it remains a hypothesis until the result survives a fully specified physical emission spectrum and independent numerical verification.</text>
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= PDT and Quantum-State Normalization at a Reissner–Nordström Horizon =

''Research extension of [[Probability Dilation Theory/Normalized Probability Dilation Paper|Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry]]''

'''Research manuscript — Draft Version 1.0 extension'''

''This page is part of the Probability Dilation Theory research project at Wikiversity. It records an exploratory mathematical and computational investigation connecting PDT normalization with black-hole entropy and quantum emission. It is a work in progress and is not a peer-reviewed publication.''

__TOC__

== Abstract ==

This research branch investigates whether the dilation field of Probability Dilation Theory (PDT) can be connected to a physically motivated gravitational quantity rather than being chosen arbitrarily.

The proposed quantity is the finite change in Bekenstein–Hawking entropy associated with an emission from a Reissner–Nordström (RN) black hole:

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
\exp\left(\frac{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}{k_B}\right)
&lt;/math&gt;

where

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
=
S_{\rm BH}(M-\omega,Q-q)
-
S_{\rm BH}(M,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

In natural units, this becomes

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}=e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The investigation asks whether applying these entropy-derived dilation weights through PDT normalization generates a state-dependent nonlinear evolution of the black-hole charge-to-mass ratio.

The central dynamical quantity is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle},
&lt;/math&gt;

and the central condition is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This condition represents a stationary charge-to-energy trajectory. The research asks whether such a trajectory is absent, stable, unstable, or otherwise structurally significant when increasingly physical emission models are introduced.

The present work does not claim that PDT has established a new physical mechanism for Hawking radiation or black-hole evaporation. Its purpose is to determine whether the proposed mathematical construction produces a distinctive and reproducible structure worthy of further investigation.

== 1. Research question ==

The original PDT framework permits positive dilation weights

&lt;math&gt;
D_n&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

to transform a probability distribution according to

&lt;math&gt;
p_n'
=
\frac{D_n p_n}
{\sum_m D_m p_m}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The present research asks a more discriminating question:

''Can a physically derived gravitational quantity determine the PDT dilation field &lt;math&gt;D_n&lt;/math&gt;, rather than the dilation field being selected arbitrarily?''

A Reissner–Nordström black hole provides a useful test system because it possesses:

* a well-defined horizon;
* a calculable Bekenstein–Hawking entropy;
* mass and electric charge;
* a Hawking temperature;
* an electromagnetic horizon potential;
* and a quantum-field emission problem with calculable greybody factors.

The proposed chain is

&lt;math&gt;
(M,Q)
\rightarrow
S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
D_{\omega,q}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}
\rightarrow
\alpha_{\rm eff}
\rightarrow
(M,Q)\ {\rm trajectory}.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 2. RN geometry ==

For a four-dimensional Reissner–Nordström black hole in geometrized units,

&lt;math&gt;
r_{\pm}
=
M\pm\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The outer horizon is

&lt;math&gt;
r_+
=
M+\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The Bekenstein–Hawking entropy is

&lt;math&gt;
S_{\rm BH}
=
\frac{A}{4}
=
\pi r_+^2
&lt;/math&gt;

in Planck units.

Thus

&lt;math&gt;
S_{\rm BH}(M,Q)
=
\pi
\left(
M+\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}
\right)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The nonextremal condition is

&lt;math&gt;
M&gt;|Q|.
&lt;/math&gt;

The extremal boundary is

&lt;math&gt;
|Q|=M.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the principal numerical control system used in this research,

&lt;math&gt;
M_0=10,\qquad Q_0=6.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{Q_0}{M_0}=0.6,
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
r_+=18,\qquad r_-=2.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 3. Entropy-derived PDT dilation ==

Consider an emission carrying energy &lt;math&gt;\omega&lt;/math&gt; and charge &lt;math&gt;q&lt;/math&gt;:

&lt;math&gt;
(M,Q)
\longrightarrow
(M-\omega,Q-q).
&lt;/math&gt;

The exact finite entropy change is

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
=
\pi
\left[
M-\omega+
\sqrt{(M-\omega)^2-(Q-q)^2}
\right]^2
-
\pi
\left[
M+
\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}
\right]^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The proposed gravitational dilation field is

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

In natural units,

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}=e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is a proposed PDT construction and is not being presented as an established law of black-hole physics.

== 4. Semiclassical Hawking limit ==

The RN first law is

&lt;math&gt;
dM
=
T_H\,dS_{\rm BH}
+
\Phi_H\,dQ.
&lt;/math&gt;

For an emission,

&lt;math&gt;
dM=-\omega,
\qquad
dQ=-q.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore, to first order,

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\simeq
-\frac{\omega-\Phi_H q}{T_H}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Consequently,

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
\simeq
e^{-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_H q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the proposed entropy-derived PDT dilation reduces in the small-emission limit to the ordinary charged Hawking/Boltzmann factor.

This is a consistency check rather than a claim that PDT has independently derived Hawking radiation.

== 5. Finite-emission correction ==

For finite emissions,

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\neq
-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)
&lt;/math&gt;

in general.

The exact PDT weight may therefore be written schematically as

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
e^{-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)}
e^{\mathcal C_{\rm RN}(\omega,q)}
&lt;/math&gt;

where

&lt;math&gt;
\mathcal C_{\rm RN}
=
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
+
\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq).
&lt;/math&gt;

The nonlinear correction arises because the black-hole geometry itself changes during the emission.

Entropy-change corrections of this general kind occur in established black-hole thermodynamic and tunnelling treatments. The possible PDT contribution is therefore not the existence of the entropy correction itself, but the use of that physically determined quantity as the dilation field within an iterated normalized probability transformation.

== 6. PDT normalization ==

For possible emission channels,

&lt;math&gt;
p_n^{\rm PDT}
=
\frac{
p_n e^{\Delta S_n/k_B}
}{
\sum_m p_m e^{\Delta S_m/k_B}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define

&lt;math&gt;
Z_{\rm PDT}
=
\sum_m
p_m e^{\Delta S_m/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The normalization guarantees

&lt;math&gt;
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}=1.
&lt;/math&gt;

An important observation is that the normalization denominator does not itself alter relative odds:

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{p_i^{\rm PDT}}{p_j^{\rm PDT}}
=
\frac{p_i}{p_j}
e^{(\Delta S_i-\Delta S_j)/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore any distinctive dynamical structure must arise from the state dependence of the dilation field and its repeated application, not from normalization alone.

== 7. From probability normalization to black-hole dynamics ==

At each step, define

&lt;math&gt;
\langle\omega\rangle
=
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}\omega_n
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
\langle q\rangle
=
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}q_n.
&lt;/math&gt;

The expected black-hole evolution is

&lt;math&gt;
M_{k+1}
=
M_k-\langle\omega\rangle_k
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
Q_{k+1}
=
Q_k-\langle q\rangle_k.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define

&lt;math&gt;
x=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective charge-to-energy ratio is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
&lt;/math&gt;

For sufficiently small changes,

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dx}{dM}
=
\frac{\alpha_{\rm eff}-x}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the stationary condition is

&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac{Q}{M}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This converts the PDT–black-hole problem into a nonlinear dynamical-system question.

== 8. Minimal two-channel control model ==

The first numerical model deliberately used two possible channels:

&lt;math&gt;
(\omega,0)
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
(\omega,\alpha\omega).
&lt;/math&gt;

The entropy factors were

&lt;math&gt;
D_A=e^{\Delta S_A},
\qquad
D_B=e^{\Delta S_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

With equal prior weights,

&lt;math&gt;
P_B
=
\frac{e^{\Delta S_B}}
{e^{\Delta S_A}+e^{\Delta S_B}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Since both channels had the same energy,

&lt;math&gt;
\langle\omega\rangle=\omega
&lt;/math&gt;

while

&lt;math&gt;
\langle q\rangle=P_B\alpha\omega.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\alpha P_B.
&lt;/math&gt;

This showed that the effective charge-to-energy ratio need not equal the microscopic channel parameter.

For the illustrative state

&lt;math&gt;
M=10,\qquad Q=6
&lt;/math&gt;

with

&lt;math&gt;
\omega=0.1,
&lt;/math&gt;

the control calculation produced a stationary solution near

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm crit}\approx0.60365.
&lt;/math&gt;

The stationary trajectory was unstable in the control model and therefore behaved as a separatrix rather than a stable attractor.

== 9. Continuous energy model ==

The discrete energy assumption was then removed.

A minimal continuous phase-space measure was taken as

&lt;math&gt;
\mu(\omega)\propto\omega^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The entropy-weighted distribution was

&lt;math&gt;
p(\omega,q)
\propto
\omega^2 e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective ratio becomes

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{
\displaystyle
\int q\,\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}
\,d\omega\,dq
}{
\displaystyle
\int \omega\,\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}
\,d\omega\,dq
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The stationary condition remained

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

A stationary solution continued to occur in the simplified continuous control model, with local behaviour consistent with an unstable separatrix.

This was an important robustness test because the structure did not depend simply on selecting two discrete energy values.

== 10. Continuous neutral and charged sectors ==

The next extension allowed both neutral and charged emissions.

For the neutral sector,

&lt;math&gt;
q=0.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the charged sector, a fixed charge quantum &lt;math&gt;q&lt;/math&gt; was considered while the energy remained continuous.

Define

&lt;math&gt;
Z_0
=
\int
\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_0(\omega)}
d\omega
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
Z_q
=
\int
\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_q(\omega)}
d\omega.
&lt;/math&gt;

The charged-sector probability is

&lt;math&gt;
P_q
=
\frac{Z_q}{Z_0+Z_q}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective ratio is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
&lt;/math&gt;

In the simplified control model a stationary solution satisfying

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=Q/M
&lt;/math&gt;

continued to exist.

The resulting stationary trajectory again behaved as an unstable separatrix.

== 11. Introduction of greybody physics ==

A greybody factor represents the transmission probability of a quantum field through the black-hole curvature potential.

The entropy-weighted PDT distribution must therefore be modified from

&lt;math&gt;
\omega^2e^{\Delta S}
&lt;/math&gt;

to

&lt;math&gt;
\omega^2
\Gamma(\omega,q;M,Q)
e^{\Delta S}.
&lt;/math&gt;

However, &lt;math&gt;\Gamma&lt;/math&gt; is not universal. It depends on the field species, mass, charge, spin, angular momentum mode, and black-hole background.

Consequently, an arbitrary greybody function should not be inserted merely to produce a desired result.

The first controlled physical choice was therefore a massless scalar field in the lowest angular mode.

== 12. Neutral massless scalar, &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt;, control test ==

For a neutral massless scalar, the low-frequency RN &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; transmission probability has the familiar behaviour

&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_0(\omega)
\simeq
4(\omega r_+)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

This approximation was used only as a controlled low-frequency comparison.

The PDT weighting becomes

&lt;math&gt;
W(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_0(\omega)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

At low frequency this gives

&lt;math&gt;
W(\omega)
\propto
\omega^4e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the greybody factor suppresses low-energy modes relative to the phase-space-only model.

The exploratory calculation indicated a substantial shift of the entropy-weighted energy distribution toward higher energies.

The numerical value of that shift should not be treated as a publication-final coefficient because the low-frequency approximation is not uniformly valid over the full integration range.

The principal conclusion is:

&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\text{Greybody weighting materially changes the PDT-weighted spectrum.}
}
&lt;/math&gt;

== 13. Charged scalar on RN ==

The charged scalar field obeys the minimally coupled Klein–Gordon equation

&lt;math&gt;
D_\mu D^\mu\Phi=0,
\qquad
D_\mu=\nabla_\mu-iqA_\mu.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the RN background, the separated radial equation for the &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; mode can be written in Schrödinger form as

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d^2X}{dr_*^2}
+
\left[
\left(\omega-\frac{qQ}{r}\right)^2
-
\frac{ff'}{r}
\right]X=0
&lt;/math&gt;

where

&lt;math&gt;
f(r)
=
\frac{(r-r_+)(r-r_-)}{r^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

At the horizon,

&lt;math&gt;
\tilde{\omega}
=
\omega-q\Phi_H.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the control black hole,

&lt;math&gt;
\Phi_H=\frac{Q}{r_+}=\frac13,
&lt;/math&gt;

so

&lt;math&gt;
\tilde{\omega}
=
\omega-\frac{q}{3}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The condition

&lt;math&gt;
\omega&lt;q\Phi_H
&lt;/math&gt;

defines the charged superradiant regime.

The ordinary emission branch must therefore be distinguished from the superradiant scattering regime.

== 14. Charged greybody factor ==

The charged-sector PDT weight is

&lt;math&gt;
W_q(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M,Q)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective charge-to-energy ratio for a neutral-plus-charged spectrum is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{
\displaystyle
\sum_q
\int
q\,W_q(\omega)\,d\omega
}{
\displaystyle
\sum_q
\int
\omega\,W_q(\omega)\,d\omega
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This formulation is important because &lt;math&gt;\alpha&lt;/math&gt; is no longer externally imposed.

Instead, the entropy-derived PDT weighting and the physical transmission coefficients determine the effective value.

The conceptual chain is

&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\text{RN geometry}
\rightarrow
\text{charged wave equation}
\rightarrow
\Gamma_{0,q}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}
\rightarrow
\alpha_{\rm eff}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 15. Numerical charged-greybody calculation: current status ==

A numerical solution of the charged &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; radial equation provides a route to calculating

&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M=10,Q=6).
&lt;/math&gt;

The transmission probability is obtained from the asymptotic scattering amplitudes and the corresponding fluxes.

The exploratory numerical work indicates that incorporating the charged RN potential barrier does not trivially destroy the stationary structure found in the simpler models.

However, the present charged-greybody numerical values remain '''provisional'''.

Before numerical values for &lt;math&gt;\Gamma_{0,q}&lt;/math&gt;, &lt;math&gt;\alpha_{\rm eff}&lt;/math&gt;, or a critical trajectory are promoted to publication status, the calculation should be independently reproduced with convergence tests involving:

* radial integration range;
* frequency resolution;
* asymptotic matching;
* flux normalization;
* Coulomb-phase treatment;
* superradiant modes;
* and the physically allowed emission interval.

Accordingly, the charged-greybody calculation is presently evidence for robustness, not a publication-final quantitative prediction.

== 16. Central dynamical equation ==

The research can now be expressed as a state-dependent nonlinear dynamical system.

Define

&lt;math&gt;
x=\frac{Q}{M}
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
F(M,Q)
=
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)-\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The central equation is

&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
F(M,Q)=0.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac{Q}{M}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The possible outcomes are:

* no stationary trajectory;
* an unstable separatrix;
* a stable attractor;
* or another invariant or dynamical structure.

In the simplified models examined so far, the stationary solution behaves as an '''unstable separatrix''' rather than a stable attractor.

This result should not yet be generalized to all physical Hawking emission spectra.

== 17. Proposed nonlinear feedback mechanism ==

The complete proposed feedback structure is

&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
(M,Q)
\rightarrow
S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
D_{\omega,q}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}(\omega,q)
\rightarrow
(\langle\omega\rangle,\langle q\rangle)
\rightarrow
(M',Q')
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The corresponding effective charge-to-energy ratio is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The possible distinctive mathematical contribution of PDT would therefore not be the entropy factor alone. It would be the behaviour of the resulting state-dependent normalized iteration.

The central question becomes:

''Does the coupled entropy–dilation–normalization iteration possess a fixed point, separatrix, attractor, invariant, or other mathematical structure that is not already contained in the ordinary one-step microcanonical description?''

== 18. What has been mathematically established ==

The following statements are mathematical results within the stated models:

* Positive PDT weights can be normalized provided the weighted sum is finite and nonzero.
* A finite entropy difference can be used mathematically as a positive dilation exponent.
* The small-emission expansion of the RN entropy change reproduces the standard charged Hawking/Boltzmann exponent.
* The entropy-derived PDT distribution produces an effective charge-to-energy ratio determined by the weighted emission distribution.
* The condition &lt;math&gt;\alpha_{\rm eff}=Q/M&lt;/math&gt; is the stationary condition for the corresponding small-step RN charge-to-mass evolution.
* The simplified discrete and continuous control models possess stationary solutions.
* Those stationary solutions are unstable in the control models examined.

== 19. What has been numerically demonstrated ==

The exploratory calculations indicate that:

* replacing arbitrary dilation parameters with RN entropy-derived weights produces a state-dependent emission distribution;
* continuous energy distributions preserve the basic stationary structure found in the discrete model;
* inclusion of neutral and charged sectors does not immediately eliminate that structure;
* inclusion of an RN greybody weighting materially changes the emission spectrum;
* the stationary structure is not trivially destroyed by the curvature transmission barrier in the present control calculation.

These numerical findings remain subject to further independent reproduction and convergence testing.

== 20. What is standard black-hole physics ==

The following ingredients are established external physics rather than new PDT results:

* Reissner–Nordström geometry;
* Bekenstein–Hawking horizon entropy;
* RN Hawking temperature;
* RN horizon electrostatic potential;
* the RN first law;
* charged scalar propagation on RN;
* greybody transmission;
* charged-scalar superradiance;
* and entropy-change descriptions of finite black-hole emission.

PDT should not claim these results as original discoveries.

== 21. What remains a PDT hypothesis ==

The principal hypothesis being investigated is:

''A gravitational entropy change can serve as a physically motivated PDT dilation field, and repeated normalized application of that field may generate a nonlinear dynamical structure that provides mathematically useful information beyond the corresponding one-step thermodynamic description.''

At present, there is no established evidence that this construction constitutes a new physical mechanism for Hawking radiation, black-hole evaporation, or quantum gravity.

The appropriate status is therefore exploratory.

== 22. Research limitations ==

The present work deliberately does not yet include the complete complexity of quantum-field Hawking radiation.

In particular, it does not yet constitute a full treatment of:

* all particle species;
* arbitrary spin;
* all angular momentum modes;
* massive fields;
* complete greybody spectra;
* quantum backreaction;
* interacting quantum fields;
* rotating black holes;
* or a complete semiclassical evaporation calculation.

The purpose of the staged approach is to determine whether the proposed PDT structure survives progressively more physically realistic inputs without introducing unnecessary assumptions.

== 23. Next decisive calculation ==

The next calculation should use a fully specified charged scalar emission model and independently reproduce

&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

That result should then be inserted into

&lt;math&gt;
W_q(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The resulting

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)
&lt;/math&gt;

can then be used to determine whether

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}-Q/M
&lt;/math&gt;

has a zero and whether that zero is stable or unstable under the evaporation flow.

If the structure survives a physically complete emission measure, it would provide substantially stronger evidence that the nonlinear structure is not an artifact of the simplified control models.

If the structure disappears, that result is equally useful because it would identify which physical ingredient destroys the proposed PDT behaviour.

== 24. Scientific status of the result ==

The present research should therefore be summarized as follows:

&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\text{Promising mathematical framework; physical novelty not yet established.}
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The investigation has moved beyond an arbitrary choice of PDT dilation weights and has constructed a physically motivated candidate based on black-hole entropy.

The simplified calculations suggest the emergence of a stationary charge-to-energy trajectory that behaves as a separatrix.

The persistence of this structure under increasingly realistic emission models remains the decisive test.

== 25. Relationship to the separate Einstein–Maxwell heat-kernel audit ==

The Einstein–Maxwell heat-kernel investigation conducted separately in this research project is deliberately '''not used to justify the present PDT results'''.

That audit identified an unresolved apparent discrepancy in the displayed quadratic Einstein–Maxwell action used in the comparison. The issue concerns the consistency of the quadratic Hessian, including the metric–metric sector and fluctuation conventions.

The responsible status of that investigation remains:

* unresolved apparent omission/discrepancy in the displayed quadratic action;
* not a confirmed source error;
* no modification of the existing curvature potential &lt;math&gt;V&lt;/math&gt;;
* no promotion of provisional &lt;math&gt;\operatorname{tr}E^2&lt;/math&gt; or related heat-kernel quantities;
* no publication-final &lt;math&gt;a_2&lt;/math&gt; coefficient.

That technical branch is independent of the present entropy-normalization investigation.

== 26. References and source materials ==

=== Einstein–Maxwell and heat-kernel reference ===

* S. Karan and B. Panda, ''Generalized Einstein-Maxwell theory: Seeley-DeWitt coefficients and logarithmic corrections to the entropy of extremal and nonextremal black holes'', ''Physical Review D'' '''104''', 046010 (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.104.046010. [https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.046010]

This reference provides the Einstein–Maxwell action, background equations, quadratic fluctuation treatment, gauge fixing, and Seeley–DeWitt framework used in the separate Einstein–Maxwell audit.

=== Charged scalar and RN superradiance ===

* L. Di Menza and J.-P. Nicolas, ''Superradiance on the Reissner–Nordström metric'' (2014), arXiv:1411.3988. [https://arxiv.org/abs/1411.3988]

This work provides an independent treatment of charged scalar propagation and superradiance on the RN geometry.

=== Reissner–Nordström and black-hole thermodynamics ===

The RN geometry, Bekenstein–Hawking entropy, Hawking temperature, and horizon potential used in this section are standard results of general relativity and black-hole thermodynamics.

=== PDT source material ===

* Howard Richardson, ''[[Probability Dilation Theory|Probability Dilation Theory]]'', Wikiversity.
* Howard Richardson, ''[[Probability Dilation Theory/Normalized Probability Dilation Paper|Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry]]'', Draft Version 1.0.
* Associated PDT Wikiversity subpages and revision history.
* Associated OSF preprint and version history.
* ''PDT and Fundamental Physics: Information Geometry, Symmetry, and Emergent Spacetime'', separate research notebook/project.

The present page extends the PDT framework into an exploratory black-hole and quantum-state-normalization application.

== 27. Attribution and copyright ==

'''Original PDT material, original formulations, analysis, numerical experiments, interpretations, and research questions on this page: © Howard Richardson.'''

Original material authored by Howard Richardson may be reused according to the licensing terms explicitly stated for that material and subject to Wikiversity's applicable site-wide licensing requirements.

External equations, scientific results, papers, figures, quotations, and other third-party materials remain subject to the copyright and licensing conditions of their respective authors and publishers. Their inclusion or citation on this research page does not transfer ownership or copyright to Howard Richardson.

Where an external source is quoted, adapted, or reproduced, the source should be cited and any applicable licence requirements followed.

=== Suggested attribution for original material ===

''Richardson, Howard. &quot;PDT and Quantum-State Normalization at a Reissner–Nordström Horizon.&quot; Probability Dilation Theory research project, Wikiversity, Draft Version 1.0 extension.''

== 28. Final research statement ==

The purpose of this page is not to claim that PDT has solved a problem in black-hole physics.

Its purpose is to document a testable mathematical proposal:

&lt;math&gt;
\boxed{
\text{gravitational entropy}
\rightarrow
\text{PDT dilation}
\rightarrow
\text{normalized quantum-state weighting}
\rightarrow
\text{effective emission}
\rightarrow
\text{black-hole evolution}.
}
&lt;/math&gt;

The research question is whether this feedback structure contains a reproducible mathematical invariant, fixed point, separatrix, attractor, or other feature that is not merely a restatement of established black-hole thermodynamics.

At the present stage, an unstable stationary trajectory has appeared in progressively less artificial control models.

That result is sufficiently interesting to justify further investigation, but it remains a hypothesis until the result survives a fully specified physical emission spectrum and independent numerical verification.

[[Category:Probability Dilation Theory]]
[[Category:Research projects]]
[[Category:Black hole physics]]
[[Category:Mathematical physics]]</text>
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= PDT and Quantum-State Normalization at a Reissner–Nordström Horizon =

''Research extension of [[Probability Dilation Theory/Normalized Probability Dilation Paper|Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry]]''

'''Research manuscript — Draft Version 1.0 extension'''

''This page is part of the Probability Dilation Theory research project at Wikiversity. It records an exploratory mathematical and computational investigation connecting PDT normalization with black-hole entropy and quantum emission. It is a work in progress and is not a peer-reviewed publication.''

__TOC__

== Abstract ==

This research branch investigates whether the dilation field of Probability Dilation Theory (PDT) can be connected to a physically motivated gravitational quantity rather than being chosen arbitrarily.

The proposed quantity is the finite change in Bekenstein–Hawking entropy associated with an emission from a Reissner–Nordström (RN) black hole:

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
\exp\left(\frac{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}{k_B}\right)
&lt;/math&gt;

where

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
=
S_{\rm BH}(M-\omega,Q-q)
-
S_{\rm BH}(M,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

In natural units, this becomes

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}=e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The investigation asks whether applying these entropy-derived dilation weights through PDT normalization generates a state-dependent nonlinear evolution of the black-hole charge-to-mass ratio.

The central dynamical quantity is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}
&lt;/math&gt;

and the central condition is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This condition represents a stationary charge-to-energy trajectory. The research asks whether such a trajectory is absent, stable, unstable, or otherwise structurally significant when increasingly physical emission models are introduced.

The present work does not claim that PDT has established a new physical mechanism for Hawking radiation or black-hole evaporation. Its purpose is to determine whether the proposed mathematical construction produces a distinctive and reproducible structure worthy of further investigation.

== 1. Research question ==

The original PDT framework permits positive dilation weights

&lt;math&gt;
D_n&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

to transform a probability distribution according to

&lt;math&gt;
p_n'
=
\frac{D_n p_n}
{\sum_m D_m p_m}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The present research asks a more discriminating question:

''Can a physically derived gravitational quantity determine the PDT dilation field &lt;math&gt;D_n&lt;/math&gt;, rather than the dilation field being selected arbitrarily?''

A Reissner–Nordström black hole provides a useful test system because it possesses:

* a well-defined horizon;
* a calculable Bekenstein–Hawking entropy;
* mass and electric charge;
* a Hawking temperature;
* an electromagnetic horizon potential;
* and a quantum-field emission problem with calculable greybody factors.

The proposed chain is

&lt;math&gt;
(M,Q)
\rightarrow
S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
D_{\omega,q}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}
\rightarrow
\alpha_{\rm eff}
\rightarrow
(M,Q)\ {\rm trajectory}.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 2. RN geometry ==

For a four-dimensional Reissner–Nordström black hole in geometrized units,

&lt;math&gt;
r_{\pm}
=
M\pm\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The outer horizon is

&lt;math&gt;
r_+
=
M+\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The Bekenstein–Hawking entropy is

&lt;math&gt;
S_{\rm BH}
=
\frac{A}{4}
=
\pi r_+^2
&lt;/math&gt;

in Planck units.

Thus

&lt;math&gt;
S_{\rm BH}(M,Q)
=
\pi
\left(
M+\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}
\right)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The nonextremal condition is

&lt;math&gt;
M&gt;|Q|.
&lt;/math&gt;

The extremal boundary is

&lt;math&gt;
|Q|=M.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the principal numerical control system used in this research,

&lt;math&gt;
M_0=10,\qquad Q_0=6.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{Q_0}{M_0}=0.6
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
r_+=18,\qquad r_-=2.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 3. Entropy-derived PDT dilation ==

Consider an emission carrying energy &lt;math&gt;\omega&lt;/math&gt; and charge &lt;math&gt;q&lt;/math&gt;:

&lt;math&gt;
(M,Q)
\longrightarrow
(M-\omega,Q-q).
&lt;/math&gt;

The exact finite entropy change is

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
=
\pi
\left[
M-\omega+
\sqrt{(M-\omega)^2-(Q-q)^2}
\right]^2
-
\pi
\left[
M+
\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}
\right]^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The proposed gravitational dilation field is

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

In natural units,

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}=e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is a proposed PDT construction and is not being presented as an established law of black-hole physics.

== 4. Semiclassical Hawking limit ==

The RN first law is

&lt;math&gt;
dM
=
T_H\,dS_{\rm BH}
+
\Phi_H\,dQ.
&lt;/math&gt;

For an emission,

&lt;math&gt;
dM=-\omega,
\qquad
dQ=-q.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore, to first order,

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\simeq
-\frac{\omega-\Phi_Hq}{T_H}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Consequently,

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
\simeq
e^{-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the proposed entropy-derived PDT dilation reduces in the small-emission limit to the ordinary charged Hawking/Boltzmann factor.

This is a consistency check rather than a claim that PDT has independently derived Hawking radiation.

== 5. Finite-emission correction ==

For finite emissions,

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\neq
-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)
&lt;/math&gt;

in general.

The exact PDT weight may therefore be written schematically as

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
e^{-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)}
e^{\mathcal C_{\rm RN}(\omega,q)}
&lt;/math&gt;

where

&lt;math&gt;
\mathcal C_{\rm RN}
=
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
+
\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq).
&lt;/math&gt;

The nonlinear correction arises because the black-hole geometry itself changes during the emission.

Entropy-change corrections of this general kind occur in established black-hole thermodynamic and tunnelling treatments. The possible PDT contribution is therefore not the existence of the entropy correction itself, but the use of that physically determined quantity as the dilation field within an iterated normalized probability transformation.

== 6. PDT normalization ==

For possible emission channels,

&lt;math&gt;
p_n^{\rm PDT}
=
\frac{
p_n e^{\Delta S_n/k_B}
}{
\sum_m p_m e^{\Delta S_m/k_B}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define

&lt;math&gt;
Z_{\rm PDT}
=
\sum_m
p_m e^{\Delta S_m/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The normalization guarantees

&lt;math&gt;
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}=1.
&lt;/math&gt;

An important observation is that the normalization denominator does not itself alter relative odds:

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{p_i^{\rm PDT}}{p_j^{\rm PDT}}
=
\frac{p_i}{p_j}
e^{(\Delta S_i-\Delta S_j)/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore any distinctive dynamical structure must arise from the state dependence of the dilation field and its repeated application, not from normalization alone.

== 7. From probability normalization to black-hole dynamics ==

At each step, define

&lt;math&gt;
\langle\omega\rangle
=
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}\omega_n
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
\langle q\rangle
=
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}q_n.
&lt;/math&gt;

The expected black-hole evolution is

&lt;math&gt;
M_{k+1}
=
M_k-\langle\omega\rangle_k
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
Q_{k+1}
=
Q_k-\langle q\rangle_k.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define

&lt;math&gt;
x=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective charge-to-energy ratio is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
&lt;/math&gt;

For sufficiently small changes,

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dx}{dM}
=
\frac{\alpha_{\rm eff}-x}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the stationary condition is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This converts the PDT–black-hole problem into a nonlinear dynamical-system question.

== 8. Minimal two-channel control model ==

The first numerical model deliberately used two possible channels:

&lt;math&gt;
(\omega,0)
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
(\omega,\alpha\omega).
&lt;/math&gt;

The entropy factors were

&lt;math&gt;
D_A=e^{\Delta S_A},
\qquad
D_B=e^{\Delta S_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

With equal prior weights,

&lt;math&gt;
P_B
=
\frac{e^{\Delta S_B}}
{e^{\Delta S_A}+e^{\Delta S_B}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Since both channels had the same energy,

&lt;math&gt;
\langle\omega\rangle=\omega
&lt;/math&gt;

while

&lt;math&gt;
\langle q\rangle=P_B\alpha\omega.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\alpha P_B.
&lt;/math&gt;

This showed that the effective charge-to-energy ratio need not equal the microscopic channel parameter.

For the illustrative state

&lt;math&gt;
M=10,\qquad Q=6
&lt;/math&gt;

with

&lt;math&gt;
\omega=0.1
&lt;/math&gt;

the control calculation produced a stationary solution near

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm crit}\approx0.60365.
&lt;/math&gt;

The stationary trajectory was unstable in the control model and therefore behaved as a separatrix rather than a stable attractor.

== 9. Continuous energy model ==

The discrete energy assumption was then removed.

A minimal continuous phase-space measure was taken as

&lt;math&gt;
\mu(\omega)\propto\omega^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The entropy-weighted distribution was

&lt;math&gt;
p(\omega,q)
\propto
\omega^2e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective ratio becomes

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{
\displaystyle
\int q\,\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}
\,d\omega\,dq
}{
\displaystyle
\int \omega\,\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}
\,d\omega\,dq
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The stationary condition remained

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

A stationary solution continued to occur in the simplified continuous control model, with local behaviour consistent with an unstable separatrix.

This was an important robustness test because the structure did not depend simply on selecting two discrete energy values.

== 10. Continuous neutral and charged sectors ==

The next extension allowed both neutral and charged emissions.

For the neutral sector,

&lt;math&gt;
q=0.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the charged sector, a fixed charge quantum &lt;math&gt;q&lt;/math&gt; was considered while the energy remained continuous.

Define

&lt;math&gt;
Z_0
=
\int
\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_0(\omega)}
d\omega
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
Z_q
=
\int
\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_q(\omega)}
d\omega.
&lt;/math&gt;

The charged-sector probability is

&lt;math&gt;
P_q
=
\frac{Z_q}{Z_0+Z_q}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective ratio is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
&lt;/math&gt;

In the simplified control model a stationary solution satisfying

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\frac{Q}{M}
&lt;/math&gt;

continued to exist.

The resulting stationary trajectory again behaved as an unstable separatrix.

== 11. Introduction of greybody physics ==

A greybody factor represents the transmission probability of a quantum field through the black-hole curvature potential.

The entropy-weighted PDT distribution must therefore be modified from

&lt;math&gt;
\omega^2e^{\Delta S}
&lt;/math&gt;

to

&lt;math&gt;
\omega^2
\Gamma(\omega,q;M,Q)
e^{\Delta S}.
&lt;/math&gt;

However, &lt;math&gt;\Gamma&lt;/math&gt; is not universal. It depends on the field species, mass, charge, spin, angular momentum mode, and black-hole background.

Consequently, an arbitrary greybody function should not be inserted merely to produce a desired result.

The first controlled physical choice was therefore a massless scalar field in the lowest angular mode.

== 12. Neutral massless scalar, &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt;, control test ==

For a neutral massless scalar, the low-frequency RN &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; transmission probability has the familiar behaviour

&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_0(\omega)
\simeq
4(\omega r_+)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

This approximation was used only as a controlled low-frequency comparison.

The PDT weighting becomes

&lt;math&gt;
W(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_0(\omega)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

At low frequency this gives

&lt;math&gt;
W(\omega)
\propto
\omega^4e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the greybody factor suppresses low-energy modes relative to the phase-space-only model.

The exploratory calculation indicated a substantial shift of the entropy-weighted energy distribution toward higher energies.

The numerical value of that shift should not be treated as a publication-final coefficient because the low-frequency approximation is not uniformly valid over the full integration range.

The principal conclusion is:

&lt;math&gt;
\text{Greybody weighting materially changes the PDT-weighted spectrum.}
&lt;/math&gt;

== 13. Charged scalar on RN ==

The charged scalar field obeys the minimally coupled Klein–Gordon equation

&lt;math&gt;
D_\mu D^\mu\Phi=0,
\qquad
D_\mu=\nabla_\mu-iqA_\mu.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the RN background, the separated radial equation for the &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; mode can be written in Schrödinger form as

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d^2X}{dr_*^2}
+
\left[
\left(\omega-\frac{qQ}{r}\right)^2
-
\frac{ff'}{r}
\right]X=0
&lt;/math&gt;

where

&lt;math&gt;
f(r)
=
\frac{(r-r_+)(r-r_-)}{r^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

At the horizon,

&lt;math&gt;
\tilde{\omega}
=
\omega-q\Phi_H.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the control black hole,

&lt;math&gt;
\Phi_H=\frac{Q}{r_+}=\frac13
&lt;/math&gt;

so

&lt;math&gt;
\tilde{\omega}
=
\omega-\frac{q}{3}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The condition

&lt;math&gt;
\omega&lt;q\Phi_H
&lt;/math&gt;

defines the charged superradiant regime.

The ordinary emission branch must therefore be distinguished from the superradiant scattering regime.

== 14. Charged greybody factor ==

The charged-sector PDT weight is

&lt;math&gt;
W_q(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M,Q)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective charge-to-energy ratio for a neutral-plus-charged spectrum is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{
\displaystyle
\sum_q
\int
q\,W_q(\omega)\,d\omega
}{
\displaystyle
\sum_q
\int
\omega\,W_q(\omega)\,d\omega
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This formulation is important because &lt;math&gt;\alpha&lt;/math&gt; is no longer externally imposed.

Instead, the entropy-derived PDT weighting and the physical transmission coefficients determine the effective value.

The conceptual chain is

&lt;math&gt;
\text{RN geometry}
\rightarrow
\text{charged wave equation}
\rightarrow
\Gamma_{0,q}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}
\rightarrow
\alpha_{\rm eff}.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 15. Numerical charged-greybody calculation: current status ==

A numerical solution of the charged &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; radial equation provides a route to calculating

&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M=10,Q=6).
&lt;/math&gt;

The transmission probability is obtained from the asymptotic scattering amplitudes and the corresponding fluxes.

The exploratory numerical work indicates that incorporating the charged RN potential barrier does not trivially destroy the stationary structure found in the simpler models.

However, the present charged-greybody numerical values remain '''provisional'''.

Before numerical values for &lt;math&gt;\Gamma_{0,q}&lt;/math&gt;, &lt;math&gt;\alpha_{\rm eff}&lt;/math&gt;, or a critical trajectory are promoted to publication status, the calculation should be independently reproduced with convergence tests involving:

* radial integration range;
* frequency resolution;
* asymptotic matching;
* flux normalization;
* Coulomb-phase treatment;
* superradiant modes;
* and the physically allowed emission interval.

Accordingly, the charged-greybody calculation is presently evidence for robustness, not a publication-final quantitative prediction.

== 16. Central dynamical equation ==

The research can now be expressed as a state-dependent nonlinear dynamical system.

Define

&lt;math&gt;
x=\frac{Q}{M}
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
F(M,Q)
=
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)-\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The central equation is

&lt;math&gt;
F(M,Q)=0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The possible outcomes are:

* no stationary trajectory;
* an unstable separatrix;
* a stable attractor;
* or another invariant or dynamical structure.

In the simplified models examined so far, the stationary solution behaves as an unstable separatrix rather than a stable attractor.

This result should not yet be generalized to all physical Hawking emission spectra.

== 17. Proposed nonlinear feedback mechanism ==

The complete proposed feedback structure is

&lt;math&gt;
(M,Q)
\rightarrow
S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
D_{\omega,q}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}(\omega,q)
\rightarrow
(\langle\omega\rangle,\langle q\rangle)
\rightarrow
(M',Q').
&lt;/math&gt;

The corresponding effective charge-to-energy ratio is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The possible distinctive mathematical contribution of PDT would therefore not be the entropy factor alone. It would be the behaviour of the resulting state-dependent normalized iteration.

The central question becomes:

''Does the coupled entropy–dilation–normalization iteration possess a fixed point, separatrix, attractor, invariant, or other mathematical structure that is not already contained in the ordinary one-step microcanonical description?''

== 18. What has been mathematically established ==

The following statements are mathematical results within the stated models:

* Positive PDT weights can be normalized provided the weighted sum is finite and nonzero.
* A finite entropy difference can be used mathematically as a positive dilation exponent.
* The small-emission expansion of the RN entropy change reproduces the standard charged Hawking/Boltzmann exponent.
* The entropy-derived PDT distribution produces an effective charge-to-energy ratio determined by the weighted emission distribution.
* The condition &lt;math&gt;\alpha_{\rm eff}=Q/M&lt;/math&gt; is the stationary condition for the corresponding small-step RN charge-to-mass evolution.
* The simplified discrete and continuous control models possess stationary solutions.
* Those stationary solutions are unstable in the control models examined.

== 19. What has been numerically demonstrated ==

The exploratory calculations indicate that:

* replacing arbitrary dilation parameters with RN entropy-derived weights produces a state-dependent emission distribution;
* continuous energy distributions preserve the basic stationary structure found in the discrete model;
* inclusion of neutral and charged sectors does not immediately eliminate that structure;
* inclusion of an RN greybody weighting materially changes the emission spectrum;
* the stationary structure is not trivially destroyed by the curvature transmission barrier in the present control calculation.

These numerical findings remain subject to further independent reproduction and convergence testing.

== 20. What is standard black-hole physics ==

The following ingredients are established external physics rather than new PDT results:

* Reissner–Nordström geometry;
* Bekenstein–Hawking horizon entropy;
* RN Hawking temperature;
* RN horizon electrostatic potential;
* the RN first law;
* charged scalar propagation on RN;
* greybody transmission;
* charged-scalar superradiance;
* and entropy-change descriptions of finite black-hole emission.

PDT should not claim these results as original discoveries.

== 21. What remains a PDT hypothesis ==

The principal hypothesis being investigated is:

''A gravitational entropy change can serve as a physically motivated PDT dilation field, and repeated normalized application of that field may generate a nonlinear dynamical structure that provides mathematically useful information beyond the corresponding one-step thermodynamic description.''

At present, there is no established evidence that this construction constitutes a new physical mechanism for Hawking radiation, black-hole evaporation, or quantum gravity.

The appropriate status is therefore exploratory.

== 22. Research limitations ==

The present work deliberately does not yet include the complete complexity of quantum-field Hawking radiation.

In particular, it does not yet constitute a full treatment of:

* all particle species;
* arbitrary spin;
* all angular momentum modes;
* massive fields;
* complete greybody spectra;
* quantum backreaction;
* interacting quantum fields;
* rotating black holes;
* or a complete semiclassical evaporation calculation.

The purpose of the staged approach is to determine whether the proposed PDT structure survives progressively more physically realistic inputs without introducing unnecessary assumptions.

== 23. Next decisive calculation ==

The next calculation should use a fully specified charged scalar emission model and independently reproduce

&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

That result should then be inserted into

&lt;math&gt;
W_q(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The resulting

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)
&lt;/math&gt;

can then be used to determine whether

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}-\frac{Q}{M}
&lt;/math&gt;

has a zero and whether that zero is stable or unstable under the evaporation flow.

If the structure survives a physically complete emission measure, it would provide substantially stronger evidence that the nonlinear structure is not an artifact of the simplified control models.

If the structure disappears, that result is equally useful because it would identify which physical ingredient destroys the proposed PDT behaviour.

== 24. Scientific status of the result ==

The present research should therefore be summarized as follows:

&lt;math&gt;
\text{Promising mathematical framework; physical novelty not yet established.}
&lt;/math&gt;

The investigation has moved beyond an arbitrary choice of PDT dilation weights and has constructed a physically motivated candidate based on black-hole entropy.

The simplified calculations suggest the emergence of a stationary charge-to-energy trajectory that behaves as a separatrix.

The persistence of this structure under increasingly realistic emission models remains the decisive test.

== 25. Relationship to the separate Einstein–Maxwell heat-kernel audit ==

The Einstein–Maxwell heat-kernel investigation conducted separately in this research project is deliberately '''not used to justify the present PDT results'''.

That audit identified an unresolved apparent discrepancy in the displayed quadratic Einstein–Maxwell action used in the comparison. The issue concerns the consistency of the quadratic Hessian, including the metric–metric sector and fluctuation conventions.

The responsible status of that investigation remains:

* unresolved apparent omission/discrepancy in the displayed quadratic action;
* not a confirmed source error;
* no modification of the existing curvature potential &lt;math&gt;V&lt;/math&gt;;
* no promotion of provisional &lt;math&gt;\operatorname{tr}E^2&lt;/math&gt; or related heat-kernel quantities;
* no publication-final &lt;math&gt;a_2&lt;/math&gt; coefficient.

That technical branch is independent of the present entropy-normalization investigation.

== 26. References and source materials ==

=== Einstein–Maxwell and heat-kernel reference ===

* S. Karan and B. Panda, ''Generalized Einstein-Maxwell theory: Seeley-DeWitt coefficients and logarithmic corrections to the entropy of extremal and nonextremal black holes'', ''Physical Review D'' '''104''', 046010 (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.104.046010. [https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.046010]

This reference provides the Einstein–Maxwell action, background equations, quadratic fluctuation treatment, gauge fixing, and Seeley–DeWitt framework used in the separate Einstein–Maxwell audit.

=== Charged scalar and RN superradiance ===

* L. Di Menza and J.-P. Nicolas, ''Superradiance on the Reissner–Nordström metric'' (2014), arXiv:1411.3988. [https://arxiv.org/abs/1411.3988]

This work provides an independent treatment of charged scalar propagation and superradiance on the RN geometry.

=== Reissner–Nordström and black-hole thermodynamics ===

The RN geometry, Bekenstein–Hawking entropy, Hawking temperature, and horizon potential used in this section are standard results of general relativity and black-hole thermodynamics.

=== PDT source material ===

* Howard Richardson, ''[[Probability Dilation Theory|Probability Dilation Theory]]'', Wikiversity.
* Howard Richardson, ''[[Probability Dilation Theory/Normalized Probability Dilation Paper|Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry]]'', Draft Version 1.0.
* Associated PDT Wikiversity subpages and revision history.
* Associated OSF preprint and version history.
* ''PDT and Fundamental Physics: Information Geometry, Symmetry, and Emergent Spacetime'', separate research notebook/project.

The present page extends the PDT framework into an exploratory black-hole and quantum-state-normalization application.

== 27. Attribution and copyright ==

'''Original PDT material, original formulations, analysis, numerical experiments, interpretations, and research questions on this page: © Howard Richardson.'''

Original material authored by Howard Richardson may be reused according to the licensing terms explicitly stated for that material and subject to Wikiversity's applicable site-wide licensing requirements.

External equations, scientific results, papers, figures, quotations, and other third-party materials remain subject to the copyright and licensing conditions of their respective authors and publishers. Their inclusion or citation on this research page does not transfer ownership or copyright to Howard Richardson.

Where an external source is quoted, adapted, or reproduced, the source should be cited and any applicable licence requirements followed.

=== Suggested attribution for original material ===

''Richardson, Howard. &quot;PDT and Quantum-State Normalization at a Reissner–Nordström Horizon.&quot; Probability Dilation Theory research project, Wikiversity, Draft Version 1.0 extension.''

== 28. Final research statement ==

The purpose of this page is not to claim that PDT has solved a problem in black-hole physics.

Its purpose is to document a testable mathematical proposal:

&lt;math&gt;
\text{gravitational entropy}
\rightarrow
\text{PDT dilation}
\rightarrow
\text{normalized quantum-state weighting}
\rightarrow
\text{effective emission}
\rightarrow
\text{black-hole evolution}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The research question is whether this feedback structure contains a reproducible mathematical invariant, fixed point, separatrix, attractor, or other feature that is not merely a restatement of established black-hole thermodynamics.

At the present stage, an unstable stationary trajectory has appeared in progressively less artificial control models.

That result is sufficiently interesting to justify further investigation, but it remains a hypothesis until the result survives a fully specified physical emission spectrum and independent numerical verification.

[[Category:Probability Dilation Theory]]
[[Category:Research projects]]
[[Category:Black hole physics]]
[[Category:Mathematical physics]]</text>
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= PDT and Quantum-State Normalization at a Reissner–Nordström Horizon =

''Research extension of [[Probability Dilation Theory/Normalized Probability Dilation Paper|Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry]]''

'''Research manuscript — Draft Version 1.0 extension'''

''This page is part of the Probability Dilation Theory research project at Wikiversity. It records an exploratory mathematical and computational investigation connecting PDT normalization with black-hole entropy and quantum emission. It is a work in progress and is not a peer-reviewed publication.''

__TOC__

== Abstract ==

'''Relationship to Probability Dilation Theory:''' This research is an exploratory application of Howard Richardson's Probability Dilation Theory (PDT), developed in ''Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry''. It is not a separate theory. The original PDT normalization remains unchanged; the present investigation examines whether black-hole entropy can supply physically motivated dilation weights and whether the resulting state-dependent dynamics exhibit mathematically significant behaviour.
This research branch investigates whether the dilation field of Probability Dilation Theory (PDT) can be connected to a physically motivated gravitational quantity rather than being chosen arbitrarily.

The proposed quantity is the finite change in Bekenstein–Hawking entropy associated with an emission from a Reissner–Nordström (RN) black hole:

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
\exp\left(\frac{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}{k_B}\right)
&lt;/math&gt;

where

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
=
S_{\rm BH}(M-\omega,Q-q)
-
S_{\rm BH}(M,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

In natural units, this becomes

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}=e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The investigation asks whether applying these entropy-derived dilation weights through PDT normalization generates a state-dependent nonlinear evolution of the black-hole charge-to-mass ratio.

The central dynamical quantity is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}
&lt;/math&gt;

and the central condition is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This condition represents a stationary charge-to-energy trajectory. The research asks whether such a trajectory is absent, stable, unstable, or otherwise structurally significant when increasingly physical emission models are introduced.

The present work does not claim that PDT has established a new physical mechanism for Hawking radiation or black-hole evaporation. Its purpose is to determine whether the proposed mathematical construction produces a distinctive and reproducible structure worthy of further investigation.

== 1. Research question ==

The original PDT framework permits positive dilation weights

&lt;math&gt;
D_n&gt;0
&lt;/math&gt;

to transform a probability distribution according to

&lt;math&gt;
p_n'
=
\frac{D_n p_n}
{\sum_m D_m p_m}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The present research asks a more discriminating question:

''Can a physically derived gravitational quantity determine the PDT dilation field &lt;math&gt;D_n&lt;/math&gt;, rather than the dilation field being selected arbitrarily?''

A Reissner–Nordström black hole provides a useful test system because it possesses:

* a well-defined horizon;
* a calculable Bekenstein–Hawking entropy;
* mass and electric charge;
* a Hawking temperature;
* an electromagnetic horizon potential;
* and a quantum-field emission problem with calculable greybody factors.

The proposed chain is

&lt;math&gt;
(M,Q)
\rightarrow
S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
D_{\omega,q}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}
\rightarrow
\alpha_{\rm eff}
\rightarrow
(M,Q)\ {\rm trajectory}.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 2. RN geometry ==

For a four-dimensional Reissner–Nordström black hole in geometrized units,

&lt;math&gt;
r_{\pm}
=
M\pm\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The outer horizon is

&lt;math&gt;
r_+
=
M+\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The Bekenstein–Hawking entropy is

&lt;math&gt;
S_{\rm BH}
=
\frac{A}{4}
=
\pi r_+^2
&lt;/math&gt;

in Planck units.

Thus

&lt;math&gt;
S_{\rm BH}(M,Q)
=
\pi
\left(
M+\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}
\right)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The nonextremal condition is

&lt;math&gt;
M&gt;|Q|.
&lt;/math&gt;

The extremal boundary is

&lt;math&gt;
|Q|=M.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the principal numerical control system used in this research,

&lt;math&gt;
M_0=10,\qquad Q_0=6.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{Q_0}{M_0}=0.6
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
r_+=18,\qquad r_-=2.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 3. Entropy-derived PDT dilation ==

Consider an emission carrying energy &lt;math&gt;\omega&lt;/math&gt; and charge &lt;math&gt;q&lt;/math&gt;:

&lt;math&gt;
(M,Q)
\longrightarrow
(M-\omega,Q-q).
&lt;/math&gt;

The exact finite entropy change is

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
=
\pi
\left[
M-\omega+
\sqrt{(M-\omega)^2-(Q-q)^2}
\right]^2
-
\pi
\left[
M+
\sqrt{M^2-Q^2}
\right]^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The proposed gravitational dilation field is

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

In natural units,

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}=e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This is a proposed PDT construction and is not being presented as an established law of black-hole physics.

== 4. Semiclassical Hawking limit ==

The RN first law is

&lt;math&gt;
dM
=
T_H\,dS_{\rm BH}
+
\Phi_H\,dQ.
&lt;/math&gt;

For an emission,

&lt;math&gt;
dM=-\omega,
\qquad
dQ=-q.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore, to first order,

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\simeq
-\frac{\omega-\Phi_Hq}{T_H}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Consequently,

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
\simeq
e^{-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the proposed entropy-derived PDT dilation reduces in the small-emission limit to the ordinary charged Hawking/Boltzmann factor.

This is a consistency check rather than a claim that PDT has independently derived Hawking radiation.

== 5. Finite-emission correction ==

For finite emissions,

&lt;math&gt;
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\neq
-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)
&lt;/math&gt;

in general.

The exact PDT weight may therefore be written schematically as

&lt;math&gt;
D_{\omega,q}
=
e^{-\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq)}
e^{\mathcal C_{\rm RN}(\omega,q)}
&lt;/math&gt;

where

&lt;math&gt;
\mathcal C_{\rm RN}
=
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
+
\beta_H(\omega-\Phi_Hq).
&lt;/math&gt;

The nonlinear correction arises because the black-hole geometry itself changes during the emission.

Entropy-change corrections of this general kind occur in established black-hole thermodynamic and tunnelling treatments. The possible PDT contribution is therefore not the existence of the entropy correction itself, but the use of that physically determined quantity as the dilation field within an iterated normalized probability transformation.

== 6. PDT normalization ==

For possible emission channels,

&lt;math&gt;
p_n^{\rm PDT}
=
\frac{
p_n e^{\Delta S_n/k_B}
}{
\sum_m p_m e^{\Delta S_m/k_B}
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define

&lt;math&gt;
Z_{\rm PDT}
=
\sum_m
p_m e^{\Delta S_m/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The normalization guarantees

&lt;math&gt;
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}=1.
&lt;/math&gt;

An important observation is that the normalization denominator does not itself alter relative odds:

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{p_i^{\rm PDT}}{p_j^{\rm PDT}}
=
\frac{p_i}{p_j}
e^{(\Delta S_i-\Delta S_j)/k_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore any distinctive dynamical structure must arise from the state dependence of the dilation field and its repeated application, not from normalization alone.

== 7. From probability normalization to black-hole dynamics ==

At each step, define

&lt;math&gt;
\langle\omega\rangle
=
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}\omega_n
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
\langle q\rangle
=
\sum_n p_n^{\rm PDT}q_n.
&lt;/math&gt;

The expected black-hole evolution is

&lt;math&gt;
M_{k+1}
=
M_k-\langle\omega\rangle_k
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
Q_{k+1}
=
Q_k-\langle q\rangle_k.
&lt;/math&gt;

Define

&lt;math&gt;
x=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective charge-to-energy ratio is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
&lt;/math&gt;

For sufficiently small changes,

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{dx}{dM}
=
\frac{\alpha_{\rm eff}-x}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the stationary condition is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This converts the PDT–black-hole problem into a nonlinear dynamical-system question.

== 8. Minimal two-channel control model ==

The first numerical model deliberately used two possible channels:

&lt;math&gt;
(\omega,0)
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
(\omega,\alpha\omega).
&lt;/math&gt;

The entropy factors were

&lt;math&gt;
D_A=e^{\Delta S_A},
\qquad
D_B=e^{\Delta S_B}.
&lt;/math&gt;

With equal prior weights,

&lt;math&gt;
P_B
=
\frac{e^{\Delta S_B}}
{e^{\Delta S_A}+e^{\Delta S_B}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Since both channels had the same energy,

&lt;math&gt;
\langle\omega\rangle=\omega
&lt;/math&gt;

while

&lt;math&gt;
\langle q\rangle=P_B\alpha\omega.
&lt;/math&gt;

Therefore

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\alpha P_B.
&lt;/math&gt;

This showed that the effective charge-to-energy ratio need not equal the microscopic channel parameter.

For the illustrative state

&lt;math&gt;
M=10,\qquad Q=6
&lt;/math&gt;

with

&lt;math&gt;
\omega=0.1
&lt;/math&gt;

the control calculation produced a stationary solution near

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm crit}\approx0.60365.
&lt;/math&gt;

The stationary trajectory was unstable in the control model and therefore behaved as a separatrix rather than a stable attractor.

== 9. Continuous energy model ==

The discrete energy assumption was then removed.

A minimal continuous phase-space measure was taken as

&lt;math&gt;
\mu(\omega)\propto\omega^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

The entropy-weighted distribution was

&lt;math&gt;
p(\omega,q)
\propto
\omega^2e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective ratio becomes

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{
\displaystyle
\int q\,\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}
\,d\omega\,dq
}{
\displaystyle
\int \omega\,\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}
\,d\omega\,dq
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The stationary condition remained

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

A stationary solution continued to occur in the simplified continuous control model, with local behaviour consistent with an unstable separatrix.

This was an important robustness test because the structure did not depend simply on selecting two discrete energy values.

== 10. Continuous neutral and charged sectors ==

The next extension allowed both neutral and charged emissions.

For the neutral sector,

&lt;math&gt;
q=0.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the charged sector, a fixed charge quantum &lt;math&gt;q&lt;/math&gt; was considered while the energy remained continuous.

Define

&lt;math&gt;
Z_0
=
\int
\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_0(\omega)}
d\omega
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
Z_q
=
\int
\omega^2
e^{\Delta S_q(\omega)}
d\omega.
&lt;/math&gt;

The charged-sector probability is

&lt;math&gt;
P_q
=
\frac{Z_q}{Z_0+Z_q}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective ratio is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
&lt;/math&gt;

In the simplified control model a stationary solution satisfying

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}=\frac{Q}{M}
&lt;/math&gt;

continued to exist.

The resulting stationary trajectory again behaved as an unstable separatrix.

== 11. Introduction of greybody physics ==

A greybody factor represents the transmission probability of a quantum field through the black-hole curvature potential.

The entropy-weighted PDT distribution must therefore be modified from

&lt;math&gt;
\omega^2e^{\Delta S}
&lt;/math&gt;

to

&lt;math&gt;
\omega^2
\Gamma(\omega,q;M,Q)
e^{\Delta S}.
&lt;/math&gt;

However, &lt;math&gt;\Gamma&lt;/math&gt; is not universal. It depends on the field species, mass, charge, spin, angular momentum mode, and black-hole background.

Consequently, an arbitrary greybody function should not be inserted merely to produce a desired result.

The first controlled physical choice was therefore a massless scalar field in the lowest angular mode.

== 12. Neutral massless scalar, &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt;, control test ==

For a neutral massless scalar, the low-frequency RN &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; transmission probability has the familiar behaviour

&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_0(\omega)
\simeq
4(\omega r_+)^2.
&lt;/math&gt;

This approximation was used only as a controlled low-frequency comparison.

The PDT weighting becomes

&lt;math&gt;
W(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_0(\omega)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

At low frequency this gives

&lt;math&gt;
W(\omega)
\propto
\omega^4e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}}.
&lt;/math&gt;

Thus the greybody factor suppresses low-energy modes relative to the phase-space-only model.

The exploratory calculation indicated a substantial shift of the entropy-weighted energy distribution toward higher energies.

The numerical value of that shift should not be treated as a publication-final coefficient because the low-frequency approximation is not uniformly valid over the full integration range.

The principal conclusion is:

&lt;math&gt;
\text{Greybody weighting materially changes the PDT-weighted spectrum.}
&lt;/math&gt;

== 13. Charged scalar on RN ==

The charged scalar field obeys the minimally coupled Klein–Gordon equation

&lt;math&gt;
D_\mu D^\mu\Phi=0,
\qquad
D_\mu=\nabla_\mu-iqA_\mu.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the RN background, the separated radial equation for the &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; mode can be written in Schrödinger form as

&lt;math&gt;
\frac{d^2X}{dr_*^2}
+
\left[
\left(\omega-\frac{qQ}{r}\right)^2
-
\frac{ff'}{r}
\right]X=0
&lt;/math&gt;

where

&lt;math&gt;
f(r)
=
\frac{(r-r_+)(r-r_-)}{r^2}.
&lt;/math&gt;

At the horizon,

&lt;math&gt;
\tilde{\omega}
=
\omega-q\Phi_H.
&lt;/math&gt;

For the control black hole,

&lt;math&gt;
\Phi_H=\frac{Q}{r_+}=\frac13
&lt;/math&gt;

so

&lt;math&gt;
\tilde{\omega}
=
\omega-\frac{q}{3}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The condition

&lt;math&gt;
\omega&lt;q\Phi_H
&lt;/math&gt;

defines the charged superradiant regime.

The ordinary emission branch must therefore be distinguished from the superradiant scattering regime.

== 14. Charged greybody factor ==

The charged-sector PDT weight is

&lt;math&gt;
W_q(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M,Q)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The effective charge-to-energy ratio for a neutral-plus-charged spectrum is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{
\displaystyle
\sum_q
\int
q\,W_q(\omega)\,d\omega
}{
\displaystyle
\sum_q
\int
\omega\,W_q(\omega)\,d\omega
}.
&lt;/math&gt;

This formulation is important because &lt;math&gt;\alpha&lt;/math&gt; is no longer externally imposed.

Instead, the entropy-derived PDT weighting and the physical transmission coefficients determine the effective value.

The conceptual chain is

&lt;math&gt;
\text{RN geometry}
\rightarrow
\text{charged wave equation}
\rightarrow
\Gamma_{0,q}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}
\rightarrow
\alpha_{\rm eff}.
&lt;/math&gt;

== 15. Numerical charged-greybody calculation: current status ==

A numerical solution of the charged &lt;math&gt;l=0&lt;/math&gt; radial equation provides a route to calculating

&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M=10,Q=6).
&lt;/math&gt;

The transmission probability is obtained from the asymptotic scattering amplitudes and the corresponding fluxes.

The exploratory numerical work indicates that incorporating the charged RN potential barrier does not trivially destroy the stationary structure found in the simpler models.

However, the present charged-greybody numerical values remain '''provisional'''.

Before numerical values for &lt;math&gt;\Gamma_{0,q}&lt;/math&gt;, &lt;math&gt;\alpha_{\rm eff}&lt;/math&gt;, or a critical trajectory are promoted to publication status, the calculation should be independently reproduced with convergence tests involving:

* radial integration range;
* frequency resolution;
* asymptotic matching;
* flux normalization;
* Coulomb-phase treatment;
* superradiant modes;
* and the physically allowed emission interval.

Accordingly, the charged-greybody calculation is presently evidence for robustness, not a publication-final quantitative prediction.

== 16. Central dynamical equation ==

The research can now be expressed as a state-dependent nonlinear dynamical system.

Define

&lt;math&gt;
x=\frac{Q}{M}
&lt;/math&gt;

and

&lt;math&gt;
F(M,Q)
=
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)-\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The central equation is

&lt;math&gt;
F(M,Q)=0.
&lt;/math&gt;

Equivalently,

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)=\frac{Q}{M}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The possible outcomes are:

* no stationary trajectory;
* an unstable separatrix;
* a stable attractor;
* or another invariant or dynamical structure.

In the simplified models examined so far, the stationary solution behaves as an unstable separatrix rather than a stable attractor.

This result should not yet be generalized to all physical Hawking emission spectra.

== 17. Proposed nonlinear feedback mechanism ==

The complete proposed feedback structure is

&lt;math&gt;
(M,Q)
\rightarrow
S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
\Delta S_{\rm BH}
\rightarrow
D_{\omega,q}
\rightarrow
p_{\rm PDT}(\omega,q)
\rightarrow
(\langle\omega\rangle,\langle q\rangle)
\rightarrow
(M',Q').
&lt;/math&gt;

The corresponding effective charge-to-energy ratio is

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}
=
\frac{\langle q\rangle}{\langle\omega\rangle}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The possible distinctive mathematical contribution of PDT would therefore not be the entropy factor alone. It would be the behaviour of the resulting state-dependent normalized iteration.

The central question becomes:

''Does the coupled entropy–dilation–normalization iteration possess a fixed point, separatrix, attractor, invariant, or other mathematical structure that is not already contained in the ordinary one-step microcanonical description?''

== 18. What has been mathematically established ==

The following statements are mathematical results within the stated models:

* Positive PDT weights can be normalized provided the weighted sum is finite and nonzero.
* A finite entropy difference can be used mathematically as a positive dilation exponent.
* The small-emission expansion of the RN entropy change reproduces the standard charged Hawking/Boltzmann exponent.
* The entropy-derived PDT distribution produces an effective charge-to-energy ratio determined by the weighted emission distribution.
* The condition &lt;math&gt;\alpha_{\rm eff}=Q/M&lt;/math&gt; is the stationary condition for the corresponding small-step RN charge-to-mass evolution.
* The simplified discrete and continuous control models possess stationary solutions.
* Those stationary solutions are unstable in the control models examined.

== 19. What has been numerically demonstrated ==

The exploratory calculations indicate that:

* replacing arbitrary dilation parameters with RN entropy-derived weights produces a state-dependent emission distribution;
* continuous energy distributions preserve the basic stationary structure found in the discrete model;
* inclusion of neutral and charged sectors does not immediately eliminate that structure;
* inclusion of an RN greybody weighting materially changes the emission spectrum;
* the stationary structure is not trivially destroyed by the curvature transmission barrier in the present control calculation.

These numerical findings remain subject to further independent reproduction and convergence testing.

== 20. What is standard black-hole physics ==

The following ingredients are established external physics rather than new PDT results:

* Reissner–Nordström geometry;
* Bekenstein–Hawking horizon entropy;
* RN Hawking temperature;
* RN horizon electrostatic potential;
* the RN first law;
* charged scalar propagation on RN;
* greybody transmission;
* charged-scalar superradiance;
* and entropy-change descriptions of finite black-hole emission.

PDT should not claim these results as original discoveries.

== 21. What remains a PDT hypothesis ==

The principal hypothesis being investigated is:

''A gravitational entropy change can serve as a physically motivated PDT dilation field, and repeated normalized application of that field may generate a nonlinear dynamical structure that provides mathematically useful information beyond the corresponding one-step thermodynamic description.''

At present, there is no established evidence that this construction constitutes a new physical mechanism for Hawking radiation, black-hole evaporation, or quantum gravity.

The appropriate status is therefore exploratory.

== 22. Research limitations ==

The present work deliberately does not yet include the complete complexity of quantum-field Hawking radiation.

In particular, it does not yet constitute a full treatment of:

* all particle species;
* arbitrary spin;
* all angular momentum modes;
* massive fields;
* complete greybody spectra;
* quantum backreaction;
* interacting quantum fields;
* rotating black holes;
* or a complete semiclassical evaporation calculation.

The purpose of the staged approach is to determine whether the proposed PDT structure survives progressively more physically realistic inputs without introducing unnecessary assumptions.

== 23. Next decisive calculation ==

The next calculation should use a fully specified charged scalar emission model and independently reproduce

&lt;math&gt;
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega;M,Q).
&lt;/math&gt;

That result should then be inserted into

&lt;math&gt;
W_q(\omega)
=
\omega^2
\Gamma_{0,q}(\omega)
e^{\Delta S_{\rm BH}(\omega,q)}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The resulting

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}(M,Q)
&lt;/math&gt;

can then be used to determine whether

&lt;math&gt;
\alpha_{\rm eff}-\frac{Q}{M}
&lt;/math&gt;

has a zero and whether that zero is stable or unstable under the evaporation flow.

If the structure survives a physically complete emission measure, it would provide substantially stronger evidence that the nonlinear structure is not an artifact of the simplified control models.

If the structure disappears, that result is equally useful because it would identify which physical ingredient destroys the proposed PDT behaviour.

== 24. Scientific status of the result ==

The present research should therefore be summarized as follows:

&lt;math&gt;
\text{Promising mathematical framework; physical novelty not yet established.}
&lt;/math&gt;

The investigation has moved beyond an arbitrary choice of PDT dilation weights and has constructed a physically motivated candidate based on black-hole entropy.

The simplified calculations suggest the emergence of a stationary charge-to-energy trajectory that behaves as a separatrix.

The persistence of this structure under increasingly realistic emission models remains the decisive test.

== 25. Relationship to the separate Einstein–Maxwell heat-kernel audit ==

The Einstein–Maxwell heat-kernel investigation conducted separately in this research project is deliberately '''not used to justify the present PDT results'''.

That audit identified an unresolved apparent discrepancy in the displayed quadratic Einstein–Maxwell action used in the comparison. The issue concerns the consistency of the quadratic Hessian, including the metric–metric sector and fluctuation conventions.

The responsible status of that investigation remains:

* unresolved apparent omission/discrepancy in the displayed quadratic action;
* not a confirmed source error;
* no modification of the existing curvature potential &lt;math&gt;V&lt;/math&gt;;
* no promotion of provisional &lt;math&gt;\operatorname{tr}E^2&lt;/math&gt; or related heat-kernel quantities;
* no publication-final &lt;math&gt;a_2&lt;/math&gt; coefficient.

That technical branch is independent of the present entropy-normalization investigation.

== 26. References and source materials ==

=== Einstein–Maxwell and heat-kernel reference ===

* S. Karan and B. Panda, ''Generalized Einstein-Maxwell theory: Seeley-DeWitt coefficients and logarithmic corrections to the entropy of extremal and nonextremal black holes'', ''Physical Review D'' '''104''', 046010 (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.104.046010. [https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.046010]

This reference provides the Einstein–Maxwell action, background equations, quadratic fluctuation treatment, gauge fixing, and Seeley–DeWitt framework used in the separate Einstein–Maxwell audit.

=== Charged scalar and RN superradiance ===

* L. Di Menza and J.-P. Nicolas, ''Superradiance on the Reissner–Nordström metric'' (2014), arXiv:1411.3988. [https://arxiv.org/abs/1411.3988]

This work provides an independent treatment of charged scalar propagation and superradiance on the RN geometry.

=== Reissner–Nordström and black-hole thermodynamics ===

The RN geometry, Bekenstein–Hawking entropy, Hawking temperature, and horizon potential used in this section are standard results of general relativity and black-hole thermodynamics.

=== PDT source material ===

* Howard Richardson, ''[[Probability Dilation Theory|Probability Dilation Theory]]'', Wikiversity.
* Howard Richardson, ''[[Probability Dilation Theory/Normalized Probability Dilation Paper|Normalized Probability Dilation: A Unified Framework and Its Fisher–Rao Geometry]]'', Draft Version 1.0.
* Associated PDT Wikiversity subpages and revision history.
* Associated OSF preprint and version history.
* ''PDT and Fundamental Physics: Information Geometry, Symmetry, and Emergent Spacetime'', separate research notebook/project.

The present page extends the PDT framework into an exploratory black-hole and quantum-state-normalization application.

== 27. Attribution and copyright ==

'''Original PDT material, original formulations, analysis, numerical experiments, interpretations, and research questions on this page: © Howard Richardson.'''

Original material authored by Howard Richardson may be reused according to the licensing terms explicitly stated for that material and subject to Wikiversity's applicable site-wide licensing requirements.

External equations, scientific results, papers, figures, quotations, and other third-party materials remain subject to the copyright and licensing conditions of their respective authors and publishers. Their inclusion or citation on this research page does not transfer ownership or copyright to Howard Richardson.

Where an external source is quoted, adapted, or reproduced, the source should be cited and any applicable licence requirements followed.

=== Suggested attribution for original material ===

''Richardson, Howard. &quot;PDT and Quantum-State Normalization at a Reissner–Nordström Horizon.&quot; Probability Dilation Theory research project, Wikiversity, Draft Version 1.0 extension.''

== 28. Final research statement ==

The purpose of this page is not to claim that PDT has solved a problem in black-hole physics.

Its purpose is to document a testable mathematical proposal:

&lt;math&gt;
\text{gravitational entropy}
\rightarrow
\text{PDT dilation}
\rightarrow
\text{normalized quantum-state weighting}
\rightarrow
\text{effective emission}
\rightarrow
\text{black-hole evolution}.
&lt;/math&gt;

The research question is whether this feedback structure contains a reproducible mathematical invariant, fixed point, separatrix, attractor, or other feature that is not merely a restatement of established black-hole thermodynamics.

At the present stage, an unstable stationary trajectory has appeared in progressively less artificial control models.

That result is sufficiently interesting to justify further investigation, but it remains a hypothesis until the result survives a fully specified physical emission spectrum and independent numerical verification.

[[Category:Probability Dilation Theory]]
[[Category:Research projects]]
[[Category:Black hole physics]]
[[Category:Mathematical physics]]</text>
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  <page>
    <title>Magnetoencephalography (MEG)</title>
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      <comment>Created page with basic description, sources, and category boxes.</comment>
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      <text bytes="1863" sha1="au504om56alg58ohomn8b8l4dmi57vx" xml:space="preserve">{{draft}}{{Projectbox|Theme=9|icon=Human Brain Symbol.svg|text=[[Help:Resources by subject|Subject Classification:]] this is a [[Topic:Neuroscience|neuroscience]] resource.}} {{tertiary education}}

=Magnetoencephalography (MEG)=
{{Medical Imaging}}
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a [[functional neuroimaging]] technique that registers brain activity by measuring changes in the brain's naturally occurring [[current|current-induced]] [[electromagnetic field]].
&lt;ref&gt;{{cite web
 | last = Vrba
 | first = J
 | last2 = Robinson| first2 = S.E.
 | title = SQUID sensor array configurations for magnetoencephalography applications
 | publisher = Superconductor Science and Technology
 | date = August 13, 2002
 | url = https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0953-2048/15/9/201
 | doi = 10.1088/0953-2048/15/9/201
 | accessdate = October 12, 2026}}&lt;/ref&gt;
{{1}}

Traditional MEG machines tend to employ cryogenic systems{{--}}incorporating superconducting quantum interference devices ([[SQUIDs]]) and pick-up coils in order to measure changes in the brain's electromagnetic field. The differences in brain EM

==Cryogenic vs. Non-cryogenic==

==Comparison to Other Functional Neuroimaging Techniques==

[[File:Functional Imaging comparison 26.pdf|thumb|left||A spreadsheet table breaking down key characteristics of functional neuroimaging techniques.]]

=Contemporary Uses in Research=

===2000s===

&lt;gallery&gt;
File:MEG UCHSC.jpg|MEG UCHSC|MEG machine from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center(2009).
&lt;/gallery&gt;

===2010s===

===2020s===

=References=
{{Reflist|30em}}
==Further Reading==
==External Links==
=Also See=
* [[School:Neuroscience|Neuroscience Overview]]
* [[Neuroimaging]]
* [[Functional Neuroimaging]]
{{contrib-creator|[[User:SamLaxarox|SamLaxarox]] ([[User talk:SamLaxarox|discuss]] • [[Special:Contributions/SamLaxarox|contribs]])}}</text>
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      <comment>Theologia STEM School TSS for science and philosophy of nature of the universe by scientific theology, cosmology, cosmogony, astronomy, metaphysics</comment>
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      <text bytes="634" sha1="lob5gyupo6wvpnurkho5h5dyfm9ni00" xml:space="preserve">Theologia STEM School TSS is the project of theologia generally and specially the project of theologia research center TRC for STEM science correlation with the theologia as the combination of theological research and analysis by STEM science school for exegetical theology, practical theology, historical theology, systematic theology with the open knowledge, open access, open science, open education, open culture, open software, open school, open library, open research, open journal and the Lab experiments, publications, journal, articles, books, ebooks, images, videos, music, songs, and apps for easy access for the world 🌍</text>
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