Cognition & Emotion
May 13, 2013
Patty van Cappellen, Vassilis Saroglou, Caroline Iweins et al.
184 citations
Spirituality is typically studied as a response to hardship, but this research explores whether it can also arise from positive emotions that transcend the self, such as admiration and elevation. In two experiments, inducing these emotions—using different methods—boosted participants' spirituality compared to neutral or merely happy (mirth) states. The effect was especially strong among non-religious participants. The increase in spirituality was explained by shifts in basic worldviews: a stronger belief that life is meaningful and that others and the world are benevolent. Spirituality may function not only as a coping mechanism but as part of an upward spiral with self-transcendent positive emotions.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
June 17, 2016
Patty van Cappellen, Baldwin M. Way, Suzannah F. Isgett et al.
138 citations
Intranasal oxytocin increased self-reported spirituality in midlife men, an effect that persisted for at least a week. The hormone also boosted positive emotions during meditation, both explicitly and implicitly. The effect was moderated by genetic variations in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR rs53576) and CD38 (rs6449182 and rs3796863). These findings provide experimental evidence that the oxytocin system, known for social bonding, may also support spirituality.
Emotion
October 15, 2019
Patty van Cappellen, Lahnna I Catalino, Barbara L. Fredrickson
42 citations
Maintaining a new health behavior like meditation is difficult. An experiment with 240 midlife adults tested two pathways of the upward spiral theory of lifestyle change, which holds that positive emotions help sustain new behaviors. Participants were randomly assigned to learn about prioritizing positivity or a control topic, and to practice either loving-kindness meditation (which generates positive emotions) or mindfulness meditation (which does not). Those exposed to the prioritizing positivity microintervention experienced more positive emotions during loving-kindness meditation than during mindfulness meditation. The more positive emotions participants felt during their first meditation session, the more frequently and longer they meditated over the next 21 days. Initial enjoyment of meditation can be amplified and predicts continued practice.
Mindfulness
January 1, 2026
Manuella B Kury, Barbara L. Fredrickson, Patty van Cappellen et al.
People with lower self-compassion before starting meditation training tend to gain greater emotional and mental health benefits. In a randomized intervention, 217 adults received six weeks of either mindfulness meditation or loving-kindness meditation. Those who began with lower self-compassion showed larger reductions in depressive symptoms and greater improvements in positive emotions and social connectedness over the intervention period. Increases in self-compassion from before to after training explained the link between meditation and lower depression, but only for those initially low in self-compassion. The findings suggest that individual differences in self-compassion shape how much people benefit from meditation, with those lowest in self-compassion potentially gaining the most.
Mindfulness
May 1, 2022
Brian P Don, Patty van Cappellen, Barbara L. Fredrickson
Training in either mindfulness or loving-kindness meditation for six weeks reduced day-to-day fluctuations in social connectedness among 224 mid-life adults, beyond simply raising average levels of connectedness. This smoothing of social ups and downs was partly explained by a corresponding reduction in the variability of both positive and negative emotions. The results suggest meditation helps stabilize social well-being by calming emotional swings.
Mindfulness
May 29, 2017
B. Fredrickson, Aaron J. Boulton, A. Firestine et al.
Both mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness meditation increase daily positive emotions without changing negative emotions. The more minutes people meditated on a given day, the more positive emotions they reported that day, and people who meditated more over the 9-week period also experienced greater overall gains in positive emotions. This dose-response relationship was stronger for loving-kindness meditation than for mindfulness meditation. The findings suggest that either practice can improve emotional well-being.