Appreciative joy—taking delight in others' happiness—and gratitude are related but distinct emotions. A cross-sectional survey of adults found a moderate positive correlation between the two, and gratitude partly explained how appreciative joy relates to subjective well-being. A randomized controlled trial tested four weeks of appreciative joy meditation training. At a one-month follow-up, the training increased both appreciative joy and gratitude, and changes in gratitude were driven by changes in appreciative joy. Although subjective well-being improved immediately after the training, the data did not confirm that appreciative joy or gratitude caused that improvement. The findings clarify how Buddhist meditation practices may boost well-being through gratitude.
Brief mindfulness meditation training improved prosocial driving behavior in a virtual reality urban traffic scene. The positive effect persisted throughout the experiment, suggesting that even short mindfulness practice can make people friendlier while driving. This extends previous laboratory findings to a more realistic driving scenario, supporting the claim that mindfulness promotes prosocial behavior.
Alexithymia—difficulty identifying and describing emotions—shows mixed links to dreaming. In an online sample of 577 young adults, the difficulty identifying feelings (DIF) facet predicted greater emotional intensity of dreams, while externally oriented thinking (EOT) predicted less emotional dreams. Stress, not emotion suppression, explained the DIF-dream emotionality link. Higher DIF scores also related to more nightmare distress, dream meaningfulness, and self-learning through dreams. Findings clarify how different alexithymia facets affect dream experiences.