How Self-Location Predicts the Degree and Quality of the Felt Sense of Connection
PsyArXiv Preprints September 7, 2026 preprint DOI: osf:hkdyb_v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 218 |
| Population | U.S. adults who had reported a strong experience of connection |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Cognitive psychology Cognitive science Developmental biology Epigenetics Evolutionary biology Neurobiology Neurodevelopment Ontogeny of consciousness Psychology of consciousness Self-awareness States of consciousness Life sciences Cognitive neuroscience Personality processes Emotion Developmental psychology Self-concept and identity Prosocial behavior Behavioral neuroscience Social well-being Interpersonal relationships Attention |
| Key findings | Head-locators reported firmer self-boundaries, emphasizing independence, rationality, and decision-making, while heart-locators scored significantly higher on connectedness to self and world and on metapersonal self-construal, describing connections as close, warm, caring, and authentic. |
Abstract
Research has typically examined how self-location in the head or heart is associated with traits and behavior, yet its link to relationality—specifically the felt sense of connection—remains underexplored. This study investigated how dispositional self-location predicts the embodied experience of being relationally linked to others and the world. We initially developed the Dispositional Self-Location Questionnaire (DSLQ), an association-based instrument designed to minimize potential subjective bias in participant reporting of self-location. Using this measure, we categorized a U.S. sample of 218 adults who had reported a strong experience of connection as head-locators or heart-locators and assessed them on self-construal, self-expansiveness, connectedness, and perceived qualities of connection. Head-locators reported firmer self-boundaries, emphasizing independence, rationality, and decision-making. In contrast, Heart-locators scored significantly higher on connectedness to both self and world, and on metapersonal self-construal, describing their connections as close, warm, caring, and authentic. These findings suggest that self-location functions as a somatic attentional stance that anticipates the experiential boundary between self and other: the head favors separation and autonomy, while the heart favors openness and expanded belonging.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The phenomenology of near-death experiences Subjects who reported near-death experiences | 1980 | Retrospective study | n = 78 |
| Visual Phenomenology of the LSD Flashback Persons with a history of LSD use | 1983 | Observational cohort | n = 123 |
| The neurophenomenology of neutral hypnosis. Individuals of high, medium, and low hypnotizability | 2013 | Observational cohort | n = 37 |
| The Phenomenology of Acute Organic Psychosis Patients with acute organic psychosis and acute schizophrenics | 1987 | Observational cohort | n = 148 |
| EEG oscillatory states as neuro-phenomenology of consciousness as revealed from patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states. Brain-damaged patients with disorders of consciousness and healthy-conscious subjects | 2012 | Observational cohort |