Stereotypical gender-based emotions are not detectable in dream reports.
Dreaming December 1, 2002 DOI: 10.1023/a:1021156511919 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study (dream diary/log) Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 35 |
| Population | Adults recording their own dreams over a two-week period |
| Duration | Two-week recording period |
| Citations | 10 |
| Key findings | Feelings were pervasive in dreams, evoked by over 80% of a subject's dream characters, with positive and negative emotions balanced for both men and women. No significant differences appeared in the number or profile of feelings between men's and women's dreams. The authors discuss this in terms of a continuity hypothesis between dream and wake states, or alternatively that dream feelings may be independent of learned gender differences. |
Abstract
This study reports on the number of feelings evoked in men and women by their dream characters as well as on the relative frequency of different kinds of feelings. Thirty-five subjects recorded 320 dreams over a two-week period, submitted dream reports and a dream log of all characters that appeared in their dreams as well as any feelings involving the characters. We found that feelings were pervasive in dreams and that they were evoked by over 80% of a subject's dream characters. Further, negative and positive emotions were balanced for both men and women. We found no significant differences in the number or in the profile of feelings in men and women's dreams. The reasons for this are discussed in terms of a continuity hypothesis across dream and wake states or, on the contrary, that feelings expressed in dreams may be independent of learned gender differences.
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming Frontiers in Psychology August 18, 2015
- Fear in Dreams Predicts Stronger Affect Reactivity in Wakefulness. Sleep July 22, 2026
- State-dependent thinking: a comparison of waking and dreaming thought. Consciousness and Cognition December 15, 2004
Cites 7
- Questionnaires and diaries as research instruments in dream research: Methodological issues. Dreaming March 1, 2002
- A new neurocognitive theory of dreams. Dreaming March 1, 2001
- California Women and Their Dreams: A Historical and Sub-Cultural Comparison of Dream Content Imagination, Cognition and Personality September 1, 1990
- Emotion and cognition: feeling and character identification in dreaming. Consciousness and Cognition March 1, 2002
- Dreaming and waking consciousness: a character recognition study. Journal of Sleep Research December 1, 2000
and 2 more in the library