When dreaming is believing: the (motivated) interpretation of dreams.

@article{Morewedge2009WhenDI,
  title={When dreaming is believing: the (motivated) interpretation of dreams.},
  author={Carey K. Morewedge and Michael I. Norton},
  journal={Journal of personality and social psychology},
  year={2009},
  volume={96 2},
  pages={
          249-64
        }
}
This research investigated laypeople's interpretation of their dreams. Participants from both Eastern and Western cultures believed that dreams contain hidden truths (Study 1) and considered dreams to provide more meaningful information about the world than similar waking thoughts (Studies 2 and 3). The meaningfulness attributed to specific dreams, however, was moderated by the extent to which the content of those dreams accorded with participants' preexisting beliefs--from the theories they… 
View on PubMed
hbs.edu
57 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
3
Background Citations
24
Methods Citations
1
Results Citations
1

Figures from this paper

57 Citations

Attitudes Towards Dreams: and the Relation of these with Relationship Intimacy and Sleep Quality
The present study looked at beliefs/attitudes towards and effects of dreams, in a larger, primarily non-student, adult sample (N=667). On one side, findings supported previous research in that women…
Dreaming and insight
TLDR
Self-ratings of deepened self-perception and personal gains from participation in the group sessions showed that the Ullman technique is an effective procedure for establishing connections between dream content and recent waking life experiences, although wake life sources were found for only 14% of dream report text.
Contemporary dream beliefs and practices: A qualitative, sociological study
ABSTRACT This article draws attention to the lack of research that has been conducted in relation to dreams within the field of sociology, and argues that dreams and dreaming should rightfully be…
People's views on dreaming : Attitudes and subjective ream theories, with regard to age, education, and sex
The study investigated subjective theories of dream function (why do we dream)- measured as level of agreement with selected prescientific and contemporary views of science (N = 667) and thus…
Dreams and waking life connection
The present study explored individual’s connection between dreams and his waking life. Individuals’ personal experiences of dreams, their existence, purpose, belief, and truthfulness were explored in…
Earliest Remembered Dreams versus Recent Remembered Dreams
Title of Document: EARLIEST REMEMBERED DREAMS VERSUS RECENT REMEMBERED DREAMS Shudarshana Gupta, Master of Science, 2013 Directed By: Dr. Clara E. Hill, Psychology Department This study is to compare…
Insight from the consideration of REM dreams, non-REM dreams, and daydreams.
Throughout history there have been reports and claims that consideration of dreams can produce personal realizations and insight. We assessed Exploration-Insight scores associated with discussing…
Comparing personal insight gains due to consideration of a recent dream and consideration of a recent event using the Ullman and Schredl dream group methods
TLDR
The findings support the view that benefits can be obtained from the consideration ofdream content, in terms of identifying the waking life sources of dream content, and because personal insight may also occur.
The Nature and Functions of Dreaming
The Nature and Function of Dreaming presents a comprehensive theory of dreaming based on many years of psychological and biological research by Ernest Hartmann and others. Critical to this theory is…
Lay psychology of the hidden mental life: Attribution patterns of unconscious processes
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 107 REFERENCES
Everyday magical powers: the role of apparent mental causation in the overestimation of personal influence.
TLDR
Examination of whether having thoughts related to an event before it occurs leads people to infer that they caused the event--even when such causation might otherwise seem magical-- suggested that these results occur even when the thought-about outcome is viewed as unwanted by the thinker.
Jungian personality typology and the recall of everyday and archetypal dreams.
TLDR
The dream diary recall data showed that Jungian intuitives, as measured via Myers-Briggs continuous scores, recalled more archetypal dreams; introverts, as measure via Myers/Brigg continuous scores), recalled more everyday dreams; high EPI neuroticism scorers recalled fewer archetyPal dreams.
Nightmares, Neurophenomenology and the Cultural Logic of Trauma
  • L. Kirmayer
  • Psychology
    Culture, medicine and psychiatry
  • 2009
The papers in this special section of CMP explore new terrain in the cultural shaping of traumatic experience. The authors describe nightmares occurring in association with trauma across diverse…
A “Jekyll and Hyde” Within
TLDR
It is concluded that processing of, or simulations about, selected social interactions is preferentially performed while “off-line” during the dream state, with the REM state specializing in simulation of aggressive interactions and the NREM state specializingIn simulation of friendly interactions.
Religion and Psychology: Introduction to the Special Issue
Psychology purports to be the science of behavior, with behavior defined broadly enough to include inner processes such as thoughts and emotions. Psychologists have built an impressive stock of…
Illusion and well-being: a social psychological perspective on mental health.
TLDR
Research suggesting that certain illusions may be adaptive for mental health and well-being is reviewed, examining evidence that a set of interrelated positive illusions—namely, unrealistically positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism—can serve a wide variety of cognitive, affective, and social functions.
Self-Perception Theory
Dream Rebound
People spent 5 min before sleep at home writing their stream of thought as they suppressed thoughts of a target person, thought of the person, or wrote freely after mentioning the person. These…
Objectivity in the eye of the beholder: divergent perceptions of bias in self versus others.
TLDR
Evidence of this asymmetry between self-perception and social perception and its underlying causes is reviewed and its relation to other psychological phenomena and to interpersonal and intergroup conflict is discussed.
Subjective Construal, Social Inference, and Human Misunderstanding
...
...