ª The Author(s) 2010 That Meaning in Life Promotes ...

1 Meaning as Magnetic Force: EvidenceThat Meaning in life PromotesInterpersonal AppealTyler F. Stillman1, Nathaniel M. Lambert2,Frank D. Fincham2, and Roy F. Baumeister2 AbstractThe authors report on data indicating that having a strong sense of Meaning in life makes people more appealing socialinteractants. In Study 1, participants were videotaped while conversing with a friend, and the interactions were subsequentlyrated by independent evaluators. Participants who had reported a strong sense of Meaning in life were rated as desirablefriends. In Study 2, participants made 10-s videotaped introductions of themselves that were subsequently evaluated by indepen-dent raters. Those who reported a strong sense of Meaning in life were rated as more likeable, better potential friends, and moredesirable conversation partners. The effect of Meaning in life was beyond that of several other variables, including self-esteem,happiness, extraversion, and agreeableness.

2 Study 2 also found an interaction between physical attractiveness and Meaning in life ,with more Meaning in life contributing to greater interpersonal appeal for those of low and average physical , thin slices, social perception, impression formation, leadershipOne of the central ideas advanced by Viktor Frankl (1946/1963, 1969) was that people are driven to find Meaning in called this motivationwill to Meaning . The idea that peoplehave a deeply rooted need to find Meaning in life has beenechoed by several subsequent researchers and thinkers ( ,Baumeister, 1991; Heine, Proulx, & Vohs, 2006; Johnson,1987; Joske, 1981; Klinger, in press). Does the search formeaning have implications for interpersonal relationships? Inthe current work, we explored the idea that Meaning in lifeserves to promote the formation of interpersonal bonds. In par-ticular, we tested the hypothesis that people seek to affiliatewith those who have a strong sense of Meaning in life , at leastin part to satisfy the drive to find AppealThe colloquial termmagnetic personalityrefers to individualswith whom others seek affiliation and social interaction.

3 Peoplealso use words such ascharismaticandcharmingto refer topeople who have a certain kind of social appeal . It seems likelythat most people are acquainted with at least one person towhom many people are readily drawn. Presumably, most peo-ple are also familiar with the experience of being distinctlyunenthusiastic about the prospect of future interactions onmeeting someone for the first time. We use the terminterper-sonal appealto refer to individual differences in how desirableone is as a social interactant. Although some people maybecome more (or less) interesting and enjoyable social interac-tants over months and years, our interest was in how appealing(or unappealing) people are at zero acquaintance. In particular,we predicted that having Meaning in life would have very broadinterpersonal in LifeThere is no single definition of Meaning in life , but it is gener-ally understood that a meaningful life is one that makes sense tothe individual and includes a purpose (Baumeister, 1991;Baumeister & Vohs, 2002).

4 Accordingly, Meaning in life is mostoften assessed by self-report ( , Crumbaugh & Maholick,1964; Mascaro & Rosen, 2006). For instance, the Meaning inLife Questionnaire (MLQ) asks participants to rate theiragreement with statements such as I have a good sense of whatmakes my life meaningful (Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler,2006). In the present investigation, we understand Meaning in1 Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT, USA2 Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USAC orresponding Author:Tyler F. Stillman, Southern Utah University, Department of Psychology and theDepartment of Management & Marketing, 351 West University Blvd., CedarCity, UT 84720 Email: Psychological andPersonality Science000(00) 1-8 The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and : Social Psychological and Personality Science OnlineFirst, published on August 12, 2010 as life to refer to the subjective self-evaluation of how meaningfulone s life Relationships promote Meaning in LifeWhat is it that makes life seem meaningful?

5 Certainly there aremany varied constituents of Meaning in life , but several recentfindings point to interpersonal relationships as crucial tofinding life meaningful. In one study, participants were askedto pick the one thing that makes life most meaningful foryou (Lambert et al., in press). Of participants, 68%describedfamily as the most important source of Meaning and 14%mentioned friends. In total, personal relationships were theprimary source of Meaning in life for 82%of cross-cultural research has demonstrated that close rela-tionships (especially family relationships) are the single mostimportant source of Meaning in life in seven countries andacross three continents (Fave & Coppa, 2009). In short, closerelationships are a powerful source of meaningfulness, and thisseems to be the case , the absence of warm interpersonal relationshipshas been associated with low levels of Meaning .

6 Williams(1997, 2002) theorized that social rejection thwarts severalpsychological needs, including the need for a meaningful exis-tence. Evidence has supported Williams s view, as people seethe moments of social exclusion as lacking in Meaning ( ,van Beest & Williams, 2006; Williams, Cheung, & Choi,2000; Zadro, Boland, & Richardson, 2006). Researchersrecently conducted a rigorous test of Williams s hypothesis(Stillman et al., 2009). In two correlational studies, lonelinesswas found to be a robust and independent predictor of the viewthat life has little Meaning . Furthermore, in two experimentalstudies, participants who were led to believe that they wereunwanted as social interactants were more likely to express theview that life was utterly meaningless. In sum, close relation-ships are an important source of Meaning , and an absence ofinterpersonal connection causes a decrease in Meaning in life promote InterpersonalRelationships?

7 As noted previously, people have a need to find Meaning in life ( , Frankl, 1946/1963, 1969). In principle, people might sat-isfy the need for Meaning in solitude. However, it seems morelikely that people would seek to fulfill the need for meaningthrough their relationships with other people, just as manyother human needs are met (Baumeister, 2005). In other words,a natural extension of the idea that people have a drive to findmeaning in life is that people will seek to affiliate with thosewho have a strong sense of Meaning , presumably as a meansof satisfying the need for hypothesis that Meaning in life Promotes the formationof interpersonal relationships was anticipated by Stillman andcolleagues (2009). In particular, the authors proposed that therelationship between Meaning and social relationships mightbe bidirectional, with good interpersonal relationshipspromoting Meaning in life and a stronger sense of Meaning inlife facilitating the formation of interpersonal present investigation is a formal test of the might consider Meaning in life as strictly an inner,intrapsychic process, with little bearing on interpersonalrelationships.

8 However, Tice and Baumeister (2001) arguedthat researchers often ignore the strong interpersonal aspectsof many seemingly inner processes. For example, guilt,self-deception, morality, self-control, and self-esteem are oftenconsidered to be strictly inner processes, but in fact these havestrong implications for the formation, maintenance, or dissolu-tion of interpersonal relationships. They suggest that manyseemingly intrapsychic processes (perhaps including meaningin life ) actually serve interpersonal functions. Thus, an appar-ently intrapsychic process such as Meaning in life might haveimportant interpersonal using the MLQ (Steger et al., 2006) is consistentwith the notion that a strong sense of Meaning in life promotesinterpersonal relationships. In particular, people who agreedwith items on the MLQ ( , I have a good sense of whatmakes my life meaningful ) were likely to assert that they werewell liked ( , Most people see me as loving and affection-ate ; Steger, Kashdan, Sullivan, & Lorentz, 2009).

9 Further-more, people who scored high on the MLQ reported that theyput forth more time and effort into maintaining close relation-ships ( , I listened closely to another s point of view )relative to those with low MLQ scores (Steger, Kashdan, &Oishi, 2008).One can also point to research on charismatic personalities assupportive of the notion that Meaning has interpersonalconsequences. Charismatic people are often those with whompeople seek to be socially connected, and charismatic leaders arethose who imbue in followers a desire to be connected with theleader. An examination of the 2008 presidential electionnoted that one essential element in leadership is the capacity tomake events meaningful to followers (Bligh & Kohles, 2009).Thus, political leaders who are able to communicate the meaningof important events ( , Barack Obama, according to Bligh &Kohles, 2009) are in a good position to garner analysis of revolutionary religious leaders reached asimilar conclusion: Developing a personal mission in life wascrucial in gaining religious followers (Oakes, 1997).

10 In otherwords, perceiving oneself as having an important mission inlife was associated with garnering adherents and followers, atleast among religious people. Our expectation was that havinga strong sense of Meaning in one s life assists political andreligious leaders in gaining followers but that ordinary peoplewho find their own lives meaningful make more desirable andappealing social partners than those who do Predictors of interpersonal AppealIt is possible that Meaning in life might demonstrate only amodest relationship with interpersonal appeal , relative to otherconstructs. It is also possible that any effect of Meaning in life2 Social Psychological and Personality Science 000(00)2 on interpersonal appeal might be attributable to a third variable,such as self-esteem. The measurement of alternative predictorsof interpersonal appeal would shed light on the relative strengthof the relationship between Meaning in life and interpersonalappeal, and it would also help to determine whether theexpected effects of Meaning were attributable to a relatedconstruct.