Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, seems to think that the most powerful dream symbol is the one that matches our preexisting beliefs, but regardless, people around the world believe their dreams have some kind of meaning.
In another dream research study, 270 men and women from across the U.S. were asked how they interpret dreams about people they know. Study participants ascribed the most importance to pleasant dreams about people they liked. If they have pleasant dreams about people they did not like, they chalked it up to randomness.
Similarly, unpleasant dreams about people they disliked were given more weight than unpleasant dreams about people they liked. "In other words," said Morewedge, "people attribute meaning to dreams when it corresponds with their pre-existing beliefs and desires."
Behavioral psychologist Deirdre Barrett, PhD from Harvard Medical School has been studying dream phenomena and how people interpret dreams for more than a decade.
"Many of our waking thoughts are really trivial and repetitive and some are profound and meaningful. I think dreams are the same way. Some may reveal hidden truths, but some are just noise," she concludes. Her research suggests that people use dream time as an opportunity for problem solving.
In one study, she asked students to think about a homework or personal problem they needed to solve as they drifted off to sleep. First thing in the morning, she asked them to remember dreams and write them down as soon as they woke up in the morning.
After a week, half the students reported they dreamed about the problem and half of those students arrived at a solution for the problem.
To read more Knowing How To Interpret Dreams
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