Separating Belief in Meaning of Life from Personal Experience of Meaning in Life: Different Relations with Religiosity and Well-being.

We investigate whether belief in the meaning of life (that life as such has meaning) and the psychological experience of meaning in one’s own life constitute distinct empirical constructs. To this aim, we develop the Belief in the Meaning of Life Questionnaire (BiMoLQ) in Study 1 (N=315), confirming its factor structure, psychometric properties, and validity in Studies 2 (N=285) and 3 (N=436). Overall, the results confirm that meaning of life and meaning in life are distinct constructs. Studies 1 and 2 show that the former is more related to religiosity and spirituality, while the latter is more related to well-being and emotional experiences. Study 3 suggests that directly manipulating the presence of meaning of life and meaning in life in fictional scenarios differently impacts both constructs. We conclude that future research on the role of meaning in human psychology should differentiate the constructs, as they are conceptually and empirically separate.