The Temporal Effects of Meaningful and Pleasurable Activities on Affective Wellbeing and Stress: Insights from an Experience Sampling Study

Pleasurable activities enhance affective wellbeing, but potentially only briefly, whereas meaningful activities may have a more enduring effect on affective wellbeing. To explore these dynamics, we examined how meaningful and pleasurable activities impact momentary and later positive and negative affect and stress. 193 participants (74.9% female, M age = 25.8) completed ESM questionnaires for 14 days (5x/day). Preregistered analyses using Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling (DSEM) revealed that both meaningfulness and pleasure were positively associated with positive affect (PA) at the same and later timepoint (about 2.5 h later). Only pleasurable activities reduced negative affect (NA) and stress at both timepoints. Lagged effects were no longer present after accounting for the autoregressive effects of PA, NA, and stress, indicating that later associations were largely explained by the carryover of affect from one moment to the next (emotional inertia). These findings highlight the immediate emotional benefits of pleasurable activities, and to some extent of meaningful ones, while suggesting that these activities do not provide an additional boost to affect beyond this carryover.