| Summary: | Anecdotal and empirical evidence converge on the prevalence of meaning-making in stressful events. Research on the antecedents to meaning-making also revealed the causal role of holistic thinking. Yet, little is known about the exact kind of meaning-making process induced by holistic thinking, and whether such process leads to meanings made. Assimilation is a meaning-making process whereby the situational meaning of a stressful event is reappraised to integrate into one’s global meaning. The present research hypothesised that in the context of a loss, holistic thinking induces assimilation of the loss, which in turn elicits meanings made from the loss. An experimental-causal-chain design involving two pre-registered studies tested this hypothesis. An image-based story-generation task manipulated holistic thinking, eliciting the choice of puzzle diagrams representing stronger assimilation (Study 1). The same puzzle representation manipulated assimilation, inducing the construction of more meaning-related words (Study 2). Results were unexplained by demographic factors namely age, gender, education level, cultural background, religion (Studies 1-2), and personality traits (Study 2). Findings support the hypothesised causal relations between holistic thinking, assimilation, and meanings made. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future directions, are discussed.
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