Research Shows Imagining Positive Encounters Shapes Real-Life Feelings

Key Takeaways

• A study of 50 adults found that imagining positive moments with someone made people like them more

• Brain scans showed stronger activity in a reward area of the brain that's tied to learning

• Experts say the findings could help strengthen relationships and reduce fears

THURSDAY, Dec. 11, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Thinking about a positive moment with someone, even if it never happened, may actually make you like them more, new research shows.

A study published Dec. 10 in Nature Communications found that simply imagining a good interaction with a person can change your feelings toward them as well as how your brain stores information about them.

“We show that we can learn from imagined experiences, and it works very much the same way in the brain that it does when we learn from actual experiences,” senior author Roland Benoit, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a news release.

Researchers from CU Boulder and the Max Planck Institute in Germany recruited 50 adults for a brain-imaging study.

First, participants were told to list 30 people they knew and rate how much they liked each one. Inside an MRI scanner, they were shown names of the people they were neutral about.

For each name, they spent eight seconds imagining either a positive or negative encounter.

The results were clear: Participants later said they liked the people they had imagined positive experiences with.

Brain scans revealed why. A reward-related area of the brain called the ventral striatum became more active when participants imagined a positive surprise.

That reward signal then connected to a region called the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex that stores memories about specific people, researchers explained.

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“This provides a mechanism-level reason for how vividly imagining future scenarios, like a conversation, a social encounter or a challenging situation, might influence our motivation, avoidance tendencies and later choices,” said first author Aroma Dabas, who worked on the study while completing graduate research at the Max Planck Institute.

Experts say the findings could help people strengthen relationships, reduce fears and improve performance in sports or music.

For example, imagining a positive exchange with a coworker might make a real life conversation easier.

But imagination can also make things worse.

People with anxiety or depression often picture negative outcomes, which may actually make matters worse.

“You can paint the world black just by imagining it,” Benoit said.

More information

JWU Online has more on the brain region behind creativity and imagination.

SOURCE: University of Colorado Boulder, Dec. 10, 2025

What This Means For You

If you’re facing a stressful situation, practicing a positive interaction in your mind may help shape how you feel and respond in real life.