How Self-Location Predicts the Degree and Quality of the Felt Sense of Connection
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Research has typically examined how self-location in the head or heart is associated with traits and behavior, yet its link to relationality—specifically the felt sense of connection—remains underexplored. This study investigated how dispositional self-location predicts the embodied experience of being relationally linked to others and the world. We initially developed the Dispositional Self-Location Questionnaire (DSLQ), an association-based instrument designed to minimize potential subjective bias in participant reporting of self-location. Using this measure, we categorized a U.S. sample of 218 adults who had reported a strong experience of connection as head-locators or heart-locators and assessed them on self-construal, self-expansiveness, connectedness, and perceived qualities of connection. Head-locators reported firmer self-boundaries, emphasizing independence, rationality, and decision-making. In contrast, Heart-locators scored significantly higher on connectedness to both self and world, and on metapersonal self-construal, describing their connections as close, warm, caring, and authentic. These findings suggest that self-location functions as a somatic attentional stance that anticipates the experiential boundary between self and other: the head favors separation and autonomy, while the heart favors openness and expanded belonging.
Source: PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints)
Authors: MARIE SESTER, Glenn Hartelius, Michaël Dambrun
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7221706351